00:00:11
NANCY GRACE: Marietta,
Georgia, 1972. This small town, shaken by
the mysterious disappearance
00:00:18
of a precious
third-grade little girl. SHERYL MCCOLLUM:
You're talking about a nine-year-old little girl.
00:00:24
She would not, own her
own, be out in the dark. She wouldn't. NANCY GRACE: 16 days later,
the community's worst fears,
00:00:33
confirmed. MELVIN DUDLEY RANDALL: It
tore the whole family apart. It still affected my mother,
you know, before she died.
00:00:43
NANCY GRACE: This evil killer
appears to evade justice. Then one day, detectives, armed
with amazing forensic science,
00:00:51
come knocking on his door. RACHEL OEFELEIN: We wouldn't be
able to do any genealogy if we
00:00:56
didn't have that original
evidence collected on the day that Debbie was discovered.
00:01:01
And without that,
you have nothing. NANCY GRACE: This is
the story of a precious,
00:01:07
young life stolen by an
evil monster and the nearly 50-year hunt to find him-- a hunt that I, too, joined.
00:01:18
I'm Nancy Grace. This is "Bloodline Detectives." [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: Marietta, Georgia,
now a suburb of Atlanta--
00:01:50
but in 1972, it was a
small, quiet community. Like so many small
communities, Marietta
00:02:00
has affluent
neighborhoods and areas on the so-called "wrong
side of the tracks."
00:02:08
MORRIS NIX: Like a lot
of towns, there really were two sides of the track. But there was not
a lot of crime.
00:02:14
You had very little
trouble over there. And that's what really
shook this city. And it did.
00:02:22
It shook this city to the core. NANCY GRACE:
Nine-year-old Debbie Lynn Randall lives in Marietta.
00:02:29
Everyone knows her
as a happy little girl, popular and outgoing. And she loved to
play with dolls.
00:02:39
MELVIN DUDLEY RANDALL:
She's like my twin. We hung out together all
the time, played together.
00:02:43
She was a little over
a year younger than me. My brother, my
half-brother, Steve--
00:02:48
he was older, and he hung
out with bigger kids. But me and my sister, we
stayed together all the time.
00:02:54
I tried to look after her like
a big brother is supposed to. NANCY GRACE: On the evening
of January 13, 1972,
00:03:05
Debbie Lynn Randall
and her stepdad head to a nearby laundromat with
clothes that need washing,
00:03:11
there only footsteps
away from home. SHERYL MCCOLLUM: She
was going to have dinner with her brothers.
00:03:18
Her mom was finishing
up dinner, and she didn't feel really well. So she asked Debbie
and her older brother,
00:03:24
Could y'all take the dirty
clothes to the laundromat and get them started for me?
00:03:29
Well, her brothers were wanting
to watch "The Riflemen," which was a really popular show in the
'70s, so the stepfather said,
00:03:37
I'll go with her. And the stepfather,
being a Saturday, wanted to watch some sports.
00:03:43
So he left her
there and went home. It was only 50 yards away. He could see her
from his front door.
00:03:51
MELVIN DUDLEY RANDALL:
She just went up there, and after a while,
she never come back.
00:03:55
My mother went to go look
for her, couldn't find her. Then my mother comes
back to the house
00:04:00
and says she can't find Debra. So we all left the house. We started going
everywhere we thought maybe
00:04:07
she would be, to every
door in the place, knocking and seeing if
somebody had seen my sister.
00:04:13
And nobody knew anything. SHERYL MCCOLLUM: Then they
become completely panicked,
00:04:20
because they see the
box of detergent, spilled in the
parking lot, maybe 84 feet from the front
door, next to this VW.
00:04:29
And at that point,
they freak out. She's nowhere to be found. So about 9:30, they
call the police,
00:04:37
and Marietta Police shows up. NANCY GRACE:
Detectives move quickly and search for the missing
nine-year-old girl.
00:04:44
MORRIS NIX: There
was a Volkswagen sitting in the parking lot. Some of the detergent
landed on the foot rail.
00:04:50
So we didn't know if
Debbie's just dropped it, but it looked like,
to me, that somebody
00:04:57
had slung it in that area. And there was a handprint,
so I don't know if she went up against the car or not.
00:05:03
I had a witness who said that
he threw her over his shoulder and put her in through
the driver's seat.
00:05:11
RON ALTER: There was one person
that was to visit with his wife who had just had a baby.
00:05:14
And he said that he saw the
vehicle almost drive into him. Through the
windshield of the car,
00:05:19
he said he thought he saw
a little girl being held by the man and, I
believe, by her ear,
00:05:24
and that he pulled her
down as he was driving by. And he just got a glimpse of it.
