The Barn (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

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In the early 1990s, a teenager snuck into the barn right outside of his family's property and climbed up into the rafters.

Once he was safely tucked away in his secret spot where no one could see him from the floor below, he pulled some rolling papers out of his pocket along with a bag of marijuana and rolled a joint.

A few minutes later, and he was enjoying a nice high and staring out the nearby window at the moon up above.

But as he smoked, he suddenly heard the barn doors opening down below.

The teen froze and held the smoke in his lungs, hoping it wasn't his family out looking for him.

But when the teen looked down, he could tell right away this was not his family.

This was something else.

This was something bad.

And moments later, it would get much, much worse.

But before we get into that story, if you're a fan fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

So if that's of interest to you, please offer to wash the Amazon Music Follow Buttons dishes, but instead of using a sink and hot water, just have your dog lick the dishes clean and then put them away.

Okay, let's get into today's story.

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Before getting out of her car, 16-year-old high school junior Raina Ryson wrapped her boyfriend's navy blue Letterman jacket more tightly around her shoulders.

Even if it hadn't been a chilly, cloudy day in the town of Laporte, Indiana, Reyna still would have worn the warm and oversized jacket because this was 1993, and the fact that Matt Elser had given Reina this baseball-style jacket with his name embroidered across the shoulder was a public declaration that the two of them were, once again, a couple, just as they had been on and off, ever since Reyna had been in the seventh grade.

And even more important to Reyna, wearing Matt's Letterman jacket gave her a feeling that most of her peers took for granted, a sense that she was safe and protected.

Now, stepping out of her tan 1984 LTD Ford sedan into the high school parking lot, Reina gave herself just a few seconds to really savor the excitement and happiness she had been feeling all week long about the date that she and Matt had planned for tonight, Friday, March 26th.

Turning to grab her backpack out of the car before shutting the driver's side door, Reyna just felt thankful that after their latest breakup, she and Matt had both felt so lonely for one another, so incomplete without each other, that getting back together again was a mutual decision.

As Reina looked around the busy parking lot and waved to a few of her friends and fellow members of the high school marching band, she thought about how right she and Matt were for each other.

Both of them made accomplishments like getting grades good enough to consistently have their names listed on the school's honor roll look easy.

With all of its emblems, Matt's jacket alone represented many of his accomplishments, like being a member of the school's track and basketball teams.

But it was the treble clef note stitched on the chest across the school logo that showed one of the passions they both shared, and that was music.

Although not even Matt could compete with Reyna and her ability to play not just first oboe in the school band, but also the flute and the clarinet.

Not that Reina planned to pursue music once she graduated from high school.

As she had told Matt, along with her family, Reina's real dream in life was to become a veterinarian, which is why her part-time job at the local animal clinic was far and away her favorite of the three part-time jobs that took up so much much of Reina's after-school life.

Usually, on a Friday evening, it would be that 4-6 p.m.

shift at Pine Lake Animal Hospital that would be one of the high points of the start of the weekend.

But today, Reina knew that while she fed the animals and cleaned cages that afternoon, what she'd really be thinking about was dinner later that evening with Matt.

A moment later, as Reina walked into Laporte High School and headed for her locker, she was immediately lost in the crowd of students who were all spinning their combination locks and exchanging greetings with each other before the first bell of the day called them all into class.

With her thick mane of curly brown hair, her blue jeans and sneakers, her average height, and her average weight, Reyna looked like any other high school student from any other solid middle-class family in this typical Midwestern town of about 20,000 residents.

But in Reina's case, looks were deceiving.

because Reina was different from most of the other girls in that loud and busy hallway.

Behind that smile and behind that talent for telling jokes that made her friends laugh out loud, Reina had recently survived a profound physical and emotional trauma.

Beginning when she was just 11 years old, Reyna had become the victim of a sexually abusive relationship.

The perpetrator was her then 24-year-old brother-in-law, the husband of Reina's then 20-year-old sister, Lori, and the father of the couple's two small children.

