Rabbit, pychic were keys in solving murder

MOULTRIE — The chief of police in Camilla, who grew up in Moultrie, will be featured in a Court TV documentary airing Wednesday night. The show will focus on a 1988 murder case he helped to solve while working as a detective with the Albany Police Department.

Raybun Folsom, Camilla chief of police for 15 years, said the Psychic Detectives episode called “Hare Evidence” will air on Court TV at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday. The show will focus on the 1988 murder case of Jessica Reinhardt, a 7-year-old girl who was murdered at her home.

When detectives first arrived at the scene in 1988, Folsom said they thought the girl died in a house fire, possibly getting burned as she was cooking. During an autopsy, however, it was found she had multiple stab wounds to her face, and her skull had been crushed. They knew then they had a homicide.

Early in the investigation, Folsom said a psychic contacted him and told him “clues” as to who had committed the murder. He told the psychic he was “open to all avenues” to solve the case, and street names she mentioned related to indecent exposure incidents led to finding William Levearne “Bill” Carpenter, then 17.

Another piece of evidence used to link Carpenter to the murder was three rabbits Reinhardt had at the house when she was murdered, Folsom said. When detectives found a rabbit with a distinct marking, like a lightning bolt, under Carpenter’s bed that had been photographed in Reinhardt’s house, he was placed under arrest for her murder.

“I tell people I used a psychic and a rabbit to solve a homicide,” Folsom said.

Court TV and other stations had tried for a very long time to get a story filmed about the case, Folsom said. He finally agreed to allow Court TV to film an interview for the show, but he did not want any financial gain from the case. The filming was done over several months, and Folsom is curious to see the final cut of the show when it airs.

Folsom’s mother, Hazel Folsom, said she is very excited to be able to see her son on the show. She used to see him on television several times during his 22 years with the Albany Police Department, and she still talks to him and sees him on occasion.

Raybun did not begin his working career in law enforcement, as Hazel said he held a few odds jobs in Moultrie before he joined the Albany Police Department. While serving there, he was the department’s top detective, and he knew after joining he wanted to be in law enforcement.

“I don’t know how he ended up being on the police force,” Hazel said. “When he started then he knew that’s what he wanted to do.”