Hollywood dreams: The murder of Juliana Redding

As SMPD detectives worked the mystery-shrouded case, they learned that Juliana Redding had lived alone in her apartment on the quiet residential street with her pet dog, a Yorkshire terrier named Brutus, which she liked to take for walks at a local dog park. Brutus had been found unharmed inside the apartment with Juliana's body, and was placed in an animal shelter. Police conceded they had no immediate suspects, and did not anticipate making any arrests soon. According to Padilla, investigators did not yet know whether they were looking for one suspect or multiple suspects.

Redding reportedly had been scheduled to do a photo shoot on the day her body was found, but had not shown up for her appointment with the photographer.

On Tuesday, March 18, 2008, a little more than a full day into the investigation, detectives began interviewing Redding's family, friends, and co-workers, anyone who might know with whom she had been or where she might have gone in the hours prior to her death. Investigators learned that she had been seeing a boyfriend and, following an in-depth interview with him, indicated that he was not a suspect, according to Padilla.

"Nobody's being identified as a suspect and nobody's being ruled out," Padilla said.

Greg Cipes with Redding

Investigators learned that Juliana had met actor Greg Cipes while filming "Kathy T" in Atlanta and that the two had dated. Cipes was also a singer, front man for a reggae and hip-hop band called Cipes and the People, and had done voice work for the animated Teen Titans and appeared in Deadwood, Ghost Whisperer, and Twentyfourseven. Cipes' agent, Ben Bintonti, said that Juliana Redding had appeared in a music video for one of Cipes' songs, and that the two had remained in contact until about six months before Redding's death.

"There was always a close relationship between the two of them," Bintonti said. "There was a lot of love."

Cipes was never considered a suspect in the case, and any information about him was simply gathered as part of the background work that investigators performed to learn as much as they could about Juliana's life. It was not clear whether Juliana had found a new boyfriend after her split with Cipes, but some associates suggested that she may have briefly dated a doctor.

A neighbor, Sury Nunez, said that she and Juliana had made plans to play pool the night her body was found, an outing that obviously had not taken place.

"That same night we were supposed to go out, but we thought she was already out since we saw the lights were off," Nunez said. "She was a really lovely girl."