Councilman recalls phone call with victim

The city councilman says his friend didn’t indicate that she felt threatened.

By TIM YOVICH

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — City Councilman Robert Holmes III says he believes he was talking with his friend Andrea Reynolds when she and her uncle were killed.

“I hope to God they find whoever did it. I lost a good friend,” Holmes, D-4th, said Monday after returning home from Reynolds’ funeral.

The bodies of Reynolds, 30, and her uncle, John Freeman Jr., 50, were discovered the night of June 11, in their home at 2631 Front St. on the city’s Southwest Side.

Both had been stabbed to death. No arrests have been made.

Holmes, who termed Reynolds a “good friend,” talked with her nearly daily. He had known her for 19 years.

Last conversation

The last time they talked on her cell phone was about 3:30 p.m. Sunday. While they were talking, the councilman recalled, the conversation suddenly ended and he could only hear a growling sound.

Holmes said he immediately thought Reynolds had dropped the phone in the sink.

He called back twice and got her voice mail both times. He thought the battery was low or the phone had been turned off.

Holmes said Reynolds never told him during their final conversation that she was frightened for her life or that she had been threatened.

“I think it happened while I was talking with her,” Holmes said. “That’s what I feel in my gut.”

“There was no scream for help or I would have been over there,” the lawmaker said.

It was about 8:30 p.m. that Monday when Holmes said he caught transmissions of trouble at a Front Street address over his police scanner.

“I really didn’t want to go over there,” he said.

Instead, Holmes explained, he contacted Councilwoman Susan E. Hartman, who went to the house to see what had happened after checking the names and address on the voter registration list.

Hartman, D-7th, Holmes explained, confirmed through Reynolds’ father that his friend and her uncle were dead.

Discovery

Freeman’s body was found in a computer room and Reynolds’ in the living room. They were found, police said, by a friend who had stopped to see them.

Holmes said detectives told him the two had been dead for about 24 hours before they were discovered.

Holmes explained that Reynolds’ cell phone was about eight years old and he would suddenly disconnect. However, she would answer the phone when he called back.

“They were the kindest people. They were plain people,” Holmes said.

Freeman had his own courier business, while Reynolds cleaned commercial businesses for a cleaning company.

“They were not rich people,” Holmes said, noting their total income was about $20,000 annually.

Holmes said he told Freeman and Reynolds that they should have sought government funds to rehabilitate their house, but they refused.

“They were proud people,” he added.

yovich@vindy.com