Debra Theresa Pscholka-Missing 43 Years

Debra Pscholka, image from The Charley Project.

 ON June 5, 1971, 12 year-old Debra Pscholka attended a movie theater with her friends for a Saturday night get together on 6th Street in Corona, California. (The building that once housed the movie theater is now a church called Amor Outreach). Staff from the movie theater caught Debra smoking and asked her to leave. She told her friends she was going to the park. Debra the movie theater alone at 8:15 PM, and has not been seen or heard from since.

At the time of Debra's disappearance, she was 5'6" and 125 pounds. She is Caucasian, had brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a green and yellow striped blouse and blue Levi jeans. She was a seventh grader at Corona Junior High School in 1971, and has a younger sister and three older brothers. Her mother died in 1990 and her father in 2000, but all her siblings are alive and still searching for Debra. She had no history of running away from home. Her case is still open.

Debra's disappearance has been a difficult one for authorities because there are no leads. There is no evidence of what happened to her, only speculation that she was abducted. For weeks after her disappearance, her loved ones searched the city and interviewed her friends, but came up with nothing. Her loved ones have said she has never run away from home and had no reason to want to. Authorities are not even sure where she vanished from and what time. She was last seen leaving the movie theater at 8:15 PM alone. She stated that she was going to the park. Did she mean to go there until the movie was done so she could meet up with her friends again? Is there a chance she went somewhere else? What time was she usually expected home by?

An image of the Corona Movie Theater, now used as the Amor Outreach, where Debra was last seen in 1971. (Photo credit goes to http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/5404) 

I searched the current location of the where the movie theater would stand today, which is now called Amour Outreach. It is located on 517 Ramona Ave and the corner of East 5th Street. It is only a few minutes away by walking from the downtown area of Corona. In fact, the Corona Mall looks to be right across from the movie theater today. I wonder if it was as well in 1971? If so, was it possible Debra went to the mall? All of the parks in Corona would have been quite the walking distance from the movie theater. The closest one is Sheridan Park, followed by Corona City Park and a small park named Eucalyptus. I am unsure if these are the same parks from the early 1970s. Either way, a young girl making a walk by herself at that time of night was sure to attract someone with bad intentions, which is why I lean towards the speculation that someone took Debra.

Southern California in the 1970s was crawling with serial killers. From Rodney Alcaca to the Original Night Strangler, there were many cases that happened in the early 1970s, that may have not been connected to any of these serial killers at the time. I have gathered together a list of known serial killers from the early 1970s that brought terror to Southern California. Could one of them be related to Debra's disappearance?
I first looked into Rodney Alcaca, the "Dating Game Killer". He would offer lure women in with the promise of a modeling career. His murder occurred in the 1970s, and his DNA was linked to the murders of four young women in Los Angeles County. However, he was on the east coast, where he was eventually arrested during the time of Debra's disappearance. This makes it unlikely that Rodney Alcaca was the one Debra ran into the night of her disappearance.
The next serial killer I looked into from the area in that point and time was actually a romantic duo known as the Sunset Strip Killers, named Douglas Clark and Carol Bundy. They killed women all throughout the 1980s, and were finally arrested in 1983. It is unknown if they had any victims before the known ones in the 1980s, but it is very possible there are other victims out there who have yet to be connected.

An image of William Suff in his older years. Is it possible Debra was one of his early victims? (Image from http://murderpedia.org/male.S/s/suff-william.htm)

The next is William Suff, who has a very long history of murder. William Suff would often impersonate a police officer to earn his victim's trust and lure them in. He killed at least 12 women in Riverside County from 1986-1992, the year of his arrest. Most of his victims frequented as prostitutes. However, Suff has committed murder much sooner then 1986. In 1974, Suff beat his 2 month-old daughter to death. He got off on the charges and only served a few months of jail time, so he was released shortly after his arrest. He lived not too far from Corona in 1971, and was not incarcerated during the time of Debra disappearance. It is unknown how many victims he has before he killed his own daughter. A man capable of killing their own daughter would not have to think twice about killing a young woman they meet on the streets.
Of course, it is always a possibility that Debra was taken by someone who has remained completely off of police radar to this day. It is also possible she was taken by someone she knew. All of the articles I've read about Debra have described her as a smart girl who was close to her family. She had no history of running away and no indication that she ever used drugs. She may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I searched the NAMUS database for other missing person cases in the area during 1965-1985, and their were no other cases from Corona. There were other cases from areas by Corona, but none that seem to share any similarities to Debra's disappearance. However, I did come across the disappearance of another young teenager from a movie theater.

Cynthia "Cindy" Hernandez was last seen at a movie theater in Covina, California. Image from The Charley Project.

On the evening of August 16, 1976, 18 year-old Cynthia "Cindy" May Hernandez's last known whereabouts was at the Fox Twin Theaters in Covina, California, where she went to see The Omen. Ushers at the movie theater remember seeing Cindy enter the theater, but did not remember seeing her leave. Cindy went by herself to see the movie, as her boyfriend was sick with the flu that night and her friend had already went. Her white 1963 Chevrolet Station Wagon was found unlocked and backed into a parking space behind the movie theater. Her loved ones say she never backed into parking spaces because she did not like to. Her social security number has not been used since her disappearance. Investigators believe she was the victim of a serial predator who lurked the area during that time. Cynthia was very involved in church, school and her family and never had a history of running away. Of course, areas like the parks and movie theaters at night is a perfect spot for a serial predator to go during the evening hours, because they are almost guaranteed to find a vulnerable girl alone there.

Both Debra and Cynthia are still missing, but both of their families are still searching for answers. The disappearance of both of these girls have left them frozen in time. Someone out there knows something, and now is the time to speak up.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Debra Pscholka, please contact:

An age progression of what Debra may look like if she is alive, 43 years later.

Reach Richard Brooks at 951-368-9563 or rbrooks@PE.com

If you have any information about the disappearance of Cynthia "Cindy" Hernandez, please contact:

Cynthia Hernandez

Glendora Police Department

1-626-914-8250

Sources:
http://www.pe.com/articles/debra-604518-missing-years.html
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/p/pscholka_debra.html
Cynthia Hernandez:
https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/24754/9/
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/hernan
http://www.sgvtribune.com/general-news/20120512/womans-disappearance-still-unsolvedl
Rodney Alcaca
http://stevehodel.com/2010/04/abc_nightline_rod_alcala_trial/
Rodney Alcaca Photos
http://crime.about.com/od/serial/ig/Rodney-Alcala---Photographs/00033.htm