The Murder of 9-Year-Old Debbie Randall | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace | Forensic Files

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

Marietta, Georgia, 1972, 9-year-old Debbie Randall vanishes when walking home. 16 days later her body is discovered. In 2016, a cold case team employ cutting-edge forensic techniques to find this child killer once and for all.

Now in its fourth season, Bloodline Detectives is the leading true crime series that explores how police departments harness genetic genealogy to solve crimes that were once considered "unsolvable," bringing long-awaited answers to victims' families.

=============== Like, comment and subscribe if you’re ready for more true crime. Your favorite shows like World’s Most Evil Killers, Meet Marry Murder, Forensic Files, Unsolved Mysteries, Murdered At First Sight and Bloodline Detectives are all available to stream 24/7 for free via the FilmRise Streaming Network. You can access The FilmRise Streaming Network through most free App Platforms and Smart TV portals such as Amazon Fire TV, The Roku Channel, Android, iOS and many more.

Brief Summary

The episode details the 50-year investigation into the murder of Debbie Randall, culminating in the identification of her killer through DNA evidence.

Key points

The Disappearance of Debbie Randall. In 1972, nine-year-old Debbie Randall goes missing from a laundromat in Marietta, Georgia, sparking a frantic search.
A Community United. Over 5,000 people join the search for Debbie, marking the largest search party in Cobb County history.
A Gruesome Discovery. Sixteen days after her disappearance, Debbie's body is found, revealing unimaginable cruelty.
The Impact of a Tragedy. Debbie's murder changes the community forever, instilling fear and altering daily life for children.
DNA Evidence Emerges. In 2001, a human hair believed to be from Debbie's killer is tested, leading to a DNA profile.
Detective Morris Nix's Dedication. Detective Nix kept Debbie's picture on his desk, vowing to solve her case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It tore the whole family apart.

Melvin Dudley Randall reflects on the impact of Debbie's disappearance.

0:36WatchAug 22, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.