True Crime with Kimbyr - Part 2: She Let Her Killer In - Their Final Texts Exposed The Deadly Truth!

Episode Date: October 19, 2025

In Part 2 of True Crime with Kimbyr, Kimbyrleigha continues the haunting case of Molly Matheson, uncovering the chilling details that surfaced as the investigation gained momentum. As detectives retraced Molly’s final hours, disturbing evidence and shocking connections pointed to a predator hiding in plain sight. Through her signature blend of empathy and thorough research, Kimbyrleigha explores the key breakthroughs, the emotional toll on Molly’s family, and the community’s reaction as the truth slowly unraveled. This episode dives deeper into the case that forever changed Fort Worth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This didn't exactly go over well with Molly. It's not like she really had to ask her for permission, but you know how those things go. She had really enjoyed Reggie's company. They were very close. Things just didn't work out. She never expected her friend to go and date him. So confrontations occurred, and Reggie found out

that she made comments to Megan. And then he asked her, are you comparing notes with your friend? Do you regret moving back to Texas, since that's what she did when she and Reggie broke up? And he even got kind of mean. He's like, I told you your life would mean nothing without me. But you know how relationships go? They can be that way when you break up.

But Molly's former friend, Megan, said that Reggie was someone that people were naturally drawn to. He was charismatic. He knew how to insert himself into your life and stay there. And when they first started talking, he told her that he'd been medically discharged from the Navy. But he didn't really go into further details. And Megan didn't press for more. Molly accepted that her former friend had fallen for her ex, It wasn't the best situation, but what was she going to do?

She confided in her friends and even her mom about how the breakup hurt her. And she was sad. And she felt like she had to move back home for more opportunities and more support. And Reggie was kind of holding her back at the time. She hadn't been in the best headspace. Now things were different. Two years changed a lot of things. She hadn't talked about Reggie in quite a long time.

So why would they reconnect? Her friends were shocked, but he was from the area and he was back to home visiting family. He willingly came down to talk to detectives Matt Anderson and Kyle Sullivan on April 14th of 2017. And when they asked him how he knew Molly, he admitted they dated casually back in Fayetteville, but it was nothing serious. He said they had a falling out, they didn't contact each other, but they recently started texting again. And he admitted, yes, I went to her apartment on April 9th. I arrived around 10.30 p.m. the same time that text message said, I'm here. And he said, Molly let him in. They smoked some marijuana, they watched Netflix, they talked, and she told him

about her new boyfriend, about her new car, and about her brother taking her old car. She even mentioned her mom and everything was friendly. The night, he was just passing through. He was on his way to Arkansas to visit his friends. He admitted he hadn't seen Molly in a while, but they had always had a connection. And that night, as he ended up just talking and hanging out, they started to kiss. that Molly felt bad because she was seeing David and she didn't want to complicate things. So they stopped. Reggie said that was fine with him. He used the bathroom and then he hit the road. He also said that when he heard about Molly's death, he was shocked. He said his ex-girlfriend, Megan Lewis, had called him and told him that Molly was gone. And he didn't understand it at first.

Both Megan and the friend that Reggie was staying with encouraged him to contact the police since he had been with Molly the night before. But he said he didn't have a chance to, he yet. Detectives called him first. So detectives were listening. They were taking it all in, and he even provided a DNA sample and let them look through his phone. Then they asked him again, what time did you leave? He said that Molly walked him out to his car, and he thinks it was sometime around 1.30 a.m. Detectives also inquired about what kind of car reggie drove, and it was a blue 2004 Buick Park Avenue. What they knew by then, though, was that ring camera footage had captured a car coming and going down Molly's street that night, and it matched the description of a Buick.

The footage showed the car coming up around 10.25 p.m., approaching from the north and heading south towards Molly's house. That aligned with Reggie's account of his arrival. So far so good. But further footage showed the same vehicle leaving that area at 2 a.m. 30 minutes later than Reggie had claimed. That discrepancy, even though it was small, was significant when you're dealing with a homicide investigation. I mean, I don't always look at my phone or clock, so to say, 1.30 instead of 2 a.m. I think that's something that we all could have done. And Reggie really didn't think it was that big of a deal. He didn't like the insinuation that they were thinking he was lying. The tone of the conversation shifted. The detectives didn't have anything else to go on. This man saw her

that night. And he was texting her around the same time they think she was killed. That 30 minutes mattered to them. But Reggie got defensive. He felt like they were. interrogating him. But that's their job. When asked if he'd be willing to take a polygraph exam, Reggie was like, wait a minute. No, dude. I'm done. And he abruptly changed his demeanor. He ended the conversation. He told them, I didn't kill Molly, and that they were out of their f***ing minds. He wasn't talking anymore. He was then left in that room alone, and he's shaking his head back and forth. He's pacing and he's not happy. But he wasn't leaving yet, because they still had his phone. But after they got what they needed from it, they let him go. They didn't have

