When Selonia Reed Never Came Home

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1:38My name is Reggie Reed. Salonia Reed is my mother, and Reginald Reed Sr. is my father. My mother, she was the love of my life, my first love. And I was her everything. It was very rare I wasn't by her side. Take me back and tell me what you remember about that day. That day, we went to the mall. That's one of the things to do in Hammond, just go to the mall, even if you're not buying anything. Window shop, if you will. Went to the mall, came home, and my mom went out. And she never came home. My beeper went off, and it was Reginald. And he asked me, had I seen Salonia? And I said, no, not since yesterday.

2:34I was a patrol officer for the Hamlin Police Department. I was dispatched to a missing persons call on Apple Street in Hamlin, Louisiana. The complainant, Reginald Reed, explained to me that his wife had left home the night before and had not returned, and he was concerned and wanted to file a missing persons report. I had received a description of the car from Reginald. I started to drive up Range Road and I noticed the car. Walked up to the car and noticed Salonia's body inside the car. It was very, very, very obvious that she was deceased. Salonia was 26 years old at the time. When I watched the crime scene video and saw Salonia's body in that car, immediately I was sad, I was mad.

3:34It was pretty apparent to me right away that whoever did this homicide hated this woman. So I called Regina back. I says, Regina, have you heard anything? He told me, he said, yes. He said, they found her. in her car and he said that she was dead. And that was...

4:03I was interviewed after she was murdered as a six-year-old. Can you tell me your name? What's your name? When I watched that video over and over again... Okay, the day before Sunday, what did you do? What I see is a six-year-old boy

4:26that life had been changed. He doesn't understand the magnitude of it yet. I want my daddy. I want my mommy. And you're asking me, you're trying to find out who killed my mother. Do you remember seeing her leave? You did? You did? Any time a young woman Saloni's age is killed the way she's killed, I think most people right away would assume the husband did it, right? And that's the easy way, that's the stereotypical way. But it's also not out of the realm of possibility that this was some killing for another reason. From that day on, my life changed forever. It just begs the question, why?

5:20Vladimir Dutier reports, the day my mother never came home.

5:28After my mother was murdered, things moved fast.

5:36Couldn't really understand, like, why would somebody kill her? Like, what did she do? It's been decades since Reggie Reed Jr. last saw his mother, Salonia. I feel like I missed out on a huge part of life, that I'll never get back. Reggie was only six years old on August 22, 1987. One of the last things he remembers is his mother buying him a chocolate chip cookie here at the Hammond Square Mall in Louisiana. He told police his mother kissed him when she left the house later that night. But the rest, he says, is a blur. When you think about that, what does that feel like? When I think about how my mother's life was shortened and how my experience was shortened, I feel empty.

6:27If somebody says to you, who is Celonia, what do you say? If someone asks me, who is Celonia, I would say, you're looking at her.

6:47Because based on description, the memories, and what things people have shared, when I look in the mirror, I see my mother. Reggie's memories are at the heart of the memoir he's written about his mother's murder, The Day My Mother Never Came Home. Within these pages, you will find the memories of a six-year-old boy whose mother was murdered. A 15-year-old young man searching for his place in the world without the guidance and encouragement of his mother. The night my mother went out and never came home, life for me and my father was basically flipped upside down.

7:36Charles Mews, now retired, was the police officer who found Salonia's body after taking the initial missing persons report from her husband, Reginald Reed.

7:50Salonia's body was in between the bucket seats of the car with her torso over into the back seat of the car. She had 16 pinpoint-like stab wounds in her upper torso, shoulder, and neck. Her blouse had been torn off. Her pants had been removed from her. She had been sexually assaulted as well. Louisiana State Police Lieutenant Barry Ward would eventually be assigned to the case years later. He was only 16 years old when Salonia was murdered. In 1987, I was a sophomore in Marshall County High School in western Kentucky. When he eventually did pick up the case file, he took note of the lack of blood in the car.

8:34It would suggest that she was murdered in another location and then transported to where her body was later discovered at the John's Curb Market. That market was about one and a half miles from the Reed House on Apple Street. At the scene, Officer Mews noticed something else about Salonia's naked body. I did see a substance that had been placed on the body. It was a white liquid-type substance on her torso and stomach area. Police believe the white lotion may have spelled out a word, but if there was a message, it had become illegible in the Louisiana heat. The windows were rolled up. It was August at the time.

9:19It was very hot out. Detectives bagged any potential evidence, including the butt of a cigarette. A Winston cigarette.

9:32Police canvassed the area, but Ward says they didn't find any eyewitnesses or a murder weapon. The following day, on Monday the 24th, a neighbor went to his mailbox and discovered a crucifix and a screwdriver. Given the nature of Salonia's injuries, police at first believed the screwdriver might be the murder weapon, even though it had no visible blood on it. It was early in the investigation, and detectives looked at all the angles, including Salonia's job at Citizens National Bank. She was a teller in the commercial section. She was described as being polite, kind, had a nice smile. Here she is taking part in a community fashion show just one week before her murder.

