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We want to begin this hour with an emotional 48 Hours investigation. Reggie Reed Jr. was only 6 years old when his
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mother, Salonia, was killed. His father used him as an alibi, but new evidence has thrown that into doubt. Reggie Reed
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Jr. spoke to Vladimir Duthiers for 48 Hours about what he remembers from that night. Here's an early look.
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It's been decades since Reggie Reed Jr. last saw his mother, Salonia. I feel like I missed out on a huge part
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of life that I'll never get back. Reggie was only 6 years old on August 22nd, 1987. He remembers his mother
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kissing him goodbye when she left the house that night, but the rest, he says, is a blur.
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Life for me and my father basically flipped upside down. Charles Muse, now retired, was the
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police officer who found Salonia's body after taking the initial missing persons
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report from her husband, Reginald Reed. I noticed the car and noticed Salonia's body inside the
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car. Reginald Reed Sr. told Officer Muse that his wife had gone out with a friend and
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never returned home. He told investigators he stayed home and played video games with Reggie.
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Tell me what you remember about that night. Reginald Sr. gave police permission to
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speak with his son. Don't be afraid. Just, you know, when she talked to you Don't be Don't Don't be afraid.
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I don't want to talk to you. What's the matter, baby? He said he don't want to talk to you.
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That's all right. Look. Didn't I tell you before that I'm I'm your friend? Oh, he's here, baby.
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Okay, darling. Watching that video just brings back so so many questions and and pain.
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Reggie wrote a memoir about his mother's murder, The Day My Mother Never Came Home.
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The murder was in 1987, but Reggie had no idea his father was a prime suspect until decades later.
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A detective taking a fresh look at the case arrested Reginald Reed in part because a witness had placed him near
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the crime scene and because he'd taken out several life insurance policies on Solonia only days before the murder.
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Do you believe that your father murdered your mother? I don't know. Yes. Vlad joins us now from Culberson County,
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Texas. Vlad, that video of Reggie Jr. is just heartbreaking. Was there a trial for Reggie Jr.'s dad and then what did
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Reggie Jr. make of the case against his father? There was a trial for Reginald Senior
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Reggie Jr. testified at the trial. His father did not. He was defended by a mother-daughter duo
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criminal defense attorneys who are incredibly compelling. What was heartbreaking Dana and Adriana as you
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saw in that video of Reggie as a 6-year-old child being interrogated by the police crying for his father. I want
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my daddy. I want my daddy. Well, when the jury came back with a conviction and found Reginald Senior guilty of the
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murder of his mother, Reggie collapsed to his knees in that courtroom and essentially cried out exactly as he did
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as a 6-year-old, I want my daddy. I don't I want my daddy. Please don't take my daddy away. You have to understand
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his father raised Reggie from the time he was 6-years-old. He credits all the success that he's had in life to his
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dad. Oh my goodness, Vlad. Each detail is just harder to hear than than the last.
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Um, so is there anything else that he was able to share with you about what he might have remembered about the night
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his mom died? You know, he was 6-years-old. He has some fleeting memories of of the night
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that his mother never came home as he as he writes in his book Uh, the day my mother never came home. But he really
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doesn't remember all that much from the day. He says he remembers that they went
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to the mall, that his mom bought him a cookie. But when you listen to the prosecutor
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Taylor Anthony in the discussions that I had with him over the course of many many hours, at one point I came away
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thinking that the state did have a very strong case against his father. He took out life insurance policies on Solonia
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just a few days before she died. But when I spoke to the mother-daughter duo who defended Reginald Senior, they make
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a very compelling case why they think the wrong man is in jail. All right, Vlad. Absolutely compelling.
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Thank you. You can watch Vlad's 48 Hours report The Day My Mother Never Came Home
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tomorrow at 10:00 9:00 Central right here on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus.