The Unsolved Death Stephanie Wasilishin

Considering earning a degree but haven't made your move, missing the chance in 2026 could be, well, criminal.

With over 200 online degree programs, Southern New Hampshire University could be the tip that you've been waiting for.

Classes are career-focused with no set times, and tuition rates are some of the lowest in the U.S. Don't let this league go cold.
Visit snhu.edu slash morbid to learn more.

That's snhu.edu slash morbid.

This podcast is brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace Squarespace is the all-in-one website platform designed to help you stand out and succeed online.

Whether you're just starting out or you're scaling your business, Squarespace gives you everything you need to claim your domain, showcase your offerings with a professional website, grow your brand, and get paid all in one place.

Every dream needs a domain. Squarespace domains make it easy to find the best name for your business at one fair, all-inclusive price, no hidden fees or add-ons required.

And with Squarespace's collection of cutting-edge design tools, anyone can build a beautiful, professional, online presence that perfectly fits their brand or their business.

Start with Blueprint AI, Squarespace's AI-enhanced design partner, or choose from a library of professionally designed and award-winning website templates.

No matter where you start, your website is flexible to what you need. Head to squarespace.com/slash morbid for a free trial.

And when you're ready to launch, use offer code Morbid to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

Today is one of those days, honey. I woke up early.
I gotta go here. I gotta go there.
I gotta go everywhere. I got errands.

Everybody's juggling long, busy days, and that's why Icebreakers Gum is made for the go-getters, like you, like me. We're go-getters.
We're going, we're getting.

With flavor crystals that deliver a bold and cooling effect, Icebreakers keeps you refreshed and ready to take on whatever is next.

And here's a bonus: the pack fits perfectly in your car cup holder or your bag, so it's within reach when you need it the most. Grab Icebreakers Gum online or at a store near you.
I love gum.

Hey, weirdos, I'm Elena. I'm Ash.
And this is Morbid.

It is.

It's Morbid, y'all. But it always will be.
Always and forever. Forever and ever.

What's up, brother?

I'm really excited because this weekend is when all the haunted houses start opening. Is it this weekend? It's like when like they're starting to trickle open now.
Should we go to one?

Fuck yeah, we should. Oh my God.
Hell yeah. Oh my God.
I need a haunted house in my soul.

My soul is a haunted house right now. Yeah, I think my soul...
My soul is like pretty full for sure, but like just today is a rough day. Yeah.
And my soul is barren today.

Yeah, and it wishes it had, it wishes it was filled with spirits. Yeah.
And it can be. My spirit would love to be haunted, so we should go this weekend.
So we should get that shit going.

Yes, let's do it. We really should.

Also, like, that just made me think of when you got upset that I had invited like the spirit of a ghost. Oh, and then it reminded you of the TikTok videos.

And it reminded me of the TikTok videos because I got to shout this girl out because she is so fucking funny. And I need her to know that she makes me laugh.
when I need to laugh. Immensely.

And I appreciate that about her. She also has my mannerisms down.
Yeah, it's actually like shocking. Do a T.

So on TikTok, TikTok,

her at is Nicole Kreitz Wrights, and it's Nicole Kreitz C-R-I-T-E-S.

Nicole Kreitz Wrights. Kreitz Wrights.
And she is so funny. She's so fucking funny.
I love her.

I almost said her channel. I love her channel.
I'm 100% subscribed. Well,

it goes into the next thing we're talking about. Oh, yeah, it does a little bit.
Go like and subscribe to TikTok.

Like it, smash that like button.

Smash that follow.

But yeah, her TikTok is really funny and she's just great. So follow her.
Like blow her shit up because she's great. Yeah.

She does like, she'll take audio from old Morbid and re-watch her episodes and scream actually. And she'll just kind of like lip-sync to them, but she's so fucking good at them.

And she also makes me remember some of the funnier things that have happened. And I appreciate that.
I know, because she goes back to like the very early days of Morbid sometimes.

And I'm like, oh my God, we are funny. I'm like, oh, look at that.

I also think it's weird. I feel like my voice has changed like over the years because I was 21, 22 when we started this.
I'm like, damn, does your voice change within that time period?

Yeah, we're like whole different people. It's crazy.
I mean, I very much am a very different gal than when we started. I mean, as we all should be.
Yeah. You just keep growing.
Babe. Growth.

But we also, like, you know, just a little, maybe that was like a little tease that we just said. No, we said, smash that like button.
Smash that like button, like and subscribe.

Speaking of channel, all that shit.

We have a pretty fun

collab that's coming out on Monday. Yeah, I mean this Monday because we're caught up, babe.
Currently.

So I mean this Monday. It's going to be fun.
I think you guys are going to dig it. We had a fucking blast with it.

And

it's, I don't, I don't want to give too much away. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
It's a collab. You'll hear it.
You'll see it. It's a lengthy collab.

That's all you need to know. It's great.
It's great. It was so fun.
It's so much fun. And it's not the only one of its kind.
Nope, it's not. And that's all I have to say about that.

It's a lengthy collab for sure. It is.
I need this Baja blast to hit. Today was a, let me tell you, today was a day that required a Baja

blast. Yeah.
Sometimes, like, just people be people, and you know? Dear God, they should be. None of you.
No, of course not. Literally, none of you.
Yeah,

you guys are great. You guys rule.

It's just like... Other people, though.

Other people that come from us then. Yeah, I think it's just one of those.

I'm re-watching Housewives of New Jersey right now, and all I can think is Teresa's tagline when she goes, if you're not about the Namaste, get the hell away.

Honestly, that's the vibe we need to take on in our own lives. Frankly, if you're not about the Namaste, stay the hell away.
Stay the hell away. Or like get the hell away.

I forget exactly what it is, but she's so funny. Oh, did I tell you guys that I got to go see Danny Go?

Not what I thought you were going to say. I thought you were going to bring up Marcus.
Oh, probably going to bring up Marcus. Marcus.

Breaking news.

Just for my parents out there and teachers. And

awesome and TTs.

My kids love Danny Goh. I'm sure many of your kids also love Danny Goh or kids in your life.

We got to go see him live because he came to Boston with the kids. Hell yeah.
We had a fucking blast and they were so sweet.

My youngest loves Gerald. Who doesn't? And was so excited to see him.
So like, Gerald, shout out to you for like making her day. Yeah.

But like Danny Gokrew was so sweet and the show was so great. If you're thinking of taking your kids, I highly recommend it.
She FaceTimed me for part of it. I did.
I was literally.

Forgive me that garbage. Give me that garbage.
Garbage. Because it's a banger.

Take out the trash. It just goes so hard.
It was great. My kids danced.
We danced the entire time. I was exhausted at the end of it.
I bet. I would have had a blast.
I would have lost my mind.

Oh, yeah. It was amazing.
I would have gone so hard. That was really great.

