Rexroad was last seen in Canton, Ohio on March 11, 1970.
She lived with her four children and her boyfriend of five years, Freeman “Red” Wyne Jr., in the McKinley Hotel. Wyne the father of her two youngest children.
The couple left home that day to go to the laundromat, leaving the children behind in the care of a babysitter. After they left, however, they changed their plans. They stopped for drinks at either the Landmark Cafe or Dee Freconna’s Factory Bar, then went to Benny Petsy’s Hub Cafe in the 400 block of east Tuscarawas Avenue.
Wyne later gave conflicting accounts of Rexroad’s disappearance to police. One story was that Rexroad began dancing with other men, and when he came out of the bathroom at 8:55 p.m., he saw her leaving with another man.
Another account is that Rexroad left with a man and a woman, in spite of Wyne’s attempts to get her to stay, and was last seen walking east on Tuscarawas Avenue.
Wyne returned to the hotel alone that night, drunk, and caused a disturbance. The police arrested him for public intoxication. He was released from jail the next morning after he paid a fine.
That same morning, Rexroad’s oldest daughter, who was fourteen years old at the time, reported her missing. She said it was uncharacteristic of Rexroad to leave without warning and she feared Wyne had harmed her.
Wyne said he believed Rexroad had simply left him. He was interviewed twice by police, the last time four days after Rexroad’s disappearance was reported. He never contacted the police about her case again.
The four Rexroad children were placed in foster care after their mother’s disappearance. Her oldest child went to live with an uncle in West Virginia and the younger three were eventually adopted by another family.
In 1996, two of Rexroad’s daughters located Wyne in West Virginia, and he invited them to visit his home. He was confined to a wheelchair due to a stroke. When they questioned him about Rexroad’s disappearance, he said he didn’t remember much about the night she went missing. Wyne died in 2008.
Rexroad’s children are still looking for her and still believe Wyne probably killed her. Her case remains unsolved.
Information courtesy of The Charley Project.
