Donna Ann Reason

Donna Ann Reason, 9, was killed just after midnight on May 19, 1970 when someone threw a Molotov cocktail through the living room window of her family's newly purchased home in Chester, setting it ablaze; two of her siblings escaped through an upstairs window, but Donna did not survive the fire. Her parents, Gloria and Robert Reason, were a mixed-race couple living in an integrated neighborhood, though her father told a local newspaper he did not believe the family's race played a role, noting other interracial couples lived nearby. Police told reporters at the time that a nearby home belonging to a district justice of the peace, which officers had been assigned to guard, may have been the attack's actual intended target. A coroner's jury ordered homicide charges against whoever was responsible, but no one was ever charged. The FBI reviewed the case under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act following a referral; the DOJ's Civil Rights Division closed its file in February 2025, stating it found no evidence the crime was racially motivated and that the statute of limitations had run on any federal hate crime charges in any case. A state homicide investigation reportedly remains open.

Chester, PA · Delaware County

• 1970: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• Victim identity and the May 19, 1970 date and circumstances, per the DOJ's public case file and PBS FRONTLINE's “Un(re)solved” case summary.
• The DOJ's 2025 closing file states it found no evidence the attack was racially motivated, and that Pennsylvania has an open state homicide investigation into the case.

• No one was ever charged in the firebombing.
• Whether the attack was actually intended for the Reason home or a neighboring home, as police speculated at the time, was never resolved.

• U.S. Department of Justice — Notice to Close File
• PBS FRONTLINE Un(re)solved — case summary
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs