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Hey weirdos. I'm Elena. >> I'm Ash. >> And this is Morbid. [Music] >> It is. It's morbid, y'all. And it always
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will be. Always and forever. Forever and ever. What's up, brother? Um, I'm really
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excited because this weekend is when all the haunted houses start >> Oh, opening.
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>> Is it this weekend? >> It's like when like they're starting to trickle open now.
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>> Should we go to one? >> [ __ ] yeah, we should. >> Oh my god. >> Hell yeah. >> Oh my god.
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>> I need a haunted house in my soul. My house my soul is a haunted house right now.
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>> Yeah. I think my soul my soul is like pretty full for sure, but like just today is a rough day.
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>> Um and my soul is barren today. >> Yeah. And it wishes it had it wishes it was filled with spirits.
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>> Yeah. And it can be. >> My spirit would love to be haunted. So, we should go this weekend.
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>> So, we should get that [ __ ] going. >> Yes, let's do that. >> We really should. Um, also like I that
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just made me think of when you got upset that I had um invited like the spirit of
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a ghost. >> Oh, and then it reminded you of the Tik Tok videos. >> And it reminded me of the Tik Tok videos
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because I got to shout this girl out. She is so [ __ ] funny and I need her to know that she makes me laugh when I
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need to laugh and I appreciate that about her. >> She also has my mannerisms down.
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>> Yeah, it's actually like shocking >> to a tea. >> So on Tik Tok >> Tik Tok >> her at is Nicole Kes writes and it's
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Nicole Kites Cr I Tes Nicole Critz writes >> crit writes and she is so funny. >> So [ __ ] funny. I love her her I
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almost said her channel. >> I love her channel. Like and subscribe. >> Well, it's it it uh it goes into the
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next thing we're talking about. >> Oh, yeah. It does a little bit. >> Go like and subscribe to her Tik Tok.
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>> Like it. Smash that like button. >> Smash smash that follow. >> But yeah, her Tik Tok is really funny
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and she's just great. So follow her. Like blow her [ __ ] up because she's great. Um, she does like she'll take
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audio from Old Morbid and rewatch her episodes and scream actually >> and she'll just kind of like uh lip sync
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to them, but she's so [ __ ] good at them. And she also makes me remember some of the funnier things that have
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happened and I appreciate that. >> I know cuz she goes back to like the very early days of morbid sometimes and
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I'm like, "Oh my god, we are funny." >> I'm like, "Oh, look at that." >> Like, lol.
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>> That was funny. >> I also think it's weird. I feel like my voice has changed like throughout the
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years cuz I was 21 22 when we started this. I'm like, damn. Does your voice change within that time period?
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>> Yeah, we're like whole different people. >> It's crazy. I mean, I very much am a
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very different gal than when we started. >> I mean, as we all should be. >> Yeah. You know, keep growth, babe.
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>> Growth. >> But we also like, you know, just a little maybe that was like a little
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little tease that we just said. >> Smash that like button. >> Smash that like button. Like and
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subscribe. >> Speaking of >> channel, all that [ __ ] Uh we have a pretty fun collab that's coming out on
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Monday. And yeah, I mean this Monday because we're caught up, babe. >> Current [ __ ]
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>> So I mean this Monday. Uh it's going to be fun. I think you guys are going to
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dig it. We had a [ __ ] blast with it. And it's it's I don't I don't want to give
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too much away. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> It's a collab. >> You'll hear it. You'll see it.
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>> It's a lengthy collab. >> That's what that's all you need to know. >> It's great.
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>> It's great. >> It was so fun. >> It's so much fun. >> And it's not the only one of its kind.
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>> Nope, it's not. And that's all I have to say about that. It's a lengthy collab
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for sure. >> It is. I need this Baja blast to hit. Today was a Let me tell you, today was a
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a day that required a Baja blast. >> Yeah. Sometimes like just people be people in, you know.
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>> Dear God, they should. >> None of you. >> No, of course not. Literally none of
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you. You guys are You guys are great. >> You guys rule. It's just like >> other people though.
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>> The people that come from us. >> Yeah. I think it's just one of those. I'm re-watching um Housewives of New
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Jersey right now and all I can think is Teresa's tagline when she goes, "If you're not about the Namaste, get the
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hell away." >> Honestly, that's the vibe we need to take on in our own lives. >> Frankly, if you're not about the
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Namaste, stay the hell away. >> Like, get the hell away. I forget exactly what it is, but she's so funny.
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>> Oh, did I tell you guys that I got to go see Danny go? >> Not what I thought you were going to
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say. I thought you were gonna bring up Marcus. >> Oh, probably gonna bring up Marcus.
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Breaking news. >> I know. Just for for my parents out there and teachers >> and and Tit and Tits.
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>> Um, my kids love Danny Go. I'm sure many of your kids also love Danny Go or kids
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in your life. Um, we got to go see him live because he came to Boston with the kids.
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>> Hell yeah. >> We had a [ __ ] blast and they were so sweet. >> Mhm. >> My youngest loves Gerald. who doesn't?
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>> And was so excited to see him. So, like Gerald, shout out to you for like making
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her day. >> Um, but like Danny Gro go crew was so sweet and the show was so great. If
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you're thinking of taking your kids, I highly recommend it. She facetimed me for part of it and I was living for that
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garbage. >> Give me that garbage. Garbage. >> Going to take out the trash. It just
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goes so hard. >> It was great. My kids dance, we danced the entire time. I was exhausted at the
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end of it. >> I bet I would have had a blast. I would have lost my mind. >> Oh yeah, it was amazing.
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>> I would have gone so hard. >> That was really great. And >> and Marcus >> and Marcus. Um just as a final note
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before we get into this. Um have any of you followed Marcus the Worm? >> I'm going to remove South Carolina.
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>> I literally don't know how to explain this and I need you to just look it up.
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>> I'm irritated. >> I am mildly irritated. >> Quite I was irritated. Quite irritated.
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That tells you everything you need to know. Um, but he's he's brought us great joy.
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>> Yeah. Sorry, South Carolina. He did in fact remove >> He did in fact remove you.
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>> But you need to understand he was irritated. >> He was irritated. >> Okay. >> It's you got to look it up on TikTok.
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Everybody just go look right now. If you're driving, pull over. Be late to work for Marcus's sake.
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>> And I got to know if you guys think it's as funny as I think cuz it it made me
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cry laughing. >> Yeah, I think it's very funny. Like I lol hard at it. You raffle.
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>> It feeds myself. >> You raffle. C. >> I do. >> Roll on the floor laughing crying.
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>> And I think you can like look it up on YouTube and stuff too. So if you don't
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have Tik Tok, it's okay. Just look it up on YouTube. >> Marcus is Marcus the Worm.
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>> You'll know him when you see him. >> You You sure certainly will. And that's all I can say about that. All right.
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>> Okay. >> Okay. Well, I think we that's enough bid nasty. If you can even consider Marcus
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bid nasty, which you can write him off on your taxes. Just kidding. You'll get in trouble for that.
