The Lethal Library

43. Masked Mayhem: The Unsolved Murder of Christopher Reese

The Lethal Library Episode 43

In this episode of The Lethal Library, Dani and Stephanie look into the unsolved case of Christopher Reese, a 25-year-old man brutally murdered during a robbery at Jackson's Food Store in Notus, Idaho. Despite a meticulously planned heist, the suspects left behind crucial evidence, and years later the case remains open. The hosts discuss the crime's impact on the small town, the laughable attempts at corporate responsibility, and the hope that justice will eventually be served. If you have any information, please contact authorities – your tip might just crack the case! Expect dark humor, sarcasm, and a healthy dose of reality checks.

Contact The Lethal Library at TheLethalLibrary@gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok!

Dani:

around three 30 in the morning, a passerby called 9 1 1 to report something strange at a Jackson's food store in Notus, Idaho. When deputies arrived, they found 25-year-old Christopher Reese lying dead on the floor. Two Masked men had stormed the store, shot him, and then disappeared into the dark with a stolen car and a safe

Stephanie:

welcome back to another episode of The Lethal Library. I'm Stephanie. And I'm Danny. And Danny has yet another Idaho case for us. This case is still unsolved. so we are looking for any community engagement about this. We think these types of cases are very important. so Danny's gonna get into the details of how this happened, and if you know anyone or if anyone has any ideas or leads, please reach out to Crime Stoppers.

Dani:

Perk your ears up, ladies and gents. Yeah, listen to this one. Sources used in today's episode are articles from the Idaho Statesman and KTVB Most mornings, Stacey Kester stopped for coffee at the Jackson Food Store on US 2026 on the East side of Notus. But on December 17th, he didn't stop. Because When he arrived at City Hall, he learned that Christopher Reese, age 25 had been shot to death. Quote. It's just sad, sad, sad. I was blown away. Keister said he was just a kid. He would greet me and smile. He was a good worker. The reason he didn't stop it was covered with police tape and detectives, and he's like,

Stephanie:

oh. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Dani:

He's like, what's going on at 3:30 AM dispatchers at the County County Sheriff's Office received a call from a passerby reporting suspicious activity at the store. Deputies arrived to find Reese who lived in Roswell, south of Parma, dead on the floor of one of the aisles. Chief Deputy Marv Dashell said Reese had been shot. The Canyon County Sheriff's Office said two masked men entered the store early on December 17th. Immediately shot Reese and used a handcar to remove this safe before stealing his car.

Stephanie:

Really,

Dani:

both the safe and a black 2007 Lincoln MKZ. We're found a few hours later off Purple Sage Road near Caldwell, which is very close. Mm-hmm. To, to that Notus exit. this was planned

Stephanie:

ver Yeah. Very planned.

Dani:

Bringing a handcar to a robbery.

Stephanie:

No, you know, you're going exactly for the safe and where it is and, and what you need to carry it. A hundred percent.

Dani:

Quote, our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of our team member Christopher Reese Jackson's President Corey Jackson said in a written statement, the company offered a$5,000 reward through Crime Stoppers to help find his killers.

Stephanie:

You know exactly what I'm gonna say, don't you?

Dani:

Let's talk about the airline. Remember that one?

Stephanie:

Yeah.

Dani:

Okay.

Stephanie:

$5,000. Some people who. Are not well off people. Regular people with jobs would put up that kind of a, a reward$5,000 from their savings or from whatever. This is a conglomerate. This is a multi-billion dollar company and it makes me very disappointed knowing, working for a corporation, as many of you may have. And you might go on trips or summits, and they're spending more than that. They're paying for celebrities to come in, or they're paying for, you know, just huge soiree and sms, like$5,000 for someone who's lost their lives working for your company at the very base level for probably shit pay. Terrible benefits. I know. I don't know. Maybe they're good benefits. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, but some, it's a dangerous job working at as a gas station, food store clerk. Mm-hmm. So to see a company, a conglomerate, as you said, offer$5,000 is almost, in my opinion, worse than doing nothing that's piss poor.

