Til Dismemberment Do Us Part

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now He was born in Alabama in 1952, worked at a residential facility for people with profound learning disabilities, later called the Wallace Center, finding jobs for patients, and was also a youth counsellor at a Decatur church. Debbie moved in with him later that year, taking Jojo with her. The couple had an abortion during the next three years and married in August 1978. They bought a house in a desirable part of southeast Decatur and Debbie gave up nursing to raise the family. A second daughter arrived in 1979, and they began an extensive renovation, adding a bedroom and remodelling the rest.

David wanted a country-club life and Debbie wanted nice things, but the money did not stretch. In February 1984 a third daughter, Morgan, was born after a difficult pregnancy that required bed rest, and Debbie suffered postpartum depression. The house was already too small, so they decided to add a second storey, an expensive project they could not afford. David also promised her a fish pond in the back garden. Both were meant to be finished for a family cookout on 4 July 1984; neither was, and Debbie reminded him of it daily.

On 10 July 1984 David left for work early. Debbie spent the day with Evelyn, a neighbour whose children played with hers. At six that evening Evelyn took the two older girls to a baseball game, leaving Debbie at home with the baby. David came home around half past six to find his wife sitting in the dark. An electricity company employee had called with a bounced cheque and threatened to cut off the power, in front of two neighbours. Debbie was humiliated and furious. She told David he was weak for not earning more; he blamed her for the unfinished addition and the country club. She packed a duffel bag and drove off in her blue Ford, and he assumed she had gone to her older sister Virginia's house.

Evelyn brought the children back about nine. David sat outside with them, saying the baby was asleep, and they all went to bed before ten. Shortly after ten Debbie came home. She had done a lot of thinking, she said, and she was taking the girls to live with her other sister in Texas. David later said he had been reading a book, and he threw it at her, hitting her on the head. That only made her angrier. He picked up his middle daughter's jump rope from the floor and strangled her with it. She bled from the mouth and nose. He carried her to the shower, then to the unfinished bathroom on the second floor, and decided he could not dispose of the body whole. Using utility razor blades and a hacksaw, he cut her into eight pieces, wrapped each piece in newspaper and put it in a plastic bag. He checked on the children and went to bed.

The bags stayed in the locked upstairs bathroom for about three weeks while he worked out what to do. details of the account remain covered until revealed He finished the pond, stocked it with fish and landscaped it.

On 31 July 1984 he reported Debbie missing. He told neighbours and family that she had severe postpartum depression and had been erratic. He sank into a depression, petitioned the probate court to have her committed to the state mental health department, and about a year and a half later told police she had been making collect calls from New Orleans. A friend of his, Odell Crudden, had been placing those calls from pay phones in the French Quarter. Police and her family searched New Orleans and found nothing. About six months after her disappearance David began a sexual relationship with the family's fifteen-year-old babysitter. He declared bankruptcy and lost the house to foreclosure.

A neighbour, Maggie Bowen, had been telling police for two years that Debbie was buried under the fish pond. Detectives had no probable cause while David owned the house, and he refused permission. When a young couple bought the property, the new owner agreed to let the sheriff dig up the pond at the county's expense. On 19 August 1987 officers drained it and took about an hour to break through the concrete. They found three plastic bags containing a torso, a head and other body parts, packed in newspaper and lime. Dental records and an autopsy confirmed Debbie Stewart. The medical examiner thought she had probably died from a blow from a blunt instrument.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now He described the book, the jump rope, the dismemberment and the pond, and made two statements. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

In 1993 Glenda Yarbrough wrote a partly fictionalised book, Under the Fish Pond. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now Debbie is buried at Roseelawn Gardens of Memory in Decatur, in the Garden of Everlasting Life.