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19-year-old Stacey Stites was beaten, strangled, and killed. Her body was found in bushes along a road in Bastrop, Texas on April 23, 1996.
Rodney Reed, then 28, was charged with Stacey's murder following a string of evidence that led investigators to believe in his involvement. While he initially denied even knowing the victim, he admitted that the two were engaged in a consensual relationship.
Today, the man remains incarcerated and maintains that he was not behind the murder.
Stacey Stites' murder story will be detailed in Investigation Discovery's true-crime series People Magazine Investigates. The episode, titled Is Rodney Reed Innocent? will air on February 10.
Here's a short synopsis of the episode:
"A Texas woman is r*ped and murdered; a trial sparks a racially charged debate over whether an innocent man was condemned to death; new evidence comes to light; the truth about who killed Stacy Stites."
Trigger warning: This article contains mentions of murder. Discretion is advised.
Read on to find out about Stacey Stites, what happened to her, and more
Who was Stacey Stites?
Stacey Stites was 19 when she went missing in 1996. Her body was discovered in Bastrop, Texas, on April 23, hours after she failed to show up for work. She was r*ped, strangled, and left to die on the road. The woman was only weeks away from getting married to her fiancé.
The victim was the youngest of four siblings. Stites' brother was never able to recover from her death and committed suicide in 1997.
Reed claimed he was involved with Stites
Hours after she went missing, when Stites' body was discovered, she was wearing a black bra and jeans. She had been strangled to death with a belt. The belt was never tested for DNA.
State Golden Gloves champion boxer Rodney Reed became a person of interest in the case after his DNA was found on Stacy's body. Although Reed denied any involvement, he later claimed that he was involved with the victim in a consensual relationship, adding that she wanted to keep their relationship a secret considering that she was going to get married in a few weeks.
However, Stacy's family refused to buy his claim. Stites' sister Debra Oliver said:
“There has never been any evidence, whatsoever, there was any type of relationship.”
The investigation
Rodney Reed was already in the bad books of the local police for his other misdoings. However, the police zeroed in on him when seven months later, 19-year-old Linda Schlueter was attacked in a similar manner but managed to survive.
Schlueter told the police about Reed's involvement, enabling them to create a connection between the two cases.
The police began to dig into his case even further and soon discovered his involvement in the r*pe of a 12-year-old girl.
Reed was convicted two years later
Two years after the body was found, Rodney Reed was convicted on May 18, 1998, and was sentenced to death. However, he has maintained his innocence, and his death penalty remains controversial to date.
The belt used to kill Stites was never tested for DNA, making the case against Reed weak.
His execution was rescheduled a couple of times, and finally, on November 15, 2019, the court stayed his execution indefinitely.
