TX TX - Debra Stewart, 19, Austin, 21 May 1976

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Debra Kay Stewart
Missing since May 21, 1976 from Austin, Travis County, Texas
Classification: Endangered Missing

Vital Statistics
Date Of Birth: September 5, 1956
Age at Time of Disappearance: 19 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'1"; 130 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: Black female. brown eyes; black hair.
Marks, Scars: Scar on one breast.
Clothing: She was last seen wearing blue patchwork jeans, a blue long sleeved blouse with white stitching, a blue bandana, a wide belt and brown shoes.

Circumstances of Disappearance
Debra Kay Stewart was last seen in Austin, TX on May 21, 1976. Her vehicle was recovered in Austin. Foul Play Possible.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Texas Department of Public Safety 512-424-5074

Source Information:

Texas Department of Public Safety
The Doe Network: Case File 2159DFTX

LINK:
http://www.doenetwork.org/
 
Debra Kay STEWART
RULED OUT BY DNA

Texas Missing Persons Clearinghouse Online Bulletin

Missing Person Details

Date Picture Updated: 12/12/2006
M0612010.jpg
u0310014a.jpg


Name: Debra Kay Stewart
Case Number: M0612010
Case Type: Endangered - Foul Play Possible
Last Seen in: Austin (Travis County)
Last Seen on: 5/21/1976
Height: 5' 1 "
Weight: 130 lbs.
Age Missing: 19
Eye Color: Brown
Hair Color: Black
Date of Birth: 9/5/1956
Race: Black
Sex: Female
State Missing From: Texas
Country Missing From: USA
Circumstances: Ms. Stewart has a scar on one breast. She was last seen wearing blue patchwork jeans, a blue long sleeved blouse with white stitching, a blue bandana, a wide belt and brown shoes. Her vehicle was recovered in Austin.
http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/mpch/mp...1:51:41PM'
 
Debra Kay Stewart
Missing since May 21, 1976 from Austin, Travis County, Texas
Classification: Endangered Missing

Vital Statistics

Date Of Birth: September 5, 1956
Age at Time of Disappearance: 19 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'1"; 130 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: Black female. brown eyes; black hair.
Marks, Scars: Scar on one breast.
Clothing: She was last seen wearing blue patchwork jeans, a blue long sleeved blouse with white stitching, a blue bandana, a wide belt and brown shoes.
DNA: Available in CODIS

Circumstances of Disappearance

Debra Stewart was last seen leaving her job at Sears in South Austin on May 21, 1976.

Stewart, a communications student, lived in an apartment in the 2700 block of Manor Road. She supposedly left Sears to go see a doctor because she hadn't been feeling well. She had a chronic kidney condition.

Her abandoned car was found two days later, with the keys in the ignition. No signs of foul play were found in her car or apartment.

Investigators searched in several states. Her parents hired a private detective, who was unable to turn up additional clues.

Foul Play Possible.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

Texas Department of Public Safety
512-424-5074

NCIC Number: M-994725842
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:

Texas Department of Public Safety
Austin American-Statesman
The Doe Network: Case File 2159DFTX

LINK:

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2159dftx.html
 

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Houston Mom said:
Debra has a NamUs file and I am considering her for the black female UID found in Houston on Sept 30, 1976. The UID was killed after she jumped out of a truck. The UID is slightly taller, but at 19 might she have grown?? I wish there was a better picture of Debra! WARNING MORGE PHOTO

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/8671/70/

http://www.harriscountytx.gov/CmpDocuments/21/Unidentified Decedent Fliers/1976-09-30-4492.pdf

https://identifyus.org/en/cases/4565
Click to expand...

What a beautiful lady. :(
 
Here is a side by side. In the four months she could have loss some weight, but I question the bottom lip on the deceased. Hmmmmm....any feedback? WARNING MORGUE PHOTO
 

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There are articles from the time mentioning her, on Newspapers.com. Can't post and don't have a membership with them, but from what I can see:

She was supposed to visit her family after that doctor's appointment that she did not attend.

Listed is her adoptive father Willie A. Stewart, who owns a laundry in Houston. He has a wife and a son (presumably Debra's brother). Another article indicates her brother is also named Willie, age 23 and a student at Prairie View A&M University.

Also listed is her "natural mother", Mrs. Marguerite Rittenhouse.

Also, "Debra had a disagreement with her boyfriend last week, but she later told relatives the dispute was resolved."

According to the article, Debra did NOT have a doctor's appointment that Friday when she disappeared.

Her family thought whether she may have run away, but say "But she lived alone - she was on her own. Why would she run away?" Mrs. Rittenhouse also mentioned that Debra was very particular about her car, didn't like other people driving it in case they scratched it, that sort of thing. Also, Debra was a communications major.
 
Interesting, she had Houston ties! Her is a picture of the Doe ala CarlK:
 

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Houston Mom said:
Here is a side by side. In the four months she could have loss some weight, but I question the bottom lip on the deceased. Hmmmmm....any feedback? WARNING MORGUE PHOTO
Click to expand...


Any ideas how we can get a better picture of Debra?
Is there budget or plan to exhume the UID for DNA?

Debra Stewart has no dentals/fingerprints but it says this on DNA: Sample available - Not yet submitted

The UID has dentals and fingerprints.
 
37 years ago, there could be jurisdictional blindness, though and the timeline is perfect. Although there is a height descrepancy.
I'll still keep looking for any information and pictures for Debra. I've viewed her profile on NamUs many times and would like to be able to find anything to keep her thread here active.
 
KateB said:
Any ideas how we can get a better picture of Debra?
Is there budget or plan to exhume the UID for DNA?

