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Debra Denise Mackey (July 23, 1961 - January 6, 1982) was a young woman discovered northeast of Plainview, Texas on February 16, 1982.

She was identified by the DNA Doe Project in June 2023.

Case[]

Mackey's remains were discovered by the side of the road. She was nude, with her hands tied using her bra, and she had been sexually assaulted and decapitated. Her head was never found. Despite the body being partially decomposed, fingerprints were lifted. However, her fingerprints were not on file with the FBI or with authorities in Texas or Arizona. At the time, police did not identify Mackey because they mistakenly believed the body was that of a white female.

On October 2, 1982, the skull of a teenage girl or young woman was found near Scottsdale, Arizona. Pathologist Ralph Erdmann stated he was "ninety-five percent certain" that the Scottsdale and Plainview sets of remains belonged to the same victim, based on similar characteristics and postmortem intervals. The skull and the body were eventually buried together in a Plainview cemetery under the marker "Jane Doe".

However, Erdmann was discovered to have falsified autopsies and was later convicted on counts of evidence tampering and perjury, which damaged the theory that the skull and the decapitated body belonged to the same woman. In 2015, the remains were exhumed and sent to the Center for Human Identification at the University of North Texas. According to the DNA Doe Project, the theory that the Scottsdale victim and the Plainview victim were one and the same was officially disproven. In 2019, the DNA Doe Project determined the victim to be predominantly of African-American descent.

Serial killer Henry Lee Lucas confessed to killing her and was indicted, but the charges against him were later dropped after he was convicted in other cases. While in custody, Lucas confessed to killing hundreds of people, with the Lucas Task Force, headed by the Texas Rangers, closing 213 murder cases. However, it was eventually determined that Lucas had falsely confessed to most of these cases, with authorities enabling him by offering privileges or allowing him to read cold case files before confessing. Lucas later recanted all of his confessions. He was eventually convicted of eleven murders, suspected of more, and died on March 12, 2001.

Other victims he falsely confessed to or is suspected of include Tammy Alexander, Michelle Busha, Marilee Bruszer, Carol Cole, Eva Debruhl, James Freund and Pam Buckley, Sandra Matott, Marie Heiser, Debra Jackson, Grimes County Jane Doe, Patty Hicks, Riverside County Jane Doe, and Sherri Jarvis.

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