Late in the evening, February 8th, 2017, Grove City, Ohio. 21-year-old Ohio State University student Reagan Toes is wrapping up her shift at the restaurant Bodha. After a long evening of work, she finishes up, gathers her things, and steps outside. Around 10:00 that night, she walks out of the building and heads toward her car parked behind the restaurant.
It’s something she’s done many times before. um almost like part of her normal routine after work. And every week, almost without fail, she sends one short message to her family back in Florida. Just a quick text to let them know she’s okay. I’m home. But that night, the message never came. At around 10:30, her sister sends her a text. The message goes through.
It’s delivered, but there’s no reply. Her father starts calling again and again. The phone keeps ringing for 4 hours straight. Then sometime around 2:00 in the morning, the signal suddenly disappears. The next morning, Reagan doesn’t show up for her lecture. Her dorm room is empty. The bed is neatly made. Her bag is lying on the floor.
A few hours later, police received a call. A passerby reports that near the entrance to Sciota Grove Park, he has found the body of a young woman. She’s lying in the snow, naked, no phone, no identification. The only things on her are a small circle-shaped tattoo and a delicate little necklace. A few hours later, police ask Reagan’s roommates a simple question.
Did she have a tattoo like this? And in that moment, everyone understands what’s happened. But the most terrifying part was still ahead. Because very quickly, detectives realize something chilling. That night, Reagan didn’t just disappear. She was abducted. Forced to drive from ATM to ATM. And in the final minutes of her life, she spent them begging.
Begging to be allowed to live. I just want to live. I just want All right, friends. Let me pause for just a minute. I’m really curious where my audience is watching from. So, h I’d love to ask you something real quick. Tell me what city you’re in while you’re watching this video and what time it is for you right now.
Thanks so much for taking a moment to share that. Go ahead and drop it in the comments. And with that said, let’s keep going. Grove City, Ohio. Once a large farming community, today Grove City is the kind of place people love to visit, especially if they enjoy the outdoors. There’s a lot of history here, a lot of culture.
And honestly, it feels like one of those quiet American towns where life moves just a little slower. Not far from the city, there are several state parks where people spend their time hiking, kaying, or hanging out at paintball parks. In the fall, families even go pumpkin picking. You know, one of those classic seasonal traditions.
And just about 15 minutes away is Ohio State University, one of the largest universities in the country with around 60,000 students. And back in 2017, one of those proud students was 21-year-old Reagan Delaney Tes. Her family had recently moved from Ohio down to Florida because of work. But Reagan decided to stay in Columbus, Ohio.
She wanted to continue studying at Ohio State, the only university she had ever dreamed of attending. In fact, it was the only school she even applied to. Her father Toby had once taken her to a football game there when she was still a little girl. And from that moment on, the decision was made in her mind. That was where she belonged.
She was so confident she would get in that she even told people she’d already been accepted before the official letter ever arrived. And eventually it did. She was accepted. After that, she threw herself completely into student life. Reagan was studying psychology and she already had a clear plan for the future. Her idea was simple.
Work for a few years after graduating and then eventually open her own practice. Family meant everything to her. She was especially close with her dad Toby, her mom Lisa, and her younger sister McKenzie, whom she jokingly called Gigi. They talked several times a day, and no matter how busy Reagan was with school, she always made time for them.
Her mother often said Reagan had been a little ball of energy since she was a baby, always ready to jump into something new. But what really stood out, even from a young age, was her compassion. Reagan always seemed to notice the people standing off to the side, the ones who looked like they might need a friend. Lisa once remembered how she’d sometimes have to stop the car and wait while Reagan carefully picked up tiny bugs from the road so they wouldn’t get stepped on.
She just couldn’t stand seeing anything suffer. The Toes family spent a lot of time at church and during holidays, Reagan often traveled with church groups on mission trips. People described her as fun, a little carefree, very talkative, and honestly a total social butterfly. She also loved sports. Reagan played varsity tennis and lacrosse.
So with everything Grove Grove City had to offer, it really felt like the perfect place for her. She lived off campus with four roommates, Jackie, Madison, Kirsten, and Stephanie. They had actually been placed together randomly, but right away they clicked. Before long, they had become close friends. Some of them even worked together at the same local restaurant.
Lately though, Reagan had been going through a bit of a difficult time. She and her boyfriend Jake had decided to break up mutually. Reagan was so focused on finishing school and graduating with the best grades possible that, well, they both agreed that it was probably the right decision. [music] The best thing right now, they figured, was to focus on school without any distractions.