Reina's beloved niece and nephew.

Raymond McCarty's abuse continued until Reina was 13 years old.

That's when Reina became pregnant, and not even her abuser's threats that he would kill her if she told anyone about what he was doing to her could force her to keep this terrible secret.

Reina finally broke down and told her mother and father what had been going on during those so-called family visits to her sister's home across town.

Reina's father, Ben Ryson, had been the one to tell Reina's sister, Lori, what had happened.

Confronted by Ben, Raymond McCarty admitted that he had been having sex with Reyna and agreed to turn himself into police.

And in 1991, two years earlier, Raymond was convicted of a Class D felony for child molesting.

A felony is the legal definition for a serious crime.

Punishment can range from one year in prison to death.

Class D is the least serious felony, a category that includes cruelty to animals, defacing a firearm, and aggravated assault.

And instead of being ordered to serve time in prison, Raymond was given two years probation.

Raymond's wife, Lori, stayed with Raymond, and Reyna's parents also maintained ties with Raymond.

In order to keep Reina safe, the family decided they would set their own internal restrictions to keep Raymond away from Reyna.

Now, three years after this traumatic experience, Reina's boyfriend, Matt, was one of just a few people outside the Ryson family who knew the details of Reyna's abuse.

Along with Matt in this small circle, there was also Reyna's earlier boyfriend, a boy named Jason Tibbs, who Reina had, quote, dated, end quote, for about six months when both she and Jason were in the sixth grade.

Given how young both Reyna and Jason were, Reina's parents were relieved when the youngsters broke up and went back to just being very good friends.

They were also pleased when Reina eventually settled her affections on Matt, who was just the kind of clean-cut, studious, and straight-arrow teenager that they felt would treat Reina well.

Still, Reyna had felt very relieved to be able to confide in both her friends, Jason as well as Matt, about a recent and unwelcome development in her life.

Just several weeks earlier, Raymond McCarty had finished his probation sentence, which meant that as far as the courts were concerned, he'd served his time for having sexually abused Reyna, and now he was free.

And now that Raymond was free of the restrictions that the courts had placed on his behavior, it was up to the Ryson family to monitor Raymond's relationship and behavior towards Reina.

Given how emotionally loaded this topic was for Reina's sister Lori and for Reina's parents, it was easier for Reyna to tell Jason and Matt, rather than her own family, that it seemed to her that since Raymond's release from probation, her brother-in-law was once again making unwanted advances towards Reyna.

Standing in front of her school locker, Reyna again pulled Matt's jacket close around her and reminded herself that she was strong and that she was loved.

Even when Matt had asked for that recent break in their relationship, Reyna had not fallen apart.

She had said yes, and she had kept herself busy with her job tutoring a couple of middle school students, working at a local takeout restaurant, and best of all, working at the Pine Lake Animal Hospital.

Still, Reyna had been incredibly happy when she and Matt had both decided to get back together again.

Now, tucking her school books under her arm, Reyna looked down at her watch.

She was so excited about this evening's special dinner with Matt that she was literally counting down the hours.

At 6 p.m.

sharp that Friday night, Reina stepped out of the Pine Lake Animal Hospital.

In exactly one hour, Matt was supposed to pick her up at her house on 202A Street, just one and a half miles south of the animal clinic.

Reina had already made a quick trip to the Ricens' neat two-story home in the shady neighborhood where Reyna lived with her parents and her younger sister Wendy.

She'd stop there right after school just long enough to grab a snack, change into her work jeans and sweatshirt, drop off her book bag, and say goodbye to her younger sister Wendy, who was headed out the door to go see a movie with some friends.

Reina hadn't needed to tell her sister or parents how quickly she planned to get back to the house after her 4 to 6 p.m.

shift that evening.

Everyone already knew how much Reina and Matt were looking forward to their date that night, and how Reina would want to spend as much time as she could between 6 and 7 picking out what to wear and making sure she looked her best for when Matt arrived.

