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No Body. No Weapon. No Crime Scene. One Computer File. · FBI Files

0:07
Speaker 1: In 1989, a female Marine captain disappeared from her quarters
0:11
Speaker 1: without a trace. Known for her exemplary conduct, colleagues found
0:18
Speaker 1: it hard to believe that she'd gone AWOL. Military authorities
0:22
Speaker 1: suspected she'd fallen victim to foul play. The FBI joined
0:28
Speaker 1: the investigation. They would find the decorated officer or bring
0:33
Speaker 1: her to justice.
1:06
Speaker 2: Shirley Russell was a determined woman, determined enough to reach
1:09
Speaker 2: the rank of captain in the United States Marine Corps.
1:13
Speaker 2: When this decorated officer turned up missing, her colleagues refused
1:16
Speaker 2: to believe she'd gone AWOL. It was unclear whether Captain
1:20
Speaker 2: Shirley Russell was dead or alive. I'm Jim Kallstrom, former
1:25
Speaker 2: head of the FBI's New York office. When a crime
1:28
Speaker 2: is committed on a military installation, it falls under federal jurisdiction.
1:33
Speaker 2: Agents would have to rely on their dedication and instinct
1:36
Speaker 2: to solve the mystery of her disappearance.
1:45
Speaker 1: The Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia, is located 35
1:49
Speaker 1: miles south of Washington, D.C. Since 1917, it has been
1:56
Speaker 1: headquarters to one of the nation's most selective branches of
1:59
Speaker 1: the military. Over 3,000 Marines train, work, and live on
2:06
Speaker 1: the 100-square-mile base. Nearly everything in civilian life is mirrored
2:12
Speaker 1: on base, from department stores to housing. Married officers have
2:19
Speaker 1: the option of living on base in married officers' quarters,
2:22
Speaker 1: which are known as MOQs. For six months, MOQ number
2:28
Speaker 1: 394D was the home of Captain Shirley Gibbs Russell and
2:32
Speaker 1: her husband, Robert Russell. By January 1989, Captain Russell decided
2:39
Speaker 1: to end the marriage. For the next month, she would
2:42
Speaker 1: stay with a friend off base until Bachelors housing was available.
2:48
Speaker 1: Shirley packed her civilian clothes, her uniforms, and her Marine-issue firearm.
2:54
Speaker 1: Robert begged her to stay, but Shirley was determined. For her,
3:01
Speaker 1: the move was final. For Robert, the separation meant he
3:07
Speaker 1: had to move off base. As a former Marine, he
3:12
Speaker 1: would be losing his last tie to the Corps. Captain
3:23
Speaker 1: Russell continued to advance in her career as the adjutant
3:25
Speaker 1: to the commanding officer of the support battalion at the
3:28
Speaker 1: Marine Basic School. She was in charge of all personnel
3:34
Speaker 1: matters and administrative needs of the support battalion. She was
3:41
Speaker 1: known as a dedicated Marine by her peers and by
3:44
Speaker 1: her commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel James Hodges.
3:50
Speaker 3: When I first met Shirley Russell, I was very impressed
3:52
Speaker 3: with the fact that she was a black female captain
3:56
Speaker 3: because we just don't have that many in the Marine
3:58
Speaker 3: Corps and that she had come from a poor background
4:01
Speaker 3: and was making something of herself, and she seemed so
4:03
Speaker 3: energized and so eager to keep moving up the rank structure.
4:11
Speaker 3: Captain Russell?
4:13
Speaker 1: While assigned together, they built a friendship based on mutual respect.
4:16
Speaker 4: I can't talk to you right now.
4:20
Speaker 5: Now is not a good time.
4:23
Speaker 1: Hodges knew that Shirley's marriage was in trouble.
4:27
Speaker 5: I'll have to talk to you later.
4:29
Speaker 1: Can we go right now?
4:31
Speaker 3: My relationship with Shirley Russell was very special, even though
4:34
Speaker 3: I was her commanding officer and her ultimate boss, if
4:37
Speaker 3: you will. I was very close to her as sort
4:40
Speaker 3: of a big brother mentor. And we talked sometimes after
4:46
Speaker 3: working hours about her situation, her marriage, her past, and
4:49
Speaker 3: so forth.
4:52
Speaker 1: On Thursday, March 2nd, about a month after her split
4:55
Speaker 1: with Robert, Shirley requested leave from work. She needed to
5:02
Speaker 1: clean her former quarters and finalize her legal separation. Four
5:10
Speaker 1: days later, on Monday, March 6th, Hodges arrived at the
5:13
Speaker 1: office expecting to find Shirley at her desk. He was
5:19
Speaker 1: surprised to find her office empty. Shirley had a perfect
5:28
Speaker 1: work record. She had never been late to report.
