True Crime with Kimbyr - Cut From The Womb: Evans Family Murder

Episode Date: September 16, 2024

In this intense episode, Kim uncovers the horrifying story of Debra Evans, a pregnant mother of three whose life was brutally taken in a shocking crime. Just days before her due date, Debra was attacked in her home by people she knew, including her ex-boyfriend and his accomplices. They forcibly cut her unborn child from her womb, leaving Debra and two of her children dead. Miraculously, the newborn and one child survived the ordeal. Kim explores the dark motives behind this unimaginable act and the tragic consequences that followed, offering a chilling look into one of the most disturbing cases of fetal abduction​. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pregnancy. The joy of bringing another human being into this world. It's a time of excitement for many expecting mothers, but what they don't expect is for that pregnancy to be cut short, never making it to the delivery room because of an evil plan to destroy an entire family and steal their baby from their womb. This is what is known as a fetal abduction, and sadly, that is what we're talking about in today's case.

Hi everyone, welcome back to my channel. My name is Kimberlya. if you've never been here before, nice to finally meet you. I have been saying that this case has been extremely difficult for me to do. I even took a week off. I had a lot going on, holidays. I'm sure all of you can relate to that part. But I know this case may be very triggering to many people,

especially if you were an expectant mother. It's one of the most gruesome and cruel cases that I've researched to date. And I'm worrying you now that it made me physically ill thinking about the details. But on the other hand, I definitely want to bring awareness to this case, which I was actually surprised hadn't been talked about as much as I thought it would, considering how unbelievable it really is. I'm also going to give you some warnings because there are signs to look for as a pregnant woman so that you don't fall into the trap of these criminals that have been called

womb raiders, because sadly, expecting mothers are targeted, just like the woman that I'm going to be introducing you to today. I want to introduce you to Deborah Jo Evans, who is known as Debbie. She was born on May 6, 1967. Debbie grew up in a religious family with her mother, Jacqueline, and father Sam Evans, Sr. in Chicago, Illinois, where she was the oldest of four children. She had two younger sisters, Wendy and Katie,

and a younger brother, Sam Jr. Debbie excelled in her studies, and she was described as boisterous and fun and would have a habit of visibly biting her lip when she was acting a little mischievous. But as she grew up, Debbie struggled with low self-esteem, even though she tried her best to keep her spirits high. It all started with the divorce of her parents.

Her friends thought it was probably the beginning of Debbie's struggle to feel loved and accepted. Oftentimes, she would get involved with men who didn't treat her very well. And according to her family, things took a turn after a teenage pregnancy. She started hanging out with the wrong crowd. Debbie got pregnant at the age of 18, and of course her mother, Jackie, a developed Baptist.

She didn't believe that having children out of wedlock was the right thing to do, and she did not condone it. But Jackie stayed close to Debbie. However, as much as Debbie talked and shared things with her mother, she was closed off when discussing details about her relationships with men, knowing her mom would not approve. On September 29th, 1985, 18-year-old Debbie gave birth to her first child, a daughter that she named Samantha Jean Evans, after her dad, Sam. She looked just like her mama with light hair and big blue eyes. Debbie didn't stay with Samantha's father, Scott Gilbert, who eventually moved to Florida. She raised little Samantha all on her own. Debbie's friend said she continued to struggle with self-esteem issues and had a very hard time dealing with unwanted weight gain.

So she had the habit of turning to men who would show interest in her and who made her feel wanted. Even if that meant, these men didn't have the best reputation. Her friends actually described Debbie as on an unfulfilled quest for happiness, and that makes me sad. I think we're all on a quest to be happy, and that's what Debbie wanted. Three years after having her daughter Samantha, Debbie welcomed her son, Joshua Ryan Evans, into the world on March 21, 1988. And just like his sister and his mama, he had blonde hair and big blue eyes. They were a beautiful little family. But sadly, Josh faced many challenges due to being diagnosed with spina bifida.

This is a defect in the backbone that impaired his ability to move his legs until he was able to eventually get the necessary surgery. Debbie was not sure who Josh's father was. So she raised him and Samantha as a single mom during this time. That would have been very difficult. It would be for anyone, but especially for. a foreign mother who is doing this all on her own. But one thing was for sure, everybody knew that Debbie loved her kids. They were her entire world.

And in 1989, when Debbie was 22 years old, she started dating a 24-year-old man named James Edwards. And for the next six years, they had an on again and off again relationship. During their on periods, James lived with Debbie and her children, whom he was very good with. They essentially grew up with James when he was in their own. lives. But during the time they were off, Debbie met another man who was four years younger than her. His name was Laverne Ward, and he went by Vern. Now, their relationship remained very inconsistent with Debbie alternating between Vern and James. And as close as she was with her mother and her sisters, Debbie did not divulge too much about the men in her life as I stated before.