And Marcus. And Marcus,

just as a final note before we get into this,

have any of you followed Marcus the Worm?

I'm going to remove South Carolina. I literally don't know how to explain this, and I need you to just look it up.
I'm irritated. I am mildly irritated.

I was irritated. Quite irritated.
That tells you everything you need to know. But

he's brought us great joy. Yeah.
Sorry, South Carolina. He did, in fact, remove.
He did, in fact, remove. But you need to understand he was irritated.
He was irritated. Okay.

You got to look it up on TikTok, everybody. Just go look.
I think this right now, if you're driving, pull over. Yeah, be late to work.

For Marcus's sake. And I got to know if you guys think it's as funny as I think because it...
it made me cry laughing. Yeah, I think it's very funny.
Like, I loll hard at it. You, I raffle.

It feeds my soul. You raffle cook.
I do. Roll on the floor, laughing, crying.
And I think you can, like, look it up on YouTube and stuff, too. So if you don't have TikTok, it's okay.

Just look it up on YouTube. Marcus is.
Marcus the worm. You'll know him when you see him.

You sure,

certainly will. And that's all I can say about that.
All right.

Okay, well, I think we, that's enough bid nasty if you can even consider Marcus bid nasty, which you can. Of course.
Write him off on your taxes. Just kidding.
You'll get in trouble for that.

Just kidding. That's a federal offense.

So we are going to be talking today

about a case that is close to us because a listener of ours and now friend of the pod. Friend of the pod, Nikki.
Yeah, Nikki asked that we cover her mother's case.

And we said, abso fucking lootly, we will, Nikki. Truly.
And honestly, Nikki's amazing. We're going to be talking about her mother's case.
Yeah, her mother's Stephanie today.

And I I am, we're going to, we'll make sure we're like linking to all of Nikki's stuff in the show notes because Nikki also has a podcast. It's called Poppy Killed Mommy and it's P-A-P-I, Poppy,

where she talks all about her mother and her mother's case and her quest to get justice and to get answers about her mother's case.

She's been like just

she's she's like, as far as daughters go, ultimate, like A-plus.

She's a daughter she is elite she is a daughter she is the daughter because she has worked tirelessly to get her mom's case just talked about just get it looked at again like just get her mom's like memory and the facts about this case out to as many ears as she possibly can and she's doing an amazing job at it she really is and any parent would be really proud of having a child like that so like props to nikki props to nikki also props to other friend of the pod sarah tourney sarah tourney who's been helping nikki sarah terney is a badass i'm sure you guys know that and if you don't yeah now you know while nikki is the daughter not a daughter sarah is the advocate sister yeah slash all of the above yeah truly so if you haven't like right off the bat make sure you go follow i mean nikki's on tick tock a lot where she's like getting you know she she posts a lot about this and about like her journey going through all this on tick tock and it's nikki wasolishin

or Nicole Wasolishin. Her name on there is Nikki-N-I-K-K-I.

But again, we're going to link it so you can just make sure you're just going to

make sure you follow her podcast and also make sure you follow Sarah Turney and Sarah Terney's podcast, Voices for Justice, because those are two family of true crime run pods that definitely deserve to be blown up.

Yeah. All cillicens in the world.
And they're like great people. All right.
So with all that being said, let's get into the unfortunate events of, you know, what really did take place here.

So a little past 1.30 a.m. on July 9th, 1993, an emergency call came into the 911 Dispatch Center in, I think it's Yavapai County from a man named Russell Peterson.

He was requesting an ambulance for his girlfriend, Stephanie Wasselishin. So he told the dispatcher that he and Stephanie had gotten into a fight.

Somehow that fight had ended with her being shot and she was now bleeding heavily. Which, how does a fight end that way? It should never end that way.
It should never end that way.

Officers from the Sedona Police Department were immediately dispatched, obviously, to the couple's residence on Coffee Pot Drive.

Which I just feel like nothing bad should ever happen on a street named Coffee Pot Drive. Absolutely not.
So sad. That should be like, you know, a cozy, a cozy place.
The coziest place.

Where nothing bad happens. Yeah, exactly.
It's very Stars Hollow-esque. It is.
That's immediately what I thought of.

So they arrived at the residence about five minutes later. They let themselves in through the front door and announced themselves, of course.

And Russell came from what they later learned was the couple's bedroom. He stuck his head out.
He was still actually on the phone with the 911 dispatcher at the time.

And immediately, officers saw that his hands were covered in what appeared to be blood. Oh, boy.

So now that they were at the scene, he hung up with the dispatcher and led them back into the bedroom where they found Stephanie's body on the floor with a quote large caliber gunshot wound to her throat.

Oh my god. Yeah.

As far as the officers could tell, at that point, Stephanie was dead, likely from the gunshot wound, obviously, and the loss of blood, which had now pooled around the right side of her head.

But more concerning was that in addition to the presence of Russell Peterson, there was also a small child in the room just sitting on the bed. And she looked, this will break your heart.

It's fucking terrible.

She looked up at the officers and told them that's my mommy oh my god now luckily they got her out of there and they got russell into the next room and they started going through everything in the living room he explained that that was his four-year-old daughter that he shared with stephanie he said he didn't

four years old and she saw her mother in that state Oh, that just, that shatters.

You could be two years old and you would never get that image out of your head. Like that poor girl.

No child should ever have to see that and just because at the top of this we kind of told you a little bit about the case this is not nikki this is nikki's little sister oh so he said russell said he didn't think that she saw what had happened like saw the shooting but obviously she saw the aftermath yeah and he said he probably she probably saw him do uh cpr on stephanie so he was telling them i tried cpr i did this and she was here for that so back in the bedroom officer scott brooks kind of just started to survey the scene He saw that Stephanie was lying in the northern end of the room just beside the bed, and she was just dressed in a green nightshirt and red underwear, just like she was going to get into bed soon.

You know, just PJs.

On the floor nearby, he saw a.44 caliber Magnum revolver.

There was blood evidence on the wall and the table just above Stephanie's head, and also a bullet embedded in the wall with, this is awful, what appeared to be hair attached to it. Oh, God.

And then there was also a gold chain necklace lying on the floor underneath Stephanie's arm, similar to another one that he found on the floor by the doorway. Okay.

So out in the living room, the other officers started to question Russell Peterson about the events of that night.

He explained that he and Stephanie weren't married, but they'd been living together for about four years and they did have one child together. And there was another daughter in the home, Nikki.

Nikki is Stephanie's daughter from a previous relationship. And he said that Nikki was sleeping when the shooting occurred.
According to Russell, he'd been working for most of that night.

And when he came home later, he could tell that Stephanie had been drinking and had spent more than two hours on the phone with her ex-boyfriend, who was the father of her other daughter, Nikki.

And this is Russell saying this. This is Russell saying this, by the way.
Yeah. Thank you for clarifying.

