294. What Really Happened To Selonia Reed?

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

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:30Speaker 01

  Now streaming on Paramount Plus. I'm Dexter Morgan. I've been killing killers for half my life. It gets to you. You're having a midlife crisis. I'm not ready for this. He's back. I'm older. I'm wiser. And sharper than ever. Things are gonna get messy. But if I can't believe in myself, I can't believe in anything. Dexter Resurrection. New season now streaming on the Paramount Plus Premium Plan.

• 1:00Payton Moreland?

  You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with My Husband. I'm Payton Moreland.

• 1:07Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm Garrett Moreland.

• 1:08Payton Moreland?

  And he's the husband.

• 1:09Garrett Moreland?

  And we just recorded for 15 minutes and realized we did not hit record.

• 1:12Payton Moreland?

  Dude, when are we gonna stop doing that? Like, it's such a rookie mistake.

• 1:18Garrett Moreland?

  We just recorded. It was good. I was ready to go. I was excited. We got our 10 seconds in. We got, we got everything in. And now we have to start over. So we're gonna speedrun this one. Ready?

• 1:29Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 1:30Garrett Moreland?

  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 gonna do it and we forgot. So now we're doing it again. We got Cindy and Zach.

• 1:43Payton Moreland?

  Cheesecake Factory.

• 1:45Garrett Moreland?

  We have Kelly. Dutch Bros.

• 1:47Payton Moreland?

  Dutch Bros.

• 1:48Garrett Moreland?

  What was the other one?

• 1:48Payton Moreland?

  Shawna.

• 1:49Garrett Moreland?

  And we got Shawna. Cornbellies. 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.

• 1:56Payton Moreland?

  But it's, I love it. It is so fun. I love when you guys come up. I love meeting you. Um, yeah, so don't ever be scared if you see us to just even say hi.

• 2:05Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah. Three, my 10 seconds.

• 2:07Payton Moreland?

  Yep.

• 2:08Garrett Moreland?

  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.

• 2:18Payton Moreland?

  Batty gummy bears.

• 2:19Garrett Moreland?

  Not gonna eat them anymore. They messed me up. I ate the whole box ready. So now I shouldn't have any more issues.

• 2:25Garrett Moreland?

  That was fast. That was way faster than.

• 2:28Payton Moreland?

  Imagine if we were that efficient every time.

• 2:30Garrett Moreland?

  Very efficient. Do you guys like that? Actually, I'm not even gonna 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.

• 2:42Garrett Moreland?

  I don't want to freaking hear it, okay? I don't want to hear it, right?

• 2:45Payton Moreland?

  Here's 10 seconds more like 10 minutes.

• 2:48Garrett Moreland?

  It's not even 10 seconds. Whatever.

• 2:52Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, thanks for telling me. Didn't know that was 10 seconds. I didn't know that. Anyways, we love you guys. Thank you for supporting us.

• 3:01Payton Moreland?

  You barely have haters.

• 3:03Garrett Moreland?

  That's all we have. That's all I have for right now. Made that quick. Let's hop into today's case.

• 3:08Payton Moreland?

  Our sources for this episode are cbs.com, aetv.com, dailymail.co.uk, bayoujustice.com, fox8live.com, truecrime docket.com, wbrz.com, hamanstar.com, and caselaw.fine law.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.

• 3:50Payton Moreland?

  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. But 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. As 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.

• 4:33Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 4:34Payton Moreland?

  I think this is more common than people think

• 4:36Garrett Moreland?

  Mm hmm.

• 4:37Payton Moreland?

  of these, at least getting like a clarification on a memory or-

• 4:40Garrett Moreland?

  Like a Mandela effect sort of thing in a sense?

• 4:42Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, or like-

• 4:43Garrett Moreland?

  But like on a bigger scale.

• 4:44Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, or like your memory all of a sudden comes back or you're doing therapy and it can be brought up. So it's like even things you didn't really were weren't clear, someone corrects. I just think it's way more common. Now, today we are dialing back the clock to the year 1987.

• 5:01Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 5:02Payton Moreland?

  And we are traveling to Hammond, Louisiana in the United States. It is here in Hammond that 26-year-old Selonia Reed, or Lonnie, as her friends called her, is living with her husband, 27-year-old Reggie Reed. Now Selonia worked at a hospital for a while before becoming a teller at a local Citizens 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.

• 5:45Payton Moreland?

  Now, this young married couple lived a modest, quiet life in the eighties, which was perfect for Selonia, 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 Selonia's life, but one thing all 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 eighties, like-

• 6:28Payton Moreland?