Dani:

Jackson also asked the media to respect the privacy of Reese's family and coworkers. Fair. Okay. Thank you. We'll take that. Don't be hassling the people he worked with for'cause I could see that happening in the media. Mm-hmm. And his coworkers are grieving. Don't go hassle them. Deputies reviewed surveillance video from the store and released descriptions of the two suspects. Both men were between five 10 and six feet tall with medium builds They wore dark ski mask and gloves. One wore a camouflage jacket with light pants, and the other wore blue jeans with a dark hooded sweatshirt. One had a rifle, the other had a pistol.

Stephanie:

They were ready.

Dani:

Deputies found shell casings inside, but did not say whether one or both guns had been fired. Hmm. I really feel like we should know that by now. Yeah. Quote, it was a very violent act. Dashell said it's similar to what is seen in other parts of the nation, but rare in this area. Okay. Fair. I can, I can see that the suspects fled with items from the store. Dashel didn't say whether they stole cash, but they took the safe, but I don't know what

Stephanie:

what was in there. And that almost leads me to believe that this is some type of employee or former employee even it's, if it's from 10 years ago that's worked for the chain or worked in just any. Because you know the business practices, right? You know about the size of the safes that every mm-hmm. Gas station has, you know, what they're armed with. You know, if they have a time delay or not.

Dani:

I feel like they knew.'cause look, if you can haul a safe out on a hand cart, it's not bolted into the floor or the wall.

Stephanie:

So you know that,

Dani:

you know that.

Stephanie:

Which, why wasn't it?

Dani:

We should be detectives.

Stephanie:

Why wasn't it?

Dani:

Right. I feel like that's laziness,

Stephanie:

especially for a multimillion or billion dollar company.

Dani:

And I'm gonna tell you, so this, you've seen this, you've seen this convenience store, right? Oh, I know where exactly. I know exactly

Stephanie:

where it's at.

Dani:

It seems very remote. But it's not, it's literally like a quarter mile off the freeway.

Stephanie:

It's like Middleton or am I, is that the wrong town?

Dani:

There's an exit right before Middleton. Yes. That's the

Stephanie:

exit. So it's, it's fairly close,

Dani:

but you jet off and it looks like it's just country and then right before town, it's not in town. It's just literally out in the middle of field. It's right outside. Yeah, it's right. It's literally in the middle of the field. It's at a

Stephanie:

convenient intersection. Right.

Dani:

People need to get gas off of the freeway, but it is very remote with like not other businesses around. And well, and it's also three 30 in the morning, but there's not a lot of traffic. You couldn't

Stephanie:

call out to someone from the parking lot and have them hear you? No, no, no,

Dani:

no. Not a house, not a business. And, but I know that it's used by locals every day. It's like, oh, I'm heading to work. They're gonna hit the freeway, they're gonna stop in and get their coffee and stuff. It's a great

Stephanie:

place to stop in. Yeah, it's pretty easy to get in and out of

Dani:

very easy. Yeah. So, like I said, de deputies later recovered that black, 2007 Lincoln MKZ. That's a nice car.

Stephanie:

It's a very nice car,

Dani:

that was used by the suspects. It was found four miles east of the store on a side street, purple sage, which is yeah, literally an exit and over like mm-hmm. They could have got to purple sage from, from that exit anyway, so they didn't even know to go up. Ken County spokesman, Joe Decker said the safe appeared, tampered with, but unopened panic. So where was the planning? Hmm. Just the hand to leave it. The, the planning ended at the hand cart.

Stephanie:

I just think that's so wild to me because if I did all this planning to get the safe and murdered somebody about it, I, I would be keeping it for, if I was a criminal, I'd keep it for 50 years if I could find out how to eventually crack that safe. Yeah. Why wouldn't you? You've already done the crime. I feel like there's drugs. Somewhere in this. A hundred percent agree. Okay.

Dani:

The store remained closed all day as it should, and like I said, yellow police tape surrounded the parking lot while the deputies came and crime scene specialist processed evidence clear into the night. Dashel said there was no indication the suspects were still nearby, but urged residents to stay alert. Yeah. Notus, mayor Dave Porterfield said the community was stunned and absolutely the town of just over 500 people was a quiet place. Quote. We are fortunate that the community does not often run into this kind of crime. Porterfield said it's a good place to live, and it is. It's a small, quiet town.

