russell douglas. peggy thomas told the detectives she had been visiting friends over the holidays and explained that she had simply contacted russell in order to ss on a present for brynna. she answered all my questions to my satisfaction. there was nothing about that phone call that made me include her in the suspect list. but then again, the detective s suspect list was essentially a blank page. there were no names on it from florida or nevada or new mexico, or any of the other places this investigation would eventually lead him. at least, not yet. the investigation begins close to home with the dead man s on again-off again wife. coming up i said, is he hurting you? is he hitting you? and she said, no, really, he isn t physical. it s just emotionally and verbal, but i ve hit him a couple times.
edges. kim at one time told me he wanted to know what it felt like to kill somebody. in this twisted game of hearts, how many would have to pay the price? she called and let me know that russ was dead. how far would things go? i looked in her eyes and, i mean, she s evil. she is evil. a manhunt which stretched from the northwest down to mexico and ran smack into mother nature. your suspect is quite literally in the wind. he s gone. a gathering storm. hello and welcome to dateline extra. . i m craig melvin. it was a crime scene that did not make much sense to police. they found a young man with his car parked on a dead-end road shot between the eyes. his name was russell douglas, and he was a father estranged from his family, hoping to make a fresh start. the search for his killer would
at the time we went to talk to her, it was basically a death notification. she was able to answer our questions for us. who didn t like russ douglas? nobody could think of someone who really, truly didn t like him. as winter turned to spring, the detective s investigation seemed to be going nowhere. but a routine check of the numbers in russell douglas cell phone had yielded a tiny clue. there were a few phone calls to a number with a las vegas area code. and we made a phone call to that number. there was no answer. it went to an answering machine. was it cell phone voicemail or a person s voice? it was a cell phone voicemail for a woman named peggy. peggy. that s a name you ll hear again. the detective made a mental note to have that number traced, but within minutes of hanging up, his phone rang. and there was a female who said she had just gotten a phone call from that number. and she identified herself as peggy thomas, explained that she was a friend of brynna and
while vacationing in british columbia. we drove across the border in our friend s vehicle, and my phone had a seizure. it started buzzing for every voicemail message and text message that had been sent, and it s, matt, call me, matt, call me, matt, call me. with within days of his death, russell s far-flung family revisited on widbe island. she stayed in her bedroom a lot. she definitely was sad. nothing seemed to be getting done, so i kind of ended up taking over the organization of the house, what do we do for meals. russell douglas had left behind a lot of unfinished business. the oldest of three children born to jim and gail before they divorced, russell had been a late bloomer. but adulthood intruded early.
a ragged hole between his eyes had frozen his age at 32. it was a robbery. a whole lot of stuff left behind in the car that didn t make sense. just inside the driver s side door, an empty .80 shell casing. police thought it was a strange place for a homicide. parked in the bushes like he meant to be there, his car in gear, his emergency brake on and casually dressed in flip-flops. it sounds like he was going to meet someone. that was the only thing that made sense to us. but who? they hoped douglas ex-wife bryn na douglas could shed some light. but when he heard that his children were murdered, he got a