The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts. All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages. Listener discretion is advised. I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski. And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski. And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases. Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing. I'm Ali. And I'm Eli.
Welcome back, everyone. Thank you all so much for hanging with us. I know not last week, but the week before we missed a week because we were having technical difficulties. I don't know if we've ever talked about it on here, but we do the podcast all on an iPad and one microphone, so it's really a shoestring setup over here, a very good one. But sometimes things just don't work.
Yeah, it's very incredible week after week to witness my wife do this investigative research and put these stories together for us, real stories of so many people's loved ones. It's very incredible work to not only watch her do it, but to see how she does it and the setup we've managed to make in our home to bring you this podcast. So it means a lot when the listeners stick around and our understanding of life happening.
But with that, I think we should just go ahead and get into this week's episode. Yeah, we are on episode 103 this week. So just as a bit of a content warning at the top, this case does involve a young person and there are mentions of sexual assault. Today we are talking about the cold case of Deborah Makel and this takes place on October 5th, 1973 in Rice's Landing, Pennsylvania. But first a little bit about Deborah.
Deborah, who also goes by Debbie, so I'll switch back and forth throughout the podcast, was eight years old in 1973. She has two older brothers and they all attend Dry Tavern Elementary School, where Debbie is a third grader. All of her teachers say that she is an exceptionally bright student. She got straight A's. Debbie is a bubbly and outgoing young lady. She loved dancing. She was taking classes in tap and ballet. She lived with her family at the end of a dead end road.
Behind her house was a field. Her father was a teacher at a nearby school and her mother worked in a textile factory. Her father also raised hunting dogs and had several in the backyard. They liked this quiet community. Debbie's parents, Charlotte and Duane, thought that this was the perfect place to raise their kids where they could go and explore the woods and the creek that ran nearby and just have everything available to them. And now a timeline of events.
Friday, October 5th, 1973. Deborah spends the day at school. Nothing really out of the ordinary is reported about her school day. On that particular Friday, Debbie was going to ride the bus home and her older brothers were allowed to walk home. This is something that the older kids at their school were allowed to do, but since Debbie was younger, she had to ride the bus. Her older brothers took their time walking home that day.
They were either trying to sell candy or magazines as part of a school fundraiser. At around 340 p.m. Debbie's brothers were about a quarter of a mile away from the dead end road where their house was. They see the school bus stopping at the end of the road and letting Debbie off. A jogger in the area also saw Debbie at the end of the road. A few minutes later, however, a neighbor who was outside mowing the grass saw Debbie enter the family home. Debbie would have arrived to an empty home.
Her mother Charlotte was still at work at the textile factory but would be home within the hour. And her dad was a teacher at another school, but he would be home shortly after the mom. Debbie lets herself inside of the home with her key. She picks up plums that were left on the porch by one of her grandparents and brings it inside and drops her books off. When her brothers arrive about 20 minutes later at 4 p.m. Debbie isn't there.
Her books and keys are there, but her brothers don't really make any note of this. This was pretty normal for Debbie to turn around and go outside to play with her friends. As Debbie's parents get home, they begin making dinner. And as the night goes on and dinner is ready, Debbie doesn't show up. She knew to be home by dinner. Debbie's mom Charlotte and her dad DeWayne begin to call friends in the neighborhood to ask if Debbie is there.
For some people who didn't have a phone, they drive over looking for their daughter. Each phone call and each visit, more and more people start looking for Debbie and helping Charlotte and DeWayne out to look for her. They even have an announcement made at the high school Friday night football game that was happening down the road at Jefferson Morgan High School. After the announcement, folks in the stands started leaving to come help look for the little girl.
When they still cannot find any sign of her, they fear that she got lost in the nearby woods and they call the local fire department at around 7.30 p.m. to ask for help in the search. Fire and police show up and begin to look for the little girl. All of the neighbors and friends are also out looking and around 250 to 300 folks were searching in the near freezing temperatures all through the night. It does appear that at some point in this night search, two men were discovered.
They said they were out squirrel hunting. It's unclear what happened to the men after this short questioning, but people did find it odd that two men would be squirrel hunting in the middle of the night and squirrel season didn't start until the next week. As folks continue to search throughout the night and into the next day, Saturday, October 6th. As the sun started to break, police came up with a search plan since there had still been no sign of the little girl.
Police will launch a helicopter that day to help them aid and cover more ground and police also bring in scent dogs to try to pick up on any trail of Debbie and still no sign of her is found. As night begins to fall on that Saturday, police suspend the search for the evening with plans to resume the next day. On Sunday, October 7th, Debbie has been missing for two days now. Another search was getting organized and ready to start.
