Murder With My Husband - 294. What Really Happened To Selonia Reed?

Episode Date: November 10, 2025

On this episode, Payton and Garrett dive into the case of a mother who left home and never came back. Years later, the truth would shatter her own family from the inside out. Links: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Case Sources: CBS.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/selonia-reed-louisiana-murder-reginald-reed-sr-48-hours/ AETV.com - https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/selonia-reed-murder DailyMail.co.uk - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13294173/reggie-reed-jr-relationship-father-convicted-murderer-selonia.html BayouJustice.com - https://bayoujustice.com/2023/02/what-really-happened-to-selonia-reed/ Fox8Live.com - https://www.fox8live.com/2023/01/31/nearly-40-years-after-wifes-murder-hammond-man-receives-life-sentence/ TrueCrimeDocket.com - https://truecrimedocket.com/2024/04/19/the-selonia-reed-case-writing-a-memoir-about-my-mothers-murder/ WBRZ.com - https://www.wbrz.com/news/man-faces-life-sentence-in-decades-old-cold-case-surrounding-wife-s-murder/ HammondStar.com - https://www.hammondstar.com/news/justice-at-last-in-selonia-reed-case/article_33a1046b-2e38-5757-a30d-503538cf94c8.html CaseLaw.FindLaw.com - https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/la-court-of-appeal/117269696.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Conditions and exclusions apply. Get no frills delivered. Shop the same in-store prices online and enjoy unlimited delivery with PC Express Pass. Get your first year for $2.50 a month. Learn more at p.c.express.ca. You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with my husband. I'm Peyton Morland. And I'm Garrett Morland.

And he's the husband. And we just recorded for 15 minutes and realized we did not hit record. Dude, what are we going to stop doing that? Like, it's such a rookie mistake. We just recorded. It was good. I was ready to go. I was excited. We got our 10 seconds in. We got everything in. And now we have to start over. So we're going to speed run this one. Ready? Yeah. Go. First, thank you for being here. We love you guys very much.

Two, the names of the people who said hi to us this last couple of weeks. We said we're going to do it and we forgot. Now we're doing it again. We got Cindy and Zach. Cheesecake Factory. We have Kelly. Dutch Bros. Dutch Bros. What was the other one? Shauna. From Corn Bellies. We love you guys. If you ever come up to us and you don't want us to say your name, just tell us we won't say it. But it's, I love it.

It is so fun. I love when you guys come up. I love meeting you. Yeah. So don't ever be scared if you see us to just even say hi. Yeah. Three. My 10 seconds.

Yep. Basically, long story short, I've been eating a bunch of gummy bears and they've been messing up my mouth, getting stuck in my teeth, giving me sores everywhere. They're big, thick, huge gummy bears. Baddy gummy bears. Not going to eat them anymore. They messed me up. I ate the whole box ready.

So now I shouldn't have any more issues. That was fast. That was way faster than. Imagine if we were that efficient every time. Very efficient. Do you guys like that? Actually, I'm not even going to ask you guys because I don't really want to know the answer. Because some of you be like, yeah, we hate when you talk at the beginning.

I don't want to freaking hear it, okay? I don't want to hear it, right? Here's 10 seconds more like 10 minutes. I'm doing it's not even 10 seconds. Whatever. Oh, thanks for telling me. Didn't know that. Here's Looney.

You didn't know that. Anyways, we love you guys. Thank you for supporting us. You barely have haters. That's all we have. That's all I have for right now. Made that quick. Let's hop into today's case.

Our sources for this episode are cbs.com, aetv.com, dailymail.com. by you justice.com, fox8live.com, truecrime docket.com, WBRZ.com, Heymanstar.com, and caselaw.com. We all have these moments from our childhood that seem a bit fuzzy. Looking back at them, it can be hard to tell what's true, what pieces are missing, and what's entirely the work of our own imaginations. But there are some moments that stick with us so vividly that we will probably remember them to our dying day. Some are fond memories, vacations, celebrations, those defining moments. And others are tragic, times that shaped us or changed us forever. Regardless, it's these experiences that we think about repeatedly. It feels like nothing can reshape them. They start to

feel like hard, concrete facts, moments worthy of the history books. So when we grow up and someone tells us that those memories we have didn't exactly happen how we remember them that can mess with your head because it turns out our experiences and our memories of them are not infallible and sometimes the truth behind those moments can come out years later only to turn your world entirely upside down i think this is more common than people think of these at least getting like a clarification on a memory or like a mandela effect sort of thing in a sense yeah or like on a bigger scale yeah or like your memory all the sudden comes back or you're doing therapy and it can be brought up so it's like even things you didn't really weren't clear someone corrects i just think it's way more yeah now today

