The disappearance of Genesis Reid has now led to capital murder charges against her mother following a weeks-long investigation in Enterprise, Alabama.
Adrienne Reid, 33, was charged with capital murder and abuse of a corpse in connection with the child’s disappearance, according to the Enterprise Police Department. Authorities announced the charges on March 9, the same day Genesis would have turned three years old.
Through the careful and methodical work of investigators, we have reached the heartbreaking and horrific conclusion that her mother, her caretaker, the one that should have been there to keep her safe, willfully murdered Genesis and placed her in a duffel bag and discarded her in a dumpster,” Enterprise Police Chief Michael Moore said in a press release Monday.
Genesis was first reported missing around 3 a.m. on February 16 when Adrienne told police the toddler had disappeared from their home and claimed the front door had been left open.
Officers searched the surrounding area but said they were unable to locate the child. As the investigation progressed, detectives said they began identifying inconsistencies in Adrienne’s account. She was later arrested and charged with false reporting to law enforcement.
Authorities say new evidence eventually changed the timeline of the case. According to Moore, investigators determined Genesis had not been seen since Christmas Day. Surveillance footage from a neighbor allegedly shows Reid walking toward an apartment complex dumpster with a rolling duffel bag around 11:30 p.m. that night. Police also said additional video captured Reid returning to the dumpster two days later, carrying toys and other items believed to belong to the toddler.
Investigators are now preparing to search the Coffee County landfill as part of the ongoing case.
“I need the public to understand that this will not be an easy or fast search,” Coffee County Sheriff Scott Byrd said, noting the process could take up to 10 weeks.
“The subject dumpster where the bag we are looking for was picked up on December 26,” Byrd said. “It was compacted in the truck that picked it up. It was taken to a distribution facility and compacted again. It was taken on another truck to the landfill, where it was processed further with bulldozers and a compacting machine.”
Coffee County District Attorney James Tarbox said Reid will appear in court later this week.
“The evidence shows that Adrienne Reid killed her daughter, literally threw her in the trash, and then engaged in a 53-day campaign of deceit, lies, manipulation, and destruction of evidence, before she finally reported her missing on February 16,” Tarbox said.
“Her conduct speaks for itself, and I believe this preliminary decision to seek the death penalty conforms to our community’s beliefs about this case and our shared values about how we value and seek to protect the most innocent among us, our children,” he added.
