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Cold case update: New witness in Debbie Randall kidnap/murder · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:04
Speaker 1: Who killed Deborah Lynn Randall? How do you do something?
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Speaker 1: And lived Debora Lyn Randall from January thirteen, nineteen seventy two.
0:12
Speaker 1: Daddy was nine years old when she vanished. It's been
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Speaker 1: more than forty three years. This is Crime Stories with
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Speaker 1: Nancy Grace, group of retired detectives volunteering their time, determined
0:24
Speaker 1: to bring her family answer to the beautiful kid. You
0:27
Speaker 1: can look at her picture and you can say the innocents.
0:30
Speaker 1: Detective Nicks is part of a rare group of retired
0:32
Speaker 1: police officers who specialize in solving Cobb Counties cold cases.
0:37
Speaker 1: If you are investigated for a detective pe a cop,
0:41
Speaker 1: that's what you live for. That pone call that family
0:44
Speaker 1: saying sit down, because I've got some good news for you.
0:46
Speaker 1: I give in in buying your back. Find that who
0:50
Speaker 1: it worked before, A bare for it. We haven't forgotten
0:53
Speaker 1: and we're not going to give up. My children, my
0:59
Speaker 1: toy ends that are my whole world, are in the
1:04
Speaker 1: third grade. They are nine years old. And the other
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Speaker 1: day John David said so and says said the S word.
1:18
Speaker 1: And I'm like, you're kidding. Who said the S word
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Speaker 1: in the third grade? And he said so and says
1:27
Speaker 1: said it. They just outright called so it's so stupid.
1:33
Speaker 1: The S word is stupid, the s H word is
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Speaker 1: shut up, the F word is fat. Okay, that's the
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Speaker 1: world a third grader lives in or should live in, right,
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Speaker 1: Not Debbie Lynn Randall. Not Debbie Lynn Randall, a third
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Speaker 1: grader at Pine Forest Elementary School. Debbie was murdered, kidnapped
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Speaker 1: and murdered and I want to know who did it.
2:08
Speaker 1: I Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. Thank you for
2:13
Speaker 1: being with us, with me, of course, the Duke Alan
2:16
Speaker 1: Duke out of l A, with me, special guest Detective
2:22
Speaker 1: Morris Nix, who has been on this case from the
2:26
Speaker 1: get go, and also with us a very special guest,
2:31
Speaker 1: Detective Nicks. I will let you introduce our special guest. Okay, answer,
2:37
Speaker 1: We got very fortunate as one called me and said, hey,
2:39
Speaker 1: I think I know someone who may know something about this,
2:43
Speaker 1: and so I contacted Sandra, and of course I was
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Speaker 1: I'm always skeptical, but Sandra hit on some points immediately
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Speaker 1: that I could relate to. We have always worked on
2:56
Speaker 1: the premise that the perpetrated with driving a black kickop
3:01
Speaker 1: to UK and sadly immediately said he was driving a
3:03
Speaker 1: black Kickop that had not been released, and she also
3:09
Speaker 1: told me the route that he had taken once she
3:13
Speaker 1: abducted Debby, and we knew that there were only two
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Speaker 1: ways she could have gone, and she was very affirmative
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Speaker 1: and pointing out the way that we thought that she
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Speaker 1: had gone. And I've talked to several people in the past,
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Speaker 1: but I find her very quitible. Detective Nis has been
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Speaker 1: on the case of first a missing girl, Debilenn Randall,
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Speaker 1: and now sadly, the cold case of this murdered third grader.
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Speaker 1: Before we go out to our special guest and newly
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Speaker 1: emerged witness, what happened in this case, Alan, is that
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Speaker 1: this little girl had gone to a laundry Matt SuDS
3:53
Speaker 1: and Duds. It was so close to her home, like
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Speaker 1: a block and I recall that the because my family
4:01
Speaker 1: for a long time didn't have a washer and dryer.
4:03
Speaker 1: We couldn't afford one, so we would go to the
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Speaker 1: laundry mat between morning services and evening services on Sundays.
