Brother of shooting victim looks to draw attention to unsolved murder case

More than a decade ago, Geoff Reynolds was a Generation X-er in need of some direction.

He had his music, a girlfriend and enough money to pay rent in his Big Lake home.

The 30-year-old fixed cars for his friends while working for a number of local restaurants as a dishwasher, according to family members.

But that all changed on January 21, 1998, when Reynolds was shot to death at his Montborne Street residence near Big Lake.

Now, more than 10 years later, Geoff’s half brother, Jaime, is looking to draw attention to the case, which area investigators never solved.

“He didn’t deserve this in any way,” Jaime Reynolds said. “He should be alive today. He probably would have a family. Despite his shortcomings, it should have never happened.”


No new leads

Very little new information has come about in the case after its initial investigation, Jaime said.

What officials do know is that Geoff Reynolds was found dead by his girlfriend, Deanna Combs, when she arrived home after work at about 2:20 p.m. on that January afternoon.

After Skagit County Sheriff’s deputies responded initially to the incident, area detectives took over the investigation, chief criminal deputy Will Reichardt said.

At the time, Reichardt was a patrol sergeant with the sheriff’s department. He said he remembers the department piecing together a flow chart with all the possible leads in the case.

“There were arrows all over the place,” Reichardt said. “There were literally dozens of questionable people he knew or that were acquaintances. We had to sort through a lot of false leads.”

Officials never made any arrests in connection with Geoff Reynolds’ death, but search warrants conducted after the crime showed drugs may have been involved in the shooting.

Drug paraphernalia — more than 10 marijuana pipes — large amounts of cash and scales for weighing drugs were scattered around the home, where Reynolds lived with Combs and her sister.

Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months for investigators, who talked to people of interest in the area and as far away as Oregon, Reichardt said. The case led detectives in numerous directions, but they were never able to collect enough information to arrest anyone in connection with Reynolds’ death.

“In the investigation, we’ve never been able to rise to that level of probable cause,” he said.


A musical brother


Jaime Reynolds shared a father, James, with Geoff, and the two brothers were just becoming close when Geoff was killed.

Despite the 12-year age gap between the brothers, Jaime and Geoff shared another commonality — music.

Jaime, 18 at the time of the incident, had offered to play bass with Geoff in his band just after Jaime’s senior year began at La Conner High School in 1997.

By October, the two were playing together about once or twice per week in a band named Pull and Be Damned, in which they joined another local drummer.

The band was named after Pull and Be Damned Point, which is southwest of La Conner on Skagit Bay.

“That’s when I really started to develop a relationship with him,” Jaime said. “We were just getting to know one another and had a lot to talk about.”

The band played mostly classic-rock influenced music, and Jaime kept the band together for about five years after Geoff was killed.

“Playing music and hanging out with friends — that’s how I dealt with it,” Jaime said. “The music really helped me through it. It was a way to have him around.”


Gone cold

Twelve cold homicide cases are currently active in the Skagit County Sheriff’s office, with the oldest dating back to 1979.

Of those 12, three involved unidentified human remains.

Since Reynolds’ death in 1998, four other cold cases have gone unsolved by the sheriff’s department, the most recent of which involved human remains found in January 2007.

In addition to the unsolved cold cases, the department has made arrests in 41 homicide or manslaughter cases since 1979, and has made 10 arrests for attempted homicide.

“But it’s those (unsolved) cases that you never forget,” Reichardt said.

The department’s current cold cases are divided up among detectives, who maintain the case files associated with each case.

Although some homicide cases are solved within days or weeks, others are just too complex.

“Sometimes you identify immediately who the killer is — sometimes it’s just right there,” Reichardt said. “And other times all you have is a body and it’s a ‘who dunnit?’”



Solving the unsolvable

Only recently has Jaime Reynolds been able to come to grips with Geoff’s death.

He said most of his family still has a hard time talking about Geoff and the circumstances surrounding his shooting.

“My dad and his mom — they can’t even deal with it. It’s too much and it hurts them too bad,” Jaime said. “Everybody just sits on the sidelines because there’s no leads.”

Jaime moved from Skagit County since the time of the event and has begun to move on with his life, but said he does not want people to forget his brother.

Anyone with any details about the case is encouraged to contact the Skagit County Sheriff’s office, and he said people involved in the case should not be afraid to come forward with any information.

The department can be contacted at 360-336-9450.

“I’m ready to take a hold of this and try to figure this out,” Jaime said. “This can’t be forgotten. People need to know about it. I’m completely ready to deal with it — I’m past all the grief.”

Skagit County Sheriff’s Department cold case homicides:

Ben Kistemaker — Dec. 26, 1979
Unidentified human remains — Oct. 7, 1980
Christy Civille — Dec. 26, 1983
Tanya Vancuylenborg — Nov. 24, 1987
Arlene Stewart — Dec. 24, 1992 (body has never been found)
Donna Arrasmith — July 27, 1993
Vicky Silves — Dec. 8, 1997
Geoff Reynolds — Jan. 21, 1998
Unidentified human remains — March 21, 2001
Lydia Varo-Braschler — April 17, 2002
Eddie Rieckers — Dec. 22, 2002
Unidentified human remains — Jan. 22, 2007

Information provided by Skagit County Sheriff’s Department.