Stephanie “Stacy” Wasilishin

All witnesses, suspects, and persons of interest are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Warning. This episode contains graphic crime scene detail as well as talk of suicide. Please listen with discretion. Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now and true crime, and then together we are going to work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. There are a few right now in true crime things I want to talk about, and then we're going to go ahead and get into the episode. If I don't cover everything in right now on True Crime today, I'll cover it next week. I haven't felt the greatest this week. I occasionally get vertigo, and I don't know what triggers. It comes on pretty suddenly, but when it comes on, it comes on intense, and then once it goes away and gets better, I am left feeling pretty crummy for a few days. So I am in the midst of getting over it. Now. Day is honestly the best I felt all week. But it's been a long week because of that. So we're going to go ahead and get into right now into your crime breaking news in the Kiduja dairy case. If you have been following my podcast for a while, I did an episode on Kaduja. She was shot in December of twenty twenty three outside of her home while she was sitting in her car. She was only twenty two years old and it was obviously an ambush type of situation. A car pulled up, two people got out. Kidiza was shot multiple times and then the car drove off and it was all captured on home surveillance security camera. So we finally have a break. There has been two suspects named now. One of the suspects was killed in April of twenty twenty four, and the other suspect is an unidentified juvenile. Now as of Monday morning, they went and arrested this juvenile and he was taken to the Converse Police Department and he is awaiting being booked in the county jail. Now he is a juvenile. I don't know how far this is going to go. And this happened almost two years ago, two ish years ago, give or take, so this person had to be super young when this happened. If there's still a juvenile and Kadisha was only twenty two years old, She was minding her own business, she was sitting in a car in front of her house. This was an unprovoked attack. It never should have happened, and the fact that it took a year and a half to figure out who did this when it was all caught on camera is astonishing. But if nothing else, I am. So grateful that there is a break in the case and we finally might see some justice for Kadija. All right, Moving on Donna Adelson. Last week on Right Now in True Crime, I shared that there had been a lot of new messages and all that were brought forward in discovery, and they have officially postponed her trial until August nineteenth of this year, so that way her team has time to go through all this discovery and go through everything. So that is now pushed off until August mid August, and it's going to go into September. I don't know if there's going to be any more pushes pushbacks on it, but as it stands right now, that is what's going on there, And honestly, I don't know what's going on behind the scenes in the adalshen of it all, but Charlie is in prison, not going to see the light of day, and we have Donna now we're awaiting her trial, and I don't know what they're doing with Wendy, but I feel like if they are going to bring a case against Wendy, it's going to have to happen in between now and the time Donna's trial finishes, because I do feel like in retrospect, they are seemingly running out of time. If they're going to bring charges against Wendy, I feel like it does have to happen sooner rather than later. There is a ton of people that are calling for Wendy to be arrested because they are convinced, in their opinion that she had a lot more to do with the murder for higher plot against her former husband Dan Markel. If you didn't listen to my last summer Summer series twenty twenty four, go check it out. It is a wild, wild ride. But if you've been following along, you know exactly what I'm talking about and what I'm talking about. But Donna's trial is going to be interesting because allegedly, allegedly, Donna is the one that kind of orchestrated this whole thing because she did not want Charlie Adelson to have the grandkids and keep them away from Donna and Harvey and Wendy and Charlie. It was a selfish thing and it was all orchestrated, allegedly by Donna. So it's going to be interesting to see everything that they have, everything that's going to come out in her trial versus all the stuff that we learned about in Charlie's trial. It's going to be a wild ride, and I am here for it. Okay. Next order of business that I want to talk about is Madeline McCann. There is a semi update in her case now. If you have been following anything in the last two decades in true crime, Madeline McCann vanished in two thousand and seven. She was three years old. She was on vacation with her family in Portugal and she turned up missing. And it's been a very highly publicized case over the years. A lot of people speculated that her parents had something to do with her disappearance because they essentially left her alone while they went out for the night, and it's been a whole thing. But they have named a suspect and his name is Christian Bruckner. I guess that's how you say it. And he is a convicted rapist, he's a creeper. In twenty sixteen, and they conducted a search of his home and they have now said that there was a hard drive that was included in that search that indicates that Madeleine is deceased. There is also a document that proves that this suspect was at a music festival where he allegedly is said to have had confessed killing Madeline. There was