Old Avard Road Unsolved Mystery

Real Detective Article

Mildred Ann (Newlin) Reynolds' - Death - Tuesday, 13 March 1956, 1:40 p.m.

Written by Jack Jones, February, 1958 - page 16


The article starts out on pg. 16 stated, Mildred Ann Reynolds stepped from the cafeteria and paused on the step outside the door to pull her light coat tighter for protection against the brisk, late winter snap in the air.

Mildred wrapped a silk scarf around her head to keep her blonde, wavy hair from blowing. She stepped rapidly with a spring in her walk and a smile on her lips, along the curving walk that lead to the Northwestern State Teachers College student parking lot. Mrs. Reynolds also waved greetings to casual friends that same afternoon on her way to her car. She tossed her books into the back seat - backed the car slowly out of the parking lot and turned into Alva's broad, tree-lined residential streets - heading south. They say the drive through Alva was a familiar one to Ann Reynolds in this quiet, small college town that had been a part of her life. She considered it her hometown.

The Real Detective story pg. 17 stated, Ann Reynolds braked at a stop sign and with one hand removed the scarf, shaking her hair loose so the curls would hang full. Her blue eyes kindled as she pulled across the intersection, picking up the road that led out of town. It was the road that led to home. She glanced at her watch and noted the time. It was 12:45 p.m. Her foot pressed against the accelerator and the car surged forward, kicking up a trail of dust on the gravel road. She would have to hurry now if she were to reach home in time to finish her household chores before it was time to pick up her husband at Avard.

On that same page it mentioned that the road from Alva to Avard was only a 30 minute drive on a lonely ribbon of gravel road that cuts through broad wheat fields spread as far as the eye could see over the Northwestern Oklahoma prairie. The country was flat, interrupted occasionally by gentle rises which, in contrast to the flat country around them became hills to the people who lived with them. It was somewhere along that road that Anne Reynolds encountered another car and killer. A killer whose identity today, still baffles the criminal investigators and inhabitants of this northwest, rural community.

On page 4 of the Real Detective story, a farmer, Loren Goucher, noticed a pillar of black and billowing smoke over the flat wheat prairie. He left his tractor to walk a mile to investigate and find an auto, blazing fiercely beside the road. Protecting his face against the intense heat, Goucher approached as close as he dared. He smelled the burning flesh and saw the body lying in the front seat. The magazine story stated that Goucher, bewildered at the sight, he hurried to the sheriff's office in Alva. Sheriff Doctor and two agents from the state crime bureau (Ivan Gates and Ray Lambert) listened as the wheat farmer told of the horror he had found on the Alva-Avard road. They all returned to the scene of the crime a few minutes later and allegedly... nothing had been touched while they were away. That is what the story stated. But... had it been tampered with or Not? Had the crime scene been protected from sightseers?

It mentioned that the auto straddled a shallow bar ditch at the foot of a small hill with its rear wheels sunk deep in sand. The front door was open. The body lay face up across the front seat, one leg dangling from the seat on the left side. The other leg had been burned off at the knee. The arms were folded across the chest, composed, as if in sleep. The head appeared to be battered, as if it had been struck several heavy blows.

On page 5 of this Real Detective story, it mentioned that the front grill and left front fender of the car had been damaged. Near the car a fence post had been knocked down and a tree a few feet in front of the car bore scars indicating that it had been struck hard. At the base of the tree Gates found small patches of blood on the grass and a loafer-type shoe with blood on the toe. Near some trampled grass they found Reynolds' light coat, scarf and a necklace (a piece of costume jewelry which had been a gift from her husband) that was found in a side pocket of the coat.

The tracks of the car led from the back of the car to the knocked-down fence post, across the bar ditch and then up the slope of the hill in a crazy, zigzag pattern. Lambert and Gates spotted two sets of tracks. Both of them zigzagging down that hill that afternoon. One of them was Mrs. Reynolds. Who did the other tracks belong? The Killer?>

It was believed back then that someone met Mrs. Reynolds at the top of the hill or managed to make her stop there. She tried to turn around in a hurry. Her tires dug into the gravel. It was believed that she got almost turned around and then the other car hit her in the side. Perhaps she lost control at that point. The tracks looked as if she couldn't straighten them out. The car zigzagged down the hill and across the bar ditch with the other car right beside her or behind her. Her car then hit the post and the tree in succession.

