Case file 06 · July 3, 1992 · Hickory and Brookford, Catawba County

The Unsolved Murder of Dee Dee Dawkins

Isis Denise “Dee Dee” Dawkins was 13 when she told her mother she was “going out back” on July 3, 1992. Twenty-five days later her body was found in the Henry Fork at Brookford. Follow the three days in July, the river, the evidence that vanished, the police chief who reopened the case and the family still asking for answers.

By Christopher Adkins
Attorney, Adkins Law · Updated November 6, 2026

Start with Chapter 1 Follow the map Timeline Evidence board Send a tip

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Photograph: Water moving over rocks on the Jacob Fork in South Mountains State Park. DiscoA340 · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Content note. This case file discusses the death of a child, sexual violence as described by police, and a family’s loss.

Case status

Unsolved homicide · on sheriff and SBI cold case lists · state reward up to $25,000

Catawba County Sheriff · 828-465-8340 SBI · 800-334-3000 Family · 828-383-4063

See Dee Dee’s photograph on the SBI page · Dateline’s report and family photographs

The case at a glance

Victim: Isis Denise “Dee Dee” Dawkins, 13, of Hickory
Last seen: Evening of Friday, July 3, 1992, at home, telling her mother and sister she was “going out back”
Reported: Sunday, July 5, 1992, to Hickory police by her mother, Barbara
Found: July 28, 1992, in a logjam in the Henry Fork near the Brookford dam, by a mill repairman
Autopsy: Cause undetermined because of decomposition; manner homicide. Likely killed elsewhere
Evidence: One shoe, the only item logged, is missing from the records after Aug. 12, 1992
Today: Unsolved. On sheriff and SBI cold case lists since July 2025. State reward up to $25,000

Where the accounts differ

These conflicts appear across 34 years of records and reporting. The chapters explain each one.

Detail

One account

Another account

Her mother’s surname

Barbara Dula (SBI; Dateline)

Barbara Dula-Saxton (OPPRC); Barbara Dawkins (WBTV 2026)

River

Henry Fork (Dateline; Sheriff) or Henry River (SBI)

South Fork River (Governor)

Identification date

Aug. 14, 1992 (Governor)

Family notified Aug. 15 (Dateline)

Month of the recorded interview

October 2023 (Dateline; WBTV)

October 2024 (podcast)

Chief’s trial outcome

“Acquitted” (WBTV headline; WSOC headline)

Charges dismissed for insufficient evidence after the state rested (WBTV; WSOC)

Inside the case file

Six chapters

Each chapter is its own illustrated page, with photographs, maps and interactive records, and the sources cited in the text.

The former Ridgeview Public Library building in Hickory

Dee Dee, her family and Ridgeview

Isis Denise Dawkins was 13, a younger sister and a ballplayer from Hickory’s Ridgeview community. Before the river and the case file, this is the girl her family and teammates remember.

7 min read · Open the file →

Hickory Municipal Building in downtown Hickory

“Going out back”: July 3 to 5, 1992

On the evening of Friday, July 3, 1992, Dee Dee told her mother and sister she was going out back. She did not come home. Her mother reported her missing to Hickory police two days later.

8 min read · Open the file →

The Jacob Fork, a river that joins the Henry Fork downstream of Brookford, in South Mountains State Park

The Henry Fork at Brookford

Twenty-five days after she was last seen, a repairman at the Brookford mill noticed an odor. Dee Dee’s body was in a logjam in the Henry Fork near the Shuford Mills dam, about two miles from home.

9 min read · Open the file →

The 1924 Catawba County Courthouse in Newton

The file, the shoe and the long silence

The sheriff and the SBI took over in August 1992. The one piece of physical evidence logged, a shoe, has not been seen in the records since August 12, 1992. By 2001 the SBI had closed the case.

9 min read · Open the file →

The historic Catawba County Courthouse in Newton

The chief who reopened it

Brookford’s young police chief reopened the case in 2023. A phone left recording during an interview led to his indictment in 2025, a dismissal at trial in June 2026 and a lawsuit that is still pending.

10 min read · Open the file →

Sunset over the countryside of Catawba County

Justice for Dee Dee

Banners on Highway 127, a basketball league in her name, a family tip line and a $25,000 state reward. Thirty-four years on, Dee Dee’s family says someone knows what happened.

8 min read · Open the file →

By the numbers

The record in six figures

13Dee Dee’s age on July 3, 1992SBI

2days before the missing person reportGovernor

25days until her body was foundDateline

≈ 2 mifrom Ridgeview to the Brookford damOpenStreetMap

1shoe logged as evidence, now lostWSOC

$25,000state reward, up toGovernor

Unsolved for

Case map

Places in the record

From Ridgeview to the river is about two miles in a straight line. Press play to follow the places in order, or select a marker.

Map of Hickory, Brookford and Newton in Catawba County, North Carolina — Hickory, Brookford and Newton. The county courthouse, sheriff’s office and district attorney are in Newton, about seven miles east of the dam. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · drawn for The Lake Norman Brief

Interactive timeline

Thirty-four years in seventeen moments

Drag the slider or select a date.

Interactive

The evidence board

Chapters run across the middle, people along the top and places along the bottom. Red string marks a connection documented in the case file. Select any card.

Profiles and records

People in the case

The man interviewed in 2023 is not named here. He has not been charged, and police have not publicly named a suspect. For Dee Dee’s photograph, see the SBI cold case page.