we are dialing back the clock to the year 1987 and we are traveling to hammond louisiana in the United States. It is here in Hammond. The 26-year-old Salonia Reed, or Lonnie, as her friends called her, is living with her husband, 27-year-old Reggie Reed. Now, Salonia worked at a hospital for a while before becoming a teller at a local citizen's national bank. So she's 26 working at a bank married. And many people seemed to love her there. They said, She was polite and kind. She was always wearing a smile. And her husband, Reggie, was a former Marine turned car salesman now at 27.

Now, this young married couple lived a modest, quiet life in the 80s, which was perfect for Salonia. As long as her little boy, six-year-old Reggie Jr. was by her side. Now, there weren't a whole lot of details about Salonia's life, but one thing all of the of the sources did mention was how incredibly dedicated she was to her little son. He was everything to her. The two were rarely ever apart. And one of their favorite things they loved to do together, especially on hot summer days, was wander around the mall and just window shop, which is so late 80s. Like, I'm sure the mall was just roaring at that time. Now, it's kind of sad. Like, malls just aren't what they used to be. There's so many dead malls.

Just online shopping and like there's some outdoor malls or people like because people like to walk around, but it's just like window shopping isn't really a huge thing I feel like. Low key, if you have a mall in your city that's not like L.A. that has like a huge grand mall, but kind of in a smaller city that actually is very popular, leave it in the comments because I feel like it's all those malls that have really died. So we are now at August 22nd, 1987. It is a Saturday. And that afternoon, Salonia picked up her sister, Gwen, from work, between 5.30 and 6 p.m. and gave her a ride home. Now, during this ride home, Salonia asked Gwen if she wanted to come to the mall with her and Reggie Jr. a little bit later that night. But Gwen tells her sister, I have other things to do this evening. Still, Salonia gets home, picks Reggie up for the mall as promised.

Now, they drive their mother and son, they walk around for a bit. And while they don't buy much, Salonia got Reggie a chocolate chip cookie. And after that, they went home. Reggie settled in to play some video games with his dad, and Salonia came in at one point and gave Reggie Jr. a kiss goodbye. She said she was going out for a bit with a friend. So that night, Reggie said his dad, this is Reggie Jr., says his dad puts him to bed because his mom is going out with a friend. Okay.

But the following morning, when Reggie woke up, he notices that his mother still isn't home. So around 6.20 a.m., Reggie Sr., his dad, calls Salonia's sister Gwen, the one she had picked up. the previous day and dropped off to ask if she's seen or heard from her. And when she says, no, I haven't, Reggie Sr. actually calls the police. And he tells them, his wife had gone out with a friend the night before and she hadn't come home. Though not even an hour later, the Reed family would get one of the worst calls of their life. That same morning, August 23rd, someone calls the police station saying a blue Chevy Sprint has been sitting in the parking lot of a gas station on East Thomas Street in Hammond and the caller says people have kind of gone up and checked

to see what this car that's been sitting here forever is doing and they think there is a body inside the car. Okay. Now this gas station is only a mile and a half from the Reed's home. And when police arrive, they find it is Salonia's car, the missing woman, and she is in the front seat. She has been stripped naked. Her earrings have been torn from her ears. She's been bludgeoned in the head and face and stabbed multiple times in the upper body. Investigators also notice she has been sexually assaulted. And a little graphic here, but the sexual assault involved an umbrella. I could have gone the rest of my life without knowing that.

Sorry, it's going to be important. Okay. Okay. So Salonia's body is stuck between the two front seats of the car and she's covered in this lotion-like substance that's on her torso. It looks to police like the lotion might have been put there to spell out some sort of message on the torso, like with letters. What the?

But with the southern and August heat and her body being sitting in a car, this message has melted. Like it's just kind of melting down. They don't know what it says. So police canvass the area immediately, but there are no eyewitnesses. There's no murder weapon. There is, however, a cigarette butt inside the car. So once they piece together that this is Salonia, which wasn't really hard because it was a mile and a half away from her home, it's her car, she's missing. And they learn more about her.

