Updated on July 20th, 2024: Back on May 7, 2022, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said that investigators were using new technology to analyze some data he had just received. He said that it was primarily cell phone data, that they had been waiting on for some time. That data was downloaded into a program the FBI has and they were assisting them in the analysis. No word as of yet whether that endeavor has been fruitful.
Russell and Shirley Dermond
"Putnam County 911."
"Yes, uh, I have an emergency," said the woman on the other end.
"I think I have somebody dead.
Oh my God. Oh my God."
Its Tuesday morning on May 6th, 2014.
When Russell and Shirley Dermond failed to show up to their friends Kentucky Derby party on the 3rd, their friends began to worry.
When their friends calls went unanswered, they went to the Dermond's home.
Their friends looked in every room, calling out as they went.
The husband then walked the length of the garage and Russell Dermond's headless body came into view.
"It was a very clean cut," the sheriff said, just above the collar line. Whoever did it knew what they were doing, he said.
It wasn't done in a frenzy.
Gunshot residue was later found on Russell's shirt.
This lead the sheriff that he was shot in the head.
The head was never found.
The sheriff thinks the head was taken, not as a trophy, but because it contained evidence.
That maybe the bullet was left in there, because it was never found.
Or perhaps of the DNA from the killer or killers in the form of blood or tissue.
The decapitation was done post mortem.
Towels had been placed around the blood pooling from Mr. Dermond's body, so it wouldn't seep under the garage door and out onto the driveway.
There was no signs of a struggle.
The grounds and house were kept immaculate.
At this point the sheriff and his deputies think that Shirley might be kidnapped.
An all-points bulletin was sent out.
Cadaver dogs were brought in and the cove surrounding the Dermonds' dock was dredged.
The state Department of Natural Resources sent down
"the most sophisticated underwater equipment that's available today,"
said the sheriff.
"You could see a Coca-Cola can on the bottom of Lake Oconee at 60 feet."
The FBI and other agencies became involved and found no trace of Shirley Dermond.
Ten days later, the sheriff was called by two fishermen.
They had found a woman's body, floating face-down in the lake, her ankles crudely tied to cement blocks.
Decomposition and expanding gasses had sent her body to the surface.
From a boat, the sheriff pulled Mrs. Dermond from the water.
She was far beyond the search area that had already been investigated.
The 5-foot, 2-inch woman's body had swelled to twice its weight.
The coroner determined she had been dead when she went into the lake and that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.
The wounds were vicious and penetrated her skull.
The sheriff doesn't know where she was killed.
"We don't really know that the Dermonds were murdered at their home, All we know for sure is that Mr. Dermond's body was there and after he was dead, his head was removed by a knife."
The knife has never been found.
The sheriff thinks that there was more than one killer and that the Dermonds knew them.
"There was no evidence of a break-in.
Their jewelry was still there.
Their Rolex watches were still there.
Somebody thought they had something and they didn't have it.
Or they couldn't get it."
Also, despite Mr. Dermond's age, he was physically fit and a veteran.
With his mindset he wasn't the kind to go down easy.
There were surveillance cameras at the entrance, but a recent electrical storm had knocked them out.
Anyone with a boat could have pulled up to the couple's private dock covered by a green canvas awning.
The couple had retired to this gated community of homes priced at $1 million or more 14 years before their murders.
They were originally from New Jersey.
They had married not long after he left the Navy.
She was a homemaker and he was an executive at the firm that made Seth Thomas and Westclox clocks.
In the 1990s, is when they moved to Georgia, where Mr. Dermond acquired 19 Atlanta-area Hardee's franchises.
In the 1990s, is when they moved to Georgia, where Mr. Dermond acquired 19 Atlanta-area Hardee's franchises.
They had two sons, Keith and Bradley, who worked with their dad.
The Dermonds had their home built on the shores of Lake Oconee. The Great Waters community has a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course.
The Dermonds had their home built on the shores of Lake Oconee. The Great Waters community has a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course.
Mike Mills, the bassist and a founding member of R.E.M., owns a lakefront lot there.Since the Dermonds were no officially retired, heir sons took over the the restaurants.
He was an avid walker and she played Bridge.
He was an avid walker and she played Bridge.
Shirley was last seen at her weekly bridge game a few days before she went missing and Russell was last seen walking the golf course four days before his body was discovered.
The couple's three adult children, Keith, Bradley and Leslie, were questioned and each was separately given a polygraph test.
They were cooperative and were out of state and had alibis at the time of the murders.
Their parents' wills divided their estate equally between the three.
They were cooperative and were out of state and had alibis at the time of the murders.
Their parents' wills divided their estate equally between the three.
Their case remains unsolved.
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