Body found in car following multi-county Ky. chase identified as Huntington resident

LONDON, Ky. (WSAZ) – Kentucky State Police has released the identity of a body discovered Wednesday at the end of a police chase that spanned several counties.

When the police chase ended on Interstate 75 in Laurel County, a search of David Reed’s car revealed the body of Rachel Louise Carder, 53, of Huntington, West Virginia.

“She was just a really down-to-earth person and she loved to laugh,” said Brandy Davis, a lifelong friend of Carder. “Me and her would look at each other and start laughing, and she was always down to do whatever. She was just a great person. She was just a kind person, and I don’t understand why this had to happen to her.”

KSP says the chase started Wednesday morning in Madison County and ended in the southbound lanes of I-75 in Laurel County near mile-marker 45.

According to KSP, this all started around mile-marker 83 on I-75 in Madison County. A trooper doing routine traffic patrols there spotted a vehicle driving “dangerously” and tried to pull it over.

The vehicle initially pulled over but then took off again.

KSP then began chasing the vehicle southward on I-75, through Rockcastle County and into Laurel County. Once in Laurel County, the car hit a couple of KSP cruisers and crashed around mile-marker 46, north of London.

Reed, 54, of St. Petersburg, Florida, has been charged with murder-domestic violence, tampering with physical evidence, abuse of a corpse, fleeing or evading police, criminal mischief, wanton endangerment, careless driving, resisting arrest, and having no operator’s license.

According to a KSP citation, a woman’s body was found inside a plastic tote in the back hatch of the vehicle during a safety sweep. Troopers say the woman had “trauma to her facial area as well as wounds consistent with injury inflicted by an edged weapon.”

Investigators went on to say that Reed had “red stains on his pants believed to be blood.”

“She would tell me a lot of stories, but I didn’t think it was this bad that it would end up like this,” Davis said.

Troopers say they are still investigating where Carder was killed.

“I can’t believe this kind of thing could happen to anybody you know and someone you care about. There’s such evil in this world, and that man was very evil,” said Tina Rickman, a friend of Carder’s.

Reed was taken to the Laurel County Correctional Center.

Davis says Carder knew Reed for nearly her whole life as he spent decades living in Huntington.

“Every time I’ve been around him he’s been an okay person, but people are different behind doors,” Davis said.

Carder moved to Florida for a little more than a year after her father died, but Davis said she had been back in Huntington for a little more than six months.

“She has no family besides her friends. I mean, she’s pretty much our family. She’s grown up in my family,” Davis said.

After losing her best friend, Davis says she just wants to know why this happened.

“What did she do to make you want to hurt her? She’s a kind-hearted person. She’d do anything for anybody. She loved him. She took care of him, and he done her like this?” Davis said.

WSAZ learned that Reed has an extensive criminal past in West Virginia. According to Cabell County Courthouse records, his charges include domestic battery and domestic violence (from 1996 through 2002), violation of a protective order (March and May 2002), first-degree robbery (March 2009), and carrying a concealed weapon without a license (March 2009).

In May 2010, Reed was sentenced to five to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree robbery.

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