- April 18, 2024
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Debra Place was found dead by police in her living room on Saturday, Aug. 26. Photo by Jarleene Almenas.
Each entrance at Debra Place's residence at Ridgecrest Mobile Home Park was tagged with a red evidence label. Photo by Jarleene Almenas.
The Ormond Police Department is investigating the suspicious death of a 62-year-old woman who was found in her home at Ridgecrest Mobile Home Park on Saturday, Aug. 26.
The woman was identified as Debra Place, a longtime resident of the quiet mobile home park off N. Yonge Street. Police were dispatched to her residence after her daughter received a letter from Debra’s husband, 72-year-old Donald Place, which read her mother was dead, and that soon, he would be as well. Suspecting a case of murder-suicide, OBPD entered Debra’s white-paneled trailer through a partially open door.
Officers then found Debra’s body in the living room, in the beginning stages of decomposition. OBPD said no obvious wounds were found on her body. At this time, her cause and time of death is still under investigation.
The couple’s Mercury station wagon was missing, and Donald was nowhere to be found.
OBPD then issued a be on the lookout request for Donald, who was labeled as a person of interest in the case. He was reported to be in police custody on Monday in New York, where he had a previous warrant for grand theft.
Debra’s neighbor, 88-year-old Willis Hawkins told police he saw the couple’s station wagon leave the mobile home Saturday morning, but didn’t see who was driving it.
Hawkins said Debra was a “nice lady” and that the couple kept to themselves. He added that while Debra had been living at Ridgecrest for a long time, Donald had moved in recently, only living there for the past three months at most.
“Some people that knew him said he wasn’t all the way there,” Hawkins said, in reference to Donald’s mental state.
The investigation by OBPD surrounding Debra’s suspicious death is ongoing at this time.