And then later, well, they’d just see where life took them. Her roommates said the breakup had been really hard for her, but Reagan and Jake still talked a lot, and they both said they’d always stay best friends. As her final year of college was coming to an end, Reagan even posted on social media that her dad had already bought a beautiful [music] frame for her diploma.
You could tell this was a really emotional moment in her life, like everything she had worked toward was finally getting close. By February of 2017, graduation was only a few months away, and she was busier than ever, trying to finish everything she needed before the semester ended. On the evening of February 8th, Reagan left her apartment to go to work her shift at Bodha Bar and Restaurant.
That night was actually pretty quiet, and she finished work a little before 10:00. After her shift, she walked out to her car, which shift, she walked out to her car, which like many of the other employees, she like many of the other employees, she always parked on the street behind the always parked on the street behind the restaurant. Reagan had a habit.
She restaurant. Reagan had a habit. She always texted her family to let them always texted her family to let them know she got home safely. Her entire know she got home safely. Her entire family lived about 1,000 mi away, and family lived about 1,000 mi away, and she never wanted them worrying about she never wanted them worrying about her.
But that night, the message never her. But that night, the message never came. And that was strange because only came. And that was strange because only about an hour before leaving work, she about an hour before leaving work, she had been texting with her dad. After her had been texting with her dad. Her sister McKenzie sent her a message around 10:30 that night.
The message was delivered, but there was no reply. For the next 4 hours, Toby kept calling and texting her again and again, but the phone just kept ringing. Then, around 2:00 in the morning, the call suddenly stopped going through. It seemed like the phone battery had died. The next morning, everyone woke up and immediately checked their phones, but there was nothing.
No replies, no missed calls from Reagan. Maybe she had gotten into a car accident on the way home. Or maybe it was something much simpler, like she had gone to a friend’s place and forgotten to bring her charger. Even though they really wanted to believe that last possibility, deep down, they knew something wasn’t right.
This just wasn’t like Reagan. She would never ignore that many calls and messages on her phone, and she would never want her family to worry. Meanwhile, back at the apartment, Kirsten knocked on Reagan’s bedroom door. The room was empty. Her bed was neatly made, and her school bag was lying off to the side. Jackie, Madison, and Stephanie hadn’t heard her come home, either.
And at that point, they started to feel it, too. That growing sense of [music] dread. They began messaging people on social media and calling other classmates, hoping someone had seen her. Lisa called the university and they confirmed that Reagan had not shown up for her morning lecture. That was enough. She hung up the phone and called the police, but the person she spoke with explained that she couldn’t officially file a missing person report because she wasn’t the last person who had seen Reagan.
The last people who had seen her were the co-workers from the restaurant where she worked. So, Reagan’s roommates went back there. Her manager confirmed that she had indeed been working that [music] evening and had left after her shift ended. And although her car wasn’t parked in front of the restaurant anymore, there were signs that she had driven away in it.
He didn’t waste any time. The manager was able to file a missing person report. So, we had a employee leave before class tonight and she has not been home. Uh her phone is off. Nobody can find her because she hasn’t been home at all either. Her mom’s been calling uh looking for um we can’t find her car around work. While everyone continued searching for her, around noon, dispatchers received a call from a very shaken passer by.
Hello, 91. Yeah, I think there’s a body out here. I don’t know if this is a or what. Please send somebody. Hurry. Really freaking Please hurry. Send somebody. Okay, stay right there, sir. Near the entrance to a park in Grove City, a man had discovered the naked body of a young woman partially covered by snow.
When police arrived, it quickly became clear that she was already dead. She had no purse with her, no phone, and none of her clothes were anywhere nearby. There was a small circle-shaped tattoo on her body and a delicate little necklace, but other than that, there was nothing around that could help identify who she was.
Continuing to follow developing news after a young woman’s body was found outside Sciota Grove Metro Park. Also, no official word quite yet as to who this body belongs to. Of course, once we learn that information, hopefully today, we will be sure to pass it on to you. It could have been a random act. It could have been somebody that just occurred someplace else and she was dumped here.
Around 3:00 that afternoon, Reagan’s roommates were still at Bedadega when they heard the news that the body of a young woman had been found. When police arrived to take their missing person report, they asked the girls about a small tattoo. And the moment they described it, the girls felt sick with fear because Reagan had a tattoo exactly like that.
Now, we are also following a case [music] from OSU where a female student has been reported missing. According to the university statement, they are aware [music] of the missing person’s report and direct any questions to Columbus police. And just a few hours later, the news everyone had been trying not to think about was officially confirmed.
