GA GA - Shirley, 87, & Russell Dermond, 88, Putnam County, 2 May 2014 - # 4

[shefner]

I know I am in the minority group here when I say I do not see any family involvement connection in this case. I have just seen no evidence to support it. Of course I respect everyone's opinions and know everyone has a right to state their own opinion about any case here.

It just doesn't make sense to me that Sills would say 'attempting to financially gain' if he was thinking the children were involved and I have never picked up on him believing the family is involved. He seems to have been in close contact with them when they came down..via phone when they went home, and when they came back when he released the home back over to the children.

Maybe I would possibly think differently if S&R were younger and if the hit man or whoever had left both bodies there to prove that both were dead so the Estate could be opened so it could be executed. But I cannot reconcile the fact that Shirley was taken and submerged, weighted down in 48 feet of water and hidden away and connect that fact up with a family wanting to kill both of their parents to get their assets.

If financial gain was their motive then that just doesn't make sense. It is counter productive to even getting the Estate open. And I firmly believe whoever put Shirley on the bottom of the lake never ever expected her to rise. If they had then they wouldn't have gone through all the trouble and risks to begin with to put her there.

If Shirley had remained missing none of her legal rights would have been set aside. It would take up to 5-7 years before a Judge would declare her legally deceased and in the meantime the estate would be suspended in limbo. So by then if Shirley and Russ had lived they would have probably died of natural causes in their 90s.

Now I know it is common as rain to suspect family members. I cant remember one case where that didn't happen even though very often it turned out in the end that the family members had no involvement whatsoever.

I think sometimes that is done because none of us knows the family members personally so we conjure up in our own minds how we think they are. I never see family members in this same situation ever get the approval of the masses on MBs.

It just makes no sense to me they would be involved. Even Sills says this may be someone the Dermonds aren't even close friends with but were acquainted somehow.

Imo, this wasn't done for robbery or items that were in the home but it makes more sense if the children were really the ones involved then they would have made sure the hit man ransacked the home as if robbery was the motive.

IMO

Allow me to defend myself by saying that I never once said the word, "Family," in my post. I was simply outlining the parameters given to us by LE (except for that last little tag...which I was simply pondering).

I do not know why anyone who had something to gain financially would place Mrs. D's body in the lake instead of leaving it there in the home for LE to find. In order for anyone to gain anything financially, both Mr. D and Mrs. D would need to be located. Matter of fact, not one red cent can come out of any of their accounts until the legal process has come full circle....even if someone has a joint account.

So that is something worth much consideration. I think someone wanted to throw LE off. They purposely made this look or seem like a hit. And of course, whomever did this had to know that the lake would be searched....and Mrs. D would be found.

 

[Rhyolite]

Reading these posts ^^^ brings to mind another possibility. The visitor perp may have been a person trying to get the Dermonds to move to a community nearby that offers the two bedroom villas with various services, then assisted living, and nursing home care. Communities like this have so many styles to choose from.

If GW started as a retirement community in its beginning, what an ideal area to build a real retirement community. I don't know what to call it. If there is one, off property, but close to the area, the long time neighbors could move out of their fancy homes, and still enjoy their friendships.

If this were to exist, the Dermonds would know about it, there have been meetings at the clubhouse, and tours at the facility. Perhaps a salesman called on them, they refused once again to buy into it. The salesman would definitely have had a financial gain to be made! He had sales quotas to meet and the Dermond's age made them perfect candidates. The salesperson may have been the director and lived in the neighborhood to become acquainted with prospective buyers or even children whose parents would be needing such services soon. So they were familiar with the perp, the perp had a financial gain to make, plus he lived in the neighborhood!

Killing your potential customers has never been a good business plan.

 

[Treelights]

Not a thing.

I applied the laughing icon to make a 'funny' about how many times now I have said the killer lives in GW. Thinking by now some must be tired of reading it.

IMO

Your posts are interesting, and you could say the same thing a million different ways, or say the same thing a million different times, and I enjoy reading them. One thing I can say about Websleuths, is that many of us repeat the same info/ideas over and over, and that's fine as that's just how we are.
I have learned a lot from your posts. Keep posting.

 

[Vedder]

Maybe the head was severed so Mr. D would never " be at peace" and this was done to continue to harass/scare/terrorize/torment the D family. When my dad died,I kept most of his ashes in an urn and took some to scatter at 3 places dear to his heart, someone told me that was "a bad idea" as he would never be at peace as he was not in one place. I had never heard that before.

BBM I've never heard that - and I don't believe that to be true. IMO I think it's a shame that someone told you that after you scattered his ashes. I hope they didn't make you feel badly about it. I think it's lovely that you brought his ashes to places that meant a lot to him.