5:35
Speaker 3: And when I walked in the door, I asked Major
5:37
Speaker 3: Buck Bourgeois right away, and I said, where's Shirley? And
5:41
Speaker 3: he said, sir, she's not here. And instantly, I felt like,
5:46
Speaker 3: oh no, something has happened to her.
5:49
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Colonel Hodges investigated the unauthorized absence. Captain Russell had
5:56
Speaker 1: recently moved into bachelor officer's quarters on base. Hodges hoped
6:03
Speaker 1: he would find her at home.
6:07
Speaker 3: Captain Russell. Captain Russell.
6:11
Speaker 1: Open the door, Corporal.
6:13
Speaker 5: Yes, sir.
6:15
Speaker 1: As the missing captain's commanding officer, Hodges had authorization to
6:19
Speaker 1: search the room.
6:20
Speaker 2: Captain Russell.
6:24
Speaker 1: There was no sign of her and no indication she
6:27
Speaker 1: had moved out.
6:28
Speaker 5: Lock up, Corporal.
6:28
Speaker 1: Yes, sir. The Marines returned to the office and contacted
6:36
Speaker 1: the captain's husband, who now lived off base. Hodges knew
6:42
Speaker 1: that Robert Russell had helped Shirley clean and paint their
6:45
Speaker 1: vacated quarters over the weekend. They arranged to meet at
6:54
Speaker 1: the couple's former M.O.Q. The Marine officers inspected the residence.
7:14
Speaker 1: Russell told them that he and Shirley had met here
7:16
Speaker 1: around noon on Saturday to do some touch-up painting. According
7:21
Speaker 1: to Russell, Shirley volunteered to buy some paint from the
7:24
Speaker 1: base exchange at about 1.30. He claimed that she didn't
7:29
Speaker 1: take her car, but walked to the PX instead. Russell
7:34
Speaker 1: said he hadn't seen her since. Lieutenant Colonel Hodges didn't
7:40
Speaker 1: believe Robert Russell's story.
7:44
Speaker 3: It hit me as just totally a lie because the
7:46
Speaker 3: PX was probably four or five miles away. There's no
7:49
Speaker 3: way in the world that she would have walked to
7:52
Speaker 3: the PX from their quarters.
7:59
Speaker 1: Outside the quarters, the officers also inspected Russell's storage shed.
8:07
Speaker 1: On the floor, Colonel Hodges noticed a rust-colored stain. Russell
8:12
Speaker 1: dismissed it as paint. Hodges was skeptical. He was no expert,
8:22
Speaker 1: but to him, it looked like blood. Lieutenant Colonel Hodges
8:31
Speaker 1: briefed the Naval Investigative Service. The NIS reported the possibility
8:36
Speaker 1: of a crime to the FBI's Washington field office. The
8:42
Speaker 1: NIS briefed special agents on the case. Captain Russell had
8:46
Speaker 1: been missing for three days. With no indication of her whereabouts,
8:52
Speaker 1: the agents followed standard procedure. Special Agent Alan Malinchak headed
8:58
Speaker 1: the case.
9:00
Speaker 6: When you have somebody missing, you either have a case
9:03
Speaker 6: of an abduction, you have a case of a missing person,
9:08
Speaker 6: somebody who's walked away for whatever reason, or you have
9:12
Speaker 6: foul play. So the initial investigation that the FBI was
9:16
Speaker 6: involved in ran all three of those investigative lines.
9:21
Speaker 1: According to standard procedure, the missing woman's husband, Robert Russell,
9:25
Speaker 1: was the first to be questioned. Thank you very much.
9:31
Speaker 1: He told agents that he was talking with a neighbor
9:33
Speaker 1: around 1.30 the afternoon of Shirley's disappearance when a friend
9:37
Speaker 1: of hers stopped by to pick her up for lunch.
9:43
Speaker 1: At 3.30, Robert said he called her bachelor officer's quarters
9:47
Speaker 1: to see if she had gone home. The duty clerk
9:51
Speaker 1: had not seen Captain Russell, so Robert left a message.
9:57
Speaker 1: Around 4 p.m., Robert borrowed his housemate's car. and drove
10:00
Speaker 1: to Pennsylvania to spend the weekend with his parents.
10:07
Speaker 6: During the first interview that I had with Robert Russell,
10:09
Speaker 6: he was a very calm, very businesslike person. wanted to
10:16
Speaker 6: assist the FBI in the investigation and provided me with
10:20
Speaker 6: multiple locations of where Shirley might be, who she may
10:25
Speaker 6: be associated with, what could have happened.
