The Murder of Debbie Wolfe

Who was Debbie?

Deborah Ann Wolfe, affectionately known as Debbie, was born on June 19th, 1957 in Blytheville, Arkansas to Jerry Wolfe and Virginia “Jenny” Edwards. She had three brothers. Not much is published about Debbie’s childhood, but at the age of 28, she was living on her own in a log cabin 7 miles outside of Fayetteville, North Carolina, which is just over 2.5 hours to the west of Charlotte. Debbie had developed a love for helping others and felt that she could best do this by becoming a nurse. She thought that this gave her the opportunity to make her mark and to pay back some of the kindness that had been given to her. She worked at the nearby Veterans Administration Medical Center off Ramsey Street in Fayetteville. Debbie was very well-liked and had a lot of friends and people who loved her. A columnist for The Fayetteville Times newspaper described her as a “dedicated nurse, lovely young woman, and an all-around happy person.” Though she’d only been practicing as a nurse for about two year, she was a valuable asset at the Medical Center and cared so much about her patients. 

The Veterans’ Medical Center was a very busy place, as Cumberland County, in which Fayetteville was located, housed one of the nation’s largest military bases, Fort Bragg. Unfortunately, Cumberland County was no stranger to suspicious deaths and violent murders. About seven months before Debbie’s death, a mother and her two children were found murdered in their home on the military base. More than 15 years prior to Debbie’s death, Army doctor Jeffrey MacDonald was tried and convicted of murdering his wife and two daughters. Then, in December of 1985, the county of Cumberland was rocked by one of the most bizarre deaths, when 28-year-old Debbie Wolfe went missing.

The Day of the Disappearance

Christmas in 1985 fell on a Wednesday, and Debbie spent the day at her mother, Jenny’s home. Her stepfather, retired Army Sergeant John Edwards, was also there, along with several other family members and friends. No one recalled anything about the Christmas holiday being unusual. The following day, Thursday the 26th, Debbie left her job at the Medical Center when her shift ended at 4PM. She was scheduled to return the next morning at 8AM, but Debbie never showed up.

Her mother, Jenny, said this was immediately a red flag. Debbie was responsible and never just, didn’t show up for work. She’d call her supervisor even if she was just running a few minutes behind. That morning, Friday the 27th, Debbie didn’t call and never came into work.

That day, after finding that Debbie still wasn’t answering her home phone, Jenny, her husband John, and a family friend, Kevin Gorton, drove over to Debbie’s cabin. Relatively isolated from neighbors, Debbie’s cabin had a pond nearby, just about 50 feet away from her front door.

When the group arrived at the cabin, they first noticed that Debbie’s two dogs, Morgan and Mason, were roaming freely around the yard. This wasn’t too odd, as the dogs weren’t typically on leashes in the yard, but it was clear that they hadn’t been fed. Her vehicle was parked near the cabin, but not in the spot where Debbie normally parked it. Her mother noticed that the driver’s seat of the vehicle was pushed really far back from the steering wheel. Also in the yard, they found several empty beer cans on the ground. Jenny said that they were a brand of beer that her daughter didn’t drink.

When they entered the cabin, they called out for Debbie, but she didn’t answer and there was no sign of her inside. John, Jenny, and Kevin looked around the home and noticed several small things out of place. There was one of Debbie’s nursing uniforms laying on the kitchen floor. Jenny would later continuously emphasize how strange this was, as her daughter was very neat, and it was COMPLETELY out of character for her to leave clothing on her kitchen floor. 

Kevin looked around Debbie’s bedroom and told her parents that he found her purse underneath her bed. Debbie didn’t normally keep her purse underneath her bed. Unsure of what to do next, Jenny pressed the play button on Debbie’s answering machine and was surprised to hear an odd message from a male voice that she didn’t recognize. The message said:

“Hey Deb. Missed you here at work today. I, uh, just wondering how you’re doing. Umm…if you’re able to give me a call up here at the ward, I’m at ***-****. Or gimme a call at home tonight. Uh, you been out a lot of days, you make me worried when you miss another one. Just want to make sure you’re okay. Bye.”

