The Glenn Reitz Murder: Time Line

AN UNSOLVED MURDER IN MADERA: Part 3

MADERA - In 1985, Glenn Reitz was living a full life. At the time of his death, he was helping form a drum and bugle corps for the Boy Scouts of America. He was in great physical shape from working out six days a week. He was water skiing one day and snow skiing the next. He had friends who cared for him. He had students who remember fondly how he would offer his help in and out of the classroom. And he had his secret life.

Once the Madera Police got this case, Detectives Dale Padgett and David Foster did a great job piecing together the last 48 hours of the Thomas Jefferson teacher's life. Through phone records, interviews, and good police work, almost every hour of Reitz's last 48 hours was accounted for in the police reports. Of course, we do not know for sure who was in the house with Reitz when he was killed, but we do know who he came in contact with shortly before.

From the timeline, we know that Reitz was alive at 11:00 pm Monday night and that there was still someone in his house at 7:00 am Tuesday morning. We know that he met a male subject Sunday night at a bar in Fresno that none of the other bar patrons recognized. That subject may have also been seen by neighbors at his door just hours before he was killed.

Timelines can often add clarity and thereby help identify the truth about a situation. They can point to areas that need more questions answered. In publishing this timeline, I hope that someone may come forward with information they didn't realize would be helpful at the time. Of course, we may not be lucky enough to learn anything new.

It may be that the person who could have offered the information has since died. Even the killer may already be dead. My intent in writing these articles is only to get the information out to the public in an attempt to develop a new lead or flesh out an old one. All I know for sure is that there is no reason for the Madera Police Department to take a second look at this case unless new information can be uncovered.

3-16-1985
1245-1300	Reitz went to Dean Blankenship's home and the two left for Eastman Lake, where they used his boat motor. Blankenship says they returned from the lake around 5:00 pm
3-17-1985
0715-0730	Dean Blankenship says he picked up Reitz Sunday morning to snow ski at Sierra Summit. He stated that his wife Nancy and Julia O'Kane had gone with them, and they all returned around 6:00 pm
1815-1820	Blankenship said he had dropped Reitz off at his house so he could shower and change for a dinner they had planned at a mutual friend's house.
1845-1900	Blankenship says he arrived at the home of Frank and Sally Smith for the planned dinner. Reitz had arrived five minutes later. Blankenship told police that he and his wife had left the dinner at 8:45 pm, around when Reitz left.
2045	Reitz leaves Frank and Sally Smith's house.
2115-2145	According to bartender Glenn Webb, Reitz entered the Red Lantern Bar in Fresno and sat down to play the Frogger video game. About twenty minutes later, a Mexican American male with three teardrops and one star tattoo on the right side of his face sat down and talked to the victim. The bartender says each tattoo was about the size of a fingernail
2200-2230	Reitz and a Mexican American male leave the bar together. The bartender thinks the subject's name was "Joe," and he wore a white t-shirt and blue Levis 501 jeans. The subject was between 26-28 years of age, 5'9 to 5'10, 160 to 170 pounds. Webb told Captain Andy Moore that he had been out of town until 3/20/85, when Moore interviewed him. Webb said he had not seen the Mexican American subject in the bar before that Sunday.
3/18/1985
0800-1500	Reitz teaches and spends a full day at Thomas Jefferson teaching English.
1530	Todd Wilson knocked on Reitz's front door, but no one answered, so he left.
1630	John Lyndsay and his wife were jogging in the area of Rotan and saw a man knock on Reitz's door and enter the house.
1715-1720	Dean Blankenship drove to the Reitz's residence but left because he noticed the teacher's vehicle was not in the driveway. Blankenship tells police that he assumed Reitz's car being gone meant he was not home because Reitz was the only one who drove that car.
1725	Todd Wilson saw Reitz at Kmart on Howard Road and talked with him for a while.
1755	Eric Adolphson, a friend of Todd Wilson, sees Reitz at Pioneer Chicken at Gateway and Yosemite Avenues.
1945	Joey Rios called Reitz to talk about the drum corps they were both involved in but said Reitz sounded tired and did not want to talk on the phone.
2000	According to Chris DaSilva, the owner of the Madera Athletic Club, Reitz walked into the club for his evening workout. DaSilva told police he did not know Reitz well, but they had mutual friends. He was not sure what time Reitz left the gym.
2030	Ron Correa first attempts to call Glenn Reitz about the drum and bugle corps they are both involved in. There was no answer on Reitz's home phone.
2115-2120	Randy Durbin, an employee at the Madera Athletic Club, said Reitz had left the gym by himself around 9:15 pm (2115). He said the victim was wearing red running shorts, a white t-shirt, and a Stanford University sweatshirt wrapped around his waist. Durbin said Reitz was talking to Robert White before driving away.
2120	Robert White said Reitz had offered him a ride home or to get a soda. White declined, saying he had his bicycle at the gym. White also mentions that he believes Reitz's car was in front of the gym from 6:15 to 6:30 pm earlier in the evening when he arrived at the gym.
2220	Ron Correa called Glenn Reitz a second time. This time, Reitz answered his phone. Correa says he spoke with Reitz from 10:20 pm to 11:10 pm about the Boy Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps. He said Reitz was in good spirits during the call, and the two were talking and laughing. Then, suddenly, Reitz said he had to get off the phone and get some tests ready for the next school day. Correa told police that while he was talking to Reitz, he did not get the sense that anyone else was in his house.
2220-2330	A neighbor looking outside noticed that a light was on in the northwest bedroom and in the front room. The neighbor left her house for a few minutes, and when she returned, she noticed the bedroom light was still on, but the front room light had been shut off. She says she remembers Reitz's car being in the driveway both times.
2257	Reitz made a call to the Sigma Chi Fraternity at Fresno State. He was on the phone long enough to have a conversation with someone. Reitz was friends with a gay member of the fraternity who claimed he did not speak with the teacher the night he was killed. A copy of the Sigma Chi Phone Directory was found in the police report.
2300	The second neighbor reported having heard three loud banging doors outside and went to his front door to look. He observed a vehicle parked behind the victim's car in the driveway. He saw someone at the victim's front door talking to him normally. He was positive that he recognized the voice of Reitz. He believes the subject talking to Reitz was a Mexican American male. The conversation seemed friendly, so he was no longer alarmed and returned inside.
3-19-1985
0645-0705	Jeremy May (age 13 years old) told police he tried calling Reitz's house thrice on the morning of 3-19-1985. He said the phone just rang at 6:45 am with no answer. He called again at 7:00 am, and the phone was busy. The third time he called was at 7:05, and the phone again rang with no answer.
0800	Reitz does not show up for school or call for a substitute.
0915	Thomas Jefferson Junior High Principal Ben Barsotti walks over to Reitz's house and gets no answer at the front door. He walks into the backyard through the garage and looks in a window. He sees what he believes is a body with a blanket draped over it. He had the school secretary call the police.
0934	Madera Police discovered Reitz's body in his house at 517 Rotan Avenue. His car (1976 Toyota Celica Hatchback) is missing.
2122	Rosemary Barnett, a Chevron gas station attendant in Wilcox, Arizona, accepted Glenn Reitz's Chevron credit card to purchase gasoline. The attendant says she could not describe or identify the suspect.
3-20-1985
	The victim's card would be used twice at two separate Chevron Stations in El Paso, Texas, for gasoline and Marlboro cigarettes the next day. Two composite drawings would come from the El Paso Police Department.