somebody that came forward in twenty seventeen that said that this suspect had made a comment about a missing girl at the festival and said that she did not scream. So he basically confessed allegedly to this to somebody at a music festival in two thousand and eight. And when they did search his property, they found a lot of children's clothing and toys. And he also just had a lot. Of guns and USB things and memory cards and he just had a lot of creepy things. He didn't have any children of his own, I believe, but he had a lot of children belongings. So my own personal opinion is that if Madeleine was one of his victims, she probably was not one of the only ones. There are probably more. There was also. Some different things that he made accounts of, talking about drugging a mother and daughter outside of a nursery school. There was another one where he spoke of abusing a four year old girl. And there was also some. Skype conversations he had with other pedophiles, and on some of those he said he wanted to capture something small and use it for days. There were child use images found and a lot of just creepy things swimsuits, children's swimsuits, small toys, bikes. So my personal opinion is this is likely our guy. Hopefully there will be some pressure put on and he will confess to exactly what happened to Madeleine, so her parents can know for sure have a little bit of resolution in what happened to their daughter. And they've been publicly scrutinized for so many years. A lot of people thought that they might have had something to do with her disappearance, that they might have potentially sold her into sex slavery. There's been a lot of accusations thrown around. I personally never believe that they did anything nefarious to harm their daughter or. They were involved in anything. They made a really poor decision to leave her in a situation where she was vulnerable and this creep was able to come in and take her. But I know that they have probably lived with that for a long long time, and they've also faced so much scrutiny from the public, and honestly, I think that they have just suffered enough. But that is just my opinion. I hope that they are okay, and I know it can't be easy finding out that you have that little glimmer of hope that your daughter could still be out there, and then finding out more likely than not that she is to see based on this new evidence that they. Are now releasing. So I hope they're okay. I wish them well, and I'm hoping they can get some type of resolution out of all of this new evidence that. Is now being released. So that is going to do it for our right now in True Crime Moment today, and we are going to go ahead and get into this week's episode, and on this one, please check the show notes and please go follow along with the victim's daughter, who I am going to be posting all of her socials in the show notes, So please go follow along because she is going on her own podcasting journey and she's in the midst of getting everything ready for that right now, and she is going to be telling you her mother's story from start to finish, and she is going to do an amazing job, and I am so proud of her for taking this journey. I'm going to talk a little bit more about that all in the episode, but I just wanted to make sure that that was on your radar so you can go follow along with her because she is going to be doing such an amazing job at telling her mom's story. So we are going to get into today's episode. Alrighty guys, Today we are jumping into a brand new episode. I'm going to be bringing you a brand new case this week. So I am going to be telling you about the case of a woman named Stephanie wash Elishan. Her death occurred in nineteen ninety three, and let me tell you, it is a tragic one. I had first heard about this story on Rachel and Heather's podcast, Like Mother, Like Murder. I've talked about them a lot on here, and they covered her case a while back, and I did begin to follow Stephanie's daughter Nicki, who has been the driving force behind fighting for justice for her mother. So Nicki reached out to me recently to see if I'd be interested in covering her mother's case, and I always say that I'm never going to turn down family when they reach out, and very quickly the case becomes my number one priority. I start restarch and looking through documents and getting everything together to actually put the episode together. And there's a lot of work that goes into having a podcast. I didn't realize how much work goes into it, but it's a lot of work and looking through everything and obviously making sure you're getting things right. There is definitely a process to it, but it's a process that I very much enjoy. So when I do get contacted by families to cover their loved ones cases, I dive right in and I have been that way since day one. When I was contacted by Kalina Turner's mom to cover her story, I dove right in and I will always do so. So this case is, in my opinion, a little bit different than the normal cases I cover, because normally, when I'm covering an unsolved case, where very much asking who did this, who could be responsible? But This is more of an episode where I'm going to be lying out the facts of what happened to Seanie, and you could come to your own conclusion as to what you think happened, and then together, hopefully we can help Nikki propel this case forward so that maybe she can finally get justice from her mom after all of these years. So we're going to go ahead and get into Stephanie's story, and as always, we are going to lay the groundwork as to how we got to the place we are today. And I'm going to start off by telling you a little bit about Stephanie, her childhood, growing up, and her life leading