TX TX - Vicki Lynn Nisbett, 29, Cedar Park, 14 December 1991

Vicki Nisbett was last seen 25 years ago; she was reported missing by her soon to be ex-husband Rex. He was charged and arrested for Vicki's murder in 2013. He was later found guilty and sentenced to 42 years in prison. Now, The 3rd Court of Appeals has reversed that conviction.

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Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance
• Missing Since: December 14, 1991 from Cedar Park, Texas
• Classification: Endangered Missing
• Date Of Birth: December 28, 1961
• Age: 29 years old
• Height and Weight: 5'4, 125 pounds
• Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Vicki's ears are pierced.
• Clothing/Jewelry Description: A long black skirt and a black sweater imprinted with turquoise and reddish-colored shapes on the front.

Details of Disappearance
Vicki was last seen leaving her apartment at the Anderson Mill apartment complex in Cedar Park, Texas at 6:00 p.m. on December 14, 1991, on her way to a company Christmas party. She has never been heard from again. Her husband, Rex, reported her missing on December 16, two days later. He said Vicki had needed some time away and he thought she'd gone to Austin, Texas, but Vicki's family said it is uncharacteristic of her to leave without warning. Vicki and Rex were legally separated at the time of her disappearance, but they still lived together. They have three sons. Their divorce was supposed to become final in January 1992.

In January 1992, police searched Vicki's home and found her blood in the master bedroom of her apartment. It appeared as if someone had tried to clean it up. Based on the amount of blood found, authorities decided Vicki was deceased. An anonymous phone call led police to her brown 1987 Dodge Aries staton wagon in a parking lot off of Mopac Boulevard on February 8, 1992, nearly two months after her disappearance. The vehicle had apparently been parked there for several weeks.

A photo of Rex is posted below this case summary. In March 2013, he was indicted for his wife's murder. Vicki was seeing another man and Rex allegedly assaulted her new boyfriend a month before she disappeared. Investigators believe he killed her after an argument in their apartment. Rex has a record for assault and drug-related offenses, but no felony convictions. He was homeless at the time of his arrest. Investigators believe he had help in disposing of Vicki's body, and they've appealed for his accomplices to come forward.

Rex was convicted of Vicki's murder in June 2014, and sentenced to 42 years in prison. He will be eligible for parole after serving one-quarter of his sentence. Foul play is suspected in Vicki's case due to the circumstances involved. Her body has never been found.

Murder conviction was flawed, court says in tossing Williamson verdict

The court’s ruling Thursday said Williamson County prosecutors failed to provide sufficient evidence that Rex Nisbett killed his wife. They were in the process of getting a divorce.

Williamson County District Attorney Jana Duty said she was “so disappointed” about the court’s ruling.

“When she disappeared, the detectives found blood-soaked carpet, down through to the padding, and a bloody hand print that matched Rex Nisbett, along with a lot of circumstantial evidence,” Duty said.

“The moral to this story for prosecutors across the state of Texas is don’t bother trying murder cases where the suspect was smart enough to get rid of the body.”

The 3rd Court of Appeals did not make any ruling concerning Rex Nisbett’s innocence, said his lawyer, Keith Lauerman. The court simply reversed the murder conviction based on insufficient evidence, he said.

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The ruling from the 3rd Court of Appeals can be appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeals.

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Man convicted of murdering his wife will be set free

An appeal from the judgment of conviction filed on Dec. 15 says “having reviewed the record and the parties’ arguments, the Court holds that there was reversible error in the trial court’s judgment of conviction. Therefore, the Court reverses the trial court’s judgment of conviction and renders a judgment of acquittal. Appellant is discharged from all further liability for the offense of murder as charged in the indictment.” The State will not be allowed to retry the case.

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Arrest made in 21-year-old missing persons case - March 2013

Rex Nisbett gets 42 years for killing wife in 1991 - June 2014

I'm curious about this, and remember her disappearance. Williamson County (and Jana Duty specifically) has a reputation for getting things wrong. Especially in the Greg Kelley case, as well as other cases where she's accused of withholding or fabricating evidence, or defying judge's orders, or being derelect in her duty in any number of ways. It does sound like, in this case, she got it right unless she's lying about the amount of blood found (which I think is completely possible based on her other behaviors). Thank heavens she's been voted out of office and although she won't face criminal charges for her past behavior, Williamson county will be rid of her soon.