The body that had been found belonged to Reagan Tes. A missing person’s [music] case in Columbus is now a murder investigation. Police have confirmed the body found yesterday in a Grove City Park is an OSU student. 21-year-old Reagan Tes was last seen Wednesday night leaving a bar in the Short North where she worked.
And tonight we have team coverage with reaction from OSU students and employees who work in the short north. The Columbus police missing persons report says that according to a bodega employee toes usually has a bartender walk her to her car but didn’t when she left Wednesday night Thursday afternoon. To’s body was spotted by a motorist at Sciota Grove Metrop Park in Grove City.
Investigators are now trying to fill in the timeline and identify a suspect. Did she make it to her car? Nile Woodson says it would be potentially easy for something to go unseen on those streets behind Bodega. There’s one light here on the block which you know keeps this area bright. Um but the whole next block is very dark. It’s very dark.
There’s not a street light for another block down. So did something happen here or somewhere else? Was her killer someone she knew or a total stranger? If investigators know the answers, they’re not saying. To’s roommates did tell police she was recently depressed over a breakup with her ex-boyfriend, but they stated to their knowledge it was a mutual breakup.
The autopsy later confirmed something truly horrific. Reagan had been sexually assaulted and then shot. She had been hit by two bullets, one to the back of her head and another near the side of her face. The bullets were still lodged inside her skull. Experts determined that the shots had been fired from behind at almost pointblank range.
It was essentially an execution style killing. Police said it was still unclear whether she had been shot in the same place where her body was found or if she had been killed somewhere else and then brought there afterward. Investigators also could not find a single shell casing at the scene. The news spread so quickly that police struggled to control the flow of information.
And because of that, Reagan’s sister, McKenzie, learned about her sister’s death through a post on Instagram. Reagan’s mother, Lisa, said her daughter didn’t have enemies. She couldn’t think of a single person who would want to hurt her, let alone commit something this brutal. But in Ohio, there was something else many people were thinking about.
something that had already been worrying the community for a while. In the weeks leading up to Reagan’s murder, the area had been shaken by a series of attacks and robberies, each one seeming more frightening than the last. People were being grabbed from behind, threatened, or confronted by someone holding a gun or a knife.
The attacker, who always wore a mask, demanded their bags or wallets. Residents are on high alert tonight after last night’s latest armed robbery. This is [music] the third attack in this neighborhood in two weeks. All of the victims are women. NBC4’s Tyler Carter is live from German Village tonight [music] where residents have called a safety meeting. Tyler? Yes, Ellie.
Since that last attack last night, the German Village Society called a meeting with Columbus police and residents is going on right now in their headquarters. They want to know exactly what is going on in this neighborhood. And residents I spoke with say they are not taking these attacks lightly.
I heard someone yell, “Help.” And so I ran outside and half of the neighbors were already out here. Last night, just before 10:00, a woman who lives in this German Village neighborhood on Mohawk and Frankfurt Street was robbed by gunpoint and attacked. Columbus police say the woman was getting things out of the trunk of her car when a man walked up behind her and demanded she give him her purse.
Police didn’t know who this man was or even whether all of those attacks were connected to each other, but one question kept coming up. Could Reagan’s murder somehow be linked to those assaults? One woman who had been the victim of one of those attacks later said that the moment she heard what had happened to Reagan, she felt it in her gut, like this had to be connected.
She said she was convinced that the man who attacked her would have killed her too if he’d had the chance. But investigators had very few leads that could seriously support that theory. So, the questioning had to start with the people closest to Reagan, including her ex-boyfriend, Jake. He quickly became a person of interest for police.
And it wasn’t only because they had recently broken up. Jake had also posted something on Instagram about her death, and detectives said that there was something about that post that gave them a strange feeling. When was the last time you talked to her? Probably a week and a half ago. Is that normal? Um, well, not usually.
I I talk to her every day, but we’re breaking out kind of. It was just we didn’t have enough time really for each other. We had to focus on school. She even said it in one of the texts. I mean, I’m one of her best friends. Okay, Jake, [music] let me ask you this. Okay. Why in the world would you write I wish you were in a better place? Well, can I see what I um I was talking to her like she like I don’t know like she’s in heaven.
She’s not here very often in a better place when [music] somebody was living a good life. Well, no, I know. But if I were to go today, I would know that I would go [music] somewhere better. That’s just what I believe. So, you said you posted on Instagram. yesterday. But Reagan’s roommates told police there was absolutely no chance that Jake had anything to do with it. He adored her.
