Questions still linger on a missing person’s case that turns 10 years old Monday.
Long County resident Debora Gail DeLoach Moody has been missing since Dec. 4, 2007. Moody was last seen by Lynn Anderson, who owned Anderson’s Feed and Seed, which was located near the corner of Highway 84 and Airport Road.
Moody had purchased a dog kennel from the store. Anderson had reported she followed Moody to her mobile home which sat on a dirt road off Smiley Road. Anderson said she helped Moody unload the kennel and left. It was around 5:30 p.m.
Anderson was the last person to see Moody.
Six days later, Moody’s uncle, Randy Ray, reported Moody missing. For Moody’s mom and step-dad, Melanie and Bill Clark, who at the time of her disappearance lived in Niceville, Fla., it was the beginning of a nightmare that continues to linger without resolution.
Former Long County Sheriff Cecil Nobles assigned deputy detective Ty Smith, now retired, to the case. The case was also assigned to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Region 14 Office in Kingsland.
During the initial investigation, everything — including Moody’s shoes, eyeglasses, purse and cat — was found undisturbed inside her home. Family members reported that the doors were unlocked and all the lights and TVs were on.
Her mom had reported speaking to Moody by phone before she disappeared, noting that everything seemed fine. Moody was in the process of divorcing her husband Jeffery Moody, but was described by family members as happy and independent.
In June 2009, GBI received new leads and searched two locations close to where Moody was last seen, one being near her home and the other was off of Elim Church Road.
Some items were collected but Moody’s location remained unknown.
As the case continued to grow cold Jeffery Moody petitioned the court to have his wife declared dead. His first petition, in September of 2009, was denied by Long County Probate Court Judge Marie Middleton.
However in October of 2012 Jeffery Moody’s second petition was granted.
The family reported having a glimmer of hope when former Liberty County Corrections Officer Kenneth Lumpkin was arrested and charged with the death of Lori Arrowood.
In September of 2010, Arrowood’s remains were found in Long County, not far from where Moody once lived. She had disappeared from her Gum Branch home under similar circumstances days prior.
Lumpkin eventually confessed to the crime.
Rumors and public speculation painted Lumpkin as a person of interest in the Moody case. Both women were of similar build and stature, both loved horses and both women lived within a few miles of each other and Lumpkin’s home around Groover Road. Lumpkin’s house was near Jeffrey Moody’s home and within a mile of Tower Road where Arrowood’s body was found.
Lumpkin is currently in prison after being sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for Arrowood’s murder. Although questioned about the Moody case, Lumpkin was never charged or tied to her disappearance.
The GBI still has Moody’s case classified as a missing person.
“All I can tell you is that the case remains as an open investigation,” GBI Special Agent in Charge Stacy Carson said. “We frequently get leads called into our office or the sheriff’s office and we follow up on those leads. We encourage anyone who thinks they have information, no matter who small or how big they think it might be, to call and let us look into it.”
She said they are hoping to find out where Moody is or what happened to her so they can provide her family some form of closure.
Anyone with information on Moody’s whereabouts is asked to call the GBI at (912) 729-6198 or the Long County’s Sheriff’s Office at 545-2118.