Jenny was immediately suspicious. At this time, Debbie had only missed a few hours of work. She’d been there for her shift the day prior. Why was this person saying that Debbie had been out for several days…?

Jenny, John, and Kevin exited the cabin and began looking around the cabin, yard, and lake. They still couldn’t find Debbie or anything indicating where she might be. Jenny called the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department who told her that they could only become involved after an adult had been missing for 72 hours. 

For the next few days, Debbie’s family and friends were essentially left wondering where she might be, if she was okay, and if they’d ever see her again. 

The Search

Finally, early in the day on Tuesday, December 31st, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office conducted a full search of Debbie’s cabin. Bloodhounds were brought in to search the surrounding area, but nothing was found. Jenny said that the deputies searching walked around the edge of the pond and looked across it, but didn’t look in the water. She described the pond as “small, but not that small”. It was reportedly deep in some areas, deep enough to cover a person of average height.

Jenny said that as the searchers began to pack up for the day, she asked them if they were going to put a boat in the pond to look, but was told that it was too dark at that point, that they’d let her know tomorrow if they were going to. 

Captain Jack Watts with the Sheriff’s Department later said that he’d been told that Debbie’s friends and family had been on the property searching for her during the past few days. He thought it had been mentioned that they’d already searched the pond, so his deputies hadn’t thought they needed to do so. 

Jenny reported that she finally asked Captain Watts if it’d be okay if she got her own divers, to which he responded yes. 

On New Year’s Day of 1986, Debbie had officially been missing for six days. Two family friends, Kevin and Gordon Childress, had experience with search and rescue and had the diving equipment needed. Gordon entered the pond and began looking through the water. He’d been in the water for about two minutes when he called out to Kevin that he could see footprints and drag marks in the mud of the shallow area. He continued along the bottom, following the direction of the trail, until he ran into something and his dive mask flooded with water. 

As he cleared his mask, Gordon determined that what he was seeing was a human body. He said that he couldn’t see the entire body because part of it was inside of a large barrel. He later described it saying, “The body was inside what looked like a burn barrel; that’s a rusty, 55-gallon oil type drum with holes in it.”

Gordon resurfaced and alerted those standing by that he’d discovered a body and to call the Sheriff’s Department. When investigators arrived on scene, they were able to recover the body, which was located about 30 feet from the bank of the pond, in water that was about 5.5 feet deep. The body was identified as belonging to 28-year-old Deborah Ann Wolfe.

The Investigation

Debbie’s family friends said that they immediately noticed some things about Debbie’s body that were odd to them. They said that her face and clothing were clean, which seemed odd considering how much silt was in the pond. They also said that Debbie’s body was very relaxed, which they believed to be strange for a “cold water drowning”. The temperature in Fayetteville during the months of December and January was typically in the 30’s-40’s Fahrenheit, which meant that the water in the pond was extremely cold, likely with a thin sheet of ice on the surface.

It seemed as though investigators immediately began theorizing that Debbie’s death was accidental. They believed that she might have been playing with her dogs near the pond when she slipped and fell in. 

Jenny was obviously devastated. She couldn’t understand why police hadn’t taken her daughter’s disappearance seriously from the beginning. In a newspaper article published shortly after Debbie’s body was discovered, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Department said, 

“We understand that she’s upset…with whom and what about, we’re not sure. We’re going to withhold our comment until we’re sure.”

When the same spokesperson was asked about what Debbie’s cause of death was, he said,

“I’m reasonably positive that it will be investigated as a murder, but we’re awaiting the results of the autopsy.”

So what caused investigators to begin working the case with the belief that it was an accidental death?