But now, as Reyna was getting ready to close up the animal clinic for the evening, she heard the door to the waiting room open, and right away, Reina's heart sank.

Tightening her hands around the handle of the broom she was holding, Reina hoped it was not the same person who had paid her an unexpected visit earlier in the afternoon.

Matt was too excited about the evening he had planned for Reina to wait until 7 p.m.

Arriving early at the Ryson House at 202A Street, he parked his car by the curb, looking up first at the lighted front porch, then down at his watch.

But when 7pm came and went, and Reyna still had not opened her front door, Matt decided to drive to the Pine Lake Animal Hospital, thinking that maybe Reyna had had to work late that evening.

But when Matt arrived at the square one-story clinic five minutes later, there was no sign of Reina and no sign of her tan Ford LTD car.

After making the loop again from the clinic to Reina's house and then back to the clinic, Matt drove back to 202A Street, parked his car at the curb, walked up to the Ryson's front door, and knocked.

A moment later, Reina's dad, Ben, was telling Matt that Reyna still had not arrived home from work.

When Ben invited Matt to come inside and wait for Reina there, Matt explained that Reyna was not at the animal clinic either.

In that moment, both Matt and Ben Ryson Ryson knew something had to be wrong.

For the past week, all Reina had talked about was this date with Matt.

If she hadn't been delayed by a work emergency, there was just no way Reina would have stood Matt up.

And there was also no way that Reina would just hop into her car and drive off without a word to Matt or to her family.

By 10.30 p.m.

that night, Ben and his wife Karen Ryson arrived at the Laporte police station to report their 16-year-old daughter missing.

After being informed that police would not start searching for Reina until she had been missing for 24 hours, the Ricons returned home and frustrated by the response they had just gotten from police, the Ricons contacted the LaPorte High School music director and together, the three adults launched their own search.

12 hours later, on the morning of Saturday, March 27th, the town was plastered with flyers and posters showing pictures of Reina and letting people know that she was last seen at the animal clinic the the night before.

Reina was still missing, but now there were so many people, her family, her friends, her fellow band members, her neighbors, out looking for her that local police realized they could not just stand on the sidelines.

So by mid-morning, well before that 24-hour mark had passed, police issued their own call for information and tips about the missing 16-year-old, and by Saturday afternoon, there were state police helicopters flying low over LaPorte County and police from other nearby areas had also joined the search.

Almost immediately, the public appeal for information resulted in what police and the family believed might be an important lead.

More than one witness had stepped forward to say they had seen two cars in the parking lot at the animal clinic around 6 p.m.

on Friday night.

In addition to Reyna's car, there was another sedan.

this one with two men inside and a teenage girl standing outside the car who appeared to be arguing with the person in the passenger seat.

These bystanders had chalked up the scene to a possible teenage lover's quarrel until they saw the flyers that featured a missing teenage girl who fit the description of the girl they'd observed in the parking lot.

Reina's father, Ben, had already given police his account of Reyna's disappearance and mentioned Matt's presence at the Ryson family home the night Ben first asked police for their help.

But, in light of this tip that suggested Reina's disappearance might be connected to an argument or even a kidnapping that could involve more than one suspect who might have had contact with Reyna just before she went missing, investigators got busy with formal interviews of Reyna's family and friends.

Detectives were especially interested in talking to Reina's boyfriend, Matt, asking him to give a more detailed account of exactly what he had been doing and where he was the night that Reyna disappeared.

But Matt's story was the same one Ben and Matt had both told on the night of Friday, March 26th.

He arrived at Reyna's house before 7 p.m.

for their date.

When Reina didn't show up, he made a few trips out to the animal hospital where he saw no sign of Reina or her car before he entered the Ryson house at about 7.15 to wait there with Reina's parents and sister for Reina to come home.

But even before police had a chance to confirm Matt's story and his alibi, there was yet another very big development in what had become an official missing persons investigation.