 

[al66pine]

Snipped for focus:

.... Any person with a boat is more likely to be of means than a wandering psychopath.
....

Agree, but ...
persons of lesser means may borrow a boat, without or without owner's permission.

Some homeowners in GW and close by developments use the homes only on weekends.
Would any waterfront home owners leave their boats tied at their private docks subject to being 'borrowed', without their knowledge?
Or do some pull their boats from the water, when they are away?
Or do some properties have boat houses?

Although we've speculated about GW ppl - permanent, fulltime, wk-enders, etc - using their own boats.
If a GW person is involved, could he/they have used someone else's boat, rather than their own?

Just speculating. :seeya:

 

[Hickory Born]

To me, it is such an easy case. The more the money-the easier the target-the simpler the going in and the going out.

Why do you consider this an easy case when the Sheriff and FBI have not been able to arrest someone after 3 weeks? I don't understand your posts.

 

[LayzeeDayzee]

No doubt in my mind.....security going down a WEEK -APPROX--before the murders was NO coincidinky.

I've thought this too, right from the start.

Just like I believe the murders took place, intentionally, while the Kentucky Derby Party was going on..........so as to decrease the odds that other residents/neighbors might "see something/someone."

What I'd like to know is...........how "did" the security go down? What does that mean exactly? Surely when it 'went down', some kind of security/service company would have been contacted ASAP to get it back up? .....was that call made? Were repairs attempted? If so why not successful? Has LE looked into employees of the security company and anyone responsible for providing service?

Has security gone down in the past, ever?.........or is this the first time?

Is the security at the gate all digital? Did someone hack into something to disable the security?

Also.........we know the Dermond's were victims of credit card fraud in the past. Who were the perps? Did they serve jail time? Could they not have a reason to get revenge against the D's? Did they know the D's or did they just randomly target the D's?

How could the D's son have previously stated they didn't have housekeeping help when recently posted links indicate MrsD had mobility issues....and Sills stated their home was pristine? I don't believe the perps ever entered the house.....so I don't believe the pristine state of the inside of the house was due to perps doing a big crime-scene clean up--------but why would son believe his nearly 90 yr old parents cleaned and maintained their home all by themselves, a huge home? Weird, IMO.

 

[Backwoods]

I wonder if the daughter and her family who visited over Easter may have given the Dermonds' house a good top-to-bottom cleaning. I don't mean in any way connected to the murders -- just as sort of a present to her folks.

It's been said before that perhaps Mr. and Mrs. D. were naturally neat and tidy people, and probably did not make too big a mess just between the two of them. But likely there would be some big once-in-a-while chores that were a bit much for them to handle. Maybe the daughter and her family pitched in and did those things, scrubbed, cleaned, had things sparkly. Not much time had passed since their visit.

 

[LayzeeDayzee]

A random thought. So the house next door to the D's is for sale and has been for a few months. Could it be at all possible that that neighbor has enemies somewhere who, for whatever reason, wanted to 'stick it to them' (the D's neighbors) by committing a horrid, senseless, heinous, gruesome crime right next door......thereby further reducing the odds that someone would buy their home?.....after all, word of what's happened has spread like wildfire.......most especially due to these murders happening in such a prominent, high class gated community..........WHO is going to want to buy a home that sits next door to "that house where the nice old couple were murdered"?

Also...........could there be someone (or a group of someones) who wanted property values of GW to drop for their own financial gain?........a property developer somewhere around there?

 

[fred&edna]

Unlikely related but decided to toss this into the mix:

In Aug 2013, there was a home robbery in a subdivision (less than 45 min from GW) and at least two culprits were apprehended by Lake Oconee deputies. These two also had drug-related charges, as well as criminal trespassing charges, and a charge of writing bad checks... crimes that occurred 2011 until the fall of last year. Also, It appears one of these two young men is working for (or once worked for) a lawn care business that may have done some work in RP.

I didn't see any charges for assault or murder or anything of that sort, so their behaviors would have to escalate greatly to be involved in the Dermond case, but... :dunno:

 

[Cardinal47]

Thank you so much for this info...almost confirms that Sills was talking directly to the killer when he said the part about an immaculate house like nobody lived there...in other words, you dumb*** killers we know you cleaned the house!

This makes me question how long the killer/killers were inside the house. What happened to the bloody towels or paper towels used with the clean up? Are there fingerprints on the cleaning product bottles or mop handle?

If she were having mobility problems and Mr. D had a knee replacement, my guess is they were not walking down that hill to sit at the dock.

Wonder if the instrument could have been a fireplace tool?

According to the sketch on the tax assessor site, the garage is on the side of the house that would be the driveway/culdesac (sp). On the left side of the sketch there is an open porch which I think is what one would call the front (entry) to the house.

