NC man charged in decades-old Lexington abduction was the suspect in 1986, says ex-sheriff
Lexington County Sheriff’s Department investigators questioned and suspected a man decades ago who was charged earlier this month in a notorious, 36-year-old child abduction case, according to a former sheriff.
Thomas Eric McDowell was pinpointed as the primary suspect responsible for the 1986 kidnapping and death of 4-year-old Jessica Gutierrez, former Lexington County Sheriff James “Jimmy” Metts told The State Wednesday.
“This was a case that always bothered me and I wanted to get closure on it and we worked real hard on doing that,” Metts said. “And I’m glad now that they do have enough evidence to charge the person.”
Police arrested McDowell, 61, in Wake Forest, a suburb of Raleigh, N.C., on Jan. 6. The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department extradited him and charged him with murder, kidnapping and burglary in the cold case.
Metts headed the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department when Gutierrez was kidnapped, and his investigators first worked the case.
Metts said the notes he kept on the case listed McDowell as the inmate investigators suspected as being the culprit in the girl’s abduction and death. Another former Lexington County sheriff’s investigator also confirmed with Metts that McDowell was the primary suspect following the 1986 inquiry.
The confirmation validates a years-old allegation by the victim’s mother that McDowell was the publicly unidentified inmate who was questioned and suspected decades ago. She has said that police could have made an arrest decades ago.
In 1986, Debra Gutierrez, Jessica’s mother, awoke to find her daughter missing from her bedroom and a window open. The girl’s sister told her mother that a man in a “magic hat” took Jessica.
McDowell, who grew up in York County, S.C., was an acquaintance and distant relative of the Gutierrez family, Debra Gutierrez told The State. Later that year, he stole a van, drove to North Carolina and raped a woman, according to court records. He was found guilty and imprisoned for nearly a decade. While jailed, he told his cellmate that he had kidnapped and killed a girl in Lexington County, Metts recalled. McDowell was known to wear a tall cowboy hat.
Going back as late as 2017, Gutierrez has contended that the cellmate relayed the confession to police, and that he mailed a letter to her explaining what McDowell had told him.
Based on the admission to the fellow inmate, Lexington County investigators questioned McDowell about the kidnapping and killing, according to Metts.
The identity of the inmate who confessed years ago to the girl’s abduction has not been known to the public until now.
The first investigations
During the first investigations, authorities learned that McDowell allegedly said in his jailhouse confession that he had to kill the 4-year-old girl after kidnapping her because he knew her family, Metts remembered.
The very first investigation by the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department in 1986 quickly identified McDowell as a suspect, Metts said. McDowell had done some work around the house where Jessica lived with her mother and sister.
Metts said his investigators pulled McDowell’s fingerprint off a window. The fingerprint is now being upheld as evidence that he committed the crime, according to current arrest warrants.
But at the time, McDowell couldn’t be found. He had already left South Carolina for North Carolina, Metts said. When N.C. police arrested McDowell for another crime and his cellmate sent a letter to Gutierrez explaining the confession, investigators quickly began questioning McDowell.
Investigators were able to prove all of McDowell’s alibis to be lies, Metts said.
After the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department’s investigation, Metts said he called on the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to investigate the case. The state agents came up with the same conclusion as the sheriff’s department.
By the end of 1986 or early 1987, McDowell was the only person suspected by investigators of the girl’s abduction and killing, Metts said.
Metts said that he and his investigators believed at the time they had enough evidence to charge McDowell, but that the solicitor’s office thought the evidence was inadequate. The solicitor’s office questioned whether McDowell’s fingerprint on the window would be strong enough evidence because McDowell had done work at the home before, Metts said. McDowell’s defense attorneys could claim the fingerprint got there from his previous work at the home.
Metts said current investigators don’t have any new evidence that his investigators didn’t have decades ago.
Since McDowell’s arrest, Metts has felt a range of emotions, he said.
He’s been joyous that McDowell’s arrest has upheld his initial investigation. But he’s also been “upset” and “embarrassed” because media coverage and statements by current investigators have not acknowledged that he and his investigators identified McDowell as the prime suspect decades ago.
“It made it look like we hadn’t done our job,” Metts said. “We had investigated assiduously.”
McDowell’s 2022 arrest warrants lists the fingerprint as evidence. The warrant also said he was picked out of a photo lineup as the kidnapper, and that he told others he had kidnapped and killed the girl.
The warrants don’t indicate when the fingerprint was connected to McDowell nor when he was identified in the photo lineup. The warrants also don’t say who picked him out of the photo lineup. They also don’t clarify what new evidence that wasn’t available in 1986 led to McDowell’s arrest.
The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department brought in Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in September to give the case new attention.
McDowell is currently jailed at Lexington County Detention Center. The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office will prosecute the case against him.
This story was originally published January 26, 2022 at 12:45 PM.