At 3 a.m. Lambert concluded that the fire probably started near the left rear wheel, spread to the gas tank which then exploded. The flames then enveloped most of the car.What caused the intense heat? What had caused the fire to spread from bumper to bumper?

Later that evening, Lambert said to Gates, Something highly inflammable and of high heat-generating capacity was used to help that fire along. Gasoline will generate heat up to about 1,000 degrees. It takes at least 1,700 degrees Farenheit to melt glass.

Could propane from a farm nearby been used to ignite and char the car and body of Ann Reynolds?

The autopsy report stated that Mrs. Reynolds suffered a skull fracture, that could have been caused by the intense heat of the fire. Mrs. Reynolds was thought to have been alive at the time the flames charred her body.

Gates and Lambert made one other initial discovery that day. A mile from the car, and in the direction from which Mrs. Reynolds would have driven on her way from Alva to Avard, they found four empty .32-caliber cartridge cases beside the road. It was speculated that they had been fired sometime within the last 24 hours. Were they fired from a Luger pistol? Had the pistol been fired by the killer to scare Reynolds? Had he thrown the casings out the car window as he sped away from the scene of the crime? Or was their discovery just a coincidence?

The investigators and and everyone in the Alva-Avard community reached the same conclusion independently, they were after a brutal, sadistic killer. People started recalling neighbors who had acted suspiciously, even years before. They remembered details of old, forgotten gossip about sex perversion on the part of their acquaintances. Someone had heard it said a young Avard girl had been raped a few weeks before but was too emabrrassed to report it, although she knew the identity of the attacker.

Gates and Lambert were swamped with tips that were checked out and allegedly proved to be little more than rumor of gossip. Dee Reynolds mentioned that his wife had left Avard that Tuesday morning around 8 o'clock because she had a 9 o'clock class that moring. Ann Reynolds' nineteen year old nephew, Jim Huckabee (sic), drove each morning with Anne on their way to school at Northwestern State Teachers College. Dee Reynolds mentioned that Jim was a nice kid that lived with them while he was going to school. Huckabee came home with Ann Reynolds every day except on Tuesdays when Huckabee had a one o'clock afternoon class. He would catch a ride with someone else later in the afternoon after class. Huckabee did the driving that morning on the way to school. They stopped at a gas station and bought a can of brake fluid and put it in the trunk. Then they stopped at the cleaners and left some clothes to be cleaned that belonged to her husband. Then they went to classes.

Did some student admirer follow Mrs. Reynolds that afternoon? From a family doctor Gates learned Mrs. Reynolds occasionally suffered from dizzy spells, but they were not serious in the opinion of the physician.

  • Page One, pg. 16 - Anne Reynolds stepped from the cafeteria and paused on the step outside the door to pull her light coat tighter for protection against the brisk, late Winter snap in the air..... wrapping a silk scarf around her head to keep her blonde, wavy hair from blowing, she stepped rapidly along the curving walk leading to the Northwestern State Teachers College student parking lot.....
  • Page Two pg. 17 - This small, quiet college town had been a part of her life ever since she could remember. This was her home town. She loved the people who lived here, the broad, rich prairies which surrounded it. Here she had grown up, a healthy, popular young girl whose ambition was to become a schcool teacher and raise a family of four children.)
  • Page Three, pg. 18, Photos... The killer thought he had charred his trail but police found enough clues to call it a murder. Bereaved husband, R. D. "Dee" Reynolds, was teaching school when wife met death. Victim's nephew, Jim Huclebee, was last to see her alive on day of tragedy. Exploded cans of brake fluid are believed cause of fire's intense heat. Principals in investigation, Sheriff Ed Doctor and Ray Lambert, Oklahoma Crime Bureau Agent, examine charred clues sifted from burned death car.
  • Page Four, pg. 19 Photos & bumper to bumper fire - Frantic route followed by co-ed's car as she tried to evade killer is traced for jury at inquest. Blazing furiously, one of two cars burned to recreate crime demonstrates fury that killed co-ed.
  • Page Five, pg. 46, Blood on shoe.
  • Page Six, pg. 48, Autopsy report & Jim Huckabee (sic)
  • Page Seven, pg. 50, Interviews
  • Burned Auto Photo of Reynolds charred auto.

1956 Award Unsolved Mystery Menu

Cast of Characterss
Crime Scene Photos
Freedom Call News Article
Unanswered Questions
Real Detective Article
Woods County Enterprise Article
Woodward Daily Press Article
Avard 1956 Unsolved Mystery