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On Sunday morning, March 28th, so so about 30 hours after Reina's disappearance, police reported finding Reyna's car parked alongside a county road about nine miles from her home.

The hood was propped open, like the driver had been having car troubles, but police quickly determined that the scene had only been staged to appear that way.

Not only did police find Reina's purse and car keys left inside of the 1984 Tan Ford sedan, but when police turned on the engine, the car worked just fine.

Then, even as crime scene techs were called to the scene to look for fingerprints and other potential evidence to explain what had happened, police found a ring, too large to fit Reina, in the glove compartment of the car.

Seven days after Reina's disappearance, inquiries among Reina's friends about who the ring might belong to led police to Reyna's former boyfriend and childhood friend, Jason Tibbs, one of the many people who had participated in the ongoing search for Reyna.

Jason was surprised, but not worried, when police showed him the ring they had found.

He identified it right away as his ring, then explained that he must have stowed it inside of the glove compartment of Reyna's car when he had taken it off so he could fit his hand inside of a tight space while repairing Reyna's car radio a few months ago.

Jason also shrugged off Matt's suggestion to police that Jason was still romantically interested in Reina.

Jason readily admitted to investigators that yes, he and Reina had dated briefly back in middle school before Reina and Matt had become a couple.

But since then, Jason and Reina had just been friends, an account that was later confirmed by Reina's father, Ben, who remembered that Reyna had asked Jason if he could help her with some small car repairs.

Like Matt, Jason also had an alibi for the Friday night that Reina went missing.

He'd spent that evening playing a popular game of car hide-and-seek with his friends.

Called Fox Hunting, the game involved a driver parking their car somewhere in town, and then, using Citizen Band radios called CBs, the driver would give out clues that would eventually lead a winner to find the car and driver.

And sure enough, police confirmed that Jason had given clues on and off throughout that evening to his fellow players via the Citizen Band radio.

It wasn't until several days later that police made the discovery that would change the direction of the investigation into Reina's disappearance.

That's when police discovered the Letterman jacket belonging to Matt Elser, the jacket that Reyna wore or took with her everywhere in a wooded area that police had already searched several times since Reina's disappearance.

Hanging three feet above the ground in the branches of a tree located in a wooded area six miles south of where Reyna's car had been found, The sudden appearance of the jacket confirmed the growing suspicion that there was nothing voluntary about Reina's disappearance, and that someone had realized after Reina went missing that they had to get rid of a piece of important evidence that might link them to the missing teenager.

Right away, police re-interviewed the owner of the jacket, Matt, but again, Matt's story was exactly the same, and everyone who knew Reina confirmed that whether Matt was with Reyna or not, Reina was always wearing or carrying Matt's Letterman jacket with her.

But it wouldn't be until 24 days later, on April 27th, 1993, that the Ryson family received the phone call that they, and the rest of the close-knit town of Laporte had quietly been dreading.

That was when a teenage daughter, whose dad was fishing at a county pond just 30 feet from a nearby road and seven miles from the Pine Lake Animal Hospital, discovered the submerged and badly decomposed body of a white female wearing clothes and jewelry that matched the physical description of Raina Ryson.

One day later, an autopsy by the county coroner would confirm Raina's identity.

The three and a a half hour examination would also reveal that the cause of Reina's death was strangulation.

And suddenly, what had been a missing persons investigation was now officially a homicide investigation.

With the recovery of their 16-year-old daughter's body, along with the terrible knowledge that she had been murdered, The Riceon family went from praying for Reina's safe return to praying that her killer would be brought to justice.

And for the first time since Friday, March 26th, the Riceon family turned off their front and back porch lights that they had left on for 33 days, hoping to welcome home their beloved middle daughter.

Three days later, on May 1st, hundreds of people would attend the funeral service for one of Laporte High School's most gifted musicians, and Reina, one week shy of her 17th birthday, would be buried by her family in a white casket trimmed with pink and covered with a blanket of flowers.

