Wife of a former soldier who killed his closest neighbors with ceremonial dagger after a heated argument over Parking claimed he had mental health issues after returning from combat. in Afghanistan.
Collin Reeves’ wife, Kaylee Reeves, said he told her about his head did not have in right place”and he was especially struggling on day of killings because it was shortly after Remembrance Sunday, time of year what “triggered” his.
Kaylee Reeves said: “He was a Royal Engineer in in military – a driver with army. He was in Afghan in 2008-09 but he never talks about it. He bottles it up up but he was more excited when he came back. Just a different Collin than when he was there.
“When he was under stress, he started to worry. He didn’t sleep well, lost interest in all hobbies, stopped seeing friends and family”.
Bristol Crown Court jurors learned that Reeves stabbed his neighbors Jennifer and Stephen Chapplum, aged 33 and 36, in their home in Somerset village of Norton Fitzwarren as Them children slept upstairs.
attack came in a few months of disputes over parking lot and moments after Kaley Reeves asked her husband for trial separation by telling him, “I’ve got so many years I can take your shit.”
Reeves, 35, pleaded guilty to manslaughter. of Chapples but denies murder on grounds of reduced liability.
In a videotaped police interview in days after killingKaley Reeves described. how her husband put your daughters to bed on evening of November 21 last year and then entered their bedroom.
She said they didn’t get along. “He asked me about my day, but I just ignoring him and telling him to leave.”
Kaley Reeves thought she was husband walked outside for cigarette, but she heard a scream. She went downstairs and saw that his “commando dagger”, given to him when he left army in 2017, was absent from his frame.
He came back and told her what she needed call police. “He looked white, not like my Colin. He had blood on his hands. He just said he loves me.”
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She is added: “It was all so blurry. Police took coming ages. They are just took Collin left. A few weeks before they had a heart-to-heart talk, he said that head did not have in right place”. She is added: “He asked if he wasn’t here would I feel better off”.
In frames played in court, Reeves shouted: “Die, motherfuckers, die’ as he carried out what has been described as “brutal and wild” attack.
When he was detained at the police station, he gave his serial number from his military service. He said he was confused and did not understand why he was here. The guard explained that he was arrested. on suspicion of murder to which Reeves replied that he “just does [his] job” and that “it was an operation.”
The trial continues.
