Yet another year goes by & sadly, there is still no justice for Debbie. I must say that, its nothing short of mind-boggling to me that, no progress has been made in this case, for all these years. Its been about a year since I last revisited this case [ due to the 40th anniversary] & with that time of the year approaching again, I decided to comb through all the articles & jog through all the notes that Ive taken over the decades, from actual people around at that time & re-analyze just what my thoughts are on this case, now. One things is for sure, though. 41 years have went by & there hasn't been an arrest made & there are still no publicized, concrete answers to this case. I say "publicized" only because in my opinion { & I have been personally told } LE have always known, with zero doubt, who committed this crime, they just could never prove it. Then again, maybe not. Ill get back to this....
During the time of the 40th anniversary last year & with the social media coverage it received, I happened to come across a person that personally knew the original lead investigator of the case. Without delving too much into how this encounter came about, this person told me that this case haunted the LI all the way up until his death, some years ago & that he also spent many, many years after the murder occurred, completely entrenched with solving the case. The case had never stopped being his passion. Of course now, this is just what I was told so, I took it with a proverbial grain of salt, naturally. Although, if that statement were to be true, it could be interpreted in 2 different ways. 1] They really didn't know who the killer was, or 2] They did know the killer's identity & they just were waiting for that 1 key piece of solid evidence to arise, to make an arrest.
Recently, a few things have began to stick out for me, regarding the coverage of this case. If you carefully read through all the newspaper articles throughout the years, there are so many glaring mistakes with the presentation of this story. Was it intentional? Not only that but, there was never any in depth coverage of this story ( atleast that of which was printed)! 40 years worth of a few Journalism 101 paragraphs was all anybody really gathered of this story. With all due respect, they really dropped the ball on this case because, nobody wanted to step up to the plate & report the story that needed to be told. Its almost as if they were afraid to ask questions for fear of the answers that they would actually get. As a matter of fact, I believe that, one of the reasons this case was never solved was because, the entire FACTUAL story was never bestowed upon the eyes of the community at large & the followers of this case. Sure, I can understand the legal ramifications of name-dropping & the public knowledge of key elements of the case but, there are so many pieces of this story that have been cloaked in secrecy for 40 years & that alone, is such a terrible shame. The real question is WHY? Why did the local media treat this story like it was just some periodic itch, that needed to be scratched just to morally soothe the injustice of a dead child, in Smalltown USA. Lets face it, this tragic story was only covered a hand-full of times, especially 6 months after the crime was committed, in a 40 year span. Let me repeat that again; An innocent, young child was raped & murdered in a very small town & the murderer has been walking about amongst everybody, freely for 40 years. Yah, that's only worth a few paragraphs every 10 years. Seriously? This just strikes me as being very odd.
Some New Thoughts:
In the 40 years of reporting of this story, Ive noticed that the news reporters, other than once that I can recall, have only interviewed & published the statements of LE investigators, County Coroner & immediate family members, regarding this case? Why didn't they ever bother to interview & publish the statements of actual search party members? Members of the Fire Department? The men who ran the bloodhounds through the area? The cousins who found Debbie? The Neighbors? In all fairness though, it was once reported that the majority of the local community wanted no part in the aiding of any information to the media, due in large to fear maybe??? How incredibly strange. In any regard, Isnt it always in the best interest of a story, to report multiple insights & aspects of the story? That just didn't happen here & Ill touch back on why, below.
LE has never publicly offered up any theory / theories on what they actually believe happened. I find this to be extremely interesting. I can understand that they would have wanted to keep the cards of this case close to their chest in the beginning but, after 40 years? It just doesn't make any sense to me as to why they wouldn't even offer up what they truly believed happened, leading up to the discovery of Debbie, on that Sunday morning. Maybe they have been waiting for the perpetrator to somehow slip up, in these past 40 years or maybe a witness to come forward, or maybe.....well, who knows? Once again, when most of the factual, key points of information are kept under a veil of secrecy, one can only speculate.
The new lead investigator in this case stated in 2013 that, he planned on asking for consent to take DNA swabs of those that were still viable suspects. WHY did it take 26 years to do this? News outlets reporting this case have publicly stated that, DNA testing technology has been available since 1987. I also find it odd that the reporters themselves didn't ask LE why it has taken 26 years to finally get around to swab test these suspects.
