Louisiana cold case reopens as father’s alibi is questioned

Selonia Reed was 26 and working as a bank teller when she was killed on Aug. 23, 1987. Her body was inside her blue 1986 Chevrolet Sprint in a vacant lot near John’s Curb Market, about a mile and a half from the Reed home. She had been bludgeoned, stabbed multiple times, stripped naked and sexually assaulted. An autopsy later showed she died that night from multiple stab wounds to the chest and neck.

Reginald Reed Sr. told police his wife had gone out with a girlfriend the night before and reported her missing about an hour before the body was found on Aug. 24, 1987. The girlfriend later said she and Selonia had no plans to go out that night. Selonia had told relatives that Reed was physically abusive and that she had discussed getting a divorce.

In the hours after the killing, police interviewed Reggie Reed Jr., then 6, with his father sitting beside him. The child said he and his father had spent the evening playing video games and sleeping together on the sofa bed, giving Reed Sr. an alibi. Reggie has said he did not learn until adulthood that his father was the prime suspect, and only then, after a Texas Ranger came to his home in 2012.

Louisiana State Police reopened the case in 2011. DNA evidence, witness statements and material from a cigarette found in Selonia’s car linked Reed Sr. and Jimmy Ray Barnes. Barnes later admitted knowledge of the crime, pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to first-degree murder, and received a five-year sentence. He had been offered $50,000 to help make Selonia disappear.

A grand jury indicted Reed Sr. and Barnes on June 21, 2019. Reed Sr. was convicted of second-degree murder in 2022 and sentenced on Jan. 30, 2023, to life in prison without parole, probation or suspension of sentence. A Louisiana appeals court affirmed the conviction and sentence on May 13, 2025.