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A
Hi, it's Sarah. I'm the founder of Olive and June. And can I tell you the one thing that always makes my day better? A fresh manicure. But who has the time or the money to go to the salon every week? That's why we created the Olive and June gel mani system. It gives you that same mani that you get at a salon for so much less. It comes with everything you need. A pro level lamp, salon grade tools, our damage free gel polish that lasts up to 21 days. All you do is prep, paint, cure and you're good to go. And the best part, it's super easy and so affordable. Each mani breaks down to $2. So let's skip that $80 salon appointment and get the salon quality look at home for so much less and on your schedule. So head to oliveandjune.com gelmani20 and use code GELMANI20 for 20% off your first Gel Mani system. That's oliveandjune.com Gelmani20 code Gelmani20 for 20% off your first GEL Mani system.
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B
Foreign. Hello, welcome. Greetings and salutations. My name is Nikki. I'm the daughter of a murdered woman. Welcome back to another episode of Poppy Killed Mommy. I guess we'll call it my personal diary or record of trauma, survival and my fight for accountability. It's been 33 days since I last sat down in here and gave you an update on my mom's case. And the last time I was here, I really didn't enjoy being in here. It was a pretty defeated episode. I was completely and utterly done. At that point, I felt like there was no reason to go forward. I had just been told something that I don't think anyone is ever prepared to hear. That there's no legal path forward in their loved one's case unless the man who's lied about it for almost 33 years in my mom's case confesses. And I remember sitting with that and thinking, what the fuck does that even mean? Because what that tells me is that justice isn't built for people like us. Justice isn't built for families who don't have money. And justice isn't built for people who can't hire attorneys or private investigators or push things through civil court. Because let's be real civilly, that looks like other than a confession, it's the only other path forward for my mom's case. And that takes money and that takes resources and that takes a team. And I just, I don't have that. I tried to get an attorney at the beginning of this year, I sent out a letter to dozens of local civil rights attorneys in Phoenix area, and all I got were denial. So it's. It's really frustrating. So I sat here feeling like I was Back to square one 32 years later. Back at the beginning, I had a couple really, really hard days. Really, really hard, I'll admit it. And they're the kind of days where I wasn't productive and I wasn't motivated, and I was just kind of existing and floating through life, the routine of life, you know, eating on my off time. All I will do is eat. When I get depressed, I eat my emotions. I will admit I'm a binge eater. In addition to binge eating, I was also binge watching True Crime, because, of course, that's what I was watching. And somewhere in the middle of one of those days, something hit me. I was sitting there watching these documentaries, watching these stories that were being told on these massive platforms, and I'm like, my mom still does not have this. My mom doesn't have a documentary. My mom doesn't have a series. My mom doesn't have a Netflix special or a Dateline episode or anything like that. And I just sat there and I thought, why not? Again, spinning, going back to the why not? Because I've pushed and I've pushed and I've pushed for some kind of coverage of my mom on the television, on the big screen. I feel like I've done everything. I've reached out to everybody. I've cried, I've begged. I mean, I've done everything I thought I could. I thought I did everything I can. And then I'm like, but did you really? Have you really, though? And, you know, takes a few days to stew on that. And no, I haven't. I haven't pushed big enough. I. I've been pushing. Yeah, it's. It gets tiring to be pushing as much as I have. So I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels. But, you know, I've only pushed here. Podcasts, social media, written articles. It's just not big enough. I know TV is where I need to be. I've known this. I just can't seem to break through. That's where these cases explode, and that's where people pay attention, and that's where the pressure builds. But when you're constantly fighting for something, you feel like you've done everything you know, you can already kind of just gave up. I really did. I let the news from the county attorney get me down. But you know me, I Bounced back. It was like a switch flipped in my brain one day because I went from what's the point? To oh, my God, I'm not done. I'm not even close to done. And that's what brought me back into the studio today. Well, that and, you know, there's a couple of big things I want to talk about today, but also, we are officially on Crimecon watch. As of Today, I am 48 days. We. We are 48 days away from Crimecon, and it's go time, baby. I'm on Vistaprint. I am ordering more postcards. I'm like, is 500 postcards enough? Like, I don't know. I need to get on sticker mule. I need to get some