January 31, 2025

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Could new technology help crack cold case of who killed elderly couple at Lake Oconee home? – WSB-TV Channel 2

Could new technology help crack cold case of who killed elderly couple at Lake Oconee home? – WSB-TV Channel 2

PUTNAM COUNTY, Ga. — It was a situation that captivated the nation – the murders of an elderly few in a peaceful Lake Oconee community eight a long time ago and there is no apparent motive.

Channel 2′s Karyn Greer has uncovered that new technological know-how could help crack the situation as she revisited the crime scene with the sheriff who is determined to clear up it.

It was May 2014 when the bodies of Russell Dermond, 88, and his wife Shirley, 87, have been located powering the gates of a their upscale community.

“Her body washed on top of one of the treetops, about eight inches beneath the floor (of the water),” Putnam County Sheriff Phil Sills advised Greer.

Sills aided Greer retrace the route of the killer from the Dermond house – which has now been bought – to the middle of the scenic lake.

“We uncovered the system of Russell Dermond minus (his) head in their garage and some 10 or additional times later on, his spouse Shirley Dermond. Her human body surfaced in Lake Oconee about five and a half miles away from the house. We never discovered Mr. Dermond’s head. She had been anchored, or at the very least tried to have been anchored, to the base by two cement blocks,” Sills stated.

How could a person get her overall body in a boat and dump it in the lake with no one seeing them? The sheriff hopes some technological know-how that was not readily available eight decades ago will let them know who was in the location at the time.

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“We have accomplished some geotracking, and we have gotten again that information the FBI equipped into their computer software application. And there is a box I have in my office environment that persons that ended up in the area at the time. I’m not declaring that they ended up at the Dermond home, and we are presently operating on that,” Sills said. “There was some intent to come back, I think. And the rationale for that is the towels to continue to keep the blood from coming out. However, it had been three days prior to we realized about it.”

Criminal offense scene investigator Sheryl McCollum is also supplying to enable Sills get some new DNA exams accomplished on the items recovered.

“Have you tested the towels for the DNA of the particular person?” McCollum requested Sills.

“All of that was sent to the Ga Criminal offense Lab. We questioned for that. I hope that was carried out,” Sills explained.

“Does this a single preserve you up at night time sometimes?” Greer questioned Sills.

“Oh, naturally. This is my albatross,” Sills instructed Greer. “It’s not a pleasure for me to be in a position to sit below and do that. They’ve had this horrible double murder, and I’ve not been in a position to address it. It’s not pleasurable. But I hope that these types of interviews will at some point get anyone to give us a call mainly because any person understands and whoever did this will do everything from a standpoint of murder,” Sills explained.

The sheriff said if the men and women who dedicated to support with the reward fund are however on board, $45,000 is remaining provided for an arrest and conviction in this case to carry the killer or killers to justice and give the Dermonds’ family members a feeling of closure.

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