15. Salisbury, NC: Reesa Trexler

[00:00:00] Warning. The following episode contains discussions about violent crimes, disturbing events, and explicit details that may be unsettling for some listeners. Please be advised that this podcast is not suitable for young children, and listener discretion is strongly advised.

[00:00:15] Hey, y'all. Welcome to Southern Shadows, a Mother-Son True Crime Podcast. I'm Janet, aka Mama. And I'm DK. And we're back. Sorry it took us so long, but you know life. And D was in baseball season. And you know that usually takes a lot of time away from us.

[00:00:33] Anything, any updates? What's going on with you? Nothing, like you said, just baseball. Oh, I got my driver's license not too long ago. So everybody beware. Everybody all the drivers out there, just get out the way. No, you can continue to drive normally. I'm a great driver.

[00:00:53] Yeah, you are a pretty good driver. But yeah, had a little shoulder problem not too long ago, but everything is fine. Still carrying on. We think we'll be back on our regular scheduled program. We're going to definitely try, even though the summer is usually for rest and relaxation,

[00:01:17] the boys are still very active in sports. So we're still playing football and baseball and doing a lot. So we're going to try our best. What about you? And you're new?

[00:01:29] Oh, yeah, I'm back. I'm getting back into tennis. So I'm really excited about that. Just got a new racket joined a league like I'm going all in. But we're back really excited to be back. And

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[00:02:04] even though we haven't released an episode in a few months. And that's really exciting for us. And so we just want to say thanks for all of your support. But that being said, let's jump into today's case. But before we do, I have to mention that

[00:02:20] as with all of our episodes, we do our best to present the facts through our own independent research. But of course, we're not journalists, we're not investigative journalists. But we just try to be as purposeful as possible in terms of the information that we research and that we

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[00:02:55] your feedback. Let's get into it. On a hot summer day in 1984, Jody Trexler was lounging in her bedroom. She spent most of her day talking on the phone with friends, painting her nails and just trying to entertain herself. Her big sister, Risa,

[00:03:45] had gone across the lawn next door to their grandparents' house whose front door she could see clearly from her bedroom window. At some point, bored out of her mind, she decided to make her way over there too. But stopped when she didn't see any cars in the driveway.

[00:03:59] She figured they must have left to run an errand. So she turned around to go back home. At around 5 p.m., she hears loud noises and sees her grandfather run out of the house yelling for help. She never

[00:04:11] could have imagined the scene she would run into and the years of turmoil that would follow. Risa is found brutally murdered in her grandparents' house. And in this sleepy small town where rumors spread like wildfire, fingers were being pointed at the person who

[00:04:25] looked up to her the most, 13-year-old younger sister Jody. Salisbury is a city in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. The regional grocery chain, Foodline, was founded in Salisbury in 1957. It's located 25 miles northeast of Charlotte and has about 36,000 residents. In 1984, this was the

[00:04:46] type of town where everyone knew each other and front doors were left unlocked. But there was an obvious social divide in the town. In Salisbury, North Carolina, the summers were hot and you'd often find teenagers hanging out at the local pool or working their summer jobs. In 1984,

[00:05:04] Jody Trexler and her older sister Risa and their friends Paul and Jim were among the many teens who tried to keep themselves busy while school was out. In the A&E documentary Cold Case Files,

[00:05:16] Salisbury in the 80s was described as having an obvious divide between the haves and the have-nots. David Wisent, a reporter for WBTV, explained that some folks made millions from the chain of grocery stores that were in the town. But Risa and Jody, as childhood friend Paul

[00:05:34] Rogers explained, were from the wrong side of the tracks. So who was Risa Trexler? Risa Don Trexler was born on October 10th, 1968 in Rowan County to Mom Vicki Monroe Trexler, now Oates, and Gary Trexler. She was a normal teenage girl who loved to swim and loved kids.

[00:05:55] She attended Salisbury High School and was very well liked. She also had a younger sister named Jody whom she had a very strong bond with. Jody talks about how she and her sister shared

[00:06:07] a bedroom their whole lives and how she looked up to her. She said in that same documentary, we were very close. In June 1984, Risa and Jody were two teenagers enjoying their summer break. Risa, a soon-to-be junior and Jody, an incoming freshman, decided to invite their friends Paul

[00:06:27] Rogers and Jim to their parents' house. The four hung out together, made sandwiches, and listened to music. Paul later had to leave to get ready for work at one of the local fast food restaurants

[00:06:39] and Jim left to go with him. As we mentioned earlier, Risa decided to leave to go next door to her grandparents, but Jody stayed at home. In fact, most of their family lived on that same block and their grandfather, Walt Monroe, would later tell reporters that the girl

[00:06:57] spent most of their time at his house. In that same A&E documentary, Jody showed the viewers the old family home in just how close in proximity her grandparents' house was. It looked as though the houses shared the same front yard, that's just how close it was.

