Kimberly Hancock

The discovery reopens a 15-year-old missing person's case.

“January 19th was the last time I saw her.”

She was getting into a car, she had left the babysitter on the net. As they pursued these leads, her disappearance really becomes kind of a cold case. As a homicide investigation gets underway, shocking discoveries lead detectives back to one woman's doorstep. She knew things about the wrong side of the law.

But normal people wouldn't even think of. When she was 18 years old, she was shot and killed her father. And then there's also the question of her own brother who's been missing for years. I can't grasp what kind of person would do that.

We never would have foreseen how gruesome this case would have ended up.

I can't feel bad because I didn't do that at all! [Music]

“Nash County, North Carolina is a quiet community about an hour from the state's capital.”

Nash County is a rural area. It's very nice, it's up and coming. Not a lot of mom and pop businesses popping up here. Most people know their neighbors, and just down there are seven people. But even a close-knit area like this one has its secrets.

[Music] And on October 24th, 2019, one of them is exposed. Nash County Sheriff's Office received a tip from fighting crime,

which is a nonprofit organization here that one lady basically runs,

and she has a large follow-in on social media. I own fighting crime news, and what I do is I take tips from citizens that really don't want to talk to law enforcement, and those tips are passed on to law enforcement.

“I work with multiple agencies, and they work on the tips as I give them to them.”

And everything is remains of 100% anonymous. That's the reason fighting crime has been so successful in our area, because it's confidential information. And other citizens don't know that they've provided this information. This time, the tip is about a cold case from 15 years ago.

This was a missing mother of four depredients. There had been some attention that was paid to it in the past. But the case had grown cold. According to the anonymous caller, Deborah isn't missing. She's dead.

I chatted for a few minutes, got the person's information, and made contact with National County Sheriff's Office with Lieutenant Sherrod. The caller said that nobody would be in a shallow grave behind a building, and that it would be wrapped up in some kind of carpet. Our criminal investigation team is then notified,

and they're deployed out to doing investigation, and the Wally Road, a very rural part of National County. Police find the area described in a wooded property behind two mobile homes. I was one of the investigators with the show, and we probably dug less than a foot,

and hit something so we started carefully moving the dirt from the area, and saw what we believed to be carpet. Your adrenaline starts pumping. You know, you're thinking this tip is true. We were able to put it carpet back,

and at that time, it's when we found a tarp. I'll feed you. Right there. Yes, sir. Right there.

Where's that little thing? Something has been found. I got ready, right there. We saw what we thought to be a human remains. At that time, we stopped,

and when trying to call the anthropologists to assist us with removing a body,

So I was no doubt in my mind,

“based off the information we ever received from the fight crime,”

and it was going to end up being Debbie. Debbie Deans was born in Maryland on September 26, 1974. She was a happy little girl. She was always happy. She was friendly and sweet and talented.

She had a happy childhood. But her father was a long-distance truck driver, and he was older than I was, and he could be difficult to be around. So we separated when Debbie was about nine, ten years old.

After the divorce, Debbie's mother Elaine became the sole provider. She was able to land a job in Rocky Mount North Carolina, but the move wasn't easy for Debbie. We moved when she was in eighth or ninth grade. She became bored and she wanted to quit,

because she said she would go and get her GED. They told her it would take her two years. I think it took her like ten months. She was very smart. She did take college courses.

She didn't graduate, but she went to the local college there that's right in Rocky Mount.

Her first job was at a barbecue place in Rocky Mount,

and she loved it. She was good with children, and she just had that instinct to serve and be able to do it well. She was very people-oriented,

but she could be very hard-headed and very independent. Debbie longed for a family of her own, and at 18, she fell in love with a man named William. She started dating William,

“and I think it went much quicker than I would ever have wanted it to go,”

and then they moved in together. Debbie soon announced that she was pregnant, but the relationship fell apart as quickly as it began. I'm not exactly sure what transpired when she broke off with William.

She called up and said, "Come get me." That's exactly what I did. When I got there, I said, "What do you want to do?" She said, "I want to go home with you." Debbie gave birth to a little girl she named Jessica.

