Does anyone know what made Rusty change his mind about his sister Debra? In his missing trio website, he says the two of them discussed the case long into the night guessing what might have happened. Sometime later he obviously changed his mind about his sister. What happened?
I believe what caused Rusty to change his mind was Princess Rose and I digging up stuff on a serial killer that used to live in Ft. Worth, Mike Debardeleben. His parents lived not far from the shopping center, and he may have been responsible for some earlier disappearances in Ft. Worth. He moved away, but he came back to Ft. Worth shortly before his mother died.to supposedly care for her. More likely is he hurried her death along through neglect. This would've been the right time frame 1974 give or take a year. Debardelben's whereabouts went unaccounted for for several years, but he can be placed in Ft. Worth approximately around the time the Fort Worth girls disappeared. This guy was known to kidnap and torture some of his victims, and held at least one woman captive in his attic in Ft. Worth. He married at least 4 women, and battered two of them so much that they helped him commit his crimes. Another only stayed with him about a month or so before divorcing him.
Also, Rusty later spoke with a male poster on WS, someone who was working on the theory that the Lyons girls in Maryland, think that's the right state, may also have been abducted by Debardeleben as he was in their area as well. Actually PrincessRose and I picked up on Debardeleben from the Lyons girls' case. Debardeleben had known victims in Virgina too. As far as criminals go, Debardeleben started early, and was not limited by the types of crimes he committed. He was eventually caught, but not for his sexual crimes. He was caught printing phony money by the Feds. which he'd passed in numerous states. When they opened up a storage building where he had his printing press, is when they found out he was also a serial killer, and a sexual sadist at that. They found lots of photos of women. Truly disgusting guy, and one of the worst. Everyone knows of Ted Bundy, but really Debardeleben was much worse.
The male poster here who spoke with Rusty was finally able to convince Rusty that his sister had nothing to do with this crime. This crime truly shredded their family, and if Rusty and Debra are talking now, that would be wonderful to hear! They have all had so much pain in their lives, and Debra even more so by being accused by her brother. Sad, sad, sad. Rusty had never heard of Debardeleben until it was brought up here on WS, and our sleuther contacted him. I think Rusty then contacted Ft. Worth LE, and learned that they had also suspected Debardeleben could've been responsible. They just can't prove it due to lack of evidence, and the fact the girls bodies have never been found.
Some of Debardelben's crimes: auto theft, forgery, burglary, bank robbery, printing money, rape, sexual sadism serial killings. Heck of a nice guy--NOT! Debardeleben was known as the Mall Passer because that's where he passed his phony bills. So he spent some time in shopping malls. While in Texas, he passed phony bills in Dallas, but not Fort Worth, so he likely avoided Fort Worth because he was living there at the time.