He said that there had been some tension between the two of them in recent weeks. And he said that stemmed from the fact that he was invited into a culinary program in Ithaca.
in New York.

So it was like a ways away. And not only did he plan to go, but he had already bought the plane ticket and was leaving the following day.
Well, damn.

So he kind of like decided this on his own and didn't, I think from the sounds of it, Stephanie kind of was like, yeah, what about your family here? Can you include me in this decision? Yeah.

So at some point, their argument started getting heated.

And he said Stephanie left the room, went into the bedroom, and came back a few minutes later, holding the 44 Magnum that Russell's father had given him.

So Russell said he was sitting on the couch at the time and that Stephanie raised the gun in his direction, fired a single round, which struck the wall next to his head, and then said that she was going to blow his head off.

Now remember, this is him talking about. Yeah, this is from his point of view, because obviously Stephanie cannot say her point of view.
Exactly. However, rather than firing a second shot,

she walked back down the hallway toward their bedroom and Russell started following behind her.

According to him, when they reached the bedroom, they started struggling over the gun just inside of the bedroom door and that caused the gun to go off. That's when Stephanie was shot.

After the shooting, he said he called 911 immediately. They instructed him to start chest compressions until officers could arrive, and that's just what he did.

So that night, he was taken into custody, obviously. And the two children were removed from the home and placed in temporary foster care until they could figure out a suitable

guardian, which is just...

It's such a sad scene to think about traumatizing event for those people. From beginning again, for those two girls.

Like, not only did the younger child see her mother in that state, she obviously wondered what had happened here. And then 10-year-old Nikki gets woken up and told that now this is her reality.

Yeah, like this is your life now. Like, this is what you have to do.
And now you're placed in a home where you don't know these people. Yeah.

Like, your whole life got turned upside down in one instant while you slept.

Which

it's like you're, she was 10.

You're 10 years old, 10 and 40. You should go to sleep every night without a

care in the world, and not no worries. And you should wake up the next morning without a care in the world.
And it's like, it kills me when this kind of stuff happens.

Because you just get thrust into adulthood when something like that happens to you. And it's just so you become an adult at 10 years old.
Yeah.

Or like, you know, like the adult problems get put on you at that age. I also like whenever it's like, and obviously,

this is like technically an unsolved case correct because it's like they haven't decided they haven't officially decided that there's fault or what had actually happened uh just putting that out there which is why i think everybody can kind of gather at the top why nikki has a podcast yeah so she you know she can better explain that i'm sure and but and obviously i'm just speaking from like you know what i'm hearing here is whenever like i hear a gun goes off during an argument a lot of times like you're just like explain to me the mechanics of that.

Because, you know, like

you've shot a gun, right? I have. I've never shot a gun.
You have to like pull the trigger. I mean, my, I haven't shot a lot of guns.

And it's like, but from when, what I actually did, it takes a lot of, I mean, it takes pressure to shoot a gun.

Like, and I think I'm, I'm just confused, like, how this happens, like how you're struggling, and somehow somebody's finger goes on the trigger. Right.

You know, like that's, because you have to get your finger into the trigger, you know? Although it can happen. Well, not only that, but like guns can misfire, right?

Like if you drop it or something like that. Yeah, I'm sure.
Like that's, I don't know enough about guns to say definitively, like, no, this has to not happen or yes, this can happen.

But like, we've seen it happen both ways. It just, I think it always is more me being like,

how did the gun go off by accident? You know, like, I always question it at least. Like, just need to see like the mechanics of it.
Yeah, it's true.

But again, I'm not saying that happened or didn't happen here. I'm just,

questioning. Just questioning.
Well, here's the thing. To the crime scene technicians, the evidence seemed to kind of match the description of the events that Russell Peterson described.
Okay.

And remember, we're at the very beginning here. Yeah.

If you're looking for another true crime podcast to add to your weekly listening, it's time to check out the deck.

On the deck, host Ashley Flowers tells the stories of unsolved mysteries featured on cold case playing cards, which are real cards passed around prisons in states around the U.S.

to help find answers for families and law enforcement. Full of thorough research and original reporting, like first-hand interviews, you can hear about these cases from the people with every detail.

So listen to the deck wherever you get your podcasts.

Life doesn't happen bi-weekly, so why should Payday? The money that you earned should be in your hands. And with Earnin', it can be.

Earnin' is an app that lets you access your pay as you earn it, up to $300 a day with a max of $1,000 between paydays. Just download the Earnin' app and start accessing your pay as you work.

Any money that you access, plus optional tips to help keep the app running, are automatically repaid from your next paycheck. I am obsessed with the idea of earning your money as you work.

I feel like it makes work more tolerable. I mean, I love my job, but not everybody does.
And like back in the day, I didn't love my job.

So if I earned my money as I was working, I'd be like, oh, this is all worth it. Anyways, download Earnin' today, spelled E-A-R-N-I-N, in the Google Play or Apple App Store.

When you download the Earnin' app, type in Morbid under podcast. Earnin is a financial technology company, not a bank.
Access limits are based on your earnings and risk factors.

Standard cash outs take one to two business days with no mandatory fees. Expedited transfer is available for a fee.
Tips are voluntary and don't affect the service.

Available in select states, terms and restrictions apply. Visit earnin.com for full details.
Download Earnin Today and take control of your pay.

Guys, we live in such a world of convenience today that sometimes it's kind of easy to sacrifice quality nutrition for convenience. I come into work, well, let me asteris that.

I used to come into work quite often and say, Elena, let's order breakfast this morning. And then I realized we were spending so much money doing that and I was like, not really feeling that great.

Thank goodness I found cachava. It is a whole body meal packed with everything the mind and body crave without the guilt or the greasy bag.
And, you know, it's delicious.

Each serving delivers 25 grams of 100% plant-based protein, and it comes in six different flavors, like chocolate, vanilla, chai, matcha, coconut acai, and now strawberry.

With every two scoops of cachava, you get over 85 superfoods, nutrients, and plant-based ingredients.

No artificial flavors, colors, or sweeteners, just clean, delicious fuel that fits a busy schedule.

Cachava makes it easy to stop sacrificing quality for convenience and start feeling good about what's in the cup. I make a cachava almost every single morning.

I do one scoop of vanilla, one scoop of chai. I make myself a little vanilla chai.

Every now and again, when I'm getting crazy, I'll do strawberry into it, like the strawberry cachava scoop into a smoothie with a little bit of peanut butter.

And it's like a peanut butter and jelly smoothie. It's super convenient, it's super easy, and my body feels good.
It feels great, it feels iconic and beautiful when I'm drinking cachava.

Your future self will thank you. Go to cachava.com and use code MorbidPod for 15% off your next order.
That's cachava, K-A-C-H-A-V-A.com, code MorbidPod for 15%

off.

