When 41-year-old Rose Marie Moniz was discovered dead inside her New Bedford, Massachusetts, home on March 23, 2001, investigators noted that her purse had been emptied and money was missing — but there were no signs of forced entry.
At the crime scene, police recovered several blood-stained household items: a fireplace poker, a cast-iron kettle, and a decorative conch shell.
An autopsy revealed the severity of Moniz’s injuries. According to previous reporting by PEOPLE, she had sustained skull fractures, broken nasal bones, a fractured left cheekbone, and deep lacerations to her head. Blood was found in both ears, and her body showed multiple contusions.
Despite an early investigation, two individuals were quickly ruled out, and with no solid leads or eyewitnesses, the case went cold for nearly two decades.
In 2019, the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office and the Massachusetts State Police Unresolved Crimes Unit reopened the case and uncovered a clue that had previously been overlooked.
“Autopsy photos of the victim’s face showed that the victim had suffered numerous abrasions and contusions which suggested that the spiny exterior of the conch shell made contact with the victim’s face,” the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office said in a press release. “That suggested that the perpetrator would have to put his fingers inside the opening of the conch to hold it as firmly as was needed to strike the victim with extreme force.”
When the inside of the shell was swabbed for DNA, analysts developed a full genetic profile. That profile was entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a national database that stores DNA from convicted offenders and arrestees across the United States.
The system returned a match: Moniz’s half-brother, David Reed.
Reed, who had served as a pallbearer at his sister’s funeral, was 53 years old when he was indicted in 2021 on charges of murder and armed robbery. He pleaded not guilty and remains in custody awaiting trial.
“We had other people that we thought it might be… It turned out that the person carrying her coffin to the grave was the person that killed her,” Moniz’s brother, Fred Cunha, told NBC 10.
Reed’s DNA was in the CODIS database due to a violent crime he committed in 2003.
According to CBS News Boston, Reed had attacked a woman with a tire iron during a robbery, striking her in the head and stealing her purse as she pretended to be dead. During his escape attempt, he rammed a police vehicle and fled the state.
He was ultimately captured in 2015 and charged with armed assault with intent to murder, armed robbery, and felony bail jumping. In 2023, Reed was sentenced to 8 to 12 years in state prison for that attack. He is currently serving that sentence while awaiting trial for Moniz’s murder.