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>> You will. >> Just kidding. That's a federal offense. Um so we are going to be talking today um
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about a case that is close to us because a listener of ours and now friend of the
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pod >> friend of the pod Nikki. >> Yeah. Nikki asked that we cover her mother's case and we said abso
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fuckingutulutely we will Nikki. Truly. And honestly, Nikki's amazing. Uh we're going to be talking about her mother's
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case. >> Yeah. Her mother Stephanie >> today. And um we're gonna we'll make sure we're like linking to all of
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Nikki's stuff in the show notes because Nikki also has a podcast. It's called Poppy Killed Mommy and it's P A P I
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Poppy. Um where she talks all about her mother and her mother's case and her quest to get justice and to get answers
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about her mother's case. Um, she's been like just she's she's like as far as daughters go
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>> ultimate >> like A+. She's a daughter. >> She is elite. >> She is not a daughter. She
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>> she is the daughter because she has worked tirelessly to get her mom's case >> just talked about. Just get it looked at
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again. Like just get her mom's like memory and the facts about this case out to as many ears as she possibly can. and
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she's doing an amazing job at it. >> She really is. >> And any parent would be really proud of
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having a child like that. So like, props to Nikki. >> Props to Nikki. Also, props to other
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friend of the pod, Sarah Turney. Sarah, >> who's been helping Nikki. >> Sarah Turney is a badass. I'm sure you
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guys know that. And if you don't, >> Yeah. >> Now you know. >> Well, Nikki is the daughter, not a
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daughter. Sarah is the advocate sister slash all of the above. >> Yeah. Truly. So, if you haven't like
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right off the bat, make sure you go follow I mean Nikki's on Tik Tok a lot where she's like getting you know she
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she posts a lot about this and about like her journey going through all this on Tik Tok and it's Nikki Wasalian Nikki
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was or Nicole was her name on there is Nikki Ni Ki. Um, but again, we're going to link it so you can just make sure
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click on all that >> and make sure you follow her podcast and also make sure you follow Sarah Turney
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and Sarah Attorney's podcast, Voices for Justice, because those are two family of
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true crime run pods that definitely deserve to be blown up. >> Yeah, all the listens in the world
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>> and they're like great people. >> All right, so with all that being said, let's get into the unfortunate events
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of, you know, what really did take place here. So, a little past 1:30 a.m. on July 9th, 1993, an emergency call came
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into the 911 dispatch center in I think it's Yavapai County uh from a man named Russell Peterson. He was requesting an
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ambulance for his girlfriend Stephanie Wasalian. So, he told the dispatcher that he and Stephanie had gotten into a
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fight. Somehow that fight had ended with her being shot and she was now bleeding
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heavily, >> which how does a fight end that way? >> It should never end that way.
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>> It should never end that way. >> Officers from the Sedona Police Department were immediately dispatched
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obviously to the couple's res residence on Coffee Pot Drive, >> which I just feel like nothing bad
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should ever happen on a street named Coffee Pot Drive. >> Absolutely not. So sad. It should be
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like, you know, a cozy a cozy place. >> The coziest of all. >> Nothing bad happens.
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>> Yeah, exactly. >> It's very Stars Holoesque. >> It is. That's immediately what I thought
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of. >> So, they arrived at the residence about 5 minutes later. They let themselves in
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uh through the front door and announced themselves, of course. And Russell came from what they later learned was the
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couple's bedroom. He stuck his head out. He was uh still actually on the phone with the 911 dispatcher at the time. And
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immediately officer saw that his hands were covered in what appeared to be blood.
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>> Oh boy. So now that they were at the scene, he hung up with the dispatcher and led them back into the bedroom where
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they found Stephanie's body on the floor with a quote large caliber gunshot wound
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to her throat. >> Oh my god. >> Yeah. As far as the officers could tell at that point, Stephanie was dead.
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Likely from the gunshot wound obviously and the loss of blood which had now pulled around the right side of her
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head. But more concerning was that in addition to the presence of Russell Peterson, there was also a small child
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in the room >> just sitting on the bed. And she looked, this will break your heart. It's [ __ ]
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terrible. She looked up at the officers and told them, "That's my mommy." >> Oh my god.
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>> Now, luckily, they got her out of there and they got Russell into the next room
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and they started going through everything. in the living room. He explained that that was his
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four-year-old daughter that he shared with Stephanie. He said he didn't >> four years old and she saw her mother in
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that state. >> Oh, that just that shatters >> you could be 2 years old and you would
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never get that image out of your head. Like that poor girl. >> No child should ever have to see that.
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>> And just because at the top of this we kind of told you a little bit about the
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case. This is not Nikki. This is Nikki's little sister. So he said Russell said he didn't think
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that she saw what had happened like saw the shooting but obviously she saw the aftermath. Yeah.
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>> And he said he pro she probably saw him do uh CPR on Stephanie. So he he was telling them I tried CPR. I did this and
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she was here for that. >> So back in the bedroom, Officer Scott Brooks kind of just started to survey
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the scene. He saw that Stephanie was lying in the northern end of the room just beside the bed and she was just
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dressed in a green night shirt and red underwear just like she was going to get into bed soon. You know, just PJs.
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>> On the floor nearby, he saw a 44 caliber magnum revolver. There was blood evidence on the wall and the table just
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above Stephanie's head and also a bullet embedded in the wall with this is awful.
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What appeared to be hair attached to it. >> Oh god. And then there was also a gold
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chain necklace lying on the floor underneath Stephanie's arm, similar to another one that he found on the floor
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by the doorway. >> Okay. >> So, out in the living room, the other officers started to question Russell
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Peterson about the events of that night. He explained that he and Stephanie weren't married, but they'd been living
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together for about four years, and they did have one child together. And there was another daughter in the home, Nikki.
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Um Nikki is Stephanie's daughter from a previous relationship, and he said that Nikki was sleeping when the shooting
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occurred. According to Russell, he'd been working for most of that night. And when he came home later, he could tell
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that Stephanie had been drinking and had spent more than two hours on the phone with her ex-boyfriend, who was the
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father of her other daughter, Nikki. >> And this is Russell saying this. >> This is Russell saying this, by the way.
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Yeah, >> thank you for clarifying that. There he said that there had been some tension
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between the two of them in recent weeks. And he said that stemmed from the fact that he was um invited into a culinary
00:13:53
program in Ithaca in New York. So it was like a ways away. >> And not only did he plan to go, but he
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had already bought the plane ticket and was leaving the following day. >> Well, damn.
00:14:03
>> So he kind of like decided this on his own and didn't I think from the sounds
00:14:07
of it, Stephanie kind of was like, "Yeah, what about your family here? >> Can you include me in this decision?"
