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A $10,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to the arrests Cody Reed of Norristown and Marquise Johnson of Philadelphia, both 23, District Attorney Kevin Steele said Tuesday, March 14.
Detectives believe the pair killed 25-year-old Daquan Tucker of Audubon, who was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds about 100 feet from the trail on March 3. At that time, DA Steele said the victim knew his killer, and that his death "was not a random act."
Now, in the criminal complaints released by prosecutors Monday, new details reveal a possible motive.
According to detectives, Tucker was picked up at his Audubon home on the evening of March 2 by an Uber allegedly sent by suspect Reed. Tucker's partner told investigators that Tucker and Reed were friends.
Later in the evening, after Tucker had left, his girlfriend used a mobile app to check his location and noticed that he was on the Schuylkill River Trail, police said.
"Why are you in the woods?" she called and asked him, according to the complaint, at about 9 p.m. Tucker said he was "walking, talking and smoking" and did not sound "as if he were stressed or in trouble," authorities wrote. He did not say who he was with at the time, police noted.
It was the final time the pair ever spoke. At about 10 p.m., Tucker's partner checked his location again and saw his phone was in the area of 1000 West Airy Street in Norristown, detectives said. The phone never updated its location again, meaning the battery died or it was shut off, police wrote.
By 3 p.m. on Friday, March 3, Tucker still had not come home or reached out, and his partner was growing concerned, authorities said. According to officials, she reached out to Cody Reed's girlfriend on Instagram and asked "Yoo have u heard from Cody??"
After sending the message, the Instagram user blocked her, she told police.
Investigators also spoke with a man named only in the complaint as JD, who they say was "long-time friends and very close" with Tucker. That man told detectives he believed that Reed killed Tucker in retaliation for a robbery that he (JD) had committed against Reed.
JD and another accomplice from Philadelphia had met with Reed "within the past few months" under the pretense of selling him a gun, but instead stole his money, according to the criminal complaint.
JD told authorities that he and Tucker were "like 'brothers,'" and said he thinks Reed was trying to steal Tucker's gun as payback for the alleged robbery.
Cody Reed is said to be 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds with black hair and brown eyes, while Marquise Johnson is described as 5-foot-6 and 170 pounds, also with black hair and brown eyes, police said.
Both men are considered armed and dangerous, and residents should call 911 if they spot the suspects, they added.
Anyone with information should call the Montgomery County Detective Bureau at 610-226-5553 or the West Norriton Police Department at 610-630-1701.
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