More of Debbie's family had come into town, including two of her cousins. They set out before the rest of the group because they were anxious to start looking for her. And about 15 minutes later, at 1020 a.m., her cousin see a small leg with a green stocking sticking out from under branches only a few hundred yards from her home.
As police removed the branches and brush that were covering her, she was found laying next to the foundation of the ruins of an old distillery right near Pumpkin Run Creek. As police recover Debbie, she still has on her dress that she was last seen wearing, but it's torn. According to the Pennsylvania State Police, she also had a pillowcase covering her head. Her black shoes, blue underwear, and pink purse were all missing and have never been recovered.
She still had rope around her neck and there were rope burns underneath that. Debbie's body is sent for an autopsy. The autopsy confirms that Debbie died by strangulation with the rope. It also shows that she had been sexually assaulted. The coroner at the time said the bruises on her face indicated that she was killed before she was raped. Immediately, people are on edge. All of the people who were searching are sure that they would have spotted her the day before if she had been there.
She was so close to the family home. One searcher who grew up in the area, Forest West, said, quote, I stood right at the burial site twice and the branches and the body weren't here, end quote. Police also say a lot in the media at this time that Debbie was dragged to where her body was found. I don't know if this is just a poor choice of words or if they literally mean her body showed evidence of being dragged.
Police believe that Debbie did die on Friday, the day she went missing, but she wasn't found until Sunday. Over the next few days, the community is shocked by the violent crime. Family and friends flock to comfort Debbie's parents and her surviving brothers. The whole community is on edge. The head teacher at her elementary school says, quote, they're worried. They can't understand how something like this could happen here.
They can't believe that someone around here who'd do a thing like that, end quote. One thing that the police and the community feel certain of is that a stranger could not have wandered into their small town without being noticed. The person who killed and assaulted Debbie would have had to be a local. No one recalls seeing an out of place vehicle that day, and it would have taken somebody with knowledge of the area to get in and out without being seen.
And on top of this, none of the neighbors heard Debbie's dad's hunting dogs barking or making any commotion in the backyard. On Wednesday, October 10th, just five days after disappearing, Debbie is laid to rest. Police beg the public to come forward with any and all information, no matter how small. The police say, quote, we may be able to tie it in with something else, end quote. Police are chasing down every lead and tip that they get, but they all fizzle out in the end.
The coroner tells the perpetrator to turn himself in, quote, it would be best for him to do that. We're going to get him. If not today, tomorrow, end quote. As the days drag on, a concerned citizen offers a thousand dollar reward for information. She and other members of the community go door to door to try to collect more donations and information. They're able to raise $4,000 for the reward fund very quickly, but they find that very few folks want to talk.
In this area, people keep to themselves and they don't trust the police. By October 26th, so it's been 21 days since Debbie's murder, and police say that they have interviewed over 800 people to try to track down the killer, but they still have no suspects in the case. Police say, quote, we're asking everyone to cast back in their memories to see if they can remember some details of that Friday afternoon, which they may have overlooked, end quote.
With Halloween around the corner, the community decides that with Debbie's killer on the loose, it would be better to have a daytime parade that ended in an area where treats would be passed out to kids. Parents are keeping a watchful eye on their children, walking them to the bus stop and standing guard while they play outside. The coroner on the case says, quote, until this happened, we never thought of things like this. Our kids playing in the fields and explore the woods and creeks.
Now I'm afraid parents have become very aware of what has happened, end quote. As 1974 rolls around, so it's been over three months since Debbie's murder, and there are still no suspects in the case or even people of interest. Police are still convinced that it was somebody local, or someone who had lived in the area and has ties to it. Many fear that the killer actually helped them search for Debbie the night she went missing.
At the one year anniversary in October of 1974, police are no closer to finding who killed Debbie than the day they found her body. They do reveal a couple more facts, however. Police say that two hours before Debbie arrived at home from school the day that she was murdered, a man stopped by the family home to inquire about buying one of the hunting dogs Debbie's dad had raised. Duane had placed an ad in the newspaper mentioning that they were for sale.
The man said he knocked at the front door and thought he saw a drape move back momentarily, but no one answered the door. And at this time, nobody should be home. Both of her parents are at work and the children are at school. Neighbors said they didn't see any strange cars or people at the house that day. But there was a burgundy car seen in the area which did not belong to anyone in the community. Outside of these new details, there is nothing to report and the months turn into years.