Things might not have turned out quite the way she wanted, but that didn't stop her from trying again. Debbie knew so many different people. She'd known Robbie for a long time, but it wasn't until two years after she had Jessica

that she started talking to him. She married Robbie. It was an one-again off-again relationship, and she was back home with me when my grandson Robbie was born.

“I vaguely remember what happened after they split up or why,”

but at me and my brother Robbie, we were all still very close growing up.

My mom was always a very happy person,

and we were really big on coloring together. She would always sit down and call her pictures with us, even when she went around. She was sending us pictures that she had colored. She blew me out of the motor with some of the things

that she would think of to teach her children. She always wanted what was best for her kids. After her divorce, she moved on with a man named Thomas and was soon pregnant again. As Debbie struggled to balance being a single parent

while making ends meet, she sought ways to escape. She was dating him, and she moved him with him, and she had a Michael.

When she went to have Michael at the hospital, she had tested for positive drugs. And I really thought that putting Michael in foster care would be the wake-up call that Debbie would need to get her life back on track.

Sadly, it was not, and she kept on this downward spiral and to she had Samantha. By the age of 29, Debbie was a single mother struggling to take care of four children

with unreliable fathers.

next is Robbie.

“He's probably about three years younger than me.”

They tried to hide a lot of the troubles from us.

William, in the pay child support, Robbie, on the other hand, he did pay child support. Singed was like $30 a week, but he paid it.

She was trying to get by and really be there for her four kids. During that time, her mother kind of stepped in the child care, Kimberly Hancock, had also stepped in to help. Kimberly Hancock was Robbie's sister,

Debbie's former sister-in-law, and she'd remained close to Debbie after the divorce. Her willingness to help was put to the test in 2003, when Debbie was convicted of fraud and larceny. It was clear that she had some financial issues.

Here, she was a single mother raising four kids on her own.

“Debbie went to jail for a ride in some bad chicks,”

and while she was in jail, Kimberly had to help take care of the children. Kim had Samantha. Michael was in foster care, and I had Robbie and Jessica.

Less than four months later, when Debbie was released in January, 2004, she seemed determined to make up for her mistake. When she got out, she knew that she needed to be a better mother,

and that she needed to straighten her life out. Kimberly invited Debbie to live with her while she got back on her feet. She was very determined person, when she said her mind on it.

Once she had to go in line, she worked towards it. She wanted her kids back. But within days of her release, Debbie mysteriously disappeared.

“January 19th was the last time I'd saw them.”

Really wasn't surprising. Can I let it go? And I thought, okay, somehow she gets mad at me and she ignores me. But when I didn't hear from her for Jessica's birthday,

then I knew something was wrong. On April 16th, 2004, almost three months since Debbie was last seen,

her mother finally decided to contact police.

One of the first people they spoke to was Debbie's former sister-in-law Kimberly, who also hadn't seen Debbie since January. Kimberly told Rocky Mount Police Department that Debbie came to her house with the baby Samantha,

and they were inside the house, and she heard a chord drive up in the yard. When she lit outside the door, Debbie was getting into a car, leaving in the sheer left Samantha and the baby sitting on the deck. The sheriff's office conducted an investigation,

but were unable to come up with any solid leads. As they pursue these leads, they just don't really get anywhere. The case is still on their radar, but as time passes,

Debbie's disappearance really becomes kind of a cold case. Debbie's two older children stayed with her mother, while the two youngest went into foster care, and were eventually adopted together. For the next 15 years,

Elaine held out hope for her daughter's return. I'm not a Bible-thumping person, but I do believe that in God,

and one of my prayers has always been

that we would find Debbie. Now, 15 years after her disappearance, hope has been extinguished with the discovery of what appears to be Debbie's remains and investigators face a challenge. We never would have foreseen

how gruesome this case would have ended up. She was in a very shallow grave, wrapped in carpet, and just tossed out light trash. The whole time,

this suspect's walking around. Coming up, Debbie's mother makes a startling accusation. It was proof, it was just what my gut told me. Leading detectives to a family member with a nefarious path.

This is somebody who is capable of murder because they've done it before. After a 15-year search,

of missing mother of four Deborah Deans.

“However, they can't be positive until they examine the remains.”

