Transcript
Nikki (0:05)
Hi, my name is Nikki and I'm the daughter of a murdered woman. Welcome back to Poppy Killed Mommy. Before we get started, I need to warn you. This podcast contains discussions of domestic violence, homicide, and other potentially distressing topics. The individual mentioned in this episode is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Listener discretion is advised. Last week, I took you through the events of my mother's last day. I painstakingly pored through the case file to build a detailed timeline of July 8, 1993. You heard from her co workers and from Russell Peterson himself. Today's episode moves fast. It's packed with timelines, police procedures, and Russell's entire first interview just hours after my mother's death. Last week, I gave you the important bits and snippets of his interrogation. But this week, I want to give it to you in full so you can hear it for yourself without any edits. And one more thing I want to address. The audio is 32 years old. I've done my best to clean it up, but you can tell this was recorded on an old fashioned cassette tape and then transferred over to digital years later. So just bear with me. Put your seatbelt on and let's get started. Last week, we left off a little after 2am Officer Zanit had just woken me up and escorted me from the house. He placed me in the backseat of the squad car where my little sister was already waiting. As soon as the door opened, she chittered like a parrot, poppy killed Mommy. She kept repeating it over and over, desperate for me to say something, like to believe her, I think. But I couldn't. That's not what the officer just told me. Officer David Zanit is quoted in the case file as saying he did not inform the children of our mother's death. Instead, he told me my mom and her boyfriend had gotten into a fight and she was staying at a friend's house. And being 10 years old, I listened. I believed the adult. So when my little sister kept saying, poppy killed Mommy, I didn't believe her. I thought she was confused, and I kept trying to convince her otherwise. She said it at least a dozen times in that car. Like if she had just said it enough, I'd finally understand. We sat there in the dark, arguing. I was telling her she was wrong, that mom was just somewhere else and that everything was going to be fine. Then an officer came back. He opened the door, and this time he put Russell Peterson in the squad car with us. The same squad car as the children. A domestic violence suspect was placed with an axis of children with their mother's blood on him. As an adult, looking back, this is the moment that really pisses me off. As a child, this was the moment that I knew something was really, really wrong. Not when the officer woke me up. Not when my little sister begged me to believe her and kept repeating poppy killed Mommy. But when Russell saw me and his reaction to me. Russell was crying and weeping and hugging me, clutching me in a way he never did. He wasn't my dad. He wasn't affectionate. He never hugged me. He never said I love you, never showed me any kind of attention. But now, in the backseat of the squad car, he was sobbing and whispering in my ear. I'll never forget it. He said, I'm sorry. I love you and I want to keep the family together. I just sat there stunned. In my mind, it looked like mom and Russell had fought and she finally left him. That's what I thought this was until that car ride to the Sedona Police Department at 2:18am 18 minutes. That's how long my sister repeated the phrase Poppy killed Mommy before the Sedona Police Department place Russell Bennett Peterson in the backseat of the same squad car. At the station, Officer Zanit read Russell his Miranda rights from a printed card and sat with us until Detective Walter spokes arrived. At 2:50am Chief Bob Irish called the on call Deputy County Attorney Steve Jaynes. It was the first official moment anyone classified this as a possible homicide to 2:50am By 4:20am the officers asked Russell about placing the children into CPS custody. Russell said he was okay with it and that we should get some sleep. At 4:41am Investigators interviewed my little sister. Quote, the child was alert and talkative. She told us she woke up and saw her dad kill her mom. She said she saw him take the gun out of the bedroom closet after her mom was on the floor. She told them this story up to a dozen times. But the case file notes she didn't actually witness it. Why? Because they had no trained child. Forensic interviewer. She was interviewed by regular officers. No one trained in trauma, no one trained in memory recall. The audio in this portion might sound a bit different as it was recorded at a later date. And I always said I was never going to read this again. This time will be the last. There's a lot of garbled, gurgled, redacted parts. But I stress to you the gravity of how many times my sister repeats Poppy killed mommy while listening along count. I'm curious to know what you Hear in this interview. Without further ado, my three year old sister's interview three hours after our mother's death. It's 7993 4, 41 hours. Present is myself, Detective Walter Spokes. Detective Gary Savarrow of the Yavapai County Attorney's office. And the child? How come you have some scratches? What happened to your arm? Let me see. You have a cat that scratched you right there, huh? Boy, cat scratches hurt, don't they? Yeah.