True Crime Society - The brutal unsolved murders of Russell and Shirley Dermond

No forced entry. No robbery. Just a brutal, calculated killing that left more questions than answers—and a mystery that still haunts Lake Oconee.

Russell (88) and Shirley Dermond (87) were murdered in their home in Putnam County, Georgia on May 6, 2014. As of 2026, the murders have not been solved.

Russell Joseph Dermond was born on June 6, 1925. He was a native of Hackensack, New Jersey. During WWII, Russell served in the US Navy.

Shirley Bell Wilcox was born on July 7, 1926. She was a native of Maywood, New Jersey.

Shirley and Russell married on December 15, 1950. They would end up having four children together – sons Mark, Keith and Bradley, and a daughter Leslie. They would also eventually have nine grandchildren.

Russell worked in the fast food industry. He owned several Hardee’s restaurants in Atlanta.

After he retired in 1994, at the age of around 69/70, he and Shirley moved into a gated community called Great Waters at Reynolds in Lake Oconee, Georgia.

Info about their home:

Open water views on deep water cove! Lighted, covered max dock with boat and seadoo lifts. Expansive views from beautiful covered porches and large windows found in every room. Located in cul de sac with room to spread out, this perfect, low maintenance lake retreat is well constructed of hardcoat stucco and features fresh paint and hardwood floors throughout. Vaulted great room on main floor and the downstairs family room, both open to handsome covered porches overlooking the lake. Three en suite bedrooms on main floor. Updated kitchen with SubZero and Viking appliances, an oversized quartzite island, and brand new big windows overlooking the lake. Huge walk-out terrace level with two additional en suite lake front bedrooms. This is truly a must-see renovated home! Simply spectacular!!

The gated community was said to have an almost zero crime rate, except for some petty theft of the contents of vehicles.

Russell and Shirley were said to be very private people.

“Both her and dad, total family people. Their favorite time was to spend time with the family and grandkids,” Brad said about his parents, who were both only children, themselves.

“[They were] just the most wonderful people you’d ever want to meet,” Brad said.

The couple were very religious. Shirley loved writing and creating art, as well as going crossword puzzles. Russell was said to be thoughtful and loved playing golf.

On August 30, 2000, the Dermond’s oldest son Mark was shot and killed in Atlanta while attempting to purchase cocaine. He was 47 years old.

Mark’s murder is thought to be unrelated to the eventual murder of Shirley and Russell.

The last day that Russell was known to be alive was Thursday, May 1, 2014. He was seen running errands in Eatonton. Russell transferred money at the drive-thru of a bank at 2.15pm. He then went to a Publix at 2.26pm to pick up a prescription for Shirley. He also purchased some bread and cucumbers.

Shirley was known to be alive on that day as both she and her husband spoke to their son Brad on the phone that day.

The Kentucky Derby was scheduled to occur on May 3, 2014 and the Dermond’s were meant to attend a party at the home of their neighbors for the event. They did not show up.

By Tuesday May 6, 2014, friends and neighbors were becoming concerned about the welfare of the couple. A neighbor ended up going to the home to check on them.

The neighbour found the door unlocked and went inside the home. Horrifically, she found Russell’s decapitated body on the floor of the two-car garage, lying in a pool of blood. His body was surrounded by towels. There was no sign of Shirley in the home.

According to County Sheriff Howard Sills, there were no signs of forced entry or signs of a struggle in the home. Jewelry and medications had been left undisturbed. Shirley’s phone and purse were found in the home.

Investigators said they believe the towels were put down around Russell’s body to keep the blood from seeping out under the garage door.

Brad has spoken about being told that his parents were murdered and missing.

“[In] that stage in life, you prepare for that call at any time, but not that type of call,” he said.

“We got the call from my brother-in law, and he was a total mess. [I] almost couldn’t even decipher what he was talking about,” he said.

“He said, ‘Grandpa had been murdered; grandma was missing.’”

Police suspected that Shirley had been kidnapped. On May 16, 2014, ten days after Russell’s body was discovered, Shirley’s body was found by fisherman on Lake Oconee. Her body had been weighted down by two 30 pound cinder blocks.

“Mrs. Dermond’s body, we know, was disposed of by boat,” Sheriff Sills said.

Authorities quickly uncovered that the couple didn’t own a boat, even though their backyard property, including a dock, backed up to a cove on Lake Oconee.

“The couple had gotten rid of their boat sometime earlier,” the sheriff said.

