GA GA - Shirley, 87, & Russell Dermond, 88, Putnam County, 2 May 2014 - # 1

[shefner]

This is my first post on ws. I've been reading through this and I keep having the same thought. Its based on weak facts though. So I hope this isn't against tos. The son that was murdered, no obit can be found AFAIK and the mugshot comes up as someone of a different race. We also know he was in trouble with the law on multiple occasions with lengthy sentences and drug related. Could he have testified against someone higher up the drug chain than him and to protect him they reported him as murdered? Could he have been hiding in witness protection or something and someone found him and killed his parents as retaliation? This is PURELY SPECULATION. And I'm worried it's not appropriate to discuss but I just keep having the same thought as i read through...

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Welcome to Websleuths jaunna! :wagon:

 

[Backwoods]

This is my first post on ws. I've been reading through this and I keep having the same thought. Its based on weak facts though. So I hope this isn't against tos. The son that was murdered, no obit can be found AFAIK and the mugshot comes up as someone of a different race. We also know he was in trouble with the law on multiple occasions with lengthy sentences and drug related. Could he have testified against someone higher up the drug chain than him and to protect him they reported him as murdered? Could he have been hiding in witness protection or something and someone found him and killed his parents as retaliation? This is PURELY SPECULATION. And I'm worried it's not appropriate to discuss but I just keep having the same thought as i read through...

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:wagon:
Welcome to Websleuths, jaunna!

 

[Backwoods]

Well, shefner, you and I are certainly on the same wavelength today, apparently! lol

Sorry to duplicate (almost exactly) your "welcome"!

 

[kmclaren]

This is my first post on ws. I've been reading through this and I keep having the same thought. Its based on weak facts though. So I hope this isn't against tos. The son that was murdered, no obit can be found AFAIK and the mugshot comes up as someone of a different race. We also know he was in trouble with the law on multiple occasions with lengthy sentences and drug related. Could he have testified against someone higher up the drug chain than him and to protect him they reported him as murdered? Could he have been hiding in witness protection or something and someone found him and killed his parents as retaliation? This is PURELY SPECULATION. And I'm worried it's not appropriate to discuss but I just keep having the same thought as i read through...

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Hello jaunna and welcome to websleuths! I can tell you... you are not the only one that is thinking along these lines. The case is just so bizarre (and sad), who the heck beheads an elderly man and abducts an elderly woman without any apparent clues or obvious motive???

 

[tlcya]

I do not think she was abducted. I think she was murdered along with her husband. She will surface in the lake.

Very bizarre case.

 

[gngr~snap]

I know it has been asked, but I am asking again.
Why no reward offered?
It seems odd that a well to do family hasn't posted a reward for information leading to arrest etc...
I see that billboards have been up. Donated I believe.

http://www.13wmaz.com/story/news/local/2014/05/10/dermond-vigil-missing/8936225/

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[Hickory Born]

This is my first post on ws. I've been reading through this and I keep having the same thought. Its based on weak facts though. So I hope this isn't against tos. The son that was murdered, no obit can be found AFAIK and the mugshot comes up as someone of a different race. We also know he was in trouble with the law on multiple occasions with lengthy sentences and drug related. Could he have testified against someone higher up the drug chain than him and to protect him they reported him as murdered? Could he have been hiding in witness protection or something and someone found him and killed his parents as retaliation? This is PURELY SPECULATION. And I'm worried it's not appropriate to discuss but I just keep having the same thought as i read through...

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Welcome to Websleuths! I think if MD were in a witness protection program White Pages would not have listed him as living at this Lake Oconee site. The gov. would have jerked that off the internet immediately.

 

[jaunna]

Welcome to Websleuths! I think if MD were in a witness protection program White Pages would not have listed him as living at this Lake Oconee site. The gov. would have jerked that off the internet immediately.

Good point. Although him being listed at the address (I hadn't realized that) does make me feel he is somehow involved, even as a deceased person, mainly due to the anger expressed in decapitating someone-especially an elderly gentleman living out his last years. Jmho

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[Bethanthony]

I think I have figured out the strange linkedin mystery as to how Russell Dermond's profile lists him as retired from Stathas Life Development Center.

As it turns out, the Stathas's live on Lake Oconee as well. Dr. Stathas' wife is a nurse turned realtor in the area and she sells within Reynolds Plantation.

My guess is they share a computer and one of them wasn't sure how to set up a linkedin account. Before doing Doctor Stathas's, they did a few trial runs on contacts that were already in the computer, mainly retired men within their neighborhood to see how it looked published (knowing it wouldn't conflict with their actual linkedin accounts because they are old and retired gentlemen).

I knew there was some true connection between these two when I saw Dr. Stathas' published article in a newspaper directly above Shirley Dermond's bridge results.

Since Russell Dermond's name was in their computer, I'm guessing they know one another personally. I checked to see if Sherry sold the Dermond's their house on Carolyn Dr. but I couldn't find any results that went back that far. Maybe I will try the real estate transactions in their local paper. I'm sure they go that far back.

 

[Hickory Born]

I disagree with the Atlanta doc regarding a mentally ill white man. I bet the sheriff could tell you just about every mentally ill person in Putnam County, plus his neighboring sheriff in Greene County could do likewise.

The news has zeroed in to the wealthy at Lake Oconee, but this is NOT a true picture of Eatonton and Greensboro, GA. Here are city data links for both, notice the estimated median household income.

http://www.city-data.com/city/Greensboro-Georgia.html

http://www.city-data.com/city/Eatonton-Georgia.html

 

[Treelights]

This is my first post on ws. I've been reading through this and I keep having the same thought. Its based on weak facts though. So I hope this isn't against tos. The son that was murdered, no obit can be found AFAIK and the mugshot comes up as someone of a different race. We also know he was in trouble with the law on multiple occasions with lengthy sentences and drug related. Could he have testified against someone higher up the drug chain than him and to protect him they reported him as murdered? Could he have been hiding in witness protection or something and someone found him and killed his parents as retaliation? This is PURELY SPECULATION. And I'm worried it's not appropriate to discuss but I just keep having the same thought as i read through...

