Russell and Shirley Dermond ///Part 1/// 303 | Forensic Files

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grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] on Tuesday May 6th 2014 at 9:58 a.m.
Peggy Wynn called Putnam County Georgia 911 phone of a house she was in when Putnam County picked up the call Peggy
is breathing hard she tells them there's an emergency she thinks someone is dead she goes on
to tell them the house in which she is calling from is 1 for 7 Caroline Drive in great waters she is
calling from the home of Russell and Shirley Durman Peggy explains that she is a neighbor of the Dermot's and she
went to their home to check on them because they have been missing for about four days are they in the house she is
asked yes I am she replies and then Peggy can be heard shouting oh my god hysterically Putnam County wants to know
if they are both dead and if Peggy found them both no Peggy explains it's just one I don't know where the other one is
she is told they are sending a deputy and an ambulance over there just in case Peggy thinks the operator and hangs up
the phone on the call the dispatcher could hear Peggy talking to someone in the background who sounded like he was
saying she's not here or there's no one else here somehow the 911 operator interpreted that there were multiple
bodies on the scene she dispatched deputies and an ambulance to respond to one four seven Caroline
Drive saying that a woman called 911 she didn't know how many were dead Peggy Wynne and her husband later told
Putnam County Sheriff Howard sills the following the winds who were in their 70s were friends with
Russell and Shirley Durman they weren't next-door neighbors but they lived less than a mile away within the same upscale
gated community called great waters on Lake Oconee in the state of Georgia the wins hosted a Kentucky Derby party on
Saturday May 3rd at their home the durman's were expected to attend but never showed
Peggy called the Derman home a few times over the next couple of days but there was never any answer and she started to
grow concerned enough that on Tuesday May 6th she made her husband accompany her over to the Durman home they knocked
but received no response and finding the front door unlocked they went inside they looked all through the pristine
home which was over 3,000 square feet and saw nothing on their first pass the husband even glanced into the closed
attached garage and noted that the couple's two cars were parked in their spots determined to look more thoroughly
the husband made a second pass in the house and actually stepped down the three stairs into the garage to check
out the cars they're behind the pale blue Lexus SUV in the Lincoln Towncar he was confronted with the most
horrifying scene imaginable on the garage floor lying behind the cars lay the blood-soaked body of a man lying in
a dry pool of blood whether or not it was his friend Russ was unclear the body lying on the garage floor had no head 87
year-old Shirley durman was gone so was the head belonging to this body [Music] before we get into the meat of this case
it's crucially important to convey an understanding of the setting because the nature of the location figures heavily
into the story Reynolds Plantation is an upscale lakefront resort community roughly 80 miles southeast of Atlanta
Georgia it's divided into several smaller gated developments with multiple golf courses and a lakefront
ritz-carlton all in all Reynolds Plantation is over 1500 residences with the great water
subdivision where the Durman home was being the most exclusive great waters it's built around a Jack Nicklaus design
Golf Course and was a gated community with 600 residences the durman's built their retirement home toward the back of
the development at the end of a cul-de-sac overlooking Lake Oconee the house was situated so that the house
fronted on the lake and the front lawn sloped down to the home's dock the part of the house that faced the
driveway was the back of the house this is a very heavily wooded area it was not
at all open to the street or even clearly visible to neighbors on the other side and across the street was
just woods it was secluded just the way the durman's liked it the area was extremely safe with not so much as a
burglary and sheriff's sales to decade tenure up until 2014 now Lake Oconee is not a small lake in fact the 30 mile
lake encompasses 19 thousand acres and has 374 miles of shoreline it is a man-made lake created by the building of
a dam across the Oconee River Lake Oconee is so huge that it touches four different counties construction of the
dam flooded the area included wooded regions so that in parts of the lake underwater trees are visible the lake
sees a huge boating scene in the warmer months there are boat rental facilities public
boat launches fishing Outfitters and every home has a dock this is a very large house although there are many
year-round residents including retirees and families one-third of the homes in the subdivision are occupied only
seasonally the summer season traditionally the population of mostly rural Putnam County doubles too close to
45,000 people now the man in charge of the investigation is sheriff Howard sills
he's the elected sheriff of Putnam County who has served in that role for 25 years he is a cigar smoking cowboy
boot wearing no-nonsense lawman a criminal justice major in college trained at the FBI Academy and he has
been in law enforcement for about 45 years as of may 6 2015 2 1 of this investigation he has solved every murder
case and has sent five killers to death row this is not a situation where the sheriff is a local yokel who Boches
