Deborah Poe

Case background and investigation

Deborah Deann Poe grew up in northern Virginia and moved to Orlando, Florida, in 1989, according to the Charley Project and the Orlando Sentinel. She held two jobs: by day she was a clerk in the retail sales department of the Orlando Sentinel, and at night she worked at a Circle K convenience store near Hall Road and Aloma Avenue in east Orange County. The Sentinel reported that she was saving for a home and hoped to start her own business.

According to the NamUs case file, Poe's boyfriend saw her inside the store at about 1:00 a.m. on February 4, 1990, and a friend who drove past at about 3:00 a.m. saw her standing behind the counter. She was working alone. The store was found unattended at about 4:00 a.m. NamUs records that a cup of coffee and a carton of chocolate milk were on the floor behind the counter and that there was no sign of a struggle. The Charley Project adds that her work smock was left behind the counter, the cash register was locked and nothing pointed to a robbery.

Her car, a recently purchased Toyota, was parked outside. The Sentinel reported that her purse, paycheck and car keys were locked inside it.

A witness told investigators that between about 3:15 and 3:30 a.m. a young man with long black hair, wearing a black T-shirt with a Megadeth logo, was behind the counter and rang up a purchase. According to the Sentinel, deputies never found him. The Charley Project notes that he has not been identified, that he may simply have been another customer, and that investigators want to speak with him; a sketch was released.

Detectives at first considered whether Poe had left on her own, the Sentinel reported, but relatives said that would have been out of character. The Charley Project states that tracking dogs followed her scent from the rear of the store over a fence to a road, where it ended, and that investigators believe she was abducted. The same source says that in March 2002 authorities said they had a suspect, whom they did not name, and searched land in Orange County; no charges have been reported.

The case was featured on the television program Unsolved Mysteries in the early 1990s. The Orange County Sheriff's Office is the investigating agency, and NamUs lists the case, number MP1704, as open. In a 2015 interview with the Sentinel marking 25 years since the disappearance, Poe's mother said she still hoped the case would be solved in her lifetime. No arrest has been made and Poe's whereabouts remain unknown.