Trial begins in fatal stabbing case of DCFS employee Deidre Silas from Illinois

A former first assistant Sangamon County prosecutor said Deidre (Graham) Silas was “just doing her job and protecting children” when the child protection specialist was stabbed to death in a home in the southern tip of Sangamon County on Jan. 4, 2022.

Benjamin Howard Reed, 35, is accused of killing the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services employee.

Reed's trial, which was postponed earlier this year, began Monday in Sangamon County court with opening statements and several witnesses, including Reed's mother, Jennifer Askins, who tearfully admitted calling police after Reed told her he “snapped” and killed Silas.

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Reed, who wore a long black beard and a striped prison uniform, sat at the defense table and barely seemed to look witnesses in the eye. Reed did not speak during the trial.

Several of Silas' family members were in court along with some of their former DCFS coworkers.

Askins testified that Reed and his wife, Amanda, and their four children stopped by their Decatur apartment late in the afternoon of January 4, 2022.

Askins said Reed did not say who he killed, but his wife told her it was “the DCFS lady.”