LAKE OCONEE, Ga. — For more than 12 years, investigators have been trying to figure out who killed Russell and Shirley Dermond.
Neighbors found Russell’s decapitated body inside his Putnam County garage behind one of the couple’s cars, with the 88-year-old’s head nowhere to be found.
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Shirley Dermond’s body was found in Lake Oconee after someone apparently tried to weigh it down. The sheriff said she died of blunt force trauma in 2014.
In 2024, the FBI established a $20,000 reward in the hopes it would help solve their murders. Still, no arrests have been made.
“It must have just been a moment of horror, and probably a very long moment of horror, unfortunately. And so, we know that Mom and Dad want us...” the Dermond’s son, Brad Dermond said, choking up.
“To keep going and move forward,” his wife Erin said, finishing the thought.
“From the moment that we were notified of this, we were in total horror,” Brad Dermond said.
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Anyone with information that could help investigators should contact the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office at 770-216-3000 or the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office at 706-485-8557
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