Alabama police plan to search landfill for 2-year-old girl missing since Christmas
Police in Alabama turned to a landfill in search of a two-year-old girl who has been missing for months and is believed to have been killed by her mother, who was stuffed in a bag and dumped on Christmas Day.
Little Genesis Reid was first reported missing on Feb. 16, but authorities suspected he was killed by his mother in their apartment in Enterprise, Alabama, more than a month earlier on Dec. 25, according to a statement released by city officials.
Adrienne Reid, Genesis’ mother, was arrested in March and is charged with murder and abuse of a corpse in connection with her daughter’s death.
Authorities obtained surveillance video showing Reid tossing a duffel bag they believe contained Genesis’ body into a dumpster just before midnight on Christmas Day, said Business Police Chief Michael Moore.
Two days later, a camera captured Reid returning to the dumpster while carrying toys and other items that police believed belonged to people, the report said.
Moore announced at a press conference Wednesday that his department will work with other agencies to search the Coffee County landfill starting in early May in hopes of digging up Genesis’ body, or what’s left of it.
“This is going to be a tough operation physically, emotionally and mentally, and it could go on for several weeks,” Moore warned.
He estimated that the search could take only nine weeks due to the size of the waste dump, although he did not specify how large the search area was.
Coffee County Sheriff Scott Byrd previously estimated that the search area at the landfill was reduced to “200 feet by 100 feet, 8 to 10 feet deep in the debris,” according to the release.
Byrd added that the duffel may have been folded up three times and “driven forward by a tractor” before it was placed in the landfill.
Up to 60 search and rescue personnel and other personnel will patrol the landfill daily, according to Moore.
The area will be closed during the search, mainly to maintain the “integrity of this search area,” Moore said.
Reid is scheduled to appear in court on August 6. He was charged with separation and lying to police when he first reported Genesis missing in February.
Coffee County District Attorney James Tarbox has vowed to seek the death penalty in the case.
“His behavior speaks for itself and I believe that this initial decision to seek the death penalty is consistent with our community’s beliefs about this case and our common values about how we value and want to protect the innocent among us, our children,” said Tarbox.
Authorities have not yet determined the cause of Genesis’ death.