They realize that she isn't known to smoke. So this cigarette butt inside the car is a little strange. So they bag that as one of their key pieces of evidence. And that same day, Reggie Sr. and Jr. are brought into the station for questioning, obviously. And Reggie Sr. tells the police that he had stayed home and watched his son while Salonia went out the night before. He says she told him she was going out to a bar with a friend. friend from work, a friend named Melinda Mike. Though, Reggie Sr. said, he wasn't totally sure Salonia was telling the truth.

He believed that she might have been seeing someone on the side, that it is a possibility she had a boyfriend, and that's who she was going to see. And he says this because they are going through a rocky time in their marriage. But Reggie Sr. claims that after he went to the mall with his wife and son, he never left the house at all that night. He was home the entire time playing video games with Reggie Jr. And this is something that Reggie Jr. confirms to police when they question him that day as well. Now, I want to clarify, he is six years old at this time. So definitely old enough to, like, know what he did the night before.

Yeah, and I feel like definitely, yeah, definitely old enough to be like, oh, dad was gone or dad left here, dad wasn't here. But not old enough to, like, use context clues, if that makes sense, where he's like, Mom and Dad have been fighting, and then Mom left, you know what I mean. So the six-year-old says he and his father did play video games until it was time for bed, and the two even slept together in the same sofa bed that night. And when Reggie Jr. is asked, okay, well, did anyone stop by or come over to the house? He says, no.

And when asked if anyone left, he says no. Now, Reggie Sr., calm and encouraging, tells his son, don't be scared. You can answer any questions the detectives ask. But eventually, this interview, which is very common, it becomes too much for Reggie. He starts crying. He doesn't want to talk anymore. He doesn't understand why he's answering so many questions. This isn't fun.

And they notice, however, that there is something strange about Reggie Sr.'s appearance. So the son is done talking, but they notice the dad has these scratches on his neck. And when police are like, hey, Kay, what are those about? Reggie Sr. tells police he got them from their family dog. With all this to say, both father and son are being cooperative with the police. The dad even gives them permission to go back and search the home. And this is when things get a little weirder in the case. Because the chief of police himself actually goes over to investigate.

and he claims the house is immaculate. It has been freshly vacuumed. It smells like bleach. There's no evidence of foul play whatsoever. And the only thing they can find out of place is a small gold clasp from a necklace that is on the family's floor in the house. So this is when police are like, hey, I don't sure we're getting anything from the house. Let's start talking to other witnesses from the day she went missing. Now, when they speak to a security guard, it was working at the mall that night, he says, yeah, I actually did see that mother and her son, Reggie Jr., walking around. But he didn't see the dad at all. And if you remember at the beginning of this story, we do know that her and the boy went to the mall. That's what she told her sister. But we only find out that the dad went when he talks to police.

They go talk to the security guard. He's like, I didn't see a dad with them. Now, Salonia's sister Gwen also says that when she was asked to go to the mall, there was no mention of Reggie Sr. going to the mall with them, despite what he told police. Next, they call Salonia's co-worker, Melinda Mike, to say, hey, she said she was going with you. Did you go out with her? Interesting. And Melinda's like, no, I didn't see her last night.

We never had any plans to go to a bar. Uh-oh, okay. In fact, she tells police, I'm actually in a completely different town visiting family. I'm an hour away from home. And when police look into the possibility that Salonia was using that as a cover to go visit some secret boyfriend, just like Reggie Sr. had suggested, they also find zero evidence that that's the case. They do learn, however, that Reggie Sr. had apparently called Melinda the day Salonia's body was found. And threatened her saying, you know you were with Salonia last night.

And when she denied it, he said, well, you better say she was with you. Okay. So he calls the friend. I mean, that's okay. And he's like, yeah, you're going to tell police she was with you. And she's like, I'm an hour away. Like, I'm not even home. But like, why would she even agree to that?

She doesn't. Because when police come to- That's insanity. When police come to interview her, she's like, I'm an hour away. Oh, and also her husband called me and basically threatened me to tell you. guys, I was with her. Well, that's just case blown wide open. Right.

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found, police discover another clue. A neighbor of the reeds calls in to say he had a crucifix and a screwdriver in his mailbox that day. And they're not his. He's like, someone put these in my mailbox and my neighbor was just murdered.