Meanwhile, information that had been reported in the newspaper just days after Reyna's disappearance, back when she was still considered missing and not murdered, now took on new significance and pointed investigators towards a new suspect, Reina's brother-in-law, Raymond McCarty.

Looking through old police reports, investigators had found the statement Reyna had made back in 1991 that contained graphic details of the sexual abuse that Reina had suffered at the hands of her brother-in-law.

And during yet another round of interviews with both Matt and Jason, both boys would would tell police that since Raymond had completed his probationary sentence several weeks before Reina's disappearance, Reina had mentioned that Raymond, once again, seemed to be making sexual overtures.

Now, with both Matt and Jason's alibis still holding up, investigators wondered if maybe Raymond might have killed Reyna out of anger, that she had reported the abuse that led to his conviction two years earlier, or that she had rejected and maybe threatened to go public with any new advances advances he may have made.

Police suspicions were heightened when they discovered that Reyna had had an argument with her sister, Lori, Raymond's wife, the week before Reina disappeared.

And during that argument, Lori accused Reina of leading Raymond on.

On April 30th, one day before Reina's funeral, and again on June 13th, police impounded both vehicles belonging to Raymond and Lori McCarty to search for any evidence that might link Reina's sister or brother-in-law to Reyna's murder.

Meanwhile, Raymond's account of where he was on the evening that Reina disappeared would keep changing.

At the time of Reina's disappearance, Raymond told police he was out of the area at a friend's farm.

But later, Raymond would tell police that he had given a female hitchhiker a ride that evening.

Later still, Raymond would tell police that on the evening of Reyna's disappearance, he was actually looking at a house for sale that was located just a few blocks from the Pine Lake Animal Hospital.

17 months later, police formally identified Lori and Raymond as suspects in Reina's homicide.

But before detectives could put together a case against these two suspects, police received a shocking tip that looked like it would send the homicide investigation in a completely different direction.

In December of 1994, about three months after Lori and Raymond were named as suspects, Laporte law enforcement got a call from police in Illinois who had arrested a man on kidnapping charges.

Larry Hall, who would later become a notorious suspected serial killer, claimed that he had raped and murdered several young women, including Raina Ryson.

Inside the man's van, police found newspaper articles about Reyna's disappearance and murder, along with a bottle of birth control pills that had a crudely printed label on it with Reina's name.

But it wouldn't take long for Larry Hall to recant that confession, and in the meantime, police had determined that the label on the pill bottle was a fake and that the suspect could not have killed Reyna because he had been in Kentucky at the time of Reyna's disappearance.

Three and a half years later, with no other active leads, police had once again circled back to Raymond McCarty as their primary suspect.

And in May of 1998, just over five years after Reina's disappearance and murder, police arrested Raymond and charged him with Reina's murder and locked him up in Laporte County Jail pending a trial.

But 15 months later, prosecutors decided that the evidence they had collected against Raymond was not strong enough to support a charge of murder.

That evidence, found inside Raymond's vehicle and inside the McCarty house, consisted of several handguns, a stun gun, and bloodstains in his car that later turned out to belong to a deer that Ray had shot while he was out hunting.

So in August of 1999, six years and four months after Reyna was murdered, Raymond McCarty was released from jail and the investigation into Reina's death hit what looked like its final dead end.

Once every year, a $200 scholarship in Reina's memory was still awarded to a member of the Laporte High School Band.

No one had ever claimed the $36,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Reyna's killer, and no one inside the community community had come forward with any new revelation about what might have happened to Reyna.

And over the years, while the town of Laporte never forgot that there might still be a killer in their midst, people's fear that the killer might strike again slowly faded into the distant past.

It wasn't until the early summer of 2013, more than 20 years after Reina Ryson was murdered, that police finally got the break in this case that they had been looking for.

That's when detectives were able to act on a tip they had actually gotten five years earlier and do a formal interview with an eyewitness to Reina's murder.

