I have been reading and thinking about this case for years. Over that time I have become fond of both Dermonds as well as their relationship with each other. I have thought of a possible solution to the case which follows, but both my heart and soul completely reject this solution.
Russell Dermond, 88, almost certainly was murdered somewhere other than the garage, Sills said Monday which he had suggested earlier.
The amount and pattern of blood in the garage suggested the corpse was brought to the house, Sills said.
After receiving results of an autopsy, he said the official cause of Dermonds death is cranial cerebral trauma which means the victims head was not found with the body.
http://www.msgr.com/news/local_news/...9bb2963f4.html
I think the reason for returning the body to the residence from the murder scene coupled with the obvious lack of rage involved in removing the head (SS: "clinical") are the keys to this case.
Suppose a man wants to murder his wife and not end up as a suspect himself, he could fake his own death. To do this he needs a body double roughly his size. In Mr D's case he also needed a male who has had a knee operation on his right knee. A homeless person from Atlanta would be a possible candidate because his body will never be identified, and no one will know he is dead.
After removing the head at a remote location, he would need to flatten one of the fingers in a vise. Neither the man's anatomy nor the knee scar need be exact as he would be correct in concluding that no one who had known him in life would be allowed to see headless body. After confirming the presence of both the knee scar and the flattened finger in a phone call to Mr. D's daughter, the remainder of the identification would be by fingerprints.
Mr. D's fingerprints from his military record were over 70 years old. The test fingerprints had to be taken from a body that had been dead for at least several days. To the extent that fingerprint identification is subjective (the literature widely claims this), the knowledge of both the flattened finger and the knee scar, coupled with the body being dressed in Mr. D's robe, T shirt and shorts would create a bias for a positive identification. In any event, in order for this theory of the murder to be valid an error in fingerprint identification would have been required.
If these events transpired, the need to return the headless body to the home is clear. The head removal would show no anger. I invite members of this thread to find things (other than fingerprints, of course) that are unexplained by this theory of the crime.
I found this theory to be so compelling that I e-mailed it to SS several months ago. Although I included a return e-mail address and phone number, it has never been acknowledged. He must have found it lacking.
Again, I reject this theory of the crime on an emotional level. I don't want it to be true.