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>> Yeah. So, at some point, their argument started getting heated, and he said Stephanie left the room, went into the
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bedroom, and came back a few minutes later holding the 44 Magnum that uh Russell's father had given him. So,
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Russell said he was sitting on the couch at the time, and that Stephanie raised the gun in his direction, fired a single
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round, which struck the wall next to his head, and then said that she was going to blow his head off. Now, remember,
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this is him talking about this. Yeah, this is from his point of view because obviously Stephanie cannot say her point
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of view. >> Exactly. However, rather than firing a second shot, he uh she walked back down
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the hallway toward their bedroom and Russell started following behind her. According to him, when they reached the
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bedroom, they started struggling over the gun just inside of the bedroom door and that caused the gun to go off.
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That's when Stephanie was shot. After the shooting, he said he called 911 immediately. They instructed him to
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start chest compressions until officers could arrive and that's just what he did. So that night he was taken into
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custody obviously and the two children were removed from the home and placed in temporary foster care until they could
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figure out a suitable guard uh guardian which is just it's such a sad horrifying
00:15:25
to think about traumatizing >> event for those two girls. Like not only did the younger child see her mother in that
00:15:35
state, she obviously wondered what had happened here and then 10-year-old Nikki gets woken up and told that now this is
00:15:44
her reality. >> Yeah. Like this is your life now. Like this is what you have to do.
00:15:47
>> And now you're placed in a in a home where like you don't know these people. >> Yeah.
00:15:51
>> Awful. >> Like your whole life got turned upside down in one instant while you slept
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>> in which >> it's like you're She was 10. Mhm. >> You're 10 years old. >> 10 and four.
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>> You should go to sleep every night >> without care in the world. >> Care in the world
00:16:07
>> and no worries. >> And you should wake up the next morning without a care in the world. And it's
00:16:12
like it kills me when this kind of stuff happens >> because you just get thrust into
00:16:16
adulthood when something like that happens to you. You become an adult at 10 years old or like you know like the
00:16:22
adult problems get put on you at that age. I also like whenever it's like and obviously um this is like technically an
00:16:30
unsolved case >> correct because like they haven't decide they haven't officially decided that
00:16:37
there's fault or what had actually happened >> uh just putting that out there >> which is why I think everybody can kind
00:16:43
of gather at the top why Nikki has a podcast. >> Yeah. So she, you know, she can better
00:16:47
explain that, I'm sure. And >> but and obviously I'm just speaking from like, you know, what I'm hearing here is
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whenever like I hear a gun goes off during an argument a lot of times like you're just like explain to me the
00:17:01
mechanics of that >> because you've shot a gun, right? >> I have. Yeah. >> I've never shot a gun. You have to like
00:17:08
pull the trigger. I mean, my I haven't shot a lot of guns and it's like but from when what I actually did, it takes
00:17:15
a lot of I mean, it takes pressure to shoot a gun like >> and I think I'm I'm just confused like
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how this happens like how you're struggling and somehow >> somebody's finger goes on the trigger,
00:17:26
>> right? >> You know, like that's cuz you have to get your finger into the trigger, you
00:17:30
know, like >> although there can Well, not only that, but like guns can misfire, right? Like
00:17:35
if you drop it or something like that. >> Yeah, I'm sure. I don't know about this, but we've seen it happen both
00:17:45
ways. It just me being like >> how did the gun go off by accident, you know? Like I always question it at least
00:17:52
like just need to see like the mechanics of it. >> Yeah, that's true. >> But again, I'm not saying that happened
00:17:58
or didn't happen here. I'm just >> I'm just questioning. >> Just questioning. Well, here's the
00:18:02
thing. to the crime scene technicians. The evidence seemed to kind of match the description of the events that Russell
00:18:08
Peterson described. >> Okay. >> And remember, we're at the very beginning here. >> Yeah.
00:18:14
[Music] In the living room, there was a glass of beer on a side table and a glass of wine
00:18:28
on a coffee table, indicating that drinking had happened that night, which >> by both of them
00:18:33
>> by both of them, which is pretty regular in an American home. >> Yeah. In the living room wall just to
00:18:38
the right of the front door, they discovered a bullet and a bullet jacket lodged in the wall, which did support
00:18:43
Russell's claim that Stephanie had fired one round at him uh before they went back in the bedroom. And the evidence
00:18:50
collected from the bedroom also seemed to support Russell's description of that night. But again, he was still in
00:18:56
custody. So the next morning, he placed a call to his boss at um I think it's Petro's restaurant, and his boss was
00:19:02
Peter Korn, and he asked Peter to come down to the station. Peter came down after talking to Russell for a short
00:19:08
time. He agreed to take uh temporary custody of the children. >> Very sweet. I hope he was a good guy. I
00:19:14
don't know anything about him. >> I hope he was. >> Uh but then he left the station. About
00:19:18
an hour later though, Peter Korn called the station and asked to speak to Chief Bob Irish. And that was the first of two
00:19:25
calls between Korn and Irish that morning. Now, according to Peter uh Peter Korn, he knew both Stephanie and
00:19:31
Russell very well because they both they both worked for him at the restaurant. He confirmed Russell's statement to the
00:19:37
police about Stephanie having been in distress in recent weeks about, you know, Russell probably going away,
00:19:43
Russell leaving. And he said, "Yeah, she was very particularly upset about that."
00:19:47
>> Yeah. Which I can understand that. >> Yeah. It was going to be a 10-day seminar in New York. And it sounds like
00:19:51
it was, you know, not exactly like, you know, from the sounds of it, it sounds like it was not exactly decided on
00:19:57
together or discussed in a way where she felt like she had a lot of say in it. >> Exactly. And that's hard when you have a
00:20:03
family. >> Yeah. And just to clarify, like they live in Arizona. New York is across the
00:20:07
country. >> A long way away. >> That's 10 days by yourself. That's 10 days trying to figure out how you go to
00:20:12
work and the children are taken care of. Like >> who knows who is around to support the
00:20:17
kids. >> Exactly. That's a lot. Like that's Yeah. So during the calls, Peter also revealed
00:20:21
some important information about uh Stephanie and Russell's relationship. Basically that it was always somewhat
00:20:28
strained. >> Okay. >> In an interview with another coworker, Katherine Dler, investigators learned
00:20:33
that Stephanie had a really difficult childhood. >> And this is awful. She had been abused
00:20:38
in many ways by her mother and her stepfather. >> So why do pe I will never understand
00:20:44
this. >> Yeah. >> It's like why? Like why why a kid? Like that's what I don't get.
00:20:50
Like it's like I it just will never I'm glad it doesn't make sense to me, but it'll never make sense to me that I'm
00:20:56
like why are you picking on a kid? >> It's broken people who have never taken the time to heal themselves.
00:21:03
>> No. And it's like and then they just pick on the and it's like a kid nine times out of 10 you created.
00:21:08
>> Well, that's the thing. It's like >> like that's your flesh and blood right there. you, most people in their
00:21:14
lifetime are going to have to heal from something and you should do that before you have children.