In the living room, there was a glass of beer on a side table and a glass of wine on a coffee table, indicating that drinking had happened that night, which

by both of them, which is pretty regular in an American home. Yeah.

In the living room wall, just to the right of the front door, they discovered a bullet and a bullet jacket lodged in the wall, which did support Russell's claim that stephanie had fired one round at him before they went back in the bedroom and the evidence collected from the bedroom also seemed to support russell's description of that night but again he was still in custody so the next morning he placed a call to his boss at um i think it's pietro's restaurant and his boss was peter corn and he asked peter to come down to the station Peter came down.

After talking to Russell for a short time, he agreed to take temporary custody of the children. Oh, wow.
Very sweet. I hope he was a a good guy.
I don't know anything about him. I hope he was.

But then he left the station. About an hour later, though, Peter Corn called the station and asked to speak to Chief Bob Irish.
And that was the first of two calls between Corn and Irish that morning.

Now, according to Peter, Peter Corn, he knew both Stephanie and Russell very well because they both worked for him at the restaurant.

He confirmed Russell's statement to the police about Stephanie having been in distress in recent weeks about, you know, Russell probably going away, Russell leaving.

And he said, yeah, she was very particularly upset about that. Yeah, which I can understand that.
Yeah, it was going to be a 10-day seminar in New York.

And it sounds like it was, you know, not exactly like, you know, from the sounds of it, it sounds like it was not exactly decided on together or discussed in a way where she felt like she had a lot of say in it.

Exactly. And that's hard when you have a family.
Yeah. And just to clarify, like, they live in Arizona.
New York is across the country. Yeah.
It's going to be away. That's 10 days by yourself.

That's 10 days trying to figure out how you go to work and the children are taken care of. Like, who knows who was around to support the kids? Exactly.
That's a lot. Like, that's, yeah.

So, during the calls, Peter also revealed some important information about Stephanie and Russell's relationship. Basically, that it was always somewhat strained.
Okay.

In an interview with another co-worker, Catherine Dindler, investigators learned that Stephanie had a really difficult childhood. And this is awful.

She had been abused in many ways by her mother and her stepfather. So why did people?

I will never understand this. Yeah.
It's like, why? Like, why?

Why a kid? Like, that's what I don't get. Like, it's like,

I, it just will never, I'm glad it doesn't make sense to me, but it never makes sense to me that I'm like, why are you picking on a kid?

It's broken people who have never taken the time to heal themselves. No, and it's like, and then they just pick on the, and it's like a kid nine times out of ten, you created.
Well, that's the thing.

It's like, like, that's your flesh and blood right there.

You, most people in their lifetime are going to have to heal from something and you should do that before you have children you absolutely should if it's you know if you need to do it while you have kids by all means like at least you're doing it make a valiant effort out but you gotta heal yourself when kids enter the picture because you can't heal yourself by inflicting the same kind of terror on your children that you possibly went through.

That's where generational trauma comes in. Yeah, and trust me, it sucks.
You should be like your parents should, you should be your kids' safe place. Yeah.
100% of the time

a hundred percent of the time and to not be your kids safe place and again we're talking about like stephanie's childhood here

like that's fucked up and look and it's like and you're gonna put them

like in a situation where they're going out into the world disadvantaged because they never had that safe place so they're going to have to work to figure out one how to be that safe place for someone else and what that even is which she sounds like she figured out how to be that safe place for her

fucking did. But she's also going to have to find that safe place in other people.
And sometimes that's where the problem comes. Oh my God, so true.
Because you end up going and finding it.

You don't find it. You find it.
You find somebody that's like your parents who treat you terribly.

I'm not saying that's 100% what happened here. I'm just saying, you know, it happens.
Yeah. It's so sad that that's most often the case when you look for your safe space in somebody else.

Like there are obviously times where you do find your safe space in somebody and you could be that lucky, but for sure. It's, it's, it doesn't happen often.
Yeah. And that's the thing.

It's really sad because you, again, you disadvantage them to picking another safe place

out in life.

Well, so according to this coworker, Catherine Dinler, Stephanie said that her previous relationship with the father of her oldest daughter, Nikki, had also been physically and emotionally abusive.

So it does seem like she looked for that safe space and unfortunately she got preyed upon again.

Yeah, she looked for a safe space and she looked to the only thing she was used to, which was somebody treating her poorly. Yeah.
And that sucks. It's a cycle.
Yeah.

Because according to Stephanie's sister, Kathleen, Stephanie confided in her that Russell had also been physically abusive to her. Again, I'm not stating that as a fact.

I'm just saying that that came up in a conversation that Stephanie's sister had with somebody. Yeah.

So who we were able to speak to, as I'm sure you know at this point, was Stephanie's daughter, Nikki.

And that's when we really got a closer look into who Stephanie was and what she meant to her family, specifically her two daughters.

And why I can so confidently say that Stephanie figured out how to be that safe space.

100,000 a jillion percent. This will bring you to tears.
And these are Nikki's words. I'm reading directly from what she wrote us.
Nikki said, I had my mother in my life for only 10 years.

While investigating her cold case murder after 28 years, that's when I finally discovered who my mother was as a person. But let's start out with what I remember.

My mother was a 10, an absolute model, gorgeous, beautiful inside and out. She's gorgeous.
Nikki is spitting truths here because her mom was a hard 10.

We saw a picture of her and I was like, that woman is

gorgeous.

And she just radiates.

I feel like people like that are kind inside because it radiates out of them. I was going to say,

the outside was definitely showing what was on the inside.

Nikki said she took great pride in her appearance and grew her hair out all the way down her back.

That's one of the things I will always remember is her gorgeous long hair and how much care she took in her upkeep. My mother enjoyed holidays.

She would dress up and decorate the home for the big holidays and the little. She lived for the small moments and she really did live for the moments with her children.
My mom was a hands-on mom.

She enjoyed dressing up her girls and taking family photos every Christmas. She was proud of the family that she created.

My mom would keep up with the trends of the 90s and I remember her buying my clothes to match Sabrina the teenage witch.

Hell yeah. And I love because she just thought Melissa Joan Hart was the cutest and she wanted her daughter to look the same.

For her to choose Sabrina the teenage witch as like, I'm going to dress my girls like that. I'm like, Game Seek game.
That's my girl right there. I think we share a kindred.
Oh, yeah.

Immediately we were like, Stephanie. She's a Nikki said,

I remember my mom encouraged me to read. She would buy me the newest R.L.
Stein, Goosebumps, or Fear Street.

I would come home from school, and a new book would be on my bed, encouraging me to learn. My mom loved family gatherings at Grandma B's.
Lots of memories in that house. I took out the address.

I remember one time we were swimming, and my mom's friend yelled over, Stacey, what's your favorite color? By the way, people called Stephanie Stacy too, like a nickname. Yeah.

So she said, Stacy, what's your favorite color? Nikki said, she took a drag off her cigarette and responded very coolly, green, because it's the color of weed and money.

