Episode 7: Debbie Wolfe

Jan 1

Hello,

Here we have another episode talking about another murder that bothers me.

This is one that I came across a couple of years ago when I and my bestie were taking a trip to North Carolina, We are both death hags so I looked up any murders in the area to see if we could explore. This was literally the only one I could really find at the time which I thought was strange for the Fort Bragg Area. Also, we could never find exactly where this location was. There is no address listed either. I tried to google earth it and can’t find it either.

Let’s talk about the Mystery Death of Debbie Wolfe.

I am going to start with what little background information that I could find.

Deborah Ann Wolfe was born on June 19, 1957, in Blytheville, Arkansas. I couldn’t find when her family moved to North Carolina. She had been out of nursing school for 2 years and was currently working at the Fayetteville Veterans Administration Medical Center.

She was last seen at 4 p.m. on Dec. 26, 1985, after leaving work and assumed to have headed home. When Debbie failed to show up for her shift the following day her coworkers were concerned since that was not like her. Since they were unable able to reach her they called her mother Jenny Edwards. Her mother and friend Kevin Gorton drove to Debbie's home.

When they arrived they noticed a couple of unusual things about her property.

Her car was parked in a different spot than normal and the driver’s seat was pushed way too far back for someone of her size.
There were a lot of empty beer cans lying around her yard. Debbie always had things organized and tidy. Also, it wasn’t even a brand she would drink.
She had 2 dogs: Mason and Morgan Her dogs were always well taken care of and she would chain them up when she was gone. However, they were unchained and running loose. Also, they were noticeably hungry as if they hadn't been fed.
The inside of her home was also in disarray and her uniform laying on the kitchen floor. This was not even the uniform she was wearing the previous day. This was a short-sleeved one and A coworker stated that she was wearing a long-sleeved one and had spilled coffee on the sleeve and this one didn’t have a stain on it. I also don’t think they have found that long sleeve uniform.
Her purse was shoved in a difficult-to-reach place under her bed. Which I read was a waterbed and those do not have much under space to just shove things under like that.
Debbie's answering machine blinking with unheard messages. One specific voicemail was a male stating that he was concerned, hoping she wouldn't miss any more days at work.
- The voicemail was suggesting that she had missed several days when that was the first day she had missed. They were able to verify that with her job.
- This message was not from her actual employers or coworkers.
- Also, the timing of this voice message was strange since it was left at the time she should have already been well into her scheduled shift for a few hours. It didn’t make sense since they would have called way before this point and did since they called her mother.
- If you want to listen to the voicemail I have included a link below from Dr. Godwin’s site.

They did call the police but they told her that they couldn’t do anything until she had been missing for 72 hours. This is something that Police will do if the missing is an Adult who can care for themselves.

On December 31-, the sheriff's office finally began its investigation. Bloodhounds were used to search for her scent but found nothing.

On New Year's Day, 1986,- Her mother had two divers, Kevin Gorton and Gordon Childress, search the pond. Within just a few minutes, Gordon found two sets of footprints and drag marks at the bottom. He followed them until he came across Debbie's body. It appeared it had been stuck in a burn barrel. The police were not involved in this search and were called after they found the body.

On January 2, 1986- Dr. Oliver from the North Carolina Medical Examiner’s Office did the Autopsy. He stated the manner of death was reported as underdetermined. Mainly cause he couldn’t determine if the drowning was an accident or homicide.

Here are a couple of notes from her Autopsy.

The cause of death was determined to be drowning. Even though her body did have a lot of the characteristics of a drowning.
She also had multiple abrasions on several of her fingers, which could have been considered defensive wounds. It is reasonable to conclude that in typical drowning situations the deceased eyes and mouth would be opened along with their hands and arms in a clawed position as though they were fighting for their life. However, Debbie’s eyes and mouth were closed and her body appeared as though she was in a relaxed state.
Typical in drowning cases there is white froth or foam-like substance in their airways and/or exuding from their mouth or nostrils. There was none of that found. Also if that was present it would indicate if the person was alive at the time they went in the water.
There was only a half teaspoon of water from in her upper bronchial area.
The body appeared to be clean, despite the dirtiness of the pond.
No drugs or alcohol in her system.
Dr. Godwin found something from the case files, that suggested that semen was present in the victim. Which wouldn’t that make someone think she may have been raped or at least had been with her boyfriend recently before her death. DNA profiling was not available in 1985 so that could be why that was never checked.

Police came to the conclusion that Debbie had died accidentally, falling into the pond while playing with her dogs. However, there are some issues with this theory.

If she was playing with her dogs wouldn’t they have tried to save her? I would assume that when her mother showed up the dogs would have tried to lead her to where she was.
She was found in a Barrel. Why would she have climbed in a barrel and rolled herself in the pond?
There were 2 sets of footprints and drag marks. Where did those come from if she was alone?
Debbie’s body was found about 30 feet from the bank in 5 ½ feet of water. She was 5’3 so she would have been tall enough to tilt her head back for air and get back out of the water.
Afterward, A family friend, who had gone to the cabin to feed Debbie’s dogs found her wool stocking cap, in the mud at the opposite end of the pond from the location where she was thought to have entered the water. Since there was a thin layer of ice on the pond and it was unlikely that the cap could have floated to the other side of the pond.