So... who was "Joe," and has anyone seen him in any of the Fresno bars that Glenn Reitz frequented after the murder of the teacher? And what of the four teardrop tattoos? Is this the man a neighbor saw talking to Reitz at the victim's door after 11:00 p.m. on March 18, 1985?

Even if this was the last person seen speaking to Reitz before his death, how can it be determined whether Reitz was still alive when this person left without interviewing him? Could this person have moved both his own car and Reitz's by the following morning, or is it possible there was a second person with him? Could this explain why the composite drawing differs from the description of 'Joe'?

There is very little information in the police file about what was done to try and locate or identify 'Joe'. His teardrop tattoo has no proven fixed meaning, but similar tattoos almost always suggest the person has served prison time. It can mean that the wearer has killed someone. The number of teardrops sometimes indicates how many years the wearer spent in prison or the number of times he was raped while serving time. It may also be to show the loss of a loved one or fellow gang member.

There is no record in the police report of having run this combination of tattoos (teardrops and stars) through any local gang or tattoo database. Of course, the FBI only recently began consolidating local information into a national database in 2012. In 1985, the police may have still needed to rely on first-hand knowledge about gang markings. If ‘Joe' was not a local, there may not have been any local law enforcement at the time who could shed light on the meaning of his tattoos.

And what about the car and credit cards stolen from Reitz's house that night? Who took Reitz's car to Texas? Had the car changed hands after his death, or was the driver involved in the murder?

It's tempting to assume that the last person to be at the victim's house near the time he was killed was the man driving his stolen vehicle, a 1976 Toyota Celica GT Hatchback. A gas station attendant from El Paso, Texas, saw this person.

Next week, we will go over the search for the victim's car and the composite drawing that came from using the victim's credit card in three different gas stations in Arizona and Texas.