  I'm sure the mall was just roaring at that time.

• 6:31Garrett Moreland?

  I know, it's kind of sad. Like malls just aren't what they used to be.

• 6:34Payton Moreland?

  There's so many dead malls.

• 6:36Garrett Moreland?

  Just online shopping and like there's some outdoor malls where people like, because people like to walk around, but it's just like window shopping isn't really a huge thing. I feel like.

• 6:46Payton Moreland?

  Low key, if you have a mall in your city, that's not like LA 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, Selonia picked up her sister Gwen from work between 5:30 and 6:00 PM and gave her a ride home. Now, during this ride home, Selonia asked Gwen if she wanted to come to the mall with her and Reggie Jr. A little bit later that night.

• 7:28Payton Moreland?

  But Gwen tells her sister, I have other things to do this evening. Still Selonia 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, Selonia got Reggie a chocolate chip cookie. And after that, they went home, Reggie settled in to play some video games with his dad and Selonia 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.

• 8:11Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 8:12Payton Moreland?

  But the following morning, when Reggie woke up, he notices that his mother still isn't home. So around 6:20 AM, Reggie Senior, his dad, calls Selonia'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 Senior 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.

• 8:56Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 9:22Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 9:23Payton Moreland?

  Now, this gas station is only a mile and a half from the Reed's home. And when police arrive, they find it is Selonia'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 noticed she has been sexually assaulted. And a little graphic here, but the sexual assault involved an umbrella.

• 9:59Garrett Moreland?

  I could have gone the rest of my life without knowing.

• 10:01Payton Moreland?

  Sorry, it's going to be important.

• 10:03Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 10:03Payton Moreland?

  So Selonia'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.

• 10:25Garrett Moreland?

  What the?

• 10:26Payton Moreland?

  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 canvassed 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 Selonia, which wasn't really hard because it was a mile and a half away from her home. It's her car she's missing. Um, 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.

• 11:09Payton Moreland?

  And that same day, Reggie Senior and Junior are brought into the station for questioning, obviously. And Reggie Senior tells the police that he had stayed home and watched his son while Selonia went out the night before. He says she told him she was going out to a bar with a friend from work, a friend named Melinda Mike. Though Reggie Senior said, he wasn't totally sure Selonia 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.

• 11:54Payton Moreland?

  But Reggie Senior 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 Junior. And this is something that Reggie Junior 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.

• 12:20Garrett Moreland?

  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.

• 12:25Payton Moreland?

  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 Junior 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 Senior, 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.

• 13:10Payton Moreland?

  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 Senior'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, Kate, what are those about? Reggie Senior 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.

• 13:55Payton Moreland?

  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'm not 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 who 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,

• 14:39Payton Moreland?

  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, Selonia's sister Gwen also says that when she was asked to go to the mall, there was no mention of Reggie Senior going to the mall with them, despite what he told police. Next, they call Selonia's coworker, Melinda Mike, to say, hey, she said she was going with you. Did you go out with her?

• 15:12Garrett Moreland?

  Interesting.

• 15:12Payton Moreland?

  And Melinda's like, no, I didn't see her last night. We never had any plans to go to a bar.

• 15:18Garrett Moreland?

  Uh oh, okay.

• 15:19Payton Moreland?

  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 Selonia was using that as a cover to go visit some secret boyfriend, just like Reggie Senior had suggested, they also find zero evidence that that's the case. They do learn, however, that Reggie Senior 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."

• 15:58Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 15:58Payton Moreland?

  So he calls the friend.

• 15:59Garrett Moreland?

  I mean, that's okay.

• 16:01Payton Moreland?

  And is like, "Yeah, you gonna tell police she was with you?" And she's like, "I'm an hour away. Like, I'm not even home."

• 16:06Garrett Moreland?

  But like, why would she even agree to that?

• 16:08Payton Moreland?

  She doesn't. Cause when police come to-

• 16:09Garrett Moreland?

  That's insanity.

• 16:11Payton Moreland?

  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."

• 16:19Garrett Moreland?

  Well, that's just case blown wide open.

• 16:23Payton Moreland?

  Right?

• 16:24Garrett Moreland?

  This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. There are plenty of reasons we put off getting support, and for a lot of people, cost is one of them. But BetterHelp insurance options may now be available nationwide with an average copay for eligible members of just $23 per session. And while we're reconsidering old assumptions, maybe there are a few others worth questioning, too.

