Local sheriff’s office breathes new life into unresolved cold cases

GIBSON COUNTY, Tenn. — Having someone you know or love be murdered is already difficult enough for anyone to deal with, but not having the closure of knowing their killer has been put to justice, makes it that much more heart wrenching.

This is what the Gibson County Sheriff’s Office says is motivation, to breathe new life into crimes of the past.

On a rural corner in Milan, a man is growing a garden in his yard. He is vaguely aware that almost 20 years ago, what investigators describe as, a gruesome double homicide, took place there.

“The sheriff’s department answered a call on Easter Sunday, April 4th 1999,” says Investigator Brad Oliver with the Gibson County Sheriff’s Office.

Officials say 31 year old Debra Halliburton and her 8 year old daughter Ambria were found dead, each stabbed multiple times with a kitchen knife.

“Knowing what the crime scene looked like and, you know, a 31 year old mom and an 8 year old daughter,” Oliver said, “that’s motivation enough.”

The trailer where Debra Halliburton and her daughter used to live no longer stands on Carraway Hills Road, but Sheriff Paul Thomas says even though time has passed and the mother and daughter are now gone, that does not mean they’re forgotten.

“Just because it wasn’t able to be solved 20 years ago, is no reason to just push it to the side and say let’s move on,” said Sheriff Paul Thomas of Gibson County.

Investigator Oliver says he and his team decided to reopen this cold case, mainly he says, because of the overwhelming amount of evidence.

“This box is full of crime scene photos, videos, taped interviews,” lists Oliver.

Almost a year and a half has been spent reading over these stacks of records and reports that were taken almost two decades ago.

“There’s pages and pages of notebook paper and field notes, and they may have something highlighted or may have an asterisk by something, and you wonder, well why did they put an asterisk by that,” Sheriff Thomas said.

But investigators say they do have their advantages.

“Training that investigators receive now as far as interview skills, or evidence collection, or just examining evidence, is so much better than it was 20 years ago,” said Sheriff Thomas.

Not to mention, advances in technology, specifically in the program CODIS, or Combined DNA Index System. CODIS is a database maintained by the FBI, that includes the DNA profiles of violent offenders across the county.

“We can compare it from a local case, to a state case, or a federal case; if there’s any that are connected,” Oliver said.

This is why Investigator Oliver says not only are they re-interviewing witnesses and persons of interests but, he says, they are also resubmitting evidence.

“What’s in here that is new, or fresh, or from your findings,” asked WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News Reporter Amanda Gerry.
“Some of the things here were resubmitted, but nothing is new evidence,” said the investigator. “It’s all evidence that was here.”

But Investigator Oliver says the key element is the results from testing the murder weapon, or the handle of the kitchen knife. These results, he says, have led him into what he’s confident is the right direction, a direction he hopes will close this case once and for all.

“This little girl was 8 at this time. She’d be 28 years old now, and I think about all the things she missed out on,” Sheriff Thomas said, “and we can’t give all that back to her or the family, but knowing that we did something to bring some peace to that family, would be huge for us.”

To this day, no one has been charged in the deaths of Debra and Ambria Halliburton.

If you have any information on this case, you are urged to contact the Gibson County Sheriff’s Office at 731-855-1121.