stickers ordered. My to do list is insane. But the coolest part is that my friend Stacy, who's coming with me to run the booth, has been absolutely incredible. She's got all this fancy, crafty, like, machinery, and she's literally printing and designing, and she's helping me create merch. Like, she. She sent me a video the other night of her first couple of, like, keychains, buttons. It's mind blowing what she can do with this machinery. So if you come by my booth at CrimeCon, you're not just getting something I ordered in bulk. You're getting something that was made with intention and made with care and made with the support of somebody who didn't even know me before all of this happened. And I could not be more grateful for her because I cannot do this alone. I absolutely cannot fly solo to events like this. And she's shown up for me in ways that I will never forget. And I am super excited about this year. Oh, my God. For so many reasons, this trip is going to be phenomenal. By the way, I have never been to Vegas. I'm 43 and I have never been to Vegas. So this is gonna be an amazing. It's gonna be an amazing trip. And just to let you know, I will talk to anybody. Anybody. I don't care if you're a massive network or a small podcast or a brand new creator just starting out, I will talk to every person that stops by my booth. Last crime con, Like, I sat there and I, you know, if you didn't, like, stop to talk to me, I just kind of, like, smiled and let you, like, walk by. This year, dude, I'm going to be out there, like, you're walking by my booth. I'm going to be like, hi. I'm going to be that annoying person and rope you In. So I hope you walk by. But if you stop by my booth and if you are willing to listen, I will talk to you. I will tell you my mom's story, and, you know, I'd be more than happy to give you some homemade merchandise. Super excited about that. Anyway, moving on here, though, let's get back to my scripted remarks. I. I'm really liking that I'm getting comfortable enough to be in the studio where I. I can have a written script, but I. I also can ad lib. I'm just talking without a script. I think since my last episode where I came in here and I. I pretty much did the whole episode like a vlog. I like that. So, anyway, I hope you do too. Anyway, I have. I just want to let you know that when we are at Crimecon, there is a huge, major contender there. Have you ever heard of Tenderfoot tv? If you don't know who Tenderfoot is, they are behind some of the biggest true crime content out there. They worked on shows like up and Vanished, Atlanta, Monster Radio Rental. They know how to take a case and bring it to massive audience. And their booth at Crimecon, as soon as you walked in, it was on an end cap. It was huge. It was insane. It had like, their Tenderfoot logo was spinning. It was wild. I remember just walking by and like, my eyes were as big as silver dollars going, I wish I could be there. I wish I could be up there. I want to talk to Tenderfoot. Talk to me, Tenderfoot. Anyway, after Crimecon last year, I. I reached out to them and I got in contact with someone who reads those emails, and she's been in my corner for months. She was like, hey, just to let you know, I'm the one that reads the emails. I am pitching your story. I am in your corner. And like, when people, like, when I get help like that, it's just. It's overwhelming in the most amazing way because I have felt alone for so long in this fight. So thank you. I know who you are and I appreciate you for helping me and pitching my mom's case. So if anyone else, though, in Tenderfoot is listening, please, please listen to her and please help me, please push the case forward. Please find me at Crimecon. Let's talk. Let's shake hands. Because at the end of the day, that is why I'm going. Yes, I'm excited to meet the listeners. Absolutely. And yes, I'm excited to meet other creators. But I am going for one reason. It's to get more media for my mom, because Doing this, this is not fun. This is really. It's. Honestly, it's not something that I enjoy doing. It's not like I wake up, like, super excited to, like, re. Traumatize myself every day. I avoided my mom's case for 28 years. I didn't read her case file till I was almost 40. Reliving this and talking about this over and over again, I mean, I'm becoming numb to it, but it's not easy. It's not something that I wake up excited do, like I said. But it's something that I have felt compelled to do, especially in the last five years since I started this. The more people that I get to hear her story, the closer we get, I feel to answers and to accountability and to something that makes me feel like there's some kind of justice, I guess. And that's what makes me excited. And smiling at these events is getting my mom as much coverage as possible. So that's my new plan. This is my next wave. Wars are not won in years or I guess two years, or I'm even 10 years. And I think I'm finally understanding that this is gonna take a lot of time, and I'm understanding that it just doesn't happen overnight. So it's gonna take more pressure and it's gonna take more persistence, and I'm gearing up for that. I have accepted this. And for the next phase of this fight, I'm just gonna do a media barrage. This is just