Deborah Harriett Jackson, a 30-year-old African American woman, was found dead near a container outside a paint store near Pico and Rimpau boulevards in the Mid-Wilshire area of Los Angeles on December 1, 1987. At the time her cause of death was not publicly disclosed and the homicide remained unsolved for more than two decades.

In 2008 a DNA match linked Michael Hughes, already serving a life sentence for the murders of four women, to Jackson’s homicide. The same DNA evidence also connected Hughes to the homicides of three additional women, providing long-awaited answers in this cold case.

Questions remain about the investigative steps and any legal actions that followed the 2008 DNA match; anyone with memories of the area or information about Deborah Jackson is asked to come forward.