A 62-year-old woman was arrested on Monday and accused of stabbing a pregnant teen five months ago, just days before the girl was set to give birth.
Jacqueline Reid, 62, was charged with two counts of murder in connection to the death of 17-year-old Maylashia Hogg and her unborn child, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division announced. Hogg was nine months pregnant with the girl she planned to name Londyn Charity when she was found dead in February, just a few blocks away from her home in Barnwell.
Barnwell Police Department
Hogg was last seen on Feb. 8 and reported missing by her family on Feb. 14, after she missed her induction appointment, according to reports by FOX affiliate WACH.
“She was excited to be a mom,” Robert Payne, Hogg’s cousin, told the outlet. He added that Hogg was going to name her daughter after her mother, who died in 2022.
Kimberly Kite, the founder of the Broken Link Foundation, an advocacy group aiding in the search for missing people, told ABC affiliate WPDE after Hogg’s disappearance that her family did not receive help from authorities in getting the word out.
“When a family reports a loved one missing, police have got to listen to the family,” Kite told WACH.
Authorities executed a search of Reid’s home, where they found unspecified “forensic evidence” of the crime, according to an arrest warrant attached to the SLED announcement. The warrant said that Hogg was stabbed multiple times with a “sharp-edged weapon.”
Michael Sapp, Hogg’s stepfather, told ABC affiliate WJBF after Reid appeared in court this week that she was known to the family and he “just can’t believe that she actually did this.”
“I asked her several times like, have you saw Malaysia? And she looked right at me and was like, no. And knowing the whole time that she already had did this to my baby,“ Sapp told the outlet.
According to WJBF, Reid refused to speak with the judge at the hearing and was denied bond. Hogg’s family is continuing to demand answers as authorities have yet to determine a motive in Hogg’s killing.
Ja’Nearia Rice, Hogg’s cousin, told USA TODAY that Reid had been spending time with the family in the days before her arrest, adding that she once lived across the street from Hogg.
“Why would you do something like this and then come around the family?” Rice told the outlet. “She came around the day that Maylashia was found. She came in the yard to Maylashia’s house, sitting with the family, watching them grieve in pain.”