up to her unfortunate and untimely death. Stephanie Marie Stacy wash Aliian was born on June first of nineteen sixty one, along with her twin brother, Stephen. They were born in Chicago, Illinois, to their parents, Harry and Bernice. Now at the time the twins were born, the wash Alicians had four other children. Stephen unfortunately passed away when he was only seven months old. He had contracted the measles as back then there wasn't a vaccine available for it, and he was really sick, and his parents realized that he was very sick. They called nine one one and they requested an ambulance and requested them to take him to the hospital. He had a high fever and he was not doing well, and he was a baby, he was seven months old. And the ambulance never showed up. But who did show up was a patrol car and two officers were inside and they basically refused to take baby Stephen to the hospital. They said, call a cab, but don't tell the cab driver that the baby has measles. So Stephen ended. Up dying that night, and obviously his death was preventable. The police chief gave the excuse that they didn't want to risk the health of their personnel since a contagious disease like the measles was involved. Awful, sad, tragic, and that would never fly in this day and age. So the fact that it happened back then is just absolutely wild and terrible and Steven never should have lost his life. Following the passing of Stephen, family later would move to Arizona and they would have another child, Harry, unfortunately, would pass away in nineteen seventy five at only forty five years old. Bernice would later remarry. Stephanie had her first daughter, Nicole, in nineteen eighty three, and this is the daughter I spoke of earlier, who I call Nikki. And Stephanie had Nicole with a man named Craig Daily, who she was dating at the time. They soon would separate, and in nineteen ninety she had another daughter named Christina, with a man named Russell Peterson, who was her longtime boyfriend and a big part of the story. The family of four lived in a home in Sedona, Arizona. Stephanie is remembered as being a wonderful woman. She was a great mom and from everything I've learned about her just through my research, I know that she truly loved her kids and would do anything for them. At the time of her death, Stephanie was thirty two years old, Russell Peterson was thirty one, and Nikki was ten, and Christina was four, so her kids were still pretty young at the time of her death. Stephanie worked at a restaurant as a pastry chef and Russell worked there alongside of her as a chef. So this is a couple that spent a lot of time together. They spent a lot of time together in a professional manner and a personal manner. They lived together. They were raising these kids together, so they were around each other quite a bit. So now I'm going to take you into the night of July ninth of nineteen ninety three, around one thirty am, a nine one one call comes in from the home that Stephanie and Russell share together. The nine one one caller was Russell, and I am going to play the nine one one call now and then we are. Going to break it down together. There has been a very bad accident. Were at my thirty coffee cup drive. And the Okay, how many vehicles? No, there's no vehicle. Me and my wife who were in an argument and she's heard very bad. I need help them. Okay, touch ram with her. She has been shot. She was shot, Yeah to shut her? Uh we murder? I don't know. You don't know the shudder I might have. She might have shut her though. Okay, Yeah, she's took me. She's thirty one years old, thirty two? And where is she in right now? She has been in our art. Okay, are you got your. Five who. Had a house or it got a company at the house? Okay? And did she conscious? No? She done. Did she breathing? You know what the book? Which is Okay? Pay on the line, I'm going to connect the pity to you and I'm going to. Get pare going. Okay, I'll please your name men grow up with Do you know how to do the APR? Okay today on the line? Where is she shot the book? Book shot then? Or in the end of the Okay? We had a fighting progress? Uh did the husband wife? The wife is shot in neither the tips or the neck? Unconscious? Whereat? Okay? And who are you. And are you involved in it yet? I am okay you need it? No, I did the shooting shot at me. We had over them and it wasn't benefact. And for that it's just been a while. Okay, don't be right. Okay man count one and. Thirty two year old female kind of shot roll to either the can hid the neck. Okay, So dad, getting you're incorporated, Getty will incorporated in age and children the pet on team. Okay, come take a job rather one want to get me plan? My god. We we have an argument and then she came I have one log gun now. And she came in and she shout one time at me and we kind of had a little of a people had always gone and one off come. Away too. To be did you go with you the player? Give he from where you are right now? Are you dealing on there? That's a high right there? Okay, we need to we need to verify a sheet if she is a conscience and he repond to you to give me breathing. Okay, okay, we need to start APR. Okay, can your daughter do a pr how old is a three years old? Okay? And you're gonna have to do that. You're gonna have to be. Looking to me on the phone and trying to do it. Okay, okay, and you get the phone near her okay, okay, you personality a patient and not breathing, were starting to give Okay what I want to do? It opens her airway. That you need to put one hand under the neck, one hand on the forehead, work one on the hand under the net and put down with one for it over head and kill your blada. I know, I know that you're okay, real bit. Okay, They're they're coming