An investigator with the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office has been honored for his work on the homicide case of Khaleesi Cuthriell, the local 3-year-old tortured to death by her caregivers three years ago.
Ron Reid’s relentless investigation of the case helped result in murder convictions for the two people who were taking care of the child when she went missing in 2021: Travis Brown and Candi Jo Royer. Both Brown and Royer are serving life sentences in Virginia prisons after their 2023 convictions.
A plaque from the International Homicide Investigators Association says the award is in “recognition of your dedication and perseverance regarding the successful investigation of a no-body homicide of 3-year-old, Khaleesi Cuthriell. Your steadfast commitment and tireless work have brought her the justice she deserves.”
But the 22-year law enforcement veteran has unfinished business: Khaleesi’s body was never recovered.
“Every day I think about it,’’ Reid told The News Virginian. “I believe one person knows.”
That person, according to Reid, is Brown.
“Until he tells us where, we will never know,” he said.
In person, Reid is amiable, easy to talk to and passionate about the Virginia Cavaliers. But he is also passionate about his investigative craft. He was inspired to join the force by his late uncle, who was a police officer in Buena Vista.
A suspect executed that uncle when Reid was 12. Reid said he was devastated by the loss but saw the support offered by his uncle’s fellow officers. Reid didn’t become a police officer until he was 30, but he sees the profession as his calling.
The Cuthriell case got traction in 2021 when the girl’s mother, Amanda Mullen, in jail for a probation violation, got wind that Royer had been reported missing. Mullen had not spoken to her daughter since January of that year, eight months earlier. Mullen told law enforcement that Royer, her friend, was taking care of her daughter at a residence just outside Waynesboro. The child had been placed in the custody of Brown and Royer by Shenandoah Valley Social Services in late 2020 after Mullen’s probation violation.
Reid said both Brown and Royer were arrested later in September 2021 at a Pennsylvania motel. At one point during a subsequent interrogation by Augusta County investigators, Brown said Cuthriell had fallen and hit her head, causing her death.
“He said she threw herself down and her head hit the door frame,’’ Reid recounted.
The only acknowledgement of where the body was taken came when Brown nodded yes to a question about the landfill in Augusta County. Digging through the landfill without a specific location would “cost millions,’’ Reid said.
For Reid, the real investigative work started in 2021. He executed many of the case’s 90 search warrants on the Cattle Scales Road residence outside Waynesboro where Brown and Royer had brought Cuthriell. The exhaustive probing paid off. At Brown’s August 2023 trial, it was revealed that a homemade wire hanger found in the house had the girl’s hair on it and DNA belonging to Royer. The child’s blood was found 8 feet up on the wall of one of the rooms in the house.
Thousands of photographs on electronic devices discovered by investigators showed cuts and bruises on Cuthriell’s body. Reid said the child’s entire body was ravaged.
“It was like putting together a puzzle, but with only one little piece at a time,’’ Reid said of the investigation.
A major break in the case came in the late summer of 2022. Brown and Royer were suspected of stealing several vehicles while on the run, and a farmer in Albemarle County found an abandoned Toyota Camry on his property. Many stolen items were inside the Toyota, but the most important discovery was Royer’s cellphone under the front passenger seat.
The phone contained a shocking video of Cuthriell, taken shortly before her suspected January 2021 death. She could barely stand, she was missing clumps of hair and appeared malnourished.
A medical expert testified at Brown’s trial that her review of photos, videos and medical records found evidence of neglect, abuse, psychological abuse and torture. Dr. Robin Foster of the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University said Khaleesi’s weakened condition could have made her susceptible to conditions such as cardiovascular collapse and sepsis.
Augusta County Commonwealth’s Attorney Tim Martin said Reid’s work saved the case.
“The people of Augusta County have no way to know just how hard Ron worked on this case. They also can’t know the personal toll it took on him as the lead investigator. If not for his effort, the case may have remained unprosecutable. Thank God for him,’’ Martin said in a statement.
Reid has been hardened by his work as an investigator. “People don’t realize the amount of child abuse, neglect and sexual abuse,” he said. “It’s rare not to have a child abuse investigation.”
But he also is proud to be recognized for his efforts on the Cuthriell case. “I am honored by the award,’’ he said.
Reid was nominated by the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, which worked on the Cuthriell case with him.
“For them to recognize my work means more than anything,’’ he said.
The 53-year-old Reid said he wants to mentor younger law enforcement officers working for the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office to keep the force strong and viable. “I hope it is not a dying profession,’’ he said.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com