00:21:19
>> You absolutely should. >> If it's, you know, if you need to do it while you have kids, by all means, like,
00:21:24
at least you're doing it. >> Make a valiant effort out of it. >> But you got to heal yourself when kids
00:21:28
enter the picture. >> But you can't heal yourself by inflicting the same kind of terror on
00:21:33
your children that you possibly went through. >> That's where generational trauma comes
00:21:37
in. And trust me, it sucks. You should be like your parents should you should be your kid's safe place 100% of the
00:21:44
time. >> 100% of the time. And to not be your kid's safe place and again we're talking
00:21:49
about like Stephanie's childhood here >> like that's [ __ ] up. And look and it's
00:21:54
like and you're going to put them like in a situation where they're going out into the world disadvantaged
00:22:01
because they never had that safe place. So, they're going to have to work to figure out one how to be that safe place
00:22:07
for someone else >> and what that even is, >> which she sounds like she figured out
00:22:11
how to be that safe place for her kids. >> She sure [ __ ] did. >> But she's also going to have to find
00:22:16
that safe place in other people. And sometimes that's where the problem comes. >> Oh my god. So true.
00:22:21
>> Because you end up going and finding it. You don't find it. You find it. You find
00:22:26
somebody that's like your parents who treat you terribly. So, I'm not saying that's 100% what happened here. I'm just
00:22:32
saying, you know, it happens. It's so sad that that's most often the case when you look for your safe space in somebody
00:22:39
else. Like there are obviously times where you you do find your safe space in somebody and you could be that lucky.
00:22:44
But >> for sure, >> it's it's it doesn't happen often. >> Yeah. And that's the thing. It's really
00:22:49
sad cuz you again you disadvantage them to picking another safe place. >> Yeah. Exactly.
00:22:54
>> Out in life. Well, so according to this co-orker, Katherine Dler, Stephanie said
00:22:59
that her previous relationship with the father of her oldest daughter, Nikki, had also been physically and emotionally
00:23:04
abusive. So, it does seem like she looked for that safe space. And unfortunately, she got prayed upon
00:23:09
again. >> Yeah, she looked for a safe space and she looked to the only thing >> she was used to, which was somebody
00:23:15
treating her poorly. And that sucks. >> It's a cycle because according to Stephanie's sister, Kathleen, Stephanie
00:23:20
confided in her that Russell had also been physically abusive to her. Again, I'm not stating that as a fact. I'm just
00:23:26
saying that that came up in a conversation that Stephanie's sister had with somebody.
00:23:32
>> Yeah. >> So, who we were able to speak to, as I'm sure you know at this point, was
00:23:36
Stephanie's daughter, Nikki. And that's when we really got a closer look into who Stephanie was and what she meant to
00:23:43
her family, specifically her two daughters, >> and why I can so confidently say that
00:23:47
Nick Stephanie figured out how to be that safe space. >> 100,000 gajillion%. This will bring you
00:23:53
to tears. And the uh these are Nikki's words. I'm reading directly from what she wrote us.
00:23:58
>> Nikki said, "I had my mother in my life for only 10 years. While investigating
00:24:02
her cold case murder after 28 years, that's when I finally discovered who my mother was as a person. But let's start
00:24:08
out with what I remember. My mother was a 10, an absolute model, gorgeous, beautiful inside and out. She
00:24:15
>> She's gorgeous. >> Nikki is spitting truths here because her mom was a hard 10. We saw a picture
00:24:21
of her and I was like that woman is she's gorgeous and she just radiates like I feel like people like that are
00:24:27
kind inside because they it radiates out of them. >> I was going to say she what the outside
00:24:32
was definitely showing what was on the inside. >> Mhm. Nikki said she took great pride in
00:24:36
her appearance and grew her hair out all the way down her back. That's one of the
00:24:40
things I will always remember is her gorgeous long hair and how much care she took in her upkeep. My mother enjoyed
00:24:45
holidays. She would dress up and decorate the home for the big holidays and the little. She lived for the small
00:24:51
moments, and she really did live for the moments with her children. My mom was a
00:24:55
hands-on mom. She enjoy She enjoyed dressing up her girls and taking family photos every Christmas. She was proud of
00:25:01
the family that she created. My mom would keep up with the trends of the '9s. And I remember her buying my
00:25:06
clothes to match Sabrina the Teenage Witch because, >> hell yeah. >> And I love because she just thought
00:25:11
Melissa Joan Hart was the cutest and she wanted her daughter to look the same. for her to choose Sabrina the Teenage
00:25:17
Witch as like I'm gonna dress my girls like that. I'm like game. >> Oh, that's my girl right there. I think
00:25:23
we we share a kindred. >> Yeah. Immediately we were like Stephanie. She's Nikki said I remembered
00:25:28
I remember my mom encouraged me to read. She would buy me the newest RL Stein Goosebumps or Fear Street.
00:25:34
>> I would come home from school and a new book would be on my bed encouraging me
00:25:37
to learn. My mom loved family gatherings at Grandma Be's. Lots of memories in that house. I took out the address. Uh,
00:25:45
I remember one time we were swimming and my mom's friend yelled over, "Stacy, what's your favorite color?" By the way,
00:25:50
um, people called Stephanie Stacy, too, like a nickname. >> Yeah. >> So, she said, "Stacy, what's your
00:25:56
favorite color?" Nikki said she took a drag off her cigarette and responded very cooly, "Gor of weed and money."
00:26:03
I don't know if green was actually my mom's favorite color, but I know that when I was 5 years old, I heard her say
00:26:08
that and 35 years later, I still remember my mom's answer as she took that drag on that cigarette and answered
00:26:14
back, "Green." >> What a badass. >> I think that's just hilarious. >> That's just such a funny way to answer
00:26:20
>> and like just like such a '9s cool girl moment, you know? >> Yeah. >> She said, "Growing up, I knew that my
00:26:25
mom had a hard life. So, when she was an adult, all she wanted was to create a family of her own. I get that. My mother
00:26:31
had no great aspirations of going to college or pursuing a career in medicine or a law degree. She just wanted to have
00:26:36
a family. And that's what she did at the age of 19 when she was born. 7 years later, my little sister would be born.
00:26:42
Four years after that, my mother will be taken from us, leaving two young children alone,
00:26:48
>> which is just awful. She sounds like such a cool like the goosebumps of it all the leaving the book on the bed when
00:26:55
she would come home. >> That's the best. >> Like that kind of [ __ ] the [ __ ] you do
00:26:58
that I'm like I wish that I didn't have that. Like I love that. >> That's such like it's those little and
00:27:05
and obviously look it's those little things you do for your kids that they remember.
00:27:10
>> Leaving a book on their bed for when they get home. >> Like something so simple like that means
00:27:14
like that has shaped Nikki's entire life. Like those are the main memories that she has of her mom and obviously
00:27:21
because her mom was taken from her at such a young age. But those little things have an impact
00:27:25
>> because I vividly remember and it's always going to be like very vivid I can smell them kind of memories. My mom
00:27:34
would leave little decorations for holidays like on my bed. Like so for for Halloween if she went to HomeGoods while
00:27:41
I was at school, she would pick me up a couple of things and leave them on my bed so I could decorate my room.