DNA results. They had no physical evidence tying him to Molly's murder, and even if they knew he lied about the 30 minutes, they couldn't hold him there. But he was our number one suspect, so they began doing a more intense background check. And it didn't take long for the picture to get even darker. First red flag. An old essay case from 2014. South Padre Island, a very popular party area for college students. Detective Sullivan reached out to the department that handled that case and was stunned by what he learned. Their survivor who had allegedly been victimized by Reggie was a 20-year-old named Katie Coates. Katie was on spring break, celebrating her birthday with friends. Thousands of college students hid South Padrae at that time of the year for all of the parties, the beach, the clubs.

Katie was just one of them laughing and dancing and living her life. In that week, she met Reggie. He was charming, attractive, nice big smile outgoing, exactly the kind of guy that seemed to know everyone and everyone liked him. He fit right into the scene. And one night after going out, Katie and Reggie ended up at a hotel. They hung out by the pool, they had drinks, but then she recalled feeling more intoxicated than she should have been. And that's scary. At first, it could seem like, okay, maybe I had one too many, but it felt different. And she kind of downplayed it at first, thinking it wasn't that big of a deal. And she was already getting close with Reggie.

They had kissed, and it was nothing out of the ordinary. Then she told him she needed to use the restroom. And he walked her to the woman's bathroom like a gentleman would. But what happened next wasn't gentleman like, not at all. When she turned around, he closed the stall door behind her. He followed her inside, and the second their eyes locked, Katie said she felt something shift. He locked the stall.

And he started becoming aggressive, and it wasn't, wasn't soft or loving or anything gentle was forceful, and she resisted. And then he put his hands around her neck, began squeezing tighter and tighter. She couldn't move, and he forced himself on her. He slammed her to the ground. He choked her, and then he violated her, covered her mouth so she couldn't scream. She said it was like everything happened, both fast, but also in slow motion at the same time. And she couldn't fight back.

She said she just survived. And when it was over, she bolted. She ran for help. A hotel staff member found her and took her back to her room. Her friend saw the bruises on her neck. They told her, you have to go to the hospital. And she did. She underwent a full exam to prove that she was not a willing participant.

This was forceful. And eventually, she went to the police. But like a lot of survivors, she hesitated. Part of her felt guilty. She didn't even know why it wasn't her fault. But that's the thing about trauma. It can scramble your instincts. Your shame kicks in where your rage should be.

And sometimes women will believe it is their fault. Did they lead him on? Did they get too close? She told her story. She gave a full statement. She explained his hands around her neck, the fear, the violence. And when the detective asked her if she wanted to press charges, that's when she hesitated again.

She was scared. I mean, they had CCTV footage. It was clear that she was clear that she was. was hysterically running from that bathroom holding her top. Something happened in there. The detective looked at her in the eye and asked one question, do you want this to happen to another girl? And that was it. In that moment, it clicked and she pressed charges. Reginal Kimbrough was arrested. And when he was interviewed, he didn't deny the encounter happened. He just claimed it was consensual. The whole, like, she wanted it. He was adamant. They were

hanging out all day. They were kissing. and they had sex, but it was fully consensual. It was only afterward that he said Katie felt regretful, and she left because she had a boyfriend. She didn't want him to find out. Despite all that, the bruises, her story? The DA declined to press charges against Reggie. That case never went to court.

No trial, no jail time. In the end, it was just a story. A story of a college party gone wrong, mixed signals and too much alcohol, which is a shame, because Katie knew the truth. She never consented. But Katie wasn't the only one. While talking to South Padre Police, so did learn something else. There was a codis hit on Reggie from yet another case.

This one in his hometown of Plano, Texas. This one dated back even further to 2012. Five years prior to Molly's case, the survivor's name was Melissa Whitten. She was just 18 years old at the time, a high school senior. She had been at the mall with her friends when she met Reggie who worked at a surf shop. He flirted. She flirted back. They exchanged phone numbers. She was interested at first.

