Rebecca Jean Beard

• Missing Since 03/01/1986
• Missing From Freeport, Texas
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 02/15/1964 (60)
• Age 22 years old
• Height and Weight 5'5 - 5'6, 120 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A long white silk blouse with a red triangle imprinted on it, blue stirrup pants, spike heels, gold rings and earrings. Carrying a small yellow purse.
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, hazel eyes. Beard has a one-inch scar on the side of her face. Her ears are pierced. Beard's nickname is Becky and she may use the last name Lemke. Some agencies refer to her as "Rebecca G. Beard" or "Rebecca Jean Lemke Beard."

Details of Disappearance

Beard was last seen leaving the Excalibur Club, a nightclub in Freeport, Texas, on March 1, 1986. She has never been seen again. She was employed at a car dealership at the time of her disappearance. She left behind a two-year-old daughter. In 1994, people doing renovation work on the Excalibur found her driver's license, underneath a disc jockey booth.

In 1995, Paul Gayland Taylor Jr. pleaded guilty to Beard's murder and led authorities to a rural drainage canal in a rice bank south of Angleton, Texas. He said he had buried her body in a shallow grave on the canal bank. A search turned up only animal bones, however.

Taylor was a suspect in Beard's case from early on in the investigation, after tipsters told investigators he had bragged about killing Beard. He said he shot her to death at his home on 3rd Street in Clute, Texas.

Authorities lacked sufficient evidence to file charges against Taylor until 1994. He was sentenced to life in prison for the murder. He was also sentenced to 25 years in prison for solicitation to commit capital murder; he tried to hire someone to kill a witness in Beard's case.

Foul play is suspected in Beard's disappearance due to the circumstances involved, but her body has never been recovered.