“We pulled video from people who had it pointed on their docks and things of that nature, but they had their cameras pointed toward their boats,” Sheriff Sills said.

Investigators said a professional would know that weighing Shirley down with the cement blocks would not have kept her from surfacing.

An autopsy would determine that she had died from two or three deep wounds to her head from a blunt object.

Without having Russell’s head, police were unable to absolutely confirm a cause of death. Gunshot residue was found on his clothing. The sheriff said that investigators believe that he may have been shot in the head, with decapitation occurring afterward.

When Russell’s body was found in the couple’s garage, his finger had a severe wound, Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said. Tangled within his blood, they found strands of Shirley’s hair.

“It would appear that there was a struggle and dad was trying to be protective of mom,” Brad surmised.

“At what point would you just have that sinking feeling, this is it?” he said. “It’s the horror that they must have gone through, from the beginning until it was finished… that’s what’s difficult to overcome.”

The Sheriff has said that he believes there are multiple crime scenes in the case.

“We don’t know where all the crime scenes were in this case and that’s been a big problem,” he said, noting for sure there were at least two, and possibly three, crime scenes or more.

“One was the water where Mrs. Dermond’s body was recovered, which is certainly not the best crime scene. And No. 2 is the house where Mr. Dermond’s head was removed postmortem after he was dead.”

The sheriff said he doesn’t believe Shirley was killed at the home.

“Her injuries were such that there should have been physical evidence left behind that simply wasn’t there,” he said.

It’s also possible that Russell wasn’t killed at the home either, he added.

“They could have been killed in the same place, but obviously I don’t know,” he said. “The only certain evidence is that after Mr. Dermond was dead, his head was severed in that garage. That’s the only evidence in that house.”

He said the two different manners of death make him suspect that there were two different killers.

Sheriff Howard Sills said that he believes multiple people were involved. “There’s no way one person did this,” he said. “I’m not going to say it’s absolutely physically impossible but it’s highly unlikely.

The sheriff also believes that Russell was decapitated after he was murdered in an attempt to hide evidence.

In 2022, the Sheriff provided this update in the case.

“Just last week I received some data, primarily cell phone data, that we have been waiting on for some time. That data was downloaded into a program the FBI has and they are assisting us in analyzing the data now.

“The technology we are using was not in existence back in 2014. I don’t want to create an impression that I have acquired some silver bullet, but this is yet another tool we are using trying to find out who perpetrated these heinous crimes.”

“What we need more than anything is for someone to call us and tell us who is responsible for this savagery.”

The Sheriff also gave an update in March 2025. He told the media this was his ‘No 1 case’ and that he was waiting on DNA testing. This info is from Atlanta News First:

Sheriff Howard Sills said this week that two DNA labs – one in Texas and the other in Utah – have found DNA tied to the murders of Russell and Shirley Dermond. Sillis said the DNA examined by both Othram and Sorenson Forensics have determined it does not belong to the victims.

“I’m waiting on the results of whatever they have,” Sills said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to submit it to CODIS [a national criminal DNA database]. If there’s no hit there, I’m hoping we can get it into the genealogical database.”

FBI Special Agent Andy Smith spoke about the case, calling the double homicide “one of the strangest cases that I’ve seen.” “We are continuously looking at different technologies, different techniques, that we can use to utilize or get results from the evidence that we have,” he said.

He also spoke about the DNA testing.

“This is the first time we have confirmation of a sample that did not belong to Russell or Shirley Dermond,” Agent Smith said. “If the sample is good enough, which we will know very soon, we can put that into CODIS, which is a national database, to possibly identify an individual.”

As of April 2026, there have been no public updates about the DNA testing.

Brad has said that his parents had no dark side or secrets that would have led to them being murdered.

Brad also said he dreams about his dad.

“It’s not clear but there’s been a couple where I almost feel like he’s got some answers and he’s trying to get me to see something, read something, that hasn’t happened.”

“It just always ends up with a big question mark,” he said.

“Somebody’s out there and they’re living in Hell, or maybe not—in terms of whether they’re alive or not. There’s such a thing of God’s wrath, so if somebody does know something they have the responsibility of coming forward, even if it’s just a shred of information. They have the responsibility of coming forward.”

“We may not like how long it takes, but it will be solved,” Brad said. “When you start involving more and more people, it increases the chances of information being shared. And that’s the information we’re looking for.”

As of April 2026, nobody has been arrested over the murders of the Dermond’s and Russell’s head has never been recovered.

The FBI is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the Dermond murders case. The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office is offering an additional $5,000.

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