I don't know if green was actually my mom's favorite color, but I know that when I was five years old, I heard her say that.

And 35 years later, I still remember my mom's answer as she took that drag on that cigarette and answered back, green. What about us? I think that's just a whole lot.

That's just such a funny way to answer. And like, just like such a 90s cool girl moment, you know? Yeah.
She said, growing up, I knew that my mom had a hard life.

So when she was an adult, all she wanted was to create a family of her own. I get that.
My mother had no great aspirations of going to college or pursuing a career in medicine or a law degree.

She just wanted to have a family. And that's what she did at the age of 19 when she was born.
Seven years later, my little sister would be born.

Four years after that, my mother will be taken from us, leaving two young children alone.

Which is just awful. She sounds like such a cool, like the goosebumps of it all, the R said, leaving the book on the bed when she would come home.
That's the best. Like that kind of shit.

That's the shit you do that I'm like, I wish that I had had that. Like I love that.
That's such like. It's those little,

and obviously, look, it's those little things you do for your kids that they remember. Leaving a book on their bed for when they get home.

Like something so simple like that means like that has shaped Nikki's entire life. Like those are the main memories that she has of her mom.

And obviously because her mom was taken from her at such a young age, but those little things have an impact. Because I vividly remember, and it's always going to be like very vivid.

I can smell them kind of memories. My mom would leave little decorations for holidays like on my bed.
Yeah.

Like so for Halloween, if she went to HomeGoods while I was at school, she would pick me up a couple of things and leave leave them on my bed so I could decorate my room. It's so cute.

And I can like literally smell like the environment when I walked in and saw those. It's like that kind of like really fresh memory.

And I think that's what Nikki's talking about with that like green comment. Yep.
That you can just like, those are the kind of memories that you literally can like touch.

They're like imprinted on you. Yeah.
And she would leave beanie babies on the front porch when I would come off the bus. I love that.
Yeah.

And it's like those kind of things, your kids will never forget those. Yeah.
And they're little. When I was in high school, I was was in high school when I moved in with my grandparents.

And my grandpa, every Valentine's Day, would leave me a mug on the counter from like a really good candy store and put all this yummy candy in it. Yep.

Every single Valentine's Day, he'd get one for like Halloween, like all the fun holidays. He'd give me something little like that.
And it's like, those are truly the things that last. Yeah.

They're little, but they're huge. And I just remember like you were just saying, like walking home, walking into the kitchen.

I can literally smell like what was cooking for dinner and just being like, oh.

like you thought of me. Oh man.

So so back to the case.

While investigators were conducting obviously a large number of interviews with friends and family, just trying to get the bigger picture of who Stephanie was that we now have thanks to Nikki and of course how she ended up shot in her own bedroom, the county medical examiner, Dr.

Philip Keene, performed the autopsy on Stephanie. Now, obviously he determined that the cause of death was the gunshot wound to Stephanie's neck.

But he had some questions when it came to Russell Peterson's description of the incident, because in his opinion,

it was not entirely supported by the evidence. Interesting.
So remember, in his statement to the police, Russell said that the gun had been in Stephanie's left hand when it went off.

This was supported by the presence of gunpowder residue on her left hand, but by all accounts, Stephanie was right-handed, so it wouldn't have made sense for her to hold the gun in her non-dominant hand.

Oh, yeah, you're right. Like that, it could happen, but you know, it'd be weird.

And beyond that, in order to inflict the kind of contact wound that she got in her neck, she would have had to have been holding the gun at a very awkward angle, which would have been like unnatural under the circumstances.

Like her arm wouldn't have really been able to move that way.

Well, that's where the questions of like when a gun goes off like that come into play, where like you need to like lay out exactly what would have needed to happen for that injury to happen. Yeah.

And sometimes you're like, ooh,

so in his summary, Dr. Keene wrote, the character of the wound is such that it is a contact wound, which is awful.
Damn.

And he said, and the presence of gunpowder residue on the left hand is more consistent with the deposition in a defensive posture than with any self-inflicted injury, whether intentional or otherwise.

Oh.

So as a result of his findings, he did list the death as a homicide. Interesting.
Yeah.

Very interesting that the gunpowder on the hand, because I didn't even think of that, that it could be a defense thing, like that it was a contact thing. Right.
Like that's wild. It is interesting.

So based on the evidence initially presented and the statements collected from those who knew the couple, the case, you know, initially seemed to be pretty straightforward.

It was tragic, but at the end of the day, pretty routine.

Now, the coroner's report was definitely a catalyst to a lot of questions because now that indicated that there was way more to this story and now this death is a homicide. Yeah.

But that wasn't the only thing complicating what investigators thought was going to be an open shut case.

Not long after Stephanie's death, Detective Walt Spokes sat down with the couple's younger daughter to find out if she had seen anything that evening because remember, she was awake when they got in the room.

And they just wanted to see if she could add anything of value to the narrative.

And throughout the interview, he did his best to avoid leading questions, of course, just really stuck to broad questions about what she remembered. And he asked her, what happened at home tonight?

And she just looked at him and said, my mother died. My dad killed her.

That

wrecks me. Yeah.

That must have wrecked those investments. Like to hear a little, sweet little baby who has been through hell say that to you.
I don't know how to wreck you. I don't know how you recover from that.

And just like, obviously your job is a part of your life, but then you just go back to your personal life after that.

And you can just like carry that like that's heavy like damn that's heavy yeah the interview with stephanie and russell's daughter it's pretty brief but there are certain revelations made during that discussion that would be pretty significant going forward the most important being that after she heard the commotion in her parents bedroom she went to see what was happening and not only did she see her mom lying on the floor while russell appeared to be retrieving the gun from the closet It wasn't out yet.

Oh.

But that meant that directly after the shooting took place, Russell not only handled the weapon, but also appeared to have moved it from where it had fallen from Stephanie's hand. Oh.

Yeah.

Interesting. And again, this is from the discussion with Nikki's younger sister.
Exactly.

So given the new information in the coroner's report, Detective Spokes sat down with Russell for another interview and was like, whoa,

lots of new information here. And that's when he changed his story in some very significant ways.
Oh.

When he was initially interviewed immediately after the shooting, he told investigators, like we said, Stephanie had argued, they struggled with the gun, it went off, Stephanie was killed.

But now, all of a sudden, he claimed that, to the best of his recollection, Stephanie fired the gun at him while he was on the couch, then went into the bedroom.

He followed her, and when he reached the bedroom, he arrived just in time to witness Stephanie fall to the floor after she shot herself.

What?

Yeah.

Which she would have had to have done with her left hand, which is

at a very unnatural angle. Yeah.

In the neck. Yep.
Like right on the neck. Okay.
So the previous explanation of an accidental shooting during a struggle would have accounted for the presence of gunpowder on his hands.