So when police take it in for evidence, they find that the screwdriver and crucifix has no blood on them, but they still wonder if this could have been the weapon that caused those stab marks on Salonia's body. And they also learned something about the cigarette that they found in her car. One of Reggie's very good friends smoked the same brand as the one found. They learned this through people. And his name is Jimmy Ray Barnes. And the only reason his name is brought up about the cigarette and the brand is because turns out when they're talking to Salonia's friends,

they learn that she hates this guy. She hates her husband's friend, Jimmy Ray. In fact, she's terrified of him. Turns out just days before the murder, Salonia had had a pretty scary experience with Jimmy. They were at a local beach, swimming with Reggie Jr. Salonia was in an inner tube when Jimmy swam by and flipped her tube over. Now, Salonia wasn't a good swimmer, and everyone knew that about her. It's just funny that there's people who do stuff like that. I mean, I guess teach their own, but, like, I would never go up to one of Peyton's friends and just flip their tube over.

Low key, like, if one of your friends did that to me, you better, you better grab me. Maybe if you're, like, a brother, like a sister or something, like I could see it, but like, a friend, like, nah. that's not happening like it's just not happening yeah i mean i believe in consent for everything but it's kind of like i shouldn't get into this it's kind of like the wedding videos you see where the guy starts going a little too hard at throwing cake at his new wife like whoa dude you need calm down a little bit anyways off topic sorry we'll get back into it well this is what i'm saying though like physical action of any kind should have consent i told garrett hey just so you know like you're not

smashing cake in my face because i don't consent to that like i don't want that i want none of it and he was like, yeah, me either. So we decided not to do that. And I think the same for water. No, yeah, to each their own. I'm just saying for someone to come flip someone's tube without them asking. Oh yeah. That's not really. It's not okay. No, that's not really okay. And everyone knows that she can't swim. So she's like, this is deliberate. Like that was aggressive. Like you know I can't swim. Yeah. So she struggles to swim back to the banks without Jimmy offering to lend a hand. Like he flips her, sees her struggling, doesn't do anything. That's weird. And then the following day, things get even weirder when Salonia saw Jimmy Ray Barnes lurking outside near her home.

Salonia actually had a relative over at the time and began going into hysterics, telling them don't go outside, don't open the door. I don't like that guy. He just flipped my tube yesterday. And then Jimmy comes closer to the house and said he was just there to check on her. So the relative is like Jimmy off the property now. she's not comfortable, you're not checking on her, like, leave. But this isn't the only connection police learn of.

Apparently, two days after the murder, a witness came forward to say, they actually saw two men around the gas station the night of Salonia's death. They were acting a little suspicious, so the witness wrote down the license plate number. No way. That is something, that's so cool. I love them people do stuff like that. weird. I'm just going to take the license plate in case. And then Salonia turns up dead in the, in the gas station parking lot. What are the chances? That's so crazy. And take a guess. Who do you think this license plate belongs to that they took down? Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy. No. Oh. Reggie, senior, her husband. Oh, yeah. I mean, after the whole mall lying thing, it was 100. Yeah. So, police are like, hey, this witness who took down the license plate that happens to be Reggie's, let's get a photo of Jimmy Ray to see if this is the other guy that was seen with him at the gas station where his wife later turned up murdered. And they're like, yep, witness says those are the two guys.

Okay. Now, obviously, there is a lot of evidence suggesting both Reggie Sr. and Jimmy Ray, his friend, were somehow connected. to Salonia's murder. The problem is it's kind of circumstantial. Like, yes, you have eyewitnesses. You have the security guard who says, no, husband wasn't here. You have the gas station who did take down

the license plate number, which is pretty physical. But she's also identifying the two men. That's not like they were caught on camera. Yeah. And then you have the friend who was like, yeah, he told me to say I was with her. It's all a little bit odd.

Yeah, I just don't know how much more evidence you need. Right. A lot of stories, not a ton of evidence, but also remember, it is 1987. And the only thing is Reggie Sr. ultimately has an alibi. If you remember, his six-year-old son says, we played video games until bed and we slept on the same bed until morning. No one left. Now, ultimately, there was no real smoking gun because you also haven't. It's eyewitness against eyewit. which is why over the years they don't arrest Reggie Sr. or Jimmy and things start to slow down. Even at the Reed home, Salonia's death starts to become a little bit of a distant memory. Reggie Jr. says his dad never really talked about his mom with him. It was always just an elephant in the room. And it wasn't until Reggie was a teenager. And he went to the library on his own to begin searching his mother's murder that he learned the details of his mother's murder. He really didn't know. And he didn't know how she had been killed. It seems Reggie had heard

whispers over the years that his dad was a suspect, but that never really made sense to him, obviously, because he believed his dad was home with him. And it became even less believable when Reggie Jr., 17 years old, supported his dad who was now running for mayor of the town. Wait, so we just skipped basically 10 years. Mm-hmm. No one's been arrested. He was the prime suspect.

