The Spokesman-Review, Spokane/Washington 06.07.1987

Teen-age daughter wants to know how singer died

Ramona Reed, daughter of American-born pop singer Dean Reed, who became a star in the Eastern bloc, has sued the East German government in connection with her father's drowning.

The $2,5 million wrongful-death suit, filed in Los Angeles federal court, charges that East German officials killed Reed to keep him from returning to the United States, then covered up the slaying by labeling it suicide.

"I just want to know how my father died," said Reed, 19.

Dean Reed, 47, who had been living in East Germany since 1972, drowned in 1986. First the East German government termed the death a suicide, then accidental, then switched it back to suicide, said Ramona Reed's attorney, Corey Steele.