We had reason to believe that it was her. But in situations like this, because there was no actual flesh or DNA that was visible, we had a weight on the state to do their extensive research from to come back with a positive identification.

Once the medical examiner came, they slowly moved more dirt off the carpet and the tarp. The scene was processed. They were removing the dirt, the top soil, the canvas, the carpet,

the wire that was attached to it. They took photographs.

Every step of the removal of the body was carefully detailed.

While the process continues, homicide detectives begin their investigation. We started out by trying to find out who the land owners were. They're surprised to discover the two trailers are owned by Laura Hancock

and her mother, Kimberly. Kimberly Hancock, she's the one to have last seen Debbie Deans a lot. Kimberly had said that Debbie just lived on the 19th of January and she hadn't seen her scenes.

“You have to imagine that authorities were pretty surprised,”

shocked even that so close to where Debbie was last seen that that's where her body had been all of these years.

Neither Kimberly nor Laura are home.

While officers tried to track them down, investigators notified Debbie's mother, Elaine. When you have someone missing, it's not quite the same as when they were dying and you've accepted the death.

They're missing, don't know where they are. They're still the sliver of hoping a heart. But as Elaine grapples with the likelihood that the remains belong to Debbie, she tells detectives she's long suspected

that Kimberly was involved in Debbie's disappearance. Kim told Elaine, Debbie's mom,

“that she had spoken with Debbie several times”

and that she's safe, she's with friends, she's out and about on her own. And so it sort of appeases Elaine initially, but then as the weeks and months go by, Elaine knows something is wrong.

A new Kim, I didn't believe anything she ever said. Although Debbie had may have went off and done something stupid and dumb, she would have been in contact with her daughter. It wasn't proof, it was just what my gut told me.

The information leads detectives to re-examine the missing persons investigation from 2004. We could get the old file from Rocky Mount Police Department and see what they had done over the years. 15 years prior, in January of 2004,

Debbie had moved in with Kimberly after her release from prison. Kimberly claimed that only days later on January 19, she saw Debbie get into a car with someone and drive away. No description of the person that she may have left with, so they really had nothing other than what Kimberly said.

Records also reveal a potential motive for Kimberly to want Debbie out of the picture. While Debbie was behind bars, Kimberly was caring for these kids, and because of that, there were some social security checks

that were intended to help support these kids. The checks that were cashed by Ms. Hancock were payable to Ms. Dean. She took upon herself to go to a local bank and spring home and cash the checks and believe the checks

were in the amount of $100 each. Debbie's disappearance six days after her release didn't stop Kimberly from caching those checks. About a year later, a check surfaced in the spring home area where she was attempting to cash the check

and forged her name for Ms. Dean's visit. And they arrested her and that case ended up eventually getting dismissed in court

and testify against Kimberly that it was forgery.

Despite the forgery, there was never concrete proof

that Debbie's disappearance involved foul play. It's important to keep in mind that Debbie is an adult. She's allowed to go with her friends and leave her family if she chooses to.

“And here we have Kimberly saying that's what happened.”

Now, it seems to investigators that Kimberly may have known Debbie's body was in her backyard the entire time. The reason Debbie's case went cold I think is because of all the laws

and fabricated information that Kimberly was given to the police. When investigators checked Kimberly's record, they make another startling discovery. During the air investigation,

we learned that Kimberly had shot and killed her father. Ms. Hancock, when she was 18 years old, she discharged one round with a 25 and was initially charged with murder of her father. She went to court and she played to a reduced sentence

to manslaughter and got probation. But there was also allegations in the house that the father was abusing her. So I believe that she didn't go to jail for any amount of time.

Kim goes on to have some relationships to have two kids to be friends Debbie.

“And so she seems like she has a relatively normal life.”

Kimberly grew up around Nash County outside of the Spring Hup area.

And it's my understanding that she's always lived.

I know she got married at one time. Kim didn't work. She had two children from two different fathers. I think that she got support for them. Definitely left investigators kind of wondering,

you know, this isn't an innocent mother that they're dealing with. This is somebody who is capable of murder because they've done it before what's to stop them from doing it again. In Nash County, North Carolina,

news of the unearthed remains believed to belong to Deborah Dean's Reds like wildfire. When about who's found it was big news, several TV stations were there getting the story.