So even though they had heard about some of the men who stuck around a little longer in Debbie's life, her family wasn't too familiar about her love life, even though they were very involved in the lives of her children. Debbie's mother, Jackie, got remarried in 1991 to another devout Baptist named Gary Arnold. Gary recalled that Debbie was the first to accept him and his two daughters from his previous marriage into the family. He said, quote, Debbie was just a great girl, and man, she loved those kids, end quote. And there were more to come. On January, 27, 1994, 27-year-old Debbie and her on again, off again, 23-year-old boyfriend, Vern, had a son named Jordan together. And what a cutie pie. He definitely got daddy's jeans. He had the deep brown eyes,

the darker complexion than his siblings considering he was mixed race, with Debbie being white and Vern being black. Jordan was a very active and happy little boy. But despite having a child together, Debbie and Vern's relationship remained inconsistent. With Debbie continuing to alternate, between dating Vern and then getting back with James and back and forth. But of these two men, James was much more stable, but Debbie had a big heart, and she would often try to help everyone in need. Even though she herself was on welfare, she would befriend many people giving them a place to stay

when they didn't have a home to go to, but this did open her up to being taken advantage of and enduring abusive relationships like the one with Vern. They definitely had domestic altercations throughout their relationship, So James was a much better fit. And Debbie just wanted someone who would truly love her and her children. And no one was quite sure why she would have put up with what she did in the past with men who treated her poorly. Sometimes there's a physical connection there and it's really hard to break away, even in toxic situations.

And that may have been why she would go back to Vern here and there. Plus, they did have a child together. But in her conversations with her mom and stepdad, Debbie still always, left out specifics regarding her personal life, especially when it came to the fathers of her children. Because no matter how grown-up, Debbie was, Jackie and Gary still had a hard time with her getting pregnant and not being married. However, Debbie's biological father, Sam, he seemed less judgmental and more open to his daughter. Sam was always trying to lend a helping hand with his grandkids and maintain a relationship with Debbie. Now at some point in 1994, Debbie decided to move to a safer

for part of Illinois with her three children. They moved into an apartment on the western edge of Addison, Illinois, on 675 North Swift Road, in apartment 101. The apartment was a boxy three-story brick complex with a sidewalk where the kids could play and a pool that they could swim in. Josh and Samantha started attending Black Hawk Elementary School,

where they were known for being good students. They made many friends in the area. Samantha was friendly, while Josh was described as feisty, and a little bit stubborn. Josh was not afraid to speak his mind and he stood up for himself and others. He came a long way since the time that they discovered he had spina bifida.

Now he was athletic and tough, and he showed no fear. And he was very protective of his mother and his sister. They had all been through so much together. And in March of 1995, Debbie and James patched things up once again, and he moved into her apartment and got a steady job and was helping out with the kids and their expenses. Not too long after this, Debbie found out she was pregnant, and she shared the good news with her family and with James.

They decided to name their soon-to-be-born son, Elijah, and things were looking up for Debbie. She was very excited to be in a new place, have a steady relationship, and have another baby boy on the way. Fast forward to November of that same year in 1995, 28-year-old Debbie was now nine months pregnant and was scheduled to go into the hospital on Sunday, November 19th for an induced labor,

and was expected to give birth on Monday, November 20th. But tragically, she would never make it to that appointment. At about 5.30 p.m. on the evening of Thursday, November 16th, James left for work at a distribution warehouse called Emmericks, which was just down the street from their apartment that he shared with Debbie and the kids. It was walking distance, so he went there on foot. When he was finished with his shift at 2.30 in the morning, which is now in the early morning hours of November 17th,

He walked up to their unit and noticed the lights were still on in the apartment, and that was not common for this hour. When he got to the back door, it was unlocked, which James thought was very odd. Debbie usually locked all the doors before she went to bed, and she would have been in bed by now. When he opened the door, he was met in the kitchen by a little 22-month-old baby Jordan, who appeared to have blood on his face, feet, and clothing. So of course, James was alarmed. He called out to Debbie wondering where she could be and what happened to Jordan. As James walked into the living room, he saw Debbie lying face up

on the floor between the coffee table and a love seat. She was still dressed in her regular daytime clothes that she had on when he left for work, and she was partially covered with a Winnie the Pooh blanket. At first, James thought that she was playing a joke on him because she had played these practical jokes on him in the past. So James walked up to Debbie and he tried lifting up her head trying to get her to break the act. But she was limp. And James realized at that moment that something was very wrong and that this was not a joke. He quickly removed the blanket and was confronted with the horrific sight of Debbie's midsection covered in blood. It looked as though her stomach had burst open.

