Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Cracking the case of missing & murdered schoolgirl Debbie Randall

Episode Date: November 22, 2017

Debbie Lynn Randall was 3rd-grader when she was snatched off a Marietta, Georgia, street, then raped, killed, and thrown in a ditch not too far from her home. It’s been 45 years since her death, and the killer still remains elusive. Detective Morris Nix of the Cobb County Cold Case Unit, who wants nothing more than to find justice for a little girl, believes he can solve the case. Nix and CrimeOnline reporter Leigh Egan join Nancy Grace to discuss the latest in the investigation. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Deborah Lynn Randall from January 13, 1972. Debbie was nine years old when she vanished. It's been more than 43 years. A group of retired detectives volunteering their time, determined to bring her family answers. She was a beautiful kid. You can look at her picture and you can see the innocence. Detective Nix is part of a rare group of retired police officers who specialize in solving Cobb County's cold cases. If you're an investigator, if you're a detective, if you're a cop, that's what you live for. That phone call, that family saying, sit down because I've got some good news for you.

I'd give anything if I could find out who it was before I passed away. We have it forgotten and we're not going to give up. It was a cold, cold winter's night and a nine-year-old little girl, Debbie Lynn Randall. Debbie Lynn Randall steps out of a laundromat to head back home. She's only a half a block away from her family's home. She's got with her the detergent. They've been doing their family laundry. And who'd be worried?

Just a half a block from home. Not even a whole block from the laundromat. Walking by herself, she never made it home. This nine-year-old little girl never seen alive again. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. A nine-year-old little girl entrusted just to walk a few doors. I can remember at that age, we didn't have a washer and dryer either, and we would have to drive to the laundromat. And we also did it on Sundays on our way to evening services. I remember it like it was yesterday. And then coming home and getting into

the warm sheets and the towels and hiding under them and playing in them until they weren't warm anymore. That's what you do when you're nine years old. You don't end up missing and murdered. That's what happened to Debbie. And joining me right now, special guest from the Cobb County Coal Case Unit, Detective Morris Nix, whose mission has been finding the truth of what happened to nine-year-old Debbie. Also with me, Crime Online reporter Lee Egan. To both of you, thank you for being with us. I wanted to go back to that evening. Cold, cold, cold. Really frigid winter night. Let's start at the beginning to Detective Morris Nix. Again, thank you for being with us. Let's start with her leaving the house and her trip to the laundromat, Morris Start. And welcome. Thank you, Nancy. A lot of people have asked me,

why was a nine-year-old there alone? And I explained to them this was a gathering place for particularly the little girls where they would get together at the laundromat and play with their Barbie dolls and trade clothes and things that, you know, nine-year-old girls do. She was within sight of where she lived, so it was just across the street. And so it really wasn't that unusual. Detective Morris Nix, hold on one moment. You're telling me something I didn't know. I've been saying half a block ever since I started researching this case. Are you saying it's more like across the street?

Correct. It was probably about 75 feet. Whoa, 75 feet? Mm-hmm more like across the street? Correct. It was probably about 75 feet. Whoa, 75 feet? Mm-hmm. That is just basically across the street. Mm-hmm. Okay, see, that puts it in a whole different light, because while I understood the parents letting her walk a half a block by herself, I always thought, why did they do that?

Mm-hmm. But that would be like most people saying, hey, can you run next door and take this to the neighbor? Correct. And, you know, Morris, you know I grew up in rural Georgia, and we would go outside and play and play and play and finally come home when it started getting dark. Nobody thought a thing about it. Correct. When the front porch light came on, you knew it was time to go home.