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Speaker 1: And I went in there many a time and folded
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Speaker 1: laundry and piled it into our basket by myself. This
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Speaker 1: little girl did something very similar to that she would
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Speaker 1: go play trade Barbie doll outfits with friends at the
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Speaker 1: laundry mat where their family did their weekly laundry, including
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Speaker 1: a seven pm visit, which is about the time that
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Speaker 1: we would go. Okay, we go right before we went
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Speaker 1: to evening services. Her stepdad was with her, but he
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Speaker 1: left early. Just thirty minutes later, she walked out of
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Speaker 1: the laundry mat with a bottle of detergent, going home.
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Speaker 1: She never made it. According to the Marietta Police Department,
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Speaker 1: witnesses saw a pickup truck driving along around the time
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Speaker 1: Debbie vanished. It stopped right in front of the home,
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Speaker 1: backed up into a secluded area. Police later found the
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Speaker 1: detergent bottle splashed on the ground in that same spot.
5:11
Speaker 1: It was the bottle Debbie had been carrying while she
5:15
Speaker 1: walked home. Volunteers from a local school, Southern Polytechnic University
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Speaker 1: all volunteered, and one of the volunteers found the little
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Speaker 1: girl's lifeless body. It had been so abused all these years.
5:35
Speaker 1: We have searched for answers as to who murdered Debbie.
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Speaker 1: I want to go out to Sandra that Detective Nicks
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Speaker 1: just told you about, Sandra, What made you decide to
5:49
Speaker 1: come forward. This much later, my sister worst were Cobb County, Gale,
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Speaker 1: and she told me the case had been reopened. And
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Speaker 1: I thought it had been closed all a long time ago.
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Speaker 1: And I told her I saw it happened. And she said, well,
6:08
Speaker 1: somebody might be calling union in touch with you, and
6:10
Speaker 1: I said okay. And that's when she was talking to
6:14
Speaker 1: a detective. And I called her one day and she said, well,
6:18
Speaker 1: this is going tod and she put him on the
6:20
Speaker 1: phone and he asked me if I would be willing
6:23
Speaker 1: to talk to Detective mix and from their own as
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Speaker 1: as just connection to you, Santra. I know it was
6:33
Speaker 1: a while back, but please put your mind back to
6:37
Speaker 1: the evening Debbie disappeared. What did you observe lady might
6:43
Speaker 1: get her where they thought they got hurt. There was
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Speaker 1: like a playground that was behind the ladra mat and
6:51
Speaker 1: also a place there where you would go and get
6:54
Speaker 1: Line Morris to cut people's grass. And there was a
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Speaker 1: trade right there beside the laundromat where there was no
7:00
Speaker 1: windows or anything on the side. I've seen this black
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Speaker 1: pickup truck stop. The driver got out, left this door open.
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Speaker 1: Let's the truck running. He ran. He went over to Debby.
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Speaker 1: He grabbed her and she was kicking her feet and kicking,
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Speaker 1: kicking real hard and screaming and yelling. And he had
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Speaker 1: had her over his shoulders, so she was screaming and kicking.
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Speaker 1: He threw her in the truck and then he almost
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Speaker 1: ran over me. What did the truck look like? All
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Speaker 1: I know is that it was a black truck because
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Speaker 1: I was cover of years old, But I can remember
7:43
Speaker 1: it like it was yesterday. I've had nightmares about it
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Speaker 1: through Ever, What did he look like? He was a
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Speaker 1: white man and I was maybe a hundred forty to
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Speaker 1: eighty feet from him, so I couldn't tell you what
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Speaker 1: he like, but I I could tell he was white.
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Speaker 1: And do you recall what he had on? He had
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Speaker 1: a pants and shirt, but I, I mean, I don't
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Speaker 1: other than that, I just looked long pants and a shirt.
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Speaker 1: And I remember because um, I looked at somebody that
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Speaker 1: was walking with me. I said, did you just say that?
