April 25, 2025 • 28 mins
On November 30, 1995, In the early evening hours, Felicia Rexford was brutally murdered in the parking lot of a retail store. She left behind 2 teenage daughter and a family that wanted answers.....It's been nearly 30 years and still no one has been held accountable for this heinous act.
If you have any information on the Murder of Felicia Rexford please call the Alton Police Department at (618)463-3505...
sources: The Alton Telegraph
Facebook: Justice for Jeannie
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:38):
Hello everyone, and welcome backto the Victim's Voice.
I'm your host, Lorelai. Today's episode is one that hits
close to home for me, not only because it happened in my
hometown of Alton, IL when I wasjust 18 years old, but also
because my parents were friends of the victim's parents and knew
the family well. This case has never been solved
(00:59):
and 30 years later, the family is still fighting for justice.
So hopefully we can get this case back into the public's eye
and looked at again by law enforcement because there is
someone out there that knows something, whether that be the
perpetrator or someone that he confided in.
And we beg you to come forward and give this family some
closure and give Felicia Kemp Brexford the justice she
(01:22):
deserves after all these years. Felicia Kemp Brexford, who went
by Jeannie, was born on October 5th, 1956 to Dorothy or Dottie
Bell Kemp and Ellis James Kemp who went by Jim.
Unfortunately Jim passed away in1980 and in 1985 Dottie
(01:44):
remarried a man named Joseph Valdez Senior.
Jim and Dottie had five kids together, Jeannie, Carmen,
Robin, Eddie, and Cindy. Daddy told the Alton Telegraph
that her oldest daughter, Jeannie was a beautiful baby and
that she named her after the actress Felicia Carr.
According to Jeannie's siblings,she was an amazing big sister
(02:06):
who did all the big sister things.
She protected them, taught them things, and help them any time
they were in a jam. If they needed a shoulder to cry
on, she was right there. She was their best friend.
Her sister Robin described Jeannie as the glue that held
her family together. Her siblings have many amazing
memories of Jeannie as a child, especially Cindy who shared a
(02:29):
room with her growing up. Jeannie had given Cindy a record
collection when she was just a teenager.
This fueled her love of music and going to concerts.
One incident that Cindy remembers vividly was when
Jeannie was in middle school andher great aunt and uncle had
just bought her a new bike. She decided to go for a bike
ride in the Milton area of Alton, which is the same area
(02:52):
that I grew up in, and there arelots of hilly and bumpy streets
around there that can make bike riding fun but also dangerous.
Frayner was one of those very bumpy and hilly streets.
As Jeannie came down a hill on Frayner, she accidentally hit
the front brakes causing her to fly over the handlebars and
through the air. She wasn't seriously injured,
(03:13):
but she did knockout her 2 frontteeth.
Her great aunt and uncle felt sobad since they were the ones who
had bought her the bike, so theypaid for her dental work
throughout her lifetime. In grade school, Jeannie
attended Milton School where shewas a candidate for Queen of the
annual school picnic. She attended E Junior High
(03:34):
School and then Alton High School where she sing in the
ninth grade choir. She graduated in 1974.
Her brothers and sisters remember her as a fun loving
girl who would go to Blocks Restaurant on Milton Rd. with
her friends for hamburgers and milkshakes after high school
football games. I grew up right by Blocks and
they had the best shakes and marshmallow Pepsi's.
(03:57):
The date of November 30th was animportant date in Jeannie's life
and it would be for the rest of the family also.
On November 30th of 1975, just one year after graduating high
school, Jeannie married her childhood sweetheart, Jerry Paul
Rexford. Exactly 1 year later, on
November 30th of 1976, after a complicated birth, Jeannie's
(04:22):
first daughter Crystal was born and 19 years later, on November
30th of 1995, Jeannie would be murdered.
Jeannie's second daughter, Jarrow was born in 1980.
Jeannie loved being a mom and everything she did was for her
girls. One of her favorite things to do
(04:44):
with her daughters was go to thetheater to see Disney movies.
In fact, when her daughters got too old to go to the movies with
mom, Jeannie would scoop up her sister's kids and take them.
In fact, one of Cindy's kids favorite memories of her Aunt
Jeannie is when she would come walking through the door with
her big purse that was filled with candy, soda, and microwaved
(05:05):
popcorn. Whenever they saw that, they
knew that they were about to gettreated to a date at the movie
theater. After graduating from high
school, getting married, and having her girls, Jeannie and
her family continued living in the Milton area near her family.
She went to work as a teller andas a bookkeeper at several banks
in the Alton area, starting at the Wedge Bank on Broadway in
(05:27):
1975. While in her 20s, Jeannie
balanced her time between being a responsible wife and mother
and having fun with her friends.When Jeannie wasn't working or
spending time with her family, she loved to make ceramics, go
shopping which she referred to as retail therapy, play a dice
game called Bunco, and go to Granny's Rocker, a popular
(05:50):
nightclub in the Alton area backin the 80s and 90s.
Jeannie would go there to have fun with her friends and listen
to her favorite local bands, Griffin and Beowulf.
When Jeannie hit her 30s, however, she traded in her late
nights at Granny's Rocker for late nights curled up on the
couch and her comfortable PJ's reading a romance novel.
(06:12):
In 1985, Jeannie and Jerry unfortunately divorced, but they
managed to stay close friends. It was also around this time
that Jeannie landed a bookkeeping job with a
prestigious law firm in the Alton area.