the beginning of my next push of media. And I'm ready, baby. And I'm ready. I'm ready. Because this episode, we're gonna talk about what I feel is the biggest coverage my mom's case has gotten to date. But I don't want. We're teasing. I'm doing a teaser. Not yet. I need to do a quick note of shameless begging. Sorry. This is where we're going to do a little bit of begging on behalf of my dogs. Um, I hate asking for anything. I really do. I hate putting up gofundmes. It's not fun. I live paycheck to paycheck, though. Let's be real. And the podcast, the ads that I put up through Libsyn. It's really not what I thought, or I guess I'm not producing enough episodes to make this studio fund itself. I. I guess it's not funding this and it's not supporting this, and that's okay because I'm. I'm not doing this to make money off my mom's case. It Was never about the money. That's never been the goal. But it does make things like this, like Crimecon, hard to do. I wanted the show to be able to support itself, and maybe in the future it will. But this year has been a struggle. And if you follow me on TikTok, you already know about this, but I lost a pet in February. I came home from work, and she had passed on her pillow while I was at work. And it was the day before. Like, she had a vet appointment. Like, I knew she was sick, but I didn't realize that. Like, she was that sick, dude. And after I lost Chicky P, I panicked, and I took my three oldest Chihuahuas or my two oldest Chihuahuas and my oldest cat in to be checked. And lo and behold, they all needed dental surgery. Like, if there is a moral to this episode right now, it is, please, oh, my goodness, take care of your animal's mouth. If you have small dogs, cats, if you have any animal, you got to take care of their teeth, dude. And they all needed dental surgery. So I spent February 13th to March 27th struggling to pay the $2500 in their vet bills. But I did it. I got all three of them vetted. They are all happy and healthy. But by doing so, I lost the ability and the funds to go to CrimeCon. Like, I didn't think I was gonna be able to financially swing it, and I didn't wanna do another go fund. But this year, I got. I got really, really lucky. My friend Stacy, she's taking me. We talked about her making the merch. She's coming, she's flying, she's driving me. She's like, you need to have no stress. And I'm all about that. And she's helping me get there, and she's helping me make the merch with her fancy equipment. And she's putting the time and the energy into all this so that I don't have to put up a go fund this year because of her. Bless you. So I just want to say thank you. Thank you to Stacy and thank you to everyone that helped get me there last year. You have been pivotal in helping me spread my mom's story. And to the people who show up for me in ways like that, oh, my God. Bless you, too. Bless you. Bless you. Bless you. I can't do this alone, but I will say this. I have no problem or shame asking for help when it comes to my dogs. Dickey, Birdie, if you were at CrimeCon last year, you probably met him. He is my fat Little Chihuahua. He's coming with me again this year and he just had dental surgery so he no longer has any teeth at all. His little tongue hangs out the side of his mouth and it's both pathetic and precious at the same time. He is just one of the five dogs I have left and as they're getting older my house is turning into a geriatric senior doggy ward. I kid you not. The summers here have been brutal too. 110, 115, 120 degrees. It's really hard to keep them comfortable because I have a really eccentric crazy father. But my dad is old and he is totally backwards in his thinking. And this house is huge. It's like an old farm ranch house. And the man doesn't even live in the house, he lives in the garage which is AC'd separately. So in his mind he cannot justify running the AC all day for an empty house just for animals while like I'm at work. He, he just won't do it. I have fought with this man and fought with this man. Um, the house gets unbearable upward towards 90 degrees. The kitchen is a place that I no longer use to cook. It is microwave meals for the summer pretty much pre prepped. I cannot stand to be in the kitchen. The bedroom though has you know, a built in wall AC and it does, it cools the room down just fine. So when I'm home I, you know, I can run my ac. It's all fine, no problem. Just don't leave your bedroom, right? Don't go outside. But as soon as I leave, that man will come into my room and turn it up to 80 degrees. Cuz he cannot justify running AC for animals, which I just, I guess that's an old generational thing. I, I, I don't understand that. It's just, and I don't know, I have, I have come home before and my one dog, Stinky has been panting when the AC is on at 80. And like this has caused World War like 1, 2 and 3 with my dad since the last three years. I've come home because this is my third summer back at home. So we're going to end up fighting again this year. But anyway, the point is that I have fought and I have fought with my dad over the ac. And last year it got so bad that I paid the man an extra $200 a month, half of the electric bill just to run the AC in my room at 76 so that stinky is comfortable. But the