The too-short life of beautiful Debbie Symmers

Abraham and Symmers

   Debbie Symmers was found dead in a tree-filled park across from her apartment on Wellington in the Point on August 23, 1978.
   She reportedly had two gunshots to the head and bruises over her body, which seem evidence that the death was a murder, possibly at the hands of her boyfriend David Abraham.
    Her death was classified as a suicide.
   Others point out that Abraham - who died 15 to 20 years ago of cancer - was not a very kind person but they do not think he killed Symmers.
  According to weapons experts, automatic pistols can fire twice when triggered, so the pair of shots to the skull does not necessarily indicate murder.
   Symmers, who dabbled in modeling, grew up at a shabby apartment near Pine and Hutchison.
   She didn't click much with her mother, who is a person who had her own battle as well.
  Debbie was placed in Marian Hall centre for troubled girls where she proved popular among the other girls.
   She gave birth to a baby fathered by a young man named Richard Bell, a tall-slim boyfriend, who was part Afro-Canadian. 

  Bell was not around much because a judge had sentenced him to a jaw-dropping 22 years in prison in 1975 for an assault and robbery he participated in.

   The two were not long as a couple.  

  Debbie was 16 and authorities deemed her unfit to take care of a child and took the child up for adoption in 1974.
   She then had another child, a beautiful girl to whom she was said to be a devoted mother.

   Debbie, stood about 5'9" with long dark hair with red highlights and a bold, dynamic personality, a loud, deep laugh. She did some modeling. 

   Symmers then suffered serious injury in a traffic accident. She suffered chronic depression after the accident.
   She received $35,000 in insurance compensation following the accident and she gifted her boyfriend David Abraham with a lavish  $18,000 Harley Davidson Sportster.

  Debbie Symmers committed suicide in Marguerite Bourgeoys Park, aka Maggie Burgess Park, as locals call it.

   The gun she used to shoot herself was initially thought to have offered some suggestion that it was shot by someone else, but any possibility of homicide was eventually ruled out.  

  David Abraham died somewhere around 2000 to 2005 of cancer. 

  Not much else is known about Abraham, other than that he had an episode where he beat up a nightclub waiter, which caused him to fall afoul of the Sullivan clan and had to flee town for a while.