00:27:46
>> So cute. >> And I can like literally smell like the environment when I walked in and saw
00:27:52
those. It's like that kind of like really fresh memory. And I think that's what Nikki's talking about with that
00:27:57
like green comment >> that you can just like those are the kind of memories that you literally can
00:28:01
like touch. >> They're like imprinted on you. >> Yeah. And she would leave beanie babies
00:28:04
on the front porch when I would come off the bus. >> I love that. >> Yeah. And it's like those kind of things
00:28:10
your kids will never forget those things and they're little. When I was in high school, I was in high school when I
00:28:14
moved in with my grandparents. And my grandpa, every Valentine's Day, would leave me a mug on the counter from like
00:28:21
a really good candy store and put all this yummy candy in it. Every single Valentine's Day, he'd get one for like
00:28:28
Halloween. Like all the fun holidays, he'd give me something little like that. And it's like those are truly the things
00:28:34
that last. >> Yeah. They're little, but they're huge. And I just remember like you were just
00:28:38
saying like walking home, walking into the kitchen, I can literally smell like what was cooking for dinner and just
00:28:43
being like a >> Yep. like you thought of me. >> Oh man. >> So, so back to the case. While
00:28:49
investigators were conducting obviously a large number of interviews with friends and family, just trying to get
00:28:54
the bigger picture of who Stephanie was that we now have thanks to Nikki and of course how she ended up shot in her own
00:29:00
bedroom. The county medical examiner, Dr. Philip Keane performed the autopsy on Stephanie. Now, obviously, he
00:29:08
determined that the cause of death was the gunshot wound to Stephanie's neck, but he had some questions when it came
00:29:14
to Russell Peterson's description of the incident because in his opinion, it did
00:29:19
not in it was not entirely supported by the evidence. >> Interesting. >> So, remember, in his statement to the
00:29:24
police, Russell said that the gun had been in Stephanie's left hand when it went off. This was supported by the
00:29:30
presence of gunpowder residue on her left hand, but by all accounts, Stephanie was right-handed, so it
00:29:37
wouldn't have made sense for her to hold the gun in her non-dominant hand. >> Oh, yeah. You're right. Like that it
00:29:42
could happen, but you know, it'd be weird. And beyond that, in order to inflict the kind of contact wound that
00:29:49
she got in her neck, she would have had to have been holding the gun at a very awkward angle, which would have been
00:29:56
like unnatural under the circumstances. Like her arm wouldn't have really been able to move that way.
00:30:03
>> Well, that is where the the questions of like when a gun goes off like that come
00:30:08
into play where like you need to like lay out exactly what would have needed to happen for that injury to happen.
00:30:13
>> And sometimes you're like, doesn't line up. >> So, in his summary, Dr. Keane wrote,
00:30:19
"The character of the wound is such that it is a contact wound," which is awful.
00:30:24
>> Damn. >> And he said, "And the presence of gunpowder residue on the left hand is
00:30:28
more consistent with the deposition in a defensive posture than with any self-inflicted injury, whether
00:30:34
intentional or otherwise." >> Oh. >> So, as a result of his findings, he did list the death as a homicide.
00:30:41
>> Interesting. Very interesting that the gunpowder on the hand cuz I didn't even think of that
00:30:47
that it could be a defense thing like that it was a contact thing, >> right? >> Like that's wild.
00:30:53
>> It is interesting. >> So based on the evidence initially presented and the statements collected
00:30:58
from those who knew the couple, the case, you know, initially seemed to be pretty straightforward. It was tragic,
00:31:04
but at the end of the day, pretty routine. Mhm. >> Now, the coroner's report was definitely
00:31:08
a catalyst to a lot of questions because now that indicated that there was way more to this story and now this death is
00:31:15
a homicide. >> Yeah. >> But that wasn't the only thing complicating what investigators thought
00:31:19
was going to be an open shut case. Not long after Stephanie's death, Detective Walt Spokes sat down with the couple's
00:31:26
younger daughter to find out if she had seen anything that evening, cuz remember, she was awake when they got
00:31:30
the room. >> And they just wanted to see if she could add anything of value to the narrative.
00:31:35
And throughout the interview, he did his best to avoid leading questions, of course, just really stuck to broad
00:31:40
questions about what she remembered. And he asked her, "What happened at home tonight?" And she just looked at him and
00:31:47
said, "My mother died. My dad killed her." That wrecks me. >> Yeah, that must have wrecked those
00:31:57
invest like to hear a little sweet little baby >> who has been through hell say that to
00:32:03
you. I don't know how I don't know how you recover from that and just like obviously your job is a part of your
00:32:09
life but then you just go back to your personal life after >> just like carry that
00:32:14
>> like that's heavy that's heavy. >> Yeah. >> The interview with Stephanie and Russell's daughter it's it's pretty
00:32:20
brief but there are certain revelations made during that discussion that would be pretty significant going forward.
00:32:26
>> The most important being that after she heard the commotion in her parents' bedroom, she went to see what was
00:32:30
happening. And not only did she see her mom lying on the floor, while Russell appeared to be retrieving the gun from
00:32:36
the closet, it wasn't out yet. >> Oh. >> But that meant that directly after the shooting took place, Russell not only
00:32:45
handled the weapon, but also appeared to have moved it from where it had fallen from Stephanie's hand.
00:32:51
>> Oh, >> yeah. >> Interesting. And and again, this is from the discussion with Nikki's younger
00:32:57
sister. >> Exactly. So given the new information and the coroner's report, Detective
00:33:02
Spoke sat down with Russell for another interview and was like, "Whoa, lots of new information here." And
00:33:08
that's when he changed his story in some very significant ways. >> Oh. When he was initially interviewed
00:33:14
immediately after the shooting, he told investigators, like we said, Stephanie had argued. They struggled with the gun.
00:33:19
It went off. Stephanie was killed. But now all of a sudden, he claimed that to the best of his recol uh recollection,
00:33:25
Stephanie fired the gun at him while he was on the couch. then went into the in the bedroom. He followed her and when he
00:33:32
reached the bedroom, he arrived just in time to witness Stephanie fall to the floor after she shot herself.
00:33:40
>> What? >> Yeah. Which she would have had to have done with her left hand, which is
00:33:45
>> at a very unnatural angle. >> At a very unnatural angle. Yeah. >> And in the neck.
00:33:50
>> Yep. Like right on the neck. >> Okay. So, the previous explanation of an accidental shooting during a struggle
00:33:56
would have accounted for the presence of gunpowder on his hands. But if Stephanie
00:34:00
shot herself like he was now claiming, they asked him how did he get gunpowder on his hands?
00:34:06
>> Yeah. >> Cuz now you're removing yourself from even holding the gun at all. >> Yeah.
