The Whole Town Thought That Reesa Trexler's Sister Killed Her. This Last Year The Truth Came To Light.

Reesa Dawn Trexler

"An Angel On Earth, Now One In Heaven."

She had a heart of gold. She never met a stranger and was always willing to help people.

Reesa was born on October 11th, 1968 in Rowan County, North Carolina to Vickie Oaks.

On June 15th, 1984, 15-year-old Reesa lived next door to her grandparents. She went to visit them on 714 North Shaver Street in Salisbury, while her sister Jodi stayed home. Reesa didn't realize her grandfather had gone grocery shopping while her grandmother was at a hair appointment. 

An hour or so later Jodie heard an blood curdling scream. She ran to her bedroom window and looked across to her grandparents’ home to see her grandfather screaming and clenching his fists so hard that his knuckles had turned white. She ran next door, into the house and up the stairs and pushed open the bedroom door.

The room was completely covered in red.

Jodie looked down to see a heap covered in a blanket that was heavily saturated in blood. As she looked closer she could see skin and hair. It was Reesa, she was nude and had been stabbed several times in the upper chest and neck. An autopsy showed the blade of a knife had broken off and was found in her right shoulder. It also showed that she had been raped.

In total there was 18 stab wounds to the girl’s upper body, the volume of injuries painted a picture of an attacker stabbing away at the teen in a fit of rage. There was no indication that someone had forced their way into the property, nor had anything of value been taken from the home. Reesa was still wearing her jewelry.

Police semen and was described as a single African American hair was found on the body.  5 eyewitness reported seeing a black male running in the area around the time of the crime. Despite all of this, no suspect was found.

Jodie, then 13 years old became a suspect in her sister's murder and was shunned by the town. She was interrogated by police without the presence of her parents and asked multiple times if she had killed Reesa.

Eventually, in an attempt to clear her name, Jodi appeared on the Dr. Phil show in 2018 where she took and passed a polygraph test. Her appearance on the show renewed interest in the case and the 35 year old DNA samples collected from the crime scene were sent off to a lab and a suspect was soon narrowed down with the aid of genetic genealogy databases. And the murderer was identified. 

Curtis Edward Blair Sr. was 40-years-old at the time of Reesa's murder. He lived in the area and worked for a Frito-lay facility that was within a few blocks of the Trexler home. He died in California in August, 2004, of acute ventricular failure and congestive heart failure. He was exhumed in June of last year and that DNA was collected.

Reesa's family thought that they'd never seen this day come. And even thought it doesn't bring her back, her family is glad that they finally know who stole Reesa's life. And Jody is happy that her name had finally been cleared.