00:05:28
Another eyewitness says,
hey, I saw that truck earlier. They pulled up in
front of my apartment.
00:05:33
I'm in apartment 1. Debbie lived in apartment 2. At first, I thought
it was my uncle,
00:05:39
then they turned
around and left. Well, now, the police
are like, wait a minute.
00:05:42
There's a car that's
been circling? Kind of stalking? So maybe this is a
crime of opportunity.
00:05:47
And now, they're a
little more concerned, because now, it's dark. You're talking about a
nine-year-old little girl.
00:05:54
She would not, own her
own, be out in the dark. She wouldn't. The clock is ticking.
00:06:02
And as minutes turn
into hours, concern turns into outright alarm. Will little Debbie
Randall be found?
00:06:11
Will she be found alive? We find out next on
"Bloodline Detectives." [OMINOUS MUSIC]
00:06:26
NANCY GRACE: 1972,
Marietta, Georgia-- a nine-year-old little girl,
Debbie Lynn Randall, missing.
00:06:33
Last seen at a
laundromat, literally, just yards from her own home. Police, neighbors,
and Debbie's family
00:06:41
began a frantic search for the
missing nine-year-old girl. SHERYL MCCOLLUM: They put
the word out in the paper.
00:06:48
If you're a member of a church
or a civic group or Boy Scouts, come help us search
for this child.
00:06:54
She's somewhere. She could be in the woods. She could be in an
abandoned building.
00:06:58
She could be somewhere
near you and your yard. So everybody, please
come help look.
00:07:03
They had over 5,000 people show
up to search for this child. And I believe it is
still the largest
00:07:11
search party of a missing
person in Cobb County history. NANCY GRACE: And in
fact, it's Operation
00:07:17
Debbie, a countywide search
for the missing girl. But it fails to find
the little third-grader.
00:07:23
Two more weeks go by. Then 16 days after Debbie
Randall's disappearance, a major development--
a military veteran
00:07:34
volunteering with students
from a local college makes a terrible discovery. MORRIS NIX: He had just
gotten back from Vietnam.
00:07:42
He was a combat vet. He'd been a platoon leader. And he said, I was
taught, in the jungle,
00:07:47
you look for something
that's just not normal. He looked over,
and he said, I saw
00:07:52
what I thought were drag marks. And he said, they
weren't obvious. But he said, I thought
that that was unusual.
00:07:59
He started following
it, and that's when he found Debbie's body. FLYNN BROADY: When
she was found,
00:08:09
she had on a lavender dress. She had on a 3/4-coat that
he had zipped over her face--
00:08:14
something that we
normally see offenders do when they feel guilt
about what they've done.
00:08:22
SHERYL MCCOLLUM: We
didn't have DNA in '72. We didn't have
universal precautions.
00:08:26
So a lot of people
weren't wearing gloves. So what they would
have done with her--
00:08:31
they would have
wrapped her in a sheet. And that way, anything
that was on her would have been
captured in that sheet.
00:08:37
It wouldn't have fallen off
and been left in the woods. So if there was a
perpetrator's hair,
00:08:42
if somebody had a button ripped
off, under her fingernails, all of those things would
have been preserved,
00:08:48
wrapped in that sheet. And then she would have
been taken just like that to have the autopsy done.
00:08:57
NANCY GRACE: Little
Debbie Randall's body is at Kennestone Hospital. Police now must tell her family.
00:09:06
MELVIN DUDLEY RANDALL: I
was there when it was told to my mother and my stepfather.
00:09:10
Everybody fell apart. It was just chaos from there. I mean, the police,
everybody just started
00:09:18
pouring in from everywhere. And we were set to the
side as kids, you know. And we had sit there and listen.
00:09:24
You couldn't go nowhere else. I mean, the rooms-- they were just so small. You had nowhere to go.
00:09:29
So we had to sit there
and listen to everything that was going on. My mother, she just-- that's
when she just collapsed.
00:09:40
And I don't remember seeing her
for a short while after that. But it just tore us all up.
00:09:45
I didn't-- didn't
know what to do. I mean, what can
you do as a child? You know, we just sit
there and listen to it
00:09:52
and try to figure out
what's going on, you know? NANCY GRACE: The loss
of a child is more
00:10:00
than most parents can tolerate. This is the case for
Debbie Randall's parents. They ask a relative
to make the formal ID
00:10:10
of little Debbie's remains. FLYNN BROADY: The family sent
her uncle to identify the body.