And at that moment, James realized that Debbie was most likely deceased. And he figured it had something to do with her pregnancy. That's when he went into the children's bedroom to find out what happened. And right when he entered the room, he found 10-year-old Samantha lying on her bedroom floor in her Pocahontas nightshirt, and she was also covered in blood. He realized her neck had a wound on it. So James knew he had to run to get help. So we went to a neighbor's apartment, and they called the police.

When first responders from the Addison Police Department arrived, they found James in the living room sitting next to Debbie on the floor. This man was distraught. He asked them several times, is she dead? And once the officers cleared the apartment to make sure it was safe for EMS to enter, they were sent in around 243 a.m. And they were able to confirm that Debbie was dead. And sadly, so was.

her daughter, Samantha. They did a preliminary examination of Debbie's body. She was lying on her back and a blood-soaked shirt and pants with a large volume of blood underneath her. It appeared as though someone had performed a crude resection on her, and the baby was no longer inside of her uterus. So where was he? EMS checked the small apartment and could not locate a newborn. However, they did find 22-month-old Jordan, and thankfully he did not have any injuries. The blood on his face, his feet, and his clothing had most likely come from either his mom, his sister Samantha, or both. And that's a frightening thought. No one knew what happened at this home and who was responsible for killing two members of this family, possibly three. Officers

asked James to tell them what he knew. He said that Debbie was nine months with their son, who they plan to name Elijah. And that 10-year-old Samantha, 22-month-old Jordan and Debbie's 7-year-old son Josh had been at home when he left for work. Now Josh was missing from the apartment, and of course, we're aware of what happened to Debbie and Samantha. Lots of things had to get done at this point.

James needed to be brought in for questioning. Homicide investigators needed to come to the scene. Crime scene technicians had to comb all over this apartment for evidence, And there was a lot of it. There was blood everywhere, among other things. And officers needed to immediately jump in action to find seven-year-old Josh and newborn baby Elijah. James provided officers with a description

of seven-year-old Joshua Ryan Evans. He was about four feet tall with blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin, and he was wearing a dark-colored shirt, black basketball shorts, and a green-hooded jacket the last time he was seen. He also had a gold stud earring in his left ear. and he had just gotten his cast removed from his left arm earlier that same day before James left the apartment on November 16th. It had just healed from being broken. Josh was entered into the police system as missing and endangered, and police began to canvas the entire apartment complex.

Meanwhile, crime scene technicians and homicide investigators arrived on the scene, including lead detective, Sergeant Donald Somers, from the Addison Police Department, as well as an evidence technician. As Debbie's apartment was being processed by the team, they found their first piece of evidence outside of the apartment. On the sidewalk, there was one half of a broken pair of bloody poultry shears. These are heavy-duty scissors that are often used in the kitchen to prepare meats for cooking. They're stronger than regular scissors, and they're usually identifiable by a jagged middle section by the handles. This is usually used to break things open like walnuts or crab legs, for example, or even to the same. open stubborn jars. Inside the apartment, the scene was horrifying. Investigators found blood in various locations all over. First, the living room where Debbie was found. That's where they

located the other half of those bloody poultry shears. Then, as they made their way down the hallway that led to the two bedrooms and bathroom, there was blood all over the walls and the carpet on the floor, leading into the bathroom where they found a lot of blood droplets on the the tile floor and the sink area, as well as inside the sink. In the children's bedroom, there was blood on the bed and on the floor where Samantha's body had been found. And now into the main bedroom, a dried blood stain was observed on the bed, as well as a blood-soaked ace bandage right next to it. When searching through the living room, investigators found a document on a hutch. It was addressed to Deborah Evans, but it had a bloody fingerprint on it. They documented, photographed,

and collected all of these items for DNA and fingerprint analysis. They then examined all the entry points to Deborah's apartment and noticed the windows and the doors showed no signs of force entry. This begged the question, how did the killer get into Debbie's unit? Had she let them inside? If so, that meant that she must know her killer. And that seemed like the most likely scenario for a number of reasons. The first is that visitors to this building had to be buzzed in by a resident in order to to gain entry before they could access the front or back doors. So investigators assumed that the killer either had a key or that Debbie buzzed them in.