00:34:11
>> And they said for that matter, why did their daughter tell police that she saw
00:34:15
him taking the gun to the closet? Yeah. >> Where did that like when did that happen
00:34:19
throughout the evening? For the most part, his second interview matched the contents of his initial
00:34:24
statements. He claimed he got home from work. He found Stephanie drunk, agitated. Their conversation was calm,
00:34:30
things got heated, and he said he did his best not to become angry. He told detectives, "I don't have the buttons
00:34:36
that you can push to maybe want to put me into that mode," which is like a bab everybody has
00:34:41
buttons. >> Yeah, everybody has a button, but like not to be pushed into a mode of handling
00:34:46
a gun. >> Yeah. And then eventually things escalated to where Stephanie got the gun, fired a shot at him, and then
00:34:52
that's where his story changes again. According to him, after the shot was fired, he fell over on the couch and it
00:34:58
took him a few seconds to collect himself. And that's when Stephanie went into the bedroom. He said, "I go I go
00:35:04
through the hall and the door is 3/4 of the way closed. I know I told you guys of this confrontation, of this struggle,
00:35:11
and I'm not excluding that maybe it did or did not happen, and that's like the point of darkness for me." So now it's
00:35:16
it maybe did happen, maybe didn't happen, >> and now you don't remember anything that
00:35:20
it's the uh it's it's when people claim the the blackout happens that I'm like, uh oh.
00:35:26
>> And it's like So that's your third story. Yeah. Now, >> and now we're now we're including a
00:35:30
complete blackout. >> A blackout. >> Yeah. >> Which like if you count if you can't
00:35:34
account for that time. >> Yeah. >> That's not good. >> Like uhoh. >> Essentially, he was recanting his
00:35:40
previous statement now that they had struggled over the gun. And now apparently the one where he immediately
00:35:45
walked in and found Stephanie Stephanie lying on the floor and now he that we were just left with this blackout.
00:35:51
>> And he said he didn't regain uh full consciousness until he saw her fall to the floor. He said, "I don't know what
00:35:56
happened. I may know. It'll come to me. I never I don't think I ever put my hands on her."
00:36:02
>> So it's like now you don't know what happened. And how did you just black out? Like now you're like you just like
00:36:08
went unconscious. [Music] And it's like, okay, I'm playing devil's advocate here for sure.
00:36:26
>> Yeah, >> traumatic events can make you black out, >> but you already definitively told one
00:36:33
story and then you said it has all the pieces. >> Actually, that's wrong. And then you
00:36:36
definitively told another story where you remembered everything and now all of a sudden you don't remember. If you
00:36:43
doubt, you got to say that from the jump. >> That's the thing. No matter what, whether like whatever outcome actually
00:36:48
happened here or whatever process happened here, >> you're not making yourself look good
00:36:55
here. No. By changing the story up 100%. >> The second you start changing your story
00:36:59
is the second up. Exactly. So he claimed that after he regained his composure in
00:37:04
the bedroom, he saw the gun on the floor and his instinct was to pick it up and to move it out of the way. So he grabbed
00:37:10
it, he put it back in its leather holster and placed it on the shelf in the closet. But then he said, "Something
00:37:15
clicked off in my mind that said, "No, you can't do that, Russell." Meaning he realized he shouldn't move the weapon.
00:37:21
He went over to the closet and he took it out again and put it back on the floor where he'd gotten it from. And he
00:37:26
said that's when their daughter appeared at the bedroom door. So now that accounted for her seeing her father move
00:37:31
the gun >> come back out. >> So now we're accounting for a story that we know the daughter told which again if
00:37:36
that is what happened why wouldn't you just say that initially >> from the jump >> right just say like yeah and there was
00:37:42
this moment where I went to put it back and I was like oh [ __ ] that could look
00:37:45
suspicious so I took it back out and I think my daughter appeared there. Like why wouldn't you just say that story?
00:37:50
Why is that suddenly coming to you now? >> You got to just say things initially.
00:37:53
>> You got to just say the story >> when you're in a situation like this obviously like people get scared. So
00:37:58
many things can be true, but >> no matter what, it looks sus when you start changing your story.
00:38:02
>> Yeah. >> So throughout the course of the interview, Detective Spokes did his best
00:38:05
to push Russell for any additional information, especially by pointing out the contradictions between his story and
00:38:11
what they now knew from the evidence. For example, now the coroner's ruling indicated that the death was a homicide,
00:38:17
but Dr. Keane was very careful to point out the angle of the entry and exit wounds and the contact burns made it
00:38:24
very unlikely to have been a suicide. So he's sitting there, the detect detective spokes is sitting there
00:38:29
telling Russell like, "Okay, so now your story is that Stephanie shot herself, but the autopsy is not showing us that."
00:38:37
>> That's the thing. The autopsy isn't going to lie. And they reenacted the shooting and the facts of the what the
00:38:45
findings were in the autopsy were verified. Yeah. It confirmed it would have been very very extremely difficult
00:38:52
if not completely impossible for Stephanie to have bent her arm in the position that she had to have to shoot
00:38:58
herself that way. >> Autopsies don't lie. >> That is just you cannot [ __ ] with an
00:39:03
autopsy. That is just they're going to tell you what happened there or what didn't happen there.
00:39:07
>> That's the thing. And it's like not only that, but then they went to the trouble
00:39:10
of reenacting it >> in the work of reenacting it and it confirmed the findings. Yeah,
00:39:14
>> that's a double impossible for her to bend her arm that way. >> Like come on, man. And I'm sorry that
00:39:25
just like >> when you change your story from there was a struggle and the gun went off to
00:39:30
then they shot themselves. >> My hunches are immediately up. Like I'm immediately like what?
00:39:36
>> Now it's now it's completely removed you out of the situation. And then you find
00:39:39
out you can't be completely removed because you have gunpowder on your hands and somebody saw you with a gun. Like
00:39:45
hello. >> So detective spokes in the interview room explained to Russell that he was
00:39:49
pretty much losing all credibility, especially because now he had changed his story like four or five times at
00:39:54
this point. >> That's not great. And to make matters worse, while he was initially pretty
00:39:58
cooperative and forthcoming, after about a week or so, he stopped returning investigators phone calls and just
00:40:04
seemed to be avoiding detectives because they couldn't continue to hold him after
00:40:07
a certain point. >> So, he did get let go of course, but then he kept getting called in for
00:40:11
interviews, but then he just eventually stopped participating in them. >> Damn. >> So, eventually Spokes and his partner
00:40:18
presented Russell with what they believed to have happened that night, which was more or less the original
00:40:23
version of events. They said, "Sure. I think a fight escalated to a struggle over the gun." And during that fight,
00:40:29
Stephanie was shot. Detective spokes said, "I'm trying to give you an opportunity to respond and to help us. I
00:40:35
mean, if this was an accident, we just want to prove it was an accident." >> Yeah.