That's right. Or either I would hear my parents way in the distance blowing the car horn, or I'd hear the chimes in the church steeple and go, uh-oh, 6 o'clock. Better go. I mean, we could go wherever we wanted to as long as we had done our homework. Now, let me get back to this. See, Morris, after all of our discussions about Debbie, I didn't get this. This is an important fact. So it was just across the street. All right. Sorry to slow you down. Go ahead,

detective. Okay. Well, she was at the laundromat playing with her friends. I interviewed someone who told me at one point said, Debbie walked out the door, said, you know, see you later. Goodbye. I got to go. She said, I wanted to go with her but my older sister said no you're going to stay here and help me fold clothes wow with me Lee Egan investigative reporter with crimeonline.com Lee when I look back and I've heard this from countless I can't even count them crime victims families or friends or friends. If only I had, if he had, if she had, if 10 minutes this way, 10 minutes that way, it's, it can torture you, Lee, Egan, thinking what if. I run into that a lot on these stories. There's always, usually every story has at least one person that was like, if only I could have said this to her or him, just got them to hold back for a few minutes and it's

it's it's not their fault I mean nobody knew no I just feel so bad about it and her parents have probably tortured themselves about letting her go across the street this little girl was a happy girl a third grade student at Pine Forest Elementary just nine years old you know guys you know that's the age of the twins just nine years old she was walking that 75 feet to her first street home there at Marietta Place she had been at the Duds and Suds co-op laundromat she absolutely got there she was spotted she was identified there were other little girls there that Sunday evening. And they were, just as Detective Morris-Nicks said, exchanging doll clothes. They all brought their dolls.

Isn't that funny? A lot of times I can remember. She doesn't do it now, but when Lucy would go to the playground, she'd take a doll. And if there were other girls there, they would play with the dolls. So when she went to go do the laundry, she took her dolls. So what do we know about when she left, Detective Nix? She left about 7, the best we can tell

is she left about 7.15. Wait a minute. Now, hold on. She, I understand that the stepdad, Robert Hooker, took her to the laundromat around 7 with a load of laundry. And he left her there with two bucks. And when he last saw her, according to the reports I've read,

she was putting clothes in the washing machine when her stepdad left. Now, is that correct? Yes, that's approximate. We believe possibly a little bit earlier and that she actually walked out about 7 15 7 20 from what we were able to put together you know it also changes things detective nicks uh because for a moment there i thought she had walked over across the street with the laundry herself no her stepdad who has is not a part of this investigation he had an alibi for that whole time because you always

look at the dad and stepdad first first, okay, the mom's boyfriend. But he walked her over there, which makes it seem even more safe, and left her with two bucks, the laundry and the clothes. I mean, the detergent. Okay, so she's there 30 minutes, then she leaves. All right, what happens then? Well, this is where it starts to, we have to start sorting things out. I have one witness that said, I saw her across the street. And the witness said, I think someone called out to her.

She recognized that person, turned around and came back towards him, which, of course, gives you one theory. Someone else said no. Well, yeah, hold on. Let's follow that to its logical conclusion when you say it gives you one theory. Someone else said no. Well, yeah, hold on. Let's follow that to its logical conclusion when you say it gives you one theory. Not all of us are cold case unit detectives, Morris. So when you say that's one theory, what you mean is it's somebody she knows that could call her name out.

Correct. Or they could have said, hey, little girl. But they could have also used her name. Did the witness say they used her name? Did not say that. Or they could have said, hey, little girl. But they could have also used her name. Did the witness say they used her name? Did not say that. So she leaves, let's just estimate, 720, and she leaves with the doll and the box of detergent or just the detergent?

She just had the detergent. Where was the doll? According to the reports. She may have had the doll, but there's no mention of the dog. And I wondered the same thing. What happened to the doll? Because you know that doll could be sitting on some guy's shelf right now. You know that. You know how killers keep mementos and treasures

like people's underwear or their driver's license or a ticket stub, like you put in your photo album, your treasure book, your scrapbook. They keep scrapbooks in essence of their murder victims. So I wonder what happened to the doll. Okay. So somebody sees her leaving. We can place that around 720 that Sunday night, going across the street. We're positive she left the laundromat,

right? Correct. Okay. So then what happens? And then she vanishes. I had one witness that said, I don't think she ever went across the street. And I had another one that told me, said, yes, she crossed the street. So she had to have come back. And, of course, the laundromat, as you know, Nancy, is a noisy place. You've got washers and dryers running. And so we did not know if this was just a quick abduction. And then we talked to Sandra, who we give a lot of credibility to Sandra. And she said, oh, no, she was kicking and screaming.