investigations right this guy sells is the man I watched a lot of interviews of sheriff sales he's very Tommy Lee Jones
you know like in in No Country for Old Men type thing I didn't kill my wife I don't care
sheriff sills was at the home 1 for 7 Caroline drive very quickly when responding to that 911 call he later
admitted expecting to find a murder-suicide first thing he looked over the decapitated body that lay on
the garage floor between the cars the man's faded red t-shirt was partially pushed up his blue and white
striped boxer shorts drenched in dried blood a bunched up bathrobe lay under the body
the man's bare feet were blood-stained there was a dull red trail of blood which sill says showed that the body had
been moved a few feet a pair of LL Bean slippers lay nearby the corpses hands were bruised and bloody the left index
finger had a severe - all the way onto the palm of the hand so defensive wounds yes the head had
been cut off along the line of the t-shirt collar in several what he describes his clean cuts so whoever did
this he says knew what they were doing based on information obtained from Russell durman's driver's license the
body belonged to him that's what the sheriff figured right and a positive identification would later be made on
the garage floor was quite a bit of dried blood with a large pool of blood and bodily fluids near the top of the
body strangely several towels lined the garage door crack where the door met the
ground next to the left side of Russell's body as if someone had ensured that the blood
would not seep under the door and out onto the driveway outside so a sign of premeditation well a sign of wanting to
conceal this body as long as possible to the outside world right to the right side of the body where more towels
clearly intended to soak up the excess blood it was determined that the towels were from a bathroom in the durman's
home just behind the lincoln sheriff sills found a blood spot on the garage floor as if something round had been
placed there later he said that it was larger than a head would be I know that's a pretty grotesque description
there but these are his words and his his assessment of the crime scene the rest of the house was in pristine
condition the 3200 square foot four bedroom tan stucco house was neat orderly dirt and dust free an unfinished
USA Today crossword puzzle was sitting on the kitchen table folded with the pencil still placed on top and a
prescription with Shirley durman's name on it was on the counter next to a Netflix movie return mm-hmm open laptop
was on the dining room table with a pair of glasses inside an open case nearby other than the garage nothing whatsoever
appeared to be disturbed there was no forced entry we know the winds found the door
unlocked there was no sign of any kind of struggle or altercation and nothing appeared to have been stolen
Shirley's two handbags with cash and cell phone were still on her vanity Russell's wallet and cell were also in
the home a Jewelry bag lay in plain sight the only things missing was Russell's head and Shirley Dermott so we have no
sign of a struggle we have no sign of a break-in mm-hmm we have no sign that anybody took anything
of value right so kind of rules out robbery it could be a robbery gone bad and then we find Russell but we do not
find his wife mm-hmm it's a very weird situation and also I think what is not found in the home is key here so the
house was dusted for prints but if Tech's found any interesting prints they were not released they've not released
that information right the entire house was checked over using luminol and no blood whatsoever was detected other than
in the garage but even there there was no spatter or spray just the pooled blood around Russell's body no weapons
of any variety were found sheriff sills has remarked that they did find some forensic evidence but we don't
know what that is or whether it has proved at all useful despite sheriff sills dragging the lake
area around the durman's dock and grid searches with dogs looking in nearby woods nothing else was found because a
perpetrator could be coming by car or foot or possibly by boat yes the house would have been accessible by boat a
full-scale investigation into the disappearance of Shirley Derman was launched boats searched in nearby areas
of Lake Oconee using the latest sonar equipment and even a submersible robot but this turned up nothing cadaver dogs
failed to hit on anything near the house the FBI was called in to help in the search for the likely abducted woman and
billboard's went up all over the area to publicize her missing status meanwhile an autopsy was performed on
Russell's body which wasn't that badly decomposed even though it's estimated that he was dead for several days the
garage and the Derman home was air-conditioned so this slowed this process down the GBI
medical examiner ruled that the cause of death was cranial cerebral trauma because there was no evidence of any
fatal injury to the body everyone was extremely relieved to learn that Russell had not been decapitated while he was
still alive with sheriff sills concluded based on the lack of arterial blood spray evidence in the garage or anywhere
else for that matter some kind of traumatic injury had been inflicted on Russell's head killing him now without
his head it could not be determined for certain what that injury was but the autopsy noted specifically that the
decapitation was the result of a clean cut through the vertebrae and spinal cord leading SILS to conclude that it
had likely been done with a very sharp blade and it happened in the garage wall right and they don't have his head they
have his body and we don't have wounds on the body that would make us believe that's how he died so they just have to