As her daughters grew into teenagers and were more
independent, Jeannie took a second job as a clerk at
(06:33):
Blockbuster Video in the nearby town of Wood River to make some
extra money for her family. For those of you who are too
young to know what Blockbuster was, it was a video store where
you could rent DVDs or even VHS tapes of movies long before the
days of streaming. Jeannie had always been a very
independent woman and embraced this even more after her
(06:55):
divorce. She bought her first brand new
car, a green 1995 Grand Am. She also bought her own home,
which she remodeled herself as she had a flair for home
designing and landscaping. One thing that Jeannie had
always wanted to do was go on a cruise, so she decided that she
was going to save up the money and go on one for her 40th
(07:15):
birthday that next year. Her family knew that Jeannie was
excited about the chance to go on a cruise, so they had decided
if she was unable to save enoughmoney to pay for it herself that
they were all going to pitch in to make sure she got to go.
Unfortunately, Jeannie wouldn't make it until her 40th birthday.
Jeannie also loved going to the library and would read books on
(07:39):
how to fix different things around the house.
A favorite saying between Jeannie and her sister Cindy was
quote, I don't need no stinking man.
I got a library card. End Quote.
Which is funny because that's exactly what my wife says about
YouTube today. The one thing that Jeannie loved
to do more than anything was to buy people gifts.
(07:59):
Everyone could always count on agift from Jeannie for their
birthday or Christmas, or sometimes even a package of
Peanut M and Ms. if they needed cheering up.
Jeannie knew how to make everyone feel special and loved.
She also loved spending the holidays with her family.
Christmas was her favorite. Her family said that she was
known as the present hand her outer at family holidays as she
(08:21):
loved giving everyone their presents.
Even after she got divorced fromJerry, she would continue to buy
members of his family gifts at Christmas time.
They weren't expensive gifts. Jeannie was thrifty and love to
find a bargain, but the gifts were always thoughtful and
things that she had put a lot ofthought into.
Jeannie knew how to make each and every person in her life
(08:41):
feel special and that's what Jeannie was doing on the evening
of Thursday, November 30th, 1995at the Target store in Alton.
Everyone at the law office that she worked at said that Jeannie
was in a great mood when she left work that day at around
5:00 PM. It happened to be Payday and her
oldest daughter Crystal's 19th birthday, so she decided to go
(09:03):
to the store to buy some last minute gifts and things that she
would need for Crystal's birthday party that evening.
Jeannie strolled through the store buying the things that she
needed to make sure her daughter's birthday was special
along with a few more odds and ends Christmas presents.
She checked out and made her wayto her car.
The time was roughly 6:20 PM. Jeannie's youngest daughter Jara
(09:26):
and her friends would drive by the Target minutes later and see
the lights from several emergency vehicles, but never in
a million years would Jared think they were there because
her mom had just been brutally attacked.
Jeannie shopped at this particular Target a lot as it
was on her way home from work. She even had a parking spot that
she liked to park in when it wasavailable.
(09:47):
The 4th space along the east side of the building facing the
Target store. She would have been parked on
the right side though this area was well lit and only feet away
from the doors. The shoppers that were going in
and out and the volunteer from the Salvation Army that stood in
front of the doors ringing a bell as they collected donations
or out of view of the green Grand Am.
(10:09):
Jeannie opened the back door andafter loading her bags she then
sit down in the driver's seat. But before she even got a chance
to shut the car door or start the car, she was attacked,
stabbed with a knife twice, oncein the abdomen and a fatal stab
in the chest. Jeannie managed to stumble out
of the car and make her way to anearby light fixture to try to
(10:29):
find help. She collapsed into the arms of a
Good Samaritan who had seen thatshe was injured and had run over
to help her. As he held her, Jeannie uttered
the last three words that she would ever speak and seemingly
the only clue the police would ever have.
Gray haired man, the bell ringer, saw what was happening
and ran into the store to call 911 while the Good Samaritan
(10:52):
comforted Jeannie until the firedepartment and EMS arrived.
By the time the police got to the scene, Jeannie was
unconscious. She was rushed to Saint
Anthony's Hospital where she waspronounced dead just an hour
later. The man who had stayed with
Jeannie until help arrived was gone by the time the police got
there, so he was unable to be questioned at that time.
(11:12):
However, he did call the police station later that night and
gave a statement, which detectives said was very
helpful. After arriving at the scene, the
Alton Police Department quickly moved into action.
While some scoured the scene forevidence and talked to possible
witnesses, other officers deployed their canines in the
area, hoping to track down the person who did this.
(11:34):
They believe that the perpetrator ran into a wooded
area that was just north of the store.
From the beginning, authorities believed that the altercation
and murder occurred during the Commission of a burglary, but
nothing was missing. Inside Jeannie's car were the
packages that she had just bought and some receipts from
work showing a deposit that she had made.
Jeannie's purse was found on theground outside of the car and
(11:56):
still had a few dollars in it. The strap of the purse, however,
was cut in half. The police would later try to
figure out if the strap had beencut by accident during the
stabbing, or if the assailant had cut the strap intentionally
to steal the purse and then Jeannie put up a fight.
It is unknown if the Alton police ever did find out the
answer to that question. After all physical evidence was
(12:20):
recovered, the Alton police had Jeannie's car impounded.
The canines that were taken out found nothing.
So authorities spoke to over 35 people who had been shopping at
Target that day. But that was a dead end.
Also, Jeannie's family was in disbelief and shock when they
heard the news that Jeannie had been attacked.
The family raced to the hospital, but by the time they
(12:42):
got there, it was too late. Jeannie had succumbed to her
injuries. It didn't seem real.
They had just celebrated Thanksgiving with her exactly
one week before, and now she wasgone.
And what made it worse was not knowing why this happened and
who did it. Yes, the police believed it was
a robbery gone wrong, but they needed to know for sure.
And the fact that the killer gotaway and was still out there and
(13:04):
was free to kill again was just too much to bear.