Jenny knew that her daughter had been the victim of foul play. As she walked away from the pond back towards Debbie’s cabin, she heard investigators discussing how to make the barrel in the pond and how to retrieve it. She walked back out to the pond abou ten minutes later to find the sheriff’s office and investigators packing up their stuff to leave. She asked one of her friends if they’d gotten the barrel yet. The friend told her that the investigators had decided to leave the barrel in the pond and that they’d retrieve it the next day. 

The next morning, when investigators returned to retrieve the barrel, it was gone. Reportedly, investigators denied that they’d even seen a barrel. Captain Watts said that he believed that there’d never been a barrel, that the divers had likely seen Debbie’s jacket ballooned out, which may have given the impression that her body was inside of something. He said that none of his divers had ever touched the barrel. The pond was drained to about 2-3 feet, with no sign of the barrel. 

Despite this, Gordon, who’d found Debbie’s body, said, “There was no doubt in my mind. I’m a hundred percent positive that it was an old burn barrel or something of that nature.”

Jenny said that there was an old burn barrel that used to be used for burning trash that sat near Debbie’s cabin. They used it for target practice with their pistols. When Jenny went to see if that barrel was still there, she said that the indentation of where the barrel had been was visible, but the barrel itself was gone. No barrel was ever located.

On January 2nd, the day after Debbie was found, Dr. William Oliver of the North Carolina Medical Examiner’s Office performed the autopsy. The cause of death was determined to be from drowning. There were no obvious signs of foul play or trauma, except for a few small abrasions on Debbie’s fingers. Notably, there was no froth or foam reported to have been found in Debbie’s airway or mouth. This froth is often seen in drowning victims. Additionally, there was just a half teaspoon of water found in Debbie’s upper airway. Unfortunately, Dr. Oliver was unable to determine when Debbie had died due to her body being preserved in the cold pond water. 

The Cumberland County Sheriff Ottis Jones asked the SBI to “probe his department’s handling” of Debbie’s case. The Sheriff’s office spokesperson elaborated, again, seeming to place blame on Debbie’s family and friends when asked why the SBI was asked to be involved,

“…because of the manner in which the entire thing was handled in regards to the media, the fact that Mrs. Edwards and her friends and some members of the CID (Criminal Investigation Division at Fort Bragg) were involved Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday before were were notified on Monday and the fact that is more than apparent that Mrs. Edwards is not pleased with our investigation.”

Inconsistencies

Investigators continued to tell Jenny that they believed that Debbie died as the result of an accident. Captain Watts theorized that Debbie had fallen into the pond as a result of either slipping while playing with her dogs or that one of the dogs had gotten onto the bank or into the water and she went to get them out. They believed she may have suffered from immersion syndrome. Essentially, they believed that it was possible that Debbie’s legs and feet, while she was clothed in pants, socks, and shoes, had gotten wet from the pond, which ultimately caused hypothermia, which led to her becoming disoriented and being unable to get out of the pond. The thin sheet of ice that was on the surface of the pond could have contributed as well. 

Jenny, along with many of Debbie’s friends and family, wholeheartedly believed that Debbie was murdered. Several months after Debbie’s death, Jenny received a box of her belongings back from the police, which included the clothing that she’d been wearing when she was found. Jenny said that the clothing didn’t belong to her daughter.

The pants were a pair of brown corduroy pants that were too big and too long. The bra was too big; Debbie wore a 34-B and the bra returned to Jenny was a 38-C. The sneakers she’d been wearing were a men’s size 6, but Debbie wore a women’s size 7. Jenny said that the shoes were white and had no dirt or mud on them. When she asked the SBI about this, they denied having cleaned the shoes. Captain Watts explained that they had photos of Debbie before her death of her wearing the shoes she was found in, so they were confident that the shoes belonged to Debbie.

When she was found, Debbie was wearing an Army field jacket that appeared to be new, without a name tag on it, but Jenny said that the field jacket Debbie normally wore belonged to one of her brothers, and was still hanging in her cabin. Lastly, she had been wearing a Pittsburgh Steelers t-shirt. No one in her family or friend group had ever seen the shirt. Jenny also said that there was a handmade Indian necklace with a pouch on it. Inside the pouch was what Jenny described as an “evil eye”. She said, “It enables the spirit to see its way into the next life. I never knew Debbie had anything like these.”