assume that the injury happened to his head sheriff sills was operating under the
assumption that Shirley Derman had been abducted and was in danger he considered
it was possible that Shirley was involved in Russell's murder but what cells was able to determine from the
crime scene led him to discount this theory pretty quickly right first of all Shirley Derman was 87 years
old and she had physical infirmities that prevented her from easily handling stairs or walking down to the lakefront
from the house so the idea that she did this by herself that she managed to kill
and decapitate her husband move the body and then disappear with the head on foot
with none of her personal effects just seemed I mean almost an impossibility so who were the durman's
Russell was born in 1925 in Hackensack New Jersey old Hackensack yeah he attended college and he served in the
Navy he was a world war two veteran after the war in 1950 he married Shirley who was born in 1926 also in New Jersey
she attended Barnard College in New York Russell worked as an executive at the general time Corporation the company
this company made clocks the durman's had four children Brad Keith Mark and Leslie they moved to
Atlanta in nineteen in the 1980s Russell retired from the corporate world at age
58 and branched into fast-food franchises and one time owning nineteen Hardee's locations in 1998 he sold the
business off to two of his sons who had been employed by their father's business
and he and Shirley moved to their dream house on the lakefront at Lake Oconee Russell was a regular golfer and Shirley
played bridge and enjoy gardening they had a dock in front of their house as as did the others but they sold their boat
in 2012 remember we stated that Shirley was having trouble getting down to the lakefront this looks to me like a
situation where an older couple might be downsizing a little bit yeah and close boats are a lot of work yeah does ask me
I'm a captain I love boats but they're a big pain in the ass both were active in their church had
friends in the community and were known to be just nice normal folks many happy summers were spent with their kids and
grandkids at their house on the lake let's go through the last sightings of the durman's on Thursday May 1st 2014
Russell ran some errands in town we know from surveillance footage exactly where Russell went and what he
did at 2:15 p.m. Russell transferred money for an upcoming long-term care insurance
premium via the drive-through lane at the Lake Oconee People's Bank he then traveled to the nearby Publix a grocery
store arriving at two 26 p.m. to pick up a prescription for Shirley he also picked up a loaf of
bread and a few cucumbers he stopped and chatted with the gentleman in one of the
aisles then he checked out and he walked out of the store now also on that Thursday May 1st Shirley attended her
twice weekly bridge group at 12:30 p.m. sometime before dinner the durman's son Brad spoke to his parents on the phone
like most days he said they just chatted about how their day went on Friday May 2nd a neighbor reported seeing Russell
walking on the golf course in the community Russell had recently given up golf and had taken to walking just to
get some exercise we don't know what time this was though this is we don't have a time for this sighting this was
the last time anyone reported any sightings of Shirley and Russell Derman at some point during the day on Friday
Shirley durman's sent an email and we have no reason to believe that it was someone else
sending it we know from what was found in the house that Shirley worked on the crossword puzzle in the USA Today
weekend edition right which is delivered on Fridays it was found on the kitchen table her children told sheriff sills
that she usually worked on the puzzle in the mornings and we know that at 4:30 p.m. on Friday the durman's mail was
delivered according to the mail carrier sure sheriff sills apparently has reason
to believe that the mail was taken inside by the durman's perhaps it was found inside the home or the mail
carrier saw them we don't we don't know for certain how he came to this conclusion
in any event sheriff sills is certain that the durman's were alive and well at 4:30 p.m. on Friday May 2nd
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that's fabfitfun dot-com all right we're back cheers mate cheers to you captain so based on these
sightings and what we know about the crime scene we can narrow down the time frame of when something happened to the
Dermot's so between a 4:30 p.m. Friday and 4:00 p.m. on Saturday this is when they failed to show up at the Kentucky
Derby party Plus Russell durman's body had been found clothed in boxer shorts a t-shirt and a robe with slippers nearby
so he likely was either preparing for bed or had recently got up from bed the bed was found unmade and an otherwise
immaculate home the durmand children told sheriff sills that if Russell didn't have a reason to get dressed
first thing in the morning you know like an appointment or an errand he was known
to hang around the house in his robe until late morning I like the cut of his jib in any event whatever happened
Russell somehow being killed and surely being taken happened between Friday during the day and Saturday early
afternoon no one reported anything strange nobody reported any strange cars at the house or boats parked at the
durman's dock so who could have taken this elderly frail woman and to what end with more and more time passing with no
answers as to shirley's whereabouts sheriff sills braced himself for a ransom note or call but it never came
then on Friday May 16th at 2:24 p.m. two men were out fishing on Lake Oconee near
