Police say the 2-year-old was killed on Christmas Day and her remains may be buried in an Alabama landfill.
ENTERPRISE, AL — The mother of a missing 2-year-old Alabama girl has been charged with capital murder and abuse of a corpse after investigators said Monday that the child was killed months before she was reported missing and her body was thrown into a dumpster.
Authorities in Enterprise said the case against 33-year-old Adrienne Reid marks a sharp turn in a search that began Feb. 16, when she told police her daughter, Genesis Reid, had vanished from their apartment on Apache Drive. Investigators now say Genesis had not been seen since Christmas Day 2025. Police have not recovered the child’s remains, but officers, prosecutors and the sheriff said they are preparing a difficult landfill search while the criminal case moves forward.
Enterprise Police Chief Michael Moore announced the new charges on March 9, a date he said would have been Genesis’ third birthday. The investigation began before dawn on Feb. 16, when Reid reported that the toddler was missing from the apartment complex. Detectives quickly questioned the account, and Reid was arrested the next day on a false reporting charge. As officers worked through witness interviews, surveillance video and electronic evidence, the timeline changed. Moore said investigators concluded Genesis had not been seen for weeks and later narrowed that window to Christmas Day. Police said the child had visited relatives in Dothan on Dec. 25 and returned home late that night. From there, the case moved from a missing-child search to a homicide investigation. “Through the careful and methodical work of investigators, we have reached the heartbreaking and horrific conclusion” that Genesis was killed by her mother, Moore said during the briefing.
Police say a key break came from camera footage taken at a neighboring residence near the apartment complex. Moore said the video showed Adrienne Reid walking toward a dumpster around 11:30 p.m. on Dec. 25 while pulling a rolling duffel bag. Two days later, he said, more footage showed her returning to the dumpster area carrying toys and other items believed to belong to Genesis. Investigators say the body was placed in the bag and discarded there. Moore said detectives have processed more than five terabytes of digital and physical evidence, followed 97 leads within the department and executed 37 search warrants. He said the work has involved about 8,000 combined hours, often with officers and agents working 16- to 18-hour days. Authorities have not publicly described a cause of death, and they have not said whether forensic testing has produced physical evidence tied to the killing. Those details remain unknown while the child’s body is still missing.
The case drew wide public attention in southeast Alabama as officers, volunteers and multiple agencies searched for signs of the little girl. In the days after the missing-person report, police used targeted searches around the apartment complex, including a certified cadaver dog sweep that did not find evidence of value. Officials asked for help from anyone who had contact with Adrienne Reid between Dec. 24, 2025, and Feb. 16, 2026, saying even small details could matter. The city posted updates stressing that the investigation remained active and that the goal was to find Genesis. Billboards were also placed along Boll Weevil Circle to keep the child’s photo in public view. Along the way, authorities warned that rumors on social media were getting ahead of the evidence. By late February, investigators were already signaling that the child may have been missing far longer than first reported. Monday’s announcement confirmed the fear that had grown around the case for weeks: police no longer believe Genesis disappeared in February, but that she died in December.
The search for her remains is expected to be slow and physically demanding. Coffee County Sheriff Scott Byrd said the dumpster believed to contain the duffel bag was emptied on Dec. 26. He said the bag would have been compacted in a garbage truck, taken to a transfer or distribution site, compacted again, then moved to the landfill, where heavy equipment further processed the trash. Using pickup schedules and GPS data from landfill equipment, investigators said they narrowed the likely search area to about 200 feet by 100 feet and roughly eight to 10 feet deep in refuse. Byrd said a specialized team from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is helping finalize the search plan. Even with that planning, he said, the work could take 10 weeks or longer. The remains have not been found, and officials have cautioned that the condition of any evidence at the site is uncertain after months in the waste stream. Still, Byrd said the operation will move ahead methodically because recovering the child is central to the case and to the community.
Prosecutors also outlined the next legal steps. Coffee County District Attorney James Tarbox said Reid is expected to make an initial appearance before District Judge Josh Wilson later this week on the new felony charges. He said the state has made a preliminary decision to seek the death penalty. Tarbox said the evidence shows that Reid killed her daughter, disposed of her body and then lied for weeks before reporting Genesis missing. Before the murder charge was filed, Reid had already been held on a $1 million cash bond in the false-report case, with conditions that would have included GPS monitoring, drug screening, daily check-ins and limits on travel if she were released. Her attorney, David Harrison, pushed back after the new charges were announced, telling local media the case rests on “theories” and “educated guesses” rather than proof beyond a reasonable doubt. That response signals the main dispute likely to shape the early court fight: whether the state can prove a murder without a recovered body and before all forensic work is complete.
Monday’s announcement brought a wave of grief to Enterprise, a city of about 28,000 in Coffee County. Moore called it “an especially heartbreaking day for our community,” and Mayor William E. Cooper said the case had shaken people well beyond the city limits. He thanked investigators from local, state and federal agencies who joined the search and said residents had kept Genesis in their prayers from the start. Officials stood together at the briefing as they described a case that had spread across several states through witness leads and evidence checks, including in Illinois, Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Alabama. Moore said more than 75 law enforcement officers were directly involved at any given time. Even at a briefing centered on charges and evidence, the public language was deeply emotional. Officers spoke about Genesis as more than a case file, and the mayor said people now want justice and some measure of peace. For many in Enterprise, the hardest part is that the search is no longer for a missing child believed to be alive, but for a child officials say should have been protected at home.
The case stood Tuesday with Adrienne Reid charged, Genesis still missing and search crews preparing for a landfill operation that could last into the spring. The next public milestone is Reid’s initial court appearance later this week, followed by the planned landfill search as investigators keep trying to bring Genesis home.
Author note: Last updated March 10, 2026.