Reinaldo Rivera

Born in Madrid, Spain in the family of a doctor, Reinaldo and his family moved to Puerto Rico when he was seven years old. At age 19, he joined the United States Navy, serving in Orlando, Florida and San Diego, California. As an adult, between December 1986 and March 1991, Rivera worked for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C., attending the University of South Carolina, where he earned a degree in office administration. He previously resided in Graniteville, Columbia and Fayetteville, North Carolina, before settling in North Augusta. On Valentine's Day in 1993, he married Tammy Lisa Bonnettte and had two children, acquiring a job as a tire inspector for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Aiken.[2]

On July 17, 1999, 17-year-old Melissa Faye Dingess, from Graniteville, vanished without a trace. In the ensuing searches, sheriffs from the Aiken County Police Department reported that a girl matching Dingess' descriptions was seen on two occasions, accompanied by an older white male with dark hair. In the first instance, she entered a tan, older-model vehicle and in the second, a bright red four-door one.[3] On October 13, 2000, her skeletal remains were found in the woods off the I-20 near Harlem, seven miles east of the Savannah River,[2] after Rivera gave police directions to the burial site.[4]

On December 4th, 17-year-old Tiffaney Shereese Wilson, from Jackson, went missing while she and her two-month-old daughter Kaitlyn were visiting a Winn-Dixie grocery store in North Augusta. Her car was found at the parking lot, with witnesses seeing her enter a mid-1980s white four-door Ford, which had stopped briefly and sped off just as quickly. Three days later, Kaitlyn was found abandoned in her carrier in front of a Georgia welcome center across the state border. Suspecting an abduction, the authorities searched areas along the I-20 and Highway 25, finding clothing that was suspected to be Wilson's.[5] On December 30th, two hunters discovered the body of a young female in a heavily wooded area near Graniteville. The decedent was later positively identified as Wilson via her fingerprints.[6] According to the coroners, she had had her hands tied behind her back, raped and subsequently dealt a deadly stab in the back, all while her daughter was inside the car.[7]

On June 19, 2000, 18-year-old Tabitha Leigh Bosdell, of Augusta, Georgia disappeared in similar circumstances to the previous victims. According to her family members, they dropped her off at a Huddle House, where she was going to apply for a second part-time job, before going to her main job as a telemarketer. Rivera wasn't charged with her murder until October 16th, when skeletal remains were positively identified as hers.[8]

The final murder was that of 21-year-old Marnie Marie Glista, a soldier at Fort Gordon. She was attacked in her own home on September 5th, sustaining heavy injuries, but barely surviving. She was transported to a local hospital, where she died from said injuries five days later.[9]

On October 10, 2000, Rivera approached 18-year-old Chrisilee Barton at the parking lot of a Huddle House restaurant in North Augusta, presenting himself as the owner of an escort service and a modeling agent, expressing interest in taking photos of the young lady. Barton agreed, inviting him back to her home, whereupon Reinaldo raped and stabbed her three times in the throat with a plastic-handled steak knife he took from the kitchen.[2] Barton survived the assault, and with her help, investigators were eventually led to Rivera, who was hiding in a South Carolina motel. Upon discovery, he attempted to commit suicide by slashing his wrists, but was prevented by the arresting officers and sent to the Medical College of Georgia, where he was kept under suicide watch in an isolated cell.[2]

Charged with the murders of Wilson, Bosdell and Glista and the attempted murder of Barton, Rivera was eventually convicted solely for Glista's murder and assaulting Barton. At the end of his trial, Reinaldo was quoted as saying to the jurors that he was mentally ill, and that doctors should study his ailment to possibly find a cure for it.[10] In addition, he said that he still fantasized about his killing his victims, warning that he'd do it again if release, and asked for the death penalty. In the end, he was sentenced to death for killing Glista, and to this day remains on Georgia's death row at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Jackson.[1]

• List of death row inmates in the United States
• List of serial killers in the United States