The death of Debbie Wolfe:

Debbie Wolfe was a nurse working at Fayetteville Veterans hospital in North Carolina. She lived alone in a small, isolated cabin around 4 miles on the outskirts of the city with her two dogs Morgan and Mason.

On the 25^th of December in 1985, she finished her shift to most likely make the drive back to her residence, but failed to show up for work the following morning, which was very out of character for the usually reliable Wolfe. The hospital could not contact Debbie despite making many phone calls, so after a few hours her mother (Jenny Edwards) and friend (Kevin Gorton) made the trip out to the cabin to check up on her. When they got there, the usually neat and clean property was left in a mess. 

(picture: Dr. Maurice Godwin)

Debbie’s immediate belongings were strewn throughout the house; her work uniform was found on the kitchen floor, her bag under her bed and empty beer cars were scattered out front.

They played back the messages on Debbie’s answer machine in hope of clues, and heard the voice of a man saying that he hoped Debbie didn’t miss any more days at work, implying that she had been absent, which was not the case. At the time they were listening to the message, Debbie had only been unaccounted for a few hours into her morning shift that day.

(picture: Dr. Maurice Godwin)

Family and friends knew of a male volunteer at the Veterans hospital who wanted to date Debbie, despite her rejection. She talked openly about the situation to those around her and had made it clear to the man that friendship would be as far as things would go between them. She also told him that she already had a boyfriend. He was briefly a suspect, and although he refused to take a polygraph test according to the sheriff’s department he did provide them with an alibi before skipping town for a week.

Another volunteer was also interested in Debbie. He too was apparently questioned and later cleared.

Debbie’s dogs, which she usually took very good care of, were loose outside on empty stomachs.

After surveying the property and briefly looking around the pond near the cabin, Debbie’s mother contacted the local police station: The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department. Captain Jack Watts was on the receiving end of the call and dispatched to the scene. 

Dogs searched around the general area but did not pick up anything. He did not order a search of the nearby pond, as he believed Jenny Edwards and Kevin Gorton had already done so, despite the fact that they did not have the means.

Frustrated at the Cumberland County Sheriff departments incompetence, Edwards and Gorton privately hired divers of their own to search the pond. Almost a week later, on the 1^st of January, Kevin Gorton and a friend of his found the body of Debbie wolf stuffed into a rusted metal oil drum in around 6ft of water.  

(picture: Dr. Maurice Godwin)

Footprints and drag lines were embedded into the mud on the bank.

Debbie’s mother recognized the drum as a barrel that Wolfe used to keep firewood in, near the porch next to the cabin. A quick inspection revealed that the barrel from the cabin was gone, leaving only a ring shaped indent where it used to be.

The following day an autopsy was performed and revealed death by drowning- however it could not be determined whether the drowning was accidental or if Wolfe was the victim of homicide.

The local sheriff’s department claimed it was probably accidental. The oil drum that Wolfe was discovered in also went missing, and police denied that she was even found in it, insisting that the divers had been mistaken.

Even more perplexing was the fact that the clothes Debbie was dressed in were either too large for her, or items that no one could ever remember her owning.

She was dressed in a bra that was too large, both in cup and back size, a Pittsburg Steelers shirt that no one had ever seen her wear, brown cords much too big for her and an army issue jacket- the origins of which could never be traced; however North Carolina has one of the largest United States Army installations, Fort-brag, home to the 82nd Airborne Division.

Debbie was also wearing men’s Nike sneakers two sizes too big for her, which had no mud from the river bank on them.

Police claimed that they interviewed a handful of patients from the hospital, but they lead nowhere.

What happened to Debbie Wolfe that night?

 

Dr.Maurice Godwin [ X ] 

Unsolved [ X ]

Youtube video [ X ]