But of course, they could have followed someone else in, they could have known someone who lived in the building, or maybe the killer lived in that same apartment complex or building. But there were other reasons investigators assumed that Debbie knew her killer. And that's because of the nature of this crime. Fetal abductions, which are also called cesarean kidnappings, are a very specific type of crime. They typically involve the pregnant woman being targeted by the perpetrator, and most of the time, that perpetrator develops some kind of relationship with them, and they get closer and closer to this victim by using manipulation tactics, lying,

pretending to be their friend, or a helpful medical professional, for example. It's uncommon that this is a random crime, of opportunity because the victim has to be close to giving birth in order for the kidnapping to be executed properly and the fetus to be viable. Therefore, the perpetrator has to have personal knowledge of the victim's due date and other pertinent information. I'm going to have a lot more information to give to you about these types of crimes and the people who commit them. But for now, let's go back to this investigation. At this point, investigators met back at Addison Police Department where Debbie's boyfriend James was being interviewed and her little

toddler, Jordan, was taken into a room with an evidence technician. They took photographs of his condition. They collected swabs of blood found on his body. A total of eight swabs were taken from his hairline, above his right eye, his right cheek, his right eyebrow, and right ear, as well as a couple from his forehead, bottom of his left foot, and the top of his tiny feet. All of these swabs were turned over for analysis. And by this time, Debbie's next of kin were being notified about her murder. They had been able to make contact with Debbie's mother, Jacqueline Arnold. They called her home in the middle of the night. Her husband, Gary, answered the phone, and when the caller asked for Jackie, he handed the phone off to her. Jackie's first thought was that this call could only

mean one thing. Debbie's baby had been born and she was getting the good news. But instead, she was informed that her 28-year-old daughter, her pregnant daughter, had been killed and that her 10-year-old daughter Samantha had also been found dead and that her toddler Jordan was safe at the police station, waiting for a family member to come retrieve him. Jackie sat there frozen in her bed in those early morning hours, unable to comprehend what she just heard. The worst part was this wouldn't be the last time the police would relay terrible news to her. It was just the beginning of her living nightmare.

The next to get the news was Debbie's sister, Wendy, and her husband Daniel. Debbie's boyfriend James called Wendy from the police station around 4.30 in the morning. James said, I'm sorry to tell you this, but Debbie and Samantha are dead. You could imagine their shock, hearing about everything that had happened. They agreed to make their way down to Addison PD to pick up Little Jordan as fast as they could. But first, Wendy phoned her father, Sam. She could hardly speak. When Sam picked up the phone, she was just sobbing and crying, and Sam didn't know what was wrong and And finally he heard the words, Daddy, Daddy, Debbie's dead, Samantha's dead, and we can't find Joshua.

Sam was stunned. He said, what? And no one knew what was going on. This was the worst news a family could ever get. Wendy and her husband wasted no time. They raced over to the police station to be with their nephew Jordan and talked to investigators. It was around 6 o'clock in the morning when they arrived. And Debbie's boyfriend, James was being questioned.

At the same time, Wendy and Daniel filled out all of the. paperwork they needed for temporary custody of Debbie's son Jordan. Afterward, the investigators wanted to speak with Daniel and Wendy to get an idea about who Debbie was, who was close to her, as well as whether they knew anyone who would want to harm her and her family. They explained Debbie was a very family-oriented woman, and she did not have any issues with her current boyfriend James. They actually remarked that James would do anything for these kids and for Debbie and he would never hurt her or the children. The only person that Wendy could think of that Debbie really had issues with in the most recent

past was her ex-boyfriend, Vern, the father of 22-month old Jordan. They described Vern as a member of the four-corner hustler gang and then he had a violent side and a long criminal history. When he and Debbie dated, he would apparently lock her in closets and beat her up. They also thought that Debbie might have filed a restraining order against Vern and that they had not been together for at least a year. The last time Wendy actually saw Vern was about nine months earlier when he was over Debbie's visiting Jordan for his birthday party. However, Debbie had told her that she didn't really think that Jordan was Vern's child. She actually thought Jordan's father was her current boyfriend, James,

and that she had let Vern know this in the past, but he still tried to be present in Jordan's life. She added that Vern had previously lived at the current apartment where Debbie was living and that she thinks he used to have a key. She doesn't know if he still has one. The investigators wanted to know if Wendy knew of any family members or friends of Vern's that kept in contact with Debbie. And Wendy said, yeah, Debbie does keep in contact with Vern's family members. One cousin in particular who was also pregnant at the time was hanging out and talking to Debbie

in the last few months, but she couldn't recall the woman's name. When asked about Joshua, Wendy said, it was possible that Debbie could have let him go spend the night at a friend's house after James left for work. If so, they should try to check with friends because Wendy said she didn't think the kids had school the next day, like it was a teacher's planning day or something. The last time Wendy spoke to Debbie was two days earlier when Debbie called her to ask for some Thanksgiving recipes, but that's all the information that her and her husband could provide. Wendy mentioned that Debbie was closer to their other sister, Katie Evans,

so investigators should definitely reach out to her. Maybe she could provide them with more information. So they get Katie's number, and then investigators sent Wendy and Dan on their way with Jordan and proceeded into the room to speak with Debbie's current boyfriend, James Edwards, who had been completely cooperative since the moment he called 911 several hours ago.