But if Stephanie shot herself, like he was now claiming, they asked him, how did he get gunpowder on his hands? Yeah. Because now you're removing yourself from even holding the gun at all.
Yeah.

And they said, for that matter, why did their daughter tell police that she saw him taking the gun to the closet? Yeah. Where did that, like, when did that happen that evening?

For the most part, his second interview matched the contents of his initial statements. He claimed he got home from work, he found Stephanie drunk, agitated.
Their conversation was calm.

Things got heated. And he said he did his best not to become angry.
He told detectives, I don't have the buttons that you can push to maybe want to put me into that mode.

Which is like, babe, everybody has buttons. Yeah, everybody has a button, but like not to be pushed into a mode of handling a gun.
Yeah.

And then eventually things escalated to where Stephanie got the gun, fired a shot at him, and then that's where his story changes again.

According to him, after the shot was fired, he fell over on the couch and it took him a few seconds to collect himself. And that's when Stephanie went into the bedroom.

He said, I go, I go through the hall and the door is three quarters of the way closed.

I know I told you guys of this confrontation, of this struggle, and I'm not excluding that maybe it did or did not happen. And that's the like the point of darkness for me.

So now it's it maybe did happen, maybe didn't happen. And now you don't remember anything? It's the uh it's it's when people claim the the blackout happens that I'm like, uh-oh.

And it's like, so that's your third story. Yeah.
Now. And now we're, now we're including a complete blackout.
A blackout. Yeah.
Which like, oh, if you count, if you can't account for that time,

that's not good. Like, uh-oh.

Essentially, he was recanting his previous statement now that they had struggled over the gun. And now apparently, the one where he immediately walked in and found Stephanie lying on the floor.

And now that we were just left with this blackout, mm-hmm. And he said, he didn't regain full consciousness until he saw her fall to the floor.
He said, I don't know what happened. I may know.

It'll come to me. I never, I don't think I ever put my hands on her.

So it's like, now you don't know what happened? And how did you just black out? Like, now you're like,

you just like went unconscious?

Hatch is all about helping you get great sleep. We love that.
Set yourself up for a great night's sleep with Hatch's award-winning new podcast, The Nightly. No more lying in bed with racing thoughts.

The Nightly delivers a new episode to help you drift off to sleep every night of the week.

The hilarious rotation of hosts go deep on pop culture and get into some friendly gossip so you can end your day with a nice sleepy laugh before you drift off.

The nightly is available wherever you get your podcasts. I have started listening to the nightly lately, and let me tell you, it is really nice to drift off with a big smile on your face.

Me and John love listening to some friendly gossip, and all the hosts' voices are top-notch. We love them.

Hatch Restore is the perfect gift this holiday and is on sale through December 17th at hatch.co.

That's hatch.co,

by the way. Listen to the nightly wherever you get your podcasts.

Your home should show off who you are, and Ashley has styles that balance timeless appeal and modern trends to bring your personal look home.

I am obsessed with my house, and it is like my cozy little oasis. So I want to be curled up on my beautiful couch that's cozy and chic, just like an extension of my style, who I am.

And then people know that when they walk in, they say, Oh, this is so Ash. And Ashley

offers well-crafted, affordable pieces for any style built to stand up to real life with great looks that are made to last.

More than just eye-catching design, get style with substance, like stain-resistance performance fabric options.

They're incredibly durable and stain-resistant with machine-washable cushion covers, honestly, perfect for the holiday season and just life in general.

Ashley.com is easy to shop with so many stylish options to choose from, and the ordering process is smooth from start to finish.

Plus, Ashley provides fast, reliable, light-glove delivery to your door. Visit your local Ashley store or head to Ashley.com to find your style.

One in five Americans have Learn a New Language on their bucket list.

If that's you, make 2025 the year that you finally check it off with Babel, the language app that makes grammar fun and actually worth your time.

Babel lets you practice real-life conversation step by step without the stress.

You'll build up the confidence to speak up when it matters, from ordering a cup of coffee to chatting with new friends abroad. One thing about me, you probably know it if you listen to this show.

I have always wanted to learn French, and then my sister over there sitting across from me, she decided she was going to learn French.

And then my niece was going to learn French, so I said, I better download Babel because they're not going to have French conversations without me.

Here is a special limited-time deal for our listeners. Right now, get up to 55% off your Babel subscription at babble.com forward slash morbid.
Get up to 55% off at babble.com forward slash morbid.

Spelled B-A-B-B-E-L dot com forward slash morbid. Rules and restrictions may apply.

And it's like, okay, I'm playing devil's advocate here for sure. Yeah.

Traumatic events can make you black out, but you already definitively told one story and then you said

actually that's wrong. And then you definitively told another story where you remembered everything.
And now all of a sudden you don't remember. If you blackout, you got to say that from the jump.

That's the thing. No matter what, whether like whatever outcome actually happened here or whatever process happened here, you're not making yourself look

good here by changing the story up a hundred years. The second you start changing your story is the second that people get their consciousness up.
Exactly.

So he claimed that after he regained his composure in the bedroom, he saw the gun on the floor and his instinct was to pick it up and to move it out of the way.

So he grabbed it, he put it back in its leather holster and placed it on the shelf in the closet. But then he said, something clicked off in my mind that said, no, you can't do that, Russell.

Meaning he realized he shouldn't move the weapon. He went over to the closet and he took it out again and put it back on the floor where he'd gotten it from.

And he said, that's when their daughter appeared at the bedroom door. So now that accounted for her seeing her father move the gun.
Come back out.

So now we're accounting for a story that we know the daughter told. Which again, if that is what happened, why wouldn't you just say that initially? From the jump.
Right. Just say it like, yeah.

And there was this moment where I went to put it back and I was like, oh shit, that could look suspicious. So I took it back out.
And I think my daughter appeared there.

Like, why wouldn't you just say that story? Why is that suddenly coming to you now? You got to just say things initially. You got to just say this.

When you're in a situation like this, obviously, like people get scared. So many things can be true, but

no matter what, it looks sus when you start changing their story. Yeah.

So throughout the course of the interview, Detective Spokes did his best to push Russell for any additional information, especially by pointing out the contradictions between his story and what they now knew from the evidence.

For example, now the coroner's ruling indicated that the death was a homicide, but Dr.

Keene was very careful to point out the angle of the entry and exit wounds and the contact burns made it very unlikely to have been a suicide.

So he's sitting there, the detective spokes is sitting there telling Russell, like, okay, so now your story is that Stephanie shot herself, but the autopsy is not showing us that. That's the thing.

The autopsy isn't going to lie. And they reenacted the shooting and the facts of what the findings were in the autopsy were verified.
Yeah.

It confirmed it would have been very, very extremely difficult, if not completely impossible, for Stephanie to have bent her arm in the position that she had to have to shoot herself that way.

Autopsies don't lie.