whole point of this spiel is that Jake has to have his own room. My big dog that I rescued from a rescue several years ago. You know, nobody wanted him. He was unadoptable, he was being neglected. Actually, I found out that half the staff wasn't even letting him out. And so that's when I decided to move home. I basically moved home, changed my whole life so that I could adopt this dog. And he has his own room and you know, he's totally content most of the year until it hits, you know, May, June, July. Because Jake doesn't have AC in his room and I gotta shut it down and keep like foam over the windows. And it's just, it's a struggle to keep his room cool. You know, Phoenix and Cape Creek are absolutely beautiful in the winter and springtime, but summers are absolutely beautiful, unbearable, and they're really hard on the animals. So here we go. Long story short, if you're in any position to help, the only thing that I will beg for is I do have an Amazon wish list in the show notes. It's mostly just things to keep the dogs cool, cooling mats, stuff like that. Just to help them through the summer. I think I put like a couple doggy pools in there for Jake because Jake loves his doggy pool. I mean, just like stuff for the animals to get them through the summer. Because I'm just anticipating another long hot summer and fighting with the old man over it is just ridiculous. And you know, in my 20s, when most women are having babies, I didn't have children. I never had children. I started rescuing and these are the original, like several that I started with. My oldest is 17. They are my babies. They are my first dogs and cats. And I will do anything to keep them happy and healthy for as long as possible. And that's the only time I'll ask. I won't ask for me and I will only ask for them. But that's the end of my shameless begging. Thank you for listening. I'm so sorry if that was painful. And yes, I know my dad is weird, but there's just no changing him at this point. Do you know, here I'm going to tell you a backstory that I don't even have in the notes here. When his mother died, she died with like, I think almost a million dollars in the bank. She had no hot water and no ac. She was using a swamp cooler because I guess, you know, she comes from the generation of the Depression and she was all about hoarding money. And I swear to God, my dad has the same disease. He will not run basic AC I know, I know. That's my dad. That's Craig. But continuing on. So with all of that being said, I told you in the last episode that as soon as the all important, all awaited, all exciting A and E article was released, I was going to let you know. Right. Well, guess what? Two days ago, two days ago, on April 9, 2026, something. Something happened. Sometime during my PM work time, probably around 1:30 or 2 in the afternoon, A's article went live on my mom, titled who Killed Stephanie Wassolichen? And I remember kind of blacking out with the excitement a little bit at the work table. My phone had gone off and it was the A and E author texting me that the article was live and the link. And I was in the middle of doing an art project with the kids because I'm a teacher at QI Montessori. And I just remember my heart rate shooting up. I got really sweaty and I wanted to scream, but I couldn't. I had to contain it because it was the middle of work time and it was nap time and I was working at a table that was right next to the nappers. And it was honestly the hardest moment to contain the excitement. And I don't even think my lead teacher understands what was going through my mind and what was happening at that very moment. But when I saw that article go live, I just kind of. I blacked out a little and I couldn't even read it right then because I was working with the kids. And I remember sending the link to a few people, putting the phone down and just continuing to work. But mentally, I was completely checked out on the koala project. Just thinking about this article, what it means, what it could mean. Like, if enough people click on this article, is it possible that A and E producers pick it up for a series, for an episode, for something bigger? Because that's how this works, right? More media leads to more media. And these are the thoughts going through my head when I'm literally helping these kids color koalas and cut and paste because we're learning about Australia this month. I'm sitting there like, how do I get this article to go viral? How do I get enough eyes on this that A and E says we need to tell this story? Oh, my goodness. I'm so sorry for teasing you. Have I teased you enough, though? I told you I was going to read it. Let's read it. I will include the link in the story notes so that you can click on it because please click on it. Create traffic, read it for yourself. And share it with others. I am extremely proud of my front page feature and our local carefree Cave Creek independent. But to be featured on a N E, a station that I have watched my entire life, coming home and watching American justice and Cold Case Files with Bill Curtis, it just. It just feels like a full circle moment. So are you ready? Was that enough buildup? You've probably already read it anyway. But to those of you that have not read it, let's do this.