It was really unbelievable. It was really unbelievable.

“And I think we all had a sense of relief”

but it was also sadness in the children. All these years, wondering where Debbie is now. She's found, but it's not the outcome that they were hoping. Her former sister-in-law, Kimberly Hancock, who appears to be the prime suspect.

While investigators worked to track her down, police receive another call from the anonymous tipster who told them where to find the body. The tipster is able to tell them that after all these years,

they just couldn't hold that information back anymore. It was something that had weighed on them. And so they wanted to get the information to the right people

so that ultimately there would be some justice for Debbie.

They say around the time that Debbie disappeared suddenly Kim wanted to redo or redecorate her home and going to Kim's home, they noticed some small blood stains on certain items.

So it kind of makes you wonder the timing of all this is very suspects. Remodeling her home right after that, probably destroying most of the evidence in the carpet where she wrapped her up.

After so many years, it's unlikely any evidence is left to support the claim. But detectives get a potential break when they're able to get in touch with Kimberley's daughter, Laura Hancock. We went and picked up Laura, and Asher, she was beat with us

about this case. When we got to the share office, Laura was kind of reluctant to begin with the told to us. But then as the interview went on Laura, her told us that she had just got

through talking to Kimberley and that her mom and daughter everything. Laura and her mother would appear to be close. They lived right next door.

Laura says that Kim reached out to her and told her that she was going to prison.

She said, "They know. They know.

I did something to Debbie." Kimberley in the telling Laura that she was buried and in the backyard, and that she was going to be wrapped in some kind of carpet. Laura tells them that is happened because of the checks.

Miss Hancock was still receiving Debbie's monthly checks, but when she got out, she was confronted by Miss Deans and an argument ensued.

“And I think that's when the idea went into Miss Hancock”

to eliminate Miss Deans. But the revelations from Laura don't stop there. According to Laura, Kimberley is planning to pin the murder on her own family. Laura told us that she was going to

say that it was her brother Roger who we call Coget.

And her other brother named Robbie

who actually passed away from the health condition. During the interview with Laura, you could tell it was definitely hard on her. She was crying several times. She took some of the idea of telling her mom,

compared to giving her cousins her other aunts and uncles, the closure that they needed to be able to put this behind them. Surprisingly, Kimberley appears at the property of her own volition. I'm at that time, I approached Kimberley,

told her I needed her to be around me

“after she was speaking with her, and she agreed.”

There's like a thousand questions we want to ask her, and she was pretty much non-verbal, and not reacting like a normal person should.

In the interview room, Kimberley denies any involvement

and sticks to her original story. So investigators confront her with their recent discovery. We found what we believe would be human remains. In my mind, there's a hundred percent chance that's going to be dead.

Look, now it's time. Look at this. I had not done nothing. You'd have to know what happened. It's on your property.

Nobody can tell when you're property. And dig a hole and bury your body without you knowing about it. It just don't have the money to show up. Right at your shop.

That was not a hole. But you know about it. And now it's the time you got a chance. No, because I'm doing a twist and everything. I know everything.

I don't know nothing. So I'm trying to make it feel bad. I can't feel bad because I didn't do nothing wrong. Nobody's trying to make you feel bad. How I want you to do is tell the truth.

I have time to tell you about it.

“You have to think that she is just kind of full of it”

at this point. Here is a body that is found on her property behind her home. Her own daughter has said that she admitted to doing it. She was the last person to see Debbie alive. It seems very clear when you put all these pieces together

that Kim was clearly involved. We just wanted to see if she would break and tell us what we needed to know so that we can give that family to closure. They've been looking for 15 years. Coming up.

Investigators turn up the heat. [music playing] And a new witness comes forward. It's just dawning on him that what he saw was not a dream. [music playing]

[music playing] North Carolina detectives are interrogating Kimberley Hamcock. In connection to Kimberley Hamcock, in connection to the murder of her former sister-in-law, Debbie Deans. They tried to tell people I got back from Florida.