He threw her over the shoulder and threw her in the car. And Sandra resolved for us to this point the fact that whoever did this was alone. Okay, hold on just one moment. And guess who we are talking to now. Take a listen to possibly the only eyewitness to the kidnap of 9-year-old Debbie Randall. Sandra, what made you decide to come forward this much later? My sister works for Cobb County Jail, and she told me the case had been reopened, and I thought it had been closed a long time ago.

And I told her, I saw it happen. And she said, well, somebody might be calling you and getting in touch with you. And I said, okay. And that's when she was talking to a detective, and I called her one day. And she said, well, this is a coincidence. And she put him on the phone, and he asked me if I would be willing to talk to Detective Nix. And from there on, it was just a connection to you. Sandra, I know it was a while back, but please put your mind back to the evening Debbie disappeared.

What did you observe? They did not get her where they thought they got her. There was like a playground that was behind the laundromat and also a place there where you would go and get lawnmowers to cut people's grass. And there was a tree right there beside the laundromat where there was no windows or anything on the side. I seen this black pickup truck stop. The driver got out, left his door open, left the truck running. He ran. He went over to Debbie. He grabbed her, and she was kicking her feet and kicking, kicking real hard and screaming and yelling, and he had her over his shoulder, so she was screaming and kicking.

He threw her in the truck, and then he almost ran over me. What did the truck look like? All I know is it was a black truck because I was 12 years old. But I can remember it like it was yesterday. I've had nightmares about it forever. What did he look like? He was a white man. And I was maybe 140 feet to 180 feet from him, so I couldn't tell you what he looked like.

But I could tell he was white. And do you recall what he had on? He had a pants and shirt, but I mean, other than that, I just looked. Long pants. Yeah, long pants and a shirt. And I remember it because I looked at somebody that was walking with me. I said, did you just see that? And when I heard her screaming and yelling, I said, oh, somebody done got in trouble.

And, I mean, he almost, like I said, I must have fell because I got up. But when I did, I cussed him as he went by me. But he went out. Did you think that was her father i didn't know i just thought it was i didn't know because i didn't know debbie myself i had not had had met her or anything like that is the way i found out about it was the next day i had went to the little store that was in the marietta place and her brother was handing out flyers asking if anybody had seen anything or heard anything.

And back then I told him that I would talk to somebody because there was no other way he would have been able to get out except to go. I lived on 4th Street, and if he went around 4th Street, he would still hit Fairground Street. If he went straight he would hit fairground street i had another girl with me because we were taking her clothes to the laundromat and i mean i don't i don't know what happened with her because back then seeing what the detective says, she was just, I don't know, I don't know, you know, I don't know what was going on with her. But when I saw her later on, and I mean, she had turned into an alcoholic. So, you know, that's been 30 years ago.

At the time, did you ever get to talk to police? Detectives came to my house when I lived on 4th Street, and that was the last thing I heard anything. Did you speak to them? From there on, I didn't hear anything else. Did you tell the detectives what you saw? Yes. And that was then, and then you never heard anything else about it? No, ma'am.

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enter code NANCY, N-A-N-C-Y, in the referral box at checkout. Code Nancy. Special savings. Only at LegalZoom.com. LegalZoom.com. LegalZoom. Thank you for helping business owners across America and for being our partner today. Did you know that in 1925, an ounce of gold was worth $20 and it would buy two suits and a shirt? Hi, I'm Scott Carter with PM Capital. Times have changed since then. We no longer carry a gold coin in our pocket as money.

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Sandra, you said that over these years, you have had one nightmare after the next about this incident. What do you dream about? I was a street kid back then and I mean I was that year I would have been 13 years old but my life had been really turned upside down with my mom and dad getting divorced and I was just mean. I was just really really mean back then. I was, I really was mean. And I mean, I thought about this for 44 years, you know, and I always wondered where she was buried at. And Detective Nix told me, and so I want to go out and visit her grave and tell her I'm sorry, because if it had been just a few minutes later, I would have been beside her.

So what is your nightmare? Repeat. What is the bad dream you have? It's this dream about her and the things that she had went through. The man who done it, I can't see his face, but I can see him.

