Deborah Ann Brooks was an 11th-grader at McKinley High School in Northeast Washington when she returned to her Brookland home and realized her mom had picked up the wrong medicine. Deborah, known to most everyone she knew as “Missy,” told her mom she was going to the People’s drugstore on 12th Street Northeast to get the correct prescription.
Her mom warned her that the business was going to close in 30 minutes, but Missy promised she could make it because she was going to run.
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That was about 8:30 p.m. Nov. 13, 1980. It was the last time Missy’s family saw her alive.
That night family and friends searched for the 17-year-old around the quiet Brookland neighborhood near Catholic University. No one had seen her. A search the next day found the bag containing the prescription in a driveway about a block from Missy’s home at 1425 Monroe St.
The family reported the disappearance to police — she was last seen wearing bluejeans, a brown sweater, a green waist jacket and brown shoes.
Two days after Missy disappeared, about 30 miles southeast of the District in Charles County, two hunters were operating a four-wheel-drive vehicle in a wooded area. They were about three-quarters of a mile off Sharpersville Road when they observed what appeared to be a body lying face-up under a pile of drywall. It was Missy. She had been raped and fatally stabbed several times in the chest, back, legs and throat.
Thirty-one years later, Missy’s murder remains unsolved, and the Charles County Sheriff’s Office continues to seek information about this cold case. Anyone who has information is urged to contact Charles County Crime Solvers at 866-411-TIPS. Crime Solvers is offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information that leads to an arrest or indictment, and all callers remain anonymous.