There is some controversy with the barrel.

The investigators claimed that there was no barrel at all. Even though there was a deputy who stated he did see the barrel. They stated that what Kevin and Gordon had seen was the jacket she was wearing ballooned out from being in the water.
Since the barrel wasn’t collected when the police came for the body, by the next day the barrel had vanished. This means someone came and took it and the police stated it was never there.
This was a barrel that was in her yard that she had used for firewood and target practice. There was still an indentation from it that was left in the ground.

Usually in deaths that the Medical Examiner can’t determine how the death happened and if there are suspicious things surrounding the death. That means it’s investigated as murder to prove otherwise. However, this one wasn’t, which is strange. It’s like someone is trying to purposely cover it up.

A couple of months later her mother got the clothes that she was wearing when they found her.

Brown corduroy pants, that were too big and too long and unzipped.
A Bra that was a 3 size too big. Debbie was found wearing a size 38-C, Debbie wore a 34-B. As a person who wears a bra, I can verify how difficult it is to wear a bra that is too big. I have seen girls wear smaller ones to try and hide their boobs but never one overly big.
The Nike shoes were said to be three sizes too large and were men’s shoes. She was found wearing men’s size 6 – Debbie wore a ladies size 7. A men’s 6 is a women’s 7.5 so this was a half size bigger than what she wore. Which would have been hard to wear cause your feet would slide around but it’s not anything too crazy. Also, the shoes had no mud on them they were clean when they took them off her body or they cleaned them as part of the investigation.
She had on a new regulation Army field jacket that didn’t belong to Debbie or anyone associated with her. The jacket had no nametag and no way to trace its original owner.
She was wearing a Black Pittsburgh Steelers t-short, which her family or her boyfriend had never seen before. It was also too big on her.

Suspects- There were only really 2 who were Volunteers at the Hospital. Debbie was in charge of anyone who volunteered at the Hospital.

Volunteer 1- There was one in particular that bothered her. He had a history of psychiatric illness and would often ask her to go out with him. She would always politely turn him down. However, he did somehow get her home phone number and began to call her. He even claimed to know where she lived and had threatened to come to see her. After her body was found, he was questioned by the police. He had an alibi and refused to take a polygraph. He left the state a few days later.
Volunteer 2- This one tried to become romantically involved with Debbie in the weeks prior to her disappearance. However, she told her that she just wanted to be friends. Her mother believes that he was the suspicious caller on the voicemail. He was also questioned by the police, but they never found any evidence.
Maybe a coworker or someone random who followed her home.
Someone in the Police Department knew something and was helping cover it. This was a theory since they didn’t really seem like investigate it and really just wrote it off as an accident. Which with all the weird things about this case I don’t know why anyone would do that unless they were covering it up.

What do I think happened?

I think Debbie arrived home and someone was waiting for her. They were outside drinking beer and when she asked them to leave they attack her. This could explain why her car was in a different spot. This theory doesn’t explain why the seat was pushed all the way back unless they did that to move it and realized if they did they may leave something behind or they were looking under the seat for something. They could have killed her then taken her car to go get the clothes she was wearing then parked it wherever when they got back in a panic not thinking.

Sadly I don’t think we will ever truly know what happened to Debbie unless someone gives us a deathbed confession. Also, all of her immediate family have died in recent years so there isn’t anyone really looking into this case. Unless it’s someone like me who comes across it and gets curious. This one was also featured in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries in 1990. Since those are out there for people to watch they may also do what I do when I watch them and google cases to see if they were solved or not.

References

Reddit Thread on Debbie Wolfe.

Debbie Wolfe's Unsolved Mysteries Fandom page.

Debbie Wolfe's Unsolved Mysteries Page.

The Answering Machine Message.

In this episode, I made Meatloaf and Airfryer potatoes.

Meatloaf

I used the following Ingredients in mine

1lb of Turkey Burger
Ketchup (1 cup to mix in the Meatloaf and some to put on top of the loaf)
Cup of Bread Crumbs
1 egg
1 Teaspoon of Mustard
1 teaspoon of Garlic Powder
1 teaspoon of Onion Powder
Desired Amount of Black Pepper and Salt

Steps

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix it all up. if need be you can add more to it. It’s your call.
Once everything is mixed then put the mixture into a loaf pan.
Cook it at 375 for 45 mins. I put this toaster over since my oven was busted at the time.
Once it’s done cut and enjoy!

Air Fryer Potatoes

Ingredients:

Use whatever potato you like. I used fingerling ones cause that’s what I had on hand.
Olive Oil
Weber Seasoning, Roasted Garlic, and Herb
Salt and Pepper

Steps: