After a night out with a new love interest in May 1986, 25-year-old Debra Sue Moore was fatally stabbed steps outside her date’s apartment door. Police quickly zeroed in on her estranged husband as a suspect, but a string of attacks on several other women in the same area during the same week forced them to consider whether a serial predator could be to blame for Debra’s death.
Courtesy of Odessa Crimestoppers
Episode Info
If you have any information about the death of Debra Sue Moore, please contact Detective Lauren Gonzales at 432-335-4926. You can also call Odessa Crimestoppers at 432-333-TIPS.
Det. Gonzales is especially interested in hearing from anyone who may have seen Debra at The Brewery bar in Odessa on the evening of May 16, 1986. She believes the following people may have been there and hopes to speak with them: Larry Reimer, Connie Bean, Johnny Williams, Pat Ward, Lynn Stanford, Gina Wessels and Rhonda Crawford.
If you or anyone you know is experiencing domestic violence, you can reach out to the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE. Resources are available and can be found at this link.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, help is available. You can reach the National Sexual Assault Hotline by chat or by phone at 1-800-656-HOPE.
Foreground: Debra Sue Moore with her children, Bert and Brandi Williams, before her 1986 death. Background: Bert Williams and Brandi Williams. Photo taken by audiochuck staff
Debra Sue Moore’s children, Bert and Brandi Williams, review family photos with Odessa Police Det. Lauren Gonzales. Photo taken by audiochuck staff
Debra Sue Moore was stabbed near this entryway at the Viva apartments in the early morning hours of May 17, 1986. Photo taken by audiochuck staff
Odessa Police Cold Case Det. Lauren Gonzales reviews Debra Sue Moore’s file. Photo taken by audiochuck staff
Debra Sue Moore went on a date to The Brewery bar in Odessa, Texas on May 16, 1986 in the hours before she was stabbed to death outside the Viva apartments. Photo taken by audiochuck staff
Det. Gonzales says a University of Texas Permian Basin student was sexually assaulted five days before Debra Sue Moore’s death in this field next to the campus entrance, a little over half a mile from the Viva apartments. Photo taken by audiochuck staff
A map created by Odessa police shows 15 crimes targeting women occurred in 1985 and ’86 in the area where Debra Sue Moore was killed. Courtesy of Det. Lauren Gonzales & Odessa Police Dept.