Colin Lee Reid Jr. was just 17 when his girlfriend gave birth to a baby girl.

A teen who had struggled on his own path at times found himself in charge of someone else's.

His father, Colin Lee Reid Sr., set about teaching his nervous son the basics of caring for an infant. He taught him how to swaddle, reminded him to always cover Rachel's tiny feet with socks and warned him never to let her out of his sight.

I raised you as a single dad, he told his son. You can do this.

Little Rachel wasn't walking yet when her father, barely 18, was shot in the head outside the family's Lampasas Avenue apartment in North Sacramento last year. He died there that Halloween night, his body soaked by the rain as his father cried outside the police tape.

"I just miss him so much. He was my whole life for 18 years," Reid said recently, weeping with as much sorrow as he did at this time last year. "He was going to be such a good father."

Since losing his son, Reid's life has spiraled out of control. He's lost his apartment, his transportation and his cell phone. His granddaughter, whom he hasn't seen since early this year, is in the process of being adopted by an outside family.

He wanders the streets of Sacramento now with only a few belongings, most prized among them a worn picture of his son and granddaughter.

His son's face soon will be seen on billboards across the Sacramento area as part of a rare, high-profile campaign to find a killer. The billboards, donated by a local company and expected to start going up this week, follow an announcement last week that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office is offering a $50,000 reward in Colin's case.

That brings to $51,000 the total amount available for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the teen's shooter.

Sacramento police Detective Kyle Jasperson said he hopes the dramatically increased reward will entice people to "do the right thing."

"I do strongly believe there are people out there who do know what happened who could come forward with information, and it's ultimately going to be their choice," he said. "They have to decide where their loyalties lie."

The motive behind the slaying remains unclear. Reid is convinced that his son is dead because he identified for police a suspect who shot up a house.

Reid rages that his son might have been targeted for "snitching" – the ultimate sin in street culture – when his son was never in a gang and simply did what was honorable.

"My son was being a citizen," he said of the teen's cooperation with police. "That's the way I raised him."

Jasperson said he has not ruled out retaliation as a motive. And he said he recognizes that fear of retaliation could be silencing those who have information in the case.

Still, the detective holds out hope he'll have good news for Reid soon.

"It's not going to replace his son, but I do know it will bring him some closure," Jasperson said. "I'd like to give him that."

Jasperson recently visited Loaves and Fishes' Friendship Park, where the area's homeless congregate, to update Reid on the case.

He also tried to facilitate a reunion with Reid's sister, whom he hasn't seen in years. She had told the detective she'd be willing to take him in.

Reid, however, seems to care little about the world around him except for his son and his granddaughter.

After the homicide, Reid said, his apartment complex changed ownership and he was offered cash to move out. He used it to buy a motor home, which he thought could house him and Rachel, but lost it after he was cited for driving on a suspended license and the vehicle was towed. He's been without a home since June.

Reid raised his son mostly on public assistance, but through a welfare-to-work program got a good job at a Walmart store. He said he worked there about three years before he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and lost his job. He pleaded no contest, he said, so as not to be away from his son too long.

The 2002 conviction has haunted him since.

"If I was able to sit down and explain to (prospective employers) what happened and why it happened, maybe someone would understand," he said. "But they don't ever give you a chance."

Child Protective Services took custody of Rachel, and she is in the process of being adopted, Reid said. He acknowledges he's in no position to take care of her now, but said he wants visitation rights.

"That's my blood," he said.

He's gone to hearings – oftentimes the only family showing up on her behalf, he said – but he hasn't seen her since before her first birthday. He's still waiting to give her his present: a jade pendant on a gold chain.

Until he sees her again, the necklace remains wrapped in a piece of his son's clothing inside the velvet bag that also holds his son's remains.

The precious items sit in a storage shed that he has managed to keep despite his struggles. There, if nowhere else, Reid said he can keep father and daughter together.

Call The Bee's Kim Minugh, (916) 321-1038.