Was Nurse Debbie Wolfe Murdered, or Was Her Death an Accident? Mystery Surrounds the Decades-old Case
The official ruling on Debbie’s death was an accidental drowning. Yet, questions remain.
Debbie Wolfe’s body was found at the bottom of a pond near her home on New Year’s Day in 1986. In conflicting reports, divers initially said they located her body inside a barrel. But local officials claim there was no barrel and called her death an accidental drowning.
Debbie was a 28-year-old nurse who lived in a small, isolated cabin just outside of Fayetteville, North Carolina.
According to investigators, Debbie died on December 26, 1985. She was last seen leaving work that day around 4 PM, but never showed up for her shift the next day.
Was her death a drowning?
When her family realized she had not reported for work, they drove out to her cabin to check in on her, as this was out of the ordinary for Debbie. What they found at her cabin and on her property was also out of the ordinary.
Debbie was a neat person and took good care of her two dogs, but her parents were surprised when they found the dogs had not been fed, beer cans were scattered around the property, her purse was under the bed, and her nursing uniform was lying on the kitchen floor.
Debbie’s mother, Jenny Edwards, told Unsolved Mysteries, “We looked around and we saw beer cans laying in the yard. Her dogs had not been fed. There was a uniform laying on the floor, in the kitchen, and other things thrown on the floor, like maybe she took them off.”
What they didn’t find was any signs of Debbie. Her parents called the police but had to wait until 72 hours had passed before they could file a missing person’s report.
Finally, on New Year’s Eve, sheriff’s deputies searched Debbie’s property with trained bloodhounds but found no evidence of Debbie’s whereabouts.
Frustrated and desperate to find her daughter, Jenny hired a private dive team to search the nearby pond.
Divers Kevin Gorton and Gordon Childress searched the pond near Debbie’s home on New Year’s Day in 1986. The men found two sets of foot impressions along the water’s bank and what they thought might be drag marks leading into the water.
In the freezing pond, Gordon found Debbie’s body at the bottom, five and a half feet deep, and about 30 feet from the edge. Oddly enough, both men reported finding her body inside a barrel. Gordon told Unsolved Mysteries, in 1990, “The body was inside what looked like a burn barrel; that’s a rusty, 55-gallon oil type drum with holes in it.”
The day after the divers reported their discovery to the sheriff’s department, the water in the pond was lowered to recover Debbie’s body. Police officials found Debbie’s body, but no barrel.
Investigators determined Debbie had slipped on ice and fallen into the frigid water while playing with her dogs. Their theory was, she became disoriented and drowned from immersion syndrome.
Immersion syndrome, also called “flush drowning” can occur in cold water and sometimes causes hypertension, interruption of breath-holding ability, arrhythmia, or loss of coordination.
Unsolved Mysteries
There were so many questions unanswered and strange events surrounding Debbie’s death that the TV show, Unsolved Mysteries, dedicated an entire episode to her in 1991.
Despite the official theory on Debbie’s drowning, there remains a mysterious set of circumstances:
- Divers reported seeing her body inside a barrel. When officials recovered Debbie’s body, there was no barrel.
- Debbie’s mother reported Debbie had a barrel near her home that had gone missing.
- The state of Debbie’s house and surrounding grounds was disheveled and messy when Debbie was typically an orderly person.
- Debbie was found wearing clothes that her mother insisted were not hers.
- Debbie’s car was parked in an unusual place and not in the spot she habitually parked in.
- Debbie was 5'3" tall. Her car was found with the driver’s seat pushed all the way back, as if a much taller person had been driving.
- There was an odd message from a strange man found on her answering machine. The man stated she had missed many days of work. But, on the date the message was left, Debbie had not missed any work. The man’s identity was never found.
What really happened to Debbie?
Debbie’s mother does not believe her daughter died in a tragic drowning accident. She told Unsolved Mysteries, “There are people out there who know what happened to Debbie. And I’m hoping that they will come forward and finally say something. She was loved by very, very many people. And I think that she has a right to be put to rest, finally. And I’d like to do that.”
Sources: (1) The Fayetteville Observer, The body in the barrel (2) Unsolved Mysteries, Debbie Wolfe, (3) Dr. Maurice Godwin, Unsolved Cases
