Debra Lansdell is another missing New Mexico woman. She vanished just three years prior to Tara Calico from the same area. It is unknown if the cases are connected. All these years later, Lansdell still hasn’t been found. This New Mexico nurse deserves justice. Sadly, her case has not been as publicized as Tara Calico’s and police have not taken it very seriously.
Everyone knows about Tara Calico, and if you don’t, you can read about it here. But not as many people know about Debra Lansdell (commonly misspelled as Landsdell). This twenty-nine-year-old nurse also disappeared from Belen, NM, three years and one day prior to Tara Calico.
Debbie Lansdell disappeared on September 21, 1985. She had just gotten divorced and was discovering herself again. She started a job as a nurse at Lovelace Urgent Care in Albuquerque, moved into a new apartment in Belen, and bought a used Porsche. She started seeing a new man as well. The night she disappeared, she was actually visiting him at his Belen apartment. She left his apartment in Belen at 2 am and drove home. And then something happened to her that remains a mystery.
She didn’t show up for work for two days in a row, so she was reported missing. Detectives went by her apartment and noticed the door was ajar. Nothing appeared to be missing. Her Porsche was also gone.
Very little was done in Debbie Lansdell’s case at first. Police were hesitant to declare her a victim of foul play; as far as they knew, she had left Belen of her own accord, and people are legally allowed to vanish as they choose. But after Linda Lee Daniels’s abduction and murder by four men in Albuquerque, public outrage forced police to put missing women from the Albuquerque metro area into the spotlight.
Renewed efforts in Lansdell’s case led to her Porsche being located at an Albuquerque apartment complex at 1520 Gold SE in February of 1986 – a full five months after she went missing. It is unknown how it got there, but residents of the complex said it had been there for months, possibly since she had gone missing. The car had various dents and scratches on it. But there was no blood or other signs of foul play. I wonder if it’s still in evidence and if it can be combed for DNA now. Prints were lifted from the car and compared to Johnny Zinn, Wallace Piece, Signey Sliger, and James Scartaccinni, the men who abducted, raped, and killed Linda Lee Daniels. They were not a match.
Over the years, various different human remains were found around Valencia County and Albuquerque. Every time, the Lansdells held their breath, thinking their missing loved one had finally been found. But none of the remains ever matched Debra Lansdell.
One of the remains was a skeleton of a woman uncovered by bow hunters on the Sandia Crest in December of 1988. It was missing its wisdom teeth, just like Debra Lansdell, but dental records ultimately did not match. That body was eventually identified as 22-year-old Holly Harris, who had been missing for 12 years before her skeleton was found near the picnic area on the Crest. Her case has never been solved and her family did not have a service for her or let the media reflect on her death much.
Men looking for bleached cow skulls near the Manzano Expressway in 1991 instead found a human skull with a .22 bullet hole on the left side and another on the right side. The lower jawbone remained on the skull. The head had been buried and the top part was bleached by the sun but the bottom part still had some decomposed flesh clinging to the bone inside – viable DNA! The skull seemed to be a solid possibility for either Debra Lansdell or Tara Calico, but it was eventually ruled out for both women via dental records. The skull was determined to have belonged to someone in their teens, probably female though maybe a delicate male, and likely Hispanic. It had been out there in the desert sun for 1.5 to 4 years. Police said there was unspecified evidence in the area that could help identify the skull, but as far as I could find, it is still unidentified.
Two different bodies were found in this area and I wonder if the skull might belong to one of them. One of the decedents was a man killed by a shotgun blast, discovered without his skull, but his jawbone was later found so he can’t be a match. The skull and the two unidentified bodies are very creepy and bizarre unsolved crimes in their own right.
In cases like this, where there are more questions than answers, families are basically tortured by the unknowing. Debbie’s mother, Shirley Lansdell, was indeed tortured by questions about her daughter’s disappearance. She joined Tara Calico’s mother, Pat Doel, in forming the Santa Fe Alliance of Victims of Unsolved Crimes. This organization advocated for unsolved murder victims and their families.
Shirley Lansdell always felt that her daughter’s death had been handled poorly by police and that is why it has never been solved. These two grief-stricken mothers successfully managed to get legislation passed that kept families in the loop with law enforcement.
Debra Lansdell’s boyfriend would be the most obvious place to start. Did any witnesses actually see Debbie Lansdell leave his apartment? Did he have any ties to the apartment complex where her car was located, such as a friend, cousin, co-worker? Had they been fighting that night?
Also, was there any significance to the apartment complex where Debbie’s car was found or was it a random dump spot? Did Debbie have ties to that complex herself?
Her ex-husband may be another place to look. Where was he that night? Was he hurt that Debbie had started seeing someone? Was there a history of abuse?
Someone on Reddit pointed out the eerie coincidence that both Debbie and Tara vanished from Belen in late September in the late 80s – Tara on September 20, 1988; Debbie on September 21, 1985. Was there a serial killer preying on women during this time? Could the cases be connected?
Police pointed out a possible link between Debra Lansdell’s disappearance and the murder of Kathleen Bindel, Jennifer Lynn Shirm, and Susan LaPorte. They also pointed out similarities with the disappearance of Jena Marie Repp, whose case was later solved. I’m not sure if these murders/disappearances are connected, but the 1980s sure seemed to be a dangerous time to be a woman in Albuquerque or Santa Fe.
Shirly Lansdell passed in 2011, never to learn what happened to her daughter. Her remaining family members still want to know, though. If you know anything at all, call Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS or the State Police at (505) 827-9066. You can also email [email protected].