Melvin’s life was filled with violence and suspicion. In 1972, one of Shirley Souza’s (Melvin’s future wife and the family babysitter) boyfriends was murdered, and Melvin was a suspect. That same year, a police officer, John Busby, who’d had problems with the Reines, was shot in the face (he survived), with Melvin again being a suspect. Though Melvin was never convicted of these crimes, he was later found guilty of rigging bids for his business and later committed to a mental hospital for threatening violence.

Shirley Souza, who took over Melvin’s business after he was hospitalized, was murdered in 2005. This happened shortly before a court case where Melvin’s sons were trying to get his estate, which he’d left to Shirley in his will. Shirley feared for her life due to this lawsuit. A man named John Rams Jr. was charged with her murder but later acquitted.

Both Paul Alwardt and Wanda Reine are missing and presumed dead. The connections between these events and the many suspicious circumstances surrounding Melvin Reine Sr. suggest a web of unsolved crimes and unanswered questions.