Episode 144: Jalesa Reynolds – Bite-Sized Crime

When a young woman goes missing after a day at the library, investigators must follow her digital trail. What happened to Jalesa Reynolds?

Episode Media

Jalesa’s last known locations *(Google Maps)*

Episode Sources

Episode Transcript

Welcome back to Bite-Sized Crime. This week I’m bringing you a missing persons case that seemingly has enough information to be solved, but has somehow come to a halt. Investigators are just waiting for the right piece of information. This episode discusses sensitive topics, so listener discretion is advised.

Jalesa Chantell Reynolds grew up in Halifax County, North Carolina. Bordered by the Roanoke River, and not far from the Virginia state line, the area is known for its rich history and beautiful landscapes. Jalesa was born in June of 1991 and was raised in the small town of Scotland Neck. Even as a young girl, Jalesa was quiet and shy, preferring to keep to herself. Her social circle was small, and she liked it that way. She was close to her family and the friends she had chosen.

In her teenage years, Jalesa discovered social media, and it offered her access to the world beyond her small town. MySpace and Facebook were her favorite places to connect with friends, and she curated an online community where she could truly be herself.

In early 2010, 18-year-old Jalesa was taking classes at Halifax Community College to earn her GED, a high school equivalency certificate. When she wasn’t in class, she would often spend time at the public library in Scotland Neck accessing the internet, where she would work on her assignments and check her social media accounts. Just a few blocks from her house, the quiet library was perfect for Jalesa, a refuge from the commotion of daily life.

On the morning of Monday, February 22, 2010, as was her habit, Jalesa got up early and visited the Scotland Neck Memorial Library on Main Street. She worked for a few hours, then logged off and left the library. But Jalesa didn’t go home. Her mother Bernice waited for hours, expecting Jalesa to walk through the door at any moment. But when night fell and she still hadn’t heard from her daughter, Bernice knew something was very wrong.

Bernice contacted the Scotland Neck Police Department and asked to file a missing persons report, but she was told that she needed to wait until the next day. When she was finally able to meet with a detective on February 23, she told them everything she knew about her daughter’s movements. Even though Jalesa was legally an adult and could go wherever she pleased, it was extremely unusual for her to not be in contact with anyone. She didn’t have a car or cell phone or a bank account, and she hadn’t taken anything with her when she left the house Monday morning.

Thankfully, the police didn’t brush off Jalesa’s case as we often see in these types of situations. Detectives visited Jalesa’s home and sifted through her bedroom for anything that might indicate where she had gone. They found a typical teenager’s room – clothing and personal items strewn about, pictures of Jalesa and her friends, handwritten notes and drawings. It was clear that she had just stepped out for the day with every intention of coming home.

Investigators suspected that Jalesa’s internet activity would be critical in tracking her movements on the day she disappeared. They were able to confirm that on February 22nd, Jalesa had logged into a computer station at the public library shortly after 9am and accessed her Facebook and MySpace accounts. According to the Roanoke Rapids Daily Herald, several friends spotted Jalesa at the library and confirmed that she left around 11am. But contrary to what everyone first believed, that wasn’t the last time Jalesa logged onto the internet that day. At 1:39pm, just a few hours after leaving the library, Jalesa accessed her Facebook account from a home on Cemetery Road.

Investigators quickly learned that the home belonged to 35-year-old Dwayne Hosea Davis, a registered sex offender who had served six years in prison for a second-degree rape conviction in 1994. When detectives spoke to Davis, he was very cooperative. He told them that Jalesa had come by his house on Monday afternoon to see his horses and had asked to use his computer to check her Facebook account. She had left around 2:00 or 3:00 and he hadn’t seen her since.

The fact that 18-year-old Jalesa had been at the home of a convicted rapist was alarming to investigators, and it raised quite a few questions. Jalesa was known to be incredibly shy, rarely initiating conversations with strangers – how had she come to know Dwayne Davis, and why did she trust him enough to enter his home?

Even if Jalesa had wanted to visit Davis to see his horses as he claimed, how had she gotten there, and how had she left? The house on Cemetery Road was over two miles away from the library on Main Street, and Jalesa didn’t have a car. It’s possible she walked or even rode her bike, but the two-lane roads were narrow and it would have been dangerous. Had anyone seen her along the way?

If investigators got answers to these questions, they didn’t share them with the public. They seized Davis’ home computer and sent it to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation for processing, hoping to get more specific information through forensic analysis.

In the week following Jalesa’s disappearance, the Scotland Neck Police Department sent air, land, and water search teams to scour nearly 100 acres of woods and waterways near Davis’ property, including a local waste disposal facility. At a press conference on March 2, Scotland Neck Police Chief Joe Williams announced that they had interviewed over 60 individuals in an attempt to gather information about Jalesa’s disappearance. However, he was hesitant to reveal anything more, concerned that it could jeopardize the investigation.

As the days and weeks passed, investigators continued to search for Jalesa, bringing in volunteer teams and partnering with the SBI. Dive teams from the neighboring town of Littleton explored the deep waters of the Roanoke River where it flowed just a few miles outside of Scotland Neck. They were determined to leave no stone unturned.

In the midst of searching for Jalesa, investigators stumbled upon a set of human remains that led to the resolution of another case. In the woods, a quarter mile from Dwayne Davis’ home, search teams uncovered the remains of 43-year-old Christine Boone, who had been missing since 2007. DNA testing later revealed that she had likely been killed by Antwan Pittman, a suspected serial killer who had briefly lived in a trailer off Cemetery Road. Pittman was in jail in February of 2010, so investigators were able to rule him out as a suspect in Jalesa’s disappearance, but they were glad to be able to bring closure to Christine’s family.

