Volume 18 , Issue 8

1956 Mildred Ann Reynolds Fiery Death

Let us visit another news clipping of 1956, this time from the Miami Daily News-Record, Miami, Oklahoma, 14 March 1956, Wednesday, concerning the fiery death of Mildred Ann (Newlin) Reynolds. State and county officers were working on the theory Mrs. Reynolds, a 21 year old coed, was criminally assaulted before being burned to death in her flaming auto the afternoon of 13 March 1956. The Miami Daily News-Record headlines read: "Relatives of College Girl Are Quizzed."

Found on Newspapers.com

The victim was Mrs. Mildred Ann Reynolds, senior at Northwestern State College here (Alva, Oklahoma) and bride of D. R. Reynolds, teacher and athletic coach at nearby Avard high school.

Mildred's charred body was found by a farmer, Loren Goucher, who spotted the blazing car while plowing a field 10 miles south and 2 1/2 miles west of Alva. Officers said they had questioned the victim's husband, her nephew, Jim Hucklebee and her brother, Eddie Newline.

Reynolds said he saw his wife last when she left home the morning of 13 March 1956. Newline, who lived with the couple and commuted with Mrs. Reynolds tot he Alva college, said he stayed at school to attend a late class.

Officers said the motive they were working on "is criminal assault or attempted criminal assault."

O. K. Bivins, head of the state crime bureau, said the body had been taken to Oklahoma City for an autopsy, which was being performed today (14 March 1956) at the University of Oklahoma school of medicine.

Bovines said he had assigned a fourth crime bureau agent to the case, working with Woods County officers.

Sheriff Ed Doctor called in the state bureau after Highway Patrol troopers declared the death was not a traffic fatality because "all the evidence shows the car burned too fast. That fire had some help."

Doctor said a second car, possibly a pickup truck, was being sought. The sheriff said there were two sets of car tracks leading to a blackjack tree just off the road. He said indications were that the woman's car was forced off the road by another vehicle, then later was pushed back across the road and 150 feet east of the tree. The tree had been snapped off, apparently by the impact of a vehicle. Reynolds identified the charred body through jewelry, shoes and other articles of clothing.

Officers found several .38-caliber bullet cases on the highway about a quarter of smile from the scene, but they said they had formed no connection between the bullets and the death. Doctor theorized that the women may have been raped, killed and then left in the burning vehicle.

Did they ever find the the alleged pickup they were looking for? And what about the .38-caliber bullets on the highway? Did they ever link those bullets to the accident?
  |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

---