Debra Stewart has no dentals/fingerprints but it says this on DNA: Sample available - Not yet submitted

The UID has dentals and fingerprints.
Click to expand...

This WS thread say Debra Stewart's DNA has been used to rule her out on a UID. So it must be complete, EH?

Ruled out Debra Kay Stewart, 19 - Missing Since: 21 May 1976 from Austin TX - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought I remember reading somewhere that Debra's case was believed to be connected in some way to the disappearance of Jennifer Joyce Barton in Austin on May 16, 1976.

http://charleyproject.org/cases/b/barton_jennifer.html

Based on this new information about Debra and what little we know about Jennifer's disappearance, however, I think the timing is just an odd coincidence and that the two cases are unrelated. The only things that the two cases seem to have in common are:

* Both happened in Austin.
* Both women were black.
* Both women were around the same age.
* The disappearances happened within days of one another.

Other than that, there's nothing really similar about the cases. Unless Debra and Jennifer knew each other, I think the case are totally unrelated, especially given that Jennifer was apparently involved in illegal activities and unsavory people.
 
KateB said:
Any ideas how we can get a better picture of Debra?
Is there budget or plan to exhume the UID for DNA?

Debra Stewart has no dentals/fingerprints but it says this on DNA: Sample available - Not yet submitted

The UID has dentals and fingerprints.
Click to expand...

Not sure about pictures... I thought I had found some, a Debra Stewart at Kaufman High School in Kaufman, TX that was a senior around the time Debra could conceivably been one (class of 1974, which would fit with Debra being a sophmore at university I think)? However, Kaufman doesn't fit the Houston connection, and to be honest the Kaufman Debra doesn't look much at all like THIS Debra. Also, having looked a little more, the family did have a greater connection with Houston - Willie Jr was born in Houston and worked in Houston after college, Willie Sr & Wife lived there since at least 1940 or so... Willie Sr died in 1984. Also, in case this is ever relevant, Mr & Mrs Stewart were significantly older. By the time of Debra's disappearance, Mr Stewart (Sr) would have been about 70, and his wife only a few years younger.

So unless Debra was living away from her family during high school, I don't think that's her.

I might try to find out where her brother went to high school, which could MAYBE be where she went to high school as well.
 
Unsolved: Young, black and vanished

http://kxan.com/2017/05/12/unsolved-young-black-and-vanished/

Debra Kay Stewart disappeared in 1976, when she was 19 years old. Stewart, who was a student at the University of Texas, was last seen leaving work from the Sears at the Hancock Center near Hyde Park.

Forty years later, detectives are still searching for Stewart as well as the missing link connecting her disappearance to two other young, black women, all of whom went missing in Austin within days of each other.

“They ran it down as far as you could, but you can only work with what you have. If you don’t have anything that points to anything, you’ve got to keep going back and starting over and re-looking at it and doing it again until something develops,” says Richard Faithful, a detective with Austin Police Cold Case and Missing Person’s Unit. “Or [it takes] somebody that knows something coming forward and sometimes that never happens, at least for many times.”
Click to expand...

Before Stewart’s disappearance, there was Brenda Moore. She was another young black woman who police say disappeared in March of 1976 from an area where US 183 now runs on the east side. Her car was found in the 1900 block of Coleto Street–less than a block from where Stewart’s vehicle was found. Her car keys were in the vehicle, but she had vanished.

“There are some similarities here, but is there anything that’s definitive to say that the same thing happened to each female? No there’s not,” says Detective Tanya Jefferson.
Click to expand...

The other two cases mentioned in the article are Brenda Moore and Jennifer Joyce Barton
 
Hi,

That wasn't her. I am her sister and that didn't look like her the last time that I saw her.
 
Hi,

There a pic posted of an unidentified woman beside Debra’s picture, I’m my opinion, it wasn't her. I am her sister and that didn't look like her the last time that I saw her. I was 6 when she disappeared and I saw her a few weeks before she went missing. I have been looking for her for years. Thank you for keeping this site open and for sending in tips.
 
Hey ktrot0318,

Was just speculating wether she was pregnant at the time after reading this, or did she ever mention that? how was he relationshipwith her boyfriend at the time? He was investigated but they had nothing on him. I feel like she met somebody before she was heading to the university hospital. If she was pregnant, and she met him it makes full sense.

"Stewart was last seen in Austin, Texas on May 21, 1976. She was last seen leaving her job at Sears at the Hancock Center near Hyde Park. She said she felt sick and left work early, en route to a doctor's appointment at the University of Texas student health center, but never arrived there. She has never been heard from again. Her apartment was left in a neat, clean condition, and none of her belongings were missing"

Between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. the day after Stewart's disappearance, her car was found abandoned in the 1800 block of Ferdinand Street in east Austin, about a mile from her apartment. It was locked and the keys were in the ignition. Witnesses saw an African-American male, about 5'9 to 5'10 and 190 pounds, getting out of the car. He was neat-looking with short hair, wearing a long-sleeved button-down shirt and dark-colored casual pants.

"Stewart was a sophomore at the University of Texas in 1976, majoring in communications. She had a part-time job at a department store and a boyfriend. Police investigated the boyfriend, but found no evidence to tie him to Stewart's disappearance. Foul play is suspected in her case, which remains unsolved."


Here's where her abandoned car was found, Ferdinand St, which looks like a peaceful suburban street nobody would vistit unless they had business there,but its very close Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, so someone proabably just parked it there to dispose it. It probably looked diffrent back then.

Google Maps


From Hyde Park where whe worked to the university it's not far away at all, Just a few blocks. Ferdinand street is on the other side of Highway 35. Very close to Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
 
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