Murder of Adrianne Reynolds
| Adrianne Leigh Reynolds | |
|---|---|
| Born |
September 12, 1988 Kilgore, Texas |
| Died |
January 21, 2005 (aged 16) East Moline, Illinois |
| Cause of death | Homicide by strangulation |
The murder of East Moline, Illinois, teenager Adrianne Leigh Reynolds made national headlines. She was strangled, beaten, burned, and dismembered by her classmates Sarah Anne Kolb and Cory Gregory on January 21, 2005
Perpetrators
- Adrianne Reynolds was originally from Kilgore, Texas.[1] She moved to East Moline, Illinois, when she was 16 to live with her adopted father and her stepmother, Tony and Joann Reynolds.[2] She began attending Black Hawk College Outreach Center in November 2004 to earn her GED so she could realize her dream of joining the Marines.[3] While there, she met fellow students Sarah Kolb and Cory Gregory.[4]
- Sarah Kolb was reportedly a popular girl at the Outreach Center. She lived with her mother and stepfather in the nearby town of Milan, Illinois.[1] When Adrianne started in the school, she befriended Sarah's friend Cory Gregory and boyfriend Sean McKitrick.[1]
- Cory Gregory was also a Juggalo, and originally attended Moline High School but later transferred to the Outreach Center, where he met Sarah.[5] He lived with his mother at the time of the incident. In January 2005, Adrianne reportedly asked Cory out, which allegedly angered Sarah.[1]
Murder
On the afternoon of January 21, 2005, Sarah invited Adrianne to join her, Cory, and Sean for lunch at Taco Bell; on the way there, Sarah and Adrianne reportedly began fighting.[1] In the parking lot, Cory held down Adrianne while Sarah strangled her with a belt.[6]
After the murder, Sarah and Cory took Adrianne's body to Sarah's grandparents' farm in Aledo, Illinois, where they tried to burn it with gasoline. When it failed to burn after several hours, they recruited Nathan Gaudet, a 16-year-old boy from Moline, to help dismember the body.[2][3] Nathan used his grandfather's handsaw to remove Adrianne's head and arms and placed them in a garbage bag.[3] The three teenagers ate lunch at McDonald's,[3] then later disposed of the garbage bag at the Black Hawk State Historic Site.[2]
Adrianne's parents reported her missing after she failed to show up to work at Checkers restaurant.[7] Authorities discovered Adrianne's remains a few days later on January 26, 2005.
Arrests and trials
Sarah Kolb and Cory Gregory were both charged with two counts of first-degree murder and concealment of a homicide on February 1, 2005; they both pled not guilty.[1]
Sarah was the first to go to trial, which began on October 31, 2005, at the Rock Island County Courthouse. After two weeks of trial and 15 hours of deliberation, the trial jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on any of the three charges. One juror opted for acquittal, while eleven were in favor of conviction.[8]
At her retrial on February 6, 2006, in Dixon, Illinois,[8] Sarah was convicted on all counts. At sentencing a few months later, she received a total of 53 years in prison for murder and concealment: 48 years for murder and five years for concealment.[9] She is serving her sentence at the Logan Correctional Center.[10]
In the meantime, Cory Gregory pled guilty to all charges against him. On July 10, 2006, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison: 40 for murder and five for concealment.[5] He is serving his sentence at the Stateville Correctional Center.[10]
Nathan Gaudet was also charged with concealment for helping to dismember Adrianne. He pled guilty and was given a juvenile sentence of five years.[6] He was released from juvenile detention on November 11, 2008, after serving almost four years.[3] On April 16, 2012, Nathan Gaudet died in an automobile accident in Indiana.[11]
Media coverage
This case has been discussed or portrayed on Dateline NBC[7] in October 2006; Deadly Women in December 2010; E! Investigates in June 2011; Snapped in September 2011, and I Killed My BFF on LMN in August 2013.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bob Meadows (February 14, 2005). "This Teen Wanted to Be Popular. Did That Lead to Her Murder?". People. Retrieved 2015-06-14.
- 1 2 3 http://www.adriannereynolds.com/About%20Adrianne.html. Retrieved 2011-08-15. Missing or empty
|title=(help) - 1 2 3 4 5 "Five-year anniversary of East Moline teen's murder today". Quad-City Times date=. Retrieved 2011-08-15. line feed character in
|newspaper=at position 16 (help) - ↑ "Illinois teen killed and dismembered classmates under arrest". Retrieved 2011-08-15.
- 1 2 "Gregory’s mother: Cory changed after hanging out with Sarah". Quad-City Times date=. Retrieved 2011-08-15. line feed character in
|newspaper=at position 16 (help) - 1 2 "The Official Find Carrie Culberson Message Forum". Retrieved 2011-08-15.
- 1 2 "Circle of Friends: How did an unusual teen love triangle end in horrific murder?". MSNBC. Retrieved 2011-08-05.
- 1 2 http://www.whbf.com/Global/story.asp?S=4051509. Retrieved 2011-08-15. Missing or empty
|title=(help) - ↑ http://www.whbf.com/Global/story.asp?s=5296568. Retrieved 2011-08-05. Missing or empty
|title=(help) - 1 2 http://www.idoc.state.il.us/subsections/search/inms.asp. Retrieved 2011-08-15. Missing or empty
|title=(help) - ↑ Barb Ickes (April 18, 2012). "Accomplice in EM teen’s killing dies in fiery crash". Quad-City Times. Retrieved 2015-06-14.