Danielle Fox, daughter of Debra Jane Fox, has set up a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses for her mother.
Debra Jane Fox, 69, was the former homeowner of 142 Carlisle Street in Wilkes-Barre, where Michigan woman Nicole Cuevas, 38, was held against her will, tortured daily for three weeks, brutally murdered, and buried in the basement. Officials say there is no evidence Fox was involved in the crimes against Cuevas.
Mrs. Fox, a widow and mother of two daughters, was reportedly last seen by her daughter Melissa Fox in November 2023. Unfortunately, Debra Fox was found deceased on March 26, 2024, at the bottom of a wooded embankment behind the Host Inn All Suites hotel in Wilkes-Barre.
As of now, Debra Fox’s death has not been ruled a homicide, and no charges have been filed in relation to her case. No cause of death has been publicly released yet, either.
In an interview with reporter Andy Mehalshik about the Debra Fox case, District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce said, “It is not yet being called a homicide. Her body was in such a state of decomposition we are still investigating the cause and manner of death. Obviously, it’s very suspicious to us and we believe it’s linked to Carlisle Street home after we found Nicole Cuevas’s body buried in the basement.”
Unofficial sources say that after Debra Fox’s husband, Daniel Fox, 66, died in late 2021, Debra started taking in lodgers to help with expenses. (If that’s true, it seems they weren’t much help since she lost her home, which was in her family since 1948, due to unpaid property taxes in Sept. 2023.)
One of those lodgers, Jason Paul Race, a homicide suspect in the Nicole Cuevas case, was Fox’s nephew, according to a 2010 obituary for Fox’s brother. In a recent WVIA news report, Melissa Fox said that Jason Race was a cousin through adoption.
Debra Fox obtained a protection-from-abuse order against her nephew Jason Race in August 2023, four months after the murder of Cuevas. Per the Citizens Voice, Fox alleged Race had threatened to kill her, shot her with a BB gun, held a knife to her throat, and more.
Fox wrote on her application for protection, “I was elderly abused, starved, hit with his fist, kicked, raped, got shot with BB guns — hit with the BB gun. Threatened for (my) life.” She also alleged she was locked in her room.
While Debra Fox was still missing, her daughter Danielle Fox described her mother to WNEP news, “She had a big heart. She’ll take anybody in. She’d rather see people safe than being homeless and all that.”
I hope we get some answers about what happened to Debra Fox soon.
View the GoFundMe for Debra Fox here.
Sources:
• New Details in Carlisle Street ‘House of Horrors’ Investigation, Pahomepage.com (April 12, 2024)
• [PAYWALL] Murder Suspect Was Target of PFA by Second Dead Woman, The Citizens Voice (April 10, 2024)
• “Luke Thomas Race, Jr.” obituary, The Citizens’ Voice, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, (July 31, 2010), page T32, col 1, 2, viewed on newspapers.com
• Family, friends hold vigil for Wilkes-Barre torture house victim, WVIA.org (April 20, 2024)
• Human remains found at former home of missing woman, WNEP.com (March 13, 2024)