00:10:17
And I can understand
full well, because for the parents, that would have
been so hard for them to do.
00:10:26
NANCY GRACE: The
coroner's examination reveals the full
extent of injuries to Debbie Randall's tiny body.
00:10:33
It's clear this
child was subjected to unimaginable cruelty. FLYNN BROADY: She
had been beaten.
00:10:42
She had been mutilated, to the
point that the bleeding was so bad, the tears were so bad,
that he used a rag to be
00:10:49
able to stop the bleeding. You know, for a
father, you don't want to ever think that
something like this
00:10:57
would happen to your child. She must have been
in tremendous pain. And just knowing that
this pain was going on
00:11:05
while she was still alive,
and then killed afterwards, and then dragged into the woods.
00:11:12
MORRIS NIX: Pubic hair
was found on the coat. They were hoping that the pubic
hair would lead to something.
00:11:18
It did not. At that time, it did not. RON ALTER: Back then,
there was no DNA. There was fingerprints.
00:11:24
There was hair analysis. You know, they did blood typing,
you know, to say, you know,
00:11:28
A or O or whatever. But as far as really being
able to specifically identify anybody beyond
fingerprints, there
00:11:34
wasn't a whole lot out there. But nonetheless, they
did an excellent job of preserving evidence.
00:11:43
MORRIS NIX: They thought
that she had been strangled, and that possibly, he used
her coat to suffocate her.
00:11:49
I have a lot of mixed
feelings about that. I don't think he
was good at what he was doing, if that makes sense.
00:11:56
I don't think he was
experienced in killing. I think he panicked. I think, at some
point, that he kind
00:12:05
of lost control of himself. I have always said
that there are some people that have demons.
00:12:13
I call it when the demons dance. And I think the
demons were dancing. And he became enraged
for whatever reason.
00:12:22
And my prayer has always
been, and it still is, that she died quickly. But she was definitely looking
into the eyes of a monster.
00:12:35
NANCY GRACE: Almost three
weeks after her murder, nine-year-old Debbie
Randall is laid to rest.
00:12:42
SHERYL MCCOLLUM: Her funeral
at the Roswell Baptist Church on February the 1st was
gutwrenching and horrible.
00:12:50
You had little children
from her class there. You had her teacher there. Her parents and her
brothers walk in.
00:12:58
And you're talking
about a tiny casket. I mean, the whole thing is
just what horrors are made of.
00:13:05
MELVIN DUDLEY RANDALL: I've
never seen so many people, you know, just everywhere.
00:13:11
It was quite a thing. I just remember walking into
the church and my mother crying
00:13:17
and my father crying. It was just emotional,
real emotional. It was just-- I remember
crying and screaming,
00:13:24
and from every
direction, you know. It wasn't just my family. There was other people
that were, you know,
00:13:30
crying and stuff about it. It was a day of sorrow
for everybody around. RON ALTER: The
community came together.
00:13:39
They really wanted to
do something about this and did everything
they could to help.
00:13:43
People provided money to
help pay for the funeral and provided money to help
pay for food and things
00:13:48
like that for the family as they
grieved and that sort of thing. NANCY GRACE:
Meanwhile, a geologist
00:13:54
working with
investigators identifies clay on Debbie Randall's body. It's from the nearby Dixie
Cast and Stone Company.
00:14:05
The FBI took samples
from her clothing, and they found a unique
soil composition,
00:14:12
which, as I was told, came from
the Mississippi Delta area. It was not common in this area.
00:14:19
And they had that at
Dixie Cast and Stone. And everything just kind of fell
into place, because Dixie Cast
00:14:25
and Stone was very secluded. And her body was found less
than a quarter of a mile
00:14:32
from Dixie Cast and Stone. FLYNN BROADY: That led
them to believe that either the perpetrator
either worked there,
00:14:38
or this might have
been where Debbie Lynn Randall was
actually assaulted before her body was dumped.
00:14:43
RON ALTER: The killer had to
be familiar with the area. The location where the
Dixie Cast and Stone was
00:14:49
is not something that a person
would typically know about unless they maybe were
involved in that business
00:14:54
or drove by it a lot
or something like that. SHERYL MCCOLLUM: So
immediately, they
00:14:58
start looking at that company. Have they had any
disgruntled people? Has anybody missed work
in and around this time?
