A pregnant woman by the name of Debbie Griggs mysteriously disappeared from her family home in Kent in 1999, sparking a fruitless search by the authorities. After more than 20 years, her remains were discovered in Dorset. We learn precise facts about the Debbie Griggs case and how it took two decades to bring the murderer to prison and find crucial case-related evidence in the ninth episode of Netflix’s “When Missing Turns to Murder” season 2. Therefore, if you’re curious to learn more about the murder of Debbie Griggs, including the whereabouts of the suspect right now, we’ve got you covered. Here is all the information you require!
How Did Debbie Griggs Die?
Debbie Elizabeth Cameron Griggs was born to Patricia and Brian Cameron on December 10, 1964. She appeared to have grown up in a loving family with her parents, brother Derek Cameron, and sister Wendie Rowlinson in the Dover District of Kent, England. Debbie worked in nursing homes for a while after completing her nursing training. Her marriage to a fisherman called Andrew Griggs took place in 1990 at this time.
After having their first child, Jeremy, Debbie allegedly quit her job to devote herself to raising her sons. The couple had two more boys, Jake and Luke, during the course of the following four years. The sudden disappearance of Debbie from her house on May 5, 1999 shocked the community since she was a kind woman whose life focused around her family. She was four months pregnant at the time, according to sources. Her husband, Andrew Griggs, alerted Kent police to her disappearance 24 hours later.
The authorities continued to look for Debbie for years and years, but they never seemed to be able to locate her. Her remains were discovered in a Dorset garden some 23 years later, in October 2022, and her family members were able to find closure. Sadly, the authorities were unable to ascertain what caused her death.
Who Killed Debbie Griggs?
The police conducted a thorough investigation shortly after Debbie vanished and began questioning her family, friends, and acquaintances in an effort to uncover any leads. However, it didn’t produce any notable outcomes because all of the potential leads led nowhere. The missing woman’s husband, Andrew, was contacted early on in the investigation to obtain a full account of their relationship and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance from their Cross Road home.
The 34-year-old, who was suffering from depression, had taken £250 and her white Peugeot with her, according to Andrew. He w as asked by the authorities to present the car’s papers and a current picture of her, both of which he insisted he didn’t have with him. The police enquired as to why he took so long to register the missing persons report because it had taken him a day to do so. Andrew defended himself by saying that she had previously gone missing but always shown up unharmed.
On the night Debbie vanished, Andrew claimed to have been home at 7 o’clock and dozed off while she was busy in the kitchen. The next thing he knew, she was yelling at him for constantly falling asleep and reminding him that she had to look after the house and the kids every day of the week. He claimed that she rushed out of the home, threw her bag over her shoulder, put her coat on, and sped off in her car.
A white Peugeot was discovered abandoned not long after Debbie vanished from her home, from which she never returned. Despite the fact that the blood in the vehicle matched her, there was no other tangible piece of evidence connected to her, therefore it didn’t really aid the case. But it didn’t take long for the investigators to designate Andrew as a top suspect after learning about the couple’s difficult marriage in the years before to her abduction. The fact that Andrew had a legitimate reason to want Debbie out of the picture enhanced the police’s suspicion of him more than just their understanding of their troubled marriage.
According to rumours, Debbie was unwilling to cover for Andrew after learning about his relationship with a 15-year-old. The married pair worked at Griggs Freezer Centre in South Street, Deal, at the time of her disappearance, and it is thought that he was concerned he may lose half in the event that she opted to divorce him due to his involvement. After roughly 20 years since Debbie vanished, fresh information came to light, and in 2019, Andrew, who had remarried, was accused of killing his wife. The finding of her remains in the grounds of the house where Andrew and his sons moved in 2001 served as the case’s deciding factor.
Where is Andrew Griggs Now?
After over 20 years of eluding justice, Andrew Griggs was ultimately charged with Debbie’s murder on May 12, 2019, at Canterbury Crown Court, and was subsequently found guilty. He received a life sentence with a minimum of 20 years in jail. After all these years, he continued to insist on his innocence, and in 2022 he filed an appeal to have his sentence overturned. But he failed in his attempt to have his sentence overturned due to a lack of compelling evidence. He continues to this day to assert his innocence despite serving his sentence in a prison in England.
