It Was a Decorative Object in Her Home — Until It Was Used to Kill Her and Allegedly Reveal a Family Betrayal By Christina Coulter

When 41-year-old Rose Marie Moniz was found dead in her New Bedford, Mass., home on March 23, 2001, police noted that her purse had been emptied and money was missing — but there were no signs of forced entry.

At the scene, investigators recovered several bloodied household items: a fireplace poker, a cast-iron kettle and a decorative conch shell.

An autopsy later revealed the extent of Moniz’s injuries, per previous reporting by PEOPLE. She had suffered skull fractures, broken nasal bones, a broken left cheekbone and large lacerations to her head. Blood was found in both ears. Her body also showed multiple contusions, according to investigators.

But two people were ruled out early in the investigation. And with no immediate suspects and no eyewitnesses, the murder remained unsolved for years, and the case went cold.

In 2019, detectives from the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office and the Massachusetts State Police Unresolved Crimes Unit reopened the case — and found a clue they’d overlooked nearly a decade earlier.

“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,” the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office said in a press release. “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.”

When the inner portion of the shell was swabbed, a full DNA profile was developed. That profile was entered into the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS — a national database that contains DNA from convicted offenders and arrestees across the U.S.

The system returned a match: Moniz’s half-brother, David Reed.

Reed, then 53, had served as a pallbearer at Moniz’s funeral. In 2021, he was indicted on charges of murder and armed robbery. He pleaded not guilty and remains in custody, awaiting trial.

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“We had other people that we thought it might be… It turned out that the person carrying her coffin to the grave was the person that killed her,” Moniz’s brother, Fred Cunha, told NBC 10 after the arrest.

Reed’s DNA was in CODIS because of a violent crime he committed in 2003.

According to CBS News Boston, Reed assaulted a woman with a tire iron during a robbery, striking her in the head and stealing her purse while she pretended to be dead.

During his attempted escape, he rammed a police cruiser with his car and fled the state, per the outlet.

Reed was eventually captured in 2015 and charged with armed assault with intent to murder, armed robbery, and felony bail jumping. In 2023, he was sentenced to 8 to 12 years in state prison for that attack. He is currently serving time for those convictions while awaiting trial for Moniz’s murder.