• 16:46Payton Moreland?

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• 17:18Garrett Moreland?

  And Peyton and I are big advocates for therapy. Give it a try. Life can be crazy. There's a lot going on. Like we were talking about, sometimes it feels like you need to have everything figured out. You don't. Go talk to someone. Go see what's going on. Visit betterhelp.com/husband to explore your payment options. That's better help, H E L P dot com slash husband.

• 17:40Payton Moreland?

  This message is sponsored by Greenlight. You know, there were many times growing up in school where I was like, when am I ever going to use this? And let me be real honest with you, a lot of those things have turned out to be true. But you know what I wish they would have taught in school? Financial literacy. So Greenlight takes the mental load of family life and kind of puts it all into one place. It keeps your whole family in sync, money, safety and everyday life, all in one place. When you're using it, you can see what your kids are spending, right when they spend it. You can also easily send them money via Greenlight instead of like digging around for cash.

• 18:24Payton Moreland?

  And Greenlight just helps your household run smoother. Chores happen without nagging because you can do it all through the Greenlight app. There's also like a schedule that is up to date in real time. So when you're out of milk or someone needs new cleats, it just goes on this shared list that everyone can add to. Join the 6.5 million family members who trust Greenlight. Garrett has younger siblings. They've used Greenlight and it is so amazing to watch them learn about money in the safety of their home. You've got enough on your plate. Greenlight keeps it all in sync. Get started at greenlight.com/husband. That is greenlight.com/husband. Greenlight.com/husband. Go check it out now.

• 19:08Payton Moreland?

  Then on the afternoon of August 24th, the day after Salonia's body was found, please 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 it's, 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.

• 19:48Payton Moreland?

  One of Reggie Senior'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 Salonius friends, they learn that she hates this guy. She hates her husband's friend Jimmy Ray. In fact, she is terrified of him. Turns out just days before the murder, Selonia had had a pretty scary experience with Jimmy. They were at a local beach, swimming with Reggie Junior.

• 20:29Payton Moreland?

  Selonia was in an inner tube when Jimmy swam by and flipped her tube over. Now Selonia wasn't a good swimmer and everyone knew that about her.

• 20:39Garrett Moreland?

  It's just funny that there's people who do stuff like that. I mean, I guess to each their own, but like I would never go up to one of Peyton's friends and just flip their tube over.

• 20:47Payton Moreland?

  Low key, like if one of your friends did that to me, you better, you better grab me.

• 20:54Garrett Moreland?

  Maybe if you're like a brother, like a sister or something. Like I could see it, but like a friend, like no, that's not happening. Like it's just not happening.

• 21:03Payton Moreland?

  Yeah. I mean, I believe in consent for everything, but.

• 21:06Garrett Moreland?

  It's kind of like, ah, 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 to calm down a little bit. Anyways, off topic. Sorry. We'll get back into it.

• 21:19Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 21:40Garrett Moreland?

  Oh yeah, that's not really.

• 21:41Payton Moreland?

  It's not okay.

• 21:42Garrett Moreland?

  No, that's not really okay.

• 21:43Payton Moreland?

  And everyone knows that she can't swim. So she, she's like, this is deliberate. Like that was aggressive. Like you know, I can't swim.

• 21:50Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 21:50Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 21:57Garrett Moreland?

  That's weird.

• 21:58Payton Moreland?

  And then the following day, things get even weirder when Selonia saw Jimmy Ray Barnes lurking outside near her home.

• 22:07Payton Moreland?

  Selonia 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 Selonia's death.

• 22:48Payton Moreland?

  They were acting a little suspicious. So the witness wrote down the license plate.

• 22:54Garrett Moreland?

  No way. That is something that's so cool. I love when people.

• 22:57Payton Moreland?

  To be like, they're acting weird. I'm just gonna take the license plate in case. And then Selonia turns up dead in the, in the gas station parking lot.

• 23:05Garrett Moreland?

  That's so crazy.

• 23:07Payton Moreland?

  And take a guess, who do you think this license plate belongs to that they took down?

• 23:13Garrett Moreland?

  Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy.

• 23:15Payton Moreland?

  No.

• 23:16Garrett Moreland?

  Oh.

• 23:17Payton Moreland?

  Reggie Senior, her husband.

• 23:19Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, yeah. I mean, after the whole mall lying thing, it was a hundred, yeah.

• 23:25Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 23:37Garrett Moreland?

  Yep.