10:28Salonia and Reginald, who was a Marine and later a car salesman, met during their high school years. Salonia was known for being devoted to little Reggie, as everyone called him. But the night she disappeared, she left the six-year-old at home with his father, according to what Reginald told police. He and his son, Reginald Jr., were going to stay and play video games while she went out to a local bar with her girlfriend. Officer Mews interviewed that friend, who denied she and Salonia had plans that night. Reginald told police he suspected Salonia had a boyfriend and admitted he and his wife had personal differences.

11:09But Ward says the police found no evidence of an affair. Based on the research that I had conducted, her co-workers, the people that knew her, said that she just went to work and came home, that she was always seen with her little boy. The day after her body was found, investigators searched the family home on Apple Street. The chief of police said that when he went in, it smelled like bleach in the house. Detectives looked for evidence that Salonia may have been killed there, But all they found was a freshly vacuumed carpet and the gold clasp of a necklace. Reginald gave investigators permission to interview little Reggie, the only other person in the home the night of the murder.

11:52In this police video, a detective questions Reggie as his father fidgets with the beanbag intended for his son. Tell me what you remember about that night. Reggie Jr. became his father's alibi. The boy said he and his father played video games and then slept together in the same sofa bed on that August night. Did anybody come over? Did anybody leave? Everybody stayed home that night? When little Reggie agrees that everybody stayed home, his father looks at him. Hey, everybody. Everybody stayed home that night?

12:35Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. We just talking.

12:47She wants to just give her a question. What's the matter, baby? He said he didn't want to talk anymore. Oh, you don't want to talk anymore? It's just emotional. Okay. That's all right. Look. Didn't I tell you before that I'm your phone? Oh, he's here, baby. I don't want to talk. OK, darling, I won't talk no more. You don't have to. I just can't imagine what it's like as a six-year-old to have to sit there and looking at that, it's still hard to believe that that's me. Watching that video just brings back so many questions and pain because I see me crying. In the aftermath of Salonia's murder, her family came forward with more information, some of it directed at one of Reginald's friends, Jimmy Ray Barnes.

13:46Turns out, Barnes smoked Winston cigarettes, the same brand found in Salonia's car. And Salonia's sister, Gwen Smith, said that Salonia did not like Jimmy Ray. Apparently she knew Jimmy Ray's voice because she started screaming, come inside, I don't trust him. So she was scared of him.

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15:44In the days after Salonia's murder, there was one name police kept hearing. Jimmy Ray Barnes, a friend of Reginald Sr. Jimmy Ray Barnes was an acquaintance of Reginald Reed. He hung out with him. He worked with him. Lieutenant Ward learned about a disturbing incident at a local beach where Salonia was swimming with little Reggie just days before the murder. They were on inner tubes. Jimmy flipped Salonia over. She didn't feel that it was a playful thing. She felt that it was deliberate and intentional. She was not a good swimmer, and she said she struggled to make it to the bank. The next night, her sister Gwen said Salonia became frightened when a relative who was visiting Salonia spotted Jimmy Ray Barnes near her home.

16:33And she said Salonia went into hysterics like, No, no, don't go out there. Don't go out there. And within a few moments, Jimmy Ray Barnes walked around the corner of the house. Jimmy told her that he was checking on Salonia, and she ran him off. Ward would learn that Jimmy Ray, along with Reginald, came under even more scrutiny two days after the murder. A witness came forward to say she had seen two men around John's curb market on the night Salonia was murdered. She became suspicious and later wrote down on a piece of scrap paper the license plate. As it turns out, that was the vehicle that Reginald Reed was known to operate in.

17:16That was his car. Some two weeks later, police assembled this photo array and showed it to the witness. The witness identified the driver as Reginald Reed and the passenger as Jimmy Ray Barnes. Jimmy Ray was given a polygraph test and police at the time said he passed. But it wasn't long before Jimmy Ray left Hammond. Reginald denied having anything to do with Salonia's murder. But neighbors told police the marriage was trouble. Family members say Salonia had accused her husband of physical abuse. And there was talk of divorce. The police continued investigating, but prosecutors never brought the case to a grand jury.

18:00There's a lot of circumstantial evidence in 1987 that pointed to Reginald Reed and Jimmy Ray Barnes. As far as a smoking gun, it was not there at that time. I started feeling like nothing was going to be done about her murder and we would not get justice. Time passed and Reginald continued to live in Hammond. He even ran for mayor in 1998. R.A.L. Reggie Reed, number eight. You can count on me. Thank you. He lost that race. But he and little Reggie stayed in the family home, which today has fallen into disrepair. So this is it. What's it like for you to just come back here? I know you don't like to, but what does it feel like?

