Debbie Ackerman was 15 when she and her best friend Maria Johnson, also 15, disappeared after leaving a Galveston shopping mall on November 15, 1971. The girls had planned to hitchhike to Houston. Their bodies were recovered two days later in Turner's Bayou near Texas City. An autopsy found both girls had been shot, then tied down and drowned in the bayou.

The investigation produced few leads or witnesses and no arrests; the case remains unsolved. Their murders are linked in timing and location to a series of killings in the Galveston area known as the Texas Killing Fields. Investigators later questioned Edward Harold Bell after he confessed to killing as many as 11 girls in the area during the 1970s, but no charges were filed in these murders as of the information given. The Galveston District Attorney’s office has reopened some cases and a documentary series called The Eleven renewed public attention.

If anyone knew Debbie or Maria, saw them on November 15, 1971, or has information about Turner's Bayou that could help, please come forward.