Jara also told a reporter duringan interview that she was
supposed to go shopping with hermom that evening, but instead
went with her friends. I imagine she often wonders if
things would have been differentif she had been with her mom
that day. However, hindsight is 2020 and
she would have had no way to know what was going to happen on
(13:26):
that horrific day. Jeannie's Co workers were
stunned to learn of her death onFriday, December 1st, the day
after she was murdered. They comforted each other as
they stood around her empty chair looking at her desk that
was filled with pictures of her 2 girls. 1 friend and Co worker
cried as she said that Jeannie'slife revolved around her
(13:46):
daughters, Another friend at thefirm told the Alton Telegraph
quote, It's still hard to believe that Felicia is gone.
She was like a sister to all of us.
End Quote Immediately after Jeannie's murder, the Target
store put up a $5000 reward for any information that would lead
them to the arrest of the killerthe next day.
(14:08):
They raised the award money to $10,000 that weekend.
On Saturday, December 2nd, the Alton Police Department released
2 sketches of two different men who were sought for questioning
in regards to Jeannie's murder. One of the men had been seen
outside the store on Wednesday the night before the murder and
was said to be watching people coming and going.
(14:29):
The other man had been seen roaming the parking lot the
night of the murder. The police said the men weren't
suspects at that point, but weresaid to be acting suspiciously.
They were said to be of medium build, in their 50s or 60s, and
have Gray hair. Could one of them be the Gray
haired man that Jeannie had beentalking about her final moments?
(14:51):
Over the next few days, the Alton PD got over 100 phone
calls in response, but none of those calls led to anything
significant. Everyone in Alton and the
surrounding areas were in shock and they were scared.
Things like this didn't happen around here.
Even the police said it's stranger on stranger.
Homicides were not something that normally happened in this
(15:14):
area, but they went on to say that people shouldn't panic
because of this incident. What they said next doesn't make
much sense to be major, Hayes stated.
Quote, we feel this was an isolated incident and not
something that will be reoccurring.
Again, we feel it was a random act End Quote.
How do they know it's an isolated incident?
(15:36):
They say that Jeannie was most likely not targeted and it was a
robbery gone bad. So how can they say the person
won't strike again? Especially when they say it was
random. If it wasn't someone that was
specifically targeting Jeannie for some reason then they
absolutely could strike again. I believe the police were just
trying to keep everyone calm, but telling people that they
(15:57):
didn't have anything to worry about seemed like a completely
untrue statement at the time. However, Christmas shoppers
didn't slow down over the next month, even with the news that
there was a killer still on the loose.
Jeannie's murder did motivate the Target store to invest in
cameras for their parking lot, and most people made sure they
(16:17):
did their shopping during the day and that they didn't go
alone. Police also stepped up their
patrols on retail storage parking lots in the days after
Jeannie's murder. They already had a procedure
called Retail detail that had been in fact for a few years
prior to her murder, in which they dedicated 5 or 6 patrol
cars each night during the holiday season through the first
(16:39):
of the year to patrolling retailparking lots.
Police announced that shoppers should take extra precautions to
ensure their own safety. Find their car keys before
leaving the store and have them ready when approaching their
vehicle. Park in well lit areas and keep
an eye on their immediate surroundings.
They also said don't take time to put bags into the trunk
(17:01):
because someone could sneak up behind you.
Get into your car as quickly as possible and throw the bags into
the back seat. But Jeannie did all these
things. She parked close to the store in
a well lit area. She had her keys out because she
had already put her packages in the back seat and was getting in
the car whenever she was attacked.
Yes, it's good to take precautions but that doesn't
(17:21):
always work. There are sick people in this
world who think they can do whatthey want to anyone and that
they are entitled to what other people have.
And innocent people get hurt or even killed by these losers no
matter how many precautions are taken.
On December 2nd, 1995, the AltonPolice Major David Hayes said
that the detectives had made some headway and reconstructing
(17:43):
the killing of Jeannie. He said, quote, robbery was
clearly the motivation. It appears there may have been a
struggle. We do have leads and are headed
in a certain direction. End Quote.
The description Hayes gave of the suspect was a white male
with Gray hair. His age had not been determined.
He also said that the Illinois State Crime Lab had processed
(18:05):
Jeannie's car and that evidence had been recovered.
Yet, he declined to talk about any evidence in the case.
Of course, one of the first people that detectives looked at
was Jeannie's ex-husband. However, he was ruled out fairly
quickly. On December 5th, police
announced that they are searching for a specific witness
who might be able to provide them with important information.
(18:28):
After talking to other witnesses, police believed that
a middle-aged black woman who was dressed in a blue suit with
her hair flipping up in the backhad pertinent information
regarding the murder investigation.
According to what the police were told, this person was out
in the parking lot near Jeannie and some other witnesses and was
yelling that there was a car leaving the parking lot.
(18:49):
The police say that this woman could have already called them
anonymously and that they didn'tknow it but said that they
needed to talk to her. So were they thinking that the
suspect fled the scene in a car now instead of running off into
the woods? We don't know because nothing
was ever said again about this witness.
In the weeks following Jeannie'smurder, the Alton police had
(19:12):
conducted around 300 interviews and followed around 200 leads,
yet nothing had LED them to the killer.
They were, however, looking for a man who called in an anonymous
tip on December 15th. They were asking him to call
back so they could talk to him in more detail.
They seemed to think he had information that could be
important in the case. The man had initially told
(19:35):
police that shortly after the stabbing, he saw a man named
John demanding money from customers on a grocery store
parking lot. The man was very specific about
the name, but once again, nothing must have come of this
lead because it's never mentioned again.
A couple months after Jeannie's murder, the police announced
they had a suspect, only to comeback and say that after
(19:58):
contacting some witnesses, they had verified that the person
couldn't have been at the scene at that time.
Then, on May 21st, detectives thought they had a lead at Mount
Olive. They interviewed someone who
resembled the composite, but that also turned out to be a
dead end. On January 26th of 1996, a
(20:19):
Madison County coroner's jury ruled Jeannie's death a homicide
after hearing testimony at an inquest.