And during their entire relationship, they had never even had a serious argument. Jake was devastated by what had happened. He was just trying to cope with the loss in the only way he knew how. In the end, there was nothing suspicious about his post at all. It was simply the heartfelt message of someone who had lost a person he deeply cared about.
His alibi checked out and police moved on with the investigation. A security camera inside Bodha had only managed to capture a small moment of Reagan leaving the building. And on the footage, there was no sign of anyone following her or waiting nearby. Using license plate recognition technology, detectives were finally able to locate Reagan’s car.
It was parked on a residential street not far away. It was clear someone had tried to set the vehicle on fire. There were cigarette burn marks on the outside and inside the car there was a strong smell of gasoline, but the attempt to burn it had failed, which meant investigators were able to collect several pieces of evidence.
They found a few cigarette butts, a gas can, and several ATM receipts. All of it was taken for forensic testing and analysis. The ATM receipts showed that someone had attempted to withdraw large amounts of money several times, but the [music] transactions had been declined. Only one withdrawal had actually gone through $60.
While detectives waited for additional information from the banks, the community was still trying to process what had happened. Many students were now afraid to walk to and from campus alone, thinking, “H, what if they were next?” And honestly, neither the university nor the police had much they could say that would truly calm people down.
People who work in the service industry in the Short North say they’re worried about their own safety. [music] NBC4’s Olivia Feetto is live in the Short North tonight and spoke to talk to some of those employees. Olivia Mark, a longtime bartender at Martinis, which is another restaurant and bar here in the Short North, says that the people who work in the service industry here in the Short North, are very close-knit.
So, of course, they were devastated to hear the news that one of their own who worked here at Bodeas was missing and then was found dead. I talked to that woman earlier today and she again is a bartender longtime. She says while she usually uses public transportation to get to her job, a lot of servers and bartenders who work around here do drive to work and some of them have to drive and park far away from their workplaces.
I mean, parking is an issue down there. Um, and is a safety issue because like a lot of these places are not lit, [music] you know, where we’re parking. A lot of these um public parking areas are not full of lights, you know, and so it can be a [music] safety issue for us. And she by no means deserved any amount of harm, you know, sent her away.
So yeah, anybody with information, yeah, please come forward because, you know, we need we need to get justice for Reagan. One of those people that you meet and you just you don’t forget. There’s been a lot of hugs, a lot of crying. Um, and it’s it’s sad, but you know, this really puts in perspective um how close we all really are with each other.
She was a loving, awesome, amazing person. I know she was studying at OSU and she had a great personality. Super warm and welcoming. I’m like, this can’t happen here. I haven’t slept all night. I’m serious. I mean, that’s all I’ve been thinking about all night long. Reagan Toes’s missing car was found on Oakwood Avenue on Columbus’ east side.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is assisting Grove City Police with this investigation and they’re asking the public for help in the search for clues. Anyone with information can [music] call the Ohio BCI tip line. Jake set up a fundraiser for the Toes family. He was hoping that someday that money would go toward creating a scholarship in Reagan’s name.
She really loved her university and was like so incredibly excited about graduating. Jake knew she would have wanted part of that money to help another student. Pretty soon, the fundraiser hit almost $100,000. 48 hours after Reagan’s body was found, detectives got their first real break in the case.
CCTV cameras connected to the ATMs listed on the receipts showed that it was actually Reagan herself withdrawing the money and trying to make those withdrawals at those specific times. And even though you couldn’t see who was sitting with her in the car, investigators were pretty confident there was someone else in that vehicle. And most likely that person was forcing Reagan to do it.
Shortly after, police got the DNA results back from the cigarette butts. They were actually surprised by how fast those results came in. But that was because the DNA matched someone who was already in the police database. This was a man with a long criminal history. 29-year-old Brian Lee Golsby. He had only gotten out of prison a few months before.
Police knew him well from a lot of different cases, and the deeper investigators dug into Brian’s history, the more disturbing it got. He had been committing crimes since childhood, and at this point, he was a convicted sex offender, level three. According to an assessment by the Ohio Department of Youth Services, as a teenager, he had sexually assaulted 5-year-old girls and six-year-old boys.
And his crimes just kept going. In 2011, he kidnapped a woman who was 8 months pregnant, along with her 2-year-old son, held them at knife point and sexually assaulted her right in front of her child. He forced her to drive to multiple ATMs to withdraw cash. Then he made her drive to her own home where he attacked her again.
After that, he forced the woman to shower and brush her teeth to get rid of any DNA evidence. And then he stole some of her belongings and took off. But the evidence found inside the car was enough to move forward with charges. The problem was the victim was so traumatized that she couldn’t bring herself to testify. So Brian made a deal.