00:15:05
Did anybody call out
sick the day after? FLYNN BROADY: When they first
started the investigation,
00:15:12
there were about 50
suspects, and they started eliminating one by one. But it was a hard task, because
this was such a random crime,
00:15:21
especially for 1972. One of the first things
that they did was they looked at their sexual
offender registry
00:15:27
to see what sex offenders
lived in that area. And there were quite a few. And then they
started, one by one,
00:15:32
eliminating them
as suspects, based on their locations, their
alibis, and things like that.
00:15:38
Normally, in a
situation like this, it's a pedophile who has a
history of stalking, you know,
00:15:45
engaging kids when
they shouldn't be. And that's what they
were looking for. MORRIS NIX: Because
you didn't have DNA
00:15:53
and you didn't
have social media, it was pretty much just
trying to find similar cases,
00:15:59
was Captain Elliott did. But really, that
was about all you could do, and hope that
somebody would come forward.
00:16:09
NANCY GRACE: Within weeks,
someone does come forward. He tells a remarkable story of
a child abduction and murder.
00:16:17
But will that story hold up? That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives." NANCY GRACE: April 1972,
nearly three months
00:16:35
to the day after the murder
of Debbie Randall in Marietta, Georgia, there seems
to be a breakthrough.
00:16:43
A man confesses to police in
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, that he is Debbie's killer.
00:16:50
David Drury in Myrtle
Beach, South Carolina, went to the police and confessed
to committing the crime.
00:16:55
MORRIS NIX: Captain
Elliott interviewed him. And they thought he
might be a good suspect,
00:16:59
because he had so many details. But then they
discovered that really, all he told them was stuff
that had been in the papers.
00:17:08
He later said that
he was intoxicated, and that's why he
said what he said. So they were able to
eliminate him fairly quickly.
00:17:17
Drury was one of the first
of several that confessed. SHERYL MCCOLLUM: This is what
we call a false confession.
00:17:23
False confessions
are a real thing. And people have different
reasons for wanting to do them.
00:17:28
Some people want some
cred before they go to prison for something else. Some people want notoriety.
00:17:34
Some people are just crazy. NANCY GRACE: The efforts to
find little Debbie Randall's
00:17:39
killer become even stranger. A variety of
psychics and mediums come forward, each
with their own
00:17:47
take on the identity
of the killer. MORRIS NIX: There were
several psychics who claimed to have information.
00:17:53
I got a phone call from
someone who told me where Debbie's
killer was buried, gave me the name of the
cemetery, told us what row.
00:18:05
And it was all bogus. RON ALTER: My understanding
of the homipsychics weren't very productive.
00:18:11
The psychics were an
act of desperation. I think people called
and said, you got to try.
00:18:15
And they did, and
all they learned were that the psychics
read the newspaper and knew the information
about the case.
00:18:20
But nothing useful was garnered. NANCY GRACE: Investigators
chase every lead. But years go by,
and no breakthrough.
00:18:31
But then, 1976, a man is
arrested after kidnapping and killing an
eight-year-old little girl
00:18:39
and raping her
10-year-old friend. Could he be Debbie
Randall's killer? RON ALTER: Virgil Delano
Presnell is currently
00:18:49
on death row in Georgia for
raping and killing another girl around the same time period.
00:18:56
He was investigated by police. He couldn't be ruled out through
the microscopic examination
00:19:00
of his hair. So he stayed a suspect for
a long time in the case. FLYNN BROADY: He had a history
of trying to abduct young girls
00:19:08
before, so they
started to look at him to see if this might
have-- does this fit the crime that he had done.
00:19:15
He was ruled out
because at the time, he was not in that
area at the time that she was actually abducted.
00:19:21
NANCY GRACE: Now
that Virgil Delano Presnell is no longer a suspect,
once again, the case goes cold.
00:19:29
RON ALTER: After a
time, mostly, it was looking at hair comparisons. And they continued
doing that and continued
00:19:36
submitting hair samples
to the FBI for analysis. SHERYL MCCOLLUM: By the
time 1975, '76 rolls around,
00:19:42
you don't have any new leads. You don't have any new suspects. The case is cold then.
00:19:49
NANCY GRACE: Four years after
Debbie Randall's brutal murder, the town of Marietta
wonders if this child
00:19:55
killer is someone they know. Could it be a neighbor? Someone living among them? FLYNN BROADY: Any time
you have a child abducted,
00:20:04
and in this type
of community where everybody knew each
other, just puts the total community in fear.
00:20:10
MORRIS NIX: Life did change
for children in this area. I had many people tell me,
you know, we never locked
00:20:16
the doors, even in the project. We never locked the doors. There was no reason to.
