Debra Jones
Debra sang like Joplin, was "more
than drugs," but then
disappeared
By Alison Auld
The Canadian Press
Debra Lynn Jones looked nothing like the singer she could so easily impersonate.
But her voice could fool even the keenest ear, says Kathleen McKenzie of her sister's ability to mimic a famous singer whose gravelly voice became emblematic of a generation.
``She sang like Janis Joplin and played guitar, piano and dreamed of going to Nashville one day,'' McKenzie says in an online memorial about her sibling.
``A beautiful loving spirit, she was.''
They are the few details known about the brunette with the shaggy dyed blond hair, other than the fact that she was thought to be a veteran of the street after spending years there.
Even her page on a website that carefully chronicles each missing woman, including picture, date of birth and a brief description _ is no longer in service.
A small headshot on a police poster might reveal a glimpse into her mood, Jones looks straight into the camera, her eyes weary and her expression forlorn. Her neckline shows a bright orange collar, much like the jumpsuits worn by people in prison.
People who knew her on the Downtown Eastside say the 43-year-old mother was a heroin addict who was known as a ``booster,'' the name given to those who steal to support their drug habit.
``She was down on the eastside a long time,'' says Maggy Gisle, a recovering drug addict who lived in the area for 16 years.
``She was quite friendly.''
McKenzie insists Jones, who had three other sisters and a brother who died in 1982, was not working as a prostitute when police say she disappeared in December 2000, and that she had cleaned up.
``She was much more than drugs,'' she writes in the online tribute. ``She was a poor woman who had nowhere else to live but downtown so her medicine could be given to her.''
© 2006 The Canadian Press
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