Police Seek Clues in Murder of Woman Reported Missing

DALLAS, GA -- The Paulding County Sheriff's Office is pleading with the public to come forward with any clues they may have to help solve the murder of a woman whose skeletal remains were found in October 2013.

Detectives have exhausted all leads and clues in the case, and Crime Stoppers Atlanta is offering a $2,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects involved in the murder of Deborah Lee Crawford, the agency said on its Facebook page.

The case initially started as a missing person investigation with the Cobb County Police Department in August 2013, as Crawford lived in unincorporated Marietta at the time.

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However, the case was later transferred to the Canton Police Department after a friend initially reported she left Crawford, 41, at the former Kmart parking lot at 1750 Marietta Highway to meet another friend.

Canton police later discovered Crawford's friend had given false information after she said that she did not leave Crawford there, but left her Aug. 19, 2013, at a motel off Interstate 75 at Cass-White Road in Bartow County.

The friend, who told police she believed Crawford wanted to "get away" from her current life, was later arrested by Canton police for allegedly lying during the investigation.

The case took a tragic turn when a hunter discovered skeletal remains on Oct. 13 in a shallow grave off Dabbs Bridge Road near Harmony Grove Church Road in northern Paulding County, the sheriff's office said.

Sheriff's deputies called in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the remains were sent to the agency's Crime Lab for identification.

About six months after the discovery, the remains were identified as Crawford's. GBI agents as well as anthropologists from the University of Tennessee were also able to determine Crawford had been murdered and "that her body had been buried in the shallow grave in Paulding County for several months."

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (404) 577-TIPS (8477) or the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division at (770) 443-3015.

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Image via Canton Police Department