Debbie Palmer
| Debbie Palmer | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Deborah Palmer 1951 |
| Disappeared |
September 8th, 1970 North Dallas, Texas |
| Education | Palm Springs High School Class of '69 |
| Occupation | Model |
| Height | 5' 8" |
| Weight | 139 lb (63 kg) |
| Parent(s) | Ann Palmer |
Debbie Palmer was the daughter of actress Ann Palmer and worked as a model in California and Texas before her [1] disappearance in the fall of 1970 shortly before her 19th birthday.
Early Life And Career
Debbie Palmer was born in 1951, the only child of actress and model Ann Palmer, becoming a single mother after leaving her alcoholic husband in Florida.[2] When Debbie was three years old her mother moved them from Dallas to Hollywood, where Debbie and her cousin Sharon grew up like best friends.[3] Debbie loved riding horses and competing in beauty pageants, she was a finalist in Miss California contest, the sweetheart of Mounted Police Rodeo in 1969[1] and "World's Ideal Miss" of the Red River District's Our Little Miss pageant in 1970.[4][5][6] She graduated from Palm Springs High School[1] while working as a model in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, California. She intended to start college but waited too late to register and so took a job in a Beverly Hills stock broker's office.[2] Shortly before her 19th birthday, Debbie returned to the Dallas area, getting an apartment with a friend in the Carrawood complex in North Dallas, where her neighbors crowned her "Miss Carrawood".[3]
Disappearance
The exact date of Debbie's disappearance is unknown, she intended to meet her mother in Dallas when her mother returned from Europe, however, Ann Palmer landed in California only to discover that in the meantime her daughter had gone missing in Texas. For the month prior to her disappearance, Debbie had been staying with the daughter of Jack LaLanne in Palm Springs, returning to Dallas only to meet her mother.[1]
Debbie Palmer was last seen at 8:30 p.m. on September 8, 1970, walking between apartments in the courtyard of the Carrawood Apartments.[1] When she was reported missing four days later, the Dallas police told her family that they could not do anything about it as Debbie was over 18 years of age,[3] despite the fact that within the previous year four other women had gone missing from the North Dallas area and been found dead, all beaten, stabbed, and mutilated before being left on the side of the road.[1][7][4][8] Her mother believed that if Debbie was abducted it would have been someone she knew, as she knew and was friends with almost everyone in the area.[1] At the end of September 1970, the Plano Police department called Ann Palmer to tell her that motorists discovered her daughter's suitcase and rings between Richardson and Plano, Texas.[4] The police just wanted Ann to come pick them up and when she did Ann noticed that some of Debbie's items were missing, including her purse.[1]
By April 1971, police in Texas suspected that they were dealing with a Serial killers or killers. Between Odessa and Dallas seven women had been murdered under similar circumstances and two, including Debbie, were missing.[4] Captain Robert O. Dixon, head of the Dallas Police Department's homicide division said, "... we may have two or three, or even more, maniacs running loose."[8] With the help of three psychiatrists a criminal profile was published in the local newspapers, "young man, 20-25, medium to small size, who recently suffered a severely damaging marital experience." [8][4] Debbie wasn't found alive or dead and there were no other leads, so the case went cold. Lack of publicity may have been a factor in the lack of leads, as late as May 1972, Debbie was still being expected at pageants in the area.[5]
Aftermath
In 1996, Sightings (TV series) featured Debbie's story, bringing in psychic detective Dorothy Allison who then worked with Palmer's family friend and former Sheriff of Carlton County, Texas, Roy Brockway. Brockway took Allison to Debbie's last known address as Allison wrote down her psychic impressions. According to Allison, Palmer was murdered by a jealous lover she had tried to break up the night of her disappearance and her body was dumped in a wooded area north of the area, the same area Debbie's suitcases had been found twenty-five years previous. She also wrote down several names, which were not made public but shown to Sharon (Debbie's cousin). Sharon confirmed that one of the names was the name of Debbie's boyfriend and that Debbie had confided in Sharon that she was going to "have a talk with him" about breaking up with him just before her disappearance. When Sharon took the psychic impressions to the Texas State Police with hopes that they would reopen the case based on them, Jim Chandler refused.[3]
In 2015, Debbie's mother, Ann Palmer wrote a book about her relationship with her daughter, Intermingled Destinies Between a Mother and Daughter.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Local Beauty Queen Missing in Texas." Desert Sun [Palm Springs] 13 Feb. 1971, 165th ed.: 1. California Digital Newspaper Collection. Web. 21 May 2017.
- 1 2 "Ann Palmer Intermingled Destinies Mother Daughter Autobiography Memoir". www.ccbpublishing.com. Retrieved 2017-05-21.
- 1 2 3 4 Sightings. Dir. David Weiss and Kathryn Douglas. Perf. Dale Timothy White. Paramount Television, 1996. Sightings S4E1. Paranormal Mysteries, 21 Jan. 2017. Web. 21 May 2017. 10:00-17:10
- 1 2 3 4 5 "Patterns Glimmer Briefly, Vanish in Murder Cases." Lubbock Avalanche Journal 14 Apr. 1971, sec. B: 11. NewspaperARCHIVE Elite [EBSCO]. Web. 22 May 2017.
- 1 2 "Pageant Set for Sat." Burkburnett Informer/Star 18 May 1972: 5.NewspaperARCHIVE Elite [EBSCO]. Web. 22 May 2017.
- ↑ "OLM Queen History". Our Little Miss, Inc. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
- ↑ "Pageant Finalist Missing". Lubbock Avalanche Journal. October 10, 1971. p. 58.
- 1 2 3 Cochran, Mike. "Seven Unsolved Murders May Be Work of One Killer." Corpus Christi Times 13 Apr. 1971, sec. B: 3. NewspaperARCHIVE Elite [EBSCO]. Web. 22 May 2017.