Because then he invited her over to his place later that week, but he asked her to sneak through the window because his parents were home. Red flag, yes, but she went anyway. It was exciting. She's a teenager. It's not too out of the ordinary. I did it. I'm sure some of you did too. Not proud of it. but let's not judge too harshly. But what she wasn't expecting was that he quickly made advances.

She told him no. And that's when he offered her, $200 for her to use her mouth. Let's just put it that way. What? That was the final straw. She got up. She was done. But he didn't let her go.

He wanted what he wanted. And Melissa described him as acting apologetic as he tried walking her to her car afterward. And they ended up walking to a nearby park to talk, and when she leaned in to give him a hug, thinking that everything was going to be okay, it wasn't. Melissa was trying to be polite, just trying to go home. But Reggie? He tackled her.

He pinned her to the ground. He pulled down her pants, put his hands around her neck, and she later said she thought she was going to die. What kind of man does that? She thought she would never see her family again. And when he was done doing what he did to her that night, He forced her to get into her own car, and they drove around for hours. He eventually let her go.

She ran into her house screaming. Her parents called the police, and she went straight to the hospital, did a full exam, and then she gave a statement to Detective John Hoffman with the Plano Police Department. And this is where things take a devastating turn. Melissa explained later that the detective didn't believe her. He asked her questions like, did you want to be changed? choked, excuse me, sir? What? What kind of question is that? And he was heavily relying on the fact that Reggie passed a polygraph. That alone cleared him when it's not even allowed in a court.

This detective even told Melissa's father, if I was on the jury, I wouldn't believe her. Yikes. Eventually, worn down, humiliated, and exhausted, Melissa was forced to drop the charges. She didn't want to. She later said, it was hard. It was lonely and it sucked. And here's the part that will make your stomach turn. Years later, that very same essay kit matched Regis through CODIS. The result came back 41 days before Molly Matheson was murdered. Wait. This is 2012?

And it's just now coming back in 2017. I was a bit concerned about that, how much time went by, but that's because everything was adding up. It took that much time to tell that that girl's story had been true. But the case detective had it transferred. No one followed up, no one flagged it, and so Reggie walked free. Despite the lack of prosecution, the parallels between Melissa's case, Katie's case. The accounts were clear. Both women described being violently choked, both said they were forced and both struggled to be believed. Could Reggie have done the same thing

to Molly, but this time gone too far and killed her? If so, it made detect. had these other cases been pursued? Had someone believed Melissa and Katie and had gone to court, would Molly still be alive? They wondered, were they looking at a serial predator who had slipped through the cracks of the system again and again? Now Detective Sullivan, reviewing that case five years later, believed that there was probable cause to arrest Reggie

based on Melissa's report. So after they had to let Reggie walk out of that Fort Worth interview room in April 2017, Sullivan contacted Detective Hoffman, Plano, you know the one that didn't believe the girl's story? He asked, is there any way we can pursue an arrest warrant tied to the 2012 attack? The man said no. Despite this being the prime suspect of an active murder investigation, there was nothing Plano police department could do to arrest him.

Wow. Or maybe they just didn't want to, but it was on to the next option. Before they took another step, Detective Sullivan and Anderson needed to pause. They needed to take stock. They had Reggie's name. They had Molly's timeline. And they had enough circumstantial pieces to know this wasn't random. But they also knew.

Circumstantial wasn't enough. Not yet. Reggie had told them he left Molly's place around 1.30 a.m. But the surveillance footage didn't agree with that. It showed his car pulling away closer to 2 a.m. A 30-minute difference. I told you. It might not seem like a lot to most people, but to a homicide investigator,

that half an hour gap? That screams cover-up. And then came the watch. washing machine. CSI had already flagged it. Inside was that wet load of laundry, Molly's fitted bed sheet, her Nike shorts, and her underwear, plus that one glaring outlier, the pair of men's underwear. The washer hadn't finished a cycle. The clothes still wet and stuck to the drum, and Reggie during his interview had casually described what Molly was wearing that night, a t-shirt and Nike shorts. That matched exactly what CSI found in the wash. And that's when Detention

Sullivan got fixated on a new question. When exactly had the washer started? And that is a good question. I like when detectives make me think, because, yeah, how could we know? Could we know? Because he thought, if you could nail down that timestamp and place Reggie in her house at that moment,

it would change everything. Why? Because he believed it was the killer who did that load of laundry. Not Molly. Does Jody Arias come to mind? It is for me. So what he did, I've never seen done in any cases that have ever talked about. First, he reached out to the city to see if they

could track down water usage down to the minute. What a great thing to be able to do, but he had no luck. The water heater outside of Molly's guest house was analog and only checked once a month, so that was a dead end. But what about electricity? That might be something. And again, great thinking on this detective's part. So Sullivan called Encore, which was the local electric provider. And he asked, Did Molly's guest house have a smart meter? Crossing his fingers that they're going to say yes, and it turns out it did. And smart meters record usage in 15-minute intervals. Bingo.