00:40:39
>> But at that point, Russell was immovable. And just continued to say, "Nope, Stephanie shot herself and I
00:40:44
blacked out during it." >> No. >> The story that makes the least amount of sense. and the story that the forensic
00:40:52
like evidence and the autopsy proved wrong, >> right? >> So, it's like you can't keep hanging on
00:40:57
to that one. >> And they're literally sitting here being like, "We'll give you the initial story
00:41:01
that you gave us back. >> We're giving you the opportunity to just tell us this was an accident. If it was
00:41:06
an accident, tell us move from there." >> But don't take yourself completely out
00:41:10
of it now when the forensics is telling us you were in it. >> Come on. >> And don't get like shoddy and start
00:41:15
avoiding people. >> Yeah. >> Investigators in the law. Hello. >> Not good. >> So, based on the number of times that
00:41:22
his story had changed and the various pieces of contradictory evidence, detectives spokes and the other
00:41:27
investigators felt pretty strongly that Russell Peters was not being entirely forthcoming about what happened on the
00:41:32
night of Stephanie's death. But they didn't have any evidence or eyewitness testimony to prove beyond a reasonable
00:41:39
doubt that he wasn't being truthful. The coroner's report indicated that it seemed unlikely that Stephanie shot
00:41:45
herself, but that didn't mean that she couldn't have. It was just only that it would have been awkward given the
00:41:51
evidence and close to impossible. Yeah. But not impossible. >> Yeah, of course. >> And unfortunately, the only witness that
00:41:57
they did have who saw anything that night aside from Russell obviously was a small child who in addition to
00:42:04
experiencing a considerable trauma like is a is a child. >> I mean, she's three or four years old.
00:42:10
That's like she's so little, you know, like and and again, she's been through so much drama
00:42:17
>> and and you don't want to keep dragging her through this trauma. >> You don't want to keep dragging her
00:42:20
through it. She's a child, so she can't be your only witness that you can throw on the stand because unfortunately, a
00:42:26
jury isn't going to put a man away for life or for a considerable amount of time based on a three-year-old's
00:42:33
>> or four-year-old's word, you know, >> unfortunate reality. So they didn't believe what Russell was telling them,
00:42:39
but they couldn't prove that he wasn't. So there they were at a standstill. >> In the months that followed, new
00:42:44
information and leads just started to dry up because I mean, >> there's only one person involved here.
00:42:50
You're not really going to get any tips or leads. >> Yeah. >> And there just wasn't enough evidence
00:42:54
for the prosecutor to bring the case to a grand jury. So everything just petered
00:42:58
out and the investigation was shelved so that detectives could, you know, focus on more urgent matters.
00:43:05
But in the years since Stephanie's death, her family has never ever lost hope and they still want to get justice
00:43:11
for her. They still continue to push Sedona law enforcement to resolve the case.
00:43:15
>> Yeah. >> In the summer of 2020, almost a full 27 years since Stephanie's death, her
00:43:21
sister Wendy met with Sergeant Michael Dominguez from the Sedona Police Department to talk about the case. Wendy
00:43:27
restated her strong belief that Russell was definitely responsible for Stephanie's murder and was like, "Hey,
00:43:34
can you just continue this investigation, please?" Like, >> yeah, can we not just like let this go?
00:43:38
>> Yeah. Like, can we take this off the shelves? >> Which I think this is Arizona, correct,
00:43:42
Sedona? >> This is also where Sarah Attorney's sister Alyssa, her case is ongoing.
00:43:48
>> Yep. So it's just like an interesting >> but got shelved at a certain point and
00:43:51
then she was told just put enough pressure on you know like like just never stop talking about it
00:43:57
>> never stop talking about it >> always like make the public aware get the word out so that's exactly what
00:44:02
we're doing here and what Nikki's trying to do >> and what everybody else in in Stephanie's family was trying to do and
00:44:08
is trying to do >> so Wendy was urging the department to continue the investigation and Sergeant
00:44:15
uh Dominguez explained that they would continue to pursue the case to to the best of their abilities, but suggested
00:44:21
that they might be able to make more progress if the family could aid them in the investigation, which is what Sarah
00:44:26
was also told. >> Yeah. >> Specifically, he told he uh he spoke with Stephanie and Russell's daughter
00:44:32
and asked her to cooperate with them on a confrontation call, and she agreed. >> Wow. A confrontation call. And to be
00:44:40
able to agree to that. >> Yeah. >> Damn. >> Yeah. >> Like that's so scary. It's I can't
00:44:46
imagine being involved in something like that >> like that. That takes some badassery.
00:44:52
>> But as of July 20th, uh 2020, there doesn't appear to have been any additional contact between the Sedona
00:44:58
police and the family. And it's kind of unclear whether that confrontation call took place or not.
00:45:03
>> Interesting. >> So around that time that Dominguez was communicating with Wendy Wasalian, he
00:45:09
also spoke to the press about his taking another look at the case. He told a reporter from the uh Sedona Red Rocks
00:45:15
News, there was no witness other than Russell and the deceased. The children were in bed sleeping in other rooms when
00:45:20
the incident occurred. Not true necessarily. >> The autopsy report from the medical
00:45:24
examiner at the time called it a homicide, but with the advances in technology and criminology in the years
00:45:30
since Stephanie was killed, both the investigators and the family hoped that maybe they could make some progress
00:45:36
here. So he said, "Can I tell you it's a homicide with 100% certainty? No. But based on the evidence I see, there's
00:45:42
more to the story than that of a suicide. >> Yeah. It just doesn't doesn't read that
00:45:47
way at all. >> Yeah. So, he was he was on board to continue this. >> But within just a few weeks of
00:45:52
restarting their investigation, the note of optimism seemed to leave his voice. At the time that Stephanie was killed, a
00:45:59
lot of focus was put on her having held the gun in her non-dominant hand, which would have been pretty counterintuitive
00:46:06
under the circumstances. But he said, and this is a quote, he said, "The family has overfocused on the fact that
00:46:12
she was right-handed and she could have only done this with her right hand." But it's like I think I would over I
00:46:19
would >> It's not over focusing. It's just a big P. It changed everything. >> Yeah.
00:46:24
>> That's when >> you have a dominant hand. >> Well, and that's when investigators went
00:46:28
to him and said like, "Hey, here's what's in the report." And that's when the story started changing. So, I don't
00:46:33
think that's overfocusing. I think that's >> I think that opened up a little bit.
00:46:37
Yeah, exactly. >> I think them focusing on that at all made him change his story a little bit,
00:46:42
it seems, cuz they brought it up and the story changed. So, it's like it was good
00:46:46
that it was brought up. >> That's the thing. If I if if the coroner's report is like the initial
00:46:50
reason that caused doubt and it caused him to change his story, I get pretty [ __ ] hung up on that, too.
00:46:55
>> Well, and also it's like don't say that they're overfocusing on it. You have a
00:46:59
dominant hand and you do things with that dominant hand. And if you're trying to kill yourself, you're not going to
00:47:05
want to [ __ ] it up by using your non-dominant hand. So, I mean, that's just that's a very
00:47:11
>> for forgive the the word I have to say, but morbid thing to say, >> but it's true.
00:47:16
>> Yeah. >> It's just that doesn't make sense. And you do have to think about the logics
00:47:20
involved here. >> You're right. >> And to say they're overfocused on it. No, I think it just is a piece of the
00:47:25
puzzle that makes sense. >> Exactly. Well, he said and he did say it seemed unlikely that anybody, like you
00:47:30
just said, would take the time to switch hands before shooting themselves, but at
00:47:34
the same time, he said it wasn't out of the realm of possibility. >> Okay. And I can agree with that.