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Speaker 1: And when I heard her screaming yell, and I said,
8:29
Speaker 1: somebody has done got in trouble. And I mean he
8:35
Speaker 1: almost like I said, he I must have felt because
8:38
Speaker 1: I got up. Was when I did I accustomed as
8:42
Speaker 1: he went by me, but he went out. Did you
8:46
Speaker 1: think that was her father? I didn't know. I just
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Speaker 1: thought it was. I didn't know because I didn't know
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Speaker 1: there be myself. I had not had had met her
8:57
Speaker 1: or anything like that. Is the way I found out
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Speaker 1: about it was the next day I had went to
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Speaker 1: the little store that was in the Marryatta place, and
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Speaker 1: her brother was handing out flyers asking if anybody had
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Speaker 1: seen anything or hurt anything. And back then I told
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Speaker 1: him that I would talk to somebody because there was
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Speaker 1: no other way he would have been able to get
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Speaker 1: out except could go if he I lived on four Streak,
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Speaker 1: and if he went around Fourth Street, he would still
9:27
Speaker 1: hit further on street. If he had went straight, he
9:29
Speaker 1: would hit further on street. I had another girl with
9:33
Speaker 1: me is because we were taking her clothes to the
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Speaker 1: launder back and I mean, I don't I don't know
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Speaker 1: what happened was her because back then seen that the
9:43
Speaker 1: Tectus says she was just I don't know, I don't know,
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Speaker 1: you know, I don't know what was going on with her.
9:50
Speaker 1: But then I saw her later on, and I mean
9:53
Speaker 1: she had turned into an alcoholic, so you know that's
9:57
Speaker 1: been thirty years ago at the time. Did you ever
10:00
Speaker 1: get to talk to police detect This came to my
10:03
Speaker 1: house when I lived down Fourth Street and that was
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Speaker 1: the last thing I heard anything. I mean, did you
10:09
Speaker 1: speak to them from there on? I didn't hear anything else.
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Speaker 1: Did you tell the detectives what you saw? Yes? And
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Speaker 1: that was then and then you never heard anything else
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Speaker 1: about it. Detective Nis, what do you make of what
10:23
Speaker 1: she is saying? I find incredible. Once you mentioned the
10:27
Speaker 1: truck and the random prodible uh Santy told me also
10:31
Speaker 1: which way did they go? And I knew there's only
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Speaker 1: two ways that could have bought direction exactly what we
10:40
Speaker 1: were looking at. Um, we are gonna put of contact
10:44
Speaker 1: the other person and they answer, I want to shame
10:47
Speaker 1: he with your listeners if I might. Um. We believed
10:52
Speaker 1: Day's body was taken to a place called dixie Castle Stove.
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Speaker 1: It was our ally fay do we they secluded as
11:01
Speaker 1: a team. They dragged it up down Powers three one
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Speaker 1: thousand times. Another new dixie Castle Stone was there there.
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Speaker 1: It's the ability longer there, but the business is still
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Speaker 1: in business. But the business is now in the austral
11:17
Speaker 1: part of Springs area. So I couldn't send me out.
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Speaker 1: In my mind, it's initially why they would have brought there,
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Speaker 1: and it was low. We found out that the original
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Speaker 1: Dixie Castle stones on Polishtory Road, so we go find
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Speaker 1: out where the building should have been. We go back
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Speaker 1: to where the body was found and guess what, it's
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Speaker 1: less than a quarter mill Her body was done less
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Speaker 1: than a quarter mine for Dixie Castle Stone. And how
11:46
Speaker 1: that become rolevant is that in the initial investigation they
11:51
Speaker 1: samples and the type of silver that was found out
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Speaker 1: they disclosed and on her body was put was very
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Speaker 1: specific to the Mississippi Louisiana area. They also had that
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Speaker 1: same type of soul at Dixie Casting Stone. I think
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Speaker 1: she was a breathat nder my. I think she was
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Speaker 1: taking down my Ferry Real Street up in from the Blocke,
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Speaker 1: taken over to Windy Hill, to Power's Ferry and to
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Speaker 1: Dixie Castle Stone. So I started trying to find the
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Speaker 1: history of Dixie Casting Stone. So if there are you
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Speaker 1: need listeners listening to this that can tell us more
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Speaker 1: about Dixie cast Stone who want to hear um the
12:39
Speaker 1: same family still as if I had no pay roll records,
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Speaker 1: they had lessing. But the son, who now owns it,
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Speaker 1: told me. He said it was not unusual for my
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Speaker 1: father and the company to go to the Cob County
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Speaker 1: jail on the weekends and get labors. That they would
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Speaker 1: get people who had just gotten out of jail for
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Speaker 1: drunk or you know, something minor, and they would take
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Speaker 1: him over to workers neighbors. Is that a connection, I
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Speaker 1: don't know, but I am convinced that she was taking
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Speaker 1: to Dixie Casting Stone. She was assaulted, her body was redressed,
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Speaker 1: and at this point I started to speculate, did he
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Speaker 1: think that she was already? Did did he find out?