The stab wound to her chest which cut her heart caused her
death, though she was also stabbed in the abdomen which cut
through her liver. On November 28th of 1996, almost
one year later, the Alton Telegraph released another
(20:42):
article covering Jeannie's murder.
The police stated that they had received over 300 tips that they
had followed up on. They had several 100 pages of
police reports and still no suspects.
Jerry Cooley, the Alton detective that was assigned to
the case at that time, told reporters that they had a few
more leads to exhaust and that was it, but that they were never
(21:03):
going to give up. They said if there was ever a
case they wanted to solve, it was this one and that they were
dedicated and hopeful. Police stated that Jeannie was
not the type of person you wouldexpect to be murdered.
She had been Christmas and birthday shopping for her kids
and had done nothing wrong. She could have been anyone's
mother, wife, sister or daughter.
(21:25):
November 30th, 1996, exactly 1 year to the day that Jeannie was
murdered, 20 people, including her family and friends, held a
candlelight vigil in the Target parking lot near the spot where
Jeannie was attacked. It was a cool, rainy night, just
as it had been the year before when she was murdered.
The group stood around a pole that was adorned with a wreath.
(21:47):
In the middle of the wreath was a picture of Jeannie standing
next to a Christmas tree. Jeannie's mom Dottie said that
the family had felt the loss of her daughter deeply and that
they were living day by day withlots of mood swings.
Jeannie's brother-in-law Mike Cruise spoke at the gathering
saying quote, one year ago today, Felicia Jean was cowardly
(22:07):
murdered by an unknown assailant.
A person with no heart or conscience took her life and
robbed us of our loved one. End Quote.
The first year passed with no answers.
Then the second year, the third year, another article was in the
Alton Telegraph but said the same things.
The case was still open and active, they just didn't have
(22:29):
any leads that had LED them anywhere substantial.
Losing their mom any time would have been hard, but losing her
during their teenage years was beyond difficult for Crystal and
Jara. Fortunately, they had their
grandma and their aunts to support them and guide them
through the hard times. And though they struggled and
went through things that they wish their mother had been there
(22:49):
to help them with, they made it through and became wonderful
young women. Eight years passed and Jeannie's
children grew up and had children of their own, all while
wishing their mother was there with them to share all of their
milestones. Jara got married and her aunt
described how beautiful she looked, like a beautiful white
Angel. Crystal and Jara lit 2 candles
(23:11):
next to their mother's picture before the wedding ceremony as a
way to include her in the most important day in her daughter's
life. By this time, Jeannie had three
grandchildren that she never gota chance to meet.
Also, she has a niece that carries her middle name.
Nine years after Jeannie's murder, the police were still
looking for answers. During this time, 2 detectives
(23:34):
traveled to South Dakota, Arkansas, Georgia, and Kentucky
to interview people who were said to have made comments about
the composite drawings. It turned out though, that these
people only had suspicions and not solid information, so
detectives were back to square 1.
Though they had some persons of interest and even some suspects
(23:55):
over the years, nothing had panned out.
By 2005, the 10 year mark of Jeannie's murder, the family
still didn't have any answers. Detectives said that they had
new, but minor leads at this point.
Major Hayes said that he believed it would take one of
three things to solve the crime.Information from someone who was
(24:16):
with the killer, someone who wastold about the crime by the
killer or someone who saw the crime and didn't come forward
earlier. The police also state that they
think the killer might have beena drifter and had left the Alton
area shortly after the murder. They believe if it was someone
from the area that they would have said something to someone.
(24:38):
This time, Jeannie's oldest daughter, Crystal was 29 years
old, following in her mother's footsteps.
She had a good job at a bank andshe and her son were living in
the home that Jeannie had so proudly bought herself.
The girls felt it was important to keep the house and the family
because of the memories it held and because Jeannie had worked
so hard to purchase the home. Crystal told the Alton Telegraph
(24:59):
during an interview that she found it hard to believe that
was all the customers that at the Target store that day, that
no one saw anything. Jara, who was just 15 when her
mom was so tragically taken fromher life, was 25 by the 10 year
anniversary of her mother's death and said that since she
had become a parent, she could hear herself sounding like her
(25:20):
mother. She said that she knew that her
mom would be proud of her. She said that she just wanted to
know the facts of what had happened and why.
The family at this point felt like the police should have gone
back over everything from the beginning just in case they had
missed something or they should have brought in the Saint Louis
Major Case squad for assistance.Detectives said, however, that
(25:43):
the major case squad are usuallyassigned to departments that
don't have the manpower or because of logistics or the
volume of information. But why couldn't they ask for
the state police's assistance? There have been several cases
I've covered where the police were at a dead end and asked the
state or even the FBI for assistance and they stepped in
(26:03):
and solved the case. Sadly, in 2007, Jeannie's sister
Robin passed away at just 50 years old.
She never got the piece of knowing that her sister got the
justice that she deserved and why she was so brutally attacked
on that day. This November will be 30 years
(26:24):
since Jeannie's murder and her case has never been solved.
There have been several different detectives on the case
over the years who have tried different strategies and looked
at the case with a fresh perspective, but still no one
has been held accountable for Jeannie's death.
Crystal no longer celebrates herbirthday as it is now the
anniversary of the worst day of her life.
(26:46):
Jeannie never got to see her kids grow up to be moms and
never got to meet her grandchildren.
Christmas time is a hard time for the family.
Their new tradition during the holidays is to watch videos of
Jeannie. Someone out there knows
something. Jeannie deserves justice and her
family deserves some sort of closure to know that the person
(27:07):
who did this is being held accountable.
Hopefully this episode will drawattention to this case and if
anyone has any information at all about the murder of Felicia
Jean Kemp Rexford, please contact the Alton Police
Department at 618-463-3505. You can also check out the
(27:27):
Facebook page Justice for Jeannie to keep up to date with
this case. For photos and updates on this
case, you can check out the Victim's voice on Facebook also.