Stephanie:

I, one of my best friends when I was a a small child was in Notus and I loved going there. Yeah. It was so fun.

Dani:

It's like a farm town. Yeah. But it's still very close to what we consider in Idaho City.

Stephanie:

No, it really is. Yeah. Yeah.

Dani:

City Clerk Mejia said she was heartbroken that something like this could happen so close to Christmas. She said. Deputy Clerk Gary Ann Goslin kept the television on all day waiting for updates. Goslin said she knew something was wrong when she saw several police cars surrounding the store on her drive from Caldwell.

Stephanie:

People are driving past. This is every day. This is one of the only ways to commute. Yeah. To where you need need to go.

Dani:

Christopher lived with his partner and their young daughter in Roswell, their neighbor, Ken Rell, said that they had been good people. Quote, he would smile and wave at me. They've been great neighbors around. New that day, Rell went next door to offer his condolences, Quote, I hugged her. That's what you do in a small town like Roswell. You try to help your neighbors a few blocks away, a sign outside, a muffler shop, red quote, God bless America. Oh, he has Merry Christmas Smiths. That's just the mm-hmm. How they're. Yeah. That small community is, you know, yeah. They're into everything and, and to have this like happy sign out. Mm-hmm. And then this horrible tragedy happens inside the store. Owner Dino Rio said he wasn't overly surprised calling the shooting pitifully sad quote. With it being such a remote area from their point of view, they may have thought they had an easy getaway.

Stephanie:

Right. As far as the strategery? Yeah. They're thinking of, yeah.

Dani:

He was like, I'm not surprised. Somebody tried to hit that think and they could get away with it.

Stephanie:

Mm-hmm.

Dani:

Reese had moved to Idaho four years earlier from Tennessee. His sister, Ashley Pearson said, quote, we are beyond devastated by what has happened to him. We love him so much, and we are a close family, and they are.

Stephanie:

Hmm.

Dani:

Chris and his partner Tiffany Martin, came from Tennessee to be closer to Tiffany's mother. They first lived in Parma and then moved to Roswell two years before the murder neighbor Beth Campbell said Chris was a, h was a hands-on and loving father to his 4-year-old daughter. Oh. Quote. If he was not at work, he was with them. She said it hit so close to home. There was no reason for this.

Stephanie:

Yeah.

Dani:

He's a good daddy, a good partner.

Stephanie:

Well, and a hundred percent, and again, I know we've covered this on many previous cases. If you come in to rob somewhere, whether it's a home, someone in their car, a gas station, we had a few of those, most gas station clerks know that it's not their own money that they're protecting and mm-hmm. If, if they've gotta show you where the safe is, they'll probably do it as one should. Yeah. Like if anyone thinks that a gas station clerk should be defending the capital of the gas station and the safe, are you fucking kidding me? No.

Dani:

Your life is your life.

Stephanie:

Yeah. And you're working for wages that are probably not livable. So why the fuck would you lay your life on the line? So it's just one of those other things where it's like you didn't, you probably didn't have to do all this with enough waving around of a gun. Maybe I'm not encouraging this. A slight slippy slap, pistol, whip. I'm telling you. I'm, I'm an audacious bitch. One a little, a little pistol whip. Okay. You mean business? You went, I'm not saying it's right. Uh, the safes

Dani:

in there. You want the combo If

Stephanie:

you can't commandeer enough like authority to do it with, they had a rifle and a pistol at least. Yeah. If you can't commandeer enough authority that way to not have to kill a gas station clerk, IF. again, it's like, why were you there? Like, what did you think? This completely unnecessary. Did you think it was a video game? what I, I struggle so much of finding the motive.

Dani:

I feel like, and I will carry on about the story. I feel like he was just totally assassinated. Like, it, there was, it was, it was part of the plan.

Stephanie:

Yeah. They thought they had to. When they probably really didn't

Dani:

or they got in there and panicked and fucking did it. Mm-hmm. Sure. Unnecessary, surveillance footage showed little beyond the suspect's clothing and weapons. Like I said, one man had, uh, the assault rifle when they entered the store at around three, so the cops were there by three 30 ish. So this happened in very short order. Yeah. They brought in a two wheel dolly to move the safe. Both were covered head to toe, a Notus with gloves that only left their eyes visible so they were covered. The quote, we have not identified them yet. We are asking for the public's assistance. Sheriff Donahue said it had press, press conference. We believe these two individuals are extremely dangerous,

Stephanie:

so they were prepared a lot, but again. If I had gone through all this trouble to get a safe, I'm not letting go of that safe. I don't care if I have to be retired when I crack it. Are you kidding me? Right. What you just, what can you go back? When did they recover the safe? Within hours.

