Volume 17 , Issue 30

(June, 1956) Authorities Still Disagree On Cause Of Coed's Death

The Lawton Constitution, newspaper out of Lawton, Oklahoma, dated Wednesday, 13 June 1956, page 7, reported on Mildred Ann Reynolds' death, 13 March 1956 with the following headlines: "Authorities Still Disagree On Cause of Coed's Death," written by Robert Haught.

Found on Newspapers.com

Avard, Okla. (UP) -- On Tuesday, March 13 (1956), the rural quietness of this northwest Oklahoma community was shattered by news of a grisly death - a pretty Northwestern State College coed had been burned to death in an auto on a lonely country road.

Three months later, authorities still couldn't agree on an answer to the question: "Was it murder or an accident?" The victim was mildred Ann Reynolds, 22 year old bride of R. D. Reynolds, basketball coach at Avard high school. Before flames devoured her body she was a comely, brown-haired chemistry senior. Friends described the five-foot-two, 100 pound girl as "rather shy" but a good student.

An autopsy showed she was burned alive in heat so hot it melted the glass in the windows of the car she used to commute to the college at Alva. One leg was burned off at the knee. The body was so horribly charred that identification was not made immediately.

Circumstances which greeted authorities at the death scene, less than two miles from the couple's home, gave all indications that she had been forced off the road, raped and murdered. However, as investigation progressed State Crime Bureau agents became convinced the death was the result of a fantastic accident. A coroner's jury was called to make a decision.

The jury of six men, including three who were among the first on the scene, ruled out the possibility of accidental death and recommended further investigation.

Days of questioning students and other acquaintances of the victim and sifting the evidence failed to produce any plausible murder theory. The crime bureau landed toward the idea that Mrs. Reynolds became faint and the car rolled backwards down a hill, then she drove forward into a small tree, backed up, drove forward again, ramming a fence post, then backed up 250 feet. The fire theoretically was started by friction on a tire and was fed by a can of brake fluid under the front seat.

However, experts from the state fire marshal's office disagreed. They said the fire was deliberately set. State Fire Marshal Ralph Duroy even went so far as to hint the girl was killed by someone in the area. Tests were conducted on cars of the same model and make as the death car and the results were conflicting.

In a test supervised by the crime bureau, one can of brake fluid poured inside a burning car increased the heat by 500 degrees and the car was quickly consumed. But a state fire marshal used a blowtorch, gasoline and brake fluid in burning a car at Alva and it took one hour and 14 minutes to exploded the brake fluid. Final damage as not as great as that of Mrs. Reynolds' car.

The case was still open, but new leads had developed. R. D. Reynolds, husband of victim, said he believed the death was accidental. "I'll say it was an accident until it's proven to be otherwise."
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