While authorities continued to search for Jalesa, her family clung to the hope that she would come home soon. Her mother Bernice told WRAL that she believed Jalesa was alive and pleaded for her safe return. “Just whoever [has] her, just bring her home safely.”

Not long into the investigation, news outlets learned that a North Carolina Superior Court judge had issued a temporary gag order on the investigation, effectively restricting anyone involved with the case from speaking with the media. While this is not an unusual move in open investigations, it did spark rumors that perhaps law enforcement knew more about Jalesa’s disappearance than they were saying. Jalesa’s cousin Frederick told WNCT that while the family didn’t really know what was going on, they supported the judge’s ruling. “If the gag order is to protect some type of evidence, I say protect it, or to keep something from being leaked, I’m for it.”

On March 25, a month after Jalesa disappeared, Scotland Neck police executed a search warrant on Dwayne Davis’ property, once again scouring the land for any sign of Jalesa. According to the Daily Herald, dozens of police, fire, and forestry service vehicles were observed at Davis’ home that day. But again, if anything was found, none of it was released to the public.

Months passed, and Jalesa’s family continued to wait for answers. In September of 2010, North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue announced a $5,000 reward for information in the case, which gave the family a small measure of hope. Perhaps someone would come forward with the missing piece of the puzzle.

In February of 2011, on the one-year anniversary of Jalesa’s disappearance, the Scotland Neck Police Department held a press conference to provide updates on the case. Although there was little to share, Chief Williams stated that the case was still open and that they were working diligently to bring Jalesa home. “The case has proceeded in a positive direction and is active and ongoing. Clearly, the recovery of Miss Jalesa Reynolds is an important event for the investigation to move into a different phase.”

Jalesa’s cousin Frederick spoke for the family, saying that they were grateful for the attention on Jalesa’s case and that they hoped more information would come soon. “Not a day goes by that you don’t think of your loved one – where she’s at, what condition she’s in, but through God, we’re going to hope and just keep praying. We’re just looking for some resolution… We’re just hoping and praying, one way or another, to just bring her back home.”

Six months later, in August of 2011, authorities executed yet another search warrant on Dwayne Davis’ property, this time specifically focused on his cell phones. According to the warrant, investigators had been looking into a series of strange 911 calls dating back to June of 2010. Over the course of a year, over 14 calls had been made using various cell phones, all of which were traced back to the area immediately surrounding Davis’ home. During the calls, a person could be heard deliberately trying to disguise their voice to sound like a female calling for help. Each time, an officer was dispatched to the location, where nothing was found to be amiss.

In the search warrant, the requesting officer named Davis as a suspect in the disappearance of Jalesa Reynolds, something Scotland Neck Police had never publicly stated. But now, it was clear that investigators had Dwayne Davis in their sights, believing that these phony 911 calls could be connected to the ongoing mystery of Jalesa’s case.

While executing the warrant, officers seized eight cell phones from Davis’ home as well as a receipt for a local furniture store and “miscellaneous paper trash items”. Everything was sent to the SBI for analysis.

After the property search, Dwayne Davis gave an interview to WRAL, claiming that he was the victim of harassment by law enforcement. He told the reporter that he believed someone was faking the 911 calls in an attempt to frame him and make him look guilty.

Davis claimed that he had no idea what had happened to Jalesa after she left his house. “All I know is I did not do anything to this young lady. Just because of your record from the past, it doesn’t make you a person that does something to hurt anybody. If you ask anybody about me who knows me, they know I’m a kind, loving, warm-hearted person… I feel bad, you know, because everybody thinks I had something to do with this lady’s disappearance. I didn’t.”

Another year passed, and there were still no answers in Jalesa’s case. In October of 2012, search teams once again descended on Davis’ property, this time bringing in personnel from the Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office as well as archaeology students from East Carolina University. They drained a small pond on Salvia Lane and used search dogs in the hopes of sniffing out human remains. Chief Williams told WRAL that they were planning to present their case to the Halifax County District Attorney’s Office in the coming weeks, believing that they may have finally gathered enough evidence to bring about an arrest in the case.

Unfortunately, it appears that their efforts were in vain – no arrests were made, and Jalesa’s case eventually went quiet. Every few years, her story pops up in the local news, her family and law enforcement doing what they can to keep her memory alive.

In February of 2025, on the fifteenth anniversary of Jalesa’s disappearance, Scotland Neck Police Chief Tommy Parker posted a tribute to Jalesa on the department’s Facebook page, reminding everyone that Jalesa was still missing and that she deserved to be remembered. He recounted his memories of working her case in the early days and emphasized that he hoped that her family would find peace someday. “Please send up some prayers today for the family. Jalesa Chantell Reynolds, you will always be remembered.”

Jalesa Reynolds was last seen on February 22, 2010, in the town of Scotland Neck, North Carolina. At the time of her disappearance, Jalesa was 18 years old. She was described as a Black female with black hair and brown eyes, standing 5’2” tall with patches of dark pigment on her arms. She was last seen wearing tan pants with black sneakers, a pink shirt, and a blue denim jacket with a flower design on the back. She was also wearing a black head scarf held with bobby pins. At the time of this recording, Jalesa would be 33 years old.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Jalesa Reynolds, please contact Halifax County Crime Stoppers at 252-583-4444 or submit a tip online at halifaxcountycrimestoppers.org.