Dani:

So be that is pussy like, come on. They literally, so the they, they dumped it. They fled with a safe. And Reese's car and their own vehicle. So they had no reason to steal Chris's car. They had their own vehicle. Yeah. Another and just to abandon it with what they just shot a man for a safe on Purple Sage Road. So that's, it's about four miles, but really it's, it's country mile. It doesn't it You're driving. It's very quick. Yeah. Yeah. Little jet up. Stop off. Uh, can't open the safe. Fuck it. Why would you try to open the safe on the server? How many

Stephanie:

minutes could you have spent on it? Like, it's just nonsensical and fucking stupid. That's all. Like, seen this

Dani:

before.

Stephanie:

Yeah.

Dani:

Dumb, dumb, dumb. We really have, and it's, it's such a shame, Donahue called it, quote, a very violent crime, a very direct and deliberate crime. He said the investigators were working around the clock and exploring every lead. The store remained closed indefinitely. Jackson said Employees and the community wanted it reopened, but no date had been set. Unfortunately, the, those protocols could not prevent this unconscionable attack. Attack. The horrific act that took the life of our team member is even. Made more senseless by the very minimal amount of money involved. He said

Stephanie:

precisely. And I'd also like to point out the very minimal amount of money that they decided to put up as a reward as a conglomerate billion dollar, maybe million dollar company, allegedly. What a fucking. If I Jackson sponsor us. If I was a PR person, Danny, if I was a PR person, I would be humiliated and feel shame. Would you be like this? Shut your mouth. I'd be like, I know that this is fucking stupid. I didn't wanna do this. I don't have to, I don't have anything to deal with the wallet. I know that$5,000 is nothing but here's some asmr. no, I would be. Humiliated to have to be the one to put out that, yeah, like I quit as Jackson's, we are here for justice, for our very valued employee and team member who was like family to us. So we are bravely, bravely putting forth. 5,000 entire US American dollars,

Dani:

which is about what I spend on my lawn care every month. Are you fucking shitting my dick?

Stephanie:

Like it's just so, Hey,

Dani:

why don't you look up and, and see it? It's worse.

Stephanie:

It's worse than doing nothing. I'm sorry. They could have, they could have pretended that they didn't know they could do that. We put out a statement in support of the law enforcement and family. Oh. Oh, we forgot. We could put up some money. That would've been better. What a measly piece of shit. Just appalling. Completely appalling. What are you looking up? I

Dani:

Corey jackson's net worth. Oh no,

Stephanie:

it's just gonna piss me off more.

Dani:

Right. That that's the guy's first name, right?

Stephanie:

Because I don't know if it's a multimillion or multi. It's gotta be at least multimillion. Yeah. I don't know if it's a multibillion. Who knows? It's an oil. You're in oil. Could it be trillion? I don't know. Yes.

Dani:

Cory Jackson. Um, okay. That's Jack Jackson. Corey Jackson. Food Stars.

Stephanie:

And this is all alleged'cause we don't know who's in charge of what or whatever, but,

Dani:

and I would just like to say that I was kidding about sponsoring'cause they're not gonna sponsor us. Oh no, that was a joke. We totally,

Stephanie:

we hopefully you guys sensed that tone.

Dani:

So this is from 2022. Well, maybe not

Stephanie:

even his precise personal net worth. What is Jackson's food stores worth as a company?

Dani:

Because it's huge here. So this is from, yeah, it's all over this area, the Idaho Press Tribune. Let me just read a little bit and you can include what you want. Okay. Yeah. just to add some context, the company itself, family owned and operated, John Jackson, started in 1975 in Caldwell. Corey and his brother Jeff are closely involved in the company. As is John Jackson's sister. Corey's son, has begun working at a, at a store part-time, making him the third generation team member. This is a huge, like they're making it sound. This is a puff piece. Jackson's is a significant employer in the community it serves, and this is all

Stephanie:

great, locally owned. Someone started the business. That's all fine. I just. Knowing that you, it's not

Dani:

giving me money. That's a puff piece. Um, try

Stephanie:

to look up, okay.

