Stephanie Wasilishin Part 1

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2:34Today I'm discussing the case of Stephanie Wasilishan. At about 2 a.m. on July 9, 1993, 10-year-old Nikki Wasilishan is deep asleep under the covers of her bed. when she's woken up by a flashlight in her face. It's an officer from the Sedona, Arizona Police Department. He tells her that her parents have gotten into an altercation and she needs to come with him. As she's escorted out of her room and through the front door, she sees her mother's boyfriend, Russell Peterson, on the couch. He's rocking back and forth and his hands are covered in blood. When the officer finally gets Nikki in the police car, she's met by her three-year-old little sister, who is repeating the same thing over and over again.

3:15Poppy killed mommy. Poppy killed mommy. This is the case of Stephanie Wassilishan. Sedona, Arizona has been coined one of the most beautiful cities in the world. People from all over the globe travel there to see the breathtaking red rocks that surround the small city center, to visit one of its world-famous vortexes, or just to get away for a while. So when Stephanie Wassilishan and her boyfriend, Russell Peterson, are offered an opportunity to move from Phoenix to Sedona, they jump. They were each offered positions to help open a new Italian restaurant. Russell would work as the executive chef and Stephanie as the pastry chef.

3:55Soon the couple would find an adorable home on Coffeepot Drive for their young family of four. Ten-year-old Nikki was the result of Stephanie's previous relationship with a man named Craig. and together, Stephanie and Russell also had a 3-year-old daughter. At this point, Stephanie's 32 and is so proud of making this move. Sedona is not a cheap city to live in. Basically, the couple had made it. For this episode, my team and I reviewed about 200 pages of Case File. I also spoke to Stephanie's daughter Nikki and one of her closest childhood best friends, Lori. Lori explained to me that Stephanie had a rather rough upbringing that was at times abusive.

4:35So going to Sedona wasn't only a huge step up for her, but a fresh start in a new city. Stephanie spends a lot of time decorating their new home meticulously. Nikki told me that her mom made sure to position the couch not only to see the TV, but also the gorgeous red rocks of Sedona out their large living room windows. Nikki told me that her mom was that mom. She always made sure Nikki's hair was perfect and her outfit was on trend before sending her out for the day. There was always something yummy baking in the oven, and at this time she was saving all the extra cash she could to take the kids on their first trip to Disneyland.

5:12But despite this seemingly picture-perfect setting, the fresh start wasn't working out as planned, and things were deteriorating between Stephanie and Russell. It seemed that living together and working together was too much for the young couple. According to statements from those who worked with Stephanie and Russell, Stephanie was growing increasingly upset with how much Russell was working. saying he needed to pay more attention to her and the kids. But it seems that things really escalated when Russell was accepted to attend a 10-day cooking school at Cornell University in New York. He was scheduled to leave on July 10th.

5:47To help pay for the trip, Russell had to dip into their Disneyland fund, and Stephanie was not happy about that. And before that day could come, things came to a head in the relationship. On July 8th, 1993, two days before Russell is set to leave for this big trip, both he and Stephanie work a shift at the restaurant. One of Stephanie's co-workers, Catherine, reports that Stephanie was not having a good day. It was pretty clear to everyone that she was really irritated that Russell decided to go on this trip, but Stephanie makes it through the workday and leaves her home just after 5pm. Russell gets a ride home from a co-worker who reports that he was in great spirits and really excited about going on his trip to New York.

6:29He gets home closer to 11pm. Now, that night before Russell gets home, Stephanie makes a few phone calls. First to her sister Wendy just after 7pm. Here, she expresses more frustration with Russell. Not being attentive, taking the Disneyland money, everything I've explained previously. She also starts drinking. They speak for about 45 minutes. After this, Stephanie speaks with her ex, Nikki's dad, Craig. Nikki told me that her dad remembers this conversation 30 years later. While normally they would speak for about 10-15 minutes just trying to arrange things for Nikki, this conversation was much different.

7:07The pair speaks for close to an hour and a half. Stephanie is upset about Russell. She says he's drinking too much. Again, the same complaints I've discussed. Now, while Craig had been in a long-term relationship previously, he and his partner had recently broken up. So eventually, Craig offers for Stephanie and both girls to move back to Phoenix and into his home, which according to Craig, was the plan. Craig and Stephanie eventually hang up, and Stephanie calls her sister Wendy again. Wendy would later tell the police that she didn't know why, but during this call, Stephanie was much happier for some reason.

