Conch shell leads to break in cold case of mom killed 20 years ago, MA officials say
For 20 years, a mother’s violent murder remained unsolved without any new suspects — until one of the weapons used in her killing — a conch shell — was tested for DNA.
The inside of this conch shell has led to a major break in the cold case of Rose Moniz, who was bludgeoned to death in 2001, and her half-brother is now indicted, officials in Massachusetts said.
David Reed, of SouthCoast, was indicted last week on charges of murder and armed robbery in connection to his sister’s killing, the Bristol County District Attorney’s office said in a Dec. 2 news release.
41-year-old Moniz “was a mother who was brutally murdered inside the sanctity of her own home,” District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III said in a statement.
“We were able to bring some sense of relief to the victim’s family, all of whom suffered for the past 20 years from not knowing what happened to Ms. Moniz,” he added.
On March 23, 2001, Moniz was found dead in a pool of blood in her bathroom by her father, who’d come to take her to a doctor’s appointment, the release said.
Investigators discovered Moniz “had been bludgeoned to death with a fireplace poker, a conch shell and a cast iron kettle,” the district attorney’s office stated.
Before her father found her body, he saw his daughter’s house in disarray and the contents of her purse dumped on the living room floor.
Police initially determined cash was stolen from the purse, but Moniz’s home had no signs of forced entry.
“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 release said.
Early in the investigation, two potential suspects were ruled out by police and the case went cold.
In 2019, over 70 unsolved cases from Bristol County as far back as the 1970’s were reviewed by the district attorney’s cold case unit and a lieutenant from the Massachusetts State Police Unresolved Crimes Unit, according to the district attorney’s office.
“They began to pore over evidence and reports from the Moniz slaying,” the release said, including autopsy photos which revealed the woman suffered “numerous abrasions and contusions.”
The photos of Moniz’s wounds “suggested that the spiny exterior of the conch shell made contact with” her face, according to the release.
This was a clue that led investigators to believe Moniz’s killer likely “put his fingers inside the opening of the conch to hold it as firmly as was needed to strike the victim with extreme force.”
Then, investigators requested that the inside of the conch shell, “where one’s fingers could reach,” be tested for DNA by a crime lab, according to the district attorney’s office, and a full DNA profile was revealed, pointing to Moniz’s half-brother, Reed.
A state police lieutenant briefly interviewed Reed in August 2020, after which, officials say, he made plans to flee Massachusetts.
He evaded authorities by traveling to six separate states — Alabama, California, Hawaii, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island — before he was captured sleeping at a shelter in Providence, Rhode Island, on Sept. 10, 2021, the release detailed.
“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,” the release noted.
Now, Reed is accused of killing his half-sister as well as attempting to kill Martinez-Alegria two years later.
He had bludgeoned Martinez-Alegria in the head with a tire iron and had stolen her purse, the district attorney’s office said.
Reed was charged at the time of the alleged attack but soon left Massachusetts, “remaining a fugitive from May of 2004 until he was finally apprehended” and sent back to Massachusetts on May 7, 2015, the release said.
“In 2016, he was sentenced to serve 3 ½ to 4 years in state prison on those charges. As a result of these convictions, Reed was also required to submit a sample of his DNA to the state DNA database,” the district attorney’s office stated.
“It was this submission of his DNA that ultimately would connect Reed to the murder of his half-sister,” it added.
Reed is currently in jail in connection with the alleged attack and robbery of Martinez-Alegria and both cases will be prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney William McCauley.
“We look forward to prosecuting this case in open court,” Quinn said in a statement.
“Rosie had a big heart. She loved everybody,” Moniz’s sister, Kim Pachecho, told WCVB.
McClatchy News has reached out to the district attorney’s office for further comment.
This story was originally published December 3, 2021 at 2:23 PM with the headline "Conch shell leads to break in cold case of mom killed 20 years ago, MA officials say."
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