Maylashia Hogg’s relatives searched for answers for more than two years before Jacqueline Reid pleaded guilty in the teenager’s death.
BARNWELL, S.C. — When Maylashia Hogg disappeared in February 2024, relatives asked people around them whether they had seen the 17-year-old, who was days from giving birth. Among those questioned was Jacqueline Y. Reid, a woman Hogg’s stepfather later described as a family friend. Reid denied seeing the teenager, according to the family. More than two years later, Reid has pleaded guilty to killing Hogg and causing the death of her unborn daughter and has been sentenced to concurrent 50-year prison terms.
The guilty pleas on Aug. 20 brought a legal ending to a case that had repeatedly forced Hogg’s family through different stages of uncertainty: first wondering where she was, then learning she and her baby had been found dead, later waiting months for an arrest and finally facing a lengthy prosecution. Circuit Judge Walton J. McLeod sentenced Reid, now 64, after she pleaded guilty to murder and causing the death of an unborn child during the commission of a violent crime. Prosecutors had assembled extensive circumstantial and forensic evidence, but they said as recently as May that they could not identify a motive for the killings.
Long before Reid became the focus of the case, Hogg’s relatives were preparing for a birth. She was nine months pregnant, and family members knew she was expected at a medical appointment and was close to being induced. When she did not return home and could not be reached, the timing made her disappearance especially alarming. Public notices went out as authorities and relatives searched. Hogg’s aunt, Judy Hogg, later told local reporters that she became increasingly concerned when the teenager did not appear as expected before her induction. The family’s immediate problem was not a criminal case; it was finding a teenager whose baby could arrive at any moment.
Hogg was found dead on Feb. 18, 2024, according to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. Her unborn daughter was also dead. The location was a ditch in Barnwell, behind or near the property that investigators eventually connected to Reid. SLED identified the baby as a girl who was to be named Londyn Charity. The agency entered the case at the request of Barnwell police and later established a dedicated tip line as investigators searched for information. Family members who had spent days hoping Hogg would return were instead confronted with funeral plans and a homicide investigation.
At that point, relatives still did not know who would be held responsible. In early public comments, family members spoke about wanting justice and answers. A memorial appeared near the area where Hogg was found, while police, the county coroner and state investigators continued their work. SLED deployed specialists from several divisions, including forensic scientists and crime-scene personnel. The investigation remained active through the spring. No arrest was announced in the immediate aftermath of the discovery, extending the family’s wait as authorities processed evidence and reconstructed Hogg’s final known movements.
Investigators eventually developed evidence that pointed toward Reid. Prosecutors said surveillance footage showed Hogg leaving her boyfriend’s home Feb. 8 and walking in the direction of her own residence. Detectives were also able to track Hogg’s AirPods to Reid’s address. A search behind the home led investigators to the ditch where Hogg and the baby were found. Later forensic testing detected DNA matching Hogg in three places inside Reid’s residence, prosecutors said, despite Reid’s statement to investigators that Hogg had never been inside. Investigators also reported seeing rugs drying on Reid’s porch that prosecutors said smelled of bleach.
Other parts of the investigation focused on Reid’s conduct around the time Hogg disappeared. Prosecutors said Reid went to a hospital Feb. 8 with a serious injury to a finger on her right hand. They later cited a jail call in which Reid told her boyfriend she had cut herself while preparing chicken. According to the prosecution’s description, the boyfriend questioned how the injury could have happened as explained. Prosecutors also referred to remarks Reid made about not wanting to stay alone in her house and about buzzards being nearby. Those details were not publicly presented as a motive but as portions of the circumstantial evidence investigators gathered.
For Hogg’s relatives, the case took another painful turn when SLED arrested Reid on July 1, 2024. Hogg’s stepfather, Michael Sapp, told WRDW that Reid had been a friend of the family and was frequently around them. He recalled asking her during the search whether she had seen Hogg. Reid said she had not, Sapp told the station. Family members attended Reid’s first court appearance after the arrest, where their reaction reflected the personal nature of the allegation. The accused person was not simply someone identified through forensic work; she was someone relatives said they already knew and had encountered while trying to find Hogg.
The charges initially announced by SLED were two counts of murder, one tied to Hogg and the other to her unborn child. The agency booked Reid into the Barnwell County Detention Center, and the case moved into the 2nd Circuit Solicitor’s Office for prosecution. Reid remained in custody as the proceedings continued. By a May 26, 2026, bond hearing, prosecutors were ready to describe much of the evidence publicly. They said Hogg had suffered about 50 stab wounds and that her unborn daughter also suffered fatal injuries. A judge denied Reid’s request for bond.
Yet even that detailed hearing did not answer the question that relatives and the public might have expected investigators to resolve: why. Solicitor Leigh Staggs told the court the prosecution had not established a motive. She described Reid and Hogg as having an ongoing conflict, but no specific reason for the killings was identified. That gap remained even though investigators said they had evidence placing Hogg inside Reid’s home and linking the teenager’s belongings to the property. Motive can help explain a crime, but it is not the same as proof of who committed it. Prosecutors prepared to move forward on the evidence they had.
Reid’s guilty plea meant Hogg’s relatives would not have to sit through a jury trial in which the state would introduce that evidence witness by witness. It also meant there would be no verdict after deliberations. Instead, Reid admitted guilt and proceeded to sentencing. Law&Crime reported that McLeod ordered her to serve 50 years in a state correctional facility. WRDW reported that Reid received 50 years on each count and that the terms are concurrent. Because the sentences overlap, the practical prison term is 50 years rather than a combined 100 years.
The sentence closes the central criminal proceeding, but it cannot provide every answer the investigation failed to uncover. Prosecutors have not publicly identified a definitive motive, and the available sentencing reports do not describe a statement from Reid explaining why Hogg was killed. What the legal process has established is responsibility: Reid pleaded guilty rather than continuing to contest the charges. The conviction came after more than two years in which Hogg’s relatives moved from searching for a missing teenager to mourning her and her daughter, confronting the arrest of someone they knew and waiting for the case to reach court.
Hogg was 17 and close to becoming a mother when she disappeared. Her baby had already been given a name, Londyn Charity, according to SLED. Their deaths drew local, state and national attention, but much of the public record was built gradually as investigators released evidence in stages. The family’s earliest appeals centered on finding Hogg. Their later statements centered on finding justice. With Reid’s Aug. 20 guilty pleas and concurrent 50-year sentences, the criminal justice system has now delivered a final judgment against the woman Hogg’s relatives once described as a family friend.
Author note: Last updated Sept. 29, 2026.