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Former Homecoming Queen Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter in Husband's Stabbing Death
Thad Harper's brutal death would unravel dark secrets and a stunning betrayal.
Michelle and Thad Reynolds were once known as the “Ken” and “Barbie” of their small Georgia town.
Michelle was the beautiful, bubbly, blonde homecoming queen. Her boyfriend and eventual husband Thad was a star football player.
“They were both popular, both nice looking, both friendly, had a lot of friends, social. I mean they had it all,” Thad’s sister, Beverly Owens, recalled on Dateline: Unforgettable.
But, years later, a secret love triangle, betrayal, and deadly intentions would lead to a dark end for the once idyllic couple.
“Desire and lust can be overpowering narcotics, sweeping away all rational thought. I offer you this case as exhibit A,” Correspondent Dennis Murphy explained of what makes the case so memorable.
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Thad and Michelle Reynolds' Marriage
While growing up in the small town of Rome, Georgia, Michelle was always ready for her close up.
“She was always wanting to pose for my camera. And she would sit at my mom’s and dad’s in the swing, I would take her picture,” her aunt, Trish Benefield, recalled.
But there was a darker side to her childhood too. Michelle lost her father when she was 13 years old and was raised by a single mother who instilled the teachings of the Baptist Church.
When she reached high school, Thad Reynolds, the popular athlete, caught her eye and the two soon began dating. After graduation, the high school sweethearts tied the knot and began their life together.
“This was it. This was her family. She was finally going to have what she wanted,” Benefield remembered.
But the romance wasn’t without its struggles.
“One had cheated. The other one had cheated. So you have both stories,” Benefield said.
The couple — who by now had a young daughter — decided to go their separate ways and divorced five years into the marriage.
But they still felt a strong pull toward each other.
“I dated a few times, but I knew back in my mind that I still loved Thad, and I kept our wedding rings in our safe,” Michelle said.
Four years after the divorce, the couple decided to give it another try and got remarried in the Baptist church. They went on to have three more daughters and grew closer to the church, where Thad served as a volunteer deacon. Michelle homeschooled their four children and volunteered at Hollywood Baptist Church, putting on elaborate music and dance programs with the teen congregants.
What happened to Thad Reynolds?
From the outside, Thad and Michelle seemed to have the perfect marriage. Until the morning of July 5, 2004, when someone confronted Thad as he was set to begin his shift at the Frito-Lay warehouse, stabbing him 19 times in his office.
“This kind of gruesome murder was, of course, very eye-opening for our community and very big news,” Sheriff Tim Burkhalter said.
Michelle played the role of the grieving widow, even pulling out a newly purchased black dress she just happened to have in the closet for the funeral.
"They came and knocked on the door, and had told me about it, and I just fell on the floor crying,” Michelle told Murphy of learning the news.
Thad’s death sent shockwaves through the community, but investigators soon honed in on a surprising suspect.
They learned that Scotty Harper, a fellow deacon at the church and Thad’s best friend, was having an affair with Michelle at the time of the murder.
One of Harper’s coworkers at the Floyd Medical Center had overheard the two on a steamy phone call. The coworker placed a call to police after hearing of Thad’s death and learning police were looking for a burgundy van in connection with the stabbing, the same type of car Harper drove.
As the investigation into Harper deepened, authorities uncovered a series of erotic emails between the two.
“She put the full-court press on him to try to seduce him. And she used everything in her power to do that. She’s very good at it, obviously,” said Floyd County District Attorney Leigh Patterson.
At the crime scene, detectives also found a pair of blood-spattered prescription eyeglasses and when they confronted Harper, they found he had recently gotten stitches for several cuts on his hand.
An employee in the IT department where he worked also led detectives to a possible hiding spot under a series of floor tiles in the server room. There, they discovered Harper had stashed the knife used in the stabbing, his bloody clothing, and even a receipt for the knife from Kmart.
“I’ve never had a case where somebody gave me not only the receipt from them buying the murder weapon, but packaged it all up along with what they were wearing at the time they did it,” Patterson said of the find.
Harper, a married father who once fantasized about running away to Portland with Michelle to begin a new life, eventually confessed to prosecutors and Dateline: Unforgettable to carrying out the brutal murder.
He described arriving at Thad’s workplace early that morning and going inside his office where he saw his best friend. Harper told him, “I want what you got.”
“He had a little confused look on his face. He didn’t know what I was talking about,” Harper said. But before Thad could learn more, Harper began stabbing him with the knife.
Michelle Reynolds' Purported Role in Husband’s Death
It wasn’t long before investigators also began to look into the role Michelle played in her husband’s death.
Those who knew the former homecoming queen described her demeanor in the aftermath of Thad’s death as cold and unemotional.
"Everybody thought that she acted very strange. There weren’t really any tears. She wasn’t crying. And people at the church, again, were just devastated. And she wasn’t shedding a tear,” Patterson said. “In fact, she was making jokes to some of the people that came in, and would say inappropriate things.”
Although authorities could not find any specific instructions in the emails between the two directing Harper to kill Thad, she did provide him with her husband’s schedule — something she claimed she did just so the two could have a talk.
“I loved my husband. And I didn’t want him to be hurt,” Michelle insisted to Murphy.
In one email sent just one day before the murder, Harper wrote, “I’m ready for tomorrow. Stop me if you have any hesitation.”
“No hesitation,” Michelle replied. “I’m ready. Please be observant of your surroundings, and be careful. I do want to spend time with you. I want to be your wife.”
While Michelle admitted being guilty of adultery, she denied having anything to do with plotting her husband’s demise.
Harper also insisted Michelle had nothing to do with the murder.
“There’s nothing to cover for. There’s nothing to protect her from. The truth is I did this,” he said. “I see no guilt on her part. I really don’t.”
Yet, prosecutors were convinced Michelle was the “brains” behind the gruesome plot to kill Thad.
“She is one of the most evil people that I’ve ever dealt with in all the years I’ve been a prosecutor,” Patterson said.
Their case was strengthened by a series of flirty recorded jailhouse phone calls between the two lovers.
“What are you wearing?” Harper asked her in one call.
“Orange,” Michelle joked.
In another, she told the man accused of killing her husband, “I don’t believe that I’ve ever been loved as much by somebody as I have by you, and I mean that.”
Who Was Convicted of Thad Reynolds’ Death?
With all the evidence against the pair, prosecutors charged Michelle and Harper with murder.
As part of a plea deal Harper agreed to testify in Michelle’s trial in exchange for prosecutors dropping the death penalty in both cases. He pled guilty to the murder and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
“She asked me, she said, ‘When you — when you — when you talk with Thad, what if it gets ugly?’ And I asked her, I said, ‘Well, what do you—let me ask you your perspective, what if this gets ugly?’” he said in a taped confession. “And she told me, she said—she said, ‘I love you.’ She said, ‘As long as I end up with you, I can deal with just about anything.’”
Yet, he’d later insist to Dateline: Unforgettable that Michelle had been unaware of his plan to kill Thad.
Before Michelle’s case ever went to trial, she agreed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and being party to the crime of burglary and received a 20-year sentence.
“Morally because I had the affair, I feel responsible because, had I not had the affair, this wouldn’t have happened,” she told Murphy of why she agreed to the deal. “And I’m deeply sorry that so many people were hurt, that I’ve hurt a lot of people.”
Prosecutors insist, however, that Michelle — who has now cut ties with her one-time lover — ”used” Harper to get what she wanted.
“She uses people as objects,” Patterson said. “If you’re useful to her, she’ll use you for a while and then she’s going to cast you aside.”
