Post by Graveyardbride on Jan 24, 2016 12:03:09 GMT -5
Did the Killer of Lois Colley Murder the Dermonds in Georgia?
The victims were elderly and affluent, with most of their money coming from fast food franchises. Each was beaten to death in their homes located in well-heeled neighborhoods. There were no signs of forced entry and, despite the wealth of the victims, nothing was stolen.
Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills couldn’t help but notice the similarities between the murders of Russell and Shirley Dermond in May 2014, a case that’s baffled the veteran lawman, and the slaying of 83-year-old Lois Colley (above), November 9, 2015, in North Salem, New York. Sills wasn’t the only one. The New York State Police contacted the sheriff. “They called me before I called them,” Sills said. “We wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t look at it.” The investigators talked for about an hour, Sills said, but despite all the coincidences, he’s doubtful there’s any connection
The decapitated body of Russell Dermond, age 89, was discovered by neighbors inside the garage of the couple’s home in Reynolds Plantation, a gated community located about 80 miles southeast of Atlanta, near Eatonton. Ten days later, fishermen recovered the body of 87-year-old Shirley Dermond near Wallace Dam in Lake Oconee. Her husband’s head is still missing.
A caretaker discovered Lois Colley’s body in the laundry room of her home around 5:20 p.m. She was bludgeoned to death, reportedly by a fire extinguisher. According to the medical examiner, she died between 3 and 5 p.m. Her husband, Eugene Colley, was at work at the time and is not considered a suspect, according to published reports. There are no leads or apparent motives in either case.
Last year, Sills identified a “person of interest” – not a suspect – in the Dermond murders. “He wasn’t truthful about some things,” Sills told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in May. The sheriff indicated he still “has his eye” on this unidentified person, but hasn’t found anything that would link him to the crime.
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Investigators in New York have questioned relatives and current and ex-employees of Westchester socialite Lois Colley to see if anyone had a beef with her that might have led to her murder. “They’re going through a list of people who worked for her, who recently worked for her, looking for anyone who got fired. They’re getting a list of relatives to see if anyone had a problem with her,” a law enforcement source told The Post. Sources indicate the police believe Colley was bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher after she surprised an intruder in the laundry room at her 300-acre Windswept Farm located at 258 Titicus Road in North Salem. There were no signs of forced entry and no surveillance video and the only thing missing from the $25 million estate was the small household fire extinguisher – leading investigators to believe it could have been an inside job, sources said. “One theory is that it’s someone she knew and she surprised the person. Someone who knew the area,” one source revealed.
The unidentified caretaker who discovered Mrs. Colley called her husband, Eugene Colley, 88. The multimillionaire owner of around 100 McDonald’s franchises then called 911, but his wife was already dead from what the medical examiner ruled was blunt-force head trauma. Police say neither Eugene Colley nor the caretaker is a suspect.
Detectives initially looked at a string of burglaries about two miles away in Ridgefield, Conn., for a possible connection. Four residential burglaries and a car break-in had been reported in Ridgefield since Oct. 31, and three of the Ridgefield break-ins took place on Mamanasco Road, just two miles from North Salem. Sources said police have no evidence the cases are linked to Mrs. Colley’s death.
Bruce Colley, 62, son of Eugene and Lois Colley, was involved in an affair with Kerry Kennedy-Cuomo in 2003, which broke up the marriage of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Both Cuomo and Bruce Colley’s wife, Ann, suspected their spouses were cheating and shared their concerns with each other. Cuomo and Ann Colley later confronted their cheating mates on the same day. Both couples later divorced, with Bruce remarrying and Cuomo hooking up with TV food personality Sandra Lee.
Recently, two Hispanic immigrants, Angel H. Parra Penafiel and Hugo Ramirez-Morales, were charged with felony grand larceny for stealing hay from the Colley farm and selling it for approximately $30,000. Both men had worked for the family several years and the hay theft had been going on for around three years. At this point, law enforcement officers haven’t connected the men to the murder of Mrs. Colley.
Sources: Christian Boone, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Larry Celona and Bob Fredericks, The New York Post, and Marc Santora and Sarah Maslin Nir, The New York Times.
See also "UPDATE: Elderly George Man Decapitated, Wife Missing" whatliesbeyond.boards.net/thread/1651/update-elderly-georgia-decapitated-missing