Louisiana father convicted after using son as alleged murder alibi

Reginald Reed Sr. was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of his wife, Selonia Reed, after a cold case in Hammond, Louisiana, reopened into a family story that had already shaped his son’s entire life. Prosecutors later examined whether Reed Sr. had used his 6-year-old son, Reggie Reed Jr., as an alibi when Selonia Reed was killed in August 1987.

Selonia Reed was 26 when her body was found on Aug. 23, 1987, in the passenger seat of a blue 1986 Chevrolet Sprint parked in an empty lot in Hammond, in Tangipahoa Parish. Court reporting says she suffered blunt-force trauma, numerous stab wounds and sexual assault. Reed Sr. was considered a prime suspect at the time, but he was not charged for decades.

The case moved again in 2011, when Louisiana State Police reopened it with a renewed evidence review. Local reporting says investigators used DNA evidence from a cigarette found in Selonia Reed’s car as part of that fresh look. In 2019, Reed Sr. was charged by amended grand jury indictment with second-degree murder, and a jury later convicted him.

For Reggie Reed Jr., the case was not simply a legal file. He was 6 when his mother died, and police videotaped his interview as a child with his father sitting beside him after Reed Sr. gave permission. Prosecutors later explored Reed Sr.’s claim that he had been home playing video games with his son when Selonia Reed was killed, a detail that turned the child into part of the case the adults around him never fully explained.

Reggie Reed Jr. later wrote a memoir, also titled The Day My Mother Never Came Home, drawing on childhood memories and the shock of learning, years later, that his father had been a suspect in his mother’s death. The story placed two unanswered questions at the center of one family history: who killed Selonia Reed, and what did her son lose by growing up inside the silence around that night?

The case was featured in a 48 Hours episode titled The Day My Mother Never Came Home, which aired on April 12, 2025, and was scheduled again as an encore on June 27, 2026. In Tangipahoa Parish, the conviction closed one chapter of a murder that left its deepest mark on the child who was asked to sit beside the man accused of using him as an alibi.