New autopsy reports reveal that father shot sons even though authorities believe he doesn’t have a gun

Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions of graphic violence and suicide. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

Newly released autopsy reports Tuesday revealed new details about the death of two young brothers in May by their father, whom authorities initially believed did not have a gun.

The new autopsy reports were significant because they first revealed that Gainesville’s Paul Otto Reinhart, 46, used a gun in the crimes.

This question – whether the police can reliably determine whether someone has a gun in an evolving crisis – complements previous questions about why it took the sheriff’s investigators so long to track down Reinhart after he disappeared with his sons.

The reports released on Tuesday describe the fatal injuries suffered by brothers Rex, 14, and Brody, 11, and their father.

Authorities had only said that Reinhart – who had separated from his wife Minde Reinhart and lost his high-paying executive job – was suspected of killing his sons and setting fire to the family’s waterfront vacation home in Dixie County, western Florida, and then to have killed himself.

The new reports say Reinhart shot both sons before shooting himself and starting the fire.

An attorney for the boys’ mother officially requested late Tuesday that news organizations not release details of her death from autopsy reports as it would be too worrying. The family was well known in Gainesville’s social and political circles, and Brody Reinhart regularly served as the unofficial Batboy for the University of Florida baseball team.

“Minde and her family do not want to know the details of these reports of the murder of their children, and we respectfully ask that you refrain from publishing the reports or the details therein,” Jeff Aaron of the Orlando law firm Gray-Robinson wrote in one Letter. “Please understand that Minde and her family are obviously suffering an unimaginable loss. Do the right thing and protect Minde, her family and all affected children from further trauma. “

Fresh Take Florida, a news service operated by the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications, looked at the family’s request at the highest level of the college and decided to release limited but pertinent details from the new reports that it was are government records that are accessible to everyone under state law.

Previously reporting raises significant questions about why authorities couldn’t track down Reinhart any sooner after he disappeared with his sons, and why law enforcement officials believed he didn’t have a gun.

Authorities had previously stated that their assumption that Reinhart did not have a gun was based on a testimony from Ms. Reinhart and on records of recent gun deals checked by the sheriff’s investigators. The autopsy reports said Rex was shot with a 9mm projectile, a caliber common in handguns. It was not clear where and how Reinhart obtained a weapon or whether he was lawfully doing it.

The final law enforcement report on the case – including the efforts of two county sheriffs and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement – should be released next week. This report could answer questions about why it took so long to find Reinhart and his sons, how Reinhart secretly got hold of a gun, when he began planning the murders, and whether he told anyone about his plans.

In the new reports, the coroner’s office said it could not determine the order of the wounds, so it was not known which boy died first.

According to the report, they did not die from the fire. Both had no signs of carbon monoxide in their blood and no soot was found in their lungs. No foreign substances were found in her bloodstream.

Reinhart shot himself, but not before exposure to the fire and smoke. He suffered from significant levels of carbon monoxide in his blood, tests showed. A measurement of the carboxyhemoglobin in his blood showed a concentration of 55%, generally enough to knock an adult unconscious. The gunshot wound was given as the cause of death.

Reinhart disappeared with the boys on the morning of May 4th after posting 64 photos of his wedding on his Facebook page at 5 a.m. and then sending Ms. Reinhart a message about their marriage. They had officially separated, and she lived nearby.

“You should have put your family first,” he wrote. “Now it’s too late. You are so selfish. You will live with that for the rest of your life.”

She replied by text message: “Please don’t hurt yourself or the boys. Please come home.”

At this point, Ms. Reinhart was already in the family’s luxury home in a residential complex. She found around 400 photos from her wedding scattered around the house. The security system was disabled so there was no video of anyone arriving or leaving. She had dialed 911, triggering a law enforcement search for Reinhart, who had driven 50 miles west to her waterfront vacation home near Suwannee.

Authorities arrived at this house almost an hour after receiving initial notice that Reinhart was there. When the sheriff’s deputy arrived, the fire department had already been called to put out the burning house. A firefighter in protective gear wrote in his official report that he crawled through smoke so thick that he could not see until he found the bodies of the boys on the bunk beds upstairs. Reinhart’s body was found collapsed nearby.

Reinhart is the younger brother of a convicted murderer who also tried to commit suicide seven years ago in a similarly violent household robbery.

Erick von Reinhart, 50, pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing his ex-wife’s new boyfriend – just a week after their divorce – and then trying to kill himself with a large kitchen knife. He is serving a 40-year sentence in a Florida prison.

___

This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporters can be reached at awilder@freshtakeflorida.com and evelazquez@freshtakeflorida.com

The post New autopsy reports reveal that father shot sons even though authorities believe he doesn’t have a gun first appeared on Daily Florida Press.

from Daily Florida Press https://dailyfloridapress.com/new-autopsy-reports-reveal-that-father-shot-sons-even-though-authorities-believe-he-doesnt-have-a-gun/