Store Clerk Deborah Deann Poe Disappeared During Overnight Shift At An Orlando Gas Station

25-year-old Deborah Deann Poe was a woman on a mission as she worked two full-time jobs to fund her future plans. When she wasn’t working her daytime retail sales job at the Orlando Sentinel, she worked overnight at a Circle K convenience store near the intersection of Aloma Avenue and Hall Avenue.

She was saving her money with plans to buy her own home and eventually open a catering business. She was a recent transplant to Florida and had moved to Orlando from Virginia the previous year looking for a fresh start, according to an Orlando Sentinel article.

According to reports, Deborah’s boyfriend, Scott Iaggi, drove by the store around 1 a.m. on Feb. 4, 1990, and he saw her working behind the counter. Two hours later, a passing friend also saw her inside behind the counter. It was the last time anybody saw her alive. Iaggi often checked on Deborah when she worked nights because she had reportedly been subject to harassment from some drunken late-night customers in the weeks leading up to her disappearance.

A witness would later tell police that a long-haired man wearing a Megadeth rock band t-shirt was behind the counter at 3:15 a.m. He was cashing people out and appeared to be a store employee, though the witness recalled that she had to tell him where to find the cigarettes she wanted to purchase.

Police were summoned to the scene just after 4 a.m. after a regular customer called to report that they’d found the store abandoned.

Investigators at the scene noted a cup of coffee and a container of chocolate milk sitting on a stack of house plans behind the counter. A Circle K smock was reportedly folded nearby. In the parking lot, Deborah’s brand new red Toyota Celica was undisturbed with her purse and latest paycheck inside.

There didn’t appear to be any money missing from the cash register and zero signs of struggle, according to Deborah’s case summary at the Charley Project.

A tracking dog caught Deborah’s scent inside the store and led its handler across the parking lot before losing the trail, which made authorities think she got into a vehicle.

The man in the Megadeth t-shirt was never identified or located for questioning and was never named as a suspect. Police questioned Deborah’s boyfriend and asked him to take a polygraph, which he passed. He later moved to Kentucky, according to the Charley Project.

Police have never named a suspect in Deborah’s case, and the case remains unsolved.

If Deborah is still alive, she would celebrate her 60th birthday on Aug. 3, 2023. Anyone with information about Deborah’s disappearance is asked to call the Orange County (Florida) Sheriff's Office at 407-836-3700.