James was very upset about what happened to Debbie and her daughter. He was also really concerned about missing Joshua, and he told the investigators he would do whatever they wanted for him to help. He even offered to take a polygraph test so they could rule him out and focus on whoever was really responsible for this. They told James that what they really needed right now was to know anything about an ex-boyfriend of Debbie's name Vern. James says, yes, he knows who he is.

He also provided a description that he's a black male in his 20s, They used to live with Debbie and that they have a son together named Jordan. James said that Debbie had told him that Vern was abusive and that their relationship was merely physical and very tumultuous. Vern would, as I stated, lock her in closets and physically harm her. Investigators want to know if Vern has had any recent contact with Debbie or if James has a reason to believe that Vern would actually want to harm her. James explained that Debbie would only speak to Vern regarding their toddler son Jordan and that Vern had a new person. new girlfriend that he lived with named Laura Hughes. But before her, there had been a woman named Brandy and another woman named Cynthia, all within the last year or two. You already know there's

going to be a lot of people in this case, and I will do my very best to keep it organized for you. James also said that Vern does call over to Debbie's, and he'll ask about his son. As a matter of fact, in the last few weeks, Debbie and Vern had argued over the phone. It was about Jordan. Apparently, Vern wanted to take him for Thanksgiving, and Debbie said, you know what, I'm going to have to think about it. And this, of course, led to an argument, one of the many, including yelling matches about topics like child support, among other things. Investigators also want to know if James could give them any additional information on Debbie, like her friends, who she kept in contact with as far as Vern's family was concerned, and whether she had been in any trouble lately. James explained that Debbie was acquaintances with several of their neighbors in the building and that she did keep in contact with. touch with some of Vern's family members, but he does not know all of them. He does know, however,

that one of Vern's cousins named Annette talked to Debbie in the last few months because they were both pregnant and they had that in common. And she recently would come over and hang out at Debbie's place. As far as Verne was concerned, James said he hadn't seen or heard from him in at least a week or so. Just that one call about Jordan and Thanksgiving. At this point, the investigators took James back over to Debbie's apartment and they did a walkthrough. And they asked him if you could identify any items that appeared to be missing or anything in the apartment that didn't belong there. James said that that bloody ace bandage was not his. It did not belong to him or Debbie or anyone. He also said that you couldn't account for a black Walkman cassette player with headphones that belonged to Samantha.

And investigators allowed James to collect a few personal items and clothing that belonged to him so that he had something to wear because this apartment was declared a crime scene. While he was going through his things, he told him, that his mustard and white-colored Grambling State University Tiger's starter jacket was missing. So they did make note of that. Before letting James go, they told him they needed his clothing so that they could analyze it for blood and DNA.

He willingly took everything off, handed it to detectives, and they collected a purple long-sleeve button-down shirt, purple denim pants, and lace-up boots that were black. Then the investigators left and James was free to go as they checked on his alibi, and they also tried to get in touch with Debbie with Debbie's other sister, Katie.

Meanwhile, I need to tell you what the canvas of the building provided as far as clues and leads are concerned. Remember after Debbie and Samantha were found, different teams of officers and investigators had done their jobs, and some were immediately deployed to Debbie's building to interview her neighbors and ask if they had heard or seen anything unusual. Their goal was to pinpoint a timeframe

in which Debbie and her daughter may have been killed, because at the time, they were working with her child They were working with a pretty big gap of time. James left work at around 5.30, and he found Debbie and her daughter dead around 2.30 in the morning. The canvas began at approximately 4 a.m., and I'm going to tell you the most significant information and people they spoke to. At 4.20 a.m., they arrived at Unit 102, which was right across from Debbie's. This is Brian Hennessy's apartment that he shared with his roommate, Rebecca Stubbs. James had run over to Brian's to make that 911 call,

at 2.45 a.m. Brian said that he heard someone frantically banging on his front door. He opened it to find James in a panic asking to use his phone to call 911 and he wanted him to help him. He said that Debbie and Samantha were hurt. Brian said the last time he saw Debbie, Samantha, Josh, and Jordan was at 7.30 p.m. on November 16th. That would be the previous night after James left for work. Brian said that they were coming into the building. Josh and Samantha were both carrying laundry baskets, and Debbie was carrying her toddler, Jordan. That now closes up the timeline from 7.30 to 2.30 in the morning. Rebecca says she's very familiar with Debbie and her family.