He was originally charged with two armed robberies, rape and kidnapping, but in the end he only pleaded guilty to robbery and attempted [music] rape. He was sentenced to 6 years in prison, but he was actually released a few months early. After getting out, he was placed in supervised transitional housing, but the people running that program and his probation officer weren’t keeping tabs on him the way they should have been.
And this was despite the fact that he was classified as high risk and was wearing an ankle monitor at all times. He violated the terms of his supervision over and over again. When investigators pulled the data from his ankle monitor, it became pretty clear that a string of attacks and robberies that had been happening in the weeks leading up to Reagan’s murder, all of that was connected to Brian.
It all tied together and people were honestly shocked when they found out that ankle monitor data doesn’t go directly to police. Typically, that information first goes to the private companies that manufacture those devices and then it’s on them to pass it along. In this case, that either didn’t happen the way it was supposed to or nobody was actually checking the data.
On top of that, there was no curfew attached to his monitor at all. The data from Brian’s ankle monitor showed that he had been at every single location where Reagan was that night. Starting with where her car was parked, every street, every ATM, it all linked back to him, and that was backed up by the CCTV footage.
On top of that, investigators found video of him purchasing a gas can, the same gas can that was later found in Reagan’s car. The rape kit results came back as well, and those also matched Brian Goulsby’s DNA. On February 11th at 4 in the morning, a SWAT team stormed his house and put him in handcuffs. The handcuff you got one? Yeah.
He got on you real quick. Talk about anything. If you ask questions, all that stuff, just just just tell him Nick’s going to talk to him and that’s all that the only answer to give him. Yep. After that, he sat through a 6-hour interrogation with the very same detectives who had arrested him 6 years earlier.
Brian looked upset and kept insisting that he had nothing to do with Reagan’s death or the sexual assault. The only thing he admitted was that he had been inside her car. According to him, the robbery was the only thing he cared about. He said he had forced his way into her vehicle and made her drive to several ATMs.
Later, he claimed [music] he made her go to the park where he ordered her to take off her clothes, turn her back to him, and wait for 30 minutes before leaving. After that, he said he quickly drove away in her car and later abandoned it. He insisted that Reagan was still alive when he left. Police asked him whether anyone else had been involved, hoping he might slip up if he tried to shift the blame onto someone else.
When detectives started showing him the DNA evidence, his story suddenly changed. Now, he claimed that he had been there when Reagan was shot, but he still denied being the one who killed her. Instead, he said it was the fault of a man named TJ, someone he claimed he owed money to. Brian said that after they got the money from Reagan, he believed she was going to be let go.
But according to him, TJ forced him to rape her and then TJ himself pointed the gun at her. “Why do you think he did that?” the detectives asked. Brian said he didn’t know, but according to him, TJ had threatened to hurt his kids, and he felt like he had no choice but to go along with it to protect them. He said that Reagan, crying, kept repeating over and over, “I just want to live.
I just want to live.” According to Brian, TJ ordered Reagan to take off her clothes and start walking out into the field. Then he claimed TJ shot her in the back of [music] the head. After that, he walked closer, stood over her, and fired another shot toward the side of her face. He gets behind me. At first, I click click something like that.
He gave me the same he on the ground. The story he told about that night, even the exact words he claimed Reagan had said was so detailed that officers immediately realized something. He wasn’t describing someone else. He was describing himself. Investigators found no evidence inside Reagan’s car that suggested anyone else had been there besides Brian, [music] and he couldn’t provide any real information about the mysterious man he called TJ.
Officers said Brian’s criminal history spoke for itself, and every crime he had committed in the previous weeks had been carried out alone. His story was completely tangled and inconsistent. But detectives decided to play along, hoping he might reveal even more. And he did. He ended up telling them where he had hidden Reagan’s clothes, where he had thrown away the gun and the shell casings, and where her phone could be found.
Lieutenant Brian Davidson, who conducted the interrogation, later said there was pure evil in his eyes. Like, there was just nothing there. 29-year-old Brian Golsby was charged with aggravated murder, rape, armed robbery, and the kidnapping of Reagan Toes. She was a fourth year in psychology here at Ohio [music] State.
The announcement was made on the Grove City Police Department Facebook page on Saturday morning. Brian Lee Golsby has been arrested and charged with aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated robbery. Goldsby has previously served time in prison for one count of robbery, and one count of attempted rape.