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Speaker 1: As he after he got it was pap that she
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Speaker 1: wasn't and he pulled over soide of the road. UM.
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Speaker 1: I prayed that she was. But we desperately are seeking
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Speaker 1: someone who would have a connection from Dixie Casting Stone,
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Speaker 1: from a proptary nineteen in nineteen seventy four in that
13:54
Speaker 1: time area. UM, if you contact, say I do, that's
13:58
Speaker 1: not gonna make him a person of interest, but it
14:01
Speaker 1: will help her hopefully locate somebody who can tell us
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Speaker 1: something about people who work there. Let me ask you
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Speaker 1: a question, Detective Nix. You're referring to Dixie Casting and
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Speaker 1: Stone which was a company cast and stone that worked
14:23
Speaker 1: out of Marietta, Georgia area. And what exactly is that?
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Speaker 1: What do they create? What do they do? Is my
14:32
Speaker 1: understanding that they've build concrete forms. I don't know what
14:36
Speaker 1: all they're using for, but that's primarily what they do.
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Speaker 1: M hm. Now you said that on her body and
14:44
Speaker 1: clothing is soil from Louisiana and Mississippi. I believe you said,
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Speaker 1: and that soil of course would not be in Marietta, Georgia,
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Speaker 1: but you believe that particular soil was an ingredient used
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Speaker 1: at Dixie cast in Stone. Is that correct? We do, okay,
15:07
Speaker 1: So that's where that's where Okay, that's where you're getting
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Speaker 1: that from. Okay. I wanted to nail down your interest
15:14
Speaker 1: in the soil. So she had to be at Dixie
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Speaker 1: Casting then, because the only place that that's soil um
15:22
Speaker 1: composition would have turned up okay. And I'm wondering would
15:28
Speaker 1: someone that worked there full time have taken her there
15:33
Speaker 1: or someone that just knew about the place, which tends
15:36
Speaker 1: to go towards your day laborer aspect. Correct, And you know,
15:42
Speaker 1: and they's been very cooperative, he said back in nineteen
15:46
Speaker 1: seventy two. There was no gate, there were no lights.
15:50
Speaker 1: He said, you could have driven around behind the sand pits,
15:54
Speaker 1: and he said nobody would have heard you. He said,
15:58
Speaker 1: whoever took care there had to have known it was
16:01
Speaker 1: going to say, they had to have felt comfortable going there,
16:05
Speaker 1: and they hadn't have known. They couldn't leave the body there.
16:08
Speaker 1: And when he left with her, he had taken a
16:12
Speaker 1: piece of cloth in her vaginal area. He did that
16:18
Speaker 1: we bleed so that she wouldn't bleed all of the
16:20
Speaker 1: trumb and to redress the body. I don't answer, I
16:27
Speaker 1: don't know him. That just that I just feel like
16:30
Speaker 1: he was headed to the chattahoo I don't mind feel
16:34
Speaker 1: that way, but I just you feel that what he was,
16:38
Speaker 1: you feel what I believe you said it to the
16:43
Speaker 1: I don't believe feeling me that I do, Detective. The
16:46
Speaker 1: Chattahoochee River is actually just probably a quarter mile from
16:51
Speaker 1: where you're talking about. Anyway, if you walk through the
16:53
Speaker 1: woods right and that he never made it. He whipped
16:57
Speaker 1: it on the side of the road. Takes you guess
17:02
Speaker 1: what they find the buy And I hope she was
17:08
Speaker 1: breathing so much that he wanted to get r out
17:12
Speaker 1: of the truck or she was still alive, and you know,
17:16
Speaker 1: my prayer is that she wasn't. For anyone that has information,
17:21
Speaker 1: the tip line is seven seven zero five to eight
17:26
Speaker 1: three zero three two and with us a newly emerged
17:30
Speaker 1: witness comes forward again, Sandra, after hearing about the case
17:36
Speaker 1: our podcast, the case being reopened by Detective Nis, and
17:41
Speaker 1: what we believe is newly discovered evidence, not evidence that
17:46
Speaker 1: did not exist then, but evidence that not had not
17:49
Speaker 1: necessarily been analyzed the way it can be analyzed now.