In exchange for a promise that they would not face any criminal charges, this eyewitness walked investigators through everything that happened on the night of March 26th when 16-year-old Reyna stepped out of the Pine Lake Animal Clinic and saw an Oldsmobile Buick parked in the lot outside the clinic door.

The story police heard would change every single single thing they thought they knew about Reina's murder.

Based on that eyewitness account, here is a reconstruction of what police believe happened on the night that Raina Ryson disappeared.

As Reyna's killer slipped into the front passenger seat of the Oldsmobile Buick, they looked down at their watch and gave a nod of satisfaction.

It was a foggy Friday night in La Porte, Indiana, and the killer intended to kick off the weekend with a little visit to the Pine Lake Animal Hospital.

Turning to the driver, who had borrowed this car from a friend, the killer gestured to the road ahead.

Time to get going.

A few minutes later, the driver and the killer had arrived at their destination.

The killer looked first at the clock on the dashboard, and then around the animal clinic parking lot to make sure it was empty, except for Reyna's tan LTD Ford.

Then the killer smiled.

Perfect.

There was still plenty of time before the clinic closed for the killer to get inside.

And from the empty empty lot, the killer assumed that no one other than Reina was inside.

Opening the passenger side door, the killer got out of the car and told the driver to wait while the killer went into the one-story square building located at 330 Pine Lake Avenue.

Inside the clinic, Reyna was doing what she always did at the end of her shift, sweeping the floor and tidying up.

But, hearing the front door into the clinic open, Reina suddenly froze.

She'd already had one unexpected visitor that afternoon, and she hoped that whoever had just walked in this close to closing time was just there for business.

But as soon as Reina saw who this new visitor was, her shoulders relaxed.

Letting out a breath that she hadn't even realized she'd been holding, Reina pushed her hair back from her face as she stopped to lean on the handle of the broom.

But after just a short conversation with her visitor, Reina's sense of relief had been replaced by frustration and annoyance.

Having this discussion was not how Reina had planned to spend even a minute of her evening.

It was now 6 p.m.

and time to close the clinic, and all Reina wanted to do was head home so she could get ready for her date with Matt.

But when Reina and her visitor walked out the front door together a few minutes later, the two of them had already started to argue.

And when Reina had turned around after locking the front door of the clinic, she saw that parked right there in front of her in the lot was a car, engine running, and a driver in the front seat.

By the time Reyna and her killer killer had reached the Oldsmobile Buick, it was clear to Reina that her visitor was not going to be satisfied until the two of them had finished this conversation once and for all.

So when Reina's killer gestured toward the car and asked Reyna to just get in so they could drive around and talk, Reyna looked down at her watch.

She had a few minutes to spare, and better to just get this conversation over with here and now.

So Reina agreed to the plan, on the condition that it really would be a short drive, because she had a date at 7 p.m.

that evening that she was not about to miss.

Just a moment later, Reina, wearing the Letterman jacket that she would later take off inside the car, had slipped into the back seat with her visitor.

As soon as the driver heard the back door of the car shut, they checked the side and rearview mirror, put the car into gear, and pulled away from the clinic, heading east on Pine Lake Avenue.

By the time the car had turned onto a heavily wooded section of North Fale Road, about four miles from the animal clinic, one or both of the passengers demanded that the driver stop the car.

The argument in the back seat had gotten so loud that the driver was alarmed and immediately pulled over and turned off the engine.

Looking up at the rearview mirror, the driver saw both passengers jump out of the car, then come into view again as they faced off on the deserted road, standing just behind the car's rear bumper.

Their fight now was physical, and Reyna was using every ounce of strength to protect herself.

But a second later, the driver saw Reina's killer pull back their arm and deliver a savage punch directly into Reyna's face.

Scrambling out of the front seat, the driver made it around the side of the car just in time to see that Reyna lay on the ground and that her attacker had straddled her body and wrapped their hands around Reyna's neck.

As the driver stood there, frozen, Reina's attacker leaned hard into Reyna's neck, cutting off her supply of oxygen and literally squeezing the life out of her.