18:49I feel numb. Yeah, I feel numb. This is where it all started. You know, this is the halls I used to run. This is the TV room. This was the TV room. When you were playing Nintendo with your father, the night that your mother was murdered, was that here? That was in this room. Reggie went on to attend college and later got an MBA. He moved out of Hammond and began working for a pharmaceutical company. There were no new developments on his mother's murder until 2011, when Lieutenant Barry Ward of the Louisiana State Police got involved. After I started interacting with Salonia's family, her sisters, I realized how important it was.

19:36Before Barry Ward came into the picture, I just felt like nobody cared about Salonia's case. This was just the last opportunity I felt before more witnesses passed away that we would have a chance to find justice for this terrible crime that happened to Salonia. As far as Ward could determine, the crucifix and screwdriver found within days of the murder led nowhere. But the detective was drawn to several life insurance policies Reginald had taken out on Salonia that paid out more than$700 ,000. Some of those policies were taken out the same month that Salonia was murdered. Ward wanted to re-interview Reggie Jr.

20:20in 2012. Reggie was 31 years old and living in Texas. Ward sent a Texas ranger to begin the questioning. He told me why he was here, and it was to discuss my mother's murder. And the ranger then told Reggie something he said he'd never heard before. He was not aware that his father was a suspect in the murder of his mother. I was like, where is this coming from? I'm like, it's been over three decades. You're talking about my dad, like, killed my mom. I'm like, seriously. I remember asking, is there any new evidence that will surface? And it was nothing new. It's true that the insurance policies had been discovered by the original detectives, but Lieutenant Ward had organized them in a way that he felt was damning.

21:13The Texas Ranger asked Reggie about those policies. He showed me a graph, a timeline that showed these insurance policies that were taken out close to her death. Did you all of a sudden say, I need to get to the bottom of this or what? It was eye opening because I'm like, well, that doesn't look good. I got to learn more. Like, what's all this? Reggie struggled to make sense of it all. I did talk to my dad about it over the phone, and his response was he took out policies on everyone. Reggie said he finds it hard to square what the investigation revealed with the loving father who raised him. I look back, I'm like, man, he really did do some great stuff for me.

22:03He was a great provider. Ward took a deep dive into the case file and focused on that Winston cigarette butt found in Salonia's car. He sent it out for DNA testing, something that was not widely available in 1987. There was a match in the National Crime DNA Database, CODIS, but not to Jimmy Ray. It came back to a man by the name of Billy Ray Barnes. Billy Ray was Jimmy Ray's identical twin brother, and the DNA supervisor had another surprise. He let me know that identical twins share identical DNA. Lieutenant Ward decided he had to interview Jimmy Ray, and it turned out that Jimmy Ray had been holding on to some key information all these years.

22:54Jimmy Ray Barnes did tell me that Reginald Reed offered him$50 ,000 to quote-unquote knock off his wife.

23:18In July 2012, Lieutenant Barry Ward went on the hunt for Jimmy Ray Barnes. who had become a prime suspect in the Salonia Reed murder case after his DNA was linked to the crime scene. Ward found Barnes in the Atlanta area, where he said Barnes told him he'd fled Hammond because he was afraid of Reginald Reed. Barnes said back then he'd been shot at three times and hit once in the neck. Barnes suspected the shooter was Reginald, but had no proof. Jimmy said he was known to carry a gun, but you fast forward 25, now 30 years, Reginald Reed was now an old man. We're on. Barnes was ready to talk about Reed without a lawyer.

24:05I ain't got nothing to have. Barnes told Ward that a few days before Salonia was killed, Reed asked him if he would, quote, knock off his wife. Reginald asked you if you would, quote, by your term, knock off his wife. And that means you took that to mean to kill her, to murder her. What was your response to that? Hell, nothing. Did he discuss any money with you? Yeah, he discussed the money. Ward pressed Barnes to tell him how much money. More than$5 ,000? Yeah. More than$10 ,000? Yeah. More than$50 ,000? $50 ,000. He offered you$50 ,000? Is that a guess, or is that the amount he offered? The amount he offered.

24:46But Barnes told Ward that he would not repeat the story in court. I don't trust the law, Lomo. Ward confronted Barnes about that polygraph test from the original case file. Barnes allegedly had passed that polygraph, but Ward suspected Jimmy Ray secretly had asked his identical twin, Billy Ray, to take that test. I talked to Billy, and he said he took that polygraph test. And if Billy looked like you and was questioned over a murder that you took part in, and he doesn't know anything about it, he's probably going to pass that polygraph test. Would that be fair to say? I don't know. I'm not going to answer that because I know I'm the one who took the polygraph test.