7:44She would later find out the plan Stephanie had with Craig, and assumes her sister didn't tell her because she just wasn't Craig's biggest fan. During this second call, they speak for about 35 minutes until around 11pm when Russell gets home. What we know next is really from Russell's point of view. At around 1.40am on what was now July 9th, Russell calls 911 and tells the operator, quote, Uh, I need help. When asked what he needed help with, Russell replied, quote, Uh, there's been a very bad accident. Uh, me and my wife, we were in an argument. and she's hurt. She's hurt very bad. I need help.

8:25The operator asks what happened and Russell said that she'd been shot. When asked who shot her, he replied, quote, I don't know who I might have. She might have shot herself. The operator then asks where she'd been shot and Russell said, quote, it looks like she's been, she's been shot in the neck or, or the chest. The 911 operator then dispatches police to the house, while the fire department gives Russell directions on how to perform CPR. When police arrive, they enter through the front door and announce themselves. While standing in the living room, officers said that anyone inside the house needed to reveal themselves.

9:04Russell begins walking towards the living room. He still had the phone in his hand, on the line with the 911 operator. From there, he led officers to his and Stephanie's bedroom. There, officers saw Stephanie. She was lying on her back on the floor near the closet and the TV stand. She had a gunshot wound to her throat. They check for a pulse, but Stephanie is gone. Officers also noted that Russell and Stephanie's three-year-old daughter was in the bedroom. She was on the bed saying, That's my mommy. Both she and Russell were taken to the living room while the other officers secured the rest of the house.

9:41In the lower-level garage that had been converted into a bedroom at the opposite end of the house from Stephanie and Russell's bedroom, officers find 10-year-old Nikki who is still asleep. Here's Nikki to tell you what happened next. What I remember, and the cops waking me up at 2 a.m. and then hustling me so fast within minutes from my room to the cop car, and that'll be the last time I'm ever in that house, but when they're hustling me by, I see Russell in the same spot where my mother was hours earlier on the couch rocking he's rocking and there's cops standing all over him and now I know what they were doing they were interrogating him as a little child I had no idea what was going on there's cops there I thought the cops were taking me away I thought I did something wrong I didn't know why I was being put into a cop car I was asking where my mom was they kept telling me that my mom and Russell got into a fight and my mom was at my aunt's house I believed it they put me in the cop car with my little sister where my four-year-old three four-year-old sisters repeating poppy killed mommy poppy killed mommy poppy killed mommy because she's four and she doesn't understand what she just saw so she's saying it like she's a disneyland character and like here i am i'm 10 and i'm like what's there's cops here i know there's something wrong my sister's telling me that my her dad killed our mom and i just see i remember cherries and blueberries just blue and red off the garage of my home for I felt like we were in that cop car for hours before they finally got him and they put him in the same cop car and they drive us away from my home and that was last time and as they're driving us away he's sitting in between me and my sister and he's hugging and squeezing on me and he's whispering in my ear I want to keep the family together and I love you and stuff like that like Just the mere fact that he was involved in a domestic homicide, they put him in the same car as the children and then let him touch me.

11:34It, like, blows my mind. Blows my mind. So that's what I remember from the night and the summer of my mother's murder. This episode of Voices for Justice is brought to you by Quince. I love giving gifts, and Quince really does make that so easy. They have something for everyone, from soft Mongolian cashmere sweaters for$50 that look and feel like designer pieces, silk tops and skirts for dressing up, perfectly cut denim for everyday wear, and outerwear that actually keeps you warm. And of course, what I love is that every piece is made with premium materials from ethical, trusted factories, and it's all priced far below what other luxury brands charge.

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13:46Russell said that he and Stephanie talked for quite some time in the living room, but then their conversation turned into an argument. Russell explained how he'd been accepted into the cooking school, and how to get to Cornell, Russell had to buy a plane ticket to New York. He says Stephanie was upset about this, and that's what started the argument. Russell tells officers that while he and Stephanie were arguing in the living room, Stephanie got up and grabbed Russell's handgun from their bedroom closet. Russell confirmed that the gun was loaded in a holster on the top shelf under some belongings.

