No suspect has ever been recognized, however there have been current developments within the case.
PUTNAM COUNTY, Ga. — On Might 6, 2014, a neighbor went to check on Russell and Shirley Dermond at their Lake Oconee residence in Putnam County, Georgia.
Russell, 88, and Shirley, 87, had been married 68 years and had been dwelling out their golden years on the lovely, gated lakefront property. Three days earlier they had been speculated to go to the neighbor’s home to look at the Kentucky Derby, however by no means confirmed.
As their telephones went unanswered, neighbors grew involved. One neighbor went to conduct the verify and located their door was unlocked; an unretrieved newspaper was nonetheless of their driveway. After looking the house, the neighbor made a horrifying discovery — Russell, killed and decapitated, within the couple’s storage.
Ten days later, a pair of fishermen discovered Shirley lifeless close to a Lake Oconee dam about 5 miles from their residence. Authorities said her remains had been discovered within the water, with two crimson cinder blocks tied round her ankles, in an effort to weigh her down.
No suspect has ever been recognized.
“These folks dedicated a heinous crime, wicked act,” Sheriff Howard Sills instructed 11Alive’s Cody Alcorn after a current growth within the case. “They have to be caught.”
This is what we find out about the place the case stands:
Homicide of Russell and Shirley Dermond | The place the case stands 10 years later
- Timeline: Based mostly on his investigation, Sheriff Sills has narrowed the time frame of the crime to someplace between 4:30 p.m., on Friday, Might 2 — when the mail was delivered — to 4 p.m., on Saturday, Might 3, when the couple didn’t present up for the celebration. Though there’s a guard home on the most important entrance to the neighborhood, there isn’t a gate holding guests from approaching the neighborhood from the lake.
- There was an absence of proof from the start: There was little of it on the crime scene the place Russell was discovered and the killer or killers putting Shirley within the water ensured no matter proof together with her would’ve largely deteriorated.
- Investigation: There have been no fingerprints, no overseas DNA on the scene and no eye witnesses. There was a safety digicam operating on the gated neighborhood, nevertheless it wasn’t recording when the murders occurred as a consequence of a storm a number of weeks earlier. A whole bunch of interviews had been performed however, as Sheriff Sills mentioned in 2018: “The containers are nothing however information with interviews after interviews after interviews of individuals. There’s nothing magical in these containers.”
- Nonetheless, regulation enforcement has had some sense of what could have occurred: They decided it was seemingly Shirley was overwhelmed to demise, and Russell was discovered with bruising on his hand as properly one particularly noteworthy piece of evidence: Strands of Shirley’s hair interwoven with Russell’s wounds, suggesting he could have fought the attacker in an try to save lots of his spouse. “It might seem that there was a battle and pa was making an attempt to be protecting of mother,” their son Brad instructed 11Alive again in 2018.
- The sheriff believes Russell was seemingly shot within the head: This might clarify a number of issues, together with the decapitation — to take away proof of the strategy of the homicide — in addition to gunshot residue that was discovered on his shirt.
- Authorities additionally do not consider it was random: Sheriff Sills has famous up to now there have been no indicators of pressured entry or battle — or a disturbance of any variety, for that matter — anyplace else within the residence in addition to the storage.
- One lead that went nowhere: In Might 2015, it got here out {that a} mystery man was noticed on the Dermonds’ property across the time of their murders. Sills interviewed him, however no arrest was made.
- It is believed multiple suspect needs to be on the market: “There’s no manner one particular person did this. I’m not going to say it’s completely bodily not possible, nevertheless it’s extremely unlikely,” the sheriff mentioned in 2018. That is additionally the opinion of FBI Particular Agent Andy Smith, who talked to 11Alive final week.
- Motive theories: At one level in 2014, Sills believed that the Dermonds died after a botched theft extortion — wherein the Dermonds had been unable to ship the money or valuables demanded of them. However as FBI Particular Agent Smith famous, there was an absence of proof of any precise theft, which “makes it appear extra of a private crime.” Nothing else that is been explored — ranging in every thing from a doable New Jersey mob hit to a member of the family doubtlessly committing the killings — has ever panned out.
- New leads: In simply the final month, Sheriff Sills revealed some of the promising potential breaks within the case for the reason that Dermonds had been murdered 10 years in the past — proof taken to labs a yr in the past turned up a “DNA hit” for DNA that doesn’t belong to both Russell or Shirley.
- What that does and doesn’t suggest: It doesn’t suggest they’ll pinpoint a suspect but, and so they nonetheless want extra DNA to “hopefully get sufficient to the place it may be submitted” to felony DNA databases, Sills mentioned. It additionally doesn’t suggest they’ll but totally rule out that the DNA belongs to somebody utterly harmless — a lab technician, as an example, or a regulation enforcement officer; somebody concerned within the case sooner or later. But when it is not somebody like that, Sills mentioned, “it is in all probability gonna be whoever perpetrated these murders, or no less than anyone who was a celebration to the crime.”
- Different new evidentiary leads: Particular Agent Smith instructed 11Alive they’re additionally evaluating mobile information and different doable proof. “There are a number of issues that now we have that we’re evaluating that nobody is aware of,” he mentioned final week.
- Reward: A $25,000 FBI reward is being provided for anybody who has info on who killed the Dermonds or could have been concerned. The Putnam County Sheriff’s Workplace additionally has a $5,000 reward.
When you have data
Anybody with details about the case is requested to contact the FBI Atlanta Office at 770-216-3000 or the Putnam County Sheriff’s Workplace at 706-485-8557.
