Officials: Person of interest in case of missing SC mother now charged with murder, kidnapping

PAGELAND, S.C. — The person of interest in the case of a missing Chesterfield County mother is now charged with murder and kidnapping, officials said.

On Thursday, a deputy solicitor asked the jury for upgraded charges, including murder, in the disappearance of Deidre Reid, a mother of three who vanished six months ago from Pageland.

Investigators said she drove Emanuel Bedford, the father of her youngest child, to a Charlotte bus station in September.

She never returned home.

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Bedford was previously facing charges of obstruction of justice and grand larceny. He has now been indicted on charges of murder and kidnapping in the death of Reid.

In a hearing in February, Channel 9 learned Deidre Reid’s car was found in Aiken County, South Carolina, just days after she was reported missing, according to the solicitor. The state said the car, which was found partially submerged in a pond on Sept. 5, had blood inside it.

On Thursday, a grand jury considered evidence that led them to indict Bedford on the new charges, but it’s unclear exactly what evidence they considered.

“It’s just sad that Mr. Bedford has taken away our loved one. Don’t nobody deserve to go through what Deidre went through on Sept. 3,” the victim’s brother, James Reid, said.

Deidre had plans to meet up with her sister, Tina, after she dropped Bedford off.

“I waited and waited. She never called back so I called James and said, ‘Have you heard from Deidre? She supposed to been coming by, she said she was coming back and she hadn’t came yet,’” Tina Reid recalled. “He said, ‘She probably OK,’ but I didn’t feel right. I didn’t feel right.”

On Sept. 23, Bedford was named a person of interest in Reid’s disappearance and in February, prosecutors revealed what family members have said all along -- they don’t believe he has been truthful about what happened the day Reid disappeared.

During February’s hearing, prosecutors said Bedford never got on a bus in Charlotte. They said on the afternoon Reid disappeared, he was spotted on surveillance video at a York County gas station, driving Reid’s car. She was not seen in that video. Then, two days later, investigators found her partially submerged car and were still processing the DNA evidence from the blood they found inside it.

Bedford was denied bond in that hearing.

The deputy solicitor said Bedford will appear in court the week of April 4 for an arraignment hearing.

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