10:30
Speaker 1: Russell thought it was possible someone had abducted or harmed her.
10:35
Speaker 1: Though Shirley had no enemies, the couple had experienced some
10:39
Speaker 1: trouble due to their interracial marriage. Russell told agents he
10:46
Speaker 1: and his wife frequently visited his hometown near Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania.
10:51
Speaker 1: One afternoon, while shopping, the Russells were harassed by racists.
11:03
Speaker 1: According to her husband, Shirley had been frightened, but another
11:07
Speaker 1: incident scared her even more. An unidentified man had called
11:17
Speaker 1: their house on base. Hello? The caller used racial epithets
11:26
Speaker 1: and threatened to harm the couple. Whoever the caller was
11:31
Speaker 1: knew where the Russells lived. After the threatening phone calls,
11:38
Speaker 1: Robert told officials he felt Shirley might need protection for
11:41
Speaker 1: the times he couldn't be with her. At a pawn
11:48
Speaker 1: shop near base, Robert picked out a. 25 caliber Raven
11:52
Speaker 1: semi-automatic just two days before Shirley disappeared. Russell told agents
12:12
Speaker 1: he surprised Shirley with a gift on the day they
12:14
Speaker 1: met to clean their former quarters. According to Russell, Shirley
12:26
Speaker 1: was appreciative of the pearl-handled weapon. Agents were suspicious of
12:33
Speaker 1: the story. As a Marine captain, Shirley already had a
12:38
Speaker 1: personal sidearm. If she felt unsafe, why would she need
12:44
Speaker 1: another gun? With Shirley and the gun nowhere to be found,
12:50
Speaker 1: that question would be difficult to answer. Marine Captain Shirley
12:57
Speaker 1: Gibbs Russell had vanished from base housing on March 4th, 1989.
12:59
Speaker 1: Her husband was the last person to have seen her.
13:07
Speaker 1: Agents needed to corroborate his story. The FBI interviewed Marine
13:12
Speaker 1: Captain Patrice Gale. According to Robert Russell, on the day
13:18
Speaker 1: Shirley disappeared, Captain Gale had arrived at Shirley's former residence
13:22
Speaker 1: to pick her up for lunch at about 1.30. Gale
13:28
Speaker 1: confirmed this. Robert also told her that Shirley had gone
13:34
Speaker 1: for paint and hadn't returned. Captain Gale thought this was odd.
13:48
Speaker 1: Shirley never missed appointments. And this one had been especially important.
14:00
Speaker 1: Just a day earlier, Gail had accompanied Shirley to the
14:03
Speaker 1: base legal office to pick up her separation papers. Shirley
14:09
Speaker 1: planned to present them to Robert the day they painted
14:11
Speaker 1: their former porters. This would make their separation official, and
14:16
Speaker 1: Shirley worried about Robert's reaction. Afterwards, she would need a
14:20
Speaker 1: friend to talk to and ask Captain Gail to meet her.
14:26
Speaker 1: When Shirley failed to show up, Captain Gail worried that
14:29
Speaker 1: Robert had done something to her friend. FBI agents checked
14:38
Speaker 1: Shirley's bachelor officer's quarters. The clerk had not seen her
14:45
Speaker 1: since Saturday, March 4th, the day she disappeared. On that
14:49
Speaker 1: same Saturday, Corporal Dan Carraway confirmed that Robert Russell had called,
14:53
Speaker 1: looking for his wife. The corporal noted the time in
14:56
Speaker 1: his logbook is 3.30 p.m. I was hoping she'd come
14:59
Speaker 1: back back when the desk was empty. About a half
15:02
Speaker 1: hour after he took the message, Carraway thought he saw
15:06
Speaker 1: Captain Russell. She was talking on the telephone. He recalled
15:10
Speaker 1: that she was wearing jeans and a maroon sweater. He
15:16
Speaker 1: wanted to give her the message that her husband had called,
15:19
Speaker 1: but he was distracted. By the time Carraway was free,
15:26
Speaker 1: the woman he thought was Captain Shirley Russell was gone.
15:32
Speaker 1: His description contradicted Robert Russell's statement that Shirley had been
15:35
Speaker 1: wearing a blue jogging outfit. The corporal also only saw
15:40
Speaker 1: the woman from behind. He never got a good look
15:42
Speaker 1: at her face. Agents doubted if she ever returned to
15:51
Speaker 1: her apartment. They found no trace that Shirley had changed
15:54
Speaker 1: her clothes or brought back the separation papers. Investigators questioned
16:05
Speaker 1: Russell's old neighbors. One of them said she saw a
16:09
Speaker 1: blue station wagon backed up to the Russell's shed on
16:12
Speaker 1: the day Shirley had disappeared. She noted the time was
16:16
Speaker 1: 5 p.m. This was an hour later than Russell claimed
16:21
Speaker 1: he left for Pennsylvania. Investigators wondered if Robert Russell was
16:28
Speaker 1: mistaken or lying. Agent Alan Malinczyk called the FBI in
16:36
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania to pin down Russell's whereabouts the rest of that day.