Kimberley Hamcock, in connection to the murder of her former sister-in-law, Debbie Deans. They tried to tell people I got back from Florida. Kimberley Hamcock, in connection to the murder of her former sister-in-law, Debbie Deans. They tried to tell people I got back from Florida. Kimberley Hamcock, in connection to the murder of her former sister-in-law, Debbie Deans.

They tried to tell people I got back from Florida. Kimberley Hamcock, in connection to the murder of her former sister-in-law, Debbie Deans. Robbie passed away a couple years after Debbie went missing. Roger, everybody calls him Kojak. He went missing from the Castellia area.

Kojak was last seen in July of 2009. It's very weird when a person like that goes missing on this well-liked-in community and had been seen since. Kojak just vanished five years after Debbie's disappearance. You have to wonder if there's some kind of connection there.

So there's no way for police to validate any of that information.

She never alluded to us that what they were trying to tell her was that Debbie was in the back of her breed.

But we knew that based on the information from Laura, it was just obvious just a story to get out from under it. I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but I don't believe that at all. You've known, no, yes you have. You've known for 15 years of that body's been behind you now.

I'm trying to tell you, I'm trying to tell you more of her. I did not lay my hands on her. I did not do nothing to her.

“But do you need to tell us what did and that not include your two dead brothers?”

I can't tell you no more action. I don't know. I did not see anything. I did not do anything. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm going to go over the risk. Please let me call my mother and tell her how much I love her. We just cut interview off and told her she was under arrest for murder.

Following Kimberly's arrest, experts studied the skeletal remains to confirm their identity. They lay it out on a table. They determined that there's any fragments broken.

“They learned that the cause of death was a gunshot went to the back of the head.”

In this situation, because there was no flesh, no hair, or anything able to be pulled from the victim, they do what's called their forensic examination. To try to positively identify her, they'll go into the bone marrow and try to extract some DNA.

The medical examiner's office in Greenwood was able to extract DNA from the femur bone that we located. Then we went and got a sample from Missy Lane with Deborah's mom. We didn't send that off to the crime lab in Raleigh. They were able to positively identify her,

because it was a match based on the DNA from Missy Lane's and her mother. My reaction to you learning it was match just confirmed what I believed the whole time. I've truly felt, from the moment we found that first bone, it was going to be Debbie.

“I had prayed, please don't let me down until we find her,”

and I get these kids through this. My first thought in my brain was, "Oh God, must be time for me to die now." I was really to a family and answer.

But now only my losing my mom, but my daughter's never going to meet her grandmother.

That was a hard time. Although Kimberly has been charged with the crime, police still don't have any direct evidence she did it. But another witness comes forward, the girlfriend of Kimberly's son, David.

The girlfriend said that David got a little intoxicated and told her that he remembered when he was a small kid that he saw his aunt Debbie tied up in the building behind the house. He was approximately 7 or 8 years old. David actually went to his teacher and told him about what he had seen in the shed

that teacher then reaches out to Kim, his mom, to see what's going on.

And that's when Kim tells them that obviously first son had a dream and made it all up.

When detectives asked David to come to the station, he agrees. He says his mother convinced him what he saw wasn't real. But now 15 years later, he realizes that was a lie. He tells them like it's just dawning on him that what he saw was not a dream.

The memory dredges up something else for David as well. A threat his mother made to keep him quiet. When Miss Hancock turned to him and said, you know, you keep talking about this. You're going to end up with your aunt in the backyard buried.

The timing perfectly matches Debbie's disappearance and combined with the rest of the facts, investigators form a theory of how the murder might have occurred. Debbie gets out from behind bars and realizes that being those social security checks intended for caring for that fourth child aren't going to the right place

and there's definitely some frustration and anger there that that money hadn't been used as it had been intended. She was going to move away from Kim's.

That's what triggered what happened.

“I believe Kim snapped when she was confronted by Miss Deans about the money”

and they started arguing and one thing led to another. Kim, believe, just put it out of gun and shot Debbie. She grabbed her own with some carpet, a tarp, and just drilled her 10 feet and nobody knew what was right there. She didn't think five steps ahead.

I believe that Miss Hancock just decided to move the body and keep it on the property. Debbie's body wasn't 10 feet away from an area in the yard where these kids ran around and played. She let her children play in this yard.

