South Coast man found not guilty in Fall River Superior Court concerning murder of half-sister, Rose Marie Moniz

A South Coast man who was indicted for the previously unsolved 2001 cold case homicide of his half-sister, Rose Marie Moniz, in New Bedford, was found not guilty on Monday in Fall River Superior Court.

According to the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office, David Reed, a former Dartmouth, Acushnet and New Bedford man, was indicted in late 2021 by a Bristol County Grand Jury on charges of murder and armed robbery.  The defendant was also indicted in connection to a 2003 attempted murder and robbery of another New Bedford woman, Maribel Martinez-Alegria. 

On the morning of March 23, 2001, the 41-year-old homicide victim’s father entered her home at 3448 Acushnet Avenue in New Bedford to take her to a previously scheduled doctor’s appointment.  Upon entry into the home, the father found numerous kitchen items strewn all over the floor and the contents of his daughter’s purse on the living room floor. After calling out for his daughter and receiving no reply, he eventually found her deceased in a pool of blood on the bathroom floor. The father immediately contacted New Bedford Police and an investigation ensued.

It was determined Moniz had been bludgeoned to death with a fireplace poker, a conch shell and a cast iron kettle. Her purse was emptied out on the floor, and an undetermined amount of cash was stolen.  The autopsy report described significant trauma to her head including skull fractures, gaping lacerations and other injuries that resulted in bleeding from both ears, broken nasal bones, and a broken left cheek bone. The medical examiner also noted multiple contusions resulting from blunt trauma all over her body.  Police noted that there was no sign of forced entry into the home.

After investigators excluded two potential suspects early on in the investigation, the case went cold. In 2019, investigators from District Attorney Quinn’s Cold Case Unit and a lieutenant from the Massachusetts State Police Unresolved Crimes Unit who works with the unit, were reviewing more than 70 Bristol County cold case homicides dating back to the 1970s At that time, they began to pore over evidence and reports from the Moniz slaying. Cold Case Unit investigators reviewed the circumstances of how the conch shell was used in the bludgeoning and killing of Moniz. 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.  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. At the request of the DA’s Office, the crime lab tested the inner areas of the shell, where one’s fingers could reach.  This testing revealed a full DNA profile.  This profile was then entered into CODIS and hit to David Reed, the victim’s half-brother.  Testing of samples from underneath the victim’s fingernails also determined that Y-STR DNA from the defendant’s male family tree was found.  Y-STR DNA technology is used as an investigatory tool.

In late August 2020, Ann Marie Robertson, a Massachusetts State Police Lieutenant assigned to the district attorney’s office, and New Bedford Police Detective Andrew Simmons attempted to interview the defendant at his residence on Milton Street in Dartmouth. After the brief interview, Reed immediately began making plans to flee the state.  The defendant initially fled to Alabama and began working at a lumber yard, but fled again once law enforcement came to his workplace to speak with him about this case.  During the next year, the defendant travelled to California, Hawaii, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island in an apparent attempt to elude authorities.  He was captured on September 10, 2021, sleeping at the Providence Rescue Mission shelter in Rhode Island.  At that time, he had just been indicted in Bristol County on charges of Armed Assault with Intent to Murder and Armed Robbery in connection to the 2003 beating and robbery of Maribel Martinez-Alegria in New Bedford.

Reed is currently serving an 8-to-12-year state prison sentence after being convicted in the Martinez-Alegria case.