14:18He says he was sitting on the couch, and then after Stephanie grabbed the gun, she came back to the living room and pointed it at him. She said she was going to, quote, blow his head off or words to that extent. From here, she fires a single round at Russell. but the bullet misses him. He then gets up off the couch and meets Stephanie near the hallway between their bedroom and the living room. Now, Russell's statements about what happened next are vague. He only said that the fatal shot to Stephanie was fired in their bedroom. He would provide more detail in future interviews with detectives, which we will talk about in just a minute.

14:55But following his short interview with officers, Russell and both girls are transported to the police station. At the station, investigators interview both girls. When they asked Stephanie's three-year-old what happened, she said she heard one shot, woke up, and saw her dad kill her mother, quote, with a gun, and then she bleated. Now, we have to remember that she's three, but upon further questioning, she said that she didn't witness the actual shooting because she'd been in her room sleeping. She said that after she heard one shot, she walked to her parents' bedroom. There, she saw Stephanie on the floor bleeding face down, while Russell was sitting on the bed.

15:34She said that Russell told her he shot the gun, and that it's, quote, hopeless. Then he cried. She said she then saw Russell take the gun out of the closet. When detectives speak to 10-year-old Nikki, she says that she was asleep during the shooting and didn't witness anything. After the kids are interviewed, detectives go to Russell and ask if it's okay if the kids are temporarily placed in a foster home. He agrees, and that's where the girls go for the night. And now this is when they finally get to speak with Russell in depth about the shooting. They asked him to walk them through everything that happened, starting on the morning of July 8th all the way up to the shooting.

16:13He said it was a pretty normal morning. He and Stephanie woke up around 11.30am and had some coffee. At around noon, they went to work at the restaurant. He says there were no incidents at work that day. Stephanie leaves around 5.30 and he leaves closer to 11. He says once he got home, he gave Stephanie a kiss, then took a shower. After the shower, he began talking to Stephanie in the living room. Here, she tells him about the two-hour telephone conversation she had with her ex Craig that evening. But he says that this wasn't where they began to fight. It was only when Russell began talking about going to New York that their conversation started to heat up.

16:51But Russell does tell detectives that he wasn't really concerned about this argument because it wasn't uncommon for Stephanie to become upset. But then, Stephanie got up, walked to their bedroom, and came back with a gun in her hands. Russell reiterates that he was sitting on the couch at this point. He says Stephanie said, quote, Russell, I'm going to shoot you. Then she cocked the hammer back. Stephanie shot the gun and missed Russell. The bullet went above him. He then got up and followed her down the hall into their bedroom, while talking to her the whole time. Once they were in the bedroom, Stephanie stood in front of the closet, cocked the gun back again, and said, quote, Russell, I'm going to kill you.

17:32He says he then grabbed Stephanie's wrist and they struggled as he tried to get the gun out of her hand. When investigators push and ask him what happened during this struggle, Russell says that he can't really give specific details because it all happened so fast. He says the struggle maybe lasted 15-20 seconds, but he tells detectives that the struggle ended when the gun went off and Stephanie dropped to the floor face down. He couldn't believe what happened and he panicked. He rolled Stephanie's head to look at her, then he picked up the gun and put it back in the holster which was on the floor.

18:06Russell then placed the gun and the holster on the closet shelf. 15-20 seconds later, he realized that he shouldn't have moved the gun, so he took the gun out of the holster and laid it back on the floor. Russell said that's when he noticed their three-year-old daughter was in the hallway. He says he didn't go to her. Instead, he went to the bathroom, and when he came out, he noticed that Stephanie was still on the ground. This is when he calls 911 and asks for help. After telling investigators what he remembers about that night, they ask him about their relationship as a whole, and Russell says, quote, I mean, we love each other.

18:43I mean, you can talk to people. You can do whatever you want to do. We have a very, we had, whatever, a good and semi-bad relationship. That's just how relationships go. Following the interview, Russell signed a consent form for police to search his house. That night, Russell is also taken back to the house with detectives. He's asked to change and hand over his clothes. He's then taken back to the station, and this is what investigators find in the house. In the living room, they find a bullet hole in the wall between the window and the front door. On the end table next to the couch, investigators find a partially full glass of beer.

19:23On the coffee table, there was an empty glass of red wine. In the trash, they find a wine bottle and a beer bottle. Investigators also looked over Russell and Stephanie's bedroom, where Stephanie's body was still lying. Above Stephanie's right shoulder, they recover a Ruger Redhawk.44 Magnum revolver, which was partially on top of a brown leather holster. There were four bullets still remaining in the gun. There was a bullet in the bedroom wall, and bullet fragments on top of the TV and on the floor area. Investigators took note of Stephanie's body and the way it was positioned in the room. She was wearing a nightshirt, which was torn in the upper front button area.

