come up all of the time. all of the time. any of those themes seem to fit? he had several hundred thousand dollars in life insurance on him. obviously, as you said, money is a motive, love is a motive, pride is a motive. for the detectives those factors seemed to point in the direction of russel s wife brenna douglas. not only had she been cheated on and publicly humiliated by russel, but she was the named beneficiary of three life insurance policies he d taken out on himself. the problem was brenna s alibi was solid. there were plenty of people who could confirm that they d been with her at the time russel douglas was killed. the detective knew he needed a break, and in july 2004, exactly seven months to the day after the murder of russel douglas, he got one. i was actually out canvassing and interviewing again, and i got a phone call that said we had a tip on the russel douglas homicide.
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.
be a significant payout of life insurance. it was the evidence they were lacking. just when the investigation seemed stalled, a tip came in. but who was on the other end of the line? here again was josh mankowitz. in the spring of 2004, the detective had been calling for months but getting nowhere. i decided to do the entire investigation from step 1 all over again. ztz he had a murder at a good address on his hands, and many more questions than answers. what would have brought russell to this unknown area of whi db ey island on the day after christmas? who put a bullet between his eyes and why? we ran out every lead i could run out and none of them connected to russel douglas. money, love, pride. talk to homicide detectives and they say any of those themes
storm had blown over, jean said she joined her panicked husband. they ordered pizza and turned on the tv. the losses are substantial. but jean couldn t concentrate on the hurricane news. the personal storm that was wrecking her marriage and ruining her life took precedence. ken was a big tension fest and we talked. i asked a lot of questions, you know, why and what were you thinking and what are you going to do now? it was a messy situation. betrayal, deception, desertion, the usual menu of dysfunction that all too often falls under the category of another woman. but there was more to it than that. much more. a homicide investigation was at stake, one that just days earlier had led mark plumberg from wi drdbe island, washingto
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