And come back in two weeks for anew case.
Until then, stay safe and peace out.
Hello everyone, and welcome backto the Victim's Voice.
I'm your host, Lorelai. Today's episode is one that hits
close to home for me, not only because it happened in my
hometown of Alton, IL when I wasjust 18 years old, but also
because my parents were friends of the victim's parents and knew
the family well. This case has never been solved
(00:59):
and 30 years later, the family is still fighting for justice.
So hopefully we can get this case back into the public's eye
and looked at again by law enforcement because there is
someone out there that knows something, whether that be the
perpetrator or someone that he confided in.
And we beg you to come forward and give this family some
closure and give Felicia Kemp Brexford the justice she
(01:22):
deserves after all these years. Felicia Kemp Brexford, who went
by Jeannie, was born on October 5th, 1956 to Dorothy or Dottie
Bell Kemp and Ellis James Kemp who went by Jim.
Unfortunately Jim passed away in1980 and in 1985 Dottie
(01:44):
remarried a man named Joseph Valdez Senior.
Jim and Dottie had five kids together, Jeannie, Carmen,
Robin, Eddie, and Cindy. Daddy told the Alton Telegraph
that her oldest daughter, Jeannie was a beautiful baby and
that she named her after the actress Felicia Carr.
According to Jeannie's siblings,she was an amazing big sister
(02:06):
who did all the big sister things.
She protected them, taught them things, and help them any time
they were in a jam. If they needed a shoulder to cry
on, she was right there. She was their best friend.
Her sister Robin described Jeannie as the glue that held
her family together. Her siblings have many amazing
memories of Jeannie as a child, especially Cindy who shared a
(02:29):
room with her growing up. Jeannie had given Cindy a record
collection when she was just a teenager.
This fueled her love of music and going to concerts.
One incident that Cindy remembers vividly was when
Jeannie was in middle school andher great aunt and uncle had
just bought her a new bike. She decided to go for a bike
ride in the Milton area of Alton, which is the same area
(02:52):
that I grew up in, and there arelots of hilly and bumpy streets
around there that can make bike riding fun but also dangerous.
Frayner was one of those very bumpy and hilly streets.
As Jeannie came down a hill on Frayner, she accidentally hit
the front brakes causing her to fly over the handlebars and
through the air. She wasn't seriously injured,
(03:13):
but she did knockout her 2 frontteeth.
Her great aunt and uncle felt sobad since they were the ones who
had bought her the bike, so theypaid for her dental work
throughout her lifetime. In grade school, Jeannie
attended Milton School where shewas a candidate for Queen of the
annual school picnic. She attended E Junior High
(03:34):
School and then Alton High School where she sing in the
ninth grade choir. She graduated in 1974.
Her brothers and sisters remember her as a fun loving
girl who would go to Blocks Restaurant on Milton Rd. with
her friends for hamburgers and milkshakes after high school
football games. I grew up right by Blocks and
they had the best shakes and marshmallow Pepsi's.
(03:57):
The date of November 30th was animportant date in Jeannie's life
and it would be for the rest of the family also.
On November 30th of 1975, just one year after graduating high
school, Jeannie married her childhood sweetheart, Jerry Paul
Rexford. Exactly 1 year later, on
November 30th of 1976, after a complicated birth, Jeannie's
(04:22):
first daughter Crystal was born and 19 years later, on November
30th of 1995, Jeannie would be murdered.
Jeannie's second daughter, Jarrow was born in 1980.
Jeannie loved being a mom and everything she did was for her
girls. One of her favorite things to do
(04:44):
with her daughters was go to thetheater to see Disney movies.
In fact, when her daughters got too old to go to the movies with
mom, Jeannie would scoop up her sister's kids and take them.
In fact, one of Cindy's kids favorite memories of her Aunt
Jeannie is when she would come walking through the door with
her big purse that was filled with candy, soda, and microwaved
(05:05):
popcorn. Whenever they saw that, they
knew that they were about to gettreated to a date at the movie
theater. After graduating from high
school, getting married, and having her girls, Jeannie and
her family continued living in the Milton area near her family.
She went to work as a teller andas a bookkeeper at several banks
in the Alton area, starting at the Wedge Bank on Broadway in
(05:27):
1975. While in her 20s, Jeannie
balanced her time between being a responsible wife and mother
and having fun with her friends.When Jeannie wasn't working or
spending time with her family, she loved to make ceramics, go
shopping which she referred to as retail therapy, play a dice
game called Bunco, and go to Granny's Rocker, a popular
(05:50):
nightclub in the Alton area backin the 80s and 90s.
Jeannie would go there to have fun with her friends and listen
to her favorite local bands, Griffin and Beowulf.
When Jeannie hit her 30s, however, she traded in her late
nights at Granny's Rocker for late nights curled up on the
couch and her comfortable PJ's reading a romance novel.
(06:12):
In 1985, Jeannie and Jerry unfortunately divorced, but they
managed to stay close friends. It was also around this time
that Jeannie landed a bookkeeping job with a
prestigious law firm in the Alton area.
As her daughters grew into teenagers and were more
independent, Jeannie took a second job as a clerk at
(06:33):
Blockbuster Video in the nearby town of Wood River to make some
extra money for her family. For those of you who are too
young to know what Blockbuster was, it was a video store where
you could rent DVDs or even VHS tapes of movies long before the
days of streaming. Jeannie had always been a very
independent woman and embraced this even more after her
(06:55):
divorce. She bought her first brand new
car, a green 1995 Grand Am. She also bought her own home,
which she remodeled herself as she had a flair for home
designing and landscaping. One thing that Jeannie had
always wanted to do was go on a cruise, so she decided that she
was going to save up the money and go on one for her 40th
(07:15):
birthday that next year. Her family knew that Jeannie was
excited about the chance to go on a cruise, so they had decided
if she was unable to save enoughmoney to pay for it herself that
they were all going to pitch in to make sure she got to go.
