David Reed Pleads Not Guilty In 2001 New Bedford Murder Case Of Half-Sister Rose Marie Moniz

NEW BEDFORD (CBS) -- David Reed, who has been charged with murder in the 2001 New Bedford cold case homicide of his half-sister Rose Marie Moniz, pleaded not guilty on Friday.

Prosecutors say that in March of 2001 Reed killed her, using a fireplace poker, a conch shell, and a cast iron kettle to beat her to death. Her purse was emptied on the floor and the cash was missing.

Reed, who is 53 and from Acushnet and New Bedford, was also indicted in September in connection to the 2003 attempted murder and robbery of Maribel Martinez-Alegria in New Bedford.

In 2019, investigators from Quinn's Cold Case Unit studied photos from the Moniz killing, noting that the perpetrator would have to put his fingers inside the conch shell to hold it firmly enough to attack Moniz. They asked the crime lab to test the inside of the shell, which revealed a full DNA profile that matched Reed's.

Reed was interviewed by State Police in August of 2020, after which, he fled to Alabama, Quinn said, and over the next year, traveled to California, Hawaii, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, before being arrested in September at the Providence Rescue Mission shelter.

Alegria was assaulted in June of 2003. She had been hit in the head with a tire iron and pretended to be dead while the perpetrator stole her pocketbook. Reed was arrested and charged with the crime, but he did not show up for his trial.

Reed was ordered held without bail.