That's mind-blowing that they couldn't, from that, I guess they just were scared that if a jury didn't find him guilty, then you let him go. You let him go, yeah. Oh, man, that's crazy. So Reggie Jr. claims that during this time, his dad running for mayor, there was no mention of his dad's involvement in his mom's case. And in the world of politics, he's like, all of the skeletons are pulled out of the closet. So if this wasn't a big deal, the fact I was never mentioned during this campaign really puts any of Reggie Jr's doubts he had once researching the case to rest. He's like, my dad's a stand-up man, someone who actively works to benefit the community. Now, Reggie Senior didn't. win the election. But life goes on for the family. Reggie Jr. goes on to get his MBA. He moved out of Hammond altogether and got a job working for a pharmaceutical company. And meanwhile, there was

this entire secret history between Reggie Sr. and Salonia that Reggie Jr. never was really aware of. So, according to Salonia's sister Gwen, there had been a lot of. There had been a lot of, a lot of dark days in the marriage before Salonia was found murdered. Not only was their talk of divorce between the two, but Salonia had told Gwen that her husband had been physically abusive towards her on more than one occasion. Okay. Now, if you remember, Reggie Sr. does tell the cops that they were in a rocky state in their marriage, but Gwen is giving us a little bit more details that Salonius son Reggie Jr. never even

knew about. When Salonia was still working at the hospital, Reggie Sr. would show up each payday and demand that Salonia hand him her paycheck. Sometimes Solonia would show up to work at the hospital with sunglasses on, not taking them off because she had black eyes. And at the time, Salonia also didn't have a car. So Reggie, her husband, was picking her up from work each day, sometimes making her wait hours after her shift had ended. He would just show up when it was convenient for him. And when Salonia's co-workers offered to give her a ride, she would refuse because she said,

it makes my husband angry if I go home with, like if I get a ride, he wants to be the one to take me home. Okay. Another time, Reggie senior sister Claudette was over right after Salonia gave birth to Reggie Jr. And she said Solonia was working. out hard right after giving birth because she wanted to lose the baby weight. And so

Claudette, her sister-in-law is like sitting here watching Salonia do sit-ups in the living room. And that's when Reggie Sr. comes in and stomps on Salonia's stomach saying he's just trying to help her lose weight for her boyfriend. Okay. What is happening? And Claudette like sees all of the. this. According to Claudette, he even had tapped the phone lines of his home and recorded every conversation Salonia was having with people so that he could listen back to every phone call she was making and always like accusing her of having a boyfriend, even though there was no evidence of it. Oh, gosh, dude. What is wrong? So you have members from her family and members from

his family who firsthand witnessed abuse. It's a pretty clear sign that this was domestically abusive. Their relationship was not healthy, but there was more to it than that. Reggie Sr. was also pulling off some insurance scams that Salonia was seemingly aware of. Apparently, sometimes shortly before or after she gave birth, Reggie Sr. started moving a bunch of boxes out of their house and into his mother's garage. And then he sent Salonia over to stay at his mother's house for a few days. She didn't seem to ask any questions. But while she was there, she learned, that there had been a fire at their house. She learned later that Reggie, her husband,

had actually increased the policy on their homeowner's insurance just a week before this sudden mysterious house fire. It seems a lot of this got past Reggie Jr., though. He's just a kid, he's young, you know, it's just a little boy. Obviously, Salonia was aware enough to be like, I'm pretty sure my husband just burnt our house down

to collect money. Reggie Jr. did know that his father was strict, but he said he never experienced any sort of physical abuse growing up. Still, Salonia's family was aware, and they never really gave up their suspicions that Reggie Sr. most likely killed her. So they kept pressuring the police to reopen the case over the years, and finally, in 2011, 24 years later. A new detective with the Louisiana State Police gets involved. His name is Lieutenant Barry Ward. And he feels this is probably the last chance to go after this case before eyewitnesses start to pass away.

So he and his team go in and collect all of the evidence and files that Hammond Police Department gathered back in the late 80s. They even tracked down all of the retired police officers who would work to the case and they begin asking them questions. And while they find that a lot of the evidence, like the crucifix and the screwdriver that was found in the neighbor's mailbox, had gone nowhere in the case, there was one detail that stuck out like a sore thumb.