that I need for you to do that before me a pack okay, get their head tilted that. Okay that. I'm trying. Okay if your hand and kilted that and what I need for. You to do your dup around me and get around. Coming out of the mountain. Yeah, it's come everywhere. Okay, okay it coming out of the mount If you can't me, need to cure it out. Okay, okay, try please please please for the broken. Yeah, the door unck. Try and go on the line in the door unlocked. Yeah, okay, I got her. Uh you do unrocked my front door. Uh, I'm gonna be a lock. People are here, Okay, every eye out there here. My daughter and before. Okay, okay, okay, we'll go ahead and take over. Get for you. Okay, okay, okay. Okay, okay, thank you. Okay. So that was animal one call. I know there were probably parts of it that were a little difficult to hear, just because there's a lot it's a nymal one call, so there's like a lot of background noise, and it was pretty long. But I wanted you to. Get the full picture of what's going on and what Russell is saying is happening. Now. It's interesting when they. Said what happens and he said she was shot, and then he doesn't really know what to say, and then he goes on to say that she shot at him, and then they fought over the weapon and then it went off, and either she shot herself or maybe I shot her. He's unsure as to what happened. And you can hear in the background there is a child in the background, and that is his youngest though, one that was three about to turn four, who I spoke about earlier. That is Russell and Stephanie's child together. And I don't know we're going to go into more of it, but I personally have a really hard time believing that Stephanie went in and retrieved a weapon literally feet away from where her children were sleeping, and decided that she was going to wave it around and pointed at him. That to me just doesn't sound like something she would do. And that is going to be a sentiment that we're going to hear about in a little while from other people that knew Stephanie well, that she would never have done something like that with her children in the other room. But that is Russell's story. So now we're going to kind of talk about what happened once law enforcement came and Russell's story as to what happened that evening, and we're going to get a little more into the story from there. But I did want to play that nimal one call because I do think it is so important to hear the nimal one calls, to hear the demeanor of the people making the naimal one calls. Russell sounded like he wanted somebody there to help him, like she needs help, she needs help. But he was very. Calm, in my opinion, in the niem on one call. So paramedics arrive, Stephanie is, unfortunately pronoun deceased. She is on the floor in the master bedroom and the cause of death was a single gunshot wound to her neck. Now, like I said, the children were asleep during this interaction. Nikki and Christina were both asleep in their beds at the time. They did not witness what happened to their mother, and luckily there wasn't any stray bullets or anything that traveled through the wall and injured either one of them. So, of course, investigators have some questions for Russell. They're trying to piece this together and figure out what exactly happened. Obviously, one of them is alive and one of them no longer is alive, so they have questions for Russell and they need to try to figure out what is going on. So Russell said that he had come home from work around eleven pm that night. He took a shower, and then him and Stephanie shared a bottle of wine and at some point in time they were talking about how Stephanie had talked earlier with Nicki's father, who was also her ex, and they had also been speaking about Russell's upcoming work training trip in Ithaca, New York, And at some point during the conversation they ended up getting into an argument. The tone of the conversation changed and they ended up fighting. So Russell said, around one fifteen am, Stephanie went into their bedroom and there was only one weapon in the house, and she got a Ruger Redhawk forty four magnum revolver. She then came back into the living room and told Russell, I'm going to shoot you. He's trying to figure out what is going on. Why are you doing this? And then Stephanie pulled the trigger and the shot missed him and ended up going into the wall. And then Stephanie goes into the bedroom and Russell went behind her. Now. He said a few different versions of what happened, but it sounds like initially he was going with the version of there was a struggle for the gun and in that struggle it accidentally went off. That's when he kind of said, well, I might have well she might have shot herself. Maybe there was a struggle, it was an accident kind of thing. But then there's other times when he makes it seem that Stephanie willingly turned the gun on herself and shot herself without him even trying to interfere. He said, it all happened so fast, and he didn't really know exactly what happened. So it sounds the best way I can put all of this is that Russell's story is anything but consistent, and the only consistent thing about it is that it changes consistently. There's also a versions of the story where he doesn't include that there was an argument and that she just came out of the room with a gun and pointed it at him and was threatening him for no reason. What's so, there's inconsistencies in what he is saying happened, and it's obvious when somebody is in a traumatic situation sometimes they can forget little aspects of the story, but things are changing in every story he tells, and what he told the nine one one operator like there was a struggle over the gun, and then he back pedals on that later