00:20:21
But after Debbie,
everybody locked the door. People became very aware
of who was in the street
00:20:28
if they didn't know 'em. I had several girls tell
me that, after that, I was never allowed to go
to the laundromat again.
00:20:37
Even with company,
I couldn't even go with anybody--
that I was not allowed to go in that laundromat.
00:20:43
So yeah, it was very-- very, very devastating. RON ALTER: With a
killer on the loose,
00:20:52
they would have to be a little
bit more close with their kids and want them to stay close
by and worry about them more.
00:21:00
NANCY GRACE: The investigation
into Debbie Randall's murder never closes. In 2001, detectives focused on
a single piece of evidence--
00:21:09
a human hair believed
to be from the killer. With new forensic science,
a DNA profile is extracted
00:21:17
from that single hair. The profile is then
entered into CODIS, the national DNA database.
00:21:26
RACHEL OEFELEIN: CODIS is the
Combined DNA Index System. And it's a national database.
00:21:31
It has three levels-- the national level, the state
level, and the local level. And that's where we're
able to enter DNA profiles
00:21:38
from known individuals. So when someone gets arrested
or convicted of a crime, their DNA might be
entered into the system
00:21:45
or for unidentified human
remains that are also found. And then we also have
crime scene evidence.
00:21:51
So crime scene evidence
will get entered into CODIS, and there, it might
hit to other cases,
00:21:57
or it might hit to
a known individual. FLYNN BROADY: The DNA testing
did not have a match in CODIS,
00:22:04
but it did say it
was from a white male with a dark complexion, anywhere
between the ages of 18 and 30.
00:22:10
SHERYL MCCOLLUM: The fact
that the perpetrator's DNA was not in CODIS was shocking.
00:22:15
Because you think of a sexual
assault of that nature-- nobody rapes like that one time.
00:22:23
So where is this guy? There's no way he didn't
sexually assault somebody else. So now, you've got
to figure, is he
00:22:30
in prison for something else? And has he been in
prison this whole time? Because nobody's
going to believe
00:22:35
he just did all that
to Debbie Randall, and then never harmed
any other person. NANCY GRACE: The investigation
gets another boost in 2014,
00:22:46
when Cobb County's cold
case unit reviews the case. The unit has a very
impressive record of solving
00:22:53
at least five cold cases. And it includes the highly
respected investigator, Detective Morris Nix.
00:23:03
SHERYL MCCOLLUM: The cold case
unit was made up of some rock stars, in my opinion,
some investigators
00:23:09
that are just second to none. And this was one of the
cases that they took on. And specifically, Morris Nix--
00:23:16
he championed this case
as much as any of them. He kept Debbie's
picture on his desk.
00:23:22
It was that case for him. MORRIS NIX: My chief
came to me, and he said, they have a cold case
unit in the DA's office.
00:23:31
He said, do you want to
work on the cold case unit? And I said, sure. He said, I know you want
to work on the Debbie
00:23:38
Lynn Randall case. He knew, because we had talked-- I talked to everybody about it.
00:23:45
So we went to Marietta
Police Department. They drug out these boxes. We put what we had on the
table, and we went from there.
00:23:58
The first time I
saw the pictures-- --I was horrified. [CLEARS THROAT] I was angry.
00:24:13
And I was very determined
that I would do everything I could to find out who did this.
00:24:23
It's hard to put into words
exactly what I was feeling. But I knew that I would
never let this go.
00:24:32
NANCY GRACE: The
cold case review begins with a crime
scene visit, charting Debbie Randall's last known
movements, step by step.
00:24:42
MORRIS NIX: First thing
I did was I went over and tried to rewalk
the crime scene.
00:24:46
The laundromat was gone. It was no longer there. I went and tried to find
Dixie Cast and Stone.
00:24:51
There's an apartment
complex that now sits where Dixie Cast and Stone was. I did find the place
where they found her body.
00:24:58
But I started looking at the
list of names who had been-- I won't say suspects,
but persons of interest.
00:25:06
Because a lot of people,
after the initial shock-- a lot of people started coming
forward and dropping names.
00:25:13
Well, it could have been this
guy, could have been that guy, could have been-- you know, that guy was
kind of suspicious.
00:25:21
But we didn't eliminate anybody. We tried to look at everybody. MELVIN DUDLEY
RANDALL: They started
00:25:27
doing more investigating with
the DNA and stuff like that. They started letting us
know that they're going
00:25:34
to check this person with DNA. I even gave them
a few more names, you know, to check
that I thought
00:25:38
maybe they need to check into. Because as I got older, I
started remembering things
00:25:42
that people-- the way they acted. It just let me know that
they were doing this,
00:25:47
and they were doing that,
they went to such-and-such and checked. But he kept me well informed.