She's known them from before when she was dating Vern, and that Debbie had been with her current boyfriend, James, for about a year and a half. Now, back when Vern was in the picture, he used to come out and hang at Brian and Rebecca's all the time. She can't recall the last time she saw him, but she believed he was in jail, and that he had been recently released. When asked about Joshua and whether she thought Debbie would have allowed him to spend the night to a friend's house,

maybe someplace in the building or elsewhere, Rebecca said that was highly unlikely. She, unlike Wendy, didn't think Debbie would have allowed that. Rebecca explained that she had been present a number of times when little Joshua had asked Debbie to spend the night at a friend's house and in the past, Debbie always said no.

Instead, she told Josh to go ask his friends if they wanted to come say the night. at her place. The investigators went to several other apartments and those tenants did not provide any relevant information. But they got to the apartment located right underneath Debbie's. It was the unit of Mark and Gail Jensen. They had a garden floor unit, so it's like just below ground. Gail told investigators that at approximately 10 p.m. on the 16th. She heard a lot of noise coming from Debbie's apartment, including a noise that sounded like something was falling in the hallway. Debbie said the noise struck her as very unusual because there was never a lot of noise coming from Debbie's apartment.

Gail said she didn't see or hear anything else unusual for the rest of the night, and she recalls going to bed around 11 p.m. So she knows that the noise happened an hour prior to her getting into bed. Both Mark and Gail said they knew Debbie lived with her boyfriend James, and from what they could tell, he was good with her children. There were two other tenants that provided very useful information to police. A resident of Debbie's building named JC told officers that she heard what sounded like a single gunshot between 8.30 and 9.30 p.m. And that is very important.

Another neighbor named Tenney said that around 9.15 p.m., she recalled seeing four people standing on a sidewalk talking to each other close to Debbie's building. When asked what they looked like, Tenney said she believed that it was three people that were black and one leg, white skin, maybe Hispanic individual. By the time the canvas was complete, it was around 5.30 in the morning on November 17th. And remember, around this time, James had been at the police station and he was interviewed, and Wendy and her husband were there picking up Little Jordan. So there's so many moving parts of this investigation. So much is happening at the same time with different teams.

Ultimately, investigators went out to James's place of business around 7 o'clock that morning, and they confirmed from a number of his coworkers and supervisors that James was at work the entire night from 5.40 p.m. on the evening of the 16th until the early morning hours at 2.30 a.m. on November 17th. He didn't even leave the building for his lunch break. The investigators even watched CCTV footage of James at his workplace. So at this point, James was ruled out as a suspect. Now remember that right after Debbie and Samantha were found, I told you that some of those officers canvass the building, well, there was another team of officers that were tasked with locating Debbie's missing seven-year-old son Joshua and her newborn baby, Elijah.

And they immediately got on that. And throughout this investigation, all these teams were following up with one another with new information as they received it. First, officers drove around in the vicinity looking for anyone matching Joshua's description, and they made all police units aware of who they were on the lookout for. Their initial search did not turn up any leads. So they decided to bring in some bloodhounds. First, they brought in a canine named Angus,

and they had him smell Joshua's bike helmet, which was right near the back door of the apartment. Angus took off, and he was on the trail of that scent. He went around the building out to the front parking area. Then Angus took his handler to the courtyard and then to several unit entrances before going out on Swift Road. He then crossed the street

and went over to another complex called Swift Commons, where he sniffed around in a few swampy areas. These locations were checked by officers and nothing was found. So then a second bloodhound named Scarlett was placed at the back door of Debbie's apartment. And this time, to get acquainted with Joshua's sent, they used one of his used pair of underwear.

The hound also took the same trail Angus did around the building to the front parking lot area. And just like Angus, Scarlett went to the courtyard and then to Swift Road, where she showed interest in a northern direction. This alerted officers that Joshua's most likely taken by car as the scent was lost at this location. Now a third hound named Ginger was sent in to confirm the two previous canines trails.

This time, Ginger was placed at the front door and was acquainted with Joshua sent through a pair of his youth's pants. Ginger made her way out to the courtyard, just like Angus and Scarlett had done, then out to Swift Road. And then he began walking north. This confirmed to investigators that Joshua and probably the newborn baby Elijah had been taken from this apartment by a car, and they went north. While all this was going on, investigators finally reached Katie Evans, Debbie's other sister,

who had already been informed about Debbie and Samantha's murders. Katie said that just a few months before all this in August, Vern told Debbie that he thought he was the father of the baby she was carrying. And Debbie told him, no, you are not. And there was no way that he was going to involve himself in Elijah's life. She also told him he wasn't going to be able to see George. And Katie went on to say that just two days before the murders, Debbie told her that she was worried. She said Vern had been harassing her, calling her nonstop, and just picking fights with her for no reason.