And that is the many life insurance policies Reggie Sr. had gotten before his wife died. Now, as we know now, this is a very big motive between spousal murder. Turns out, Reggie Sr. had taken out two policies with State Farm and three with another company. And three of those policies were taken out less than three weeks before Salonia's murder, which totaled $421,000. And Reggie Sr. was, of course, the beneficiary on each of those policies. And what's even more interesting is Reggie Jr. never saw a dime of this insurance money. He put himself through college using student loans. Meanwhile, Claudette said, remember, this is the one who witnessed the physical abuse.

She remembered her brother taking her and Salonia to a movie two years before the murder. And this movie was called Jagged Edge. It's basically where a man murders his wife for insurance money. Claudette thinks she thinks this is where her brother got the idea to murder his wife in the first place. Plotette also said that after Salonia died, Reggie Sr. encouraged her to increase her own husband's insurance policy. And when she refused, he got someone to draft up the paperwork for her anyways. What?

Which then you're probably like, is he going to kill my... Yeah, that's insane. So now Reggie Jr. claims that while he knew his father had come across some money after his mother's death, He had no idea that it had been like multiple policies, hundreds of thousands of dollars. As far as he was concerned, his father still had nothing to do with his mother's murder. Even in 2012, a year after the investigation had been reopened and police came knocking on the now 31-year-old Reggie's door, Reggie got his first official confirmation that his dad really was the primary suspect in his mother's murder. So as you can imagine, Reggie Jr. is shocked by this. He's like, my mother's been dead for decades. Why are you knocking on my door now blaming my dad? He asks the police, he's like, is there new evidence? And that's when the police show him all the files on the insurance policy. How his dad took them out so close to the time of his mother's death, how this was all overlooked the first time around. They also tell Reggie, they are sending some of the old evidence, particularly

that cigarette butt that was found inside Salonia's car, that's like pretty hard evidence, off to the DNA labs to now be tested with new technology. But in the meantime, this is a lot for Reggie Jr. to process. He's thinking, how can this man that I love, that my father, who raised me, supported me, be the person who killed my mother when I was six years old? He was home with me when this happened. He's like, no, like cops, you don't understand. He was home with me.

so he decides to confront his dad with this information he's like hey dad they came this is what they've told me they are like definitely looking into you again and reggie senior says that's not evidence son i took insurance policies out on everyone but if you remember reggie junior grew up to be pretty smart so he starts doing his own investigation trying to get access to his mother's case files witness statements forensic reports investigative note anything that could help him really come to his own conclusion. And in due time, his perception of what he believed happened all those years ago when he truly, truly believed his dad had been with him all night.

Changed. Starts to unravel. Especially when police actually do get a read off that cigarette. They run those new results through the National Crime Database, Kodas. They get a hit. It is a Barnes, but it is. is not Jimmy Ray Barnes. So not the guy that everyone had said,

oh, this is who we're worried, helped do it. It actually appears to be a match to Billy Ray Barnes, his brother. However, they are identical twins. Identical twins have nearly identical DNA. So they're thinking this was probably a match because Billy is in the system and Jimmy isn't. That's crazy.

Like, Kodas probably brought Billy up because it's so close. Correct. You know how they always are like, it's a 1.0.0% chance? Well, this is the actual example of that happening. Jimmy isn't in the system. But here's what's interesting. Back during the initial investigation, Jimmy was polygraphed and he passed. But now Lieutenant Ward has a theory.

Maybe Billy had taken the polygraph for Jimmy. Like maybe he sent his brother in to take it. That would be why. This is going to be crazy if it's true. So he's like, whatever, I'm cracking down on Jimmy, Billy,

and Reggie Sr. We are finding the truth once and for all. And when they find Jimmy, he's living in Atlanta, Georgia now. He's in a camper on his boss's property.

When Ward questions him, he says, I fled Louisiana years ago because I was terrified of Reggie Sr. So now he's like turning on his friend, even though they're both suspects.

He claims he had been shot at three separate times. by someone he couldn't see once he was even hit in the neck. And he thinks it was Reggie Sr. trying to get him to leave. So he got the heck out of Dodge and he'd been laying low and he agreed to tell the police more. He said, yeah, Reggie Sr. did ask me back in the day, years and years ago, if he could, quote, knock off his wife. He said we did eventually agree on a price, $50,000, but there was just one problem.

