Lynn police look for clues to solve 1996 hit-and-run

This is the sixth story in a series about cold cases in the city of Lynn.LYNN – Leopard-skin stretch pants, white boots and a thin jacket – the only barrier Debra M. Hinson had against the bitter cold as she lay dying in a Friend Street parking lot on March 9, 1996.A passerby found the 29-year-old mother around 7 a.m. that Saturday morning, her bruised and bloodied body sprawled out on the packed snow in the frigid 10-degree weather.Hinson apparently had been run over by a car and died as a result of blunt trauma, according to Lynn Police Captain Mark O’Toole, with injuries that included a broken back, pelvis, ribs and lacerations to the back of her head.”The last time she was seen alive, she was arguing with a man in front of 100 Green St.,” he said. “A vehicle was impounded (that she was last seen getting into) and we did extensive testing, but nothing came of it.”She had also been seen leaving the Apollo Hotel, a Union Street rooming house, around 12:30 a.m. – hours before her body was found laying face up in the popular spot police say was frequented by prostitutes and their johns.Family members declined to comment on the case, preferring not to stir up painful memories of the young mother’s demise and the unanswered questions that surround it. Was she struck from behind while trying to run away? Did she know her killer or was it a random act?Weighing just 90 pounds and standing 5-feet, 2-inches tall, Hinson was the mother of a 6-year-old boy at the time of her death. She had just lost her husband of six years, Perry, who was 24 years her senior, to cancer and then became caught in a downward spiral.O’Toole said Hinson developed alcohol- and drug-related problems and was arrested in Boston in June 1995 for prostitution and also later that month in Lynn for lewd and lascivious behavior.Fifeteen years after her death, not one tip or shred of information has turned up, which has prompted O’Toole to aggressively investigate her case with the hope of catching her killer.Hinson’s father, James Kibbey, also met a violent death when she was 10. In October 1976, Kibbey, 32, a machinist at General Electric, was found laying in a pool of blood on Buffum Street with a severe head wound. According to reports, it was first thought that Kibbey had been attacked, but police later ruled his death an injury from a fall.Another death that marred Hinson’s life was that of her unidentified high school sweetheart, who family members say had been dragged to death by a vehicle.Anyone with information on Hinson’s cold case is urged to contact the Lynn Police at 781-595-2000. Anonymous tips can be submitted by texting the word tiplynn and the information to tip411 or 847411. Tips can also be sent through the department’s website, www.lynnpolice.org and clicking the submit tip icon.