Chilling mystery as husband found beheaded in garage and wife dumped in lake
The mystery of the murders of a couple who were found with one beheaded and the other dumped in a lake could be a step closer to being solved after nine years.
Russell and Shirley Dermond were murdered in early May 2014 in Great Waters Reynolds at Lake Oconee, a gated community in Putnam County, Georgia. Russell, 88, was last seen alive on May 1, 2014, out running errands in nearby Eatonton. He and Shirley, 87, spoke to their son Brad on the phone later that day and they were looking forward to heading to a party the following weekend for the 2014 Kentucky Derby with their neighbours. But, when the couple didn't show up, concerns grew.
On May 6, a neighbour went over to their house to check on them, where they found the door unlocked. They discovered a gruesome scene. Russell's decapitated body was found lying in a small pool of blood on the floor of the garage. His head was nowhere to be found.
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A look at the Dermond's home on Lake Oconee in May 2014 (fox5atlanta)Police arrived at the scene and weren't able to find Shirley inside the house, initially believing she had been kidnapped. But, ten days later, her body was found by fishermen in Lake Oconee.
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Someone had apparently tried to weigh her body down to avoid her being discovered. An autopsy found she had died from two or three deep wounds to the head from a blunt object.
Gunshot residue was found on Russell's collar, with Putnam County sheriff Howard Sills believing the loving husband, who married Shirley in 1950, had been decapitated after being shot in the head in an attempt to stop police from finding the bullet. The sheriff also initially believed multiple people were involved in the brutal murders.
Shirley Dermond's body was found in Lake Oconee (fox5atlanta)
Nine years ago someone beheaded Russell Dermond and dumped Shirley's body in a nearby lake (Channel 2 Action News/WSB-TV 75)The crime has remained unsolved for almost a decade. But, in May this year new DNA evidence was discovered which could lead police to the killer. Sheriff Sill told WSB-TV he had submitted evidence to a DNA lab operation called Othram, which discovered new DNA.
"We continue to try new things. We had something. Whether that's going to evolve into something else, I don't know," said Sheriff Sills. "At this point in time, there has to be some more analysis done."
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Russell Dermond's body was found decapitated in his garage (fox5atlanta)The sheriff said he's hopeful the new DNA will help lead to a break in the cold case, though he did say he's not sure whether there's enough to run the DNA through a national database in search of a match. He explained: "There has to be an additional test done to what's been developed so far and whether or not that is potentially enough to run it through CODIS."
Despite the new DNA being discovered, it's unclear whether it could even belong to the killer. Sheriff Sills said: "We have some potential DNA that may or may not be identifiable. And it could still be the Dermonds."
The body of Shirley Dermond was found weighed down in Lake Oconee on May 16, 2014 (fox5atlanta)The sheriff also received long-awaited results of geo-fencing, the method of tracking active mobile devices during a specific time period in an area, back in May. In this case, authorities were looking for devices active during the period of time around when they believe the murders to have taken place in an area spanning several acres, including the Dermond's home.
"There's nobody on there with any kind of alarming criminal history," Sheriff Sills explained. "And there's nobody there, at least at this juncture, that I know has any connection to the Dermonds."
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