16:43
Speaker 1: Special Agent Michael Quirk of the Allentown office became co-case agent.
16:49
Speaker 1: He contacted Robert's parents.
16:54
Speaker 7: Robert Russell had traveled to St. Clair, Pennsylvania on March 4th, 1989.
17:01
Speaker 7: And he stayed with his family the weekend of March 4th,
17:06
Speaker 7: March 5th.
17:09
Speaker 1: FBI interviews with Russell's family confirmed he had arrived alone.
17:16
Speaker 1: None of them had seen Shirley. The FBI launched a
17:23
Speaker 1: media campaign seeking the public's help. Captain Shirley Gibbs Russell's
17:28
Speaker 1: photo was featured in television and newspaper stories. Leeds began
17:33
Speaker 1: to pour in. Midway between Quantico and Robert Russell's hometown,
17:39
Speaker 1: a clerk in York, Pennsylvania, called federal authorities. The clerk
17:45
Speaker 1: reported that a young black woman had been in the
17:47
Speaker 1: store on the afternoon of Saturday, March 4th, the day
17:50
Speaker 1: Captain Shirley Gibbs Russell disappeared from Quantico. According to the clerk,
17:56
Speaker 1: the woman bought several items and paid with a check.
18:01
Speaker 1: The clerk asked the woman for identification. She produced a
18:05
Speaker 1: military ID card. She resembled photos the clerk had seen
18:08
Speaker 1: in the newspaper. The agent asked to see the checks
18:14
Speaker 1: received on that day. He found that none of them
18:20
Speaker 1: were written by Shirley Gibbs Russell. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence
18:26
Speaker 1: Leiser worked with the FBI on the case. He noted
18:31
Speaker 1: another detail that suggested the woman in the store was
18:33
Speaker 1: not Captain Russell.
18:36
Speaker 8: The color of the ID and the location of the
18:38
Speaker 8: picture in the ID described as belonging to Shirley Russell
18:41
Speaker 8: was the ID of a dependent military person, not of
18:45
Speaker 8: an active-duty military person.
18:48
Speaker 1: There had been no activity since March 4th in Captain
18:50
Speaker 1: Russell's bank or credit card accounts, nor had she called
18:54
Speaker 1: her family or friends. Considering Shirley's stable character, Her disappearance
19:00
Speaker 1: didn't make sense to Agent Alan Malinczyk.
19:04
Speaker 6: She was the type of person who was going to
19:06
Speaker 6: do very well in the Marine Corps. She would be promoted.
19:11
Speaker 6: She had that capability. She was sharp. She was squared away.
19:15
Speaker 6: She was easy to make friends. Everybody that worked with
19:18
Speaker 6: her liked her. She had a lot of stability in
19:21
Speaker 6: her life with regard to church and family. For her
19:25
Speaker 6: to just disappear of her own accord just didn't make
19:28
Speaker 6: any logical sense.
19:32
Speaker 1: With no word from her or a kidnapper, agents believed
19:36
Speaker 1: it was likely that Captain Shirley Gibbs Russell was dead.
19:42
Speaker 1: They were now searching for her body. Dozens of Marines
19:49
Speaker 1: fanned out. across the huge base. They searched hundreds of
19:55
Speaker 1: acres of dense woods the Marines used for training. They
19:59
Speaker 1: found no trace of the missing captain. Perhaps Robert Russell
20:05
Speaker 1: knew more about his wife's disappearance than he was telling
20:08
Speaker 1: the FBI. Agents asked him to submit to a polygraph examination.
20:18
Speaker 1: He agreed.
20:21
Speaker 3: The last time you saw her, you were painting your quarters,
20:24
Speaker 3: and it was sometime.
20:26
Speaker 8: Prior to 3 p.m.
20:28
Speaker 3: On Saturday, March 4th?
20:29
Speaker 1: That's correct. As before, agents found him to be cool
20:33
Speaker 1: and cooperative. For almost three hours, Robert Russell answered dozens
20:39
Speaker 1: of questions relating to Shirley's whereabouts. He was subjected to
20:44
Speaker 1: three separate exams.
20:45
Speaker 3: Was this red spot paint, Mr.
