Mother Charged With Capital Murder After Toddler Reported Missing on Christmas

Adrienne Reid, 33, was charged with capital murder and abuse of a corpse in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Genesis Nova Reid, with Enterprise police making the announcement publicly on March 9 — what would have been Genesis's third birthday. Charging documents allege Reid killed her daughter on Christmas Day 2025, nearly two months before she reported the child missing.

Genesis had spent December 25 visiting relatives in Dothan, according to Enterprise Police Chief Michael Moore, and returned home late that night. She was not reported missing until February 16, when Reid called police from the family's Apache Drive home. That missing-person report itself is now the basis of an additional charge: Reid already faces counts of making false statements to officers for what she told investigators that day.

The key piece of evidence, according to Moore, is surveillance video obtained by investigators that allegedly shows Reid throwing a duffel bag containing Genesis's remains into a dumpster. Physical remains, however, have not been recovered. Coffee County Sheriff Scott Byrd described plans for a massive landfill search using specialized equipment and modern forensic techniques, with the search area already narrowed to no more than 200 square feet. "We have a team of experts from Atlanta coming in this week," Byrd said, though he cautioned that locating decomposed remains would be a tedious process.

The absence of a body has complicated the forensic picture. No cause of death has been revealed, and officials acknowledged that determining one would likely be difficult given the anticipated condition of the remains.

Coffee County District Attorney James Tarbox left no ambiguity about how aggressively he intends to prosecute the case: he promised to seek the death penalty. Under Alabama law, capital murder cases must meet specific aggravating factors to qualify for the death penalty, though the exact statutory basis for the capital charge has not been publicly specified.

Prior to Monday's charges, investigators had conducted cadaver dog searches around the Apache Drive home, and neighbors had told reporters they hadn't seen Genesis for weeks before she was officially reported missing. An eyewitness account suggested Reid had been evasive about her daughter's whereabouts two days before filing the missing-person report. Moore credited the Enterprise community's cooperation with advancing the investigation, thanking residents who submitted tips and the numerous law enforcement agencies that assisted.

Genesis Nova Reid never made it to her third birthday. The search for her remains continues.