Debra Jackson

By January 2019, it was announced that DNA from Jackson's socks contained the profiles of two or more males. It is unknown if the evidence will be enough for further examination. The DNA was recovered from fingernail scrapings as well as pubic hair samples.

Jackson was identified with the aid of the DNA Doe Project in August 2019, in addition with that of a revised artistic rendering by forensic artist Natalie Murry, which caught the eye of Jackson's sister. The DNA Doe Project identified a potential cousin of the victim through their research. Members of her family visually identified the victim based on her morgue photographs and unique physical characteristics. After Jackson's sister informed law enforcement of the resemblance, the organization processed a saliva-based DNA kit which confirmed the two were related. Jackson was last seen around 1977 and had never been reported missing. Further investigation revealed the victim was employed at the Ramada Inn and Bur-Mont, an assisted living facility about a year prior to her death. The locations of these facilities were in Amarillo and Azle, Texas, respectively. Officials believe she also worked at R.E. West and C.G. Cole Admiral PTR, Realty Investment LTD, in 1979 at an unknown location. The Williamson County Sheriff reached out for potential witnesses to step forward in order to solve her murder.

In May 2018, law enforcement stated they planned on examining the victim's ring as well as run tests to identify the location the victim's socks were made. A book of matches found near the body were traced to a hotel in Oklahoma but couldn't identify anyone matching her description in the records.

In 2001, a missing woman's photograph surfaced that resembled Jackson, whose identity was then unknown. DNA testing, however, did not match. Another report suggests that the victim was a woman who had disappeared in the 1970s, together with her abusive boyfriend. Former missing person Martha Morrison was speculated by some to possibly have been the unidentified woman, but she was eventually ruled out. Morrison's remains were identified in 2015 as a Jane Doe found in Washington the same year she disappeared. Several other missing women were also excluded.

One report claims that at the time of Jackson's murder, Lucas was working in Florida, whereas the murder took place in Texas. Interrogators also stated that he had contradicted himself several times when confessing to the murder, and his defense also stated that he was shown images of the crime scene before his interview. In order to have traveled to Oklahoma, to Texas and back to Florida, it was estimated that he would have had to drive at an average of seventy miles an hour, without stopping, which many find unlikely. Lucas later recanted this statement after his conviction in 1984 and, by involvement of the state governor, George W. Bush, his death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment, as Jackson's murder was the only case that resulted in his receiving the death penalty. Lucas had a history of dubious confessions, something that led others to doubt his truthfulness (he confessed to upwards of 3,000 murders). Lucas recanted his confessions, stating that the only murder he had committed was that of his mother, Viola.

In 1982, serial killer Henry Lee Lucas confessed to her murder, although there was no physical evidence that he had been involved in the killing, sexual assault or disposing of the body. In an interview, he stated that he picked her up in Oklahoma, where they had sex. He asked her for sex again while he was driving; he claimed that at this, Debra said "not right now" and attempted to leave his car, at which point he killed her and raped her corpse. He then drove her body to Georgetown. Lucas told authorities that the victim had stated her name as being "Joanie" or "Judy". He had previously showed officers how he had supposedly dragged her body over the guardrail when taken to the location where her body was found.

Debra Louise Jackson, informally known as "Orange Socks" when unidentified, was a Texas murder victim who went unidentified for nearly 40 years before being identified via a DNA match with her surviving sister in 2019. Her murder is believed to have taken place on October 31, 1979, in Georgetown, Texas. Her body was found naked, except for the pair of orange socks from which the nickname was derived. She had been strangled, and was believed to have died only hours before the discovery. Henry Lee Lucas confessed to and was convicted of her murder. Though doubts have been raised about his complicity in this crime, Lucas's conviction was not overturned. His death sentence was commuted by Texas governor George W. Bush in 1998. He died in prison of heart failure. There is strong evidence that Lucas was in Florida when Jackson was murdered.

On the 37th anniversary of her discovery, new reconstructions of Debra were released by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The organization also entered her into their database.