Dani:

Idaho Business Review, John Jackson from one Gas Station. This is from Idaho Business Review. John Jackson from one Gas Station in Caldwell, Idaho, and builds a 600 million C-store. Colossus, there we go. and this was, in this episode is January, 2005. Oh, okay. So, so

Stephanie:

it's big, big, big, big. We, we don't know how much exactly. All of this is alleging, I just need to find it, something

Dani:

to piss you off. And I did.

Stephanie:

Just, just something to set up because it's like, what is this a, a small family that has one gas station out in the country, A tiny little thing. Mm-hmm. No, it's fucking not colossal. I, I'm not saying that they didn't care. No, I'm not saying that they weren't concerned. However, I think that$5,000 weak sauce, this is your opportunity to make an instant impact. You don't have to spend hours of your employee time. You either have time, you have treasure, or you have your skills. You don't have any specific skills that can help with this investigation. You might not want to have any way you can put time or employees to it. So what you have is your money. Let's

Dani:

see if this makes you feel better. I, in late January, 2015, five weeks after the killing, Jackson's food stores raised the reward to$50,000. I feel a lot better about that for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killers. Look, it's better, but it's not great. Like this should be a million. They are a$600 million. It should be a million dollars.

Stephanie:

Yeah,

Dani:

a million.

Stephanie:

It's less of a fucking insult for sure. Yeah, it should be a million dollars. That, that seemed, like I said, a regular person like you or I, if we had this happen to someone. If you had been harmed in an unsolved case,$5,000 would be a lot. I'm putting up$5,000 right now. Yeah, that would be a lot of money. At the minimum, I would be maxing out credit cards. I'd be doing GoFundMe, I'd be doing fundraiser. This, this is a 600 million. Yeah, there's profits to be had that can go. If you wanna say that you care about your employees. That you know, are in a very dangerous position. Gas station 24 7 store clerk. I don't know if it's 24 7 or not, but I'm a, I think it that one.

Dani:

I don't know if they do that anymore, but I know what's, it doesn't even matter

Stephanie:

like it, you're usually a gas station. You are open at 5:00 AM

Dani:

Can you imagine precarious time? Can you imagine? Albertsons is another big conglomerate around here and it's big everywhere. Yeah. Can you imagine? If an employee at Albertsons got murdered, shot to death and they offered$5,000 for Albertsons, same diff like you, it would be unacceptable

Stephanie:

and it is unacceptable. I, I appreciate the 50. It's less of a slap because again, you should have just said nothing or done said something and not put any money. That is if a literal person. Low class, middle class person can do the same. You are not doing enough. That was fucking stupid. And I hope that any business that deals with this realizes that that is, it's just horse shit. I don't, I don't know what adjective, I know there's some out there that could better explain it, but

Dani:

we'll leave it with horseshit. Yeah, horseshit. Corey Jackson thanked the community for his support and law enforcement for their continued efforts. The Canyon County Sheriff's Office called the Murder Its Top Priority and released Enhanced video showing the two Notus men entering the store. Nobody they're fucking covered. Give us more. On February 4th, 2015, new camera footage surfaced from a private home. How did it take this long? Investigators said it came from a security system within two blocks of the Jacksons, more than 20 officers from the Sheriff's office and the FBI Treasure Valley Metro Violent Crimes task. Didn't even know that was a thing. Mm canvased the area and collected the video. The footage was not made public, but provided a few new leads,

Stephanie:

so maybe they just had it in their back pocket. I'm hoping.

Dani:

And late February, about 240 people crowded into the Notus school district cafeteria for a chili feed fundraiser to support Reese's family. Oh, this is how they do it out there? Yeah.

Stephanie:

They're trying to raise money for, and I bet you they raise

Dani:

more than fucking$5,000.