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I did wonder about the witness protection service as well.
In this link the sheriff makes note:
" "Mark Dermond's death certificate is sitting right here on my desk," Sills told 13WMAZ's Anita Oh."
http://www.wfmynews2.com/story/news...o-russell-dermond-shirley-son-killed/8913271/

If he was in the witness protection program, would a death certificate be made? Would the sheriff know or not know if he was in the witness protection program?
It seems convenient to have MD's death certificate on his desk, but in the link it does mention :
"There seems to be no connection there" Sills said regarding the murder of Mark Dermond, who was shot to death in Atlanta. Sills said his office has already ordered the Mark Dermond case file from Atlanta PD and they are digging it out of their archives."
Maybe the sheriff is looking at all angles.
If MD was in the witness protection program, would the sheriff say there seems to be no connection there, because he himself would be unaware of MD still being alive?
Just throwing out thoughts.
IMOO.

 

[gngr~snap]

How can Sills know for sure?
I thought he was stymied?
How does he really know some family member of someone that was involved in the shooting didn't crack and go after the parents? I agree it is unlikely.
The son would be 60 ish now.


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[Bethanthony]

I TOTALLY agree! For Sills to know that this murder didn't have anything at all to do with the Dermond's son's murder would imply that he knows what it DID have to do with...

In a strange coincidence, and boy are there ALOT of them in this case, I just realized that Sherry Staphas, wife to Dr. John Staphas of Life Development Center, worked at Coldwell Banker Lake Oconee, same as Vicki Stephens- the woman found dead in an apparent accident yesterday in the neighboring Lake Sinclair.

 

[fred&edna]

I found this Reynolds Plantation news blog quite interesting, particularly this post from August 2013. And, I think I read there were some break-ins in the area (IIRC summer of 2014). Also, this blog is searchable.


http://reynoldsplantationblog.com/2013/08/07/the-key-fob-8713-612pm/


I've just been trying to figure out if the security guards were subcontracted/hired from a particular agency or maybe they were employees of the "plantation". Anyone know??

 

[jaunna]

I did wonder about the witness protection service as well.
In this link the sheriff makes note:
" "Mark Dermond's death certificate is sitting right here on my desk," Sills told 13WMAZ's Anita Oh."
http://www.wfmynews2.com/story/news...o-russell-dermond-shirley-son-killed/8913271/

If he was in the witness protection program, would a death certificate be made? Would the sheriff know or not know if he was in the witness protection program?
It seems convenient to have MD's death certificate on his desk, but in the link it does mention :
"There seems to be no connection there" Sills said regarding the murder of Mark Dermond, who was shot to death in Atlanta. Sills said his office has already ordered the Mark Dermond case file from Atlanta PD and they are digging it out of their archives."
Maybe the sheriff is looking at all angles.
If MD was in the witness protection program, would the sheriff say there seems to be no connection there, because he himself would be unaware of MD still being alive?
Just throwing out thoughts.
IMOO.

All good questions. Anyone know the answers? I would think they would issue a death cert. But the extent of my knowledge on Witness Protection is what I gathered watching In Plain Sight

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[Backwoods]

I know it has been asked, but I am asking again.
Why no reward offered?
It seems odd that a well to do family hasn't posted a reward for information leading to arrest etc...
I see that billboards have been up. Donated I believe.

http://www.13wmaz.com/story/news/local/2014/05/10/dermond-vigil-missing/8936225/

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Could be they just don't know to do that? I don't think I would have known the "things to do" before I joined WS.

I wonder if they have hired a PI.

 

[Bethanthony]

Maybe someone has an ancestry.com membership. They have death certificates archived on there. I saw my mother's from 1995 once when I was doing genealogical research. I think you have to pay to order a death certificate online, like a birth certificate so its not freely searchable on the internet otherwise.

 

[Treelights]

I found this Reynolds Plantation news blog quite interesting, particularly this post from August 2013. And, I think I read there were some break-ins in the area (IIRC summer of 2014). Also, this blog is searchable.


http://reynoldsplantationblog.com/2013/08/07/the-key-fob-8713-612pm/


I've just been trying to figure out if the security guards were subcontracted/hired from a particular agency or maybe they were employees of the "plantation". Anyone know??

Maybe it's how I read things, but I thought it was satirical in nature.
IMOO.

 

[jaunna]

The name rang a bell. A little more about Dr Dave Davis:

http://clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2007/04/05/atlanta-murder-case-on-48-hours-saturday

http://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/20223/Dr-Dave+M.-Davis-Atlanta-GA.html

Google for much more.

This is so interesting. Its odd how many links they have to murders- their own, their son, and then it looks like friend or professional relationship to the father of a murderer. That seems excessive.

And if they were friends with the Dr, that's a little curious- they knew the heartache of Someone taking their sons life and then they are friends with folks who's son took away someone else's child. At the very least its? Ironic?

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[Treelights]

Maybe someone has an ancestry.com membership. They have death certificates archived on there. I saw my mother's from 1995 once when I was doing genealogical research. I think you have to pay to order a death certificate online, like a birth certificate so its not freely searchable on the internet otherwise.

I found that Russell Dermond was already added to Find A Grave, (May 7th)
and it does list his son, but that is because it is a "Calculated Relationship".
The son was listed on May 9th, burial unknown.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=129350580