the Wallace dam their boat neared a section of standing timber where under water trees were visible no the men
spotted something in the water as they got closer and approached the object they were shocked to see that it
was a human body floating facedown they called 911 reported a body floating in the water against a tree
lieutenant Luke responded to the scene via patrol boat he located the body and called sheriff sills around 3 p.m. they
pulled a bloated waterlogged female body from the water sill said later that the
body was swollen to twice it's normal size and was decomposing the body was fully dressed wearing army green capri
pants brown and tan floral short-sleeved shirt and lace size eight white shoes she was fully dressed yeah
sheriff sills was pretty sure that they had just found 87 year-old Shirley Thurman she had been missing for at
least 10 days by this point although the cause of death was not immediately evident - sills it was clear that
Shirley had not put herself into the lake the body had floated to the top which is a natural reaction to the gases
that build up inside a decomposing corpse right that is submerged we have any wounds on her well the reason the
the obvious thing that he notes right away of why she didn't put herself in the lake is you know the body floated up
to the top despite to read 30 pound concrete blocks tied to both of her ankles with a paracord no the cement
blocks were inside a bluish gray mesh bag someone had put the blocks in the bag tied the bag - Shirley's ankles and
thrown her into the lake this is about five and a half miles from the Derman home this area was accessible only by
boat Shirley's killer or killers used a boat to discard her body and forty six foot
deep water this is one of the deepest areas of the lake she was positively identified as Shirley
Derman by dental records the autopsy found that Shirley skull was fractured she was struck at least twice on the
right side of her head - v-shaped lacerations were found on her skull but the skull fractures were round
in shape leading sheriff sills to guess that the weapon used was a hammer although he has
reiterated that we do not know for sure what the weapon was the cause of death was blunt impact injury of the head
there was no sign of sexual assault the 550 or 5 5 0 para cord was wrapped around her ankles in the lack of
bruising indicated that the binding of Shirley's ankles occurred after death now the save time because we do have a
lot to get to right trust me when I when I say this I've looked into this and this was an extremely thorough and
exhaustive investigation the agencies involved led by sheriff sills have looked into everything and every inch in
angle was looked at even extending his investigation into other jurisdictions and other states so I want to give you
just a small part of SILS investigation but not the whole thing because it'd be just be too much
SILS obtained tens of thousands of pages of the durman's phone records and those
of their children and others associated with them no one detected any unusual calls or interactions with anyone anyone
the durman's had contact with was looked into sills canvassed the neighborhood and talked to over 200 residents about
225 people were asked 30 questions including where they were on the dates in question right and whether they had
any surveillance footage that could help the investigation the interviewers discovered that sure enough one woman
said she had seen a man in the durman's yard on that Saturday this woman reported seeing a man from her vantage
point in a house that wasn't very close by she was not able to determine this man's race age or ethnicity uh-huh but
she says he was in the durman's yard on Saturday sheriff sills met with her and reconstructed the
and his point she had and agreed that it was unlikely she could identify the man
it could even have been Russell himself as far as we know sheriff sills also interviewed Shirley's bridge club
members the pastor of their church and members of the congregation all of their friends a handyman day laborers and
gardeners in the area some of whom were subjected to polygraphs and passed he ran background checks on the
residents of Great Waters looking for criminal histories I mean this is so strange I mean we have one person dead
in the house decapitated you then take the other person that doesn't seem to make any sense unless it was to get them
into an area so you could do weird sexual things the motive would be sexual I think once you remove the female or
ransom but no ransom note comes mm-hmm and then you find her in a area that would have to you'd have to get to by
boat but we don't know if the perpetrator got to their house by a boat he's very very confusing
well you're pointing out something that's very spot on right here because the the alarming thing about this case
and the difficult thing about this investigation it really seems like you have to determine why the movements of
the perpetrators were what they were and it's very difficult to determine that one because the lack of motive but to
here's the thing when researching this I found out that one when somebody's murdered and then decapitated
decapitation is pretty it's a pretty low percentage of the time that that even occurs yeah then on top of that when the
head is removed from the crime scene from the murder scene that percentage is even much less I couldn't find any
statistics on a situation like this at all where there is decapitation head removed
and a second victim who's removed from the murder scene yeah so in talking about the people
the sheriff's ills looked at I mean that's a pretty thorough list right there well he even looked into the
