Murder of Adrianne Reynolds

Adrianne Leigh Reynolds
Born	September 12, 1988(1988-09-12) Kilgore, Texas
Died	January 21, 2005(2005-01-21) (aged 16) East Moline, Illinois

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.

People Involved in Incident

Adrianne Reynolds was originally from Kilgore, Texas.^[1] She moved to East Moline, Illinois when she was 16 to live with her adoptive parents, Tony and Joann Reynolds.,^[2] and 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 goth 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] Sarah threatened to kill Adrianne on numerous occasions, but she was not taken seriously.^[4][5]

Cory Gregory originally attended Moline High School but later transferred to the Outreach Center, where he met Sarah.^[6] He lived with his mother at the time of the incident. In January 2005, Adrianne reportedly asked Cory out, which 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, and Sean jumped out of the car.^[1] In the parking lot, Cory held down Adrianne while Sarah strangled her with a belt and beat her with a wooden handle.^[5]

After the murder, Sarah and Cory took Adrianne's body to Sarah's grandparents' farm in Aledo, where they tried to burn it with gasoline. When it failed to burn after several hours, they recruited a 16 year-old boy from Moline named Nathan Gaudet to help dismember the body.^[2][3] Nathan used his grandfather's handsaw to remove Adrianne's head and arms,^[3] which were later disposed of in a garbage bag at the Black Hawk State Park.^[2] Before disposing of Adrianne's remains, the three teenagers ate lunch at McDonald's.^[3]

Adrianne's parents reported her missing after she failed to show up to work at Checkers.^[7] Authorities discovered Adrianne's body 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 on February 1, 2005; they both pled not guilty.^[1]

Sarah was the first to go to trial, which began on November 2, 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.,^[8] she was convicted on all counts. At sentencing a few months later, she received a total of 53 years in prison for murder and concealment.^[9] She is serving her sentence at the Dwight 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.^[6] He is serving his sentence at the Menard Correctional Center.^[10]

Nathan Gaudet had also been charged with concealment for helping to dismember Adrianne. He pled guilty and was given a juvenile sentence of five years.^[5] He was released from juvenile detention on November 11, 2008 after serving almost four years.^[3]

In the Media

This case has been televised on Dateline NBC^[7] in October 2006, Deadly Women in December 2010, and Snapped in September 2011.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} . http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20146836,00.html. Retrieved 2011-08-15. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} . http://www.adriannereynolds.com/About%20Adrianne.html. Retrieved 2011-08-15. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} . http://qctimes.com/news/local/article_491d3fbc-0643-11df-a00e-001cc4c03286.html. Retrieved 2011-08-15. 
4. ^ ^{a b} . http://www.extremeskins.com/showthread.php?90249-Illinois-teen-killed-and-dismembered-classmates-under-arrest. Retrieved 2011-08-15. 
5. ^ ^{a b c} . http://findcarrie.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=murder1&action=print&num=1111895846. Retrieved 2011-08-15. 
6. ^ ^{a b} . http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=296357. Retrieved 2011-08-15. 
7. ^ ^{a b} . http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15333880/ns/dateline_nbc/t/circle-friends/. Retrieved 2011-08-05. 
8. ^ ^{a b} . http://www.whbf.com/Global/story.asp?S=4051509. Retrieved 2011-08-15. 
9. ^ . http://www.whbf.com/Global/story.asp?s=5296568. Retrieved 2011-08-05. 
10. ^ ^{a b} . http://www.idoc.state.il.us/subsections/search/inms.asp. Retrieved 2011-08-15.