00:25:55
MORRIS NIX: Debbie's
father called me one night. It was probably about midnight,
maybe 1:00 in the morning.
00:26:02
And it was Mr. Randall. And he was incredibly upset,
and I could tell he was just,
00:26:13
I guess-- a word you'd
use-- having a meltdown. And it's just excruciating,
because what do you say?
00:26:20
How do you make it better? I promised Mr. Randall,
as I had promised Debbie's mom and brother--
00:26:28
I promised him
that I would never let go of this, that
I would push people, I would do what I had to do.
00:26:34
I said, we're going
to-- we're going to push this through to the end. Initially, we just
started trying
00:26:44
to find out who was alive. We started going through, and
deceased, deceased, deceased,
00:26:49
deceased. So many of them had passed. And it was really-- I tried to go back to
some of the detectives--
00:26:57
deceased, deceased. Because this is
40-some years later. So we thought it was
a victory if we found
00:27:04
out they were still alive. There was one gentleman who
claimed he saw a gentleman
00:27:11
that had Debbie by the ear. Deceased. Later on, his ex-wife
swore to me it was him.
00:27:20
He's the one that
had her by the ear. But it wasn't. We eliminated him-- DNA. RON ALTER: 68 people provided
samples for hair analysis.
00:27:31
And all those 68
people were looked at, and various other names
that came across--
00:27:35
people that confessed,
that they looked at. FLYNN BROADY: We were
able to start eliminating
00:27:39
those people to
rule them out as far as being a suspect in the case. NANCY GRACE: The arrival
of advanced DNA techniques
00:27:49
involving relatives of
suspects injects new life into the investigation. In 2019, the team requests
a familial DNA analysis
00:27:59
of the existing suspect sample. RACHEL OEFELEIN: Familial DNA
is when we are only looking
00:28:06
at first-degree relatives. So if we're doing a
familial DNA search, it would be looking into the
Combined DNA Index System
00:28:14
and looking for partial matches. And those partial matches
might be a father, a mother,
00:28:20
a sibling, or a child. NANCY GRACE: Investigative
genetic genealogy is a powerful new tool.
00:28:27
It's cracking cases
across North America. Could it do the same for
Debbie Randall's case?
00:28:34
RON ALTER: Forensic genetic
genealogy is a combination of people that send
their DNA sample
00:28:38
to ancestry.com or 23andMe,
and they get a whole profile of who they are. And in those
systems, those people
00:28:44
get matches of who they
might be related to. So the forensic
genealogy part of it
00:28:48
is, we create a SNP
profile from evidence found on the scene of a
crime, and that profile
00:28:54
is created into a
SNP profile, which is matched against
open-source ancestry sites
00:29:00
to find a suspect. And together, the whole
process is forensic genealogy. The previous cold case
investigators had some surnames
00:29:08
that they developed. And through that, they developed
a suspect that they thought
00:29:13
was the person responsible. He lived in the area. He drove a truck that was
similar to what the suspect
00:29:19
was believed to have driven. His age was right. His history seemed
consistent with what
00:29:24
somebody that might have
committed such a crime did. But before they could
really do further with it,
00:29:29
COVID came, and
the unit disbanded. So when I got the case,
I looked at that person.
00:29:36
That person was deceased. We decided we
would go to his son and see if he'd be willing
to cooperate with us
00:29:40
and provide a DNA sample. And we did, and we located
him, and he was cooperative,
00:29:44
and he provided the sample. We sent it off, and we
found that it was not him. And that was kind of a dead end.
00:29:52
NANCY GRACE: Despite
this setback, the science of investigative
genetic genealogy
00:29:57
offers some hope. Could this breakthrough
lead investigators to finally uncover Debbie
Lynn Randall's killer?
00:30:06
That answer is next on
"Bloodline Detectives." NANCY GRACE: Marietta,
Georgia, 2022--
00:30:22
the murder investigation
into the 1972 murder of a nine-year-old little
girl, Debbie Randall,
00:30:30
gets a breakthrough. The Cobb County cold case
unit submits forensic evidence for DNA testing.