Police say they believe there may be a connection between Goulsby [music] and recent attacks around the German village area. And now our thoughts are with Tesen’s family and her friends today as they begin [music] to start their healing process. Despite all his denials, Brian later made two phone calls from jail. One to his girlfriend and another to a friend.
And during those conversations, he confessed to everything. I did it. I killed that girl for the money. After that, the timeline of what happened that night, reconstructed by police, became almost completely clear. At 9:45 that evening, just as Reagan was leaving after her shift, Brian forced her into her own car and ordered her to drive to an ATM.
At 9:58, Reagan pulled up to a Chase bank and tried to withdraw $500 for Brian, but the transaction was declined. About 10 minutes later, they arrived at a Huntington bank and CCTV cameras again captured Reagan attempting to withdraw money. That transaction was declined as well. Sometime between 10:18 and 10:30 that night, Brian forced Reagan to park the car in a dark alley where he sexually assaulted her.
After that, he made her drive back to the first bank so she could withdraw $60. Between 11:12 and 11:41 that night, cameras at a gas station once again recorded them sitting in the car. Sometime between midnight and 1:00 in the morning, they drove to Sciota Grove Metro Park. There, he forced her to remove her clothes and begin walking into a dark field.
While she begged for her life, he shot her twice in the head. After that, he used her car to flee the scene. He drove to his girlfriend’s house and around 1:45 in the morning, the two of them went together to McDonald’s, most likely to create an alibi. Later, he disposed of the gun and the shell casings by throwing them into a sewer and then unsuccessfully tried to set Reagan’s car on fire.
In another chilling twist, Brian gave Reagan’s wallet to his girlfriend, telling her it was an early Valentine’s Day gift. One week after an Ohio State senior was last seen alive, her friends and family are saying their final goodbyes. This service, this celebration of life was a chance to focus more on the Reagan toes everyone knew and loved and not so much on the sudden and violent way that her life ended.
Friends describe her as an amazing, very loving and happy person. From the church service in Mami to a graveside service in nearby Parisburg, Reagan Tes was then laid to rest. All across Ohio, people have expressed feeling a connection to Reagan Tes and her family. An online guest book includes many comments like this one from a woman in Grove City.
Although I didn’t know her personally, this story has touched my heart tremendously. My heart just aches for all of you and even more so Reagan. On February 15th, Reagan’s funeral was held at the church she had attended since childhood. The church was completely full. There were people there who had known her for years and others who had never even met her.
When Brian was brought into [music] court to hear the charges against him, Toby stood there looking at him through the glass. He later said he was so angry, so emotional, and so overwhelmed that day, he honestly wondered how he didn’t have a heart attack. According to Toby, as more details about Brian’s past started coming out, it wasn’t just shocking.
It was almost impossible to understand how he had managed to avoid real accountability for so long. They had a monster in their hands under their control. And they still let him slip away. He said the man accused of the rape and murder of OSU student Reagan Toes pleaded not guilty. Despite his confessions and all the evidence against him, Brian still refused to formally plead guilty and preparations for the trial began.
3 months after her death, the day finally arrived, the day Reagan had worked so hard for, graduation day. For the students and the university, it was a moment that felt both heartbreaking and bittersweet. We will also never forget the classmates who were taken from us too soon, who helped us shape our hearts and minds.
And the degree Bachelor of Arts upon Reagan Delaney Topes. Reagan’s family walked onto the stage in her place and accepted her diploma on her behalf postumously. You could feel the emotion in the entire room. Everyone stood up and the crowd gave a longstanding ovation. In a statement, her family said Reagan dreamed of becoming a Buckeye ever since she was a little kid.
And today, that dream became real because she received her diploma from Ohio State University. As her parents and her family, we are incredibly proud of her and everything she achieved. The opportunity to receive a higher education is a tremendous gift. But along with that gift, a person must also have the desire, the dedication, the discipline, and the perseverance to make it happen.
Reagan had all of those qualities, and honestly, even more. And the same is true for every student graduating here today. We congratulate them on this achievement, and we ask them to use that gift to help make the world a better place, the kind of world Reagan wanted to see, but now can no longer change herself. In the middle of March 2018, the trial of Brian began.
Jurors began their day outside the courtroom. They were taken to the locations where investigators say Brian Goulsby, a convicted felon, kidnapped, raped, and murdered the Ohio State student. Prosecutors say today’s jury view will help show the terror that Reagan Tes endured on the night that she disappeared outside her job in the Short North.