20:02A pair of red eyeglasses, three yellow chains, and a locket were partially entangled in the right side of Stephanie's hair. A gold-colored chain was under Stephanie's right arm, and a much smaller piece of a similar gold chain was found near the doorway to the bedroom. When investigators were done examining the bedroom, Stephanie's body was then taken to the medical examiner's office for an autopsy, which was completed that same day. The autopsy concluded that a single bullet entered the upper portion of the left side of Stephanie's throat. The muzzle of the gun had been in contact with her neck when the shot was fired.

20:39The bullet passed through the left part of Stephanie's neck and exited below her skull on the right rear portion of her neck, at about the bottom of her hairline. Gunpowder residue tests were conducted on Stephanie's hands. It was determined that she only had residue on her left hand. There was none on her right hand. Stephanie was right-handed, so this meant that if she did pull the trigger, she did so with her non-dominant hand. Stephanie's blood alcohol content came in at.17, just over double the legal driving limit. At this point, the medical examiner waits to make an official determination about Stephanie's manner of death pending further investigation.

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21:51While waiting on the final autopsy reports, detectives interview as many people as they can just trying to figure out what exactly happened here. They speak with Stephanie and Russell's neighbors. One couple says that for the most part they were quiet. In the last year and a half they had heard Russell and Stephanie arguing a couple of times at night, but they'd never seen any violence. Detectives also looked for prior police reports of domestic violence, but there were none there. As I discussed earlier, they also extensively interviewed the crew at the restaurant that both of them worked at.

22:24Catherine, the one who was speaking to Stephanie in the parking lot before she left, was asked what Stephanie and Russell were like at work. She said Stephanie was always pushing Russell's buttons, but he wouldn't respond to her threats. He just ignored them. She says she never saw any acts of physical violence between the couple. They speak to another co-worker named Susie. She says she has seen Stephanie get pretty angry with her kids, but she'd never heard her threaten Russell. She also says she never saw Russell get upset with Stephanie or threaten her. They talked to the restaurant owner, Peter.

22:57He says he never heard Russell say any mean words or complain about Stephanie. On the other hand, he said he had heard Stephanie, quote, speak quite badly in a detrimental manner about the time Russell spends at his occupation. Now, Peter says that after all this happened, he kind of rallied up all of his employees and spoke to them about what they saw on the 8th. And the consensus seems to be that Stephanie was very upset that day, and they all felt like the thing she was upset about was Russell's 10-day trip to New York. Detectives, of course, also speak to Russell's parents. They describe their son as a very passive person who was busy pursuing his life goal as a chef.

23:35They said he was very talented and looking forward to going to the program at Cornell. They reiterate that he's a very non-aggressive person. They could never believe that he would purposely hurt Stephanie. They added that there were times that Stephanie would get nasty with Russell. They described Stephanie as someone who was tormented, who came from an alcoholic and abusive background. Investigators also speak with Stephanie's family, who paint a very different picture of that relationship. Stephanie's mother, Bernice, described their relationship as, quote, not smooth. She added that Stephanie told her on more than 50 occasions that Russell was abusive, both physically and emotionally.

24:18Before the interview was over, Bernice told detectives that Russell called her and told her about what happened the night that Stephanie died. He said Stephanie shot herself, not that they had been wrestling over the gun and the gun went off. Obviously, things just aren't adding up. From here, detectives speak with Stephanie's sister, Wendy. She tells them that her sister loved life and was afraid of death. She doesn't believe she would have ever completed suicide. She also tells detectives that Stephanie told her that Russell was abusive and that he would get drunk and urinate all over the residence.

24:53She confirms that yes, they spoke on the phone multiple times that night. The first was around 7.15pm. Stephanie called and was not in a good mood. She explains that Stephanie told her that her and Russell hadn't had sex in seven months, but she had arranged for the kids to be gone so she and Russell could be alone. Wendy says that when they spoke again at around 10.30pm, Stephanie was happy. Detectives also speak with Stephanie's oldest sister, Kathleen. She said in the six months before her death, Stephanie had been unsure and increasingly unhappy. Stephanie told Kathleen that Russell was physically abusive toward her.