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C
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B
associated with GLP1s who killed mom of two Stephanie Wassolichen the first thing she said to me in the back of the cop car is Poppy killed mommy. Papi killed Mommy. Stephanie Wassilishin wasn't like other moms. She was a cool mom. She was super young when she had me, her daughter Nikki Wassilishin explains to A and E Crime and Investigation. One summer we were at a pool party and someone asked her what her favorite color was. She took a drag on a cigarette and she said green because it's the color of weed and money. And I thought that was so cool. But life would come crashing down for 10 year old Nikki. On July 9, 1993, around 1:15am, her mom was shot to death at the Sedona, Arizona home they shared with her longtime boyfriend Russell Peterson and Nikki's three year old half sister. According to police, there were no signs of forced entry and although Stephanie's death was ruled a homicide, investigators never officially identified the killer. Who was Stephanie Wassilishin. Stephanie was a 32 year old mom of two and a pastry chef who worked alongside her chef boyfriend Peterson at Pietro's Restaurant. According to Nikki, the couple had a tumultuous relationship. He started neglecting my mom to the point where she was stepping out with multiple guys, nikki says. She was very unhappy and the reason why she wouldn't leave is because they had my sister and she kind of got chained to him. Despite the troubled romance, Stephanie was a doting mother who was preparing to take her girls on vacation. My mom had this whole Disneyland trip planned that summer, nikki recalls. So it didn't make any sense to Stephanie's family when Peterson alleged she killed herself while her kids were asleep. She would never grab a gun with her two children in the home, Nikki maintains. Stephanie's mom, Bernice Wassilishin, told Sedona police that her daughter was deathly afraid of firearms, while her former stepdad, Reginald Evans, said that Stephanie lived for her daughters and was making plans to leave. Peterson family members insisted she was not suicidal. Everyone who knew her knew she would be a lot happier without being involved in that constant, loveless, cold relationship, evans wrote in a letter to investigators. According to police records obtained by A E Poppy killed Mommy on July 9, 1993, Stephanie and Russell Peterson shared a bottle of wine together in their living room while their kids were asleep. The events that followed remain unclear. When questioned about what led to the shooting, Peterson claimed conflict with wasolition had been brewing and stewing for a while, but also said that they may have argued over a two and a half hour phone conversation she had with her ex earlier that night, according to police report. Peterson also alleged they quarreled over him working too much and a business trip he had planned for the near future. Although she was asleep at the time, Nikki, now 43, says that Peterson killed her mom. Her sister, then 3, allegedly witnessed the shooting. When police responded that night, the first thing she said to me in the back of the cop car was Poppy killed Mommy. Poppy killed Mommy, nikki says. She also alleges that Peterson, who was typically distant, was acting suspicious when he was put in the police cruiser with them. He instantly embraced me and started whispering things in my ear like I love you and I'm sorry and I want to keep the family together and in my little 10 year old brain red flags were going off like something's wrong. He doesn't touch me, this isn't my dad. It was the most uncomfortable ride to the police station, nikki adds. The Investigation Peterson called 911 to report Stephanie was shot. However, he said he was unsure where the bullet entered her body. According to police. The call taker attempted to walk Peterson through cpr, but it's unclear if he in fact tried to resuscitate the victim. Stephanie was pronounced dead on the scene and an autopsy revealed she died from a gunshot wound to the neck. The medical examiner noted gunpowder residue was recovered on the victim's left hand and was consistent with defensive posture than with a self inflicted injury, intentional or otherwise. Stephanie was right handed. Over the course of four interviews with detectives, Peterson's retelling of events that led to Stephanie's death were inconsistent and he pivoted back and forth between whether the incident was a suicide or a struggle between them, according to the police. All that was known with certainty was that one of the participants procured a pistol from the bedroom and at least two shots were subsequently fired, the police report read. During the investigation, police alleged Peterson was difficult to get a hold of and