and says that she just shot herself. None of it makes any sense. Now. They did say that the gunshot wound entered through the left side of Stephanie's neck and it exited on the right side of her neck. They did call it a contact. Wound, which means that the gun was essentially touching her skin at the time that the trigger was essentially pulled. And they did find gunpowder residue on both sides of her left hand, meaning that that was the hand that she likely fired the gun with. Now. Fun fact about Stephanie, she is right handed, and as somebody who is left handed myself, I can't even imagine I can't do anything with my non dominant hand. But thinking about taking a gun and shooting it myself. With it just doesn't seem like something that I naturally would. Do, And that whole thing to me doesn't make any sense. That is just my opinion in the matter, But it is really hard to do stuff with your non dominant hand, and it is hard to do stuff with your left hand, even as a lefty. I can attest to that. Now, in the. Autopsy report, the medical examiner made this conclusion. The character of the wound is such that it is a contact wound, and the presence of gunpowder residue on the left hand is more consistent with deposition in a defensive posture than with any self and afflicted injury, whether intentional or otherwise. It remains the opinion of the pathologist that the manner of death is homisi. Now, there was a bullet that was found in the living room wall, which did kind of add up with Russell's initial part of the story where she shot and basically missed him, So that part lines up, but the rest of it doesn't really make sense. Now, Russell had said that they had shared a bottle of wine and Stephanie's blood alcohol content was zero point one point seven, which is twice the legal limit to drive. But she was at home. She was in the comforts of her own home. So I don't really think that that is necessarily important, other than to say that part of the story he told about. Them drinking was likely true. It's also for. Me important to note that on the autopsy, you know, they obviously did the gunpowder residue swabs positive on the left hand, negative on the right on all parts of the hand. They also questioned him on why the time gap, because in his timeline, him and Stephanie got into the argument around one point fifteen and the nine one one call didn't come in until one forty, and he said he really didn't know what to do, so he ended up going over, he picked up the gun, he put it into the holster, and then he ended up putting the gun back into the closet, and then he said he realized that it was stupid that he was doing it, and then he brought it back out and put the gun back on the ground where it originally was. So already this is a huge issue because he is tainting a potential crime scene, handling the weapon, moving it into a closet, putting it into a holster, Like, what are you doing? Why would you do that? That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Another interesting little tidbit of information is before he called nine to one one, he made another phone call at one thirty six a m. And that call allegedly was to his dad. I don't really know if that is confirmed or not, but he definitely made a phone call before he called nine one one, and it was to somebody other than nine one one, and that was a quite a bit after the shooting actually happened. So the timeline on this, to me, just doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. Another one of Russell's accounts was saying, you know, after the shot that Stephanie took, when she dropped, he ended up turning around and that his daughter, Christina, was standing there in the hallway and she said, Daddy killed mommy, and he said no, no, I did it. And when the investigators came in, she said it again, except she said, Poppy killed mommy. Poppy killed mommy. And you also have to remember that Christina was young. She was only three years old, and she is a child, and if she did witness this, there is no telling what was going on in her mind as she was traumatized by what she was actually seeing and the fact that she lost her mother. I can't even imagine trying to navigate that as a literal toddler. So Nikki sent me the case file that she is put together with everything from Stephanie's case, and it has a lot of information in it, including interviews and statements from different people about Russell and Stephanie and their state of their relationship. Kathleen, who is Stephanie's oldest sister, said that Stephanie had spoken to her about leaving Russell, but she was hesitant because they shared a daughter together. Kathleen also said that Stephanie had shared with her that Russell was physically abusive towards her at times, although Kathleen said she never saw this with her own eyes. They also spoke with Bernice, who was Stephanie's mom, and she shared some of the same sentiments and said that Russell was physically and emotionally abusive towards Stephanie and there had been more than fifty occasions where he had been abusive towards her. Stephanie's sister Wendy, also said similar things about Russell's abuse, and there was also some statements made that Russell would drink a lot and then he would pee all over the house, which is disgusting. I don't even have words for that. That's like animal behavior. That's just not normal. And there was also an account made by Lance, who is one of Stephanie's brothers where he said that he witnessed Russell's Stephanie and he ended up having to intervene and basically stopped it from going any further. So there is a lot of people that are claiming that Russell was abusive towards Stephanie. Stephanie had either mentioned something or they saw it physically