Imagine an ordinary Monday turning into a nightmare. On February 22, 2010, 18‑year‑old Jalesa Chantell Reynolds of Scotland Neck, North Carolina, started her day as usual. She spent the morning at the local library, using the public computer to log onto Facebook. At 11:00 a.m. she logged off and left the library – but she never came home. Then, around 1:40 p.m., investigators would later trace Jalesa’s Facebook activity again – this time to the home of 35‑year‑old Dwayne Hosea Davis, a convicted sex offender. According to police, Jalesa left Davis’s house between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m. that afternoon. After that, she vanished without a trace. What happened during those few hours? What became of Jalesa? These are the haunting questions we explore today on Vanished Voices.

Who Jalesa Was

 Jalesa Chantell Reynolds was 18 years old when she went missing. Official records describe her as a 5′2″ Black female with short black hair and brown eyes. In life she was known to be quiet and shy. Her cousin Frederick Lassiter told reporters, “Jalesa was a very shy girl… very quiet, kept to herself”. Jalesa had no car or cell phone and never kept a bank account. Family and friends said her routine was highly predictable: she attended GED classes, then went to the public library, and returned home. She often used social media to stay in touch with friends, but only via the library computers. In short, she almost never strayed from school, home, or the library – making her sudden disappearance all the more baffling.

Timeline of Feb. 22, 2010 – The Day She Vanished

• Morning: Jalesa arrived at the Scotland Neck Memorial Library and signed onto a public computer. Security logs show she logged in at about 9:16 a.m..
• 11:00 a.m.: She logged off and left the library. By all accounts, Jalesa never returned home after this point.
• 1:40 p.m.: Jalesa’s Facebook account registered activity again – not at the library, but from a computer at Dwayne Davis’s house about 1.5 miles outside town. Davis later told investigators that Jalesa had come by his home to see his horses and check her Facebook.
• 2:00–3:00 p.m.: Jalesa left Davis’s property, according to his statement. This is the last confirmed sighting or data point of Jalesa. After mid‑afternoon on February 22, no one heard from her again.

Each of these events is backed by official records. For example, law-enforcement and library logs document her 11:00 a.m. logout from the library and the 1:40 p.m. login at Davis’s house. Investigators later noted how unusual it was for a teenager with no car to appear unannounced at a stranger’s home two miles from town. Who drove or walked her there? The roads were narrow and few people reported seeing her en route. These questions are at the heart of the mystery.

The Search and Investigation

When Jalesa’s family reported her missing on Feb. 23, 2010, authorities sprang into action. Scotland Neck police, the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office, and North Carolina’s SBI scoured the area. In the first week, search teams covered nearly 100 acres of woods and waterways near Cemetery Road – the area around Davis’s home – using grid searches, search dogs, boats, even draining ponds. 

Dive teams combed the nearby Roanoke River. Volunteers and police checked landfills and backroads. In the course of those searches, teams uncovered something grim but unrelated: the remains of Christine Boone, a 43-year-old woman who had gone missing in 2007. 

DNA evidence later showed Christine had been killed by an unrelated suspect who was already in jail by 2010, so that lead had no connection to Jalesa’s case.

As searches continued, investigators confirmed foul play was suspected. By March 2010, they had interviewed dozens of people. Scotland Neck Police Chief Joe Williams told WRAL that over 60 interviews had been conducted in the investigation. However, much of the case was kept tightly under wraps. A gag order was issued to keep details from the press, sparking public curiosity. (Family spokesman Frederick Lassiter later said he supported the gag order if it was “to protect some type of evidence”.)

Meanwhile, Jalesa’s family pleaded for help. At a March 2, 2010 press conference, her cousin Frederick Lassiter expressed the family’s agony: “We just love Jalesa,” he said, urging anyone with information to call police immediately. He noted it was highly unusual for her to go missing without contact. Jalesa’s mother Bernice also publicly begged, “Just whoever [has] her, just bring her home safely”.

In the months that followed, investigators returned repeatedly to Davis’s property. On March 25, 2010, dozens of law-enforcement and emergency vehicles again searched the land. In September 2010, North Carolina’s governor announced a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. Despite these efforts, by year’s end no significant evidence or arrest had come to light.

On the one-year anniversary (Feb. 22, 2011), Chief Williams held another briefing. He emphasized the case was still active: “The case has proceeded in a positive direction and is active and ongoing,” he told reporters. But he admitted details were limited. Lassiter, speaking for the family, admitted they were fearing “the worst” after a year without her, though they still held out hope and kept praying for answers.

Dwayne Davis – The Person of Interest

 Police identified Dwayne Hosea Davis as a person of interest early on. Davis, then 35, was a registered sex offender who had served six years in prison for a 1994 rape conviction. He owned the house on Cemetery Road where Jalesa’s internet activity had taken her that afternoon. Davis told detectives that Jalesa had come to see his horses and use his computer, and that she left on her own around 2–3 p.m.. He insisted he had no idea what happened to her afterward.