Debbie's story surfaces in newspapers occasionally, usually around the anniversary of her death, but no new details emerge and no new suspects are mentioned by police. By 1980, police still consider this case active. Quote, we're still getting leads all the time. Right now I have a file on this case about as thick as the Pittsburgh phone book. Nothing might come from these little pieces of information we still get. End quote. However, years and years continue to pass.
In 2003, so it's been 30 years since the murder of Debbie, and her parents still live in the same home. They have pictures of her on the mantle, but they're never able to add new photos of her. The community and Debbie's family still want answers and justice in this case. Debbie's mom Charlotte says, quote, you go on, but you never get past it. The fact that you have no clues, no answers is what makes it so hard. End quote. Police do have some new leads as of 2003.
A man serving jail time for two different homicides said that he had information about Debbie's murder and he did have ties to Pennsylvania. The man is never ID'd by police. Police in 2003 say that they are working on verifying the man's story to see if they can link him to the crime scene through DNA. Police have been using advances in technology to test her clothing and other evidence gathered at the scene. And based off of this, that makes me think that there is a DNA profile.
But according to Debbie's family on social media, the police have never confirmed to them if they've been able to do DNA testing. But that is truly all we know about the murder of Debbie Makel in 1973. So if you know anything, please call the Pennsylvania State Police Waynesburg Station at 724-627-6151. So that is the case of Debbie Makel I think what saddens me most about this case is that this is every parent's, you know, worst nightmare.
And to lose your child in such a way and for your child to be taken from you and for that statement to just have a forever connection to your child, like my mind I think almost wants to try to make it not real. I think when listening to this story is I don't want to believe that it's real. But unfortunately it is. And you do such an incredible job with introducing us to who these people are, even when they're children, especially when they're children.
I love that we get to learn about what kind of kid she was, because she sounded awesome and like a great classmate and sister and friend. And I'm very grateful to know her name now. Yeah, it's always so important to me to really understand who, every case we cover, who the people are and what their life was like. Because while the ending of their life is tragic and still a mystery that needs answers, they were so much more than just the last moments of their lives. All of them, all of them.
They've lived full, rich, incredible lives up until the very end. And I think they deserve people to know that part of them and that part of their life as well. Something that I really appreciated about this community was that they are exactly that, a community of people, and they really came through for this family, especially the announcement at the football game and everyone gathering from there and the search just continuing from there. I was very moved to hear that.
And I loved that there was a call to action and the people answered. Yeah, I have a really clear mental image of like, all these people getting up from football stands to leave, of just like, okay, this is what we have to go do now. And yeah, incredible community. Honestly, this is one of the first times where I've heard of so many people and police searching through the night, all the way through the night. Usually they kind of suspend the search once it gets dark, but not here.
They searched all night for Debbie that first night. Circling back to the beginning of the timeline, my first question was, what time does Debbie board the bus and is it the same time every day? I don't have a clear answer on what time she boards the bus. What I do know is that the elementary school was maybe a mile away, some reports say two miles, but if her brothers were walking home, I would think it's a little bit closer to the one mile range.
We do know that she is seen getting off the bus at 340 to walk to her house down the dead end road. I think my question is rooted in trying to figure out if there is a pattern here, which school letting out at the same time every day is a pattern. So to me, that says someone who committed this crime very well could have been a community member because they would have known that time of when the windows of opportunity were.
Absolutely. You know, it was October, so by that time, you know, kids are usually in school for at least a month, depending on when they start. And when her brothers arrive home at 4pm, about 20 minutes after they saw her getting off the bus, they weren't worried that she wasn't there. So it does seem like the schedule or what was usual was that, you know, Debbie would get there first, she had to ride the bus, and then she would go outside and play. So everything seemed normal.
Nothing really stood out until she didn't show up for dinner. My second question was, this is more for proxemics, but what neighbor saw her? Was it a neighbor across the street, down the way, a few houses down, right next door? Because I think that changes the just view and vantage point, like that the neighbor would have had for a visual on her. So from my understanding, Debbie's house was the last house at that time on this dead end street. So she would have been at the end.
And the neighbor, I'm not sure exactly which neighbor it would have been. But I do believe that again, at this time, it's different now, but at this time in 1973, there were only four houses on this short dead end road with Debbie's house being at the end. On our Instagram, we'll have a picture of Debbie's house at this time. And you'll get more of a visual with the field behind her and then, or excuse me, just behind the home and then just beyond that field is where her body was found.
Until you mentioned the person going up to the door and maybe seeing curtains move, what I had written down was that really only left 20 minutes for someone to strike. That was the small window I had narrowed it down to within the timeframes of everything you had spoken about at that point. So I just wanted to talk about that with you a little bit.