Encore pulled the report. And there it was. From midnight to 1.30 a.m., everything looked normal. Low, consistent electric usage. But then, at exactly 1.45 a.m., there was a spike, a sharp one. Power usage nearly tripled, and it stayed elevated for a short burst before dropping again. That kind of bump wasn't caused by flipping on a light switch or turning on a TV. But Sullivan knew he needed proof, so he ran a little experiment.

He found the same model washing machine. He started a load, and he watched what happened. And wouldn't you know it, the same exact spike pattern. That 145 search? That was someone starting the washing machine. in Molly's house. And if Reggie's car didn't pull away from Molly Street until 2 a.m., according to the CCTV footage, well, now detectives had something stronger than suspicion. They had a time-stamped attempt to destroy evidence, and they knew it wasn't Molly that did it. That was so smart.

And by mid-April of 2017, detectives weren't just suspicious of Reggie. They were racing the clock. They had a gut feeling if they didn't move fast, another woman could die. And sadly, they were right. It was just hours after Reggie stormed out of that interview with Fort Worth police. He knew the walls were closing in, but he was still free, free to kill. And on that same day, Friday, April 14th of 2017, another woman went missing. Her name was Megan Getram. She was 36 years old from Plano, Texas.

Megan was one of those people that was adventurous, but also in a soft-spoken, curious kind of way. Her family described her as independent and thoughtful, someone who found joy in the little things in life. She had traveled through India with her grandparents, hiked the Guadalupe Mountains, even camped near Montu Picchu, always looking for the next path to wander, the next beautiful thing to take a picture of.

Her brother Jeff called her predictable in the best way. She loved nature, yoga, and her cats, who she proudly called her fur babies, like many of us do. Megan worked in computer coding, but she valued time away from her same. screens. Her happy place was hiking solo, camera in hand, listening to the world around her. And that Friday, Megan texted her mom, Diana, about a restaurant they tried together. Her last message sent around 8.45 p.m. said, yes, that's really neat. We should go back there. A simple

moment. One you'd never imagine would be the last. Because after that, Megan vanished. She had gone for a walk at Arbor Hills Nature Preserve, a scenic wooded area in Plano. It was her regular trail, a routine, something she did to clear her head and to breathe and feel grounded, but she never came home. She missed her brother's birthday celebration that Sunday, and then she didn't show up for work on Monday. Red flags immediately went up. That wasn't Megan. Not at all. Sound familiar? Her brother Jeff checked her apartment. The lights were still on. A pile of clean laundry sat on the floor folded and untouched, just like she left it. look like she had simply stepped out and never stepped back in. Jeff returned again early Tuesday

morning and still nothing, and by noon, his family officially filed a missing person's report. At first, her mother, Diana, felt like police weren't taking it seriously. She told that Megan would never leave her cats alone, not for a night, not even for an hour. And once detectives realized who she was and how out of character the disappearance was for her, the tone shifted. Detective Aaron Benson was assigned to the case, and on Tuesday he entered, he entered Megan's apartment. Her car still parked outside, just like Molly's had been. Her keys and wallet still on the counter, just like Molly's and her laptop untouched. There were no signs that she packed for a trip or had any plans to be gone. Nothing was missing. And again, it's so

similar to Molly's case. But of course, this was almost an hour away. The cases were not being connected to different agencies. Surveillance footage from Megan's apartment complex showed her leaving alone, around 7.30 p.m. Friday night. She looked calm, wearing a red and orange floral shirt headed towards a preserve. Search teams then mobilized immediately. Canine units combed the trails and helicopters with their thermal imaging flew overhead.

But there was no trace of Megan. And then on Wednesday, a call came in. It was a tragic and heartbreaking call. A woman's body had been pulled from Lake Ray Hubbard, about 30 miles southeast of Plano. No identification, but she was still wearing that shirt. The same one Megan was last seen in on that video. And Detective Benson rushed to the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office.