• 23:37Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 23:46Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 23:47Payton Moreland?

  Now, obviously, there is a lot of evidence suggesting both Reggie Senior and Jimmy Ray, his friend, were somehow connected to Selonia'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. It's not like they were caught on camera.

• 24:16Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 24:17Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 24:23Garrett Moreland?

  I just don't know how much more evidence you need.

• 24:25Payton Moreland?

  Right. A lot of stories, not a ton of evidence, but also remember it is 1987. And the only thing is Reggie Senior 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 have it. It's eyewitness against eyewitness, which is why over the years, they don't arrest Reggie Senior or Jimmy and things start to slow down. Even at the Reed home, Selonia's death starts to become a little bit of a distant memory.

• 25:08Payton Moreland?

  Reggie Junior 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, he really didn't know and he didn't know how she'd 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 Junior, 17 years old, supported his dad, who was now running for mayor of the town.

• 25:53Garrett Moreland?

  Wait, so we just skipped basically 10 years?

• 25:58Payton Moreland?

  No one's been arrested. He was the prime suspect.

• 26:00Garrett Moreland?

  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 lose. You let him go. Yeah. Oh, man, that's crazy.

• 26:13Payton Moreland?

  So Reggie Junior 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 it was never mentioned during this campaign really puts any of Reggie Junior'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 Junior goes on to get his MBA. He moved out of Hammond altogether and got a job working for a pharmaceutical company.

• 26:55Payton Moreland?

  And meanwhile, there was this entire secret history between Reggie Senior and Selonia that Reggie Junior never was really aware of. So, according to Selonia's sister Gwen, there had been a lot of dark days in the marriage before Selonia was found murdered. Not only was there talk of divorce between the two, but Selonia had told Gwen that her husband had been physically abusive towards her on more than one occasion.

• 27:28Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 27:28Payton Moreland?

  Now, if you remember, Reggie Senior 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 Selonia's son Reggie Junior never even knew about. When Selonia was still working at the hospital, Reggie Senior would show up each payday and demand that Selonia hand him her paycheck. Sometimes Selonia would show up to work at the hospital with sunglasses on, not taking them off because she had black eyes. And at the time Selonia also didn't have a car, so Reggie, her husband, was picking her up from work each day,

• 28:07Payton Moreland?

  sometimes making her wait hours after her shift had ended. He would just show up when it was convenient for him. And when Selonia's coworkers offered to give her a ride, she would refuse because she said, ah, 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.

• 28:26Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 28:26Payton Moreland?

  Another time, Reggie Senior's sister Claudette was over right after Selonia gave birth to Reggie Junior. And she said Selonia 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 Selonia do sit-ups in the living room. And that's when Reggie Senior comes in and stomps on Selonia's stomach, saying, he's just trying to help her lose weight for her boyfriend.

• 29:02Garrett Moreland?

  Okay, what is happening?

• 29:04Payton Moreland?

  And Claudette like sees all of this. According to Claudette, he even had tapped the phone lines of his home and recorded every conversation Selonia 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.

• 29:24Garrett Moreland?

  Oh gosh dude, what is wrong?

• 29:26Payton Moreland?

  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, their relationship was not healthy, but there was more to it than that. Reggie Senior was also pulling off some insurance scams that Selonia was seemingly aware of. Apparently sometime shortly before, after she gave birth, Reggie Senior started moving a bunch of boxes out of their house and into his mother's garage. And then he sent Selonia 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.

• 30:10Payton Moreland?

  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 Junior, though. He's just a kid. He's young. You know, it's just a little boy. Obviously Selonia was aware enough to be like, I'm pretty sure my husband just burnt our house down to collect money. Reggie Junior did know that his father was strict, but he said he never experienced any sort of physical abuse growing up. Still Selonia's family was aware and they never really gave up their suspicions that Reggie Senior most likely killed her.

• 30:55Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 31:22Payton Moreland?

  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 had worked 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 Senior had gotten before his wife died. Now, as we know now, this is a very big motive between spousal murder.

• 32:03Payton Moreland?

  Turns out Reggie Senior had taken out two policies with State Farm and three with

• 32:08Garrett Moreland?

  Oh my gosh.

• 32:09Payton Moreland?

  Another company. And three of those policies were taken out less than three weeks before Selonia's murder, which totaled $421,000. And Reggie Senior was, of course, the beneficiary on each of those policies. And what's even more interesting is Reggie Junior 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

• 32:37Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 32:37Payton Moreland?

  the physical abuse. She remembered her brother taking her and Selonia 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

• 32:58Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 32:59Payton Moreland?

  to murder his wife in the first place. Claudette also said that after Selonia died, Reggie Senior 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.

