Colin Reeves’s wife, Kylie Reeves, told him that his head was “out of place” and that he was having a hard time on the day of the killings because it was shortly after Remembrance Sunday, a time of year that “set him on fire”. ». . Kayley Reeves said: “He was a royal engineer in the army – a leader in the army. He was in Afghanistan in 2008-09 but he never talks about it. He bottles it, but he was more upset when he returned. Just a different Colin from when he got there. “When he was anxious, he was agitated. “He had trouble sleeping, lost interest in all hobbies, stopped seeing friends and family.” A Bristol court heard that Reeves stabbed Jennifer and Steven Chapple, 33 and 36-year-old neighbors, at their home in Somerset’s village of Norton Fijuarin as their children slept upstairs. Sketch by court artist Colin Reeves with his head in his hands, on the pier of Bristol Stadium. Illustration: Elizabeth Cook / PA The attack came after months of arguing over parking and moments after Kayley Reeves asked her husband for a test divorce, telling him: “There are only so many years I can take your shit.” Reeves, 35, has pleaded guilty to the Chapples homicide but denies the murder on reduced responsibility. In a videotaped police interview in the days following the murder, Kayley Reeves described how her husband put their daughters to bed on the night of November 21 last year and then went into their bedroom. He said they were not doing well. “He was asking me about my day, but I just ignored him and told him to leave.” Kayley Reeves thought her husband was going out for a cigarette, but he heard her screaming. He went downstairs and saw that the “commando dagger”, which was presented to him when he left the army in 2017, was missing from his skeleton. He returned and told her that he had to call the police. “He looked white, not like my Colin. He had blood on his hands. “He just said he loves me.” Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7 p.m. BST He added: “It was all so vague. It took the police years to come. “They just took Colin away.” A few weeks ago they had a “heart to heart” and said his head “was not in the right place”. He added: “He asked me if I was not here, I would be better.” In court footage, Reeves was heard shouting, “You die fucking, you die,” as he carried out a “violent and savage” attack. When he was taken into custody 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 there. The sergeant explained that he had been arrested on suspicion of murder, to which Reeves replied that “he simply did [his] work “and that” it was an operation “. The trial continues.
