RUSSELL REEDER

Suspect remains elusive three months after Gilbert chicken farm shooting

Sep 10, 2007 11:28 PM
Suspect in Gilbert shooting still on the run. Dan Tordjman reports.

GILBERT, SC (WIS) - It's been three months since a 33-year-old father was shot and killed at a Gilbert chicken farm. Deputies say the few leads they had on the killer haven't gotten them anywhere, and they need help.

The details are baffling, the circumstances unbearable for the family of Russell Reeder. "If he was killed in an accident or something, that we can explain. But no - he was murdered," says Reeder's cousin, Joni Son.

Reeder's family is talking for the first time about the night he was killed.

'"He was shot nine different times. Why would somebody shoot him that many times?" asks Son. "These thoughts just run over and over and over and over again in my mind."

Reeder left behind a five-year-old daughter.

Officials believe it was a fight about an ex-girlfriend that led to the shooting. The fight was with an illegal Mexican immigrant named Gregorio Rodriguez. Authorities say Rodriguez killed Reeder after a long night of drinking.

Son says, "The details really do haunt me."

The details include where Reeder's body was found - at a Gilbert chicken farm. Authorities say the man who killed him lived and worked there.

Six weeks after the murder, that suspect remained elusive, one step ahead of authorities. "We had a couple of leads on where he may have been at and we hit those places and just missed him," says Lexington County Sheriff James Metts. Sheriff Metts was hopeful when authorities found a truck in early July - a Nissan pickup officials say Rodriguez drove from the farm.

But leads have been few and far between since the truck was found, and Rodriguez has remained out of sight.

[b]"He could be in Mexico; he could be here. We simply don't know.]/b] That's why we need help from the public," says Sheriff Metts.

"We're asking anybody and everybody if you know this guy, if you see this guy, please contact the police," says Son. "Until we catch this guy, there will be no closure."

Reported by Dan Tordjman

Posted by Chantelle Janelle

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