You know, his face is, it's like his face is black, but I can, he was, I wouldn't say he was skinny. He was a medium built, maybe even a little bit chunky. I couldn't tell because of the shirt, but it just, it's just about her. I mean, she was an angel and this should not have happened to her. To Detective Morris Nix, Cobb County Cold Case Unit, who's made solving the disappearance of Debbie Randall his mission,

what do you make of Sandra's eyewitness account? What do you think about that, Morris? I find her incredible. We had other witnesses who said, I told my sister about a black truck being outside and wondered what that black truck was doing there. And sure enough, Sandra told me immediately it was a black truck. I saw a black truck. And I'm not a psychiatrist, I'm not a psychologist, but it was obvious to me talking to Sandra, who was a street kid by her own admission, she really was having a hard time trying to understand what a sweet, innocent little girl like Debbie,

why she was taken and not her. And she really has a struggle with that. And she was very credible and very sincere. Let's figure out what we can do, Detective Nix, to corroborate or destroy, disprove what she's saying. We know that the box of detergent was later found right there where the witness, Sandra, says it happened. So in my mind, that's some corroboration. Also, you mentioned that another witness reported residents in the area, I think, stated there was a dark pickup truck in the area around the time Debbie disappears. Is that right?

Correct. It was actually a girl that was in the laundromat with Debbie. Wow. And when she went in, she told her older sister, there's a black truck sitting outside. And her sister told her, well, you know, mind your own business and, you know, do the laundry. And so she said, I just kind of forgot about it. And so we were looking at this idea of a black truck. And sure enough, Sandra said it was a black truck.

So you've got really three witnesses. You've got the little girl, her sister, and Sandra. As my understanding, some residents had seen it earlier. But are you saying it's parked right outside the laundromat? She just said outside. She said it was outside. And so there is a little bit, it's kind of hard to explain, but what some people would call the front, other people would call the side of the building.

But we had always looked at this idea of a black truck. We know a little bit more about the black truck. The pickup truck was said to have driven right along First Street and then stopped in front of Debbie Randall's home, then backed up and turned into a parking area beside the road where the detergent was found. So there must have been some kind of little intersection right there. There is, or there was. Gotcha.

A black truck. Hmm. Okay, that narrows it down a little bit. Also, did anybody get any idea of who, any, even fleeting look at who was driving the truck, Detective Nix? No. idea of who any any even fleeting look at who was driving the truck detective nicks no sandra is the only person that we have been able to find that actually we think saw the book so detective morris nicks based on what sandra said we're looking for a white male medium build long pants and a shirt who was driving that black pickup truck and debbie randall was. She was kicking and clawing and pumping her fists. She

did not want to go. After she disappeared that night, what happened that night, Detective Nix? That night, of course, when she didn't return, you know, when she wasn't found um that's when they obviously called the police department and what time did they call police i think it was probably around eight o'clock 8 30 wow that's pretty fast lee egan because she's leaving the laundromat at 720 to 7 30 she's walking home she gets abducted by this white male in a black pickup and all that's probably going down around 7 40 by 8 30 police are are called a 9-1-1 call has been made that's less than an hourly yeah now you're a little girl i mean and i think it's kind of awesome that they actually started looking that fast and you know instead of labeling her a runaway or you know just out playing or hiding the fact of the detergent what

if any other clues did you find at the scene detective nicks other than the detergent that's about it did you get the direction the direction the vehicle was headed there was two different ways that could have gone the way that we thought he most likely went is the way that Sandra said the truck went, which if you know anything about Cobb County and you know where Lockheed is, we think he went up from what was Clay Street at the time, then hit South Cobb Drive in front of Lockheed. Well, this is what I know. Four days later, then Captain Elliott reports police had checked out over 300 phone tips on Debbie's disappearance. And of course, a lot of crank calls. There were two ransom calls reported of freaks, pervs, asking for ransom that did not have Debbie. And they

were followed through. The people were caught. They didn't have Debbie. They were just trying to get money. Then Detective Morris Nix, there is a break in the case. Debbie's body is found. What happened? Yeah, they formed a search committee and thousands of people showed up. It had scared the residents and people were angry. But they formed search committees and a lot of students from Southern Tech volunteered and they divided them up and sent them over to different areas. It was a huge group, Detective Nix. I mean, there were Boy Scout groups, Army groups, riding and motorcycle clubs, all sorts of civic clubs like the Rotary and Chambers of Commerce.