Detectives eventually named Davis as a suspect in the disappearance. In August 2011, when executing another search warrant, investigators explicitly named him in court documents. This followed a strange pattern of fake 911 calls: over a year, at least 14 emergency calls came from phones traced to Davis’s area, each featuring a disguised female voice calling for help. Investigators believe those calls were meant to lure police to Davis’s home, possibly to throw off the investigation.

Davis has consistently denied any wrongdoing. In a 2011 interview with WRAL, he said investigators were “harassing” him and that he believed someone was faking the 911 calls to frame him. He told the reporter, “All I know is I did not do anything to this young lady… because of your record from the past, it doesn’t make you a person that does something to hurt anybody. […] I feel bad… because everybody thinks I had something to do with this lady’s disappearance. I didn’t.”. To this day, despite being the prime suspect, Davis has never been charged in Jalesa’s case.

Continued Searches and Current Status

Search efforts stretched on for years. In August 2011 law enforcement obtained Davis’s cell phones, and in October 2012 they returned with even more resources: the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children joined the hunt, teams drained ponds on nearby roads, and college students with archaeology training assisted the excavation. Chief Williams told a WRAL reporter in 2012 that they believed they might finally have enough evidence to seek an arrestonce the case was presented to the district attorney.

Despite all that, no charges were ever filed. “No arrests were made, and Jalesa’s case eventually went quiet,” notes one retrospective summary. Occasionally her story resurfaces in local media, but the mystery remains unsolved. In February 2025, on the 15th anniversary of Jalesa’s disappearance, Scotland Neck’s Police Chief Tommy Parker posted a public tribute, asking the community to send prayers. He promised Jalesa “will always be remembered” and urged people not to forget her.

Family’s Plea and Prayer

For Jalesa’s family, the pain endures daily. They have never given up hope of finding answers. Frederick Lassiter often speaks for them. In a 2011 interview, he said, “Not a day goes by that you don’t think of your loved one… through God, we’re going to hope and just keep praying. 

We’re just looking for some resolution… to just bring her back home.”. The family continues to hold vigils and memorial events, determined to keep attention on Jalesa’s case.

Call to Action – Tips for Law Enforcement

Today, Jalesa Chantell Reynolds is still listed as missing. Her disappearance remains one of Halifax County’s coldest unsolved cases.  If you have any information, no matter how small, please contact law enforcement. Authorities urge anyone with details about Jalesa’s case to reach out immediately. Relevant contacts include:

• Scotland Neck Police Department: (252) 826‑4111 (ask for the detective handling the Reynolds case).
• Halifax County Crime Stoppers: (252) 583‑4444 (tips can be anonymous and may be eligible for a reward).
• Reward: A $5,000 reward is still offered for information leading to an arrest or conviction in this case.

Every call and every tip could make a difference. If you saw something or heard something about Jalesa on Feb. 22, 2010 – or if you have any piece of information that might help – please speak up. Jalesa’s family deserves answers, and the person (or people) responsible deserve to be held accountable. Vanished Voices will keep her story alive until justice is served.

Listen to Jalesa’s full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube or whereve you listen to your podcasts!

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Resources:

Official Case Databases

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. (n.d.). Jalesa Chantell Reynolds [Missing person poster, Case No. 1166673]. Have you seen this child? Jalesa Chantell Reynolds

National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs). (n.d.). Missing person: Jalesa Chantell Reynolds [Case No. MP10109]. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. Missing Person / NamUs #MP10109

Cold Case Databases

The Charley Project. (2018, September 21). Jalesa Chantell Reynolds. Jalesa Chantell Reynolds – The Charley Project

News Coverage

WRAL News. (2010, March 2). Family of missing Scotland Neck teen pleads for her return. Family of missing Scotland Neck teen pleads for her return :: WRAL.com

WRAL News. (2011, February 22). Scotland Neck police news conference [Video]. Scotland Neck police news conference

WRAL News. (2012, October 19). Missing teen’s case to go to prosecutors, police chief says. Missing teen’s case to go to prosecutors, police chief says

Roanoke Rapids Daily Herald. (2012, October 19). Experts join search for missing Scotland Neck woman. Experts join search for missing Scotland Neck woman | Archives | rrdailyherald.com

CBS 17. (2022, December 9). Have you seen her? Scotland Neck police looking for missing woman in cold case. Have you seen her? Scotland Neck police looking for missing woman in cold case

RRSpin. (2019, December 17). Somebody knows: Vigil remembers the missing. RRSpin – Somebody knows: Vigil remembers the missing

Tip Lines & Law Enforcement Contact

Scotland Neck Police Department — (252) 826-4112

Halifax County Crime Stoppers — (252) 583-4444 (anonymous tips)

Rocky Mount Fighting Crime — (252) 406-6736