So. There is a question in the air, whether despite clear evidence to the contrary, Vicki Lynn Nisbett is out there alive somewhere. So i googled around and. Um. Boy there is someone out there who looks remarkably like her, and has her exact name.

About one month after Vicki Nisbett was reported missing, detectives decided to lay a trap for her husband.

Assistant Chief Deputy Richard Elliott of the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office asked Vicki Nisbett’s mother to call Rex Nisbett and tell him that his wife’s body had been found and authorities needed him to positively identify it.

Investigators sat outside Rex Nisbett’s apartment in unmarked cars, watching to see if he would lead them to the place where he had put Vicki Nisbett’s body, Elliott testified Tuesday. Rex Nisbett’s car, however, was broken down, Elliott said.

Rex Nisbett walked outside a few times before a woman picked him up and took him to Blockhouse Creek Elementary School, Elliott said. Rex Nisbett walked in and out of the school and then left with the woman, Elliott said.

There were several wooded areas on the route on the way to the school, Elliott said.

Investigators later used dogs to search those wooded areas but never found anything, he said.

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http://m.wsbradio.com/news/news/local/murder-trial-begins-for-rex-nisbett-in-1991-case-w/ngDDC/

See, Reyemonde, it's that kind of thing that just gives me GREAT pause. A woman picked him up - who was she? Surely LE knows, since they have a license plate data base.

Who did he go see at the elementary school? Does he have a relative/dear friend who is a teacher?

Although I think the evidence leans toward her being murdered by her husband, this kind of investigation seems EXCEPTIONALLY misleading and sloppy. Did they ask him, why did you go to Blockhouse creek, and see what he said? Apparently not.

And Duty's insistence that there was massive blood - I just don't trust her. If there was truly massive blood, it seems this would have held up in court. I'd sooner move a mountain than try to get a conviction overturned in Williamson county, and yet this one was. This was her home - as a young woman, it's likely there would be blood in her home, from menstrual incidents or other injuries. And who in the world doesn't clean up blood? OF COURSE any blood stains would appear to have been cleaned up.

Prayers that they eventually find out what happened to her - as it is, I don't trust Duty at all, or Williamson County.

According to this Fort Bend County website, Rex Nisbett divorced Vicki Lynn Nisbett in August of 1995, presumedly to marry the next woman he's on record for divorcing.

She didn't appear at the divorce, and wasn't served except through the newspaper general circulation.

http://tylerpaw.co.fort-bend.tx.us/CaseDetail.aspx?CaseID=51631

So on Ancestry.com, I used their SSI death records search with her name and SSN, and didn't get a match.

So she's not been legally declared dead? How do you send someone to prison for her murder if she's not legally dead?

Reversal of Williamson County murder conviction appealed

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/local/reversal-williamson-county-murder-conviction-appealed/GXG5SpBFvamVLGTgJ4FbvJ/

The office of the state prosecuting attorney, which represents the state in all appeals before the Court of Criminal Appeals, filed the appeal of the reversal this week. It said “the state can prove murder through circumstantial evidence without producing a body or being able to identify the manner and means of death.”

Rex Nisbett told his wife’s mother after his wife disappeared that he did not find any blood in Vicki Nisbett’s apartment when he and his mother “cleaned it thoroughly,” the state’s appeal said.

It said detectives later found Vicki Nisbett’s blood stains in the carpet padding of her closet and a handprint from Rex Nisbett on the wall made in his wife’s blood.

The 3rd Court of Appeals “credited the testimony (in Rex Nisbett’s trial) that there was not enough blood in the apartment to demonstrate fatal blood loss while ignoring the testimony that suggests there was far more blood before appellant (Rex Nisbett) ‘thoroughly’ cleaned the apartment,” according to the state’s appeal.