I personally know / knew a few of the men who helped searched for Debbie that weekend, in the exact area where she was discovered & I can say with utter certainty that, I unquestionably believe them when they said, she definitely wasn't in that shallow grave on Friday or Saturday. Even after all these years, these men's accounts & their unwavering certainty of her body not being there on Friday & Saturday, is absolutely concrete in their memories & in the delivery of their stories. Although, all of these accounts have been denounced by LE & the then County Coroner. Before the age of DNA / forensics testing, LE & CC we quoted in stating that, they simply didn't believe her body had been placed in her makeshift grave, only prior to her discovery on that Sunday morning. Recently as of 2013, they have both been quoted in saying that, it was forensically impossible & that her body had remained in the same makeshift grave since sometime Friday & that all the searchers simply overlooked her. While I don't doubt & highly respect the expertise of LE & the then CC in their respective careers, I personally, will never believe that she was merely overlooked by that many searchers for 2 days, especially after hearing eyewitness accounts of good, honest men that I knew that were involved in the search & while I may be ultimately wrong in my belief of that, that is what I believe.
If this murder was the doing of a serial child rapist/killer, why havent they struck again, within that area in the past 40 years? To the very best of my knowledge, there has never been another instance of anything remotely resembling this case, in this small area, ever since Debbie's murder. This brings me to another statement made by the lead investigator of the case in 2013. It was stated that there were atleast 3 viable suspects currently alive. I solely believe that, I know the identity of 1 of these suspects & this person is still alive & of an older age. 2 other persons of interest, whom solely I have thought were suspects, are both dead as well. That being said, the 2 other suspects mentioned by LE in 2013, are still alive & would lead me to think that they were of an adolescent age at the time of the murder. Personally, I have a hard time believing this theory simply for the fact that I cannot possibly fathom 2 younger persons carrying out a crime of this magnitude & getting away with it for all these years but, its obvious that LE definitely knows more about these suspects, then what they have publicized for the past 40 years. Maybe these 2 other living suspects just had the backing of good lawyers & solid alibis. Pure speculation.
Major Discrepancies In The Publicized Facts Of The Case ( & Was it Intentional?)
http://www.heraldstandard.com/gcm/n...cle_8c6e569b-6b8d-55ef-aeae-7a688786b928.html
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...RNFdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bl4NAAAAIBAJ&pg=847,1304530
http://www.newspapers.com/image/63839184/
http://www.newspapers.com/image/27662709/?terms=debbie+makel
http://www.heraldstandard.com/gcm/n...cle_8c6e569b-6b8d-55ef-aeae-7a688786b928.html
http://www.observer-reporter.com/ap...131009/NEWS02/131009302/0/SEARCH#.VAOWn9Eg9jo
http://www.newspapers.com/image/19946005/?terms=debbie+makel
In some articles, LE claims she only made it only to her house, not inside of her house. Others claim her school books, house key & her coat were found outside of her house. Listed below are just some of the other discrepancies listed in the above articles:
Who delivered the bowl of plums to the house?
Were the bowl of plums delivered inside or outside of the house?
Just what she was strangled with?
What clothing was discovered at the crime scene?
Was the cellar door simply unlocked or was it completely open?
http://www.newspapers.com/image/43052829/?terms=debbie+makel
In this article, the newspaper actually says that LE did speculate that Debbie's body was indeed placed in the makeshift grave, sometime Saturday night.
Was it Debbie's leg protruding from the pile of brush or was it a brightly colored sock that attracted the attention of her cousins?
As of 1980, LE claimed to have a file on the case that was the size of a Pittsburgh phone book. As of 2013, LE claims they have 7 - 6 inch binders & an entire cardboard box of compiled information on the case. It would just seem to me that, most of the information on this case would have been gathered during the first 7 years, whilst the case was still "fresh". rather than in the past 33 years. I would also tend to believe that most of the information gathered in the past 33 years are the claims of every nut-job in the world, claiming to be the killer. Ultimately, I believe the most pertinent clues & information collected in this case were achieved within weeks, maybe a month, after the murder & LE has been dissecting & re-dissecting the same, infinitely small amount of pertinent clues for 40 years, therefore just resulting in LE hitting the same brickwall, over & over.
In closing, being a spectator on the outside & looking in, there are simply just too many variables & unknowns in this case to ever really know who the killer was & what exactly happened in the following 36 hours, from Debbie's initial disappearance to the discovery of her body on that Sunday morning, although I absolutely believe that there are still people alive, who could definitely shed a new light upon this case. Tragically, they've just chosen not to participate for 41 years. I also personally believe & am very confident in saying that, LE definitely knew exactly what happened, how it happened & ultimately who committed this crime. LE probably could have gambled & made an arrest but, they could just never establish enough concrete evidence for what they & the DA knew would mount a solid conviction. This also furthers my notion into believing that whoever was responsible had the means to great legal representation & more importantly, an ironclad alibi along with credible witnesses to back up their alibi. That's just pure speculation though. I also strongly believe that LE purposely used & still continue to use the newspapers to create a lot of misdirection & confusion ( read again above), as 1 last resort to maybe trick the killer into thinking that they were/are off of his trail & he may just finally somehow slip up. Personally, these are the only logical reasonings I can accept as to why, this case has never been solved.