Unfortunately, Jeannie wouldn't make it until her 40th birthday.
Jeannie also loved going to the library and would read books on
(07:39):
how to fix different things around the house.
A favorite saying between Jeannie and her sister Cindy was
quote, I don't need no stinking man.
I got a library card. End Quote.
Which is funny because that's exactly what my wife says about
YouTube today. The one thing that Jeannie loved
to do more than anything was to buy people gifts.
(07:59):
Everyone could always count on agift from Jeannie for their
birthday or Christmas, or sometimes even a package of
Peanut M and Ms. if they needed cheering up.
Jeannie knew how to make everyone feel special and loved.
She also loved spending the holidays with her family.
Christmas was her favorite. Her family said that she was
known as the present hand her outer at family holidays as she
(08:21):
loved giving everyone their presents.
Even after she got divorced fromJerry, she would continue to buy
members of his family gifts at Christmas time.
They weren't expensive gifts. Jeannie was thrifty and love to
find a bargain, but the gifts were always thoughtful and
things that she had put a lot ofthought into.
Jeannie knew how to make each and every person in her life
(08:41):
feel special and that's what Jeannie was doing on the evening
of Thursday, November 30th, 1995at the Target store in Alton.
Everyone at the law office that she worked at said that Jeannie
was in a great mood when she left work that day at around
5:00 PM. It happened to be Payday and her
oldest daughter Crystal's 19th birthday, so she decided to go
(09:03):
to the store to buy some last minute gifts and things that she
would need for Crystal's birthday party that evening.
Jeannie strolled through the store buying the things that she
needed to make sure her daughter's birthday was special
along with a few more odds and ends Christmas presents.
She checked out and made her wayto her car.
The time was roughly 6:20 PM. Jeannie's youngest daughter Jara
(09:26):
and her friends would drive by the Target minutes later and see
the lights from several emergency vehicles, but never in
a million years would Jared think they were there because
her mom had just been brutally attacked.
Jeannie shopped at this particular Target a lot as it
was on her way home from work. She even had a parking spot that
she liked to park in when it wasavailable.
(09:47):
The 4th space along the east side of the building facing the
Target store. She would have been parked on
the right side though this area was well lit and only feet away
from the doors. The shoppers that were going in
and out and the volunteer from the Salvation Army that stood in
front of the doors ringing a bell as they collected donations
or out of view of the green Grand Am.
(10:09):
Jeannie opened the back door andafter loading her bags she then
sit down in the driver's seat. But before she even got a chance
to shut the car door or start the car, she was attacked,
stabbed with a knife twice, oncein the abdomen and a fatal stab
in the chest. Jeannie managed to stumble out
of the car and make her way to anearby light fixture to try to
(10:29):
find help. She collapsed into the arms of a
Good Samaritan who had seen thatshe was injured and had run over
to help her. As he held her, Jeannie uttered
the last three words that she would ever speak and seemingly
the only clue the police would ever have.
Gray haired man, the bell ringer, saw what was happening
and ran into the store to call 911 while the Good Samaritan
(10:52):
comforted Jeannie until the firedepartment and EMS arrived.
By the time the police got to the scene, Jeannie was
unconscious. She was rushed to Saint
Anthony's Hospital where she waspronounced dead just an hour
later. The man who had stayed with
Jeannie until help arrived was gone by the time the police got
there, so he was unable to be questioned at that time.
(11:12):
However, he did call the police station later that night and
gave a statement, which detectives said was very
helpful. After arriving at the scene, the
Alton Police Department quickly moved into action.
While some scoured the scene forevidence and talked to possible
witnesses, other officers deployed their canines in the
area, hoping to track down the person who did this.
(11:34):
They believe that the perpetrator ran into a wooded
area that was just north of the store.
From the beginning, authorities believed that the altercation
and murder occurred during the Commission of a burglary, but
nothing was missing. Inside Jeannie's car were the
packages that she had just bought and some receipts from
work showing a deposit that she had made.
Jeannie's purse was found on theground outside of the car and
(11:56):
still had a few dollars in it. The strap of the purse, however,
was cut in half. The police would later try to
figure out if the strap had beencut by accident during the
stabbing, or if the assailant had cut the strap intentionally
to steal the purse and then Jeannie put up a fight.
It is unknown if the Alton police ever did find out the
answer to that question. After all physical evidence was
(12:20):
recovered, the Alton police had Jeannie's car impounded.
The canines that were taken out found nothing.
So authorities spoke to over 35 people who had been shopping at
Target that day. But that was a dead end.
Also, Jeannie's family was in disbelief and shock when they
heard the news that Jeannie had been attacked.
The family raced to the hospital, but by the time they
(12:42):
got there, it was too late. Jeannie had succumbed to her
injuries. It didn't seem real.
They had just celebrated Thanksgiving with her exactly
one week before, and now she wasgone.
And what made it worse was not knowing why this happened and
who did it. Yes, the police believed it was
a robbery gone wrong, but they needed to know for sure.
And the fact that the killer gotaway and was still out there and
(13:04):
was free to kill again was just too much to bear.
Jara also told a reporter duringan interview that she was
supposed to go shopping with hermom that evening, but instead
went with her friends. I imagine she often wonders if
things would have been differentif she had been with her mom
that day. However, hindsight is 2020 and
she would have had no way to know what was going to happen on
(13:26):
that horrific day. Jeannie's Co workers were
stunned to learn of her death onFriday, December 1st, the day
after she was murdered. They comforted each other as
they stood around her empty chair looking at her desk that
was filled with pictures of her 2 girls. 1 friend and Co worker
cried as she said that Jeannie'slife revolved around her
(13:46):
daughters, Another friend at thefirm told the Alton Telegraph
quote, It's still hard to believe that Felicia is gone.
