Naman Shrestha
In ABC’s ‘Wild Crime: Eleven Skulls,’ the disappearance and murder case of Samantha Koenig is explored in a detailed manner, thanks to the never-released-before footage and in-depth interviews with the individuals connected directly or indirectly to the cases. Since the killer, Israel Keyes, admitted to several of his crimes, the police suspected that he might also be responsible for the disappearance of Debra Feldman in 2009. The episode also delves deep into all the other alleged crimes committed by the serial killer.
Debra Feldman Suddenly Disappeared From Her House in 2009
Born in 1960, Debra J. Feldman went through many ups and downs, seemingly starting from her younger days. She tied the knot with Ned Feldman, with whom she planned to spend the rest of her life. During their marriage, they became parents to a son named Matthew Feldman. However, their marriage started deteriorating, ultimately resulting in Debra and Ned getting a divorce. With the former getting the custody of their child, she and her son moved between several towns around Bergen County, New Jersey. During that time, her struggle with drug addiction began, which led to her estranged husband winning custody of their 14-year-old son.
According to Matthew, she had been doing various kinds of hard drugs, including heroin and coke, for several years. At the time, she even threatened to take her life if he ever decided to leave her. With no responsibility on her shoulders, Debra seemingly spirals deeper down the wrong path of drug addiction. As per reports, she reached out to her estranged son, who worked at a local Wendy’s in Little Ferry, in 2008. Claiming that she needed some cash for her rent, Debra asked him to lend him $400. Despite knowing that she might use it to purchase more drugs, Matthew gave her the required sum of money. It turned out to be his last meeting with her as on April 8, 2009, she vanished from her apartment in Hackensack, New Jersey. Even after more than 15 years, her body is yet to be recovered.
A Serial Killer Was Suspected to Have Abducted and Killed Debra Feldman
Despite the best efforts from the authorities, the limited number of clues they could gather surrounding the disappearance of Debra Feldman led them to nothing but dead ends. Eventually, when months of investigation came to no fruition, the case turned cold. Nearly three years later, in March 2012, the case was cracked open again with the arrest of Israel Keyes for murdering 18-year-old Samantha Koenig in Anchorage, Alaska. As the detectives interrogated him, he not only confessed to killing Samantha but also to various other crimes, including robberies, kidnappings, and the murders of Bill and Lorraine Currier.
Thus, the police tried connecting him to the disappearance of Debra Feldman and found multiple reasons why she could be one of his 12 alleged victims. For one, during his questioning, the serial killer admitted to abducting a woman from an East Coast state on April 9, 2009, and driving her to New York, where he allegedly killed and buried her near the Tupper Lake area. On the same day, Debra Feldman, who was reportedly a sex worker at the time, went missing from her Hackensack apartment. Moreover, since Israel was known to deal with sex workers, it was a possibility that their paths crossed.
When Israel was being shown pictures of individuals who had gone missing and unsolved murder victims to let him confirm how many of them were his doing, he was reportedly taken aback for a while at the sight of Debra’s picture. He not only hesitated, but he also said that he did not want to talk about her. Moreover, upon inspecting his activities on his computer, the detectives learned that he had been keeping tabs on Debra’s disappearance case by searching the internet for it. Despite these suspicions, the authorities could not take any action until he confessed or they found a concrete piece of evidence. However, any hope of finding out the truth came to an end on December 2, 2012, when he died by suicide in his Anchorage jail cell. Even after all these years, the case of Debra Feldman remains unsolved.
Read More: Samantha Koenig: How Did She Die? Who Killed Her?