[00:07:13] Thinking that Risa must have left with their grandparents on an errand and turned around to go back home, Jody says that she spent the rest of her time talking on the phone

[00:07:21] with friends or watching TV. That's when she heard that loud noise that made her run to her window. She saw her grandfather running outside and yelling, Help! Help! So she ran out the

[00:07:33] door and over to him. She said that she tried to get inside, but he blocked her, shielding her from what was inside. She told A&E that when she eventually pushed past him, she couldn't see

[00:07:46] anything at first, but eventually she found her sister covered in blood and lying in a spare bedroom. Vicki, Risa and Jody's mother happened to be pulling up around the same time and

[00:07:59] her father yelled out to her, Call an Ambulance! It's Risa. She runs inside and found her daughter, but it was clear that she was already gone. In the podcast DNA ID hosted by Jessica Bentoncourt,

[00:08:15] she talks about how Vicki was so overwhelmed that she just took off running, having to be tracked down by her brother. In that same A&E documentary, Vicki herself said that she

[00:08:26] was just in so much shock that she found herself wandering around. When she was brought back to the house, a crowd had started to gather of the neighbors wanting to know what was going on. Still unbelievably overwhelmed, she decided that she couldn't hang around and started

[00:08:43] walking around the neighborhood again. The police call came in at 5.15pm and Detective Rick Tippito of the Rowan County Sheriff's Department was the first to respond. He told A&E that he was horrified to see a nude Risa Trexler covered in, quote,

[00:09:01] multiple, multiple, multiple, multiple stab wounds. According to the Salisbury Post, Risa was stabbed so viciously all over that her spinal cord was severed and the knife was stuck in her shoulder. It was apparent that she'd also been sexually assaulted as male DNA

[00:09:20] was found on her body. Detectives wasted no time gathering as much evidence as possible. Law enforcement blocked off the entire street and asked that no one directly related to the family enter or leave the area. As they examined the scene, they found no forced entry,

[00:09:41] no fingerprints, and although they did find some hair they wanted to bag for evidence, it didn't have a route which I learned is where actual DNA can be found. Keep in mind though this was the 1980s so forensic tests and DNA evidence were less

[00:09:57] sophisticated or still developing. What's interesting is that Risa's body was left where it was until 4am because police didn't want to move it until they had fully processed the scene. I didn't really see anything that said either way but to their credit everything

[00:10:17] was securely packaged and tagged according to the standards at that time. Walt, Jody's grandfather confirmed that nothing was taken from the home so they ruled out a possible burglary gone wrong. In the days that followed investigators had no viable leads so they focused on those who knew her

[00:10:51] best. Her grandparents who saw her around 3.30 in the afternoon were the first to be questioned. Walt tells investigators that he had to run errands at their family business when Edith, their grandmother, left for a hair appointment. He's the one who later found Risa

[00:11:08] at his home at 5pm. In his interviews Walt was distraught and it was clear that he had no reason to murder his granddaughter so officers quickly dismissed him. Unfortunately for Walt though in most small communities rumors spread quickly and many of them said that their beloved granddad

[00:11:29] had killed Risa in anger after discovering that she was at home with a boy. The most damaging rumor was that he had been sexually assaulting the girls for years, something that Jody strongly rejected. As you might have guessed all of the rumors hindered the investigation

[00:11:47] more than helped because they would end up taking investigators on wild goose chases and away from actually finding a resolution. Risa's friends Paul and Jim who'd been hanging out with them earlier that day were also questioned. In fact Paul learned that his friend was dead when police

[00:12:06] visited him at work a few hours after she was found. Paul and Jim were repeatedly questioned but neither were officially accused nor cleared. Paul told A&E that he was so afraid the cops were trying to frame him for murder that he considered leaving the country. Several witnesses

[00:12:26] also came forward to share any information they had but officials said that it wasn't anything that could be a solid lead. Remember this for later. Okay. The governor even contributed to a local reward that businesses had pulled together for any information that could lead to an arrest.

