What happened to notorious Hanford killer, and how a farmworker solved the case

Lemoore resident Dave Hawk was already in prison in 2016 when a farmworker stumbled onto the remains of his ex-wife a decade after she was killed in her Hanford home.

Hawk was arrested in May 2008 and convicted the next year of murdering Debbie Hawk, a 46-year-old pharmaceutical representative and mother of three. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

The 68-year-old remains at Mule Creek State Prison in Lone, Calif.

The murder of Debbie Hawk

Debbie Hawk was reported missing June 13, 2006, after her children returned from a custody visit with their father. They arrived to the Hanford home to find blood trails from their mother’s bedroom through the kitchen and into the garage. It was determined by investigators to be her blood.

Her vehicle was found two days later in Fresno with the windows rolled down, the key in the ignition and a stolen license plate on the rear bumper. Her body would not be found for a decade.

Despite the lack of a body, her former husband was found guilty of first-degree murder, as well as embezzling $300,000 from a trust account for their children.

Ten years after she went missing, farmworker Juan Vargas Castillo found part of a jawbone and a leg bone while laboring in a barley field near Stratford. He told The Fresno Bee in 2016 he initially believed the bones to belong to an animal before calling his foreman over.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about it,” he told The Bee. “It was in the back of my mind.”

Then the two saw fillings in some of the teeth. Investigators said later the bones matched Debbie Hawk, adding they did not find clothes or jewelry but did fine acrylic nails. Investigators said they believe she was buried in a grave of about 3 feet.

The site was several feet from the levee road by Last Chance Ditch and at least half a mile or more from the nearest paved road, according to Fresno Bee archives.

At the time of the discovery, investigators said they believed Hawk chose the area because it was so remote, but he was familiar with it after working in the area. A farmer began leveling the field again to prepare it for production in 2010.

Dave Hawk appealed his sentence in 2021, arguing that he did not receive a fair trial in Kings County, but that appeal was denied.