An investigator entrusted with the solemn duty of documenting the final scenes of the departed is now accused of crossing a grave line. Darrell Fernando Reid, a 38-year-old investigator for the Broward Medical Examiner's Office, was arrested on January 19 on charges including criminal use of a dead person's identification and fraudulent use of a credit card, according to NBC Miami.
Police allege that Reid, who was tasked with photographing crime scenes, exploited his access to steal credit card information from at least one deceased person. He then reportedly made unauthorized transactions totaling approximately $450. Court records indicate that after a body was found on October 21 in Coral Springs, having been deceased for more than two weeks, the victim's daughter found the debit card on a kitchen counter, and later noticed unusual activity on the bank account, the Sun-Sentinel reported.
Reid's malfeasance allegedly began well before his tenure with the Broward Medical Examiner’s Office. Scrutiny of his CashApp account revealed a disconcerting trail of 27 payment sources dating back to 2020, which included credit and debit cards belonging to the deceased. The deplorable convenience of digital transfer made it all too easy for these accounts to be manipulated with just a few clicks, and the criminal complaint accuses Reid of adding the card info of a recent Broward County casualty just 90 minutes after documenting the deceased’s home on November 6.
Moreover, the alleged exploitation did not confine itself within state lines. An individual, who passed away in New York City last December, also had their credit card linked to Reid’s shady transactions while he served as an investigator for the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office, Sun-Sentinel reported. Reid’s girlfriend, Shanika Wright, surfaced in the investigation with her connection to Reid’s CashApp account, nevertheless, she has not been slapped with charges as of now.
Both the weight of evidence and ethical enormity of this breach have borne down upon Reid, who has since posted bail, though court records do not yet signal a date for him to answer to these grave allegations.