mailman yeah then you have this idea too is is it two perpetrators because there's two victims but it doesn't have
to be like normally you'd go okay well you have a man and his wife and and maybe there would be it makes it a lot
easier if there's two perpetrators oh because they're elderly couple not necessarily so it's like now are we
looking at one perpetrator her or too well all three of the Derman adult kids who lived in other states were
interviewed multiple times polygraphed and past now remember when we just were discussing who the durman's were we
mentioned that they had four children right but one of their children had passed away before this ever happened
okay so sills looked extensively into the durman's financial records sills noted that the durman's were somewhat
frugal and were careful with their money they weren't they were not overly wealthy they were not in any way
ostentatious or glitzy they didn't even have ATM cards well wouldn't they be children
of the depression so they'd be more frugal yeah and I mean I know we went through his career in his professional
life but the vibe I get here is yeah they did well and they were successful but it seems to me like they may have
got to where they were late in life by being frugal for most of their lives more so than just making a bunch of
money right there was absolutely nothing unusual about any of their financial affairs sheriff sills even insisted on
being present when the Derman children opened their parents safety deposit box just in case there was something
important inside and he says there was not right one of the first things sheriffs Hills considered was the
security around great waters around that development where the durman's lived this was an incredibly low crime area of
course there were security cameras at the guard shack that monitored the entrance to the subdivision sills sent
deputy to obtain the camera footage from the days surrounding the Derman murders
but there was no footage doesn't it seem like it's just this way every time that's on yeah the system had been fried
a fruit a few weeks earlier by a bolt of lightning from a storm on April 28th so
there are no recordings of the comings and goings and activities at great waters after that date you know about
how many people in this area knew this probably quite a bit right I cannot say I would speculate the in most situations
this isn't something that they would broadcast to the residents you would think they would right that's a safety
precaution hey our security cameras I have been compromised two two lightning I can't say for certain if it was
general knowledge of the residents because I couldn't find that information but what I can say is sheriff sills who
I consider to be incredibly knowledgeable and thorough he obviously was unaware of it because he sent deputy
to collect footage that was not there sheriff sills said that the only time his office had any interaction with the
durman's was back in 2012 this is when the durman's had reported a credit card fraud incident they had never reported
anything else fishy ever or even called the police otherwise the guard shack at the
entrance to Great Waters this was a typical little booth man by a security guard who checked authorizations of
those entering the development in 2014 there was no armed that came down to stop access for cars trying to get in
the shack was man 24 hours a day and visitors had to be approved by a telephone call to the residents
residents themselves had stickers showing that they lived there but others such as great waters maintenance men
landscape workers repairman and so on also could get temporary passes and were most likely just wave through if they
displayed them and people who told the guards that they were there to play golf or eat at the
clubhouse were also admitted right sheriff SIL said that in theory records of these people were kept but it doesn't
sound like it would be that hard for an outsider to enter the area security was pretty lacs over all the durman's had a
security system at their home but their son Brad indicated they had been disconnected over Easter a few weeks
before the murders we haven't been able to gather any additional information about whether the home security system
was out of order at the time of the murders or not but it seems to be this way sheriff sills has remarked that it
was functional but it was not turned on but in another interview with WSB TV 2 he indicated that the home security
system had been disconnected twice in the few weeks before the murders the Derman children said that normally their
parents would lock their doors and set the alarm at night but clearly whether it was working or not the alarm was not
in use at the moment the durman's home was accessed by someone with sinister intentions
also the durman's home number and address were publicly available so clearly they weren't too concerned about
security sheriff sills looked into all the boat rentals around the time of the murders
on the assumption that the killers could have arrived by boat by passing altogether the guard shack and the risk
associated with driving into and out of the community yeah if he found anything he isn't saying there there were no boat
thefts reported around that time if you know if even leading up to that days or weeks or months in advance and no one
reported that their boat appeared to have been used by someone else during this time as well it is still possible
that somebody could they used somebody's boat and returned it without them knowing mm-hmm sills looked into all
similar murders particularly decapitations around the country murders with decapitations are rare
