At just 17 years old, Tabitha Leigh Bosdell was focused on building her future. A foster child living in Augusta, Georgia, she was already working as a telemarketer and, on the afternoon of June 29, 2000, was on her way to apply for a second job. It was a hopeful step toward the independent life she was creating for herself. Tragically, it was a journey from which she would never return.
That day, Tabitha, a white female, vanished, her disappearance marking the beginning of a months-long nightmare for those who knew her.
On that Thursday afternoon, Tabitha was walking to her telemarketing job when a man persuaded her to get into his car. The man was Reinaldo Javier Rivera, a married father and former U.S. Navy serviceman who presented a harmless facade to the world. He drove Tabitha to a secluded area where he brutally raped, sodomized, and strangled her, first with his arm and then with her own shirt. He left her body in a wooded area off an exit on Interstate 20 in Columbia County and discarded her clothes along the highway. For months, Tabitha's fate remained a mystery, her case another unsolved disappearance.
The break in the case came not from Tabitha's disappearance, but from another young woman's incredible courage. On October 10, 2000, Rivera attacked 18-year-old Chrisilee Barton in her home, raping her and stabbing her in the throat. She survived and was able to provide investigators with a detailed description of her attacker. A police sketch led Rivera's own sister-in-law and a co-worker to identify him to authorities. Police found Rivera on October 13 in a South Carolina motel room, where he had attempted suicide by slashing his wrists.
After his arrest, the full scope of Rivera's monstrous activities came to light. He confessed not only to the attack on Barton but also to a string of rapes and murders that had terrorized the region. He admitted to killing 21-year-old Army Sgt. Marni Glista in September 2000, and two other 17-year-olds in South Carolina in 1999: Melissa Dingess and Tiffaney Wilson. Rivera, who became known as "The Model Scout Serial Killer" for luring victims with promises of modeling work, then told investigators where they could find Tabitha Bosdell. Following his directions, police recovered her skeletal remains, finally confirming her family's worst fears.
In January 2004, Reinaldo Rivera went on trial. While he was formally tried for the murder of Marni Glista and the assault on Chrisilee Barton, prosecutors presented evidence of his other confessed crimes, including the brutal murder of Tabitha. During the trial, jurors heard the chilling audio recordings of Rivera's confessions, where he detailed the violent deaths of his victims. Tabitha's younger sister, Jessica, who was 16 and had been in foster care with her, bravely testified during the proceedings. After a memorial service for Tabitha, her mother, Sheryl Bosdell, told the press she wanted Rivera to die slowly.
The jury convicted Rivera on 14 counts, including malice murder, rape, aggravated sodomy, and aggravated assault. During the sentencing phase, Rivera himself told the jury he would kill again if released and asked for the death penalty. The jury obliged, sentencing him to death for the murder of Marni Glista. For the crimes committed against Tabitha, he was later sentenced to life for rape, life for aggravated sodomy, and 20 years for aggravated assault.
Reinaldo Rivera remains on death row at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Jackson. While justice was served in a legal sense, it could not bring back the four young women he murdered. Tabitha Leigh Bosdell was a young woman on the cusp of her adult life, working hard to overcome a difficult start. Her life was stolen by a predator hiding in plain sight, leaving behind a family to grieve a future that was never allowed to unfold.
