294. What Really Happened To Selonia Reed?

You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. 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. We got Shauna. From Corn Bellies. 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. 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. Batty gummy bears. Not going to eat them anymore. They messed me up. I ate the whole box already, 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 will 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. We're like 10 minutes. It's not even 10 seconds. Whatever. Oh, thanks for telling me. Didn't know that. We're in 10 seconds. Didn't know that. Anyways, we love you guys. Thank you. 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 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. 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. 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. Like a Mandela effect sort of thing in a sense. Yeah, or like. But like on a bigger scale. 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, weren't clear, someone corrects. I just think it's way more common. 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 that 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 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 you've heard of that. I'm sure the mall was just roaring at that time. I know, 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 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. 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, 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, 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. 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. 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. No way, what the f. But with the southern accent, 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 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 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 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, OK, 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, 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'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 don't know anything about the 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, 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 coworker, Melinda Mike, to say, hey, she said she was going with you. Did you go out with her? And Melinda's like, no, I didn't see her last night. We never had any plans to go to a bar. In fact, she tells police, I'm actually in a completely different town visiting family. I'm an outcast. We're 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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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 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 slash husband. That is greenlight.com slash husband. Greenlight.com slash husband. Go check it out now. Then on the afternoon of August 24th, the day after Salonia's body was found, please discover another clue. A neighbor of the Reed's 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. One of Reggie's seniors 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 or 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 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 to 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's like yeah me either so we decided not to do that and i think this is their own for water no yeah to each their own i'm just saying for someone to come flip someone's tube without them asking 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 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 and then the following day things get even weirder when solonia saw jimmy ray barnes lurking outside near her home solonia 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 solonia's death they were acting a little suspicious so the witness wrote down the license plate no way that is something that's so cool i'm not going to lie to you i'm not going to i love when people to be like they're acting weird i'm just going to take the license plate in case and then solonia 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 line thing it was 100 but 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 yep 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 senior and jimmy ray his friend were somehow connected to solonia'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 yeah i don't 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 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 an 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 solonia'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 was able to find out that he learned the details of his mother's murder he 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 no one's been arrested he was the prime suspect 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 this 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 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 jr 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 jr and celonia that reggie jr never was really aware of so according to celonia's sister gwen there had been a lot of dark days in the marriage before celonia was found murdered not only was there talk of divorce between the two but celonia had told gwen that her husband had been physically abusive towards her on more than one occasion okay now if you remember reggie jr 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 celonia's son reggie jr never even knew about when celonia was still working at the hospital reggie jr would show up each payday and demand that celonia hand him her paycheck sometimes celonia would show up to work at the hospital with sunglasses on not taking them off because she had black eyes and at the time celonia 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 celonia's co-workers 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 okay another time reggie senior sister claudette was over right after celonia gave birth to reggie jr and she said celonia 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 celonia do sit-ups in the living room and that's when reggie senior comes in and she's like i'm gonna go to the bathroom and i'm gonna go to the bathroom and stomps on celonia'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 this according to claudette he even had tapped the phone lines of his home and recorded every conversation celonia 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 she was like i'm gonna go to the bathroom and i'm gonna go to the bathroom even though there was no evidence of it 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 their relationship was not healthy but there was more to it than that reggie senior was also pulling off some insurance scams that celonia was seemingly aware of apparently sometime shortly before or 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 celonia 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 got past reggie junior though he's just a kid he's young you know it's just a little boy obviously celonia 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 celonia's family was aware and they never really gave up their suspicions that reggie senior most likely would have been the one who would have most likely killed her so they kept pressuring the police to reopen the case over the years and finally 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 track down all of the retired police officers who had worked 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 the right thing to do. She thinks this is where her brother got the idea to murder his wife in the first place. Claudette 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. Which then you're probably like, is he going to kill Mike? Yeah, that's insane. So now Reggie Jr. claims that while he knew that 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 daughter had been murdered. And so Reggie Jr. was able to 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 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 Celonia'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, 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. 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. 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Join the more than 6 million people who entrust SimpliSafe with their home security. Right now, save 6 million people who trust SimpliSafe with their home security. Right now, save 6 million 60% off with professional monitoring when you visit SimpliSafe.com slash husband. That is an amazing code, guys. 60% off. That is SimpliSafe.com slash husband. And when you order, again, just please let them know Murder With My Husband sent you. Write it in at the checkout survey. It just lets them know we sent you and it helps support the show. SimpliSafe ahead of crime and in real time. 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 Sr. says, that's not evidence, son. I took insurance policies out on everyone. But if you remember, Reggie Jr. 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. 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, CODIS. 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 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 CODIS probably brought Billy up because it's so close. Correct. Point zero percent 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 gonna be crazy if it's true. So he's like, whatever. I'm cracking down on Jimmy, Billy and 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 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 this system would stick to it i mean i'll be i mean there's times they haven't yeah they do promise things and then 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 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 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 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 you on june 21st 2019 more than 30 years after celonia'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 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 five years 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 celonia 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 this and he said no i'm not going to go to her 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 he said that 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 called him and said he was going to go to the gas station and he said got the license plate meanwhile reggie shows up in celonia's blue car with celonia 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 celonia right there in the parking lot reggie senior gets into jimmy's car and he's like i'm gonna go to the gas station car and that's presumably reggie's car 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 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 celonia 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 but he's he goes back to the crime scene sexually assaults his wife yeah that's disgusting to try and stage it who's who's past who's dead by grand it's been 30 years and he's still not in prison like absolute trash crash a dead body yeah 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 yeah 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 celonia after she was caught having an affair 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 senior had a hand in the killing that celonia 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 yeah and that reggie senior killed her after she came home in their bed room 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 yeah i would mess with you that would 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 who's awaiting trial he doesn't know 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 evidence 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 celonia's body apparently police were able to find that exact brand and type of lotion back at the reeds home so when the trial begins on in november of 2022 it's all circumstantial this is actually one of the critical pieces of evidence is 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 circle 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 40 years how old is he at this point 70 80 gotta 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 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 that's crazy in the place that he ran 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 that would be so hard i'm so sorry he's like i just can't see him as a monster that killed my mother yeah 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 used in prison have they been used in prison have they been used in prison 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 jr is focusing on his own family a wife a son and a little girl he had who he named celonia after his mother that's nice and that is the case of celonia 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 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 involved when there's relationships involved that's when things become so much more difficult so it's just hard that's that's a 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 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 i don't like that i don't like that there's so much that we don't know for sure i think reggie did it yes could i say a hundred percent certain he did i 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 if he's guilty i've come to the point where sometimes things just aren't going to work and i don't know if he's going to make sense see i'm like i need the details and i 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 and we will see you next time with another episode i love it i hate it goodbye