Monday, February 27, 2012

Child Killer in New Hampshire

Debra Lee Horn
After four decades, Debra Lee Horn murder case is unsolved
by Robert A. Waters

On the morning of January 29, 1969, in Allenstown, New Hampshire, eleven-year-old Debra Lee Horn walked up the driveway toward her school bus stop. Before she reached it, however, she slipped on the ice and fell. Helped by her brother, she returned to her house and told her parents she’d hurt her neck. She asked to stay home that day and they reluctantly agreed. Her father later said he thought she wasn’t really hurt but just wanted to skip school.

Debra's brother went back out to catch the bus and both her parents left to go to work. The last time they saw Debra, described as a “frail, brown-eyed girl with a pixie haircut,” she was lying on the couch with a blanket covering her.

Her parents returned home at noon to find the front door wide-open. An Associated Press article reported: “Debra’s coat and boots were in place and the blanket was tossed on the couch. She was gone. Her two pet poodles, who would have trailed along behind her, were in the house.”

New Hampshire State Police investigators had few leads. In the driveway, they did discover a tire track. A police spokesman told reporters they were looking for a car with “studded snow tires.” A report came in that someone had seen a girl who looked like Debra with a man buying gasoline at a nearby service station. It turned out that the customer was a local resident who had his daughter in tow. Searchers found human blood beside a highway two miles from Debra’s house, but since DNA was unknown at the time, detectives couldn't determine its origin.

Debra's mother and father took to the local airways to plead for their daughter's safe return. The sobbing mother said: "Only God in His infinite wisdom knows at this moment where and how Debbie is..."

Police, firefighters, and civilians formed human chains to hunt the frigid area around Allenstown. Plodding over snow-banks and icy creeks, exploring empty homes and vacant cars, the searchers refused to quit. Day after day, they came up empty. Finally, in late February, heavy snows locked in the region and the search ground to a halt.

In late March, a woman reported seeing the body of a blonde-haired girl floating in the Merrimack River at Manchester. Two-man teams of state troopers searched the banks while others used aluminum boats powered by outboard motors to check the river from Manchester to Tyngsboro, Massachusetts. Shooting hazardous rapids and dodging dangerous ice-floes, they found nothing.

Finally, on August 10, three teenage boys exploring an abandoned 1952 Plymouth in Sandown, New Hampshire opened the trunk and discovered a decomposed body. One teen told a reporter: “We thought at first it was a dummy.” The sad remains of Debra Lee Horn had been located. She was completely nude. Her clothes, a light gold jumper, a white turtleneck jersey, and gold knee-length stockings, were missing. Debra's grieving parents identified a gold ring and a silver ear-ring she wore.

Attorney General Norman D’Amours reported that “there was an indication of some trauma to the back of the head. Although the doctor could not state positively that this mark...was a trauma, it appeared very probably that such was the case.” No one could determine whether the trauma to the head was the result of the fall she'd taken or a homicidal blow.

Regardless of the cause of death, someone took the child from her home, removed her clothes, and stuffed her body in the trunk of an old car 25 miles away.

Even though investigators continued to work occasional leads, they never developed a viable suspect. The case eventually went cold.

Decades passed. A few years ago, the New Hampshire Department of Justice created a website to publicize cold cases. Debra Horn's unsolved murder is included.

Who abducted Debra Lee Horn from her home in icy Allenstown, New Hampshire? My guess is that it was a crime of opportunity, a random act by someone who came to the door. Maybe a salesman, or a friend of the family. Finding the child alone, he kidnapped, raped, and murdered her.

Unless some unknown clue surfaces or someone confesses, this random killer got away with cold-blooded murder.

At least two other unsolved murders of young girls occurred in New Hampshire between 1968 and 1971.

On June 11, 1968, Joanne Dunham, 15, disappeared from Charleston as she was walking to school. Her body was found the following day on a dirt road in Unity. The coroner determined that she had been sexually assaulted and died of asphyxiation.

On November 21, 1971, Kathy Lynn Gloddy, 13, vanished from downtown Franklin. The next day, searchers located her body in a wooded area five miles away. She'd been brutally raped. Cause of death was blunt force trauma to the neck, head, and abdomen.

Kathy Lynn Gloddy

15 comments:

anon said...

Have you heard anything about what happened about the man and his son who were questioned as suspects a few years later?

Debbie's case has haunted me for decades. Her family went to our church, and she was a friend of my older sister. I was 7 when she disappeared. I cannot even begin to imagine what kind of hell her family has been through. My heart goes out to them.

When Debbie disappeared, as I recall, one of the indicators that she did not go voluntarily was that she had a favorite little pocket comb that she always took everywhere with her. It had her favorite Bible verse imprinted on it. That comb was left behind.

At her funeral, the small coffin and her framed portrait photo propped nearby, seemed impossibly cold compared to the sweet, vibrant girl she'd been.

My family moved out of state a few years later and I heard nothing more. After all these years, I assumed they'd surely found her killer. It's horrific to realize that that monster still hasn't been brought to justice.

Robert A. Waters said...

anon has left a new comment on your post "Child Killer in New Hampshire":

Have you heard anything about what happened about the man and his son who were questioned as suspects a few years later?

Debbie's case has haunted me for decades. Her family went to our church, and she was a friend of my older sister. I was 7 when she disappeared. I cannot even begin to imagine what kind of hell her family has been through. My heart goes out to them.

