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Lake Oconee murders; further questions and profiling
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The murders of Russell and Shirley Dermond in Lake Oconee GA in 2014 is one of the most well known cases in the true crime online community. I'll provide a summary for anyone unfamiliar with the case, and here are 2 links for those who want to know more about the case
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killings_of_Russell_and_Shirley_Dermond
In the first week of May of 2014, Russell and Shirley Dermond, a couple who was approaching 90 was supposed to attend a kentucky derby party in their upscale neighborhood on lake oconee in central GA. The couple never made it to the party, and after a few days went by, their friends became concerned when they did not hear from the Dermond's, so some neighbors went over to check on them
That is when the neighbor found a horrifying scene, Russell Dermond dead and decapitated in his garage, Shirley Russell nowhere to be found. The neighbor then called 911
The house was immaculate, it was an extremely clean crime scene and there was no evidence they were even killed at the house
10 days later, 2 fisherman found Shirley's body 6 miles away from the home, she was dumped into the lake. She had been beaten to death and had 2 cinderblocks strapped to her legs and tossed overboard. her body was disposed of via boat
I consider myself fairly well read about this case and I feel the entirety of the crime raises alot of interesting questions. id love to hear peoples thoughts on these questions/motives and the type of people and their motive who would do this. County Sheriff Howard Sills has been very media friendly about this case and has shared a decent amount of details/insight. Below are a few questions i have about the case, feel free to comment your thoughts, etc.
-the crime scene was extremely clean, russell was decapitated in the garage but otherwise the house was immaculate. why decapitate russell? if it was to hide the ballisitcs evidence would it not have been easier to use a different weapon?
-I feel they likely came to the house with the plan to decapitate them as they had to have a very sharp knife(sheriff said a super clean cut) and a container to take the head away in. what would be the motive for this?
-sheriff has stated he thinks there was at least 2 people, possibly more involved
-Russell was not killed in the garage where he was found. he was likely shot due to gun shot residue being found on his shirt. there's no blood spatter in garage, why kill him elsewhere and then bring him to the garage? where was he killed?
-Shirley was killed in a different manner and much more brutally, why use 2 different methods for killing them? why bother removing her body and his head and hiding them, meanwhile RD body was just left on the floor of the house?
-Shirley was not killed at the house and her body was dumped via boat
-this is a significant part of the crime imo, because removing Shirley from the property(in a boat especially) increases the risk of being caught 50x. i feel like there had to be a noteworthy reason to do this but cannot think of one
i think these killers are local, they had to have a boat and a truck/trailer to transport that boat. imo these guys had to be VERY comfortable on that lake, in order to kidnap an old lady, bring her onboard the boat, likely kill her onboard, and then tie cinderblocks to her and dump her body overboard. this is ALOT of work/effort and is very risky to do, which doesn't gel with leaving his body at the house
i think most likely it had to be some form of extortion, where they arrived by boat(even though sherriff says he doesn't think they arrived by boat) and then kidnapped SD in order to get $ out of Russell. Russell then either refused and/or fought back and was killed or things went wrong and the killers plan was ruined. so they just had to kill the dermond's and leave
ill probably make some edits after i proof read a bit. let me know if 'im missing anything and id love to hear your guys thoughts!!
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So Shirley was the target imo. Her murder was complete overkill. With all the work and effort to kill her, tie cinder blocks and drop her in the lake, if she was an afterthought that wouldn’t have happened.
I kind of wonder if he was shot on the boat (or a boat) or he was around when a gun was shot. The garage makes sense due to the decapitation.
I’ve always felt like this was a thrill killing. It reminds me of the movie Funny Games (with Naomi Watts & Michael Pitt). Or maybe an attempted kidnapping/extortion scheme that went horribly wrong. But if that’s the case then the people doing the kidnapping/extortion are sadistic, and this level of violence is unusual for people who only have a financial motive.
Unless it’s linked to a crime of passion? I’m local to the area and living on Lake Oconee means you got some big, big $$$.
Initially when the murders happened, there was buzz about them being from up north and having made a lot of money off restaurants. So a lot of people thought maybe a mob thing? But there’s the angle of someone local because of the lake. It’s also believed the suspects arrived by boat and not by vehicle.
But I believe there was some information pertaining to a son being a little rough cut and having some negative dealings. I could see this couple being murdered and all this happening for it to be a pissed child who’s wanting insurance money.
Either way, with the new DNA info.. I have that that this case will be solved one day and hopefully there’s a story given!
There’s recently been new evidence found in a river I believe tied to this case. Was in the area last week visiting my dad in the hospital and saw something on the news.
The fact that Russell’s head was removed and never found makes me think this was a professional hit and his wife might have been collateral damage. I would be curious to know if he ever had dealings with organized crime through his business. The murder sounds very much like a mob hit. I could believe it was an extortion gone wrong if they hadn’t taken his head. It just doesn’t make sense for any other scenario to me.
Completely out of right field theories: one spouse hired people to kill the other and it went very wrong for them. OR two completely different crimes, with perps who didn't know about the other, happened.