The bond hearing for Reginald Calhoun Saturday morning in Laurel Municipal Court was more of a formality than anything else. But the important aspect of the proceedings was that finally, after 20 years, there was a man who has now been formerly charged with the death of seven-year old Cookie Dean.

During the hearing, Laurel Municipal Court Judge Cecelia Arnold asked Jones County Asst. District Attorney Dennis Bisnette if the DAs office had a recommendation for the bond amount.

“It really doesn’t matter your honor because Calhoun is currently in prison,” answered Bisnette. “He isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.”

Calhoun is serving a life sentence for murder plus another 30 years for armed robbery in 1984. He has been incarcerated in the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility since April, 15, 1987.

Calhoun, 38, was placed on $150,000 bond each for the murder charge and for the rape of Dean who was his cousin. He is currently being held in the Jones County Adult Detention Facility in Ellisville.

Cookie Dean was reported missing Jan. 29, 1985 after her mother, Willie Mae Dean, sent the little girl to the Union Club located at the time on South Fourth Avenue in Laurel. A search by authorities and neighbors didn’t turn up anything until the following day when an LPD officer found Dean’s body in a grown up lot where Hair World is now located on Jackson Street. Dean had been raped and her throat cut.

An investigation was immediately launched. Scores of people were interviewed and then discounted as suspects. For years detectives with the LPD would pursue leads that were becoming more and more redundant. Even though a good amount of physical evidence was collected during the course of the initial investigation, no suspect could be pinpointed.

Late last year, LPD Lt. Layne Bounds, a shift commander for the Patrol Division and a past detective and narcotics agent with the LPD, discovered a different type of DNA testing not before available. The list of past suspects was again examined and detectives began a process of elimination.

On Jan. 10 of this year, DNA samples were taken of Calhoun. Two days later, the mountain of physical evidence from the Dean case, which included vaginal and anal swabs, were obtained from storage. On Jan. 13, the new DNA samples from Calhoun were sent to Reliagene Labs in New Orleans, La., a nationally recognized DNA testing facility used by scores of law enforcement agencies, along with the 1985 evidence collected from the scene.

On Jan. 29, Reliagene informed Bounds there was a positive match implicating Calhoun.

The words of Bisnette June 29 during a press conference held by the LPD to announce they had a suspect in the case were prophetic.

“Technology caught up with crime,” Bisnette said.