Over 5,000 volunteers joined in the search. The headquarters, Police HQ, divided Cobb County into marked areas and assigned each group an area. Helicopters even came in from Dobbins Air Force Base to help find Debbie Randall. There were a deluge of offers of aid and Cobb County Police took everybody up on it. And then comes Friday, January 28th. The Marietta Daily Journal runs an editorial urging all Cobb Countyans to cooperate with Operation Debbie. It was foggy and rainy that day when the largest search party ever to assemble in Cobb County set out to look for Debbie. Up to 5,000 people. What happened, Detective Nix? what happened detective nicks uh one of the students mike mackahan um was walking into the

woods at powers ferry road and he was with a fraternity group from did you say southern tech southern tech and he noticed that um there seemed to be trail marks uh the grass was unusual. The weeds were different. So out of curiosity, being a bright guy, he followed it, and he said he saw her body, and he said, I just froze. I did not want to get close. And he stopped, I think he told me about 25 yards away, and he said, I just knew it was her, obviously. And at that point, the discovery was made. Detective Nix, who did he call out to when he saw Debbie's body? He called one of his fraternity brothers who was down the road, and it shook him to his core. And at this time, Mike was also a Vietnam vet. He had already been to Vietnam

prior to college. And so he said, even this just shook me up. And I can see why, Detective Nix, please describe the way nine-year-old Debbie's body was found. She had on her coat. It had been zipped up to her chin. It was obvious that it looked like she had been redressed in a hurry, and she had been laying out, apparently been put there. That was not the scene of the crime. She had been transported there. You say her coat was zipped up to her chin, and she was redressed in a hurry. Why do you say 9-year-old Debbie Randall had been redressed in a hurry?

We felt that this had happened in a hurry because she was a little disarrayed, obviously, from laying out in the weather in the woods. It was just very disarranged. She still had her socks on. Her shoes were gone. Apparently he had never removed her socks. She had her underwear on, disarrayed, but it was on. When you say disarrayed, what do you mean by that? Just very abnormal the way you would wear your clothes. Kind of hard to describe. What was the cause of death? Strangulation. She had been brutally assaulted. Emmy's office said that had he not strangled her, she would have probably bled to death. And it's just a horrific, horrific thought.

The thought of that child, 9-year-old Debbie Randall, was the age of my children, being strangled dead, her clothes hastily, roughly put back on her body, the little girl bleeding from a brutal sex attack so bad, so badly, that the medical examiner believed she would have bled out. Our body left there in the woods is almost more than I can take in.

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pet store link akc.com thank you for all the joy you're bringing to people and their pets but thank you for being our sponsor today with me lee egan investigative reporter with crime online.com and and Cold Case Unit Investigator Detective Morris Nix. Morris, when her body was discovered, what clues, what evidence, if any, were found on and around her body? They took soil samples from her coat and from her clothes, and the soil samples were very unique and these soil samples were sent to the FBI and the FBI analyzed these soil sand samples and we I say we they managed to match these at a place called

Dixie Casting Stone, which was about a quarter mile down the road from where she was found. And after we started looking at this, we realized that this was a very secluded place. It was something you would not, unless you knew it was there, you would not find it. You mean the company? The company.

What's the name of it again? Dixie? Cast and Stone. What is that? I mean, what is that? They make concrete forms. What is that, concrete forms? Uh, they use them, I think, on bridges and roads and things of that nature. I'm glad you said that. I thought you meant like birdbaths and columns.

Okay, so you mean giant industrial forms. Correct. And so it's way off the road and you'd have to know it was there? You would have to know it was there. Nancy, in high school, I went up and down Powers Ferry Road a million times. I never knew it was there. When they said it was on Powers Ferry Road, I racked my brain trying to figure out where is it. It was a dirt drive at the time that went off of the road.

I think there's an apartment complex there now. Well, I'm with you on this, Detective Nix. I've gone up and down Powers Ferry Road. In fact, my husband once lived off Powers Ferry Road many, many years ago, and I did not know this was there either. And I'm very curious, Detective Nix, because this is very advanced science and crime scene analysis. You took soil off her body, which had to be on her clothes, which had to be on her clothes or skin or hair. And you got a soil sample and then you somehow tracked it back to Dixie Cast in stone.

