Halloween night, 1981. Sixteen year old Debra Mae “Debbie” Fulton leaves her house in Hammond, Indiana, with a little cash and a simple plan: walk to the Roller Dome, skate with friends, come home. She never makes it.
The next day, a boy playing under the Calumet Avenue bridge spots a body in the Grand Calumet River. Debbie has been killed by a blow to the head. Within weeks, her case is being used as an example in debates about runaway youth and juvenile law. Headlines call her a chronic runaway. Officials argue over whether she should have been locked in a secure facility “for her own protection.”
Forty years later, her killer has still not been identified.
In this episode of A Heavy Weight, we trace Debbie’s final walk, revisits the investigation into her death, and looks at how the label “runaway” can obscure the reality of kids in crisis. Along the way, we dig into what research now tells us about runaway youth, their risk of violence, and what it means to build safety without defaulting to incarceration.