The fingerprints matched. It was Megan. Cause of death? Blent forced trauma to the face and neck compression. Megan Guntram had been murdered. Megan's mom had to listen to it and take it in multiple times before she could even process it. Her brother Jeff said he felt hollow, like the sound of the sound of the the sound of Megan's laugh, the one that was always more of a grin than a giggle, had just

vanished and left a hole behind. How could this happen? The detectives kept digging. They needed to know what transpired in those final hours, how a solo walk turns to a violent death, a murder. And then, like a puzzle piece snapping into place, several overlapping reports came in. On the night Megan disappeared, a patrol officer had stopped a group of teens at Arbor Hills after hours, just a standard curfew check.

But that's when the teens mentioned something. They said they encountered a guy earlier that evening, and he told them that he had lost his phone, but he was acting strange and nervous. And he kept looking around, like he couldn't figure out if he wanted to ask for help or to run. He told them he was a student at the University of Texas, and the teens said he was a young black male, probably in his early 20s, and then that officer, after talking to the teens, noticed a car circling the lot. A blue Buick Park Avenue. Wow.

That is not a common car either, and he ran the plates, and they came back to Reginal Kimbrose's father. And the driver? A match for the guy that the teenagers had described? Reggie. And when the Plano detectives realized that that man loitering in the park, circling the teens, spotted near the scene, was a prime suspect in a Fort Worth murder case? The puzzle wasn't just coming together. It was screaming, it's him. Reggie. He wasn't just a serial essay offender. He was He was one murder away from being a serial killer. Shortly after Megan's body was discovered, the Plano detectives reached out to Detective Sullivan on Molly's case.

They compared notes, the car, the behavior, the timeline, the location, and everything pointed to one man and one man only, Reggie Kimbrough. So unreal to me that someone could take the lives of two women, back to back like that. As one of the cases was still being investigated, but perpetrators do escalate. He was known to attack women, before putting his hands around their necks.

And now he kept them there until they stopped breathing. Detectives in Fort Worth and Plano were now working together. They compared their surveillance footage, the phone data, the car registrations, and everything lined up. Reggie was in both places. He had been with Molly, and he had been seen near the preserve where Megan vanished and was found dead. It was enough.

A warrant was issued for his arrest on April 26th of 2017. Police found him at his father's house in Plano. His bond was initially set at half a million dollars, but that was just the beginning. Because the forensic evidence was about to blow everything wide open. DNA testing confirmed what detectives feared. Reggie's DNA was found in those samples from Molly's body. Her autopsy showed not just strangulation, but she had also been given a substance,

GHB. You know what it's called the date R-word drug, I can't say it here, and Reggie's DNA was all over the crime scene. on Molly, in the washing machine, on it, in the bathroom. And he tried to clean it all away. But forensic science didn't let him. And then came Megan. When DNA was processed from her body, it came back as a match to Reggie. Now he was hit with a mountain of legal weight, but it didn't stop there.

In June of 2017, he was indicted for the 2014 attack of Katie Coates, the woman from South Padre Island, the one that reported him years earlier for attacking her in the bathroom stall. And in August, investigators tied him to Megan's case. It was official, capital offenses. And then more women came forward, of course, when they're seeing his face in the news. New charges were filed in Collin County,

connected to separate cases from 2014. At least five other women were identified as victims. Some had never reported it. And others had, but their cases went nowhere. I'm wondering, Why didn't people follow up on these cases? Oh, it was transferred. It was never considered.

It went into someone else's file. Like, these are people's lives. And two women are now dead. It's such a failure of our system. By early 2018, Reggie was facing more than just two capital murder charges. He was a serial predator, finally unmasked. And prosecutors said that at least eight women were prepared to testify against him,

and each had their own story. had survived an attack. Women that had to endure that moment and then the trauma that followed, and some had never been believed. And yet, they still came forward. Reggie's days of freedom were over. But it disgust me that Megan and Molly would have been alive if this man had been behind bars. It's not speculation, it's a fact. Reggie had been attacking women for years, violently. And every time you got to walk away. Why? I also want to tell you about December 2017 when Reggie's ex-girlfriend Megan Lewis came forward, your mother, remember Molly's former roommate?