Jurors were also shown the locations of two ATM machines where investigators say Brian Golsby forced Toes to try to withdraw money. They stopped at the alley in Maran Village where prosecutors believe Reagan Tes was raped and Sciota Grove Metrop Park where TO’s body was found. A makeshift memorial was covered with a tarp during the jury’s visit to the site.
We solemnly swear the testimony you’re about to give shall be the truth and nothing but the truth. Back in the courtroom, prosecutors called the witnesses who were first on the scene when the body was discovered. Also taking the stand were several of Reagan To’s roommates who described filing a missing person’s report after realizing Reagan had not come home.
And an undercover Grove City detective described finding the cigarette butt and burn marks inside Reagan To’s car. Prosecutors say DNA from the cigarette butt matches Brian Goulsby. The detective also described the initial interview with Brian Goulsby after his arrest. First couple hours he told us that he had taken Reagan into a car, had committed a robbery of her.
He needed money. He he took her to some some ATMs and then he said he left her naked in a field during a snowstorm. [music] His defense team found themselves in an extremely difficult position considering the amount of evidence against him. The case against Brian was incredibly strong.
So their main strategy was to try to convince the jury not to sentence him to death. He had already confessed. So the trial wasn’t really about proving his innocence. It was more about trying to save his life. The defense pointed to his troubled childhood, saying that his mother had been abusive and that he struggled with addiction.
They also claimed that he himself had been a victim of sexual abuse as a child, although prosecutors said his accounts of that were inconsistent. His attorney also argued that the DNA found in Reagan’s body and on the cigarette butts was unreliable because it had been linked to Brian’s DNA profile from a case back in 2010.
She also said that Brian wasn’t intelligent enough to consciously plan a crime as horrific as this one. I just want to point something out. If Mr. Golsby really didn’t want to get caught, then maybe wearing a GPS ankle monitor wasn’t the best idea. And not only that, he even kept it charged. He made sure the battery didn’t die, but prosecutors said that his level of intelligence didn’t matter and didn’t change anything.
They told the jury that night he went out hunting and the person he found was Reagan Toes. There’s no mystery here. The prosecutors said, “We can track [music] him.” at 9:45 p.m. at the precise place where she parked her car and at gunpoint was forced into the car by hand. And this device tracks not only location but speed.
And within a couple minutes after 9:45, he’s gone from walking about 3 miles an hour to moving at 25 miles an hour on Second Avenue after he kidnapped her and told her to drive to the bank where there was this attempt to withdraw which was denied $200 because there are limits on withdrawals at ATMs as we all know.
Eventually, uh, $60 was withdrawn by Reagan Toes and it have a surveillance video of her at the drive-thru. You can see a shadow figurine figure in the car with her. She can’t identify who it is, but guess what? Again, at 10:32 p.m., that’s exactly where Brian Lee Goldby is. Well, she’s withdrawn $60 from the bank. Later on, there’s an effort to withdraw money from that location and a Huntington bank uh a short [music] distance uh from there.
Again, when those attempts were made, which were declined, Brian V. Goldsby is at those locations. The state uh as a defense has this opportunity to tell you what we’re going to prove. We expect to prove each and every one of those counts in the indictment and the specifications and expect to prove them beyond a reasonable doubt and expect also in closing argument to submit to you we have proven it proven it beyond that uh standard verdict.
We the jury in this case, being duly impanled and sworn, find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt as to count one of the indictment for aggravated murder. On the day that should have been Reagan’s 23rd birthday, Brian was found guilty on all nine counts against him, but the jury couldn’t reach a unanimous decision about the punishment.
Four jurors voted for life in prison, and eight voted for the death penalty. At that point, Brian turned toward the Toes family and said, “Today, I would like to apologize to the Tesl family for the crimes I committed against his daughter, friends, family. Um, when I first got locked up, I lied about everything. Said it was TJ.
There is no TJ. TJ, not real. I made TJ up. So, I was trying to work on my way out of the crime and I committed. But the only other thing I have to say is um please have mercy on me. All right, you can have a seat. Thank you. Brian received three life sentences without the possibility of parole. Later, he was also given an additional 66 years in prison for the assaults and armed robberies he had committed just days before Reagan’s murder.
He was sent to serve his sentence at the Ohio State Penitentiary, a maximum security prison. His legal team filed several appeals, but they were eventually withdrawn and dismissed. Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien was disappointed with the outcome. In his view, the death penalty should have been the only possible sentence.
He continued to push for that decision. In 2018, he submitted a 53-page motion asking the court to allow a cross appeal. The argument was based on the instructions the judge had given to the jury. According to those instructions, jurors were allowed to consider mitigating circumstances presented by the defense, even though prosecutors argued no real mitigating circumstances actually existed.