canceled appointments. He also refused a polygraph and a reenactment. In November of 1993, prosecutors announced there was insufficient evidence to charge Peterson with Stephanie's death. The inconsistencies, together with all of the other evidence, still does not amount to sufficient evidence to prosecute, yavapai County Attorney Jim Landis wrote in a letter to police. The suspect facilitates between whether there was a struggle or whether it was a suicide. The physical evidence, however, does not clearly support either one of his stories to the exclusion of the other. The suspect's confusion over the facts could be the result of trauma and or wishful thinking. Daughter's quest for justice for the rest of her childhood, Nikki was raised by her biological dad while her little sister stayed with Peterson. The siblings lost touch in 2018 following the death of their grandmother. Around the COVID 19 pandemic, Nikki says she felt a sudden compulsion to reinvestigate and to bring closure to her mom's case. And in 2025, on the 32nd anniversary of her mother's death, she launched the Poppy Killed Mommy podcast. She also actively speaks about the case on TikTok in the hopes that continued exposure will pressure authorities to take another look at Peterson. Peterson and the Yavapai County Attorney's Office did not respond to A and E and Crime Investigations request for comment. While the Sedona police decline to make a statement on the investigation, they the authorities are waiting for a confession. Nikki says they want this case to solve itself. It's just ridiculous. She tries to remain optimistic that investigators will officially identify who pulled the trigger that night. In the meantime, Nikki does her best to honor her mother's memory. I've brought her back to life through old still photos and 16 minutes of VHS footage. She says, so I do what I can to remind people who she is. And that that's the article. That is the story of my mom finally told on a national platform. There were a few things that really stood out to me. And first is that they centered on me. And I don't mean that in like an egotistical kind of way. I mean that in a truth kind of way. Because this case has always been told through the police reports and through the suspect's statements and not through the person who actually lived it, me and my sister. And they also got my mom right. They didn't reduce her to a headline or a statistic. And she was a person and she was a mother. She had a life. And that's something I fight for every single day. And they didn't ignore inconsistencies and they didn't just say that there wasn't enough evidence and moved on. They showed the changing stories and the confusion and the fact that the case just does not make sense. And at the same time, it's a six minute article and my mom's case is not a six minute story. What you don't see is the 600 page case file. You don't see the mishandling. You don't see the unanswered questions. You don't see the 136 phone call, the details that still don't add up. And that's why this podcast exists, because this is where the full story lives. But here's my biggest takeaway from all of this. Media pressure works. I have been saying this for years. After my meeting with the county attorney, when I was told that there was no going forward without a confession, I had a choice. I could sit with that or I could push. And this article is the direct result of pushing, of speaking up, and of refusing to let this go quiet. Because this is how cold cases move. Not always through new evidence, but through attention and through people asking questions, through pressure. I want to point out is during the writing of this article, the author reached out to Russell Bennett Peterson for comment. She reached out to the Yavapai County Attorney's Office for comment and neither one responded. Not a word. The only response A and E received was from the Sedona Police Department. And all they said was that they couldn't comment on the matter. And I think that speaks for itself, don't you? One important note. The author reached out to me to ask if I had Russell Bennett Peterson's phone number so she could get that comment. I honestly, I laughed. I said, of course I don't have Russell Bennett Peterson's phone number. But a couple hours later, I wasn't laughing anymore because I had been thinking. I had been thinking about what I had just been told, that there is no going forward without a confession. And it hit me. Maybe this is where we're at. Maybe this is the point where I stop waiting for the system to move and I step into it myself. So I reached back out and I said, hey, if you do find his number, can you pass along a message for me? And to my surprise, the next text message I got back was a telephone number. Yeah. And I was told it belonged to Russell