00:47:39
>> Yeah. So, he took the original coroner's report to a new medical examiner to get
00:47:43
a second opinion, and the second opinion turned out to be inconclusive, >> which is infuriating.
00:47:50
>> Infuriating. And also like I don't know that this is the case, but it's like I
00:47:54
don't think that one medical examiner is going to want to step on the toes of another one.
00:47:58
>> I'm sure that who knows if there's like some kind of you know like you don't want to be the one that overturns that.
00:48:04
>> It's like I wish you could be brought to several. >> Yeah. >> And have them all kind of like brain
00:48:09
trust it. >> Exactly. >> Even have them all like a few of them work together to figure out cuz when you
00:48:14
have a few of those great minds together, you could probably come up with a better way to do it. Well,
00:48:19
Dominguez said about the medical examiner, he said he told me that based on what he had in front of him, he was
00:48:24
not able to make an assessment in terms of manner. Manor being suicide or homicide or unknown. I think that was a
00:48:30
fair assessment and I trust Dr. Nine because he's been doing autopsies for a very long time. But I think it also
00:48:37
holds weight that he couldn't make a decision. >> That's the thing. If some somebody who's
00:48:41
been somebody who's been doing autopsies for many many years can't really conclusively come up with what happened
00:48:48
and that's big. >> Yeah. And can't say that that was a suicide. >> And that tells you something,
00:48:54
>> right? So obviously there's challenges here, but the good thing is that uh Sergeant Dominguez restated his
00:48:59
intention his intention to pursue the investigation as far as it would take him, but he was pretty careful to avoid
00:49:05
making any promises. Basically, he echoed what the original investigators felt. He they really couldn't prove
00:49:11
anything from a legal standpoint, and there just wasn't enough evidence. >> And despite his best efforts, the
00:49:17
renewed interest in the case didn't come up with any new leads. There was just nothing to go off of. And within a short
00:49:23
time, he found himself at another dead end. >> Oh, so infuriating. >> So, just they feel like there's nowhere left to
00:49:31
go. But that is where the family steps in, and it's always where the family steps in. and usually moves things
00:49:37
along. >> So, in the years since the second investigation just stalled out, Stephanie's family have just been
00:49:42
working tirelessly to keep her memory alive and achieve any kind of justice for her case. In 2022, they worked with
00:49:50
the local Fox affiliate in Phoenix to produce a two-part news story on the case, which obviously celebrated
00:49:56
Stephanie's life, but also highlighted a lot of the unresolved questions in the case. And like we said, most recently,
00:50:03
Stephanie's daughter Nikki has started a multi-part podcast, Poppy Killed Mommy,
00:50:08
where she's exploring the case from her perspective, >> which I think is a very important
00:50:12
perspective. >> Yes. And we urge you, urge you, urge you to go listen to that. >> Yeah. We gave you the story here.
00:50:18
>> We gave you the the cold hard facts. >> You need to hear it from her her mouth.
00:50:23
You got to like she was there. She was part of, you know, she knows Stephanie. She knows Russell. She knows all of
00:50:29
this. And like you said, you got to hear it from her mouth. So to end this on Nikki's voice before you go check out
00:50:35
her podcast, again, it's Poppy killed Mommy, here's what she told us in relation to the investigation now and
00:50:40
what she hopes moving forward. She said, "It'll take me 28 years to become involved in my mother's cold case
00:50:46
murder. I will wait for the police to do their job all my life, but I will wait in vain. At the age of 38, I request my
00:50:52
mom's case file, and I read what happened to her, and I'm blown away. I'm just blown away." One of the questions
00:50:58
you asked me was what I feel like I carry today from her and her influence. I know that I carry her rage and her
00:51:04
anger. I'm mad for the life that was taken from her and her children. I feel like I've become her warrior in my 40s,
00:51:10
in my midlife. I'm finally looking back at my childhood and seeing my mother in such a different light. I know that my
00:51:16
mom's case has made me obsessed for some kind of justice. The influence that she
00:51:20
has given me is to never give up, and I never intend to. I've contacted the police and they're telling me it's been
00:51:25
too long. I've contacted wrongful death attorneys and they're telling me the statute of limitation has expired. I'm
00:51:31
not even sure what justice looks like anymore, but I will not stop until there is some kind of accountability. Thank
00:51:37
you for taking the time to listen to the daughter of a miracle woman. >> Damn. Which just gives you chills.
00:51:44
>> That's I'm telling you guys, go listen to Nikki because >> she's going to do it.
00:51:50
>> She'll blow she'll blow you away. >> She's going to do it. There's going to be some kind of justice here. And she's
00:51:56
she reminds me very much of like she her and Sarah have that same like have that
00:52:02
same like just badassery that they're like I'm just not going to stop until and >> it's like just getting something some
00:52:11
kind of justice. >> When you love somebody that much and they make such an impact on your life
00:52:16
being like it being your mom, your sister, your friend, no matter who it is, >> you will fight to to the death for them,
00:52:23
you know. >> It's so true. It's really true. And honestly, like definitely support Nikki
00:52:30
here just to get answers. That's all she's looking for. She's looking for answers.
00:52:34
>> And like we always say, a cold case is >> never cold. That's why when they say
00:52:39
like it's been too long and it's like no, it hasn't. >> Look at the the boy in the box was
00:52:44
solved. >> Yeah. The Summerton Man. >> The Summerton Man was solved. >> Years and years and years.
00:52:48
>> They figured there's so many cases that have been solved later. >> The Golden State Killer.
00:52:53
>> Yeah. The Golden State Killer. I mean, they thought they solved Jack Jack the
00:52:56
Ripper. They didn't, but they're still trying. So, there's that. Don't get me started on that. But they're still
00:53:01
trying. And you don't give up. >> I have full hope and I hope that Nikki does, too. I think she's going to get
00:53:07
this [ __ ] done. >> Yeah. >> And also, because we know you guys can crank out the signatures on a petition
00:53:13
if you do see fit, which I think you will hear. There is a petition um on change.org. It is a demand of a complete
00:53:22
homicide invest in investigation for the murder of Stephanie Marie Walition. We're going to put the link in our show
00:53:28
notes. We'll put it on social media. It has 12,000 signatures right now. >> And Nick Nikki was the one who made it
00:53:33
so this. Yeah. >> So go sign that for Nikki. Share the word. Spread the word. Support her
00:53:40
podcast. Support the change.org petition. And let's crack open this cold case. Let's do it. We're going to Let's
00:53:47
find out what happened here. All right, guys. So, we hope that you blow this case wide open. We're all going to. And
00:53:53
of course, we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you don't go check out
00:54:00
Poppy Killed Mommy by our girl Nikki. >> Nikki. >> And sign that petition. You guys are so
00:54:05
good at petitions. [Music] [Music] [Music]