00:30:37
The result is a partial match. At this point in
the investigation, the only thing that was really
going to solve this case
00:30:45
was DNA analysis. My career started in 1978. And I was old-school. You know, we had rolodexes
and filing cabinets,
00:30:54
and we didn't know
what a computer was. But I knew, when we
got that partial DNA,
00:31:01
I knew, sooner or later,
we were going to know what happened to Debbie. NANCY GRACE: For investigative
genetic genealogy to work,
00:31:10
scientists need a
quality DNA sample. In this case, the DNA
thought to be from the killer
00:31:17
is badly degraded. RON ALTER: I started
calling some of the people the labs that had
done testing before
00:31:24
and had them rerun the original
SNP profile that they had, which wasn't a good-quality
profile, but it was all we had.
00:31:30
And before I decided
to risk other evidence for further testing, I
decided I would try that.
00:31:36
And we got the same results. We didn't-- we didn't
get a whole lot there, and I began talking to other
people, and ended up speaking
00:31:42
with DNA Labs International. DNA Labs did do some
testing earlier in the case, and they developed
another STR profile,
00:31:49
which-- they still had the
profile in their possession. NANCY GRACE: DNA
Labs International,
00:31:54
based in Florida, is
one of several companies that specialize in
this emerging field.
00:32:02
RACHEL OEFELEIN: There was
actually several rounds of testing in this case. At that time, a lot of things
were changing with genealogy.
00:32:09
In 2018, the initial-- after the Golden
State Killer, a lot of testing that
was conducted was
00:32:15
very commercial testing
that was already available for other purposes. But things were rapidly
developing in that time.
00:32:23
So around 2020 was when
we started to implement the Kintelligence system
at our laboratory,
00:32:30
and that was communicated
to Cobb County that that was going to be a
good option for this case,
00:32:34
particularly because
their sample was so aged and degraded. Kintelligence works very similar
to other genealogy testing
00:32:42
that we have, but it's
been curated for forensics. So what they did with the
Kintelligence system is,
00:32:48
made it so that they're
targeting really informative kinship locations. So instead of looking
at hundreds of thousands
00:32:55
of bases of DNA, now, we're
only looking at 10,230 bases. And it's those particular
bases that are going to give
00:33:02
us the best information. And because we're looking
at a smaller section of DNA, we're able to have
more degraded samples.
00:33:11
NANCY GRACE: Branch by branch,
scientists discover more about the suspect's family
tree until, eventually,
00:33:19
one name emerges. We find out who, next on
"Bloodline Detectives." NANCY GRACE: 2022,
Marietta, Georgia--
00:33:36
the Cobb County cold case unit
and scientists at DNA Labs International believe
they are getting closer
00:33:43
to the man who viciously
murdered nine-year-old Debbie Randall in 1972. RON ALTER: They were able
to provide me a family
00:33:53
name of a family that--
going back to the 1800s, that were in Kentucky. And one person in that
family moved to Georgia
00:33:58
and had 12 kids, which kind of
made things a little bit more difficult for us. But that's where we really got
started on the investigation.
00:34:06
That's where we started
moving forward again. RACHEL OEFELEIN: We came
across the Rose family.
00:34:12
They were in Cobb County,
and some of the members of that family had been
in the area, especially
00:34:17
around that time. And everything lined up with
our genetic associations when we were looking at a
couple of these individuals,
00:34:25
that it made sense, as
far as the relatedness. RON ALTER: I was able to
identify some of the family
00:34:33
that was involved
in the case that we had identified
through the ancestry search and the genealogy.
00:34:38
And I just went to their
home and knocked on the door, introduced myself, explained the
case involving a little girl.
00:34:45
And they were very
willing to help. And at first, it was a
very generic discussion.
00:34:51
I had reason to believe that
somebody in their family was involved in this crime.
00:34:56
And I also was able to
get a sample, a DNA sample from one of the family members.
00:35:01
Using that sample would tell
us whether our suspect was either this person's father
or this person's brother,
00:35:08
but it wouldn't specifically
tell us which brother. One family member,
William Rose, had
00:35:14
killed himself a long time ago. And I said, well, when
did Billy kill himself? And they said, 1974.
00:35:20
And I knew, obviously,
our case happened in 1972. So Billy was still
very much in play.
00:35:25
And I asked some
information about him, and we talked about
it a little bit more.
00:35:29
One of the other sisters told
me that Billy had offspring. And obviously, she
recognized, him dying in 1974
00:35:36
and the crime occurring
in 1972 was significant. And she thought it
might be helpful
00:35:40
if I spoke with those people. So after that, I located
a child of William Rose, and I was able to
contact that person.
00:35:49
NANCY GRACE: It's a big
moment for investigators when they meet the child
of their prime suspect.
00:35:55
RON ALTER: We met them
at a police station nearby where they
lived, and we sat down.
00:35:59
And that person had
a hard time deciding what they wanted to do. And I left the room, and I said,
make all the calls you want to.
