Charles Collingwood, Missing, Dec. 1979 FL.
Charles Collingwood Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance Missing Since: December 1979 from Sharpes, Florida Classification: Endangered Missing Age: 19 years old Distinguishing Characteristics: Brown hair. Details of Disappearance Collingwood was an inmate at Brevard Correctional Institution in Sharpes, Florida in 1979; he was serving a four-month sentence for car theft. He allegedly escaped from the prison in December of that year and has never been heard from again. John Rodney McRae is the prime and only suspect in Collingwood's case. A photograph of him is posted below this case summary. He was a guard at the prison and there were allegations that he and Collingwood were having a sexual relationship. McRae denied the affair and said Collingwood was an informer who told him about the activities of other inmates. Prison officials, however, feel the two men were in fact sexually involved with one another Collingwood was trying to expose the affair before he disappeared. McRae murdered and dismembered an 8-year-old Michigan boy, Joey Housey, in the 1950s, when he was just sixteen. He served twenty years in prison for the crime. From 1976 to 1980, he worked as a guard at the Brevard Correctional Institution in Florida; the institution houses mostly teenagers. While McRae was working there, five local boys disappeared. McRae is considered a suspect in the disappearances of Kipling Hess in 1979 and Keith Fleming in 1977. None of the boys were ever found. McRae was convicted of the 1987 murder of a 14-year-old boy, Randy Ray Laufer. His conviction was later overturned on appeal, but he was convicted again in May 2005 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. 70 years old and wheelchair-bound at the time of the retrial, he was found in his cell only two weeks later, dead of intestinal ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding. Investigators strongly believe that McRae committed more murders than he was convicted of, including the murders of Hess, Fleming and Collingwood. They even offered him immunity from prosecution if he would reveal where the boys' bodies were, but he always maintained his innocence. Collingwood's case remains unsolved. Although he is wanted by the police for escape, foul play is suspected in his case. Photo of McRae in 2005 at below link Investigating Agency If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: Brevard County Sheriff's Office 321-264-5201 http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/c/collingwood_charles.html