Found Deceased TX - Debra Jean Houston, 29, Houston, 25 Dec 1989

[Gardener1850]

Debra Jean Houston

• 
• 

Houston, circa 1989

• Missing Since 12/25/1989
• Missing From Houston, Texas
• Classification Missing
• Age 29 years old
• Height and Weight 5'7 - 5'9, 140 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A black sweater with white lettering, blue jeans and red Roper boots.
• Distinguishing Characteristics African-American female. Black hair, brown eyes. Houston's left finger is deformed, and her ears are pierced. She has a gunshot wound scar on her abdomen and scars on her face, near her left eye, on both arms, and on her upper lip, and skin discolorations on her left leg and her neck.

Details of Disappearance
Houston was last seen at the Hughes Lounge in Houston, Texas on December 25, 1989. She has never been heard from again. Few details are available in her case.
Investigating Agency

• Houston Police Department

Source Information

• NamUs

Debra Jean Houston – The Charley Project

 

[glamourkitty1922]

Here is her missing poster.

 

[MadMcGoo]

Where are you at, pretty girl?????

Current list of missing person exclusions for Debra per NamUs:
UP6335 08/16/1997 Page VA
UP788 01/21/2002 Petersburg VA
UP6665 05/14/2007 Petersburg VA
UP12683 06/06/2014 Newport News VA

 

[Mrs. Badcrumble]

Debra Jean Houston has been identified as Pecos county Jane Doe, found in 1996.

Skeletal remains found in county identified 26 years later



"The Pecos County Sheriff’s Office received news late last month that an unidentified person that was found deceased in the Pecos County in 1996 was recently identified.

The regional program specialist of the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System notified the Pecos County Sheriff’s Office of a possible match of dental features similar to the skeletal remains located in Pecos County on April 19, 1996.

The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office was contacted and a DNA comparison to samples from the remains matched to a maternal relative. Further comparisons and investigation were completed by agencies identifying the remains as Debra Jean Houston, of Houston, Texas.

On April 19, 1996, a passing motorist discovered scattered skeletal human remains along Interstate 10 near mile marker 288. Justice of the Peace Robert Gonzales arrived on the scene and conducted his inquest. Gonzales ordered to have the remains collected and sent for an autopsy at the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office.

The cause of death was deemed as accidental.

In 1996, The Texas Department of Public Safety did a reconstruction of Houston’s face to show what she could have possibly looked like but received no hits on the unidentified female.

Family members have been contacted an informed of the match between their relative and the remains located in 1996."

 

[taramarie]

Rest peacefully, Debra

 

[RBC69]

Very sad but thankfully the family knows what happened and that she apparently didn't die by someone else's hand. That was a very good reconstruction based on the pictures I seen of Ms. Houston.

 

[beubeubeu]

Can anyone explain me how that works?
Scattered skeletal human remains found around here Google Maps

How did she even ended up there?

Discovered 500 miles from where she was last seen.
Over six years later, bones scattered on the side of the road.
How autopsy could deem this as accidental death?
What kind of accidental death leaves you on the side of the road?

Teeth on the reconstruction look nothing like her smile on the pics. So not all bones were found?
So how did they came to conclusion that death was accidental?

 

[beubeubeu]

"Hughes Lounge" seem to be a place that never existed, so in addition in may be also mixed up or unknown where she was last seen.
The word "Lounge" is behind her on the red hat picture. Some "Lounge" it may be but it doesnt sound accidental.

Did she had any reason to suddenly head to El Paso?


Its pretty basic and wild guess, but from Samuel Little's drawing:

Description: "Black female between 25-28 years old killed between 1976 and 1979 or in 1993."
doesn't fit that well, but he claimed to kill in early 1990, Louisiana, 1988 in Phoenix...
And the resemblance is there, IMO. May be accidental, but this smile... how often do you see smile like that?

 

[beubeubeu]

I still can't process this information.

Google says:

"The term accidental death is defined as any death that occurs as the result of an accident. These types of death are only deemed accidental if it was not intended (suicide), expected, or foreseeable (illness)."

"Insurance companies define accidental death as an event that strictly occurs as a result of an accident. Deaths from car crashes, slips, choking, drowning, machinery, and any other situations that can't be controlled are deemed accidental."

If she would be idenfified and known as a frequent hiker of the area, or a person that walked this road to work, if there was some cliff that she could fell from, or body of water where she could drown then okay, I may see how accidental death could be seen as reasonable assumption.
But she was UID, highely doubtful that all of her bones recovered, out there for years and apparently not a match to any local missing person. Just by logic some kind of accident as a cause it's possible but significantly less likely than it being NOT an accident.

"When accidental deaths occur, though, typical causes of accidental death or dismemberment claims are motor vehicle accidents, falls, poisoning, drowning, and gunshot injuries. Death by homicide is also considered an accidental death. But not every death resulting from such causes would be considered accidental."

It doesn't look like the kind of road frequented by pedestrians. In case of a car crash there should be some vehicle left, with her inside or nearby, and located years earlier. Nothing to fall from in sight. Nowhere to drown nearby.
Unless we're talking this kind of "accident".

Very sad but thankfully the family knows what happened and that she apparently didn't die by someone else's hand. That was a very good reconstruction based on the pictures I seen of Ms. Houston.

Excuse me but what are you talking about?
What do they know? That she was found, on the side of the road, far from where she disappeared from? The fact that someone figured that it may be an accident explains nothing.

 

[SNicole82]

"Hughes Lounge" seem to be a place that never existed, so in addition in may be also mixed up or unknown where she was last seen.
The word "Lounge" is behind her on the red hat picture. Some "Lounge" it may be but it doesnt sound accidental.

Did she had any reason to suddenly head to El Paso?


Its pretty basic and wild guess, but from Samuel Little's drawing:
View attachment 347844
Description: "Black female between 25-28 years old killed between 1976 and 1979 or in 1993."
doesn't fit that well, but he claimed to kill in early 1990, Louisiana, 1988 in Phoenix...
And the resemblance is there, IMO. May be accidental, but this smile... how often do you see smile like that?

My thoughts when I read they found her remains. It didn’t make sense for it to be accidental and out in the middle of nowhere. I watched a documentary on Sam Little and it said the way he strangled one of his victims that they originally listed it as accidental or something like that. It would not be far fetched that she was a victim.

 

[beubeubeu]

My thoughts when I read they found her remains. It didn’t make sense for it to be accidental and out in the middle of nowhere. I watched a documentary on Sam Little and it said the way he strangled one of his victims that they originally listed it as accidental or something like that. It would not be far fetched that she was a victim.

I can't bring names right away, cause it's been a while since I read about other cases (than those I got currently focused on), but with him I remembered reading that not one but few of his victims were originally classified as accidental deaths. With others, atm I only recall Israel Keyes, but there was something stated by the investigator - something to the accord that they have to look for a needle in hay stack, cause he confessed to a murder and gave them some hints, but not enough to make it clear, and mocked them that at least one of his victims they ruled as accidental death. And there was for sure something with one more prolific serial killer, as he got caught and started confessing, leading them to the crime scenes, offering accurate details.. and bunch of his victims (young, healthy women) were originally "accidental deaths".

I wonder if medical examiners are even allowed to decide that cause of death was murder/possible homicide if thery have no evidence of that on the body, cause not whole body was recovered. Maybe they aren't? Or they're possibly encouraged to not to do so if by some stretch cause of death may indeed be accidental or "natural", leaving investigators to work with other evidence.

 

[beubeubeu]

Is there any way to know if she was ever considered as one of Samuel Little's victims?