Afterward, there was a moment of stunned stunned silence, and then, standing up slowly and still breathing hard, Reyna's killer gestured for the driver to open the trunk of the car.

Together, the killer and the driver lifted Reyna's body up off the road and dumped her into the trunk.

Slamming the lid of the trunk shut, the driver and killer got back into the car and headed for the barn located a few miles away that belonged to the family of the person who owned the Oldsmobile Buick.

Once inside the big open space of the pole barn, neither the killer nor the driver looked up at the rafters and saw 14-year-old Ricky Hammonds, the brother of the car's owner, sitting up in the loft getting high on a joint of marijuana.

But that 14-year-old boy saw them.

And when the two people below him popped open the trunk of the car and stared down at the body of a teenage girl with brown curly hair, dressed in blue jeans and sneakers, Ricky saw that too.

And later that weekend, when 14-year-old Ricky Hammonds heard about the missing girl from Laporte High School and saw her picture in the papers and on the news, he knew that the name of the girl in the trunk of the family's Oldsmobile Buick was Raina Ryson.

But on that cool Friday evening, all Ricky knew was that he better stay really, really quiet because people who drove around with a dead body in their car were dangerous.

Ricky was relieved when the car's driver and passenger finally stopped arguing, hopped back in the Buick, turned on the engine, and then reversed out of the barn.

But even after the sound of the car tires rolling across gravel had faded, Ricky stayed where he was, holding the smoke from the joint inside his lungs.

If he told anyone about what he had seen, maybe those two people would come back and kill him too.

Or maybe he'd get in trouble for smoking marijuana.

Either way, the 14-year-old boy decided not to say anything at all.

Breathing the smoke out through his nose, he tried to enjoy the last few puffs on his joint, but it wasn't any use.

The buzz he'd been feeling before the car had rolled into the pole barn was as dead as the girl with the white face, all the color drained right out of her.

Meanwhile, the Buick's driver had dropped Reyna's killer back off at the Pine Lake Animal Hospital to pick up Reyna's Tan Ford sedan.

Holding Reyna's purse and car keys, the killer hopped behind the wheel of Reyna's car, started up the engine, and then, one behind the other, the cars headed in the direction of a small county pond about seven miles away.

Once they were close enough to their destination that they could see the water about 30 feet from the road, the cars pulled to a stop.

A few minutes later, the driver of the Buick, along with Reina's killer, had dragged Reina's body out of the trunk.

After dumping Reyna face down in the weeds and muck at the edge of the pond, the driver and killer grabbed two nearby logs and pulled them on top of Reina's body until she was fully submerged.

The driver and killer wiped off their hands and got back into their cars.

A few minutes later, they came to a stop along County Road 200E, five miles northwest of Laporte.

After parking Reina's car on the shoulder of the road, Reyna's killer propped open the hood so the car looked disabled and abandoned.

Then, hopping back into the passenger seat of the Oldsmobile Buick, the killer rolled the car window partway down, leaned back, and sucked in big mouthfuls of the chill night air.

Pulling away from the side of the road, the driver turned the car south.

A few minutes later, the driver of the car dropped the killer off at the killer's house and then returned the car he had been driving that night to the pole barn.

Even if the driver of the car had known to look, by then, 14-year-old Ricky Hammonds was nowhere in sight.

Later that same night, the killer would return to the pole barn to pick up the Letterman jacket that Reina had left in the back seat of the Buick.

And a day or two later, and Reina's killer would drive to the same secluded area where the killer had strangled Reina, and the killer would throw the jacket as far as they could into the woods, hoping that if the jacket was ever found, it would lead police to Reyna's boyfriend, Matt Elser.

15 years later, in 2008, Ricky Hammonds decided it was time to tell police what he saw in the pole barn the night that Reina Ryson was murdered.

and give the police the names of the two people he believed killed her.

