Cold case unit makes arrest in decade old death of Piedmont woman

Randall Kirkpatrick

Calhoun County Investigators have arrested a former Calhoun county man in the 2003 murder of his wife in their piedmont mobile home.  Authorities had initially thought 22 year old Deboah Kirkpatrick had committed suicide, But more than a decade later, a fresh investigation into the cold case uncovered evidence that points to a homicide.  Deborah Kirkpatrick, was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head on June 3, 2003. Her 22-month-old son was also in the home at the time she died, but was unharmed.  The Piedmont Police Department and Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences originally investigated the case and said Kirkpatrick died from an "undetermined" cause of death. But, Calhoun County District Attorney Brian McVeigh said in a news conference on Tuesday that there were questions from the beginning, specifically about the crime scene Saying that The story that was being put forward didn't match the forensics that were there.  Almost immediately after Deborah died, her husband Randall Kirkpatrick, now 33, moved to Tennessee and has lived there ever since.  McVeigh also said that Randall Kirkpatrick's activities after his wife's death also weren't consistent with a grieving spouse.  Deborah's sister, Ann Parris, says Deborah was planning to leave Randall before she died.  A few months ago, Calhoun County's cold case unit decided to reopen the case in hopes of making a final conclusion about how Deborah Kirkpatrick died.  After months of hard work and interviewing witnesses, Sheriff Larry Amerson said investigators developed evidence that Deborah Kirkpatrick died as a result of a homicide.  A Calhoun County grand jury indicted Randall Kirkpatrick on June 20.  Kirkpatrick was arrested on June 27 in Dyersburg, Tennessee. He's being held in the Dyer County Jail on no bond, classified as a "pretrial felon." He is in the process of being extradited back to Calhoun County.