She spoke with Star Telegram about her past relationship with Reggie. And honestly, this might sound ignorant, and I don't mean it literally like, I don't understand, so don't take it that way. But I don't understand how a man who can get into a relationship with an attractive, successful, smart, intelligent women would turn around and also harm women just like them. And one that he dated. I can't reconcile it until I think about that. the fact that predators are built this way. They're predators. They go after their prey. They want to

hunt. They want to overpower. They want to chase. They're evil. They're evil people. They like the thrill of not being able to get what they want and making someone have to comply. It has nothing to do with their ability to get into a relationship and I have to keep reminding myself that because my mind doesn't work that way. I go into my lizard brain and I'm like, how can you clearly be able to be intimate with your girlfriend, but you also go out and attack people? Because what's the point? They want what they can have. That's why. But back to Megan Lewis. At the time, she was still processing the full scope of what her ex had done. During the relationship, she said that she never once saw him be violent. And now violence was associated with his name.

She couldn't even reconcile it. So I don't feel bad for questioning things because even a person closed him. He's like, why? But in hindsight, she recognized the way that he could manipulate her emotionally. He had this loud, outgoing personality, someone that always came across as happy, but kind of obnoxious at times. He was always the life of the party. And even though he never physically hurt Megan,

she did recall frequent emotional manipulation and arguments that would trigger him. And these fights were usually triggered because he couldn't stop talking to other women. And any time Megan tried to confront him, he would gaslight her, he would berate her for believing things that weren't true and making her question her own judgment. The only moment that raised any deeper concerns during the relationship was when Reggie actually casually mentioned that he was dealing with an accusation. That's what he called it, from 2014. According to him, it happened while him and his friend were on spring break in South Padre Island,

and he told Megan he hooked up with a girl. They had consensual intimacy. That's what I'm going to call it. And then her boyfriend showed up. And now she was saying that he forced her. Megan said that Reggie didn't even seem shaken by any of this. If anything, he just dismissed it, treating it like it was something that had already been resolved.

Megan said he gave her the impression he was working it out like it was some kind of deal with the person. The later claimed the charges had been dropped entirely. So it was like he was telling the truth, see nothing happened, she was crying wolf. But after Reggie was named as a suspect in Molly's murder, Megan cut off all communication with him. And as more and more allegations kept surfacing,

she found herself thinking back to all the times that she had been with him. She couldn't shake the realization that she could have escaped being one of his victims, and that is terrifying. And in April of 2018, one year after Molly's death, Tracy and David stood inside McKinney Church and announced the creation of a nonprofit organization

and their daughter's honor. They called it Project Beloved, the Molly Jane Mission. And the purpose of the organization was to make sure that survivors would no longer feel isolated, silenced, or doubted. With this organization, SA survivors will be able to come forward knowing that they would believe and be heard,

and that proper action will be taken. And the name of it, Project Beloved, was inspired by that tattoo that Molly had gotten shortly before her death. A word her mother didn't even know she had inked on her body until she was already deceased. Recall that she didn't want her parents to know at the time. But they were curious about the meaning behind it. Tracy asked one of Molly's close friends who explained,

the word held deep spiritual significance for Molly. It was a reminder to her that, no matter what, She was beloved in God's eyes. And with that in mind, Tracy and David began raising money and formally launched the nonprofit with three initiatives. Beloved bundles, which were care packages for survivors, that were leaving those exams with nothing but paper scrubs. The bundles included T-shirts, clean undergarments and toiletries,

a small comfort during an overwhelming moment for so many women. Also, the second initiative was soft interview rooms, because no one should have to recount the most traumatic experience of their life, in a cold clinical setting. They were working with law enforcement agencies to redesign these spaces into warm, compassionate environments. And then third, a scholarship in Molly's name for students pursuing social work.

Because that's what she wanted to do. She wanted to help people. She wanted to heal people. I sincerely want to make a donation in all of our names at some point. And it might not be much, but I do want to donate to causes like this. And if you feel inclined, I encourage you to do so as well.

I will leave all that information below. But exactly two years to the day of Molly's murder, Tracy stood before Texas lawmakers and asked a powerful question, what can we do to prevent the deaths of other Texans? And that question became the foundation of her next step, supporting House Bill 3106, also known as Molly Jane's law. This bill was to create a system that would help law enforcement identify patterns of essay-type violence and recognize serial offenders before they could harm again. And that law was passed. And that was a major victory, not only from Molly's family,

but for every survivor in Texas whose case might now be taken more seriously. I know I mentioned all of that because I wanted you to hear it before I tell you what happened with this perpetrator. But on March 18th of 2022, after years of delays, including setbacks caused by COVID, Reggie took the coward's way out. No, not that one. He pleaded guilty, just like Brian Koberger.