17:53
Speaker 1: Seven seven oh five to eight three zero three. To Sandra,
17:58
Speaker 1: you said that over these years you have had one
18:02
Speaker 1: nightmare after the next about this incident. What do you
18:06
Speaker 1: dream about? I was a street kid back then, and uh,
18:10
Speaker 1: I mean I was that year I would have been
18:12
Speaker 1: thirteen years old, but my life had been really turned
18:17
Speaker 1: upside down. Was my mom and dad getting divorced. And
18:22
Speaker 1: I was just mean. I was just really really mean
18:25
Speaker 1: back then. I was. I really was mean, And I
18:30
Speaker 1: mean I thought about this for forty four years, you know,
18:33
Speaker 1: and I always wondered where she was buried at the
18:37
Speaker 1: detective next told me, and so I want to go
18:40
Speaker 1: out and visit her grave. And tell her I'm sorry
18:42
Speaker 1: because if it had been just a few minutes later,
18:45
Speaker 1: I had been both cider. So what is your nightmare? Repeat?
18:50
Speaker 1: What is the bad dreaming have? It's this dream about
18:54
Speaker 1: her and the things that she has had went through.
19:00
Speaker 1: The man who done it. I can't see his face,
19:03
Speaker 1: but I can see him, you know, his face is
19:07
Speaker 1: It's like his face is black, but I can He
19:10
Speaker 1: was a sun. I wouldn't say he was skinny. He
19:14
Speaker 1: was a medium built, maybe even a little bit chunky.
19:17
Speaker 1: I couldn't tell because of the shirt. But it just, um,
19:24
Speaker 1: it's just about her. I mean, she was an angel
19:28
Speaker 1: and they should not have happened for her detect him. Next,
19:32
Speaker 1: what about DNA was thinking we didn't have a player.
19:42
Speaker 1: You know, we're saying this is the plus years and
19:47
Speaker 1: uh and miraculously because Mary had a pis probably did
19:52
Speaker 1: a great job maintaining the average. We got a profile,
19:59
Speaker 1: and we know that it is a single donor. We
20:04
Speaker 1: know that he is a white male. And one of
20:09
Speaker 1: the things we had often wondered about is, okay, if
20:14
Speaker 1: he had best debby and she resisting, how does he
20:18
Speaker 1: drive to cook? How does she keep control of the
20:22
Speaker 1: truck and control the play at the same time. So
20:25
Speaker 1: I started asking people that do Debby, do you think
20:29
Speaker 1: that she would have thought or do you think she
20:32
Speaker 1: would have been so terrified that she just kind of
20:35
Speaker 1: cowered down? Um Sanders says she did not see another
20:42
Speaker 1: person in the tree. I'm very curious was there anyone
20:48
Speaker 1: else with this guy? Perhaps she just did as she
20:53
Speaker 1: was told that he had a knife. I don't know, Um,
20:57
Speaker 1: but yes, we do have DNA. If we can match
21:00
Speaker 1: it with the right person, game over. And I believe
21:04
Speaker 1: there's a very living I think this is a doable case,
21:10
Speaker 1: and I think we have just got to stay on
21:14
Speaker 1: finding the person that we can match it with. Somebody
21:17
Speaker 1: who lived in that complex, somebody who worked at Dixie.
21:22
Speaker 1: Catherine Stone can give me an idea, and if you
21:26
Speaker 1: get it to me, I promise you I'm going to
21:28
Speaker 1: look it up with me. Detective Morris next renowned investigator
21:34
Speaker 1: and detective who has been on this case from the
21:37
Speaker 1: very very beginning and never let go and now coming
21:41
Speaker 1: forward again after all these years, Our guest Sandra is
21:45
Speaker 1: with us. If you have any information, please dial seven
21:50
Speaker 1: zero five to eight three zero three to Nancy Grace
21:56
Speaker 1: Crime Stories, signing off, Goodbye friend,