• 33:16Garrett Moreland?

  What?

• 33:17Payton Moreland?

  Which then you're probably like, is he gonna kill my

• 33:19Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, that's insane.

• 33:21Payton Moreland?

  So now Reggie Junior 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 Junior is shocked by this. He's like, my mother's been dead for decades.

• 34:06Payton Moreland?

  Why are you knocking on my door now blaming my dad? He asked 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 Salonius 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 Junior 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?

• 34:51Payton Moreland?

  He was home with me when this happened. He's like, no, like cops, you don't understand. He was home with me. I used to think a camera or video doorbell was home security. And then I realized those can only record a break in. They literally can't stop one. And that is the difference with simply safe. When an intruder steps onto your property, simply safe's AI powered cameras detect the threat and alert a live US based agent who can then intervene to stop them before they even get into your door. Because it's not my house or valuables that I'm even worried about. It's a stranger. Getting anywhere close to the people I love and I'm obviously taking this way more seriously now, which I already did, but now more than ever with a baby on the way.

• 35:36Payton Moreland?

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• 36:19Payton Moreland?

  It just lets them know we sent you and it helps support the show. Simply Safe, ahead of crime and in real time. Guys, I'm not sure if I have talked about this, but I have been put on an extremely restrictive diet while being pregnant and you know what has helped me so much? Hungry Root, I know, I know, you knew that was coming. It is so nice to be able to still shop, but get on and put in my preferences, put exactly what I'm looking for, pick out recipes that fit my dietary restrictions. I love Hungry Root. We've actually been using them since like, I think 2022 was when I first started using them. That was before they were even a sponsor of the show, okay?

• 37:03Payton Moreland?

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• 37:48Payton Moreland?

  and a free item of your choice for life. 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 notes, 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.

• 38:33Garrett Moreland?

  Changed.

• 38:34Payton Moreland?

  Starts to unravel, especially when police actually do get a read off that cigarette. They run those new results through the national crime database, CODIS, and they get a hit. It is a Barnes, but it 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 merely identical DNA. So they're thinking this was probably a match because Billy is in the system and Jimmy isn't.

• 39:18Garrett Moreland?

  That's crazy.

• 39:19Payton Moreland?

  Like CODIS probably brought Billy up because it's so close.

• 39:22Garrett Moreland?

  Correct.

• 39:23Payton Moreland?

  You know how they always are like, it's a 1.00% 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.

• 39:45Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 39:45Payton Moreland?

  Like maybe he sent his brother in to take it.

• 39:48Garrett Moreland?

  That would be why this is gonna be crazy if it's true.

• 39:50Payton Moreland?

  So he's like, whatever, I'm cracking down on Jimmy, Billy and Reggie senior. 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 Senior. 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 Senior 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

• 40:30Payton Moreland?

  more. He said, yeah, Reggie Senior 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 the system would stick to it.

• 41:03Garrett Moreland?

  I mean, I'll be, I mean, there's times they haven't.

• 41:06Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, they do promise things and then.

• 41:07Garrett Moreland?

  So I mean, I don't like a hundred percent blame him for saying no. I don't know if he's guilty or not yet with what's going on, but.

• 41:14Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 41:31Garrett Moreland?

  And why wouldn't you just take the deal he just got?

• 41:33Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, like, is he 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 of weeks later, they had second degree murder and conspiracy indictments for Jimmy and Reggie Senior. Their first stop was Reggie Senior's house, armed with an arrest warrant. On June 21st, 2019, more than 30 years after Salonius' death, Reggie Reed was finally in handcuffs. Still considering his innocence, Reggie Junior puts up $250,000 for his father's bail. Jimmy Ray Barnes is also arrested and charged. Now he's realizing

• 42:16Payton Moreland?

  the investigators weren't bluffing and he's like, never mind, I'll talk, I'll talk. 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.

• 42:32Garrett Moreland?

  Five years.

• 42:33Payton Moreland?

  Um, 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 senior, who was your accomplice. And here's what Jimmy says. Jimmy had actually met Selonia first at the bank she worked at about a year or so before the murder. She then introduced him to her husband Reggie senior, 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 senior is like, I'm gonna tell you the detailed plan.

• 43:15Payton Moreland?

