Two weeks after Debra Jeter was temporarily institutionalized in a mental facility for a suicide attempt in front of her two daughters, Jeter slit the throats of her daughters Kiersten (13 years old) and Kelsey (12 years old). The older daughter, Kiersten, survived the attack with severe injuries. Aside from the slashed throat, Kiersten was found to have a stab wound in her back, presumably from an attempt to shield her younger sister from the attack. Unfortunately, she did not survive.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2KAstQEtyM&w=560&h=315]
Debra Jeter 911 Call Transcript
Dispatcher: Hill county 911, what’s your emergency?
Debra Jeter: I just killed my children.
Dispatcher: Excuse me?
Debra Jeter: I just killed my children.
Dispatcher: Where are you?
Debra Jeter: Um, I’m in the abandoned house on highway 77 right after you go underneath the highway. One of them is still alive, hurry.
Dispatcher: M, How, under what highway? You’re on highway 77, where?
Debra Jeter: I am on highway 77 right after you go under 35 going towards Milford. Get an ambulance out here to save the one that didn’t die, common, hurry up.
Dispatcher: What’s your name?
Debra Jeter: Bitch, call them! Have you already called them?
Dispatcher: Yes, ma’am, I have.
Debra Jeter: Okay.
Dispatcher: I need your name.
Debra Jeter: I don’t want to tell you my name.
Dispatcher: Hello?
Debra Jeter: Hello.
Dispatcher: Are you still there?
Debra Jeter: Yes, I’m still here.
Dispatcher: 77 towards Milford right after you cross under the bridge. She’s telling me she’s killed her children.
[deep breathing]
Dispatcher: Are you in your car?
Debra Jeter: No, I’m not in my car. I’m in the house walking around and um, one of them is still alive for real. She’s asking to be saved and I couldn’t handle that and so now… [cross talk]
Dispatcher: She thinks she’s in an abandoned house [inaudible]
Debra Jeter: It’s been a long time, she might already die because she’s bled out a lot and… hold on. What baby? [inaudible] What did you say? I’m on the phone with 911. [inaudible daughter] She said please [inaudible] hurry.
Dispatcher: Okay. Well I’ve, we’ve got people in route. Get an ambulance because one of them is still alive, she said. Can you tell me what happened? Ma’am. Hello? Ma’am.
Debra Jeter: What?
Dispatcher: Can you tell me what happened?
Debra Jeter: I can’t get the door open.
Dispatcher: You can’t get what door open, darling?
Debra Jeter: The front door so ya’ll can get in when ya’ll get here. Why won’t it open?
Dispatcher: I don’t know.
Debra Jeter: Hold on. [inaudible]
Dispatcher: Are you on the right hand side of the road or the left hand side of the road, sweety?
Debra Jeter: I’m at [inaudible] side of the road. They know where it’s at!
Dispatcher: They’re coming, they’re coming. I just, I just want to try to clarifor, clarify exactly where they are.
Officer over radio: [inaudible] both in the car.
Dispatcher: Can you tell me what happened?
Debra Jeter: I don’t want to tell you. I tell you what, they’re not coming.
Dispatcher: Well, they’re on their way. My partner is getting, getting them to you just as quickly as she can.
[officers over radio]
How many…
[sirens and officers over radio]
Dispatcher: how many children did you have?
Debra Jeter: Two.
Dispatcher: Huh?
Debra Jeter: Two.
Dispatcher: Two?
Debra Jeter: One of them’s dead. One of them is dead. She’s dead dead. But the other one wants to be saved and I’m, she needs to be saved. And I tell you what, they need to get the fuck out here.
Dispatcher: Honey, they’re coming.
Debra Jeter: [cross talk] …get here.
Officers over radio: [inaudible] abandoned house 1-17 we need more information, is she armed?
Dispatcher: Do you have any weapons?
Debra Jeter: Um, I do, I have a knife.
Dispatcher: She has a knife.
[officers over radio]
Debra Jeter: Should I throw it away?
Dispatcher: No, no ma’am. Just, just put it… She’s got a knife.
Officers over radio: She got a gun?
Debra Jeter: Please hurry.
Dispatcher: Tell her we’re on her way.
Officers over radio: Do you know her name or anything?
Dispatchers: She won’t give me. Can you not tell me what your name is?
Debra Jeter: [inaudible]
Dispatcher: Huh?
Debra Jeter: [inaudible]
Dispatcher: What’s your name, darling?
Debra Jeter: I’m not telling you my name [inaudible].
Dispatcher: How old are your children?
Debra Jeter: Hold on, it’s a what? On the phone. God damn it hurry up!
Dispatcher: Honey, they are coming. They are on their way. You should be hearing lights and sirens. Seeing lights and hearing sirens.
Officers over radio: [inaudible] is going on [inaudible]
You said just, you cross under the bridge that goes to, on 77 towards Milford, you crossed under the bridge to 35 and you’re in an abandoned house. Is that right?
Debra Jeter: Yep. Under 35..
Dispatcher: Cross under
Debra Jeter: 35 on 77, abandoned house up on the hill on the left. Hurry the fuck up.
Officers over radio: 1-6 being routed from…
Dispatcher: She says she’s in the abandoned house…
Officers over radio: [inaudible] 77 and the interstate
Dispatcher: yes, the house on the hill.
Debra Jeter: [inaudible] Hold on, baby.
