NEWS RELEASE                                             

For Immediate Release
April 15, 2006
Contact: Michele Nicholson
Public Information Officer
  (850) 651-7420

MURDER SUSPECT TO RETURN TO OKALOOSA COUNTY

     50-year old Ronald Lee Hill is scheduled to return to Okaloosa County late Saturday night in the custody of two Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office investigators.

     Hill faces an open count of murder after turning himself in to authorities Thursday in Sedalia , Missouri . The former Shalimar resident confessed to killing 37-year old Wayne Douglas Reynolds with a hammer during a drug-related fight in early January 1996.

     During an interview Friday with Okaloosa County investigators, Hill told them he decided to come forward because the crime has been weighing on him. He also said he had decided to commit suicide by hanging himself from a tree but his attempts were thwarted twice when cars drove up to the area he had picked. He then decided to go into the Pettis County Missouri Sheriff’s Office and admit to the crime.

     In reference to the crime, Hill says he went to Reynolds’ apartment on South Avenue in Fort Walton Beach to confront him. He says he believed Reynolds had ripped him off during a drug deal. Hill told Okaloosa investigators he did not plan to kill Reynolds, but the pair got into an argument and a shoving match. He says he picked up a nearby hammer and hit Reynolds in the head.

     Hill has waived extradition and should be returning to Okaloosa County late Saturday night with Sheriff’s Office investigators. He’ll be served with a murder charge and booked into the Okaloosa County Department of Corrections in Crestview.

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