A longtime postal employee and mother of two was fatally shot while delivering mail in North Carolina, officials said, leaving her children without either parent only months after their father died in a December car crash.
Brandi Reynolds, a delivery driver for the United States Postal Service, was killed shortly before 4:16 p.m. Friday in Hayes, North Carolina, according to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. Authorities said William Craig Durham was arrested in connection with her death and faces kidnapping and murder charges.
Investigators said Reynolds was already dead when officers arrived at the scene.
Brandi Reynolds’ husband died in December 2025. (Brandi Reynolds/Facebook)
Reynolds worked as a rural mail carrier for the USPS, The Wilkes Record reported. She was on her mail route when Durham allegedly shot and killed her, according to the Charlotte Observer.
An arrest report obtained by the Charlotte Observer alleges that Durham restrained Reynolds and moved “the victim from one place to another without the consent of the victim.”
William Craig Durham was arrested after allegedly killing Reynolds. (North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation)
Reynolds’ husband, Brent Reynolds, died following a car accident in December. The couple’s two children are now left without both parents.
In a Facebook post from February, Reynolds wrote in a caption of a picture with her two kids: “The reason I get up every morning. Love these babies. They are what makes life worth living.”
A row of USPS delivery trucks is parked in a lot. (Spencer Jones/GHI/UCG/Universal Images Group)
She frequently posted pictures with her kids and husband on social media. In one post about her child, Reynolds wrote: “I couldn’t deny this baby if I tried. Love her so much and man do i wish i could slow time down and keep her little forever.”
Officials haven’t revealed any relationship between Reynolds and Durham.