That is just, you cannot fuck with an autopsy. That is just that they're going to tell you what happened there or what didn't happen.
That's the thing.

And it's like, not only that, but then they went to the trouble of reenacting it. And the work of reenacting it and it confirmed the findings.
Yeah. That's like a double down.

And that it's like, it's next to impossible for it to have happened, like for her to bend her arm that way.

Like, come on, man. And I'm sorry, that just like when you change your story from there was a struggle and the gun went off to then they shot themselves, my haunches are immediately up.
It's weird.

Like I'm immediately like, what? And now it's, now it's completely removed you out of the situation.

And then you find out you can't be completely removed because you have gunpowder on your hands and somebody saw you with a gun. Yeah.
Like, hello?

So detective spokes in the interview room explained to Russell that he was pretty much losing all credibility, especially because now he had changed his story like four or five times at this point.

That's not great.

And to make matters worse, while he was initially pretty cooperative and forthcoming, after about a week or so, he stopped returning investigators' phone calls and just seemed to be avoiding detectives because they couldn't continue to hold him after a certain point.

So he did get let go, of course. But then he kept getting called in for interviews, but then he just eventually stopped participating in them.
Damn.

So eventually, Spokes and his partner presented Russell with what they believed to have happened that night, which was more or less the original version of events.

They said, sure, I think a fight escalated to a struggle over the gun. And during that fight, Stephanie was shot.

Detective Spokes said, I'm trying to give you an opportunity to respond and to help us. I mean, if this was an accident, we just want to prove it was an accident.
Yeah.

But at that point, Russell was immovable and just continued to say, nope, Stephanie shot herself and I blacked out during it. No.

I don't think that's the same.

That's the story that makes the least amount of sense and the story that the forensic like evidence and the autopsy proved wrong right so it's like you can't keep hanging on to that and they're literally sitting here being like we'll give you the initial story that you gave us back we're giving you the opportunity to just tell us this was an accident right it was an accident tell us it's an accident from there but don't change your story

completely out of it now when the forensics is telling us you were in it come on and don't get like shoddy and start avoiding people yeah

Investigators and the law. Like, hello? Not good.

So based on the number of times that his story had changed and the various pieces of contradictory evidence, Detective Spokes and the other investigators felt pretty strongly that Russell Peters was not being entirely forthcoming about what happened on the night of Stephanie's death, but they didn't have any evidence or eyewitness testimony to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he wasn't being truthful.

The coroner's report indicated that it seemed unlikely that Stephanie shot herself, but that didn't mean that she couldn't have.

It was just only that it would have been awkward given the evidence and close to impossible. Yeah.
But not impossible. Yeah, of course.

And unfortunately, the only witness that they did have who saw anything that night, aside from Russell, obviously, was a small child who, in addition to experiencing a considerable trauma, like is a child is a child.

She's three or four years old. That's like.

She's so little, you know, like, and again, she's been through so much trauma.

And and you don't want to keep dragging her through this trauma You don't want to keep dragging her through it She's a child So she can't be your only witness that you can throw on the stand because unfortunately a jury isn't going to put a man away for life or for a considerable amount of time based on a three-year-old's yeah, and that's word or a four-year-old's word fortunate reality

so they didn't believe what Russell was telling them, but they couldn't prove that he wasn't. Yeah.
So they're, they were at a standstill.

In the months that followed, new information and leads just started to dry up because, I mean, there's only one person involved here. You're not really going to get any tips or leads.
Yeah.

And there just wasn't enough evidence for the prosecutor to bring the case to a grand jury.

So everything just petered out and the investigation was shelved so that detectives could, you know, focus on more urgent matters.

But in the years since Stephanie's death, her family has never, ever lost hope and they still want to get justice for her. They still continue to push Sedona law enforcement to resolve the case.
Yeah.

In the summer of 2020, almost a full 27 years since Stephanie's death, her sister Wendy met with Sergeant Michael Dominguez from the Sedona Police Department to talk about the case.

Wendy restated her strong belief that Russell was definitely responsible for Stephanie's murder and was like, hey, can you just continue this investigation, please?

Yeah, can we not just like let this go? Yeah, like can we take this off the shelves? Which I think this is Arizona, correct, Sedona?

This is also where Sarah Tourney's sister, Alyssa, her case is ongoing. Yep.
So it's just like an introduction. But got shelved at a certain point.

And then she was told, just put enough pressure on, you know, like just never stop talking about it. Never stop talking about it.
Always like make the public aware, get the word out. So that's exactly

what we're doing here and what Nikki's trying to do.

And what everybody else in Stephanie's family was trying to do and is trying to do.

Wendy was urging the department to continue the investigation.

And Sergeant Dominguez explained that they would continue to pursue the case to the best of their abilities, but suggested that they might be able to make more progress if the family could aid them in the investigation, which is what Sarah was also told.

Yeah. Specifically, he told

Stephanie and Russell's daughter and asked her to cooperate with them on a confrontation call, and she agreed. Wow.
A confrontation call and to be able to agree to that. Yeah.

Damn. Yeah.
Like, that's so scary. It's, I can't imagine being involved in something like that.
Like, that takes some badassery.

But as of July 20th, 2020, there doesn't appear to have been any additional contact between the Sedona police and the family.

And it's kind of unclear whether that confrontation call took place or not. Interesting.

So around that time that Dominguez was communicating with Wendy Wasselishin, he also spoke to the press about his taking another look at the case.

He told a reporter from the Sedona Red Rocks News, there was no witness other than Russell and the deceased. The children were in bed sleeping in other rooms when the incident occurred.

Not true, necessarily. The autopsy report from the medical examiner at the time called it a homicide.

But with the advances in technology and criminology in the years since Stephanie was killed, both the investigators and the family hoped that maybe they could make some progress here.

So he said, can I tell you it's a homicide with 100% certainty? No. But based on the evidence I see, there's more to the story than that of a suicide.
Yeah, it just doesn't

read that way at all. Yeah, so he was he was on board to continue this.

But within just a few weeks of restarting their investigation, the note of optimism seemed to leave his voice.

At the time that Stephanie was killed, a lot of focus was put on her having held the gun in her non-dominant hand, which would have been pretty counterintuitive under the circumstances.

But he said, and this is a quote, he said, the family has over-focused on the fact that she was right-handed and she could have only done this with her right hand.

But it's like i think i would over focus

it's not over focusing it's just a big it changed everything yeah that's when you have a dominant hand well and that's when investigators went to him and said like hey here's what's in the report and that's when the story started changing so i don't think that's over focusing i think that's i think that opened up a little bit yeah exactly i think them focusing on that at all made him change his story a little bit, it seems, because they brought it up and the story changed.

So it's like, it was good that it was brought up. That's the thing.

If I, if, if the coroner's report is like the initial reason that caused doubt and it caused him to change his story, I get pretty fucking hung up on that too.

