The story of a Texas high school principal who died of a possible suicide last week continues to unfold with dramatic developments.
One week after Kirbyville High School Principal Dennis Reeves died from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, his assistant principal offered his resignation.
Local news station KFDM obtained Lt. Colonel Charles Simmons’s letter of resignation, which he reportedly sent by email to Kirbyville High School staff Tuesday morning. The letter reads in part:
“I don’t have a job waiting for me. I’m not sure where I will end up, but I do know that if I were to stay under the present circumstances it would compromise my integrity and it would not be loyal to Dennis. For me to keep silent would also be disloyal to our school and our entire district. It’s not what I want to do … it’s right vs. wrong.”
The assistant principal did not specify precisely what circumstances prompted him to abruptly resign, but closed the letter by writing: “I am confident that many of your questions will be answered soon.”
Meanwhile, Kirbyville Police continue to investigate Reeves’s sudden death, and confirmed to Crime Online on Tuesday that they have not yet made an official suicide determination.
Kirbyville Police Sgt. Josh Hancock said that the principal’s death did initially appear to be a suicide based on what investigators observed at the scene, while adding, “sometimes evidence tells a different story.”
Sgt. Hancock said that police are running ballistics and DNA testing as part of their investigation. He also said they are working with the high school to obtain video surveillance footage of the parking lot where Reeves died last week, but have run into an obstacle.
The officer said that two cameras that would have captured footage of Reeves’s car that afternoon were motion-activated, and at least one of them appears to have been malfunctioning at the time of the principal’s death. He said that while a technical specialist at the school was continuing to work on obtaining the footage for police, as of this time investigators have not been able to view surveillance video captured during the time Reeves was in his car following his meeting with the school’s superintendent and the assistant superintendent.
Asked if he felt the lack of usable surveillance footage was suspicious, Sgt. Hancock said, “in my line of work everything looks suspicious.”
For now, he said, investigators are focusing on the physical evidence and are not speculating about what may have been going on in Reeves’s life at the time of his death.
As Crime Online previously reported, Kirbyville school district Superintendent Tommy Wallis and Assistant Superintendent Georgia Sayers, who met with Reeves last Tuesday just before he died, have given police a written statement acknowledging that the school officials confronted Reeves with allegations he was having an affair with a school employee.
Kirbyville Police Chief Paul Brister told Crime Online that the school officials said they gave Reeves the option of resigning, and that if he chose to stay at his job they would investigate the affair allegations and Reeves would lose his job if the accusations were found to be true. Police are expected to release the written statement to the media on Tuesday.
“Everyone wants to know about [Reeves’s] life, what went on inside this meeting that he and the superintendent had,” Sgt. Hancock said.
Superintendent Wallis has not responded to multiple requests for an interview.