Now, what about that soil sample made it different from the dirt around her? The what? The ingredients in cement or what? We were told that this particular it was actually sand. This particular type of sand came from the Mississippi, Louisiana area. And that's what made it unique. And I talked to the owner of the company. They are still in business. They're not at that location, but they're still in business. And I talked to his son and he said, oh yeah, he said, you could have driven around behind those sand pits

in the back and nobody would have ever heard you, But you would have had to know it was there. You would have had to known that you could go back there and you would not be discovered. Where on her body was the soil sample found? Was it on her clothes, her skin, her vagina, her hair? Where was it? Predominantly, it came off of her clothes. Her clothes. That says to me he took her out of the vehicle and actually assaulted her there on the ground for her clothes. But interesting if it didn't come off her body.

Very interesting. But it tells me, like you said, the location where her body was found was a tertiary crime scene. You've got the car as primary. The kidnapping, the sex assault would be there behind Dixie cast in stone because that soil, that sand from the Louisiana or Mississippi area would be nowhere else other than there making the cement. And then the tertiary scene, of course, is the disposal of the body. Now, who would know that? I'm just kind of overwhelmed that you have managed to piece those pieces of the puzzle together. I assume there was no surveillance video, correct?

Oh, correct, yeah. Oh, man. Was there a security watchman? No. And was it locked? I mean, could you get in and out? There was no gate? No, you could just drive down there.

And there was really nothing to steal. There was nothing you could do and um unless you wanted to steal some sand there's nothing to take okay let me think let me think let me think what else did we learn from the body or anything around the body was anything left behind a sock um dna um anything anything at all, a cigarette wrapper, a cigarette, anything? The only thing that we found, and I say we, they found at that time, was they did find a pair of glasses. We had those glasses.

Where? It was next to the body. You mean adult reading glasses or sunglasses or what? Yeah, they were reading glasses. Reading glasses, huh. And I assume that they were analyzed to determine what was the prescription for them and then various optometrists were checked to find out who had filled it? We are working on that.

So that was not done at the time. Is that correct? No. No, it was not done at the time. That's a boo-boo. But let's be happy about the sand. So the glasses were found by her body or at Dixie Castonstone? By her body.

By her body. By her body. Anything else? Was there a rag? She had inserted a rag in her vaginal area. We believe that he did that because she was bleeding profusely, and he did not want her to bleed in her truck. I believe that's why he did that. Okay, hold on.

I'm just trying to get this in my head. So that would have occurred while she was alive because once she was dead, the nine-year-old little girl, the bleeding would likely have stopped because your heart is no longer pumping blood through your body. So while she is alive, this nine-year-old girl, the perp stuffs a rag in her to stop the bleeding. Your belief is so she wouldn't bleed on his car. I believe that's why he did it, yeah. the bleeding. Your belief is so she wouldn't bleed on his car.

I believe that's why he did it, yeah. Oh man, this is a death penalty case if there ever was one. So then he puts her underwear and clothes back on over that? Correct. He puts her underwear over the rag. Okay. Let me think. Let me think. So you've got the rag.

What kind of a rag was it? Was it a bath washcloth? Was it an industrial rag? Was it one of those things you wash your car with? What was it? It was a printed piece of cloth. It was dirty, greasy.

That makes me also think that probably it came out of a vehicle that, you know, possibly a work vehicle. Like a machinery rag? No, it wasn't a machinery rag. It was just, I don't know if it came from a gown or from a sheet. I've never actually seen it. Oh, like an old cleaning, like somebody tore it apart to use as a dust cloth or something, and then they used it, applied to black grease for machinery. Is that what you're saying? Correct. And I have often wondered, and I still wonder, if he thought she was dead, didn't realize she wasn't.

And because he stops like a quarter, I mean, just right down the road, and he takes her out in the woods. And I think that's why I think possibly he worked there because he knew that if he left the body there, that it might come right back to him, that they would look at the employees there. Very, very, very clever, Detective Nix. So he either worked there or had worked there or knew someone that worked there to know about it the location and because a random killer just leaves the body there is no transference to a third location you kill the person you either rob or assault the person and leave the body and hightail it okay so this means a cover-up, but why a cover-up? Well, let me think.

