Debbie Lynn Randall was 9-years-old when she was kidnapped, raped and murdered in Marietta, Georgia, in 1972. The case went unsolved for many years however superior expertise recognized William Rose, who was 24 on the time and infrequently visited household on the similar condo complicated the place Debbie Lynn lived, as her killer. Rose died by suicide two years after the homicide. (Cobb County District Lawyer’s Workplace)
Greater than 5 many years after a 9-year-old lady was kidnapped, raped, brutally murdered and dumped in a woody space in Marietta, Georgia, authorities on Monday introduced they’d discovered her killer.
Debbie Lynn Randall was strolling dwelling from a laundromat, which was a half block from her dwelling, in Marietta when she was kidnapped on Jan. 13, 1972. Her disappearance set off a frantic search with 4,000 individuals out searching for her in hopes of discovering her alive. Tragically, her physique was discovered 16 days later. An post-mortem decided she died by strangulation. Whereas the case had stumped investigators for years, there was some key proof on her physique: a hair and a bit of material with a flowery design.
Again in 1972, investigators didn’t have the benefit of DNA testing. However over time expertise improved and investigators submitted a number of gadgets from the crime scene. The piece of material was despatched to a lab in 2015 which resulted in a profile of an unknown man. Additional DNA testing this yr pointed towards a person named William B. Rose, who was 24 on the time and infrequently visited his household that lived in the identical condo complicated that Debbie and her household did.
Rose died by suicide two years after Debbie’s homicide. With the blessing of his household, Rose’s physique was exhumed and the hair and piece of material resulted in a constructive DNA match, stated Cobb County District Lawyer Flynn D. Broady Jr. at a press convention.
“The reply we’re offering at the moment can’t deliver her again. We can’t extract justice from the perpetrator however I do know he should reply to the next energy and I hope it’s going to present some aid and reply the query that has lingered for greater than 50 years,” Broady stated, including her “younger life and shiny smile ended 51 years in the past, gone too quickly.”
Ron Alter, the pinnacle of Cobb County’s chilly case unit, stated he believes it was against the law of alternative, that Rose might have been driving by and noticed Debbie and kidnapped her. Alter stated Rose was by no means a suspect previous to the DNA match, though Rose’s members of the family advised Alter that Rose was afraid of going to jail and he might have felt investigators had been closing in on him, which might have been a motive he dedicated suicide.
Investigators used ancestry web sites out there to legislation enforcement and located familial matches to Rose from distant kinfolk and narrowed their suspect record from there, Alter stated.
“Know-how doesn’t get previous, it doesn’t retire, it doesn’t get sick. And it doesn’t give up. Know-how was looking for William Rose and it discovered him within the grave,” Morris Nix, a retired detective with the Cobb County Sheriff’s Workplace who labored the case, advised Atlanta NBC affiliate WXIA.
Whereas the case was lastly closed, it didn’t are available time for Debbie’s mother and father. Her mom died of Leukemia in 2018 whereas her father died final yr. Her different brother, Melvin Randall, spoke briefly at Monday’s press convention.
“I wish to say that I want my mom was right here, however I do know she is aware of in heaven now that it’s lastly over and we simply wish to say we thank all of you for what you’ve accomplished to make at the present time come to move,” he stated.
Have a tip we must always know? [email protected]