Jimmy was refusing to testify to any of this in court. He's like, I'm not doing it. So they come back. They're like, hey, we're going to offer you immunity if you testify. And Jimmy's like, I don't think you guys are. He rejects this get out of jail free card. It's almost like he didn't believe this system would stick to it. I mean, there's times they haven't.

Yeah, they do promise things. And then. So, I mean, I don't like 100% blame him for saying, no, I don't know if he's guilty or not yet with what's going on. but he doesn't trust police though as officers are leaving he does stop them and say quote i want you boys to know that i am the key to all of this and if you think you can indict me for murder then just do it i have no idea why he's tattling on himself right here and why wouldn't you just take the deal he just got yeah like i'm more guilty is he trying to call their bluff like he's like hey arrest me if you if you you have it arrest me i don't know but police aren't bluffing

They have DNA. A couple weeks later, they had second-degree murder and conspiracy indictments for Jimmy and Reggie Sr. Their first stop was Reggie Sr.'s house, armed with an arrest warrant. On June 21st, 2019, more than 30 years after Salonia's death, Reggie Reed was finally in handcuffs. Still considering his innocence, Reggie Jr. puts up $250,000 for his father's bail. Jimmy Ray Barnes is also arrested and charged. Now he's realizing the investigators weren't bluffing, and he's like, never mind, I'll talk, I'll talk us, let me get out of this. So as he's awaiting trial, police go to him with a proposition.

They will lessen the charges from second degree murder to accessory after the fact. This is an immunity. Like they first offered. It's probably like five years. They're like, you will get a much lighter sentence. Just tell us everything that happened that night. And you have to be willing to testify against your old friend, Reggie Sr., who was. your accomplice. And here's what Jimmy says. Jimmy had actually met Salonia first at the bank

she worked at about a year or so before the murder. She then introduced him to her husband, Reggie Sr., who hired him to do some work on their house. They became friends and after knowing Jimmy for about six months, Reggie went to him and said he needed help. He wanted someone to take care of his wife. And he was willing to pay 50 grand to make it happen. Now, Jimmy thinks that he's joking at first, but Reggie Sr. is like, I'm going to tell you the detailed plan. He said that on August 22nd, he agreed to meet Reggie Sr.

at a parking area outside the gas station. Seems he may have even been driving Reggie's car because of the eyewitnesses who got the license plate. Meanwhile, Reggie shows up in Salonia's blue car with Salonia in the passenger seat. She has blood and tears on her face, according to Jimmy, but she wasn't moving. He said, Reggie asked him to get in and help him move the body, but Jimmy panicked and refused.

So Jimmy's like, I didn't have anything to do. I just knew that he killed her. Instead, he said, they left Salonia right there in the parking lot. Reggie Sr. gets into Jimmy's car and that's presumably Reggie's car. And they then drive Reggie home. He insisted I had nothing to do with the actual murder. I was just guilty of being there driving the car for him. and seeing her dead body.

In fact, he said that later that night, Reggie Sr. was the one who returned to the crime scene, stripped Salonia naked and covered her in that lotion, hoping it would look more like a sex crime. So he actually goes back, not to spell this out for you, he goes back to the crime scene, sexually assaults his wife. Yeah, that's disgusting.

To try and stage it. Horrible human being. Who's dead by now? Grant, it's been 30 years and he's still not in prison? Like, absolute trash. A dead body. Okay. This left a few plot holes in the story.

Like, how did Jimmy's cigarette get in the car if he never actually got in the car, helped move the body, refused to help? How was that cigarette in her car? True. And a fellow inmate later testified that Jimmy admitted to him that he and his brother Billy were paid to kill Salonia after she was caught having an affair. Oh, great. So now it's already.

That Jimmy had used a hammer. Billy had used an ice pick before leaving her body in the car. But investigators still think now we believe Reggie Sr. had a hand in the killing that Salonia had came home the night after Reggie Jr. passed out on the couch, which is why Reggie Jr. would remember his mom leaving, but she really did come home. And that Reggie Sr. killed her after she came home in their bedroom. The son was sleeping in the living room thinking his dad was still asleep next to him. He then placed her in the car, met up with Jimmy at the gas station, where he then helped Reggie cover the crime. This is what police think happened. So you can only imagine how Reggie Jr. feels when he hears this theory. He remembers saying goodbye to his mother that night and her never coming home. Now he's like, did I just sleep? Like, was I asleep in the room next door as my father who I thought was asleep next to me was and using me as an alibi was actually killing my mother?

