NORFOLK — An envelope with Reshaunda Gerald’s name on it, two red- and brown-stained terry cloth rags, a pair of brown boots with unknown fiber on the shoes and a black cellphone.
Those are some of the police’s latest unsealed findings in the search for a 33-year-old Norfolk woman who vanished after being picked up by her married ex-boyfriend on Jan. 4, according to documents filed in Norfolk Circuit Court.
But those findings haven’t brought Gerald’s family any closure in their now 253-day search for the missing mother of three.
“We will never stop looking for the truth,” said Gerald’s cousin Latoya Willoughby. “We will not rest until she has been found dead or alive. We need her body home so we can have some closure. Her kids need that. We all need that.”
Court documents show that police are investigating her disappearance as a possible abduction. Those documents also detail other items they found in the black Nissan she was last seen in, including a trunk mat and hatchet that reacted to a chemical called Blue Star, which showed that there were remnants of human blood on them.
The Norfolk Police Department said Thursday they are following every lead in Gerald’s case; however, she hasn’t been found and no one has been arrested in connection with her disappearance. Police would not comment on what was found in the car.
Gerald was last seen around 8 a.m. on Jan. 4 by her mother leaving their Coleman Place apartment with her ex-boyfriend. The pair had an argument about the status of their relationship the weekend before and were meeting up to sort through issues, Willoughby said.
The man was driving his wife’s black Nissan when he picked Gerald up. She said goodbye to her mother and promised she’d be back by 3 p.m. to pick up her daughters from school. Twelve minutes later, she posted a meme on Facebook, court documents state.
That was the last anyone ever heard from her.
Court documents show that Gerald’s ex-boyfriend quickly became a person of interest to police. He was questioned by the NPD about a week after Gerald disappeared. He told officers a story about taking her to pay her water bill, then to a car wash in Portsmouth to have sex before dropping her off at the intersection of Lincoln Street and Olney Road.
But the man’s account of the day doesn’t match up with phone and travel records uncovered by the NPD.
Those records show that instead of going to Portsmouth and dropping Gerald back off in Norfolk, her cellphone pinged off of towers near the man’s Chesapeake home from 10:49 a.m. to 11:09 p.m. that day.
That night, her cellphone pinged off other towers directly across from the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Chesapeake — the hotel the man told police he’d spent the night at with his wife.
Police searched the car on Feb. 11. During that search they also found a plastic bag with suspected drug paraphernalia and a white plastic recycle bag stained red. Along with the physical items, they took cotton swab samples of the car’s door handles, driver seat and center console.
Court documents state that police also believe Gerald’s ex-boyfriend may have deleted text messages sent to and from his phone the day she vanished.
Gerald and her ex-boyfriend spoke frequently. A police search of his phone showed that the couple spoke on the phone 45 times between Dec. 20 and Jan. 3, according to court documents.
Although the man told police he sent Gerald various texts since he last saw her on Jan. 4, a manual search of his phone didn’t show any text messages sent or received on that date; however, his cell phone records showed that he was sending and getting text messages at that time.
Gerald is described as a slender African American woman with a dark complexion. She has blue hair and brown eyes and is about five feet one inch in height. She also has the word “RIFE” tattooed on her neck and the word “MULE” tattooed on her chest, surrounded by angel wings.
Anyone with information on Gerald’s disappearance should call the Norfolk Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP. Tips submitted to the crime line will remain anonymous and could result in a $1,000 reward.
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