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 their wealth, nothing was stolen.
Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills couldn't help but notice the similarities between the murders of Russell and Shirley Dermond, a case that's baffled the veteran lawman, and last month's slaying of 83-year-old Lois Colley in North Salem, New York.
He wasn’t the only one. The New York State Police contacted the sheriff last week.
“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.
Russell Dermond’s decapitated body was found in May 2014 by neighbors inside the garage of the couple’s home in Reynolds Plantation, a gated community located about 80 miles southeast of Atlanta.
Ten days later, fishermen recovered the body of 87-year-old Shirley Dermond near Wallace Dam in Lake Oconee. Her husband's head remains missing.
A caretaker discovered Colley’s body on Nov. 9. She was bludgeoned to death, reportedly by a fire extinguisher, though police have declined to confirm that or much of anything else about the case. Her husband, Eugene Colley, was at work at the time and is not considered a suspect, according to published reports.
The case has turned up no obvious leads, The New York Times reported Monday.
No obvious motive, either. Rationale remains elusive in the Dermond case.
Earlier this year, Sills identified a “person of interest” — not a suspect, he cautioned.
"He wasn't truthful about some things," he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in May.
Sills said Monday that 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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