Debra Marie Gomez :Indiana Harbor 1972

   

   Debra Marie Gomez was 16.  She lived at 4160 Dearborn in Indiana Harbor.  She was born on January 3rd 1956 to Ramiro Flores and Irene Gomez Trimolt. 

  She was a student at Washington High School and attended Our Lady of Guadelupe Catholic Church. She had two brothers, Mario and Derrick Flores, and a sister, Ursula Trimolt. She had a large extended family in the neighborhood. Debra was a member of the Katherine House Club. 

  Indiana Harbor is sometimes called East Chicago.  It’s home to an active and proud Hispanic community. In 1970, Washington High School students protested the racist comments of a school official with a school boycott that made headlines. 

  Sunnyside Park is a small park at Dearborn and 141st street in East Chicago. In the colder weather months it hosts a skating rink. 

  On Tuesday, December 19th, 1972, Debra was raped and murdered near a warming house of the skating rink.  She had been strangled and had head trauma that indicated a serious beating. Her breasts had bite marks. She was found partially clothed. Another article said she was found completely nude. This is the work of a vicious but also reckless killer.  This park is small and there are houses all around.  It’s not a tree filled wooded park.  It’s a tiny patch of green. This killer was brazen. This was a predator. 

   Sadly Debra’s death only garnered a few short news articles in the paper. I cannot find a photo of her on the internet either.  I would really like to find a photo. 

   Isadore “Steelman” Serrano was arrested, tried and convicted of her murder. But there are some irregularities with this. The eyewitness who placed him at the scene said she was pressured to testify in order to get out of a burglary charge.

   After his arrest, Serrano was confined to a mental institution to be evaluated.  He was not mentally fit to stand trial initially.  He was eventually tried and convicted in 1975. He was sentenced to life in prison. His conviction would be appealed in 1977 but he would lose that appeal. In 1981, he again appealed citing ineffective counsel. In 2011, Serrano had a parole hearing. It was denied.  In 2021, Serrano had another parole hearing. I think he might have been paroled. I haven’t found that he is currently incarcerated. 

   Serrano might have been convicted but I have doubts as to his guilt.  Why? Because a vicious child killer lived in the area. In 1973 that killer would be convicted of a brutal abduction, rape and murder of a 12 year old girl, Carrie Louise Duncan.  

  Raul Rudy Sotelo lived near 11th and Colfax, on Dallas Street. He had a long history of violent attacks on classmates and even his own mother.  

  In 1973 he was convicted of murdering Carrie.  Part of the evidence against him was the blood and tissue left on the underside of his car. He murdered her by running over her several times after raping her. He was so reckless and so confident that he wouldn’t be caught that he didn’t even bother to wash the car.  That seems like spiraling out.  I really have trouble believing that Carrie Duncan was his first murder victim.  It seems more like he was at the end of a sort of spree.

  When he was arrested he was 18.  He was married and had a ten month old son. Many people married young then. I wonder if people thought marriage would help to settle him down. That child would have been born in November or early December 1972. 

  Sotelo worked at U.S. Steel when he was arrested. 

  Could he have killed Debra Gomez? Maybe. Why would he have gone to Indiana Harbor? The neighborhood had a big Latino population. Maybe he had relatives or friends there.  Maybe he knew he could socialize and meet people there.  Maybe the ice skating rink was full of young people and music. 

   Carrie Duncan’s murder was viciously done much like Debra’s.  (I also suspect Sotelo in the murder of Annie Jean Powell which happened a block from his house and 12 days after Debra’s murder. Additionally I think he is responsible for Brenda Banaski and Christine Sikes’ murders.) 

  I know Debra’s murder is considered to be solved.  But, I have doubts. If evidence was preserved in this case; I think they should take a look at Sotelo. 

   Debra was just 16. She didn’t get to experience the thrill of getting dressed up to go to prom. She didn’t get to graduate from highschool. She didn’t get to go to college or start a career. Her whole life was stolen from her. She deserved so much more. 

   Rest in peace, Debra Marie Gomez.