Police say 2-year-old Genesis Reid had not been seen since Christmas Day, weeks before her mother reported her missing in February.

ENTERPRISE, Ala. — The disappearance of 2-year-old Genesis Reid in southeast Alabama turned into a murder case after investigators said the girl had been dead for weeks before her mother reported her missing and later threw her body away in a dumpster.

Adrienne Reid, 33, first drew a large search effort after telling police on Feb. 16 that her daughter had vanished from their apartment on Apache Drive during the night. Within days, investigators said that account was false, charged Reid with false reporting and held her on a $1 million cash bond. By March 9, Enterprise police said the case had reached a far darker stage: detectives believed Genesis had been killed on Christmas Day, and Reid was charged with capital murder and abuse of a corpse. The shift changed the focus from a neighborhood search to a landfill recovery effort and a likely death-penalty prosecution.

Police said Reid called in the missing-child report shortly after 3 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 16, saying she noticed the front door open and realized Genesis was gone. Officers searched around the apartment complex but found no sign of the child. As detectives pressed for details, Enterprise Police Chief Michael Moore said, they found “inconsistencies” in the mother’s account and widened the investigation. Authorities later said they became confident the report that Genesis had walked out of the apartment overnight was false. During the early phase of the case, officers, state agents, the FBI and search teams worked around Enterprise, a city about 80 miles south of Montgomery. Cadaver dogs were brought to the apartment complex and nearby wooded areas as part of what Moore described as a standard step to rule out the immediate area. That search did not produce evidence tied to the child, but police said it helped narrow their focus.

Investigators said one of the biggest problems with the original report was the timeline. Moore told reporters in February that Genesis had not been seen by anyone in several weeks. Later, police said detectives concluded the child had not been seen since Christmas Day. At one point, the mother told police that Genesis might be with a woman named “Moriah,” but, Moore said, she did not provide enough information for officers to quickly identify or locate that person. Police later asked to question a Black woman by that name who they said was known to frequent Levels Bar and Grille on Dadeville Avenue in Enterprise, while also stressing that a local woman with the same name was not the person they wanted to interview. Officials said Genesis’ father and other relatives had cooperated with investigators. Reid, by contrast, was described by Moore as far less forthcoming. A Coffee County judge set Reid’s bond on the false-reporting charge at $1 million cash and ordered conditions that included GPS monitoring, drug screening and daily check-ins if she were released. She remained in the Coffee County Jail.

As the search continued, the case drew intense public attention in Enterprise and surrounding towns. Police asked anyone who had a personal relationship or social contact with Adrienne Reid between Dec. 24, 2025, and Feb. 16, 2026, to come forward, saying even minor details could matter. Digital billboards carrying Genesis’ information went up along Boll Weevil Circle, and residents organized visible support around the missing toddler, using pink as a sign of solidarity. At the same time, authorities pushed back against rumors online. In public statements, police warned that speculation and false claims on social media could interfere with an active investigation. Moore said investigators were moving methodically and had not scaled back. “We will search anywhere leads take us,” he said during one briefing, describing the toll the case had taken on officers, many of whom are parents. The emotional weight of the case grew as neighbors and community members said they were trying to reconcile the early missing-child alert with the later indication that Genesis may have vanished much earlier.

The decisive turn came on March 9, the day police said would have been Genesis’ third birthday. Moore announced that Reid had been charged with capital murder and abuse of a corpse. Detectives, he said, reviewed camera footage from a neighboring home that showed Reid walking toward the apartment complex dumpster with a rolling duffel bag at about 11:30 p.m. on Christmas night. Two days later, investigators said, more video showed her returning to the same dumpster carrying toys and other items believed to belong to Genesis. Moore said detectives concluded that Reid killed her daughter, put her in a duffel bag and discarded the bag in the dumpster. He said the evidence had led investigators to the “heartbreaking and horrific conclusion” that the child’s mother was responsible for her death. Police have not publicly described a suspected cause of death in the material released so far, and Genesis’ remains had not been recovered at the time of the March 9 announcement.

That left the case entering a difficult recovery phase. Coffee County Sheriff Scott Byrd said investigators used truck schedules and GPS data from landfill equipment to narrow the search area at the Coffee County Landfill. Even so, he warned that the recovery effort would be slow and hard. Byrd said the dumpster load investigators were targeting was picked up Dec. 26, compacted in a garbage truck, taken to a transfer site, compacted again, then hauled to the landfill and processed further by heavy equipment. Because of that sequence, he said, the search could take up to 10 weeks or longer. Officials said a specialized team from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was helping finalize the search plan. Coffee County District Attorney James Tarbox said Reid was expected to appear before District Judge Josh Wilson later that week on the new charges and that prosecutors planned to seek the death penalty. Tarbox said the decision reflected both the facts alleged by investigators and the severity of the accusation.

For Enterprise, the case has unfolded in public stages that were each more grim than the last: first an overnight disappearance, then a false-reporting charge, then a homicide announcement tied to Christmas night. The scene around the case has mixed police tape, search dogs, billboards and prayer gatherings with the hard mechanics of evidence review and landfill mapping. Residents who first hoped Genesis would be found alive instead found themselves following court updates and search plans. Officers have said the public’s tips helped, but they also repeatedly asked people not to confuse rumor with fact. The central unanswered question now is not whether police believe a crime occurred, but whether they can recover Genesis’ remains and present the full case in court. That will shape both the prosecution and the family’s ability to put the child to rest. Until then, the city is left with a child’s name on signs and screens, and a case that began with a door left open but now rests on surveillance video, timelines and what investigators say happened after Christmas.

Reid was jailed and facing capital murder and abuse-of-a-corpse charges, as of March 18, 2026, while authorities prepared for a long landfill search and further court proceedings in Coffee County. The next major milestone is the defendant’s court appearance on the new charges and the launch of the planned recovery operation.