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On Tuesday, October 18, 2022, Dateline: Unforgettable will cover the 2015 murder of Michael Reese, a native of Morris, Alabama. Reese's wife and her boyfriend, a senior pastor at a local Baptist church, were eventually found guilty of his murder.
The murder occurred on a February evening at the couple's Banks Street home, after the two returned home from church and dinner at Milo's.
Cindy Reese reportedly shot Michael in the head and staged the scene to look like a robbery.
About a month into the investigation, Cindy and her then-boyfriend Jeffrey Brown were arrested and charged with the murder of 40-year-old Michael.
The upcoming episode, titled Even the Devil Went to Church, will delve into the premeditated murder, which was fueled by the wife's desires to start a new life with her lover. The episode will air at 8 pm ET on Oxygen and its preview says:
"When a small-town Alabama resident is murdered, rumours involving a local pastor begin to swirl. Andrea Canning reflects on this story that feels to her like a steamy soap opera playing out in real life."
Five key details about Michael Reese's murder
1) Michael Reese's wife Cindy started having an affair a few years into their marriage
Cindy and Michael Reese married in 2009 after the former's first husband reportedly took his own life.
The couple's marriage seemed perfect up until the murder when it was revealed that Cindy was having an affair with the senior pastor named Jeffrey Brown at the local Baptist church where she served as the music minister.
The affair started in 2013 when both Cindy and Jeffrey were still married to their respective partners. It was around the same time that the Brown and Reese families became close friends.
Their affair went through ups and downs but it was alleged that the two wanted to build a future together and had consolidated funds and assets.
2) Cindy shot Michael in the head and then went grocery shopping
Sources state that authorities stated that Cindy Reese shot her husband in the head at close range, left their home and went to get groceries. When she returned home, she staged the crime scene to make it look like a robbery before calling 911 to report her husband's death.
When authorities arrived at the scene, they saw a Piggly Wiggly bag with ham and orange juice in the house.
3) Michael Reese's wife allegedly expressed her intentions to kill him
After the arrest, Cindy Reese's then-boyfriend Jeffrey Brown tried to pin the blame on her. He asserted that she had expressed her intentions to get Michael out of the way on multiple occasions.
Brown's court testimony mentioned details about his relationship with Cindy and how she would often she consider killing her husband. He alleged that Cindy said she would either poison or shoot Michael Reese and claim insanity if ever found responsible in the murder case.
4) Jeffrey Brown got rid of the murder weapon and "stolen" jewelery
Brown's court testimony included details about how Cindy got him involved in the murder of her husband. Jeffrey claimed that after shooting Michael inside their Banks Street home, Cindy met him at a nearby gas station. She handed her boyfriend the murder weapon and with some "stolen" jewelry she took from their home to make the incident seem like a robbery.
According to Jeffrey, he disposed off the .38 revolver on Pinson's Highway 75 and handed the jewelry to a woman. Cindy denied all the claims and said that she met Jeffrey and gave him $15 for gas money.
5) Cindy barely seemed concerned about husband Michael Reese's condition
One of the detectives who arrived at the crime scene after the 911 call claimed that Cindy displayed very almost no concern about her husband's condition. The officer claimed that she never asked if Michael was alive or not.
Meanwhile, Cindy claimed that she could barely remember the conversations with the authorities at the time as she was immediately lodged inside a police car. She also said that she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, an illness she was diagnosed with after the death of her first husband.
Michael Reese's murder case airs on Dateline: Unforgettable's upcoming episode, which is scheduled to air on Tuesday, October 18, 2022, on Oxygen.
