Quote of note:

Melvin Reine Sr. has been under a cloud of suspicion since his first wife, Wanda, disappeared in 1971. Shirley Reine moved in with him the next year, and they married in 1999, the Cape Cod Times reported.

At the time of his first wife's disappearance, Melvin Reine told police he drove her to the Falmouth bus station, according to newspaper clippings. She hasn't been seen since. Melvin Reine was never charged.

Now in his mid-70s, Melvin Reine was found mentally incompetent to stand trial for a 2000 incident in which he allegedly threatened to shoot a woman in a convenience store parking lot. The next year, he signed over the trash collection company to his wife.

DA investigates death of woman found slain in her garage

May 11, 2005

FALMOUTH, Mass. --A woman at the center of a lawsuit that was due to go to trial next week was found in the garage of her Cape Cod home, killed by a gunshot wound to the head.

The body of Shirley M. Reine, 51, owner of a Falmouth trash collection company, was discovered early Tuesday morning by a family member who phoned police.

"When the police arrived, they found Shirley Reine ... deceased in her garage adjacent to her car," said Cape & Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe, who declined to discuss a motive. An autopsy was scheduled for Wednesday or Thursday.

The garage is located on a Reine family compound in East Falmouth that also includes three homes and the business, Five Star Enterprises.

The company and the property are the subject of a legal battle between Reine and two of her stepsons, Todd Reine and Melvin Reine Jr., who sued in 2003, alleging their father was not competent when he signed over his business and property to her.

The case was set for trial next Monday in Barnstable Superior Court. It was unclear on Wednesday whether the case would go forward.