All the blood left, all the pain, pain up.

All the blood left, all the pain, pain up.

Hey, Crime Salad listeners. We're back with another episode of Crime Salad. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Ashley and with me always is Ricky.

Hey guys.

Today's episode is a bit different. We're going back to the year 2014. It's about an elderly couple who were both in their late 80s who were brutally murdered, leaving their community in absolute shock.

This is the Lake O'Coney murders.

There's something comforting about hearing a crime was solved, knowing that the bad guy was caught and that justice was served.

It keeps us feeling safe and like there's some sort of order in the world.

But the murder of Russell and Shirley Dermond unfortunately is not one of those cases. There are no answers, there are no suspects, and there is no discernible motive.

As the sheriff who has been working on this case for the last six years can assure you, the particularly gruesome manner of death for this elderly couple and the stark lack of explanations makes this a very haunting case.

And just to give you a little background of this couple on December 15th, 1950, Shirley Wilcox got married to a world war two veteran named Russell Dermond.

The two were both New Jersey natives who relocated to Georgia in the 1980s so that Russell could manage a chain of hearty restaurants in the Atlanta metropolitan area.

He was a hard worker and a successful businessman and Shirley was a homemaker and raised therefore children, a daughter named Leslie, and three sons Mark, Keith, and Bradley.

Over the many years they had together, Russell and Shirley also helped care for their nine grandchildren. They were a picture perfect family.

After Russell's retirement from the food service industry in 1994, the Dermond's moved to Etonton, Georgia and they built a large home along Lake, Aconie, and Reynolds Plantations, Great Waters.

It's a quiet, private, gated community about 80 miles southeast of Atlanta. This beautiful home was kept very neat and Russell's success in business afforded them comfort and luxury.

The Dermond's home was an important safe place for their kids as well as their grandchildren who would come to Lake Aconie for summer camp every year to spend time with Russell and Shirley.

Russell loved golf, reading, walking, and enjoyed spending time with his friends and family.

Shirley loved to do a daily crossword puzzle and was a dedicated gardener and an ad-vid bridge player. Both were active members of the Aconie Community Church, hardly ever missing a service, and they were good friends with other couples in the development, often attending parties.

By all accounts from friends, family, and the community, the Dermond's were a very loving, involved kind and well-respected couple who lived peacefully and happily at their home, on Lake Aconie for two full decades.

But in the spring of 2014, Russell, who is now 88 years old and Shirley, who is 87, are invited to a Kentucky Derby party, thrown by a neighboring couple who they're good friends with.

Excited they quickly accept and confirmed with the host that they will in fact be there. But on May 3rd, the day of the party, Russell and Shirley are nowhere to be seen.

...