  So then on August 22nd, he agreed to meet Reggie senior 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 Selonia's blue car with Selonia 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 Selonia right there in the parking lot. Reggie senior gets into Jimmy's car and that's presumably Reggie's car.

• 44:01Payton Moreland?

  And um, 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. Um, and seeing her dead body. In fact, he said that later that night Reggie senior was the one who returned to the crime scene, stripped Selonia naked and covered her in that lotion, hoping it would look more like a sex crime.

• 44:22Garrett Moreland?

  Got it.

• 44:22Payton Moreland?

  So he actually goes back, not to spell this out for you. He goes back to the crime scene, sexually assaults his wife.

• 44:30Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, that's disgusting.

• 44:31Payton Moreland?

  To try and stage it. Who's, who's, who's dead by now?

• 44:34Garrett Moreland?

  It's been 30 years and he's still not in prison.

• 44:36Payton Moreland?

  Like.

• 44:37Garrett Moreland?

  Absolute trash. Trash.

• 44:39Payton Moreland?

  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 is that cigarette in her car? And a fellow inmate later testified that Jimmy admitted to him that he and his brother Billy were paid to kill Selonia after she was caught having an affair.

• 45:02Garrett Moreland?

  So now it's already...

• 45:03Payton Moreland?

  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 Senior had a hand in the killing. That Selonia had came home the night after Reggie Junior passed out on the couch, which is why Reggie Junior would remember his mom leaving, but she really did come home.

• 45:22Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 45:23Payton Moreland?

  And that Reggie Senior 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 Junior 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.

• 45:59Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, that would mess with you. That would, that would really mess with your mind. That would be hard to grasp.

• 46:04Payton Moreland?

  He's having a really hard time about whether to support his dad at this point, who's awaiting trial.

• 46:09Garrett Moreland?

  I mean, he's kind of been, no offense, but he's kind of been brainwashed for the last 20 years.

• 46:13Payton Moreland?

  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 Selonia's body. Apparently, police were able to find that exact brand and type of lotion back at the Reed's home. So when the trial begins on in November of 2022.

• 46:47Garrett Moreland?

  It's all circumstantial.

• 46:49Payton Moreland?

  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 Senior is found guilty of second degree murder.

• 47:29Garrett Moreland?

  Forty years. How old is he at this point? Seventy, eighty? Gotta be old.

• 47:33Payton Moreland?

  I mean, if he was 27 at the time.

• 47:36Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, so he's 77 years old. Oh, sorry. 67 years old. My bad.

• 47:41Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 47:50Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, five years.

• 47:51Payton Moreland?

  In January of 2024, however, he was back in Hammond attending his twin brother Billy Ray's funeral. Billy Ray, who they thought was the 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.

• 48:16Garrett Moreland?

  That's crazy.

• 48:17Payton Moreland?

  In the place that he had run away from. As for Reggie Junior, 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.

• 48:33Garrett Moreland?

  That would be so hard. I'm so sorry.

• 48:35Payton Moreland?

  He's like, I just can't see him as a monster that killed my mother.

• 48:38Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 48:39Payton Moreland?

  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 Senior is filing appeals, Reggie Junior is focusing on his own family, a wife, a son, and a little girl he had who he named Selonia after his mother.

• 49:17Garrett Moreland?

  That's nice.

• 49:18Payton Moreland?

  And that is the case of Selonia 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 a hundred times, how many victims there are when one person is murdered? The kids of these cases, the family members of these cases, it is not black and white for them.

• 49:41Garrett Moreland?

  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 involved, when there's relationships involved, that's when things become so much more difficult. So it's just hard, that's a really, it's a really difficult one.

• 50:04Payton Moreland?

  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 prosecution's 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.

• 50:21Garrett Moreland?

  I don't like that, I don't like that.

• 50:23Payton Moreland?

  There's so much that we don't know for sure.

• 50:26Garrett Moreland?

  Do I think Reggie did it? Yes. Could I say a hundred percent certain he did? Don't know. I really don't know.

• 50:33Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 50:40Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 50:41Payton Moreland?

  Like, you don't need the details, you just need to tell us if he's guilty.

• 50:44Garrett Moreland?

  And I think I've come to the point where sometimes things just aren't going to make sense.

• 50:49Payton Moreland?

  See, I'm like, I need the details.

• 50:50Garrett Moreland?

  And I just don't know if we'll always have them because easy to lie, easy to hide things. It's easier than we think it is.

• 50:58Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 51:29Garrett Moreland?

  I hate it.

• 51:29Payton Moreland?

  Goodbye.

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