Bennett Peterson. I just sat there staring at that number because suddenly this wasn't theoretical anymore. This wasn't maybe someday it was real. I have his number. So I sat on it all night. And the next morning I knew if I'm being told that the only way forward is a confession, then I have to try. So I had a friend send him a message because I don't want this guy having my number. And it reads as such. Hi, Russell. I'm reaching out on behalf of Nikki. She spent years trying to understand what happened the night of her mother's death. And she's now in a place where she's ready to have a conversation with you directly. She would be open to sitting down with you for an on camera interview to hear your perspective and allow you the opportunity to speak for yourself. If that's something you'd be willing to consider, please let me know and we can coordinate the details. And it didn't take long. Within an hour or two, that message had been read. But as of right now, 15 days later, I have not received a response. So that is where we are. This is his opportunity to speak, to explain, to clear things up. And this is my opportunity to try and get the truth, I guess, because at this point it's one of two things. Either I sit across from him face to face and I ask him what happened that night.
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Night.
- [36:07]
B
Or I wait and I hope that one day he decides to tell the truth. Maybe on a deathbed, maybe never. And I don't know about you, but that's not something I'm willing to just sit and wait for. I was 10 years old the night my mom was murdered. And most of my life I've just been waiting. Waiting for answers, waiting for movement, waiting for someone else to do something. And now I think I understand. No One is coming. To do this for me, I'd have to do it for myself. So before I go, I want to say something directly to you. Russell Bennett Peterson. I have given you the opportunity, not through the courts and not through the police, but as a human being to another human being. I have invited you to sit down with me on camera and tell the truth about what happened the night my mother died. Not for spectacle, not for attention, but for clarity, for accountability, for the truth that has been buried for almost 33 years. Because here's the reality, sir. I am not going anywhere. I am not getting tired, I am not losing momentum, and I'm not going to stop saying your name. Russell Bennett Peterson. You can ignore me, you can read my message, and you can choose silence. You can continue to let time pass and hope that this just fades away, but it will not, sir, because I was there and I have lived it. And I have spent my entire life carrying the weight of what happened in that house. And now I'm old enough, I'm strong enough, and I'm fucking loud enough to make sure that this doesn't stay buried anymore. So this is your opportunity to speak, to explain, to finally tell the truth. And not just to me, but to everyone who is now listening. Because whether you choose to respond or not, I will keep going and I will keep pushing and I will keep telling my mother's story until I get answers or until the world starts asking the same questions that I have been asking for the past 33 years. So if you know Russell Bennett Peterson, if you have ever crossed paths with this man, if you are somehow connected to him in any way, oh, my God, please send him this episode. Make sure he hears this. Because I'm not hiding. I'm not going anywhere. And I'm not going to stop asking what happened that night. Because this is way bigger than him now. This is about making sure my mom's story is seen and heard and impossible to ignore. We are finally getting attention, A and E. Just put this case on a national platform, and that only matters if people show up for it. So, dudes, I need your help. Go read that article. I know I already just read it to you, but go read it, click on it, share it, send it to people. Because the more traffic that article gets, the more it tells AE and every other network watching that this story matters and that people care and that this is something worth digging into further. Because this is how this works. That's how we get from an article to a documentary to a series to real pressure. We're weeks away from CrimeCon and I'm walking into that space with this story louder than it has ever been before. And this, this right here, this is the moment where it either grows or it gets ignored. So please help me make it grow. Thank you for listening.
- [40:18]
E
Ryan Reynolds here from IT Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistants assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile. Com.
- [40:36]
D
Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees, extra fee, full terms at mintmobile.
- [40:47]
B
Com.