It said Rex Nisbett also told police he was home with his kids the entire night of his wife’s disappearance but that he was lying because he borrowed a neighbor’s car that night. “That neighbor noticed the next day that his car had damage to the front trim and the truck lock was pulled out of the deck lid,” the state’s appeal said.

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Court reinstates 2014 murder conviction for Nisbett

In an opinion issued on June 27, the state’s highest appeals court said the evidence was “sufficient” to establish that Rex Nisbett murdered his estranged wife, Vicki Nisbett, in 1991. Her body has never been found after she disappeared from her Anderson Mill apartment.

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The Court of Criminal Appeals said in its opinion last week that Vicki Nisbett’s blood had soaked through the carpet and into the carpet padding. “That fact suggests that Vicki lost a lot of blood — suggesting that her wounds were fatal,” the court said.

Even though experts testified during the trial they could not say a fatal amount of blood had been found, the evidence also showed that after Vicki Nisbett disappeared “her apartment was immaculate,” the opinion said.

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Thinking of you, Vicki Lynn. *bump*

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Vicki, circa 1991; Rex Nisbett

• Missing Since 12/14/1991
• Missing From Cedar Park, Texas
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 12/28/1961 (61)
• Age 29 years old
• Height and Weight 5'4, 125 pounds
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• Clothing/Jewelry Description A long black skirt and a black sweater imprinted with turquoise and reddish-colored shapes on the front.
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• Associated Vehicle(s) Brown 1987 Dodge Aries (accounted for)
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• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Vicki's ears are pierced.

Details of Disappearance​

Vicki was last seen leaving her apartment at the Anderson Mill apartment complex in Cedar Park, Texas at 6:00 p.m. on December 14, 1991, on her way to a company Christmas party. She has never been heard from again.

Her husband, Rex, reported her missing on December 16, two days later. He said Vicki had needed some time away and he thought she'd gone to Austin, Texas, but Vicki's family said it's uncharacteristic of her to leave without warning.

Vicki and Rex were legally separated at the time of her disappearance and in the process of a divorce, but Vicki had agreed to let Rex stay at her apartment during the holiday season. Rex and Vicki have three sons. Their divorce was supposed to become final in January 1992.

That month, police searched Vicki's home and found her blood in the master bedroom of her apartment. It appeared as if someone had tried to clean it up. Based on the amount of blood found, authorities decided Vicki was deceased.

An anonymous phone call led police to her brown 1987 Dodge Aries in a parking lot off of Mopac Boulevard on February 8, 1992, nearly two months after her disappearance. The vehicle had apparently been parked there for several weeks.

A photo of Rex is posted with this case summary. In March 2013, he was indicted for his wife's murder. Vicki was seeing another man and Rex allegedly assaulted her new boyfriend a month before she disappeared. Investigators believe he killed her after an argument in their apartment. Rex had a record for assault and drug-related offenses, but no prior felony convictions. He was homeless at the time of his arrest.

Rex was convicted of Vicki's murder in June 2014, and sentenced to 42 years in prison. In 2016, his conviction was overturned on appeal, but in 2018 the conviction was reinstated; the court opinion stated, "the evidence was sufficient to establish that Nisbett murdered Vicki."

Foul play is suspected in Vicki's case due to the circumstances involved. Her body has never been found.

Investigating Agency​

• Williamson County Sheriff's Office 512-943-1389

Source Information​

• Texas Department of Public Safety
• The Doe Network
• The Houston Chronicle
• KVUE
• MyFox Austin
• The Austin American-Statesman
• KXAN

Thanks for the update. So husband Rex is back in jail?

I was reading and the oldest son has a long history of mental illness and is currently in prison in the psychiatric unit... the middle son seems to be doing well... the youngest son moved to Colorado and works at a ski resort. The boys no longer have any contact with their father...
In June 2014, Rex was convicted of Vicki's murder and sentenced to 42 years in prison...
In 2016, his conviction was overturned on appeal, but in 2018 the conviction was reinstated; the court opinion stated that "the evidence was sufficient to establish that Nisbett murdered Vicki"...
Be that as it may, rest in peace