with their own eyes and heard it with their own ears. But on the other hand, there were also accounts from people that worked with Stephanie and Russell and they also knew that in a social setting, and they said that Stephanie was difficult and that. She was often jealous over Russell. And his success, and basically she was upset because Russell was married to his work and that was a big contention in their relationship because he essentially didn't have time for her and time for the kids. And these same people also said that Russell was harmless and he would never heard a fly, and he was just very mild mannered. And I think it's interesting because I think a lot of the times when women are outspoken and they stand their ground, they're often looked at as difficult and honestly just kind of looking over everything. I think it's a. Huge possibility that Stephanie didn't put up with anyone and their crap, and she held her own in her relationship, and I think there were things about her relationship that she wasn't happy with, and if she did have happened to speak on those things at work, Russell likely turned it around and made it look like she was the aggressor or she was the quote unquote crazy one, and he was just very capable of turning on the charm and making people believe him and his version of events. But we truly don't know what happened behind closed doors in their relationship. But when Stephanie's Stanley said they have a reason to believe he was abusive, and there was even an incident that her brother witnessed where he was abusive, I tend to believe them and their version over the people who are essentially just going to bat for Russell, because there's a reason that we're here today telling the story, and it's because one of those two people who were in the house that night are no longer here, and that person is Stephanie. So we have to question what was going on in their relationship leading up to this, And I think it was probably pretty easy for Russell to paint himself in a light where he was the one who was holding down this job and furthering his career and taking care of the kids, and Stephanie was just making things difficult for him because he, in. My opinion, and this is just my opinion, is. The type of person that is able to kind of spin this narrative. I don't really know what happened, but it wasn't my fault. She started it. It was all her. That kind of vibe is the vibe I get from just reading through the case file and everything I've seen about Russell. Again, that is my opinion. Now, in nineteen ninety three, investigators wanted to try and recreate the scene to see if they were able to have somebody of similar size and stature to Stephanie replicate the scene and pull the trigger to create the entrance wound that Stephanie had and see if that person would be capable of doing this on their own. And not surprisingly, this person was not able to replicate. It on their own. However, they were able to replicate it with essentially somebody struggling over the gun with this person meaning that one of the many stories that Russell had told had to be false, because there's no way that Stephanie could have shot herself from the angle in which she allegedly did shoot herself. On her own with her non dominant hand. It had to be a situation where either somebody else harmed her or there was a struggle over the gun and the gun accidentally went off. Now, although Russell did give law enforcement many interviews, he was pretty difficult at times to get a hold of and there was one point in time that he moved and he ended up changing his phone number and he never communicated that with law enforcement and they had a hard. Time getting a hold of him. I do think that law enforcement initially seemed like they were doing everything they could to try and bring charges against Russell. But I think there was a lot of missed opportunities initially during the investigation when they first were out the house, because I think there was a report that Russell had gone and taken a shower at some point. I don't know if his hands were ever swabbed for a gunshot residue, which would prove a theory if it was her by herself with the gun, or if there was a struggle or did Russell touch the gun? Was he the primary person? Unfortunately, we can't go back in time and figure out what exactly happened. So, like I said, they did try to bring this case against Russell, but despite that, in November of nineteen ninety three, the county's attorney's office decided that they did not have enough evidence to bring charges against Russell and they decided not to follow through with any charges against him. And it has to be so frustrating for so many reasons, especially all these years later, when you look at all the evidence and the contradictions, and there's just different parts of the story that just don't make any sense to me. If anything, Stephanie's death is suspicious and it needs to be looked at as such. And after all these years later, nobody has ever had to answer or pay for what happened to her. And I can't imagine for her family that it's an easy thing to take on every day, which is the main reason that Nicki is so dedicated to getting justice for her mom, Because in these cases, for everyone else, the people that are investigating the case, the people that might be close to the situation in this case, the people that worked with Russell and Stephanie. Their lives go on and they're able to live their day to day lives and they're not super affected by it. But for people like Nicki, a girl who was only ten years old at the time, who was there when her mother was killed, She's had to try to navigate her childhood without her mom, and now she's taken it upon herself