She was like a sister to all of us.
End Quote Immediately after Jeannie's murder, the Target
store put up a $5000 reward for any information that would lead
them to the arrest of the killerthe next day.
(14:08):
They raised the award money to $10,000 that weekend.
On Saturday, December 2nd, the Alton Police Department released
2 sketches of two different men who were sought for questioning
in regards to Jeannie's murder. One of the men had been seen
outside the store on Wednesday the night before the murder and
was said to be watching people coming and going.
(14:29):
The other man had been seen roaming the parking lot the
night of the murder. The police said the men weren't
suspects at that point, but weresaid to be acting suspiciously.
They were said to be of medium build, in their 50s or 60s, and
have Gray hair. Could one of them be the Gray
haired man that Jeannie had beentalking about her final moments?
(14:51):
Over the next few days, the Alton PD got over 100 phone
calls in response, but none of those calls led to anything
significant. Everyone in Alton and the
surrounding areas were in shock and they were scared.
Things like this didn't happen around here.
Even the police said it's stranger on stranger.
Homicides were not something that normally happened in this
(15:14):
area, but they went on to say that people shouldn't panic
because of this incident. What they said next doesn't make
much sense to be major, Hayes stated.
Quote, we feel this was an isolated incident and not
something that will be reoccurring.
Again, we feel it was a random act End Quote.
How do they know it's an isolated incident?
(15:36):
They say that Jeannie was most likely not targeted and it was a
robbery gone bad. So how can they say the person
won't strike again? Especially when they say it was
random. If it wasn't someone that was
specifically targeting Jeannie for some reason then they
absolutely could strike again. I believe the police were just
trying to keep everyone calm, but telling people that they
(15:57):
didn't have anything to worry about seemed like a completely
untrue statement at the time. However, Christmas shoppers
didn't slow down over the next month, even with the news that
there was a killer still on the loose.
Jeannie's murder did motivate the Target store to invest in
cameras for their parking lot, and most people made sure they
(16:17):
did their shopping during the day and that they didn't go
alone. Police also stepped up their
patrols on retail storage parking lots in the days after
Jeannie's murder. They already had a procedure
called Retail detail that had been in fact for a few years
prior to her murder, in which they dedicated 5 or 6 patrol
cars each night during the holiday season through the first
(16:39):
of the year to patrolling retailparking lots.
Police announced that shoppers should take extra precautions to
ensure their own safety. Find their car keys before
leaving the store and have them ready when approaching their
vehicle. Park in well lit areas and keep
an eye on their immediate surroundings.
They also said don't take time to put bags into the trunk
(17:01):
because someone could sneak up behind you.
Get into your car as quickly as possible and throw the bags into
the back seat. But Jeannie did all these
things. She parked close to the store in
a well lit area. She had her keys out because she
had already put her packages in the back seat and was getting in
the car whenever she was attacked.
Yes, it's good to take precautions but that doesn't
(17:21):
always work. There are sick people in this
world who think they can do whatthey want to anyone and that
they are entitled to what other people have.
And innocent people get hurt or even killed by these losers no
matter how many precautions are taken.
On December 2nd, 1995, the AltonPolice Major David Hayes said
that the detectives had made some headway and reconstructing
(17:43):
the killing of Jeannie. He said, quote, robbery was
clearly the motivation. It appears there may have been a
struggle. We do have leads and are headed
in a certain direction. End Quote.
The description Hayes gave of the suspect was a white male
with Gray hair. His age had not been determined.
He also said that the Illinois State Crime Lab had processed
(18:05):
Jeannie's car and that evidence had been recovered.
Yet, he declined to talk about any evidence in the case.
Of course, one of the first people that detectives looked at
was Jeannie's ex-husband. However, he was ruled out fairly
quickly. On December 5th, police
announced that they are searching for a specific witness
who might be able to provide them with important information.
(18:28):
After talking to other witnesses, police believed that
a middle-aged black woman who was dressed in a blue suit with
her hair flipping up in the backhad pertinent information
regarding the murder investigation.
According to what the police were told, this person was out
in the parking lot near Jeannie and some other witnesses and was
yelling that there was a car leaving the parking lot.
(18:49):
The police say that this woman could have already called them
anonymously and that they didn'tknow it but said that they
needed to talk to her. So were they thinking that the
suspect fled the scene in a car now instead of running off into
the woods? We don't know because nothing
was ever said again about this witness.
In the weeks following Jeannie'smurder, the Alton police had
(19:12):
conducted around 300 interviews and followed around 200 leads,
yet nothing had LED them to the killer.
They were, however, looking for a man who called in an anonymous
tip on December 15th. They were asking him to call
back so they could talk to him in more detail.
They seemed to think he had information that could be
important in the case. The man had initially told
(19:35):
police that shortly after the stabbing, he saw a man named
John demanding money from customers on a grocery store
parking lot. The man was very specific about
the name, but once again, nothing must have come of this
lead because it's never mentioned again.
A couple months after Jeannie's murder, the police announced
they had a suspect, only to comeback and say that after
(19:58):
contacting some witnesses, they had verified that the person
couldn't have been at the scene at that time.
Then, on May 21st, detectives thought they had a lead at Mount
Olive. They interviewed someone who
resembled the composite, but that also turned out to be a
dead end. On January 26th of 1996, a
(20:19):
Madison County coroner's jury ruled Jeannie's death a homicide
after hearing testimony at an inquest.
The stab wound to her chest which cut her heart caused her
death, though she was also stabbed in the abdomen which cut
through her liver. On November 28th of 1996, almost
one year later, the Alton Telegraph released another
(20:42):
article covering Jeannie's murder.
