Do you know who murdered Deborah? On May 20, 1994, concern grew for Deborah Jean Timmons when friends realized she had not been seen or heard from in a couple of days and was not answering her phone. A request for a well-being check at her residence at the Leisure Manor Apartments in Tulsa, Oklahoma, led to a grim discovery. The management and maintenance staff of the apartment complex entered her unit, number 142 at 6967 E. 15th Pl., and found her deceased in the bathroom.
Initially, the scene suggested a possible suicide, and her death was treated as such. However, as investigators delved deeper into the circumstances surrounding her death, evidence emerged that pointed towards a more sinister conclusion, leading them to reclassify the case as a homicide.
The investigation into the female victim's death eventually focused on her ex-husband, a man with a troubled past that included other violent crimes. Though he was a person of interest in Deborah's case, he was not immediately charged. The case grew cold over the years, another unsolved file in the Tulsa Police Department's records. Decades later, a significant development in a separate cold case brought his name back into the spotlight. In 2019, he was arrested and charged with the 1988 murder of another woman, Cynthia A. Smith, in Missouri. This breakthrough in the Missouri case was aided by a private investigation firm and the reality TV crime show 'Cold Justice.'
Despite the arrest and the renewed hope for justice, the legal proceedings against the suspect in the 1988 murder case ultimately faltered. In December 2021, the murder charges against him were dropped. The dismissal was attributed to a combination of factors, including a new state law that limited the use of testimony from a deceased person and the unfortunate deaths of two key witnesses. While he was convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison in November 2022 on separate charges of unlawful possession of a firearm and forgery, he has never been formally charged in connection with the death of Deborah Timmons. Her case officially remains an unsolved homicide, leaving her loved ones with unanswered questions and a sense of justice unfulfilled.
