The Enterprise Police Department has charged the mother of a missing two-year-old with capital murder after investigators found evidence she placed the child's body in a dumpster.
Adrienne Reid is also charged with abuse of a corpse.
Enterprise Police chief Michael Moore announced on the day that the girl, Genesis Reid, would have turned three.
"Through the careful and methodical work of investigators, we have reached the heartbreaking and horrific conclusion that her mother, her caretaker, the one that should have been there to keep her safe, willfully murdered Genesis and placed her in a duffle bag and discarded her in a dumpster," Moore said.
Reid reported her daughter missing on February 16 and was subsequently arrested for false reporting to law enforcement. Detectives later determined the child had not been seen since Christmas Day.
Surveillance footage from a neighbor showed a person believed to be Reid placing a duffel bag and toys into a nearby dumpster.
"Today is an especially heartbreaking day for our community," Moore said. "The loss of a child, the most precious and innocent members of our society, is something that cannot be ignored and will never be forgotten."
The body of Genesis Reid has not been located. Search operations will take place at the Coffee County Landfill.
"I need the public to understand that this will not be an easy or fast search," said Coffee County Sheriff Scott Byrd. "The subject dumpster where the bag we are looking for was picked up on December 26. It was compacted in the truck that picked it up. It was taken to a distribution facility and compacted again. It was taken on another truck to the landfill where it was processed further with bulldozers and a compacting machine."
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is assisting in the search.
"I believe that Genesis's earthly body is no longer what defines her, and that she is now in a place far greater than anything this world could offer, surrounded by a love and power beyond our understanding," Moore added.
Coffee County District Attorney James Tarbox suggested prosecutors would seek the death penalty in the case.
"The evidence shows that Adrienne Reid killed her daughter, literally threw her in the trash, and then engaged in a 53-day campaign of deceit, lies, manipulation, and destruction of evidence, before she finally reported her missing on February 16," Tarbox said. "Her conduct speaks for itself, and I believe this preliminary decision to seek the death penalty conforms to our community's beliefs about this case and our shared values about how we value and seek to protect the most innocent among us, our children."
Reid is considered innocent until proven guilty.
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