hot on the trail of a suspect. then came a hurricane. i didn t think he was going to stick around long enough for us to come back. so the hurricane comes and goes and your subject is quite literally in the wind. he s gone. for detective plumberg, the twisted trail of his investigation began six months earlier just after christmas 2003. a geo tracker, an suv, had been spotted in a secluded driveway in a section of widbe island, the passenger door open, the dome light on. the first thought was a suicide. but on an initial investigation, they couldn t find a weapon. standing in the cold, the detective took stock. the body inside appeared to have been dead for 24 hours. i.d. found in the glove box indicated the dead man was named russell douglas,.
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visit peggy thomas simultaneously in las vegas, the detectives drove over to jim huden s house. jean answered the door. i showed her my badge and my id. and said, i was from island county, washington. jim was there? yes. he was sitting on the couch. and he says, what? what s island county, washington doing all the way here in florida? oddly enough, he didn t say anything like that. josh mankiewicz: the detective didn t beat around the bush. and i looked him right in the face, and i said, mr. huden, i know you re the man who pulled the trigger and killed russell douglas. and his only response was to say, i don t know why someone would say that. i was sure, at that moment, i was in the room with the right man. because an innocent man would say, well, you re crazy. i didn t kill him or anybody else. i don t know what you re talking about. he never once made a denial of my accusation. josh mankiewicz: huden admitted to being on whidbey island with peggy thomas over the christmas holidays,
he stopped talking to basically all of us. i think he was so angry with the whole situation he was just saying, i am cutting off everything. josh mankiewicz: but then, just after thanksgiving, all that seemed to change. russell had recently changed jobs and was close to completing an online master s degree program. and as christmas approached, russell reached out to family members and told his brother matt that he wanted to reconcile with his wife. he said, you know, i think i need to start doing the right things. brenna wants me back. i want her back. i want to be involved in the kid s life. josh mankiewicz: then, for reasons they could not fathom, their son, their big brother, was dead. and the family became defensive when detectives suggested that russell s wife, brenna, may have had something to do with his murder. you don t want to believe that anybody that you ve known for that long, that is a mother of your grandkids, would ever be a suspect. josh mankiewicz: so gail offered to
and we made a phone call to that number, there was no answer. 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. . 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 brenna and russell douglas. josh mankiewicz: peggy thomas told the detective she d been visiting friends over the holidays. and explained that she had simply contacted russell in order to pass along a present for brenna. she answered all of my questions to my satisfaction. there was nothing about that phone call that made me include her in the suspect list. josh mankiewicz: but then again, the detective s suspect list was essentially a blank page.