When Debbie disappeared, as I recall, one of the indicators that she did not go voluntarily was that she had a favorite little pocket comb that she always took everywhere with her. It had her favorite Bible verse imprinted on it. That comb was left behind.

At her funeral, the small coffin and her framed portrait photo propped nearby, seemed impossibly cold compared to the sweet, vibrant girl she'd been.

My family moved out of state a few years later and I heard nothing more. After all these years, I assumed they'd surely found her killer. It's horrific to realize that that monster still hasn't been brought to justice.

Chris_JP said...

I remember this case from when I was in the first grade. The sad fact is that it was forty-four years ago, and it is possible that the killer has gone to his grave without ever having been apprehended. If he is still alive, he is too old to care.

Robin said...

I'd always heard that it may have been Robert Breest - the murderer who is now trying DNA evidence to get out of prison. Supposedly he was part of a construction crew working on the house next door or her house - can't remember which. I was 9 at the time, lived in another town not that far away and NEVER pretended to be sick to stay home from school again!

Ashley86 said...

this case has always made me sick to my stomach myrtle which was debbies mother was my mothers cousin she was an amazing woman and to have had this happen and have had no resolution or answers before she eventually passed away is so sad, it amazes me because i have a 5 year old now and she bares alot of resemblence to debbie i know the hope is scarce but i hope one day this case can finally be solved

Ashley

Ashley86 said...

This case is so sad debbie would have been my 3rd cousin , myrtle her mother , was my mothers first cousin. Myrtle was an amazing woman it makes me so sad that she never got any answers before she passed a few years back im glad she gets to be with her in heaven at least , but i hope one day they can find some answers. i now have a daughter who has a resemblence to debbie , and it haunts me to think we only live about 20 min from where debbie was kidnapped

Ashley86 said...

This case is so sad debbie would have been my 3rd cousin , myrtle her mother , was my mothers first cousin. Myrtle was an amazing woman it makes me so sad that she never got any answers before she passed a few years back im glad she gets to be with her in heaven at least , but i hope one day they can find some answers. i now have a daughter who has a resemblence to debbie , and it haunts me to think we only live about 20 min from where debbie was kidnapped

Steve Decato said...

Seems like there may be a relationship between these murders and the Bear Brook murders, also Alenstown. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Brook_murders
I was 10 at the time and remember the fear it brought me living not far from there.

Unknown said...

I'm curious if they ever ran the registration to the 1952 Plymouth car. What connection might there have been between the owner of the car and the murderer. Also, does anyone know where in Sandown the car was found?

Unknown said...

I'm curious to know if there was a connection between the 1952 Plymouth car and the murderer, was the registration ran on this car? Also where in Sandown was the car found? At that time in was a small, undeveloped town and one would have to have been familiar with it. Maybe have relatives that live there or live there themselves?

Ronny McCoy said...

Hi,
I was a student at Allenstown Ele. when Debbie came into my class back then. I want to clear something up in regards to Debbie's neck or somewhere in the back of her head.First of all, I am so sorry that Debbie had lost her life in such a way,I cried that day while listening to the Channel Nine news.
There was this guy in class who sat behind me and I do know who he was at the time and I know since then he has changed his name and his Local. Anyway, sometime or other, he decided to approach Debbie and when she was not looking, he pulled Debbie's chair from underneath her and she slid down to the floor real hard and hit the back of her head real hard and there was blood flowing down but I do not remember how much. Its been too many years back. I am also unable to recall if she had left class or not. No one else said a word about the situation and so I didn't either. I figured Debbie would report him. Finally, I looked towards him and he was laughing so hard that his face turned as red as a Tomato should I say.I couldn't understand him at that time. But, this is what happened to Debbie before she was kidnapped and murdered. GOD bless you Debbie.

Unknown said...

Did they ever find the person who killed Debbie Horn I do remember when it happened in 1969 and I do remember hearing they Took her body to Peabody Funeral Home in Derry New Hampshire both her parents are gone now Debbie will still be alive now if She went to school that day on January 29, 1969

Deb said...

Wondering if they ever looked for a link with Victor George Wonyetye Jr. who was more closely linked to 2 other 8-year-old girls - one in NH and one in Florida (He moved to Florida and was in a store where an 8-year-old disappeared from) He allegedly told his cellmate that he had killed those two girls.

The reason I am wondering about it is that he had a history of sexual assault of minors, petty larceny, and forced entry going back to 1960. Plus, Debra and Tammy had both been walking to bus stops as part of their stories, and the girl in Florida was also walking alone, so it seems like a similar way of choosing a victim. He worked at an autobody place and Debra was found in the trunk of a car. I don't know if they ever identified whose car it was but someone working in autobody would have access to junk cars and people tend to stay within a comfort zone for how they commit crimes and dispose of bodies.

Deb said...

Wondering if they still have anything from that time period.

Recently, Gray Hughes Investigates and Identifinders teamed up and solved the oldest John Doe case even though the DNA had degraded because the technique Identifinders used doesn't need nearly as much DNA. It gives new hope to cases where there might have been something, anything to look at but where older techniques had not been affective.

SapphireFae said...

Hello everyone! I have been researching Debora's case for a project i'm completing and I've scoured just about every public record, phonebook, newspaper article, or blog post regarding the case. I even contacted the Allenstown Police Department. Now I am hoping to come into contact with her brother, Kenneth Horn Jr. If he is willing. I would like to tell her story as honestly and respectfully as I can. If anyone has any info or knew the family personally you can email me at tsukiami.mpg@gmail.com

thank you!