That would turn someone's entire reality upside down. Yeah, that would mess with you. That would really mess with your mind. That would be hard to grasp. He's having a really hard time about whether to support his dad at this point. point who's awaiting trial. He doesn't know. He's kind of been no offense, but he's kind of been brainwashed for the last 20 years. And it makes it harder. There is no murder weapon that they found. There's no fingerprints. They searched the house where apparently this crime took

place in the theory the prosecution is putting forward. They found nothing of no aside from a necklace clasp and a faint smell of bleach. The only thing they did have was an answer to that white lotion that was found on Salonia's body. Apparently, police were able to find. find that exact brand and type of lotion back at the Reed's home. So when the trial begins in November of 2022, it's all circumstantial. This is actually one of the critical pieces of evidence is that, hey, the lotion that was found in the car where she was found murdered was back at the house, which is why we can now say we believe the murder happened back at the house. And they also use, you know, the other

circumstantial evidence I have told you. Obviously, the defense is like, hey, there was no DNA under her fingernails. So the defense is like Jimmy did it alone. Jimmy did it alone. You guys have the wrong guy or are they both involved? This is all trying to get basically figured out at trial. But on November 18th, 2022, 40 years after the crime, Reggie Sr. is found guilty of second degree murder. 40 years. How old is he at this point? 70, 80? Got to be old. I mean, if he was 27 at the time. Yeah, so he's 77 years old. Oh, sorry, 67 years old, my bad. He's sentenced to life in prison for his wife's murder,

and Jimmy Ray Barnes was given a five-year sentence for his cooperation. He was actually released a little bit earlier. Yeah, five years. In January of 2024, however, he was back in Hammond attending his twin brother, Billy Ray's funeral, Billy Ray, who they thought was DNA. And while he's there, back at this place where he was, at least somewhat involved, Jimmy Ray dies in a car accident

while attending his twin brother's funeral. That's crazy. In the place that he had run away from. As for Reggie Jr., he says he still doesn't know where he stands. He's like, I'm not sure my dad got a fair trial. Every day he goes back and forth. He doesn't have any answers.

Oh, that would be so hard. I'm so sorry. He's like, but I just can't see him as a monster that killed my mother. In fact, he wrote a memoir about this entire experience called The Day My Mother Never Came Home. And I'm sure Reggie still questions what he remembers from that night, whether his memories are accurate, manufactured, have they been twisted or molded? How can you not question the past when the present throws you curveballs like this? But there's one thing Reggie doesn't seem to question. It's his own future.

So while Reggie Sr. is filing appeals, Reggie Jr. is focusing on his own family, a wife, a son, and a little girl he had who he named Salonia after his mother. That's nice. And that is the case of Salonia Reed, but I think something about this case that just goes to show is how nuanced all of this is. And again, I've said it 100 times how many victims there are when one person is. is murdered. The kids of these cases, the family members of these cases, it is not black and white for them. Yeah, I think it's really hard because I think it's a lot easier for us as an outside perspective to look at this case and be like, oh, Reggie did it. It's just a lot more difficult when you're, I mean, someone involved, when there's emotions evolved, when there's relationships involved, that's when things become so much more difficult. So it's just hard. That's

really it's a really difficult one and i will say like i think the reason this case is hard to fathom is because there really still isn't a clear story of what happened like you have the prosecutions theory but there's no physical evidence you don't even know what the murder weapon is you don't know if the murder happened in the car or if it happened back like there's just so much i don't like that i don't like that there's so much that we don't know for sure do i think raged did it yes could i say a hundred percent certain he did don't know i really don't know it would be So, I mean, and they tell juries all the time. Listen, you don't need to actually know anything.

You just need to know if he did it. Yeah. Like, you don't need the details. You just need to tell us of he's guilty. And I think I've come to the point where sometimes things just aren't going to make sense. See, I'm like, I need the details. And I just don't know if we'll always have them because easy to lie. It's easy to hide things.

It's easier than we think it is. I think juries go. All the circumstantial evidence points to him and that is enough for us. Without a reasonable doubt, he did it, even though we don't have the physical evidence or the really the clear story. All right, you guys, that is our episode for today. Please keep the surviving family members of this case in your thoughts today. Remember that this is real and truly, truly does affect them every single day. Have grace because you aren't in their shoes.

We will see you next time with another episode. I love it. I hate it. Goodbye. Thank you.