In October 1994, friends of Emelita “Emily” Reeves, a Filipina immigrant living in Arlington, Texas, grew frantic. Mona Lisa and Lynn, two of Emily’s confidantes, reported her missing to the Arlington police.

They hadn’t heard from Emily since October 11, following a disturbing conversation. Lynn told investigators Emily had a violent argument with her husband, Jack Reeves, after refusing to go camping; he allegedly pulled her hair and dragged her.

When police performed a welfare check, they found a man hiding behind a car in the garage: Jack Reeves. He claimed he didn’t know where Emily was and refused to let them inside. With no warrant, officers left, but the suspicious encounter was a major red flag.

Emily, originally from Cebu, Philippines, grew up in poverty with her nine siblings. Desperate to help her family, her photo was placed in a “mail-order bride” catalog called Cherry Blossoms. In 1986, her ad attracted three American men, including Jack Reeves, a 46-year-old retired soldier turned painter.

Jack flew to Cebu. Emily, then just 20, was reportedly shocked by how much older he looked in person. Jack quickly secured the marriage by offering her father money and a promise of monthly support.

Pressured by her family to seize the opportunity, Emily agreed to marry a man she did not love, believing it was her only way to help them.

Once in Texas, Jack provided a life of material comfort—a large home, a boat, a Harley-Davidson, a Nissan Pathfinder for Emily, a pager, and the promised $250 monthly remittance to her family. But this comfort came at a high cost. Friends reported Emily felt isolated and lonely; Jack was a recluse, the opposite of her sociable nature.

She eventually found a local Filipino community, which provided some solace. However, her marriage deteriorated. Jack, who knew Emily didn’t love him, grew intensely jealous and paranoid, convinced she was unfaithful.

When Emily became pregnant, he allegedly demanded she terminate the pregnancy, believing he wasn’t the father. After their son, Theo, was born in the early 1990s, Jack sent both Emily and the baby to the Philippines for two years.

Only after receiving photos and seeing a resemblance did Jack believe Theo was his son, convincing Emily to return. But when she arrived, she found Jack was cohabitating with a Russian woman he had also met through a catalog.

This woman later vanished; Jack claimed she left him for another man. This betrayal allegedly prompted Emily to seek her own relationships, eventually falling in love with a woman named Mona Lisa, one of the friends who reported her missing.

Emily confessed to friends that Jack’s abuse—physical, verbal, and sexual—was escalating. She claimed he forced himself on her and took illicit photos. She desperately wanted a new life with Mona Lisa but was terrified of Jack.

Friends alleged Jack offered Emily $30,000 to leave, which she refused, fearing he might harm her, possibly referencing his other deceased wives.

This revelation—that Emily was not Jack’s first wife to meet a tragic end—became the investigation’s turning point. Detectives delved into Jack Reeves’s past, uncovering a horrifying pattern. His first wife, Sharon, divorced him in 1978. They reconciled on July 20, filing to dismiss the divorce.

That same night, Sharon was found deceased from a shotgun blast. Jack claimed he was in another room when he heard the shot, and police found an apparent suicide note. The case was ruled a suicide, and no autopsy was performed.

Six years later, in 1986, his third wife, Myong Chong from South Korea (whom he met while stationed there), mysteriously drowned during a vacation.

Jack claimed she fell off a water raft while he was rigging fishing gear. Myong’s sister, however, viewed the body and noted suspicious bruises. Before she could report her suspicions, Jack had Myong’s body cremated, preventing an autopsy. Less than a year later, he met Emily through the catalog.

Convinced Jack was a serial predator, detectives re-opened Sharon’s 1978 “suicide.” A blood spatter expert, Tom Bevel, analyzed the single crime scene photo.

He concluded the blood spatter patterns were inconsistent with a self-inflicted wound from a sitting position. He determined Sharon must have been standing, but the shotgun’s length would have made it impossible for her to reach the trigger.

Armed with this new forensic opinion, authorities exhumed Sharon’s body 16 years after her passing. The autopsy confirmed Bevel’s analysis: the bullet’s trajectory was downward, consistent with being shot by someone else while standing.

Her manner of passing was reclassified as homicide. Five months after Emily’s disappearance, Jack Reeves was arrested and charged with the 1978 slaying of his wife, Sharon.

While Jack awaited trial for Sharon’s case, deer hunters near Lake Whitney, Texas, discovered a shallow grave on October 1, 1995—nearly one year after Emily vanished. Dental records confirmed the skeletal remains belonged to Emelita “Emily” Reeves. Her body was found without clothes or personal items, contradicting Jack’s theory that she had run away.

The skeleton showed no obvious signs of trauma like bullet holes or knife marks. However, a meticulous forensic examination of the soil from the grave where Emily’s lungs would have been revealed microscopic, single-celled organisms called diatoms.

These diatoms exist only in water. Their presence was a powerful forensic clue, indicating Emily had ingested or inhaled water at the time of her passing, meaning she was drowned—just like Jack’s third wife, Myong.

Investigators brought Emily’s young son, Theo, to the grave site.

The child reportedly pointed to the location and shared details of his father’s violence against his mother, leading detectives to believe Theo may have been present when Jack buried Emily. With this new evidence, Jack Reeves was charged with ending Emily’s life.

Jack Reeves was first tried and convicted for the slaying of Sharon, receiving a 35-year sentence. On August 20, 1996, a jury found him guilty of ending Emily’s life.

He received a 99-year sentence, ensuring the man who used mail-order bride catalogs as his personal hunting ground would spend the rest of his life in prison.