[00:12:46] Messiah Lutheran Church held Risa's funeral on June 20th. Her buddies Paul and Jim were Paul bearers. A popular photo showed Jody looking almost like she was bored or uninterested. Jody says she was just shell shocked and doesn't even remember the funeral but this photo would be another

[00:13:07] cause for rumors and whether coincidentally or on purpose the investigation suddenly takes a bizarre turn. Police are now trying to prove that Risa's 13 year old sister Jody killed her. Some interviewees claimed hearing Jody say that she hated her sister on the bus one day.

[00:13:29] Remember I mentioned that some people talked about how bored she looked at her sister's funeral? Yeah. Since she was quote the only one that wasn't in tears they tried to prove that she had to have been the one who killed Risa. Witnesses claim that Jody appeared to be

[00:13:46] emotionless as the EMTs checked on Risa staring at her sister's body the day that she was found. Risa's best friend very vocally blamed Jody which also didn't help. The speculation was that Jody killed her sister out of rage or jealousy. These rumors along with investigators

[00:14:06] conclusions that Risa knew her killer since you know there was no break in or forced entry solidified Jody's claimed involvement. A fingernail found on the ground not belonging to Risa was their only evidence. Her mother Vicki refused police requests for samples and polygraph tests from Jody.

[00:14:27] You know they needed her mother's approval because she was only 13 at the time. Yeah. The trexlers had to hire an attorney to protect themselves against all of the attention that Jody and the family were getting because the town considered Jody the main suspect.

[00:14:42] Due to public scrutiny she lost all of her friends and had to change schools. Detective Tibido said that hundreds of people were questioned as part of the ongoing investigation but there were still no solid leads. Eventually the case started to go cold.

[00:15:00] Vicki would talk to and write letters to local media for many years after the event saying that she was worried that the case would not be solved quickly. She talks about how bad the stories in

[00:15:12] the town have been for the family and in that A&E documentary Vicki says that the cops made her doubt her own daughter Jody so much that she tried to kill herself. Jody says I'm your child

[00:15:25] why don't you believe me? You should believe me because you're my mother. In 1985 a possible suspect with a similar MO was pursued. In a similar incident 16-year-old Suella Hollerman missed school because she was sick. During his lunch break her dad went home

[00:15:45] and checked on her and she seemed to be getting better. Some time before her mother got home though someone had taken her and killed her. Her body wouldn't be found until a month later

[00:15:57] by a farmer on his property. It was reported that she too had been sexually assaulted, choked and stabbed. In 1986 her killer called the cops from prison to tell them what happened and admitted to killing her. They had no doubt that what he was saying was true because

[00:16:17] he was already serving life plus 110 years for another crime where he sexually assaulted and stabbed a woman in a hotel room. He had also kidnapped a woman from a lake near Salisbury, sexually assaulted her and stabbed her so obviously it seems like it fits the bill right?

[00:16:36] The knife blade broke off just like in Reese's case and authorities tried to tie this to Reese's murder. Miraculously this woman survived and that's how he got caught. Not only did all of these crimes happen in the same area as where Reese and Jodie lived

[00:16:53] but they happened in a very similar manner. Unfortunately though Reese's murder was not one that he would claim. In 2018 34 years past since Reese's death and Jodie made an appearance on the Dr. Phil show to clear her name. You know Dr. Phil right?

[00:17:14] Anyway the case had gone cold which you know means that the cops stopped working on it. Jodie who is now in her 40s talked about how the mean things that people said about her role

[00:17:24] in the murder have followed her around for almost her entire life. Because of this Jodie began to act out with her parents and ended up going to rehab for alcohol abuse when she was only 15.

[00:17:38] Do you remember Reese's friend who told the police that she overheard Jodie saying she hated her on the bus? Yeah. Well her name was Laura and she was even invited on that same Dr. Phil episode

[00:17:50] telling everyone how Jodie always had a dark side and she was the black sheep of the family. In front of the entire audience Jodie takes a polygraph test and she passes proving that she

[00:18:02] had not killed her own sister. Laura publicly apologizes to Jodie for accusing her all these years and it was definitely a little dramatic for publicity but it did help bring the case back to the forefront after so many years. So within two days of the show Salisbury

[00:18:20] police sergeant Travis Shulenberger called Jodie to say that he would be taking a quote fresh look at the case. He told Jodie that he didn't think she had anything to do with killing her sister. Shulenberger found that much of the original evidence that was collected was still