BBM you know I thought at the time what a strange remark for the Sheriff to make...about somebody whose missing's clean house.

An AHA moment!

 

[atthelake]

Unlikely related but decided to toss this into the mix:

In Aug 2013, there was a home robbery in a subdivision (less than 45 min from GW) and at least two culprits were apprehended. These two also had drug-related charges, as well as criminal trespassing charges, and a charge of writing bad checks... crimes that occurred 2011 until the fall of last year. Also, It appears one of these two young men is working for (or once worked for) a lawn care business that may have done some work in RP.

I didn't see any charges for assault or murder or anything of that sort, so their behaviors would have to escalate greatly to be involved in the Dermond case, but... :dunno:

Where / what information are you basing "may have " upon... Or is that just an "IMHO" idea and conjuring ?

Sent from my SCH-S720C using Tapatalk 2

 

[Cardinal47]

I agree with you 100% regarding the Occam's Razor.

There is scant physical evidence in this bizarre case. It seems easy to let the imagination go wild and suppose all kinds of possible motives. But clearly, no motive has surfaced. The list of suspects is huge or non-existent depending upon the imagination.

Also we go on very little real information concerning the crime. Not complaining because I have high hopes this Sheriff knows a whole lot more than he is giving out...piece by piece and drop by drop.

We can only speculate on what might or could have happened.

It's amazing the scenarios we come up with!

 

[2Hope4]

I don't know how in the world anyone is celebrating this weekend at that lake or in the community. I'm states away, and it really rattles me. Whether our own minds want to think the perps knew them, in a way of distancing that it could happen to anyone, I don't know. BUT, I tell ya, I'd be afraid in that community right now. And in communities nearby. Someone murdered two people, and are still out there!!! Nothing stopping them from killing again, and again, and again!!!

 

[Suthrnqt]

Unlikely related but decided to toss this into the mix:

In Aug 2013, there was a home robbery in a subdivision (less than 45 min from GW) and at least two culprits were apprehended by Lake Oconee deputies. These two also had drug-related charges, as well as criminal trespassing charges, and a charge of writing bad checks... crimes that occurred 2011 until the fall of last year. Also, It appears one of these two young men is working for (or once worked for) a lawn care business that may have done some work in RP.

I didn't see any charges for assault or murder or anything of that sort, so their behaviors would have to escalate greatly to be involved in the Dermond case, but... :dunno:

Why aren't they still in jail??

 

[fred&edna]

Where / what information are you basing "may have " upon... Or is that just an "IMHO" idea and conjuring ?

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The landscape business website has photos of their work... including names of homeowners. I believe one of the homeowners MAY live in RP, but I could be wrong SO I chose to use the words "MAY HAVE".

I don't think that qualifies as "conjuring".

 

[atthelake]

A random thought. So the house next door to the D's is for sale and has been for a few months. Could it be at all possible that that neighbor has enemies somewhere who, for whatever reason, wanted to 'stick it to them' (the D's neighbors) by committing a horrid, senseless, heinous, gruesome crime right next door......thereby further reducing the odds that someone would buy their home?.....after all, word of what's happened has spread like wildfire.......most especially due to these murders happening in such a prominent, high class gated community..........WHO is going to want to buy a home that sits next door to "that house where the nice old couple were murdered"?

Also...........could there be someone (or a group of someones) who wanted property values of GW to drop for their own financial gain?........a property developer somewhere around there?

I have heard this suggestion more than once on thread... But have never heard of such as case for a reference or example therefore zip discount it . Does anyone have a case example ?

Sent from my SCH-S720C using Tapatalk 2

 

[Starry Night]

Why do you consider this an easy case when the Sheriff and FBI have not been able to arrest someone after 3 weeks? I don't understand your posts.

So easy as to be so difficult. Perplexing. Hard to prove-not hard to solve.

 

[lisette]

OBE said:

But I cannot reconcile the fact that Shirley was taken and submerged, weighted down in 48 feet of water and hidden away and connect that fact up with a family wanting to kill both of their parents to get their assets.

And I firmly believe whoever put Shirley on the bottom of the lake never ever expected her to rise. If they had then they wouldn't have gone through all the trouble and risks to begin with to put her there.

I haven't read all of the posts, so I probably missed where this was confirmed by LE...I know there was a question as to whether her body had been "posed" on the top of one of the submerged trees, so I was just wondering if LE concluded that she had indeed been weighted down and somehow floated to the top?

 

[Starry Night]

In the end it will be some psycho person in the neighborhood. No explanation. Just a random psychotic adventure for a day. Profiling? How does one profile insanity-no such thing.
Terrible crime which most likely could not have been prevented nor fought against with less than supernatural strength.