Well, and also it's like, don't say that they're over-focusing on it. You have a dominant hand and you do things with that dominant hand.

And if you're trying to kill yourself, you're not going to want to fuck it up by using your non-dominant hand. So, I mean, that's just, that's a very,

forgive the word I have to say, but morbid thing to say, but it's true. Yeah.
It's just,

it doesn't make sense. And you do have to think about the logics involved here.
You're right. And to say they're over focused on it, no, I think it just is a piece of the puzzle that makes sense.

Exactly. Well, he said, and he did say, it seemed unlikely that anybody like you just said would take the time to switch hands before shooting themselves.

But at the same time, he said it wasn't out of the realm of possibility. Okay.
And I can agree with that. Yeah.

So he took the original coroner's report to a new medical examiner to get a second opinion.

And the second opinion turned out to be inconclusive, which is infuriating infuriating and also like I don't know that this is the case but it's like I don't think that one medical examiner is going to want to step on the toes of another one I'm sure that who knows if there's like some kind of you know like you don't want to be the one that overturns that yeah it's just like I wish you could be brought to several yeah right have them all kind of like brain trust it exactly even have them all like a few of them work together to figure out because when you have a few of those great minds together you could probably you come up with a better way to do it.

Well, Dominguez said about the medical examiner, he said, he told me that based on what he had in front of him, he was not able to make an assessment in terms of manner, manner being suicide or homicide or unknown.

I think that was a fair assessment. And I trust Dr.
Nine because he's been doing autopsies for a very long time.

But I think it also holds weight that he couldn't. make a decision.
That's the thing. If

somebody who's been doing autopsies for many, many years can't really conclusively come up with what happened. And that's big.
Yeah. And can't say that that was a suicide.
Yeah.

That tells you something. Right.
So obviously there's challenges here, but the good thing is that Sergeant Dominguez restated

his intention to pursue the investigation as far as it would take him, but he was pretty careful to avoid making any promises. Basically, he echoed what the original investigators felt.

They really couldn't prove anything from a legal standpoint, and there just wasn't enough evidence. And despite his best efforts, the renewed interest in the case didn't come up with any new leads.

There was just nothing to go off of. And within a short time, he found himself at another dead end.
Oh, so infuriating. So it just

they feel like there's nowhere left to go, but that is where the family steps in. And it's always where the family always is and usually moves things along.

So in the years since the second investigation just stalled out, Stephanie's family have just been working tirelessly to keep her memory alive and achieve any kind of justice for her case.

In 2022, they worked with the local Fox affiliate in Phoenix to produce a two-part news story on the case, which obviously celebrated Stephanie's life, but also highlighted a lot of the unresolved questions in the case.

And like we said, most recently, Stephanie's daughter Nikki has started a multi-part podcast, Poppy Killed Mommy, where she's exploring the case from her perspective.

Which I think is a very important perspective. Yes, and we urge you, urge you, urge you to go listen to that.
Yeah, we gave you the story here. We gave you the cold, hard facts.

You need to hear it from her, her mouth. That's you gotta, like, she was there.
She was part of, you know, she knows Stephanie. She knows Russell.
She knows all of this.

And like you said, you got to hear it from her mouth.

So to end this on Nikki's voice, before you go check out her podcast, again, it's Poppy Killed Mommy, here's what she told us in relation to the investigation now and what she hopes moving forward.

She said, it'll take me 28 years to become involved in my mother's cold case murder. I will wait for the police to do their job all my life, but I will wait in vain.

At the age of 38, I request my mom's case file and I read what happened to her and I'm blown away. I'm just blown away.

One of the questions you asked me was what I feel like I carry today from her and her influence. I know that I carry her rage and her anger.

I'm mad for the life that was taken from her and her children. I feel like I've become her warrior in my 40s, in my midlife.

I'm finally looking back at my childhood and seeing my mother in such a different light. I know that my mom's case has made me obsessed for some kind of justice.

The influence that she has given me is to never give up, and I never intend to. I've contacted the police, and they're telling me it's been too long.

I've contacted wrongful death attorneys, and they're telling me the statue of limitation has expired.

I'm not even sure what justice looks like anymore, but I will not stop until there's some kind of accountability. Thank you for taking the time to listen to the daughter of a miracle woman.

Damn, which just gives you chills.

That's,

I'm telling you guys, go,

go listen to Nikki. She's going to do it.
She'll blow, she'll blow you away. She's going to do it.
She's going to be some kind of justice here.

And she's, she reminds me very much of like, her and Sarah have that same like Sarah Tourney have that same

like just badassery that they're like

until and it's like just getting something some kind of justice.

When you love somebody that much and they make such an impact on your life, being it like it being your mom your sister your friend no matter who it is you will fight to to the death for them yeah you know it's so true it's really true and honestly like definitely support nikki here just to get answers that's all she's looking for she's just looking for answers and it's like we always say a cold case it's never cold that's why when they say like it's been too long and it's like no it hasn't Look at the boy in the box was solved.

Yeah, the Summerton man

was solved. Years and years and years.
They figured there's so many cases that have been solved later. The Golden State Killer.
Yeah, the Golden State Killer.

I mean, they thought they solved Jack Dak the Ripper. They didn't, but they're still trying.
Don't get her started. Don't get me started on that, but they're still trying.
And you don't give up.

I have full hope, and I hope that Nikki does too. I think she's going to get this shit done.
Yeah.

And also, because we know you guys can crank out the signatures on a petition if

you do see fit, which I think you will hear. There is a petition on change.org.
It is a demand of a complete homicide investigation for the murder of Stephanie Marie Wasselishin.

We're going to put the link in our show notes. We'll put it on social media.
It has 12,000 signatures right now. And Nikki was the one who made it.
So Nikki is

so. Go sign that for Nikki.
Share the word, spread the word, support her podcast, support the change.org petition, and let's crack open this cold case. Let's do it.

We're going to, let's find out what happened here. All right, guys, so we hope that you blow this case wide open.
We're all going to.

And of course, we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you don't go check out Poppy Killed Mommy by our girl Nikki.
Nikki! And sign that petition.

You guys are so good at petitions.

With Venmo Stash, a tiger in one hand, and ordering a ride in the other, means you're stacking cash back. With Venmo Stash, get up to 5% cash back when you pick a bundle of your favorite brands.

Earn more cash when you do more with Stash. Venmo Stash Terms Inclusion Supply.
Match $100 cash back per month. CTerms at Vimmo.me slash Stash Terms.

Oregovatazona? Is that a word? In the new 2026 Kia Sportage Turbo Hybrid, it might as well be, because it can be one road trip.

It's all about turbocharged power and hybrid efficiency working together. So you get the thrill of quick acceleration and the satisfaction of fuel efficiency.

Book a test drive and keep the adventure going. Kia, movement that inspires.
Call 800-3334-Kia for details. Always drive safely.