Overview

Last seen: February 29, 1972
Location: Pompano Beach, Broward County, Florida
Age: 13
Status: Endangered missing

Main circumstances: Debora left home to walk approximately one mile to Rickards Middle School. She was last seen walking toward the school but never arrived. Her schoolbooks were subsequently found in a trash bin about a block from her home.

Authorities initially considered the possibility that Debora had run away, but her family strongly rejected that theory. She reportedly had no history of running away, took none of her personal belongings and had recently moved to Florida with her family from West Virginia.

Her family later came to believe that Gerard John Schaefer, who knew Debora’s father and had visited the Lowe family home, may have been involved. Schaefer was never charged in Debora’s disappearance.

Detailed Case Breakdown

The Disappearance of Debora Sue Lowe: Florida’s Unsolved 1972 Missing Child Case

Thirteen-year-old Debora Sue Lowe, known to her family as “Debbie,” disappeared while walking to school in Pompano Beach, Florida, on the morning of February 29, 1972. More than five decades later, Debora has never been found, and her disappearance remains unsolved.

Her case has endured not only because a child seemingly vanished during a routine walk to school, but because her schoolbooks were reportedly discovered discarded near her home and her family later came to suspect that convicted murderer Gerard John Schaefer may have been responsible.

Very Brief Case Summary

Last seen: February 29, 1972
Location: Pompano Beach, Broward County, Florida
Age: 13
Status: Endangered missing

Main circumstances: Debora left home to walk approximately one mile to Rickards Middle School. She was last seen walking toward the school but never arrived. Her schoolbooks were subsequently found in a trash bin about a block from her home.

Authorities initially considered the possibility that Debora had run away, but her family strongly rejected that theory. She reportedly had no history of running away, took none of her personal belongings and had recently moved to Florida with her family from West Virginia.

Her family later came to believe that Gerard John Schaefer, who knew Debora’s father and had visited the Lowe family home, may have been involved. Schaefer was never charged in Debora’s disappearance.

Who Was Debora Sue Lowe?

Debora Sue Lowe was born on September 19, 1958. She had brown hair and brown eyes and was approximately 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighing between 120 and 125 pounds.

Identifying characteristics included crowded upper teeth, a small chip in one of her front teeth and a small scar on her left leg.

On the morning she disappeared, Debora was reportedly wearing a yellow blouse, black slacks with vertical rose-colored stripes and a tan poncho. Records also describe a distinctive ring with an aquamarine-colored center stone, flower-shaped petals and gold-colored details.

Debora’s family had recently relocated from the Palestine area of West Virginia to South Florida.

February 29, 1972: The Walk to School

On the morning of Tuesday, February 29, 1972, Debora began what should have been an ordinary walk to Rickards Middle School in Pompano Beach.

She was reportedly last seen between approximately 7:30 and 8:00 a.m., walking in the vicinity of 8th Street and Sunrise Boulevard. The trip between her home and school was about a mile.

Debora never arrived at school.

She was never seen or heard from again.

Her schoolbooks were later reportedly discovered in a trash bin approximately one block from the Lowe family home. That detail became one of the most troubling pieces of the disappearance because it raised questions about whether Debora voluntarily abandoned her route to school or whether someone else discarded the books.

The Initial Runaway Theory

Authorities initially considered whether Debora had run away, possibly attempting to return to Palestine, West Virginia, where her family had lived before moving to Florida.

Her family never accepted that explanation.

According to published case accounts, Debora had no previous history of running away. She also left her personal possessions behind. To her family, those circumstances did not resemble a teenager deliberately leaving home and traveling hundreds of miles back to West Virginia.

As the years passed without any confirmed sighting or communication from Debora, the possibility that she had been abducted became increasingly central to discussion of the case.

The Gerard Schaefer Connection

One of the most disturbing aspects of Debora Lowe’s case is her family’s suspected connection to Gerard John Schaefer Jr.

Schaefer was a former Florida law-enforcement officer who was convicted of murdering two young women and has been suspected in numerous additional disappearances and killings.

According to published accounts of Debora’s case, Schaefer worked with Debora’s father and had visited the Lowe family home. Debora’s family came to believe that he could have been responsible for her disappearance.

The theory has never resulted in charges.

Schaefer was killed in prison in 1995, eliminating the possibility of investigators obtaining a future confession or direct explanation from him.

It is therefore important to distinguish the family’s suspicion from an established fact: Schaefer has never been proven to have abducted or killed Debora Sue Lowe.

A Family That Never Stopped Searching

Debora’s disappearance had a lasting impact on her family.

Her father died of a heart attack approximately four years after she vanished. Her mother died in 1995. Other members of the Lowe family continued trying to determine what happened to Debbie.

Family participation has also helped preserve information about Debora online. In missing-person discussion communities, someone identifying herself as Debora’s sister described the morning of the disappearance, recalling that the children initially walked together before separating for their different schools.

Those family accounts have helped keep Debora from becoming simply another name attached to a decades-old case number.

Latest Investigation and Case Status

Debora Sue Lowe remains officially listed as missing.

Current Florida Department of Law Enforcement records continue to identify her as an endangered missing person, while the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children maintains an active missing-child poster for Debora and displays an age-progressed image showing what she might have looked like later in adulthood.

NCMEC currently lists Debora’s age as 67 years old and continues to direct information to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.

A November 2025 report from the Hur Herald again highlighted the case and reported that Debora’s family continued searching for information about what happened to her.

No publicly announced arrest, recovery of Debora’s remains, confirmed identification, or resolution of her disappearance was located in the most recent publicly available records reviewed for this article.

The Gerard Schaefer theory continues to appear prominently in historical accounts of the case, but there has been no publicly disclosed evidence establishing that he was responsible.

More than five decades after Debora vanished, the fundamental questions therefore remain unchanged: What happened during her short walk to school, who discarded her books, and where is Debora Sue Lowe?

Why Debora Lowe’s Case Still Matters

Cold cases can sometimes be solved decades later. Advances in DNA testing, forensic genealogy, digitized records and the identification of previously unidentified remains have provided answers in cases once considered nearly impossible to resolve.

Debora’s identifying information remains publicly available so that investigators, researchers and members of the public can compare her case with unidentified-person cases and report information.

Someone may also still possess information about Debora’s disappearance that was never given to investigators.

Debora Sue Lowe was only 13 years old when she disappeared on February 29, 1972. Until evidence establishes what happened to her, she remains a missing child whose family has spent more than half a century waiting for an answer.