SITKA, ALASKA A word of warning: This story includes some graphic details that might be upsetting to some listeners.

Jane Reth and Scott Coville were living in Sitka and had been married six months when Coville went missing around the time of his 26th birthday, in 1988.

In 2007, the state reopened the case. With the help of Reth’s second husband, from whom she was divorced, cold case investigators recorded a phone call, in which Reth confessed to killing Coville and disposing of his body. She admitted the same thing to authorities who interviewed her in early 2009.

Investigator James Gallen testified Thursday that his team found the trailer where Coville and Reth lived, and tore apart the bedroom. Blood stains were found on the walls and sub-floor where Reth said she killed Coville. The DNA from those blood stains was compared to DNA from Coville’s mother, Reta, and from some of Scott Coville’s wisdom teeth his mother had saved. It was a match.

Reth was arrested at her home in Illinois in February 2010. She pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in November.

Reta Coville testified at Thursday’s sentencing hearing that the worst part for her was not knowing what happened to her son: Whether he’d died or whether he just walked out of their life.

“The phone rings, we’ve all had that happen, the phone rings, you pick it up, you know somebody’s on the other end,” Reta Coville said. “You say, ‘Scott, Scott, is that you?’ Click. And then your mind thinks ‘Was it really a wrong number, was it Scott trying to contact us?”

Reta Coville’s testimony was followed by testimony from three women who, though not blood-relation to the Coville family, said Scott was like their brother.

Reth’s defense team also called a witness: a co-worker of Reth’s, who said her arrest hit him like a freight train, because such a crime was out of character for the Jane Reth he knew. He said she was active in her Seventh-Day Adventist Church, donated to the Red Cross, and went on mission trips overseas.

Assistant District Attorney Jean Seaton, representing the state, sought a 70-year sentence for Reth, highlighting in graphic detail how Reth shot Coville in his sleep, then dismembered his body with an ax, putting the pieces into garbage bags, throwing them into the trash and cleaning up afterward.

The defense team, led by Wasilla attorney Jon-Marc Petersen, said Reth was not justified in what she did, but that her life since the murder has included charitable works, no crime and advanced education.

Petersen said Reth was in an abusive marriage with Coville, citing arguments between the two, including one where she was pushed out of a vehicle. Petersen also cited services Reth received from both Sitkans Against Family Violence (Sitka's domestic violence shelter) and Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital. He said she could have just walked away from the relationship with Coville, but was ashamed.

Reth also addressed the court, saying she would do anything to take back that day.

“I have asked myself what Mrs. Coville has asked: How could I do something like that? I myself didn’t know that I could do something like that,” Reth said. “If I had known then what I know now, I would have squashed my shame and would not have been so proud to reach out for help, so that something like this would not happen.”

But Sitka Superior Court Judge David George rejected the notion that Reth murdered Coville under duress, saying the shooting and its aftermath was contemplated, deliberate and unhurried.

“It took all night to accomplish her task,” George said. “And when she had cut up the body into small enough pieces to fit into garbage bags, so that she could dispose of that and hopefully have it incinerated, she then set about to clean the house. And she cleaned that room fastidiously.”

That said, George did acknowledge her lack of any other criminal record, and the good deeds she’s done in recent years. His sentence was 55 years, with 19 suspended. That puts Reth behind bars for 36 years, or 24 if she has good behavior. Petersen says he needs to talk to his client, but that an appeal is not likely.

After the hearing, Reta Coville said she was pleased with the sentence.

“Basically, we’ve all just turned it over to God, and said, ‘Hey, whatever, you deal with it,’” she said. “I had finally turned over my feelings of anger toward her, and I finally after 10 years decided it’s eating me up and it’s not hurting her at all, and I said, ‘You know, God, just don’t let her have a night without thinking about what she did.’ And it sounds like she had her moments too.”

Now, she says, they can move past the crime and just focus on remembering Scott.
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