Let me think about this rag. It was torn out of a bigger piece of material like a sheet or a towel. You said it was printed. What was the print? It had just a little design. It's kind of hard to describe, um, little designs. It's kind of hard to describe. It had little designs on it. Um.

Designs of what nature? Flowers, stripes, polka dots, paisley, what? If I, it was flowers. Flowers. Yeah. Flowers. Okay, let me just tell you right there, that came from a woman. That came from a home because well not necessarily that could have come from anybody but what guy is going to go out and buy sheets with flowers on them nobody i know

maybe but that indicates to me it came from a family home um it didn't come from a hotel. It came from a family home where a woman was or had been present at some point. All right. And you're saying you think it was part of a sheet or part of what? Possibly part of a sheet or part of a gown. It was very dirty, and that's what we had on that. What about DNA? Forget the ride. What about DNA? Okay, here's where it gets interesting. When we first got this case, when we first looked at it, that's, of course, what we were, is there anything? And we were told, nope, it's been too long. We said, well, let's just try.

Let's just give it a shot. What made you try it after all that time? Honestly, it was just, let's try anything at this point. Even if it's not really rational, let's try it anyway. And John Dodd was the case administrator or lead detective with our unit. We said, John, let's let's contact the DNA people and just see if we've got a chance. So we sent it in and they did get a DNA profile even after all these years because Marietta Police Department had preserved that evidence.

Thank goodness. Hold on. Right there, I want to say something. All we ever hear about is, oh, so-and-so lost the evidence. They destroyed the evidence. They did this. They messed up the evidence. They touched it.

They contaminated it. That is abnormal. That is the aberration. That normally doesn't happen. And because Cobb County preserved the evidence, you submitted this for a DNA profile. You know, the public that, you know, you see it on TV, you only, it's like, you don't call the cable company to say, hey, you guys did an awesome job today because I got to watch murder she wrote awesome you only call when you're angry or it's not working right

so it's just like the news you see the bad news because you don't want to hear oh it's a sunny beautiful day outside headline no so what people hear about are the aberrations of when evidence gets screwed up or somebody intentionally messes up or negligently messes it up. The norm is it's not messed up. Now, thank you, heaven, because this evidence was preserved. Now, tell me about what happens when you decide to try to get a match. We send in the cloth, the underwear. We got a DNA profile. From the perpetrator.

From the perpetrator, not from nine-year-old Debbie. From the killer. Okay, go ahead. Correct. We got it from the perpetrator. It came from the underwear. And I assume it's not blood. It's semen, correct? It is semen. And John called me and said, we got a profile. Oh, my stars. Hold on just a minute, Detective

Nix. Every time I talk to you, something you say gives me chills. And right now, I've got them. I can just see you pulling over and they say, we got a profile. I just, it's kind of hard to describe. I was actually on my way to a fishing tournament, Lake Eufaula, and I don't think my mind ever left that second the whole time I was there. So I'm thinking, okay, we're going to run this through a database, national database, and we're going to get a hit. And this is, you know, case closed. Well, we didn't get a hit. And there's a lot of speculation. And one thing I'd like to say, Nancy, is I know this is a long shot.

I know it is. I know that the probabilities are not good, but possible. And people say to me, why don't you let it go? You know, it's been years. If he's alive, he's, you know, and I tell them, this is for me, this is no longer about conviction as much as it is closure. Her mama wants to know before she dies who killed her baby. And for me, if we get a conviction, great. But even if he's dead, even if he's buried somewhere, I want to know who he is, and I'm absolutely committed to that, even if I never get a conviction. Detective Morris Nix, Cobb County Cold Case Unit, I'm with you, Detective. I want to know who he is, and I want to know that he's headed where he belongs, which is hell.

The case goes on in the search for justice for nine-year-old Debbie Randall. Tip line. Anyone with information, please call Cobb County Coal Case Unit 770-528-3032. 770-528-3032. Detective Morris Nix, thank you, friend. Thank you, Nancy, for all you do. Thank you very much. I want to take this moment and thank our partner for making our program possible today. It's Super Beats. Well well if you're like me you don't spend a whole lot of time thinking about your circulation but I can tell you this when I gave birth to the twins and got blood clots in my

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Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.