Debra Jean Milke, originally named Debra Jean Sadeik, was born on March 10, 1964, in West Berlin, West Germany. She was the daughter of a U.S. Air Force father and a German mother. In 1965, when Debra was just a year old, her family moved to the United States. They settled in Arizona, where Debra attended local schools.

As she grew up, Debra completed high school and later went to college. In 1984, she married Mark Milke. The couple welcomed their son, Christopher Conan Milke, into the world the following year, in 1985. However, Debra's marriage to Mark did not last long, and they divorced in 1988.

After her divorce, Debra continued to focus on her life as a single mother. She worked at an insurance agency and tried to provide for herself and her son. Despite any challenges she faced, she worked towards creating a stable home for Christopher.

On December 2, 1989, Debra Milke's four-year-old son, Christopher, went missing from the Metrocenter mall in Phoenix, Arizona. His disappearance led to a missing person investigation. Jim Styers, a man living with Milke and her son, was with Christopher at the mall when he called Milke to say the boy had vanished. After alerting mall security, Styers reported the situation to the police.

The following day, Roger Scott, a friend of Styers, was arrested. After a lengthy interrogation, Scott revealed that Christopher was dead and directed the police to a desert area where the boy's body was found. Christopher had been shot three times in the head. Scott claimed that Styers was responsible and that Milke had wanted the murder to happen, but he refused to testify against her during her trial.

Styers was also arrested based on Scott's allegations. Milke went to the sheriff's office voluntarily, where she was interrogated by Detective Armando Saldate. This interrogation was not recorded or witnessed by anyone else. Shortly after, Saldate reported that Milke had confessed to arranging her son’s murder.

Milke faced several charges, including conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Prosecutors highlighted a possible motive related to a life insurance policy she had taken out for Christopher. During the trial, the alleged confession was the primary evidence against her. In October 1990, Milke was convicted on all charges and sentenced to death.

After spending 18 years on death row, inquiries arose about the unrecorded confession and Detective Saldate’s conduct. In March 2013, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned her conviction, stating that she did not have a fair trial due to the failure to disclose evidence of Detective Saldate’s previous misconduct.

In September 2013, Milke was released on bond. Later, charges against her were dismissed, ruling that a retrial would lead to double jeopardy. Despite attempts to file a civil suit for malicious prosecution, a federal judge dismissed her case due to lost evidence and other issues.