A local court case from the 1990s has come to the public’s attention again as questions have been raised about the supposed circumstances surrounding the 1984 strangulation of Drexel University undergraduate student Deborah Wilson, as detailed in a January court filing.
On Nov. 30, 1984, Wilson was found dead at the bottom of a flight of steps in Randell Hall after she had stayed up late working on an assignment. She was said to have been missing her socks and shoes when her body was discovered, a key detail that would later lead to the conviction of Security Guard David Dickson Jr.
Dickson had not initially been associated with the crime. The case tapered out of the public eye over nine subsequent years, but a confluence of factors that were discovered by an investigating grand jury eventually led to his arrest in 1993. These included Dickson having been on guard duty in the same building that Wilson was found in, testimonies from Dickson’s fellow security guards that said he had claimed he knew how to strangle someone and statements from many women who stated that Dickson had attempted to steal their sneakers in the past.
Another key player in forming the assertions made against Dickson was criminal profiler Richard Walter. In 1992, a Philadelphia group of homicide investigators called the Vidocq Society was introduced to the case by Sgt. Robert Snyder. Walter, a part of this group, was quick to point to Wilson’s missing shoes. With this info, he quickly formulated the idea that Dickson had murdered Wilson due to a foot fetish, a claim that was deemed credible due to material later found at Dickson’s house confirming this sexual preference of his.
After being arrested in June of 1993, Dickson was tried twice in 1995. The first trial included testimony from Jay Wolchansky, an informant who claimed that Dickson had confessed his actions to him while they both resided in the Philadelphia Detention Center. With an unconvinced jury, the trial was inconclusive. The second trial featured another incarcerated informant named John Hall, a frequent testifier for supposed inmate confessions. In response to the second trial, the jury delivered a guilty verdict against Dickson for robbery and second-degree murder.
Within the past several years, questions about the credibility of Hall’s claims have called for reexaminations of trials he has contributed to. In addition, the prosecutor for the Wilson case, Roger King, had not informed anyone involved in the trial that Hall had previously lied in court. Also, Hall may have had ulterior motives as he was granted a degree of clemency for his cooperation in the trial against Dickson.
Reinvestigations into the circumstances surrounding Wilson’s death have been reignited due to uncertainty in the evidence used for the trial. In 2022, lawyers working through the nonprofit firm Phillips Black found that undisclosed accounts from witnesses back in 1984 provided that Wilson’s white tennis shoes were located in proximity to the scene. This has since challenged the original assertion about Dickson’s ostensible motive for the murder, that he desired Wilson’s shoes for sexual satisfaction. This, in addition to the criminal profiler Walter having lost his credit over the years due to his history of lying about his credentials and faulty contributions to various cases, has generated skepticism.
As it stands now, no conclusion has been reached as a result of additional investigations into Wilson’s murder. Questions remain about whether or not the case will be retried due to newfound evidence.