Rose Moniz (left) and David Reed (right).Photo: Photo Courtesy of the Massachusetts State Police
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — The case had gone unsolved for 20 years, the 2001 murder of 40-year-old Rose Moniz in her New Bedford home. Police issued a statement that an indictment has been made in relation to the case, charging Moniz's half-brother 53-year-old David Reed.
According to the Massachusetts State Police, investigation revealed that Moniz had been struck in the head with a fire poker, cast iron tea kettle, and a conch shell. Over the last couple decades, police conducted over a hundred interviews and re-tested items found at the crime scene for forensic evidence. In 2019, when the conch shell was re-tested, police said they found DNA inside that matched Reed, who had been entered into the database after a prior assault and battery charge in 2003.
Police had not known about Reed in the original case investigations, officials said.
In August of 2020, New Bedford and State Police interviewed Reed at his residence in Dartmouth. Immediately after investigators left, Reed allegedly began making plans to leave Massachusetts and headed on a bus to Alabama where he once lived.
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In December of that same year, police said that Massachusetts investigators contacted a deputy from the Clanton County, Alabama, Sheriff's Department to try and speak to Reed at his place of employment. The suspect allegedly fled from his workplace at the news a deputy had arrived there.
At the same time, the Bristol County District Attorney's Office convened a grand jury to hear evidence against Reed connected to the 2003 assault and robbery of a different woman. On September 1, 2021, the grand jury sitting in Fall River superior court returned indictments against Reed for the 2003 case.
MSP and New Bedford detectives traveled to Central Falls, Rhode Island, where investigators believed Reed was living. But before they could make an arrest, Reed was allegedly tipped off by an acquaintance, and once again, fled the scene.
Days later, Providence Police found Reed sleeping in the kitchen of the Providence Rescue Mission shelter in Providence, R.I. Reed was arrested for his indictments for the 2003 offenses.
Reed was subsequently charged with the homicide of Moniz by the office of Bristol District Attorney Tom Quinn and was set to be arraigned next week.
WBZ's Shari Small (@ShariSmallNews) reports.
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