Marissa S. Boyd-Stingley, a 19-year-old African American woman, was tragically killed on June 25, 2013, in Chicago, IL. She was shot while riding in a car with friends in the Park Manor neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. The incident occurred around 2:30 a.m. when a black SUV pulled up alongside their vehicle at 73rd Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
The driver of the SUV, later identified as Reginald Reed, stared into their car, prompting one of Boyd-Stingley's friends to ask if he knew someone inside. When Reed did not respond, one of the passengers made a comment about his misaligned left eye, referring to him as "cockeyed." This remark led Reed to open fire on the car, striking all four occupants. Marissa Boyd-Stingley, who was sitting in the middle of the back seat, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The investigation into Marissa Boyd-Stingley's death faced significant challenges. Initially, the case went cold due to a lack of strong evidence and the inability to locate the other surviving victims. However, a breakthrough came years later when detectives revisited the case. Boyd-Stingley's mother, Nortasha Stingley, had heard rumors that her daughter's killer had a "cocked-eye" and informed detectives about a man in the neighborhood known as "Rico" who fit that description. This information led detectives to Reginald Reed, whose left eye was permanently misaligned. Reed was placed in a photo lineup, and one of the surviving passengers identified him as the shooter.
Despite the identification, the case against Reginald Reed was not straightforward. The key evidence relied heavily on witness identification, which a Cook County judge described as "weak." The witness who identified Reed did so four years after the shooting, and the identification was initially tentative. Additionally, the gun used in the shooting was recovered a few weeks after the incident but was not linked to Boyd-Stingley's murder until 2016. By then, the man found with the weapon was on parole and refused to disclose how he obtained it.
In November 2020, Reginald Reed, then 43 years old, was finally charged with the murder of Marissa Boyd-Stingley. The arrest brought a sense of hope and relief to Nortasha Stingley, who had spent seven years advocating for justice for her daughter. Reed's trial is expected to be a critical step in seeking justice for Marissa Boyd-Stingley and providing closure for her family. The case highlights the persistent efforts of law enforcement and the community to solve cold cases and bring perpetrators to justice, despite the passage of time and initial investigative hurdles.