to start life looking back into her mom's case, putting it out there, trying to get justice, and her life has never been the same since that night in nineteen ninety three. These cases changed the people who are affected by them, and they have to try to navigate through that every single day in their real life while navigating the other stressors of life. And for these people, it's more than just a forty five minute podcast episode. This is their day to day twenty four to seven, three hundred and sixty five. So Nicki took this case on and started posting on TikTok about her mom and her mom's case, and that's why we're here today because of all of the work that she has done to get her mom's case exposed and get it out there. Because still thirty two years later, we still haven't received justice for Stephanie. Nicki says she remembers that night because before she went to bed, her mom was sitting on the couch and she went up behind her, wrapped her arms around her. Mom, gave her a hug and a kiss and told her going to night, and that was the last time and the last interaction she had with her mom. I also think it's really important to note that Stephanie was a great mom, and she had two little girls sleeping literally just feet away, and I personally find it really hard to believe that she would introduce a gun into the scenario knowing that her daughters were right there. But unfortunately, that's the narrative that has been put forward for years because of the story that Russell initially told to law enforcement, and unfortunately, over the years, the case has been passed through many different hands, and even with fresh eyes looking at the case, there seems to be a struggle with the whole suicide versus homicide rolling and. What exactly happened. And it's so frustrating, just even for me from the outside looking in, because the person controlling the narrative is the person that controlled the narrative initially in nineteen ninety three when that nine to one one call was made, and that is Russell. And when you think about it, there are two people that were there that night when that gun was introduced, minus the children of course, and one of them is gone and has no way to speak for herself or defend herself. And one of them walked out of that house alive. And that is the person that is putting forward this narrative, although it's an ever changing narrative because it's a she brought the gun out, she tried to shoot me. Well, maybe she just shot herself, or maybe there was a struggle. There's so many inconsistencies, and that is the person that's controlling this narrative still to this day, and that is Russell. And there still talks that this could be a suicide, even with the reenactment that concluded that that wasn't possible. So in twenty twenty two. Nicki and her aunt Wendy, who is Stephanie's youngest sister, they both received a letter that the case was inactive and were waiting on additional evidence. Following receiving that letter, Nicki decided to start a change dot org petition and it was basically her asking them to do a thorough investigation into Stephanie's death, and she wanted them to present the whole case file to the grand jury. In twenty twenty three, Nicki went to the Sedona City Council and this pressed investigators to have a sit down meeting with her and as a result of this, they reopened Stephanie's case. Now, that is great and that it's huge news. But however, present day twenty twenty five, we are still waiting. The family is still waiting. Now. Like I said, Nicki is very active on TikTok and on social media. I'm going to link all of her socials below in the show notes, you guys can follow her because she's also in the process of working on her very own podcast. And Nicki was only a child when this happened, and the death of her mother has deeply impacted her and affected her, and she's going now into the podcast journey, which is a lot of work, and she's doing it on her own mom's case. She is going to have a whole podcast deep diving into everything from that time of life, and she knows because she lived it, she was there, so it's going to be very involved and very in depth, and she is going to leave no cards left unturned. And I hope that with the podcast, it's going to help her mom's case get even more exposure and people are going to start talking, and hopefully that talk is going to lead to more movement in this case and hopefully, at the end of the day, justice for her mother. I'll be sure to let you guys know when the podcast comes out, and of course, any other updates on this case. I'm going to be sure to let you know. A story like this one is such an important one to tell because I know that there are so many others like this out there that are very similar and unless we have people speaking out and speaking up, justice is never going to be served and these cases will just simply fade into the background. So that's exactly what NICKI is doing in this case. She is speaking up, She's letting it be heard, letting it be known that she thinks that there was an injustice here, and I wholeheartedly agree. And like I said, I'll keep you updated if there's any updates or any movements regarding the case, and I'll keep you updated on the podcast and all of that. In the meantime, please follow along with Niki on social media, support her podcast. Thank you guys so much for joining me. As always, I will see you next week for a brand new case. The one I'm working on now is a. Case that was cold for many years. And thanks to all the advances Indiana technology, it is now solved. So I'm going to be telling you that story next week and I will see you guys next week for that. I hope you have a great weekend and I will see you then. Bye.