The Trail Went Cold - Episode 464 - Russell & Shirley Dermond

The Trail Went Cold

Robin Warder

True Crime, Tv & Film

4.5 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

May 6, 2014. Putnam County, Georgia. After he is not heard from for over four days, the beheaded body of 88-year old Russell Dermond is discovered inside his garage and his 87-year old wife, Shirley Dermond, is missing. Ten days later, Shirley’s body is discovered five miles away in Lake Oconee after she was weighed down in the water with some cinder blocks. Her cause of death is determined to blunt force trauma, but Russell’s head is never recovered. Investigators are unable to uncover any strong suspects and there is nothing in the Dermonds’ background to indicate why they would be the victims of such a brutal crime. In recent years, traces of unidentified touch DNA has been found on Russell’s clothing, but the murders continue to remain unsolved. For our first episode of 2026, “The Trail Went Cold” explores the unsolved double homicide of an elderly couple, which is considered to be one of the most baffling cold cases of the modern era. Additional Reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killings_of_Russell_and_Shirley_Dermond https://www.macon.com/news/local/crime/article228972684.html https://www.cbsnews.com/news/autopsy-elderly-georgia-man-dead-when-head-was-cut-off/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/police-have-person-of-interest-in-murder-of-georgia-elderly-couple/ https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/beheading-mystery-upscale-community-still-confounds-georgia-sheriff/FfLXS5am2RgITlUbahtphO/ https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/investigations/gone-cold-the-murders-at-lake-oconee-4-years-later-elderly-couples-son-opens-up/67-549362307 https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/5-years-later-murders-of-lake-oconee-couple-continue-to-confound/946649166/ https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/years-later-murders-lake-oconee-couple-continue-confound/TozzJXuLvXXbu8f7zbWcPL/ https://www.11alive.com/article/news/investigations/gone-cold/gone-cold-the-murders-at-lake-oconee-4-years-later-elderly-couples-son-opens-up/85-548449019 https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/lake-oconee-beheading-mystery-russell-shirley-dermond-putnam-county https://www.13wmaz.com/article/news/community/more-than-a-number/sheriff-private-lab-finds-dna-in-dermond-murders-9-year-old-cold-case-3/93-007e80f5-99d4-4e50-adb0-5fabeaa17380 https://www.11alive.com/article/news/crime/cold-cases/fbi-new-leads-cellphone-data-dna-evidence-brutal-killings-elderly-georgia-couple-lake-oconee/85-9de921b0-385c-4305-9ebe-615ab3031eb4 https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2025/03/01/georgia-sheriff-expecting-dna-results-2014-double-murder-atlvault/ “The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon. Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content. The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote. All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	May 6th, 2014. Putnam County, Georgia. After he is not heard from for over four days,
0:09.2	the beheaded body of 88-year-old Russell Dermann is discovered inside his garage, and his 87-year-old
0:15.1	wife Shirley Derman is missing. Ten days later, Shirley's body is discovered five miles away in Lake O'coni, after she was
0:23.1	weighed down in the water with some cinder blocks, and her cause of death is blunt force trauma.
0:28.9	Investigators are unable to uncover any strong suspects or a logical motive for the crime,
0:34.1	but even though traces of unidentified touch DNA are found on Russell's clothing,
0:39.0	the murders remain unsolved. After that, the trail went cold.
1:25.7	Music I'm not going to be. And so much, and I'm our first Trail Went Cold episode of 2006.
1:29.6	I'm your host Robin Werder, and appropriately enough,
1:33.9	we're going to start off the year by covering one of our most highly requested cases.
1:41.3	The 2014 Murders of Russell and Shirley Dermond. This is the disturbing story of a married couple who were in their late 80s and had been together for over 60 years,
1:45.4	but even though they did not appear to have any known enemies, they would become the victims of a
1:49.8	brutal double homicide. The Germans resided at Reynolds Plantation in the Great Water subdivision,
1:56.5	an affluent and seemingly secure golfing community, which was not known for having much violent crime,
2:02.5	and their house was located on the shores of Lake Ocany.
2:06.2	After the Dermans were not heard from for over four days, some of their neighbors checked
2:10.5	their home and were horrified to discover Russell's decapitated body in the garage.
2:16.0	His head had been removed, and it has still not been recovered to this
2:19.1	day, and while Shirley was missing, her body would later be found five miles away in Lake Okina
2:24.4	after someone attempted to use cinder blocks to weigh her down in the water. I'll state right up front
2:30.3	that this is one of the most perplexing unsolved murders of the modern era, as by all accounts,
2:35.7	the Germans were very nice people with no skeletons in their closet, and since nothing appeared
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 26 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Robin Warder, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Robin Warder and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.