By then, Ricky's own life had gone off the rails, and the now 29-year-old Ricky was serving a 44-year-long prison sentence for a murder that he had committed 10 years earlier.

But Ricky wasn't looking for any personal benefit in exchange for talking with state police.

According to Ricky, now that he had nieces of his own, he just wanted the Riceon family to know what happened to their 16-year-old daughter.

But even though Ricky's account of what he saw that night in the barn seemed very credible, it would take another five years before Indiana state prosecutors would offer immunity to the driver of the Oldsmobile Buick in exchange for testifying against Reyna's killer.

That driver was a man named Eric Freeman, who, at the time of Reina's death, was the boyfriend of the car's owner, Ricky's older sister.

And in June of 2013, after more than 20 years of chasing hundreds of dead ends, investigators sat down with Eric Freeman and finally confirmed the identity of Reyna's killer, her one-time boyfriend in middle school, and one of the few people Reina had entrusted with her secrets and her friendship, Jason Tibbs, who was 16 years old at the time of her murder.

It would turn out, starting back in the sixth grade, Jason had developed such strong feelings for Reyna that even after their six-month pre-teen romance ended, Jason had never given up on, quote, getting Reyna back, end quote.

Instead, in the years after their breakup, Jason had always kept in touch with Reina.

He sent her love letters that police and Reina's family had found among Reyna's belongings.

Jason helped Reyna with small car repairs, and Jason was outraged by the abuse that Reyna had suffered at the hands of her brother-in-law, Raymond.

And according to Jason's friend, Eric Freeman, on March 26th, 1993, Jason had asked Eric to drive him to Pine Lake Animal Hospital, where Reina worked, so when Reina got off her shift at 6 p.m., Jason could talk with her again about the two of them maybe getting back together.

But even before Reyna agreed to get into the car with Jason and Eric, Eric told investigators that it was clear from Reina and Jason's argument that Reyna, quote, just didn't want to be with Jason Tibbs, end quote.

Eric told police that during that drive, the couple's argument got so loud that Eric told them he wanted to leave, and Eric felt relieved when they told him to stop.

And then both Reina and Jason got out of the car, but Eric said he never suspected that Jason was about to kill Reyna.

Afterward, when Eric and Jason arrived at the pole barn that belonged to the family of Eric's girlfriend, neither teenager noticed 14-year-old Ricky Hammonds up in the rafters smoking a joint.

But when Eric stood next to Jason, looking down at Reyna's body in the open trunk of the Buick and asked Jason why he'd killed her, both Eric and Ricky heard and remembered Jason's answer.

Quote, if I can't have her, nobody can, end quote.

As for Jason's alibi that he was out fox hunting in his car with friends, police would discover that while players may have heard Jason's voice on their CB radios that night, no one actually saw him and could confirm his physical whereabouts.

As for Reyna's earlier visitor at the animal hospital on the afternoon of March 26th, that was her brother-in-law, Raymond McCarty.

It was Raymond's sexual abuse of Reyna, coupled with his eventual admission that on the afternoon Reyna had disappeared, he had gone from looking at that house for sale directly to the animal clinic to visit Reyna, that would make Raymond the prime suspect in Reyna's murder and help lead to his wrongful arrest back in 1998.

On August 23, 2013, 20 years and five months after Raina Ryson was strangled to death, 37-year-old Jason Tibbs, who was married with children and still living in La Porte County, Indiana, was arrested and charged with Raina Ryson's murder.

On November 7th, 2014, Jason was found guilty.

One month later, Jason Tibbs was sentenced to the state minimum for a murder committed in 1993, 40 years in prison, but with 20 years of that sentence already served.

Raina's brother-in-law, Raymond McCarty, would die in February 2018 at the age of 52 from a self-inflicted wound.

At the time of his death, Raymond McCarty was in jail, having been arrested three days earlier on a charge of battery resulting in serious bodily injury.

The inscription on Raina Ryson's headstone reads, quote, she now plays a flute of silver and an oboe of gold, end quote.

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