Molly Matheson's murder trial had been set to begin that month with prosecutors prepared to pursue the death penalty against Reggie. But just about a week before jury selection, Reggie chose to plead guilty to avoid losing his own life when he took two people's lives. In exchange, he received multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole, same as Brian. They're too scared to face the facts.

This hearing, this sentencing wasn't about Reggie. It was about the survivors, the women's whose lives were shattered, the families, the victims who have waited so long for justice. Molly's family was there. Her parents, Tracy and David, had carried this grief for half a decade. And they walked through every part of this nightmare from discovering her body to building a nonprofit in her honor, passing a law, and now they had the chance to speak directly, to the man who took her life.

David stood up first. He didn't even want to look at Reggie. He thanked the people who helped get them to this day, the detectives, the prosecutors, and most importantly, the survivors. He looked around the room and acknowledged the women who had reported Reggie before Molly, the ones who were ignored. You were not believed, he said. You were dismissed and abandoned by the very system

that is supposed to help you. I hurt for each of you, because I know you did everything you could to put this person behind bars. And then came Tracy Matheson, Molly's mother. She didn't offer forgiveness. She didn't say anything about mercy. Instead, she called out every single failure that allowed Reggie to keep going.

She said, this plea has nothing to do with leniency. You've done nothing to deserve it. You had accomplices along the way. They are responsible for growing you from a serial sex predator into a serial murderous rest. And those accomplices had the privilege of hiding behind their jobs as police.

End quote. That was a direct reference to the Plano detective who dismissed Melissa's case back in 2012. Tracy held that man accountable, even for her daughter's death. Because had that system held Reggie accountable, Megan and Molly would still be alive. And Megan's family sat quietly holding a framed photo of her,

wearing her signature hiking boots. Her mother, Diana, stood up to speak, and she said she never met Reggie before that day, but his face had been haunting her for years. She said, I'm not giving you any more of my time. Life is too short. When I walk out of here, I have mountains to climb, silly snacks a sample, and people who love me

and are loved in return. And Megan's brother, Jeff, said losing Megan left a hole in their lives that would never close. And then came Katie Coates. the woman that Reggie attacked in South Padre Island, she waited nearly eight years to face him in a courtroom. She told everyone how helpless and ashamed she had felt after being attacked, how alone she was when prosecutors dropped her case.

And now, looking at the man who attacked her, sitting in a jumpsuit, shackled with nowhere to hide, she felt her power return. So, who is strong? she asked him. The man in the jumpsuit, or us women, who get together? continue our lives. That's pretty powerful. And there were other survivors there too. Some spoke. Others just sat there and watched with tears in their eyes and each one had waited years to hear those words, guilty. Each one feared they would never be believed. But now the truth was acknowledged.

Reggie said nothing. He just sat there emotionless, silent and cowardly. But the women in that courtroom weren't silent and they never would be again. And when the sentencing ended, the courtroom emptied and Reggie was led away in shackles. His story, the one he tried so hard to control, was over. But Molly's story wasn't, because her family wasn't going to let it be. They still talk about her case. They still talk about her life and her legacy, Project Beloved. Her mother even got that tattoo on her wrist with that word, Beloved, to honor Molly. But her story doesn't end there. It continues in videos like this one. And the law that was was passed. And that law actually worked. In June of 2020, during a narcotics bust in Tyler,

Texas, investigators seized a man's phone and they found videos of him violating a woman. And under that new law, Molly's law, the details were uploaded to the state's database, and then to ViCap, the FBI's violent criminal apprehension program, and that match led to the arrest and conviction of Jesse D. Ray, a serial predator. His case became the first confirmed arrest thanks to Molly Jane's law. A young woman was saved that day, and a predator was finally stopped. That is Molly's legacy. It's not just about how she was taken. It's about what she left behind. Tracy and David now travel. They speak about survival advocacy, about law enforcement reform and accountability. They're still grieving, but they're also building. They've taken the worst pain a parent

can ever feel, and they turned it into something that might protect the next daughter, the next sister or friend. And it's working. I do my part by doing what I can, by donating to causes like this, and also by telling these stories. And I want to thank you so very much for being here for Molly's story. Let's never forget her. Thank you so much. Bye.