Jack Reeves: Murders, Appeal, and Current Status

Jack Wayne Reeves is a retired U.S. Army master sergeant from Texas who was convicted of murdering two of his wives, Sharon Reeves in 1978 and Emelita Reeves in 1994, and whose third wife’s 1986 drowning has long been treated as suspicious but was never charged. He is serving concurrent sentences of 35 and 99 years in a Texas prison and, in April 2026, at age 85, was denied parole again.¹

Reeves was raised in Wichita Falls, Texas, served in the Army, and rose to the rank of master sergeant while stationed at Fort Hood.² He retired from the military in 1985 and bought a home in Arlington, where he lived for the next decade.³

Sharon Reeves, 1978

Sharon Vaughn Reeves died in 1978 at age 34, one week after she served Jack Reeves with divorce papers.¹ She was killed by a shotgun blast at their home in Copperas Cove, Texas, near Fort Hood. The death was ruled a suicide, no charges were filed, and the file stayed closed for more than fifteen years.

Sharon’s case was reopened only because Reeves’ fourth wife disappeared in 1994. Arlington Police Detective Tommy LeNoir, working that later disappearance, contacted the Copperas Cove Police Department and obtained the single remaining crime scene photograph. The blood spatter and the position of the shotgun struck him as inconsistent with suicide.⁴

With permission from Sharon’s father, investigators exhumed her body. A sealed metal casket had preserved the remains. The coroner found no gunpowder residue on her skin, undercutting the theory that she had pulled the trigger with her toe. Mannequin experiments showed she was not tall enough to have reached the trigger the way Reeves had described. Her cause of death was reclassified from suicide to homicide.⁴

Reeves was indicted in March 1995, tried in Coryell County in January 1996, and convicted. The jury sentenced him to 35 years.⁴

Myong Reeves, 1986

After Sharon’s death, Reeves married a South Korean woman named Myong. Around 1986, Myong was found floating face down in Lake Whitney, Texas. Reeves told authorities she had fallen off an air mattress and drowned. A local justice of the peace ruled the death accidental at the scene, and no autopsy was performed.⁵

Several details troubled those who knew her. Myong could not swim and was afraid of the water, making her presence on an air mattress unlikely. Her sister noticed bruises on her face that were inconsistent with drowning. Days before her death, Myong had written a letter stating that Reeves beat her and forced her to engage in degrading acts. A responding park ranger described Reeves as “very nonchalant” when his wife’s body was pulled from the lake.⁵

When Myong’s sister confronted Reeves and demanded an autopsy, he canceled the existing burial plans and had the body immediately cremated. Police later said the destruction of the body left them without evidence to bring charges. Reeves was never prosecuted for Myong’s death.⁵

Emelita Reeves, 1994

After Myong’s death, Reeves used a dating magazine called Cherry Blossoms, which arranged introductions between American men and women in the Philippines and elsewhere in Asia. He connected with Emelita, from Cebu City, and married her in 1987. Testimony at trial described the marriage as marked by financial conflict, jealousy, and physical abuse. The couple had a son, Kendall, born during a two-year period they spent in the Philippines.³

Emelita was last seen alive on October 11, 1994. Her friend Monalisa Pate called Arlington police after Emelita failed to pick her up from work, which was out of character. Officers went to the Reeves home on October 12. Reeves refused to let them search and later gave a written statement claiming his wife had simply left.³

His behavior in the days that followed became the backbone of the prosecution’s case. The day after Emelita disappeared, he replaced the sofa-sleeper in the house, cutting the arms off the old one and removing the mattress to create a cavity large enough to hold a body. His adult son, Randall, testified that he saw his father cutting out sections of the hallway carpet soon afterward. When police asked Reeves to save the old carpet for testing, he did not; the installer testified that Reeves paid him extra to haul it away. Reeves washed his truck on October 13, tried within days to sell Emelita’s Nissan Pathfinder, and sought a refund on a leather jacket she had put on layaway.³

Receipts placed Reeves at Lake Whitney on October 12 and 13, 1994. Roughly a year later, on October 1, 1995, a hunter found Emelita’s remains at Lake Whitney State Park. Scavengers had disturbed the body to the point that prosecutors conceded no forensic evidence established the manner of death. Emelita’s clothing, jewelry, cell phone, and pager were all found in Reeves’ possession.³

Testimony showed Reeves was intensely jealous of Emelita’s relationship with another man, Tony Dayrit, and that on the last day she was seen, he had pulled her hair and choked her. By January 1995, while she was still missing, he was advertising in Cherry Blossoms for a new partner. He filed for divorce from Emelita in February 1995.³

Reeves was indicted for Emelita’s murder on October 30, 1995.⁴²³

The Appeal

Reeves appealed the Emelita conviction on eleven grounds, chiefly that the evidence was legally and factually insufficient given the absence of a known cause, time, or location of death. The Tenth Court of Appeals of Texas, in Waco, rejected every argument and affirmed the conviction on May 6, 1998. The court held that a rational jury could have found guilt beyond a reasonable doubt from the circumstantial record, and that the verdict was not clearly wrong or unjust. The jury, the court said, was entitled to disbelieve Reeves’ alternative theories.³

Where Jack Reeves Is Now

Reeves is serving his 35-year and 99-year sentences concurrently at the Wallace Pack Unit near Navasota, Texas. His projected release date is 2095.⁶

His most recent parole hearing was held on April 14, 2026. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied release. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice cited his “predisposition to commit criminal acts,” the “brutality, violence, assaultive behavior, or conscious selection of victim’s vulnerability” in his offenses, and his status as a “continuing threat to public safety.”¹ His next parole review is set for April 2031, when he will be 90.⁷

1
Times Record News. Wichita Falls-Raised Serial Killer Jack Reeves Denied Parole
2
The New York Times. Man Is Convicted Again of Killing a Wife
3
Findlaw. Reeves v. State, No. 10-96-196-CR
4
Oxygen. Jack Reeves Guilty of Murdering 2 Wives After Exhumation
5
Los Angeles Times. Deaths of Three Wives Casting Suspicion on Luckless Widower
6
Texoma’s Homepage. Serial Killer Born in Wichita Falls Learns Parole Decision
7
Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Inmate Detail – Jack Wayne Reeves