Police say the 2-year-old had not been seen for weeks before her mother reported her missing in Enterprise.
ENTERPRISE, Ala. — Police say an Alabama mother falsely reported that her 2-year-old daughter vanished from their apartment before dawn, touching off a wide search that later turned into a homicide case as investigators said the child had not been seen for weeks.
Adrienne Reid, 33, was first jailed on a false-reporting charge after Enterprise police said her account of daughter Genesis Reid walking out of an apartment around 3 a.m. on Feb. 16 did not hold up under investigation. In the weeks that followed, officers, prosecutors and sheriff’s officials said the case grew more severe: investigators concluded Genesis had been dead since Christmas Day, and Reid was later charged with capital murder and abuse of a corpse. The case has shaken Enterprise, a city about 80 miles south of Montgomery, and left investigators preparing for a long search at a landfill where they believe the child’s remains may be buried under compacted trash.
Police said the case began when Reid told officers she found the front door of her apartment on Apache Drive open and could not find Genesis. Officers searched around the apartment complex and nearby areas but found nothing. As detectives interviewed Reid and checked the timeline, Enterprise Police Chief Michael Moore said, they found inconsistencies that pushed the case in a different direction. By Feb. 18, Moore told reporters police were “confident” Reid had made a false report about the girl leaving the apartment on her own. He said other relatives had been cooperative, while Reid had not fully accounted for the child’s whereabouts. Authorities also said the toddler had not been seen for “several weeks,” contradicting the idea that she had wandered away only hours earlier. Reid was charged with false reporting to law enforcement authorities, a Class C felony, and a judge set bond at $1 million cash only. If released, she would have faced GPS monitoring, daily check-ins and travel restrictions within Coffee County.
In those first days, the search widened as local police worked with the FBI, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and other partners. Search teams used a certified cadaver dog around the apartment complex and nearby ground, but police later said that sweep did not produce items of evidentiary value. Moore described that step as a standard effort to rule out the immediate area. Investigators asked the public to focus on facts, not rumor, and said online speculation was interfering with the case. Police also tried to identify a woman known as “Moriah,” whom they said Reid had mentioned. Moore said officers wanted to question that woman because Reid claimed Genesis might be with her, and said she was known to frequent Levels Bar and Grille on Daleville Avenue and areas in nearby Ozark. At the same time, police stressed that another woman with a similar name who lived near the family was not the person they were seeking, had cooperated with investigators and was not a suspect. Officials asked anyone who had social contact with Adrienne Reid between Dec. 24, 2025, and Feb. 16, 2026, to come forward, saying even small details might matter.
As the investigation continued, the public picture changed sharply. On March 9, what would have been Genesis’ third birthday, Moore announced that Reid had been charged with capital murder and abuse of a corpse. He said investigators had followed leads, reviewed evidence and concluded Genesis had not been seen since Christmas Day. Moore also said detectives obtained surveillance video from a neighboring residence that showed Adrienne Reid walking toward the apartment complex dumpster with a rolling duffel bag at about 11:30 p.m. on Dec. 25. Two days later, he said, more footage showed her returning to the dumpster area carrying toys and other items believed to belong to Genesis. The child’s body has not been publicly reported found. Police and prosecutors have not released a public explanation of how Genesis died, and court records described in official statements do not answer every remaining question about motive, exact cause of death or who else may have known what happened. Those points remain unresolved in public reporting.
The legal stakes also rose quickly. Coffee County District Attorney James Tarbox said Reid would have an initial appearance later that week on the new felony charges. He also said his office viewed the evidence as showing a long effort to mislead investigators before the missing-child report was made on Feb. 16. Capital murder is among Alabama’s most serious criminal charges, and the added abuse-of-a-corpse charge reflects investigators’ allegation that Genesis’ body was hidden and discarded. Sheriff Scott Byrd said search planning had shifted to the Coffee County landfill, where investigators believe the contents of the dumpster were eventually taken. Byrd said the suspected load had been compacted in a garbage truck, moved to a transfer point, compacted again and then carried to the landfill, where it was later processed with heavy equipment. Even so, he said officials had narrowed the likely search zone to an area about 200 feet by 100 feet and 8 to 10 feet deep in refuse. He warned that the search would not be quick or easy and could take 10 weeks or more. A specialized team from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was brought in to help finalize search plans.
Outside the court process and evidence review, the case drew a strong community response in Enterprise and across southeast Alabama. Digital billboards carrying Genesis’ image went up near Boll Weevil Circle, and city officials said tips had poured in. Moore said the case had deeply affected officers, many of whom are parents themselves. Mayor William E. Cooper Sr. said the city’s attention was fixed on the girl and her family. Coverage by local broadcasters showed homes and public spaces lit in pink and a candlelight vigil planned at Bates Memorial Stadium as residents searched for ways to gather. That public grief ran alongside police warnings that rumor could hurt the investigation. Officials repeatedly asked people not to identify innocent neighbors online or circulate claims unsupported by law enforcement. In a city where major violent crime cases can become intensely personal, the disappearance of a toddler and the later murder allegations left residents balancing hope, anger and dread. The most powerful details in the case have come not from spectacle but from the contrast between the first report of a child supposedly wandering off in pajamas and the later accusation that the child had been dead for weeks before anyone outside the home was told she was missing.
As of March 18, Reid remains charged in the case, Genesis’ remains have not been publicly reported found, and authorities are focused on the landfill search and upcoming court proceedings. The next major milestone is the continued court process on the murder and corpse-abuse charges and any update on the search for Genesis.