Debbie was scared that something was going to happen to her. And she asked Katie to please take care of her children, if anything did. That's pretty telling. After speaking with Debbie's loved ones, police thought that Vern was a solid suspect for these murders. So they started to look for him. We already know that according to Debbie's sister Wendy, Vern was in a gang. He had a criminal record, and he's hurt Debbie before.

And Debbie's boyfriend James told investigators the same thing. And he also knew that Vern had been arguing with Debbie overseeing Jordan and that Vern had harmed Debbie in the past. James also gave investigators the names of a few of Vern's ex-girlfriends. One of those names, Cynthia, caught the attention of another officer. He was aware of a man that he had arrested before named Vern Ward, and he knew a Cynthia Aguilar in connection with that man. He decided to just do some work on his own and check their system for Cynthia's information. And sure enough, he was able to find a number of altercations involving the two of them at several different addresses in an area called Carol Stream.

At another address for Vern at Debbie's apartment in Addison, Illinois. So investigators made a call out to Carol Stream PD and asked Ward. all records involving Levern Ward, including photos, fingerprints on file. After they were retrieved, the investigators went to the last known address for Cynthia where Verne had lived, but she wasn't home. A roommate advised them that she was actually at work at a Target store in the area. As for Vern, the roommate said he had not seen him in a long time. Then the roommate gave the investigators permission to look around Cynthia's apartment. Nothing of significance was found, so they left to find her at Target.

They arrived there around 8.15 in the morning on November 17, just hours after the murders. They located Cynthia and they asked her if she was still in contact with Vern. She told them she was. But that was because they actually had a four-year-old daughter together named Victoria. She said she met Vern about five or six years before this. They used to live together as a couple, but they hadn't been together for two years now. They only kept in touch for the sake of their daughter. However, she found it a little strange that he paged her out of the blue the night before.

And yes, we were all using pagers and beepers back then instead of cell phones. But she got a page between 7.30 and 8 p.m. This would have been on the night that Debbie was last seen, probably just before she was murdered. Cynthia called the number that paged her, which was not the number that Vern usually used. A woman answered. And then she yelled at Vern to come. to the phone. Vern said that night would have been him and Cynthia's five-year anniversary if they had never broken up and he wanted to come see her tomorrow at work. Cynthia

said he was talking nonsense because he smoked crack and I'm being serious. She wasn't joking saying that she explained he dealt and smoked crack and that she really did not expect Vern to come see her. He had a habit of calling her when he was high like that and had recently gone to jail for dealing drugs. When asked about whether Cynthia knew anything about Debbie, she said that she knew that it was Vern's ex, that he dated Debbie and that they had a child together. But Cynthia said that summer, Vern told her that Debbie and Vern had a blood test done, and he was not the father of toddler Jordan, and that she overheard a phone call between

Vern and Debbie with James Edwards in the background, and they were all arguing over who Jordan's father was. So investigators get the number of Vern and page Cynthia from and asked her she knew where he was currently living. Cynthia said that she thought Vern was staying with a 30-year-old woman who worked a McDonald's named Laura that lived out in Wheaton. She also provided investigators with all of Vern's family members, their names, and there were a lot of them who lived in Illinois. I am not going to list them. He had brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, a lot of people to contact an interview. Then Cynthia actually went up. Above and Beyond, she drew a map to where she believed Laura lived so they could make contact

and locate Vern. She was very helpful to this investigation. They ran that number on Cynthia's Pager, and it came up to an apartment of a woman named Martha Martin, at 516 Crescent in Wheaton, Illinois. So they headed out there around 9.30 in the morning, and eventually they made contact with Martha. She said, Vern did not live there. Vern was her husband Curtis's nephew. So essentially, it's her nephew.

as well by marriage. She also told investigators they were welcome to search her residence to make sure Vern was not there. And while walking through, one of the detectives did a quick look see into one of the bedrooms, and he saw a caller ID box. He looked at the last numbers who called Martha, and it showed at 801 on the 16th, Cynthia called, which matched up to what she said. While the detectives were still at Martha's, her adult daughter, 22-year-old Tina Martin,

came home. They asked if they could speak with her regarding her cousin, Verne. and she said yes. She explained that she lived there with her parents and her two sons and that Vern had come over the night before to hang out for a bit. She remembered him paging one of his ex-girlfriends. She answered when the ex called back and she handed the phone to Vern. At this point they asked if she could explain all of the numbers on the caller ID which she did. Then they asked Martha what she did the night before while Vern came to visit and Martha explained she was at work at Sony in Carol's

stream. She left for work around 3.30 p.m. and she didn't get back until 12.30 a.m. and when she got in there at around 1.10 in the morning, she saw her daughter Tina, Tina's two sons, and Martha didn't observe anything out of the ordinary. The investigators thanked the ladies for their time and they left. By 11 a.m. that same day, November 17th, Debbie and Samantha's autopsies were being conducted by pathologist Dr. Shaku Tees. Dr. T.s started with Samantha. and followed up that examination with Deborah. This would take several hours to complete. But I do want to share the doctor's findings with you.