A family friend who’d gone by the cabin after Debbie’s death to feed her dogs reported having found her winter hat in the mud on the opposite end of the pond where the footprints had been. Her friends argued that if Debbie had been outside and, for some reason, gotten into the water, she would have simply walked back out. The pond had a bank that was similar to a beach entrance. It didn’t have a hard drop off on an edge that would’ve made sense with someone falling in and being unable to get out. 

The family friends who’d searched the lake and found Debbie noted that it was very strange that there wasn’t any silt or dirt found in Debbie’s clothing, especially in the scenario that investigators theorized. If Debbie had been underwater in the dirt-filled pond for almost an entire week, why was her clothing relatively clean?

The nursing uniform that Jenny had found on Debbie’s kitchen floor when she first searched the cabin was a short-sleeved uniform. One of Debbie’s co-workers said that he was positive that Debbie was wearing a long-sleeved uniform on the day that she was last at work. He said that the two of them had coffee together that day at work and he recalled that he’d spilled a bit of coffee on the sleeve of Debbie’s uniform. Reportedly, the long-sleeved uniform Debbie was wearing on her last day of work has never been located.

The state of Debbie’s house was a big red flag to those who knew her. It was apparently in a state of disarray. Even her yard appeared messy, when Debbie was known for being neat and orderly. Why was Debbie’s car parked somewhere differently and why was the driver’s seat pushed so far back when Debbie was just 5’3’?

Suspects/Theories

There were two people who Jenny thought could’ve killed her daughter. One of Debbie’s duties at the hospital was to coordinate hospital volunteers. This included volunteers from all types of backgrounds. One in particular bothered her quite a bit and had a history of psychiatric illness. Somehow, the volunteer found Debbie’s home phone number and began calling her, almost to the point of harassment. The night that Debbie’s body was found, this man was questioned. He reportedly had an alibi and refused to take a polygraph. After finding that the man had an alibi, he was not questioned any further and left several days later to go out of state. 

There was also another hospital volunteer that had been continuously pestering Debbie about going on a date with him. She’d told him that she already had a boyfriend and was not interested romantically in him. Jenny believed that this was the man who’d left the voicemail on Debbie’s answering machine. He was also questioned by police.

Captain Watts said that he felt that his department did a solid investigation and that they interviewed everyone that the family was concerned about. He said that there was nothing to indicate that Debbie had been the victim of a homicide. Jenny believed, up until her death in August of 2002, that Debbie had been abducted and held hostage by one of the two volunteers from the hospital, kept alive for several days, then killed. She believed that Debbie’s body was brought back to her property to be disposed of in the pond to make it look like an accident, that the killer or killers put her already-deceased body into the barrel to weigh it down in the water. Regarding the missing barrel, Jenny believed that the killer or killers returned after Debbie’s body was removed from the pond to take the barrel, as it was a clear indicator of foul play and likely had fingerprints or other incriminating DNA evidence on it. 

Public opinion varies a bit on what the community thinks may have happened to Debbie. Some do believe that her death was the result of a tragic accident, that Debbie might have grabbed some old or ill-fitting clothing to run outside quickly to feed the dogs or tend to something else when she slipped into the pond. There are still a lot of inconsistencies with this theory.

Many agree with Jenny in that Debbie was the victim of a murder. Some think that an intruder assaulted and killed Debbie in her own home, then disposed of her body in the pond. Others think that Debbie was abducted from her home, taken to a secondary location, where she was assaulted and murdered. If her murderer redressed her before disposing of her body, that could explain where the odd clothing and accessories might have come from and why her work uniform was never found. 

As Debbie’s case was never listed as suspicious, no one was ever named as a suspect or person of interest and her death is still listed as accidental.