Once the jury incorrectly hears that, then I think that uh that the state has proven that our uh uh we have been impaired and we have proven that uh there was uh prejudice to uh fair consideration in that penalty phase. During the interrogations, Brian told several different versions of what happened that night.
His stories often contradicted each other, and prosecutors were able to disprove many of them easily. Still, those statements were allowed to be considered during the legal proceedings. Eventually, in April of 2019, the 10th District Court of Appeals in Ohio granted the state permission to file an appeal. However, the court ruled that the instructions the judge had given to the jury were correct and lawful.
The prosecutor filed another appeal, but to his frustration, the Ohio Supreme Court ultimately rejected it completely. Ronald O’Brien tried to remain optimistic and said, “The good news is he’s going to die in prison.” After the failures and gaps in the system became clear, Reagan’s family promised they would fight to change it.
They said, “The system has serious flaws, and changes must happen, and they will happen because of this senseless tragedy. if we have to, we will spend the rest of our lives working to make sure it happens. And they truly did. In 2018, the family reached a legal settlement with the company that had been providing housing for Brian and was responsible for supervising him.
In 2019, the Reagan Toes Law officially went into effect and the Ohio Supreme Court later confirmed that the law was constitutional. In the years that followed, it became clear that poor supervision, the lack of proper checks, and the failure to return Brian to prison when violations occurred all pointed to the need for serious reforms in both legislation and the correctional system.
The Reagan Tes allows courts to impose indefinite prison sentences with a minimum and maximum term for first and secondderee felonies when life imprisonment is not required. While Brian has been in prison, he has violated prison rules 52 times, which resulted in him being transferred between five different correctional facilities.
But under Ohio law, those violations did not affect his sentence in any way. And what makes it even more disturbing is that at one point he had actually been released from prison 6 months early. Under the new changes, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction can now extend an inmate’s incarceration up to the maximum sentence ordered by the court if the person commits new crimes or repeatedly violates prison rules.
The law is also expected to improve how released offenders are monitored, including the use of electronic ankle monitors. Thanks to the fundraiser organized by Jake and many generous donations, the Reagan Delaney Toes Memorial Foundation scholarship was created. Every year, the program provides two Ohio State students with financial support covering both tuition and housing.
And in Reagan’s memory, self-defense classes have also begun to be organized throughout the region. The workout is a series of fighting skills and self-defense moves. One minute on a fighting skill, one minute on an explosive strength movement. A special place was also created in her honor at Seotto Grove Metro Park.
A memorial space for 21-year-old Reagan was built there called Tranquility Garden. I used to have this crushing sensation where I almost couldn’t breathe when we would pull in. And I don’t feel that any longer. Obviously for us, you know, the pain and the tragedy never goes away and we carry that with us every day.
But we need to keep moving forward and there is still a amazing beautiful world out there and we have to learn how to move forward and we carry her with us in our hearts every day and that will never change. Her family hoped the space would become a place of peace, not a reminder of the terrible things that happened that morning.
In the garden, there’s a water feature that represents her astrological sign. Her favorite color, blue, can be seen all around the space. There’s also plenty of wildlife and greenery there, the kind of nature Reagan loved so much. Five Buckeye trees were planted as well, a symbol of her time as a student at Ohio State, a place that was simply her favorite in the world.
Her former boyfriend, Jake, rarely spoke publicly after Reagan’s death, but one time he shared a story about their first date, and honestly, it captures her personality perfectly. We went apple picking and she spotted the most perfect apple at the very top of a tree. She just had to get it. The problem was neither of us could reach it.
Then I had this brilliant idea. I told her to climb up on my shoulders. But before I even realized why she wanted that apple so badly, she shoved it into my mouth and made me take this huge bite. I didn’t understand why she did that until later when she told me she had been trying to find the biggest, reddest apple she could just so I could enjoy it.
That’s who she was. She always thought about other people before herself. And when I say always, I really mean always. From the moment I first met her to the last time we spoke, she always made me a better person. I’ll always love her. She was my best friend, and she always will be.
The last few hours of Reagan’s life must have been unimaginably terrifying. It’s hard to even picture those final moments. Her tearful pleas to be allowed to live, standing alone in a cold, dark field. Everyone who knew Reagan To spoke about her the same way, only with kindness and admiration. She was deeply compassionate, a genuinely kind person who always seemed to see the best in people and in the world around her.
Someone whose potential to achieve so much and to help others along the way felt almost limitless. Her mother, Lisa, later said, “In the end, love always wins.
