The only things Reginald “Reggie” Reed, Jr., really remembers about that ominous day in August 1987 was that his mother left him with his father in the evening so she could go out with a friend. He and his dad played video games, and then Reggie went to bed. When he woke up the next morning, his mom wasn’t there.
Only 6 years old at the time, he says trying to remember anything more from that day is like “trying to capture a shadow.”
The details soon reached him in bits: His mother, 26-year-old Selonia Reed of Hammond, Louisiana, was dead—murdered—her body found in her car. The killer was unknown. His father wouldn’t speak to it in any more detail than that, and young Reggie grew up knowing enough to not ask. It was only when he was a teenager and he looked up the details of his mother’s murder at his public library that he learned the gruesome specifics—Selonia had been beaten, stabbed more than a dozen times and sexually assaulted with an umbrella. And Reginald Reed, Sr., Reggie’s father, was the primary suspect.
Reggie tried to shut out the whisperings around town, even when his dad ran for mayor, but subsequently lost. In 2019, the case was reopened and a man named Jimmy Ray Barnes was placed at the scene of Selonia’s murder thanks to forensic testing and a cigarette butt found near her body. Barnes gave up Reginald, Sr., to police, saying Reggie’s father had offered Jones $50,000 to help make his wife disappear.
In January 2023, Reginald, Sr., was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife nearly four decades prior.
In his memoir, The Day My Mother Never Came Home, Reggie questions the facts that have since come to light and grapples with his current reality. He writes that it was harder in some ways to lose his father, “even though that feels wrong.”
A&E True Crime spoke with Reggie about his childhood and the devastating realization he came to as an adult that his father was not who he thought he was.
You had to reconcile these two very different men—the father you grew up with and this man accused of murdering your mom. Does it feel like they’re two separate people?
Yeah, it does. A hundred percent true. After my mother was murdered, my dad stepped in and guided me until adulthood. He had a military background, and my upbringing wasn’t warm and fuzzy. The structure and discipline were there. But the way I navigate life was from him. Fast forward, I’m hit with this revelation that [he was] involved—I say ‘involved’ because everything presented in [my mother’s murder] trial was circumstantial evidence.
I get a lot of criticism that I still engage or interact with my father. I think that comes with a lack of understanding of the dynamics. I don’t see my dad committing that crime. I don’t see it. Although he was strict, I don’t see him committing that kind of brutality toward someone he loved. It’s hard to see.
One of your mom’s sisters, Gwen, and one of your dad’s sisters, Claudette, gave an interview to Louisiana’s Daily Star claiming your dad was abusive, both to your mom and also to his own sister growing up. Do you remember any abuse your dad inflicted on your mom or on you in your childhood?
No, I don’t remember any of that. I do want to make this clear—I didn’t have the traditional upbringing. My dad was strict. It was tough. Most kids look forward to summertime, but I didn’t look forward to it. I knew my dad would make me read for hours at a time. You never understand the things our parents make us do until later in life.
I think people look at the tough [parts] and say ‘he was abusive to his boy.’ I didn’t get beat. I caught whoopings with a belt. I got spanked, but it wasn’t to the point where I [feel like I] was abused.
Do you remember if your dad was home the night of your mom’s murder?
I was six. Who can say? A lot of this plays back [in my mind]. I’m still, to a fault, in investigation mode. The evidence doesn’t look good…but for me, I need to know more.
You write that your dad never talked about your mom much after her murder, but also that he would bring you with him yearly to repaint your mother’s gravesite. Do you ever think that was his way to atone?
I have never thought that my father was capable of killing my mother. Never. I know people are capable of all sorts of terrible things, and that my father is far from perfect—we all are. But he is not a murderer. He loved and respected my mother. They were friends and a good team. There is just no possible way that he killed his best friend and the mother of his boy.
Were you surprised when your dad ran for mayor of your town despite being the primary suspect in your mom’s murder?
I was 17 and in high school. I remember it being exciting. He didn’t win, but also, nothing came up [about the murder], which is crazy. It blows my mind. You see politicians these days and everything comes out. And not a peep when my dad ran.
There were reports you were supposed to receive a trust fund at 18 from your mother’s life insurance money, but never did. Is that true?
My father had taken out several life insurance policies over the year leading up to my mother’s death totaling approximately $750,000. Even more problematic was the fact that he had taken out one of these policies just weeks before her murder. I came to learn [about the trust fund] later.
Financially, I put myself through college. I took out loans, I made it happen. So, I look at it two different ways. Yeah, a good portion of that was supposed to come to me. I didn’t see it. But you’re not going to give an 18-year-old several hundred thousand dollars. My father claims the [reported insurance policy amounts] are not true.
When you speak to your dad in prison, does he say he’s innocent?
Yes, he still maintains his innocence.
Early on, there was another potential suspect. I think [my father] assumes my mom was having an affair with him. Jimmy [Ray Barnes] got on the stand and went line by line of what happened leading up to that night. Based on the details and description, she had to be killed somewhere else and be put in the car. Where was she killed and who killed her? …I believe it’s something deeper