Yeah. So there is the story of, you know, the guy coming to the door and seeing the drape move during the middle of the day when nobody should have been home. It is about 20 minutes from the time that Debbie is seen by her brothers and the jogger and the neighbor to when her brothers arrive and notice that she's not at their family home. But I do think that there could be like a bigger timeframe than just that 20 minutes.
The police and her brothers say that there were no signs of struggle in the home. Everything looked out of place except for her things which were set down, which was normal from my understanding. But if she had gone outside to play with a friend and maybe got intercepted on the way to the friend's house or on the way to the woods to go play or wherever she might have been heading, that just kind of opens up that timeframe.
So could be that 20 minutes, but it could be a little bit longer because we don't really know what happened after she walked into her house. Nobody saw her leave again. This kind of veers away from the timeline, but I think they're worth mentioning again. The squirrel hunters. The squirrel hunters. It is mentioned in several newspaper reports about these hunters.
It seems like the searchers came upon them in the middle of the night in the woods and they said they were out scoping squirrels, hunting squirrels, which people found strange. Squirrel season was six days away, I think, and it was the middle of the night. And I also believe that nobody saw their car, like these two men's cars while they were searching so they don't know how they got there either. That seems to be something as well. But I don't know if police talked to them and ruled them out.
I don't know if police got their names or if they were able to kind of disappear into the search party with everybody distracted and just kind of leave. But I would, if I could sit down with police and ask any question and read the case file, first place I'd be looking is the squirrel hunters. Who were they? How did we rule them out? What is their piece in all of this? And if they are innocent, what did they see if they had been out in the woods? Did they hear anything? Did they notice anything?
Did they see anybody? So tons of questions about the squirrel hunters. It seems like to me, and this is more just a reflection of how beautiful the community is, it makes sense to me that even in the moment that passersby or people who were in the search party met these two guys who were squirrel hunting, it makes sense to me that the community as a whole wouldn't even think to clock strangers as bad people who had done something horrible to this lost child.
Well, at the time that Debbie disappeared, the community really thought that she was lost in the woods. One of the searchers, when he was thinking about it later, he said he couldn't stop searching that night because he was like, what if she's in the river? They really thought that she was lost in the woods or hurt in the woods. They didn't even think that she had been murdered. So I think to your point, the community had a sense of innocence and maybe integrity too.
It just wouldn't dawn on them that somebody would do this to a child. So like the most natural thing is that this child is lost in the woods. Yeah, that's exactly my mindset. And the last thing that I wrote down when you were circling the end of this timeline was this crime, Debbie being taken from this family, this community, it took the innocence away from the entire community down to how they were having to monitor their kids playing. It really broke my heart.
But the resilience of this community is beautiful. The resilience of her parents, her siblings, even though it is unfair resilience, resilience that they shouldn't have to have the fact that they have continued to search for answers for their daughter is very beautiful to me. And you can feel the love from this family and the community. Yeah, and they all still want answers in this case, those who were there in 1973 want answers and her family want answers.
And even if they're new to the community, like they want to know what happened to Debbie in 1973. And I think this case is solvable. If police kept the evidence and are able to test it and get DNA, I think that we will see this case be closed as long as it's continuously worked and not forgotten about. But as long as it gets the resources it needs, I think this case can be solved.
So again, if you know anything about the murder of Debbie Makel in 1973, please call the Pennsylvania State Police, Waynesburg Station at 724-627-6151. And we'll have pictures of Debbie on our Instagram at Cold and Missing. I also mentioned we'll have a picture of her house just to kind of give you a better idea. And there's also a picture of the area where her body was recovered that has the foundations just because I know that's kind of hard to visualize.
But police put this in the paper because it's hard to visualize. So we have that picture that'll be on our Instagram. You can find us at Cold and Missing. Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed us recently. We've gotten so many kind reviews and even just kind comments on our Instagram. Thank you so much for doing that. It means the world that you take the time out of your day to engage with us. So thank you so much.
If you have the time today, if you can rate, review, share the story, if this is one that maybe you haven't heard before, I'm sure there's other people in your circles that haven't heard it as well. So please share it. And if you or someone you love is hard of hearing, we have transcripts on our website www.coldandmissing.com. You can also review us there. You can message us there if you want to get in touch with us. All of that information is on our website. But that is all I have.
Thank you so much for listening to Cold and Missing and for staying with us even through unexpected technical delays. I'm your host, Allie. And I'm your co-host, Eli. Have a good week and stay safe, y'all. Stay safe, y'all.