The police stated that they had received over 300 tips that they
had followed up on. They had several 100 pages of
police reports and still no suspects.
Jerry Cooley, the Alton detective that was assigned to
the case at that time, told reporters that they had a few
more leads to exhaust and that was it, but that they were never
(21:03):
going to give up. They said if there was ever a
case they wanted to solve, it was this one and that they were
dedicated and hopeful. Police stated that Jeannie was
not the type of person you wouldexpect to be murdered.
She had been Christmas and birthday shopping for her kids
and had done nothing wrong. She could have been anyone's
mother, wife, sister or daughter.
(21:25):
November 30th, 1996, exactly 1 year to the day that Jeannie was
murdered, 20 people, including her family and friends, held a
candlelight vigil in the Target parking lot near the spot where
Jeannie was attacked. It was a cool, rainy night, just
as it had been the year before when she was murdered.
The group stood around a pole that was adorned with a wreath.
(21:47):
In the middle of the wreath was a picture of Jeannie standing
next to a Christmas tree. Jeannie's mom Dottie said that
the family had felt the loss of her daughter deeply and that
they were living day by day withlots of mood swings.
Jeannie's brother-in-law Mike Cruise spoke at the gathering
saying quote, one year ago today, Felicia Jean was cowardly
(22:07):
murdered by an unknown assailant.
A person with no heart or conscience took her life and
robbed us of our loved one. End Quote.
The first year passed with no answers.
Then the second year, the third year, another article was in the
Alton Telegraph but said the same things.
The case was still open and active, they just didn't have
(22:29):
any leads that had LED them anywhere substantial.
Losing their mom any time would have been hard, but losing her
during their teenage years was beyond difficult for Crystal and
Jara. Fortunately, they had their
grandma and their aunts to support them and guide them
through the hard times. And though they struggled and
went through things that they wish their mother had been there
(22:49):
to help them with, they made it through and became wonderful
young women. Eight years passed and Jeannie's
children grew up and had children of their own, all while
wishing their mother was there with them to share all of their
milestones. Jara got married and her aunt
described how beautiful she looked, like a beautiful white
Angel. Crystal and Jara lit 2 candles
(23:11):
next to their mother's picture before the wedding ceremony as a
way to include her in the most important day in her daughter's
life. By this time, Jeannie had three
grandchildren that she never gota chance to meet.
Also, she has a niece that carries her middle name.
Nine years after Jeannie's murder, the police were still
looking for answers. During this time, 2 detectives
(23:34):
traveled to South Dakota, Arkansas, Georgia, and Kentucky
to interview people who were said to have made comments about
the composite drawings. It turned out though, that these
people only had suspicions and not solid information, so
detectives were back to square 1.
Though they had some persons of interest and even some suspects
(23:55):
over the years, nothing had panned out.
By 2005, the 10 year mark of Jeannie's murder, the family
still didn't have any answers. Detectives said that they had
new, but minor leads at this point.
Major Hayes said that he believed it would take one of
three things to solve the crime.Information from someone who was
(24:16):
with the killer, someone who wastold about the crime by the
killer or someone who saw the crime and didn't come forward
earlier. The police also state that they
think the killer might have beena drifter and had left the Alton
area shortly after the murder. They believe if it was someone
from the area that they would have said something to someone.
(24:38):
This time, Jeannie's oldest daughter, Crystal was 29 years
old, following in her mother's footsteps.
She had a good job at a bank andshe and her son were living in
the home that Jeannie had so proudly bought herself.
The girls felt it was important to keep the house and the family
because of the memories it held and because Jeannie had worked
so hard to purchase the home. Crystal told the Alton Telegraph
(24:59):
during an interview that she found it hard to believe that
was all the customers that at the Target store that day, that
no one saw anything. Jara, who was just 15 when her
mom was so tragically taken fromher life, was 25 by the 10 year
anniversary of her mother's death and said that since she
had become a parent, she could hear herself sounding like her
(25:20):
mother. She said that she knew that her
mom would be proud of her. She said that she just wanted to
know the facts of what had happened and why.
The family at this point felt like the police should have gone
back over everything from the beginning just in case they had
missed something or they should have brought in the Saint Louis
Major Case squad for assistance.Detectives said, however, that
(25:43):
the major case squad are usuallyassigned to departments that
don't have the manpower or because of logistics or the
volume of information. But why couldn't they ask for
the state police's assistance? There have been several cases
I've covered where the police were at a dead end and asked the
state or even the FBI for assistance and they stepped in
(26:03):
and solved the case. Sadly, in 2007, Jeannie's sister
Robin passed away at just 50 years old.
She never got the piece of knowing that her sister got the
justice that she deserved and why she was so brutally attacked
on that day. This November will be 30 years
(26:24):
since Jeannie's murder and her case has never been solved.
There have been several different detectives on the case
over the years who have tried different strategies and looked
at the case with a fresh perspective, but still no one
has been held accountable for Jeannie's death.
Crystal no longer celebrates herbirthday as it is now the
anniversary of the worst day of her life.
(26:46):
Jeannie never got to see her kids grow up to be moms and
never got to meet her grandchildren.
Christmas time is a hard time for the family.
Their new tradition during the holidays is to watch videos of
Jeannie. Someone out there knows
something. Jeannie deserves justice and her
family deserves some sort of closure to know that the person
(27:07):
who did this is being held accountable.
Hopefully this episode will drawattention to this case and if
anyone has any information at all about the murder of Felicia
Jean Kemp Rexford, please contact the Alton Police
Department at 618-463-3505. You can also check out the
(27:27):
Facebook page Justice for Jeannie to keep up to date with
this case. For photos and updates on this
case, you can check out the Victim's voice on Facebook also.
And come back in two weeks for anew case.
Until then, stay safe and peace out.
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