She let her grandchildren play in this yard. I can't grasp what kind of person would do that. However, members of the online crime-fighting community have their own theories. Kimberly is a small person like me. So it's hard to believe that she done that by herself in my opinion.

I roll a carpet, weighs a good bit, a good bit by itself. And then you have Debbie on top of that. So I really think she had some help. Members have been speculating that maybe Kojak had helped her over the years between 2004 and 2009.

He was possibly threatening her and telling her while I wanted to pitch you killed Debbie. And the rumor is that she may have done something to Kojak to keep him quiet. All of this seems to fit a very concerning pattern that Kim has.

First she kills her dad, then she kills Debbie.

And now her brother is missing.

“I mean, what's the likelihood all these people go missing?”

I mean, it just seems at some point that there might have been some foul play involving Kojak's disappearance and that Kim, again, might be behind him. Now prosecutors face convincing a jury of her involvement. After all this time, there was no DNA or no specific evidence

actually tying Kim to Debbie's remains. So there's that possibility that the jury won't victim and then Kim walks. After a month-long investigation, Kimberley Hancock is in jail for the murder of Debbie Deans.

But prosecutors aren't convinced they have enough to go to trial. It's the Sheriff's Office responsibility to make sure we can make the best case we can for the district attorney to take it to trial.

I believe that we did that. What district attorneys do and what defense attorney do is basically not our call. They continue to build their case, searching for the murder weapon or any other

physical evidence linking Kimberley to the crime. Then, in August 2022, three years after Kimberley's arrest a new witness steps forward. I received a letter from the A inmate in the Nash County jail.

She had taught a Kimberley in Hester while she was in jail.

“And Kimberley had made a comment that you remember”

the girl that was buried in the backyard. But that was me. And she had also made a comment that the only person that could hurt her was awesome dead, which would be co-jet. According to the informant, Kimberley implied

she got rid of her brother as well. She made a comment that she didn't have to worry about co-jet because co-jet may have been taken to the hogs shed in the hogs 80. Unfortunately, the allegations are impossible to prove

and prosecutors have another problem. The caller who originally told them where to find Debbie's body refuses to testify.

You always run into that with witnesses in court.

They want you to have the information and they want you to tell, but they're not willing to go to court and stand in front of 12 jurors and the person that they told them to give us statement. The tipster was so clear and strong about remaining anonymous and didn't want to testify.

You would assume that would greatly weaken the prosecutor's case. Ultimately, the prosecution and defense teams agree

Kimberley's attorney can't bring out the fact that

“she moved around from jail to jail and had some health issues.”

She didn't take in the alpha plea. She now for plea is you don't really admit to the crimes, but you don't contest it. When Kimberley took the alpha plea, the judge gave her eight years, eight months,

and ten days for aiding in a bany murder

and for a casino in a debt. For Debbie's loved ones and those involved in the investigation, the outcome doesn't feel like justice. We went through years and years of emotional trauma and it wasn't met with what she got.

I she got off really easy with everything that she had done.

“I believe Kim should have gotten at least 20 years.”

She has deprived a family of a daughter,

a mother of children. I think that was just a slap in the face. She killed Debbie. She kept living her life and put her in the backyard and just kept going.

Debbie, county, Kim is a friend. I don't think Kim ever counted anyone as a friend.

“I think she counted people as who she could use.”

Kim has very little value for human life. The fact that she murdered her father while he was sleeping, that she would kill her sister a lot. And then there's the question of her own brother who's been missing for years.

There's just been so many rumors out there but what I need is the same kind of tip that I got with Debbie to bring me to where Kojaki is and what really happened to him. The family deserves closure on that.

Two decades after Debbie's murder, questioned still linger. But her family is doing their best to move on. Debbie wouldn't have told you she was perfect. And just grateful that her children know her she is right now.

I'm a mom ahead of four of us. We're all still very, very close. We joke on my youngest sister all the time and she is the spent image of my mom. So I feel like she's living on and everybody's around us.

Kim Burley Hancock is scheduled for release in 2027. Her brother, Roger Kojaki, Ice Cube is still missing.