There was a development in a Lubbock, Texas cold case in May 2023 when the body of Deborah Sue Agnew Williamson was exhumed from its grave, hoping DNA evidence might identify her killer. In 1975, Williamson was found brutally murdered outside her home. The crime, however, was never solved.
Deborah’s husband, Doug Williamson, returned home from work and discovered Deborah dead in their yard from a series of apparent stab wounds. Doug reported what he found and said his wife had been raped, based on the condition of Deborah’s clothing and the position of her body. To this day, Doug and other members of Deborah’s family believe she knew her killer, EverythingLubbock.com reports.
Suspects in the case
Reportedly, Doug and Deborah Williamson were only married a short time before Deborah’s death, and Doug passed a polygraph test and had an alibi the night his wife died, verified by a coworker. Doug worked with another man, Paul Neel, who had previously dated Deborah. Neel left work early the day Deborah was killed, and more than an hour elapsed between when he departed and when he arrived for his date with another woman, according to NEA Report.
At one time, Deborah’s brother Ricky was also considered a suspect in the case, but Ricky later died by suicide, according to The New York Times. In the 1980s, Henry Lee Lucas, the so-called “Confession Killer,” said he killed Deborah, but like hundreds of Lucas’ other false confessions, that was disproven.
The exhumation
Years later, the effort to exhume Deborah’s body was led by her sister, Liz Flatt, and her husband, Doug, who have worked to solve Williamson’s murder for decades. There was evidence to suggest that Deborah’s remains could yield viable DNA samples of who killed her using modern DNA testing technology from defensive wounds indicating she fought back against her assailant, as well as possible DNA samples from the jewelry with which she was buried.
In May 2023, Deborah’s sister, Liz Flatt, said, referring to the reexamination, “It took a lot of hard work to get to this point. I cannot thank [the Lubbock Police Department] enough” (via EverythingLubbock.com). Once exhumed, results could take six to eight weeks. There have been no updates on possible DNA evidence recovered since the exhumation of Deborah’s body as of this report.
Since her death, Deborah’s unsolved murder has been the topic of several true-crime podcasts and documentaries, among them Break the Case: What Happened to Debbie Sue Williamson? and The Cold Case Club: Who Killed Debbie?