Stephanie:

And that's, that's what I'm saying. That's why it's such a, I'm gonna beat this horse. Told dead Jacksons. I hope that you fucking learn from this, and I hope that other companies learn from that.'cause that's like me being like my very best friend, Danny was murdered, and I am bravely putting down$5 as a reward to help find her killer.$5 is a considerable amount to me. Let's say, let's just even say I'm putting down$500. I can definitely do more than$500. I can find ways to do more so that's what I'm saying.

Dani:

But we're at 50 now. It was a joke. All proceeds went to his girlfriend and young daughter, according to superintendent Craig Wood. Okay. I love that these guys, that's what community's about. Like

Stephanie:

trying to take care of her and get Yeah. Yeah. Let's do a

Dani:

chili feed. Donations. They probably did a raffle. Mm-hmm. An auction. Silent auction. Let's go.

Stephanie:

No, I'm sure they did a lot. And it's amazing to see what a, a community will do. And I

Dani:

would be cur, I should have looked this up. I'd be curious to what they raised, because I'm telling you Notus they have some farmers out there that be having some bank. Oh yes. And so I hope that. It really helps them a lot.

Stephanie:

I really do too.

Dani:

In April of 2015, captain Dana Maxfield said the Sheriff's Office was still receiving tips every day. Quote. We have literally hundreds of tips we're going through. He said, we have thousands of hours tied up in this case. By no means is this a cold case.

Stephanie:

Okay. That's nice to hear. I don't know that this area police department has the resources and. The base. I'm not trying to be derogatory, but they have, but there's not crime a lot here is what I'm saying. Yeah. So do they have, are there, are there folks that are equipped to,

Dani:

it's doing the Canon County and they're working with the FBI. Thank you. FBI, long name task force.

Stephanie:

Yeah.

Dani:

In June, 2015, the sheriff's office filmed a reenactment of the killing to reignite interest. Lieutenant Chris McCormick said they had received about 500 tips, some with strong leads. Quote, some of the tips are promising, he said, but until we get those responsible for Christopher's death and custody, we're going to pull out all the stops.

Stephanie:

Okay.

Dani:

Crime Stoppers coordinator Ted Arnold, organized the project with filmmaker Cody, me, who volunteered to shoot the two minute reenactment me said. Quote, we're doing this because we need to catch these guys the video later aired on local television and featured John Walsh of America's Most Wanted introducing the segment. Wow. Boom. Pulling out all the stops. I appreciate that McCormick said he hope the film would remind people that Christopher was more than a name on a case file. Everybody eventually talks, he said. Whether it's the suspects themselves that slip up and say something, or a jilted lover or an ex-friend, a falling out, or someone

Stephanie:

they confess to

Dani:

in

Stephanie:

a bar or too drunk

Dani:

fucking idiots.

Stephanie:

They're trying to be a big badass. That's happened

Dani:

before. Yeah. he said something's going to trigger someone to come forward and I hope this helps. and I do believe in that because what can happen naturally is that people are talking about this out loud. In front of these fucking criminals.

Stephanie:

Mm-hmm. And or someone that knew them or wasn't. Maybe they even heard something that they thought could never have been true, and now they're realizing maybe that was someone talking about this case. So there's so many interconnections that hopefully you can trigger one, you know?

Dani:

Two years later, the reenactment video was still featured on Crime Stoppers of Southwest Idaho's website, and the killers still have not been caught.

Stephanie:

Can I just ask the Lincoln, was it stolen?

Dani:

It was Christopher's car and they stole it. So they had to get the keys from him

Stephanie:

and they didn't re Okay. For some reason I thought that they were driving that around and drove it there. No, they drove it four

Dani:

miles and left it with a fucking safe

Stephanie:

idiots. Can you imagine getting all hopped up on adrenaline or drugs or a plan and not being able to crack a safe within 30 minutes and leaving it given up on life and you've murdered someone? You fucking idiot. That's just, it's. Yeah, not redeemable for me. Oh, and people might have opinions about that. That makes you more of a dba, exact like, and knowing that a minimum wage clerk, or even if it's not minimum clo, a lower wage clerk, they know that it's not their money. They're not gonna fight you like, Hmm. I just,

Dani:

I feel like they walked in and went bang, and then they thought they had to, like idiots we're in A, B, and E we're doing A, b, and E with nine people in the house. Throwback, uh, Christopher's poor family. They said the pain never faded for them. And still, because this is still an unsolved case. Yeah. His sister, Ashley Pearson, said her daughter still ask about their uncle and his daughter Skylar, who was only four when he died, still misses her father. I can't imagine, of course,

Stephanie:

even as a sibling, you know that you still would think like, where's my sis? Where's my bro?