I'll start with 10-year-old Samantha. Rigor Mortis had already set in by the time her body was received by Dr. Tees. She was clothed in just a pair of underwear and a Pocahontas nightgown. Blood was drawn for DNA analysis. Dr. Tees observed multiple stab and insized wounds to her neck. For those of you that may not know, I always get these confused, a stab wound is usually deeper than it is wide, and an in-size wound is wider than it is deep. It's more of a slash or a slice.

I'll tell you where the stab wounds were located. There were six in total. They're not numbered in any particular order. The first was on the right side of her neck. It was four centimeters deep and went through the skin and muscle but did not hit the carotid artery or jugular vein. It was noted that the margins were irregular, indicating this could have been caused by a more dull knife rather than a very sharp or straight-edge knife. Blow that wound, there was a second, about three centimeters deep, with the same irregular edge. That one also did not hit any major arteries or veins. On the left side of the neck, there was a third wound, very similar to the other two.

The larynx and the trachea were still intact and were not hit. Below that, there was a fourth wound, similar to the others, and below that a fifth. However, when it comes to the sixth that wound on the left side, it was a large gaping wound that completely cut the cut through the jugular vein, hitting the vagus nerve, as well as the spine, and severing the fifth cervical vertebra, fracturing it, essentially breaking her neck. This wound also caused hemorrhaging all the way up to the orbital region and was at least seven centimeters deep. This sixth wound would have certainly been fatal. Now, as for the insized wounds or slashes, there were six. They were located on the right side of her neck. A second on the left upper arm,

this one was also about a centimeter deep. So it was almost like a stab wound that that was dragged. A third was located on her elbow, a fourth on her forearm, a fifth on her left ear, and a sixth behind her right ear. The wounds to Samantha's forearm show that she was attempting to defend herself by putting her arms up to protect her head and face. The more superficial cuts on her ears could indicate she was going through a struggle while moving her head back and forth to avoid being more severely wounded, but unfortunately she was no match for her assailant. She listed her cause of death as multiple stab and incised wounds. So sad that this innocent little girl had to die on account of what she witnessed in that apartment

that night. They checked for any sexual-related injuries, and there were none of that nature observed. This was collateral damage, and it is unfortunate and completely senseless. So now let me discuss Debbie's autopsy findings. Rigger Mortis had already set in to her body as well when it was received by Dr. Tees. was wearing a gray striped sweater top, yellow pants, a white bra, and black underwear. There was blood present in her hair, and upon further examination, Dr. Tees found a bullet wound to the back of her head.

The projectile traveled through the back and to the front and through her brain to the front of her school, and it was lodged in that area behind her forehead. A small caliber copper-jacketed bullet was recovered. There was a stab wound to her neck to the front right, and just like Samantha's, the edges were irregular implanted. There were three insized wounds. The first was above that stab wound. The second was on the left side of the neck, and the third was close to the second on the same left side. But now for the most horrific wound. There was a 12-inch slash across Debbie's lower abdomen from one side to the other. The margins of this wound were irregular. The uterus and placenta

were pulled through this opening, and a portion of the umbilical cord could be seen pretty And interestingly, right above the deep slash, there was a similar in-size wound running horizontally, but it was only four inches in length, almost as though this was a practice slash before the lower one was executed. And above this more superficial slash, there was another wound, four centimeters in length, and through it, you could see an enlarged uterus and part of the placenta and the umbilical cord. This wound hit a portion of her small bowel. The uterus had been cut through and opened, and the umbilical cord had been cut, and it had a clean, sharp edge like it was done with a strong pair of scissors.

The placenta was still inside and the fetus had been removed. Blood, bile, and urine were drawn for toxicology and electrolytes. And blood is also drawn for the crime lab and possible DNA analysis. Blood was also taken from the umbilical cord since it contained the DNA of the missing fetus. Dr. Tees listed Deborah Evans' cause of death as a result of a gunshot wound to the back of her head and stab wounds to her abdomen involving the uterus and the gastrointestinal tract and stab and inside wounds to her neck. Dr. Tees was not able to determine the order of Debbie's wounds from the autopsy alone. In her opinion, the main cause of Debbie's death was the gunshot wound.

And someone had essentially performed a C-section on Debbie using those poultry shears that were found on the scene. What Debbie had to go through is beyond imaginable. Baby Elijah was gone from the womb, and there was a question about whether or not Elijah could even be alive.