Sonia Reed was 25 when she was last seen in the early hours of November 16, 1984, after an acquaintance dropped her off near the Waterman Gardens area of San Bernardino, California. Around 4 a.m. neighbors reported screams followed by gunshots. Later that morning her partially clothed body was found behind a headstone at a local memorial business. She had two fatal gunshot wounds: one to the back that caused immediate paralysis and a second to the back of the head that resulted in instant death. Evidence indicated an attempted sexual assault before the killing.

Ballistics linked Reed’s murder to the November 17 killing of 42-year-old Ursula Houser, who was shot twice from behind with a .357 magnum, moved and concealed, then sexually assaulted postmortem. Nine days later, on November 25, a would-be abduction in Riverside led to the fatal shooting of 11-year-old Daniel Osentkowski; the surviving girl identified the attacker and his vehicle, and police arrested 25-year-old Horace Edward Kelly that night in a light green van with a recently fired .357 revolver. Kelly was later convicted of the murders and given multiple death sentences.

Did anyone in the San Bernardino or Riverside area know Sonia Reed or notice anything unusual the night of November 15–16, 1984?