Dani:

Sheriff Donahue said the attack appeared carefully planned. Was it up until a point it seems like. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I'm saying,

Stephanie:

like going and getting in. They had no fucking foresight of getting out and they're like,

Dani:

okay, we got guns and we got the hand truck. Let's go. That was their plan. If we get the safe, we're good. Yeah. That was their plan. Yeah. They didn't think about how they were gonna open the safe anyway. Weird. Donahue Donahue said, quote, we have every reason to believe it was planned, meticulous attack. And not some random act of violence. Like many of the homicides we see in the area, we don't see many homicides in the area. No. Anyway, especially not random. Yeah. Homicides. So, no, I do believe it was planned. Mm-hmm. Poorly, but not carefully planned. No poorly. Yes. that's why finding these two suspects remains the number one priority for this office. In 2017, police and family were still searching for answers. Sheriff Donnie Hughes said the investigation remained active, but there were still no new leads. Christopher's mother, Polly Griggs said she contacted the sheriff's office regularly for updates, quote, you always hold onto that little bit of hope. She said, right. It kind of keeps you going because if you get it, you'll get closure. Reese's daughter was six years old by then. Greg said she. Still listen to her son's voicemail every day and hope Jess ugh would come. Quote, they stole something more precious than money or anything material. They stole my baby and when they stole his life, they took part of me. I, that is heartbreaking. The store continued to offer the$50,000 reward for information. Why is it not a million? Let's bump up those numbers. They're rookie numbers. On the 10 year anniversary of Christopher Reese's murder, so ridiculous. Sheriff Donahue spoke with KTVB about the ongoing case. He hinted that the investigators knew who the suspects were and where they were located, but that they were no longer in the Treasure Valley. And Donahue said he hoped to make arrests within months, not years. And that was in what year? Uh, 24.

Stephanie:

That was last year. It's hopeful. It's, again, you wanna have hope and if it takes a lot for someone to even hint at that, right?'cause they always keep their cards very close. So if someone's willing to hint at that, this is all an assumption and we know that what assumptions are. but if someone's willing to hint at that, that gives me,

Dani:

and sometimes I hate to say. They know, but they don't have enough evidence and they're building and trying to, they need stalk people for dna. A I I really feel like he shouldn't have fucking said that because it's just gonna keep these guys more tight and aware. Yeah, sure. Let'em loosen up, let'em feel good. Let'em, this is, I feel like that statement was a for him statement, not for the victim statement, because I think they meant it for the family, but it could be for. Like, why would you fuck as a

Stephanie:

criminal? I would be like, mm, okay. I'm gonna be straight and narrow right now. Like, I'm not letting my trash sit on my curb. No, I'm not gonna be discarding a cup at a restaurant.

Dani:

No, I just feel like that was, I mean, I, I appreciate that sentiment from him, but that should have been something maybe communicated with just the family and not the fucking public.

Stephanie:

Sure. So well, we'll see where this goes. I truly hope that they have some good leads because this rocked the community. It's another one that I remember, and I do not remember a lot of the crime, like even the crimes that I've listened to and podcasts and stuff. I don't often remember details. I remember this one and that it was just so shocking that it was unsolved because usually a simple. I say simple in quotes, robbery like this, robbery murder is found out within weeks. You know,

Dani:

I can't believe that they didn't have, video outside where they could catch the license plates of the car that they come in. Right. And just mind blowing,

Stephanie:

just something surrounding No, it's, it's been, it was a tough case and it still is a tough case. So thank you Danny for. D showcasing another Idaho crime that is unsolved. And again, please tell them

Dani:

if you have any information about the murder of Christopher Reeves, contact Canon County Sheriff's Office, or Crime Stoppers. This case remains open, and Christopher Family continues to wait for justice.

Stephanie:

So thank you for listening. We're here, we're around. If you have feedback, email the lethal library@gmail.com and we'll catch you on the next one. Bye bye.