Dispatcher: Honey, do you hear them now? Hear those sirens and stuff?
[officers over radio]
[Debra and daughter talking inaudibly]
Dispatcher: Shes…
Officer over radio: 10-4
[Debra and daughter talking inaudibly]
Officer over radio: [inaudible] do you know where that house is?
Officer over radio: Nah, I not sure where that house is at]
Officer over radio: [inaudible] you cross under the bridge I know there’s going to be an old grey house that’s off on the left-hand side. It’s going to be hard to see. It’s almost covered by trees and stuff like that.
Dispatcher: Are you still there?
Debra Jeter: I’m here.
[Officer over radio]
Dispatcher: Are you still with me?
Debra Jeter: I’m still with you.
Officer over radio: I’m headed your way from [inaudible]
Debra Jeter: How do they not see it?
Dispatcher: [inaudible]
Debra Jeter: But they’re not here. I’m here, they’re not here.
Dispatcher: They’re on their way, sweetheart. They had to come from different parts of the county.
Debra Jeter: Hold on kid, they’re coming. Tell them not to shoot me. I don’t have a gun.
Dispatcher: Okay. She doesn’t want to get shot ‘cause she doesn’t have a gun.
Another dispatcher: We told them she has a knife so when they get there tell her…
Dispatcher: Okay, when they get there…
Debra Jeter: Uh-huh.
Dispatcher: …I want you to lay the knife down. [radio] Uh, when you get the door open, I want you to lay the knife down so they can see you don’t have any weapons.
Debra Jeter: Okay.
[sirens and officers over radio]
Debra Jeter: Tell them to hurry.
Dispatcher: They’re hurrying, honey, they’re hurrying.
Officer over radio: 1-17, I’m going to be on the interstate uh, southbound taking the exit uh, which way do I go when I get to uh
Dispatcher: Okay.
Officer over radio: I believe to the right if you’re going northbound trying to find the house []
Debra Jeter: Oh my god, she’s dead. Oh my god.
Dispatcher: How old are the children?
Debra Jeter: I’m not telling you. [inaudible] She wants you to hurry. She wants you to hurry.
Dispatcher: Honey, they are coming. They are coming as fast as they can. They’re trying to be sure…
Officers over radio: [inaudible] to your right.
Dispatcher: Do you see them?
Debra Jeter: They’re coming.
Dispatcher: Do you see them?
Debra Jeter: Still.
Possibly Kiersten Jeter: Okay.
Officer over radio: [inaudible] abandoned house.
Dispatcher: Do you see them?
Debra Jeter: No. Some [inaudible] Hold on.
Officer over radio: Yeah, the one back off in the trees
Debra Jeter: [inaudible] I see something.
Dispatcher: Do you see the lights?
Debra Jeter: No, I see something at the end of the road. I see car lights but not fire lights. Not police lights.
Dispatcher: She says she…
Debra Jeter: [cross talk] car at the end of the driveway.
Dispatcher: She says they, they’re at, see can see…
Debra Jeter: I hear sirens…
Dispatcher: Okay. Do you see them?
Debra Jeter: No, I don’t see them.
Officer over radio: [inaudible]Tell her she needs to come out with her hands up
Dispatcher: Okay. You need to…
Debra Jeter: Coming [cross talk] the driveway
Dispatcher: I know, I understand. I want….
Debra Jeter: [cross talk] out the driveway with my hands up.
Dispatcher: She’s state…
Debra Jeter: Out the house with both hands up, except for one ‘cause, ‘cause I’m on the phone. They’re coming.
Dispatcher: She says she has her hands up except for the fact that the one that she’s on the phone with. She’s out in the yard. She said she’s out in the yard besides the house.
Debra Jeter: Okay, goodbye. I see them, they’re out here. Goodbye.
Dispatcher: Alright, bye.
temporary restraining order, and was given temporary custody of his two children. In court documents, Lester Lee Jeter stated that “she may be released within a few days, and I am concerned about her possible actions regarding the children” and that he was requesting custody “to protect the safety and well-being of the children and any other person who has been a victim of family violence committed by Jeter”. The day after her release, though, a judge lifted the restraining order and allowed for unsupervised visitation during a hearing. The first court ordered visitation was set for that Friday, June 5th, 2009.
were excited to see their mother with Kelsey posting on her MySpace page “I GET TO SEE MY MOM TOMMORROW!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!”. Debra Jeter told Lester Lee Jeter that she had a surprise for the girls and was taking them out.
to get help. Three hours after picking up her children, Debra Jeter called police to report the crime saying, “I just killed my children”. Even though Debra Jeter was a nursing student, she did not tend to her daughter, instead walked around the abandoned house urging the ambulance to hurry up stating that her daughter that survived is “asking to be saved and she couldn’t handle it”. She also went on to ask the dispatcher to ask the police not to shoot her as she didn’t have a gun. The complete transcript can be read here.
abandoned house and survived. Debra’s explanation for her heinous actions was that she was “heartbroken” over the separation and the child custody battle. Her ex-husband, Lester Lee Jeter stated that Debra “figured if she felt that way, then we all must feel that way and she wanted to take away all of our pain”. After accepting a plea deal where she pleaded guilty to capital murder and attempted capital murder on May 27, 2010, Debra Jeter was sentenced to life without parole. The plea deal avoided the possibility of the death sentence and spared her surviving daughter from having to testify in court.