Deborah Anwyll

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Fairfax County Police Department (VA)

Offense Location:

Chantilly, Virginia

Summary:

Deborah Louise 'Debbie' Anwyll was a 14-year-old girl who was stabbed to death in her home in the Greenbriar subdivision of Chantilly, Virginia on March 8, 1979, shortly after returning from school. She was stabbed 27 times. The case remains unsolved despite a 1996 DNA investigation.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Offense:

Deborah Louise "Debbie" Anwyll was a 14-year-old Chantilly girl who was stabbed to death in her home at 13164 Morning Spring Lane in the Greenbriar subdivision on March 8, 1979. She had been stabbed 27 times. Shortly after returning home from school, Debbie Anwyll was murdered in her house on Morning Springs Lane in Fairfax's Greenbriar neighborhood. A family member arrived home and found Anwyll's body, stabbed multiple times, in the living room. Nancy Anwyll, a teacher at Chantilly Secondary School, returned to her home at 13164 Morning Spring Lane to discover the partially clad body of her daughter, Debbie Louise, sprawled on the floor. She was found around 3:30 pm by her mother, having arrived home approximately 1 hour earlier, 2:30 pm.

Additional Details:

A blood-stained "dish rag or wash cloth" was found at the scene. Police theorized that the killer may have cut himself during the attack and used the cloth to stop the bleeding. Because visible, valuable items were not taken from the scene, police do not believe robbery was the motive. Police have always suspected it was someone who knew Debbie's patterns and who could quickly blend into the neighborhood. In 1996 police conducted DNA tests on a suspect. The suspect was not charged. There was no forced entry. Given that there were multiple other people out and about on the street at that time and saw no suspicious person, that would also suggest that it was a person known in the neighborhood who could blend in.

Case Last Updated:

Sep 01, 2026