One year later: Promising leads but no answers in decapitation mystery

Investigators have no evidence linking him to the crime. No motive, either.

But a man identified only as a blue collar worker has emerged as a person of interest, one of the few promising leads to emerge since 88-year-old Russell Dermond’s decapitated body was found in the garage of his spacious Lake Oconee home one year ago Wednesday.

Ten days later, fishermen recovered the body of 87-year-old Shirley Dermond about five miles away. Her husband's head remains missing.

"He wasn't truthful about some things," Sheriff Howard Sills said of the person of interest who, he emphasized, was not a suspect. "And he knows I know that."

Sills said he also has uncovered “a valuable piece of forensic evidence” that gives him additional hope the killer or killers will be apprehended. The sheriff asked The Atlanta Journal-Constitution not to disclose specifics of that evidence so as not to tip off the perpetrators.

The new information is unlikely to lead to any arrests but could prove valuable to prosecutors down the road.