with only three to four occurring yearly in cases where the head is taken are even more rare one case in New York
seemed very similar this took place in November of 2015 when 83 year old Lois Colley was beaten to death in her home
in an exclusive community there was no forced entry and nothing was taken and there seemed to be no motive the
clincher was that Miss Holly mrs. Colley's family owned fast-food restaurants just like the durman's did
at one time yet law enforcement was not able to establish a connection with the durman's and in fact the suspect was
arrested in 2017 in the Kaali case but seems to have no links whatsoever to Shirley and Russell sheriff sills
consulted forensic experts as far away as China and utilized manpower from other law enforcement agencies as far
away as London he also sat down with six psychics over the years who claimed to have known nothing
sheriff sills interviewed eight to ten former employees of Russell German and administered polygraphs to the lawn guy
and the handyman who did some work around the Derman house there was no other domestic help at the time and it
seems like these polygraphs led nowhere well he's definitely doing his due diligence and anybody that's willing to
talk and anybody that's willing to give a polygraph they're at least going through with that well and that's why I
point out that this investigation seems to be incredibly thorough one this is a guy who very I mean he clearly has the
experience and the knowledge to take on this type of investigation but he's also
humble enough that he does get other people involved and that's one thing that a lot of experts will say is once a
case goes cold you know after let's say 12 months of getting no real leads that are that are taking you anywhere and in
the investigation seems to just be going nowhere that's when you get other agencies involved you get new fresh eyes
on the crime on the crime scene on the evidence that you currently have and try to get some type of lead based
off of other experts experiences so sheriff sills even borrowed two experienced detectives from the
Jacksonville Florida cold-case squad the detectives reviewed the case files with
sills to help him try to get to the bottom of this case sheriff sills also periodically brought
in experts from the DA's office and neighboring counties as well as the FBI to help aid in the investigation where
it stands today captain we still don't know what happened to the durman's who did this and why it also seems to like
there would be access points to this water that might not be able to there might not be able to patrol or no so it
could be a possibility ability to that the perpetrator would park somewhere else access the water further away and
make it into the the subdivision yeah and that brings up another good question too is if you have trouble establishing
a motive here were the durman's themselves actually targeted or was this person or persons just determined to
enter the area and then choose a target at some point right but again why just for to to cause harm to somebody because
again we don't there's no sign of burglary you think that would be the motive and there's no sign of sexual
assault so is it just a thrill kill well I think before we move on to some theories let's let's go through a quick
list of what we do in fact know that the facts of the case as it stands today because there is some new information
that came out along the way one thing that I really enjoy about sheriff sills is he's kind of an open book guy he
understands that there is certain things that as investigators they should hold but he's also of the type that he will
put a lot of things out into the public and as a case goes on he will add information to help break get a break in
the case right as we pointed out before this incident this guy has solved every murder that happened during the course
of his tenure as the sheriff so what we do know is this Russell and Shirley Derman were murdered and likely this
happened sometime between late afternoon on Friday May 2nd and 4:00 p.m. on Saturday May 3rd no one broke in there
was no obvious signs of struggle the couple was not restrained and the couple likely was not killed in the home
that's a weird part okay and I know that's tough for us to wrap our heads around here but that is something that
sheriff sills has said on you know news coverage and in interviews regarding this case he says that he believes that
they were likely not killed at home meaning that there's little there's no evidence to suggest that they were
killed in the home itself which is a an added angle difficult angle for this case especially when you factor in that
we don't really have any eyewitnesses but the one who states they saw a man in the durman's yard who could not be
identified because of how far away this witness was mm-hmm so Russell was decapitated with a very sharp tool
probably a knife this occurred after death and it we do know that the decapitation did happen in the garage
there is evidence to back that up his head has never been found Russell was wearing what appeared to be
the clothes that he slept in or was preparing to sleep in sheriff sills later revealed this is one of those
interesting things right here he later revealed after keeping this information under wraps for some time that a small
amount of GSR was found on the back of Russell's shirt near his caller Russell had this GSR on the
back of his shirt and he was not known to be a sports shooter so this points out that he may have been shot in the
head before he was decapitated Russell had a deep laceration on his hand and hair was entangled in his hand shirley