00:36:04
Do what you want to do. And I just said, please let me
know if you're going to leave.
00:36:07
Don't let me find out there's
an empty room with you gone, and that person said,
no, no, I won't do that.
00:36:12
Just give me some time,
and I'll make a decision. It was a small police
department in West Georgia,
00:36:18
and they were really
helpful to us. And they were helpful to her,
too, because she knew them.
00:36:21
So it was really a good-- a good go-between for us. And ultimately, that person
decided to give us a sample.
00:36:28
We sent that sample to
DNA Labs International, and they were able
to tell us with
00:36:31
99%-plus probability
that that person was an offspring of our suspect. As a child of a suspect,
you pretty much know,
00:36:42
but you want to kind of
complete it the rest of the way. And we decided that the
best route to do that,
00:36:47
to remove any possible
doubt, as if we were going to have a trial, was
to exhume the body
00:36:52
and specifically test
William Rose's DNA. FLYNN BROADY: We had
to get some bone marrow
00:36:58
and test the DNA
and the bone marrow. We resent that to DNA
Labs International, because they already
had the profile.
00:37:07
The DNA match was a
match to William B. Rose. SHERYL MCCOLLUM: I heard the
news, because Detective Morris
00:37:14
Nix called me. And when I looked at my phone,
I was like, oh, cool, you know, I love talking to him.
00:37:21
And so I was like, hello? And there was a pause, and then
I could hear he was crying.
00:37:28
And he said, we got
him, we got him. It was a very emotional day. It was-- in my house, it
was a very emotional day.
00:37:40
NANCY GRACE: Then
detectives began making family phone calls. First on the list--
00:37:44
Debbie Randall's
brother, Melvin. The person had
been dead since '74. And that was-- that was
hard to take for a while.
00:37:55
I don't know what his
reason was for doing it. I think that maybe he killed
himself because of that.
00:38:01
NANCY GRACE: It may
be the passage of time or simply something
within his character,
00:38:05
but Melvin Randall holds no
hatred for his sister's killer. MELVIN DUDLEY RANDALL:
I forgave him.
00:38:14
That's all I know to
say, is "I forgive you." I know what he did was bad. I know he was a bad man,
but he was sick, in a way.
00:38:22
And I don't know the reason
that he was that way. I'm not here to judge nobody. So I'm the last one to
want to judge anybody.
00:38:30
So I would say, I forgive him. SHERYL MCCOLLUM: I
can't fathom that. I mean, I would like to think
I am a forgiving person.
00:38:39
I just don't think I could. But it speaks to
him, doesn't it? He's a remarkable person,
which, again, tells you
00:38:48
about his family, tells
you about his mama, and tells you about his sister. NANCY GRACE: It's a remarkable
result in the 50-year search
00:38:58
for a murderer. It's a success that could
not have been achieved if the original police
team had not preserved
00:39:06
crucial evidence back in 1972. RON ALTER: In 1972, those
investigators, crime scene
00:39:14
analysts, medical examiners,
coroners-- everybody did everything they could
and more than, really, could
00:39:22
have been expected of them. And without them, this case
wouldn't have been solved.
00:39:26
If you just hear,
wait a minute, they solved a case that's
50 years old, that sends
00:39:31
a pretty clear message
to criminals, to me, that we're not stopping. We're not going to go away.
00:39:38
We're not going to forget. We are coming for you. Remember those old westerns,
where the bad guy would be
00:39:45
on a horse with a black
hat, just running full tilt, and every time he
turned around, he would
00:39:50
see the white hats coming? That's how this case is for me. Morris Nix is coming.
(CHUCKLING) He ain't stopping.
00:39:58
MORRIS NIX: Everybody on that
case worked as hard as I did. Everybody on that cold case
unit put what they had into it.
00:40:08
MELVIN DUDLEY RANDALL: I do
appreciate the whole Cobb County Marietta system. Everybody has been more
than generous to my family
00:40:14
over the years, and I just
want to tell them, thank you. NANCY GRACE: There are no more
tragic victims than those who
00:40:23
go through unspeakable
crimes and torture like that suffered by a
nine-year-old little girl,
00:40:31
Debbie Randall. The evil that lives inside some
people can never be explained. It's simply evil.
00:40:39
But there is good
in this world, too. The police who saved evidence
back in 1972, the cold case
00:40:48
team, and the brilliant
scientists in this case are all shining examples
of what is good.
00:40:57
I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for being with us
here on "Bloodline Detectives." [OMINOUS MUSIC]