[00:18:39] in really good condition but hadn't been tested using modern DNA technology so he sent the samples off for testing to the state crime lab in June of 2018. They developed a DNA profile but

[00:18:53] running it through CODIS did not come back with any results. What's CODIS? So it stands for combined DNA index system but it's just a way for police to keep and look at DNA profiles. Investigators

[00:19:06] can solve crimes faster by matching the DNA evidence from crime scenes with samples from other people. They basically can find possible suspects or connect them to crimes if the DNA has already been filed in CODIS. So when no results come back matching anyone in CODIS the detectives

[00:19:26] decide to send the DNA to another lab called Parabon that specializes in DNA technology and forensic services. This company is known for their work in solving cold cases and identifying suspects by analyzing DNA evidence and by tying the DNA to several third cousins of the suspect

[00:19:48] they returned a name to police in December of 2019. Chief Jerry Stokes of the Salisbury Police Department held a press conference to announce that the murder case of 15-year-old Risa Trexler in 1984 has been closed officially

[00:20:21] after 35 years. Using DNA and genetic history the suspect Curtis Edward Blair Sr. was found. Curtis had lived and worked in the area at the Frito-Lay Company in 1984. Blair, who has since died in California in 2004, was linked to the crime scene through that DNA

[00:20:47] that was so meticulously preserved by the Salisbury Police Department back in 1984. They ended up having to exhume his body in order to match the DNA. Remember when I said police looked into multiple witnesses earlier in the story? Yeah.

[00:21:05] Well, witnesses said that they spotted a black man running in the area the day of the murder. In fact, nine witnesses said the same thing, but police considered the information to be unreliable since they differed regarding his appearance, the direction that he was running in

[00:21:22] and the timing that he was seen. So it was never followed up with. The strange thing about all of this is that police never released this information even as a way to ask other witnesses to come forward. This could have potentially helped the case, but definitely

[00:21:39] turned the attention away from accusations surrounding the family, you know, like her 13-year-old sister Jody. Blair's criminal record included more serious crimes, such as breaking into homes and stealing. He had been convicted of several felonies, including a

[00:21:58] disturbing event in 1966 in which he chased and stabbed his wife during a fight. Surprisingly, records show that he stabbed his child in the stomach with a knife as well, though it's not really clear why. Blair was imprisoned in 1966 after being charged with assault with a deadly

[00:22:19] weapon with intent to kill. Blair's criminal actions continued after he moved to California. Detective Shulenberger found evidence of arrests in both New York and California. In that same press conference, Detective Shulenberger made a very clear statement by saying,

[00:22:39] we would like to say that Jody has been completely exonerated in this case and the suspect has no connection to the Trexler or Monroe family. Even though the case is officially solved, the family feels robbed of the opportunity to see Blair pay for taking

[00:22:58] the life of their beloved family member. In the closing segment of the A&E documentary, Vicki said, quote, he stole part of my life. It will never be over because my daughter died that tragic way, that horrible way. Jody adds, quote, I don't like the word closure.

[00:23:17] I thought it would give me some relief, but it doesn't. And that's the story of Risa and Jody Trexler. What are your thoughts? It's sad that her killer was able to run away and started, well, I guess he didn't start a new life in California, but

[00:23:39] he was able to get away from a crime that he committed. And maybe if the police released those details when they were told, I mean, that could have potentially helped solve or

[00:23:53] find the guy sooner. And maybe he would have served more justice to the family to see him be thrown in jail or whatever his punishment was. Yeah, I feel bad that Jody lost so much time.

[00:24:08] I mean, her sister died when she was 13 and by 15, she was in rehab. Can you imagine, all of the things that people are saying around town, like that you killed your own sister and

[00:24:20] unfortunately she turned to alcohol or other substances. So it just makes me feel sad that she lost so much time because people really thought. But I'm so glad she went on The Dr.

[00:24:33] Phil Show and it brought attention back to the case and they were able to solve it. So even though she said herself, she didn't like the word closure because it didn't

[00:24:41] really make her feel any better. I am glad that they found her killer so that the rest of her life, because she still has a lot of life to live, she's been cleared and no one can say it was

[00:24:56] her sister that killed her. All right. Anyways, we'd love to hear your thoughts on the story. Please feel free to reach out to us at SouthernShadowsPodcast at gmail.com or you can visit our website at SouthernShadowsPodcast.com and until next time, see you in the shadows.