was killed by blows to the head with a hammer or another tool which crushed her skull shirley was likely taken away by
boat tied to the bag containing the concrete blocks and dumped in the lake after she was already dead it's possible
that she was driven away in a car to the other side of the lake and then placed in a boat but either way a boat had to
be involved because of where the body was found and located and I really circle this part in the investigation
and who the killer's may be walled on just to stop you right there so you're saying a boat has to be involved based
on where her body was found but the but but a boat would have to be involved for
the dumping of the body not necessarily the taking of the woman right right and that but that's what I'm pointing out
and circling here is because of the location of where the body was found yeah and because it was weighted down
you know he brought in sheriff sills brought in the appropriate people to determine that the body didn't it it
came out of the water shortly after it floated to the top yeah and they also determined that it couldn't have moved
more than a hundred yards from where the location was that she was eventually found he actually thinks that it
probably moved even less than that because as they pointed out in the 911 call the body was lying up it was like
snagged on one of those trees so this is one of the deepest parts of the lake and
this is a very big lake so sheriff sills is really reminding us here that a boat
in some form was involved in this case at some point it has to be so the killers or the killer came prepared as
they likely brought the tools that were used on remember these items were not found in
the house and there was no obvious things that were noticed to have been missing from the house Shirley was found
in deep water as we pointed out earlier about five and a half miles from their home nothing obvious was taken from the
house there were valuables left in plain sight this really really makes it confusing to the motive that was
involved here now if the eyewitness is to be believed which sheriff sills says he believes
this eyewitness a man was in the durman's yard and this took place on Saturday some forensic evidence was
found at the scene now whether it be DNA fibers tangible evidence or just something else we don't know what that
is although multiple new sources report that no foreign DNA was found sheriff sills has said that he has quote
forensic evidence collected at the house but he is keeping mum on what it would be yeah they could be anything yeah
there was no blood found on the grounds on the dock or in the home anywhere except the garage we do know that in
2012 the durman's were victims of American Express credit card fraud where one of their cards was hacked in two
thousand dollars in online expenditures racked up at Macy's and Amazon they reported this to the Putnam County
Sheriff's Office this is the only interaction that the durman's ever had with the sheriff's office Russell and
Shirley lived a normal quiet life and were well-liked social and friendly they were well off but frugal and cautious
with their spending they were contemplating downsizing and had sold their boat the family seemed to be close
and loving they seemed to have no enemies yeah and were described as religious sweet unassuming family
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Source: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-k832a-b141bb

Russell and Shirley Dermond ///Part 1/// 303 Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com On Tuesday, May 6th 2014 - A woman called Putnum County, Georgia 911. She reported she was at the home of friends checking on them. The elderly couple had been missing for days. She called because inside the home she found someone dead in the garage that she could not identify. This is a crime and mystery that continues to haunt the state of Georgia to this day. Join us in the garage as we discuss this fascinating case. Beer of the Week - Southern Pecan Nut Brown Ale by Lazy Magnolia Brewing Garage Grade - 3 and 3 quarter bottle caps out of 5 Check out this week’s amazing sponsors and save CA$H with our codes! www.TheSkimm.com/Garage - for a FREE daily newsletter keeping you up to date on what’s happening in the world www.ButcherBox.com/Garage - Enter promo code GARAGE to receive $20 off your first order and the Ultimate Barbecue Bundle for FREE! www.HelloFresh.com/Garage80 - Get $80 off your first month with code GARAGE80! www.FabFitFun.com - use promo code GARAGE to get $10 off your first box - that’s over $200 for only $39.99! Acorn.tv/garage - Watch episode 1 of “Line of Duty” and start a FREE 30-day trial of Acorn TV with code GARAGE

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Brief Summary

The episode details the unsolved murders of Russell and Shirley Derman in Georgia, focusing on the investigation and mysterious circumstances surrounding their deaths.

Key points

A Shocking Discovery. Peggy Wynne calls 911, believing someone is dead. The scene reveals a gruesome murder.
The Crime Scene. Sheriff Sills discovers a decapitated body in a pristine garage, raising questions.
Missing Persons. Russell's head is missing, and his wife Shirley is nowhere to be found.
Grilling Season Begins. Celebrate the start of grilling season with Butcher Box's amazing deals!
Shirley's Body Found. A shocking discovery as a body is found floating in the lake.
Investigation Intensifies. Sheriff Sills conducts a thorough investigation into the Derman case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She thinks someone is dead!

Peggy's 911 call

4:15WatchMay 14, 2019

Tension

70/ 100High tension

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