20:48
Speaker 1: Russell? Yes, it was. Each time, Robert Russell was found
20:54
Speaker 1: to be deceptive. When agents told him the results, Russell
20:59
Speaker 1: seemed unfazed, almost smug. He even consented to be fingerprinted.
21:14
Speaker 1: Perhaps he was aware that polygraphs were inadmissible in a
21:17
Speaker 1: federal court of law. Without a body, agents would need
21:24
Speaker 1: something stronger than a hunch to prove that Russell had
21:27
Speaker 1: killed his wife and disposed of her. In the spring
21:36
Speaker 1: of 1989, the FBI continued to hunt for the body
21:40
Speaker 1: of Marine Captain Shirley Gibbs Russell, In their search for answers,
21:47
Speaker 1: agents delve deeper into the background of their prime suspect,
21:51
Speaker 1: her husband, Robert Russell. Special Agent Michael Quirk learned that
21:55
Speaker 1: Russell was already married before he met Shirley. He had
22:02
Speaker 1: two children with his first wife, Pam. The marriage only
22:09
Speaker 1: lasted six years. In 1986, Russell told his wife that
22:15
Speaker 1: he wanted a divorce. He left Pam and their children
22:21
Speaker 1: on Christmas Day. Six months later, Robert married Shirley while
22:27
Speaker 1: they were both stationed at Parris Island, South Carolina. The
22:34
Speaker 1: FBI learned that Shirley was transferred to Quantico a short
22:36
Speaker 1: time later. They also learned that Robert told friends that
22:42
Speaker 1: the distance was hurting his marriage. He claimed he was
22:47
Speaker 1: leaving the Marine Corps to join Shirley and Quantico in
22:49
Speaker 1: order to stabilize their relationship. But agents discovered a different
22:55
Speaker 1: motive for the move. Agents believed it was unlikely Robert
23:01
Speaker 1: would voluntarily relinquish his rank as captain. Being in the
23:10
Speaker 1: Marine Corps was Robert's whole life and whole world. Military
23:21
Speaker 1: records showed that in February of 1988, while stationed at Gulfport, Mississippi,
23:27
Speaker 1: Robert's superiors found that his passion for the Corps did
23:30
Speaker 1: not seem to apply to its regulations.
23:33
Speaker 5: Hi.
23:39
Speaker 1: They issued Robert a less than honorable discharge for dereliction
23:42
Speaker 1: of duty and defrauding the government. He was escorted out
23:47
Speaker 1: of his office and was prohibited from taking anything with
23:50
Speaker 1: him except his own clothing. Although Robert was no longer
23:58
Speaker 1: a Marine, he moved into officers' quarters at Quantico based
24:01
Speaker 1: on Shirley's rank of captain. While Shirley supported him, Robert
24:09
Speaker 1: tried to get his life back on track by becoming
24:11
Speaker 1: a teacher at a nearby high school. But his drinking
24:16
Speaker 1: started to become excessive. He was getting drunk more often
24:23
Speaker 1: and staying out later.
24:24
Speaker 5: Robert?
24:29
Speaker 1: Shirley was distraught. She joined Al-Anon, a support group for
24:32
Speaker 1: the loved ones of alcoholics. When Robert became physically abusive,
24:38
Speaker 1: Shirley finally left him. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence Leiser believed
24:45
Speaker 1: that Robert's problems left Shirley few alternatives.
24:49
Speaker 8: She realized that marriage was going nowhere, began to get
24:53
Speaker 8: counseling from a local counseling center that was made available
24:56
Speaker 8: to members of the Marine Corps. She also consulted with
24:59
Speaker 8: a Navy lawyer to begin the divorce process.
25:06
Speaker 1: To investigators, Russell's instability and abusive behavior reinforced their belief
25:11
Speaker 1: that he was capable of killing Shirley.
25:15
Speaker 8: His personality could not tolerate the fact that this black woman,
25:20
Speaker 8: his wife, was a Marine Corps captain who was successful,
25:24
Speaker 8: who was succeeding in her career, and to top it
25:27
Speaker 8: all off, wanted to divorce him.
25:32
Speaker 1: Agents learned that during her separations, Shirley had sought refuge
25:36
Speaker 1: off base with her close friend, fellow Marine Captain Ann Mack.
25:43
Speaker 1: Captain Mack told Agent Malinchek that Shirley was afraid of
25:46
Speaker 1: her husband. She intended to leave him, but needed a
25:51
Speaker 1: place to stay.
25:54
Speaker 6: She had asked Captain Ann Mack if she could stay
25:57
Speaker 6: with her at her townhome in the Springfield, Virginia area,
26:01
Speaker 6: and Captain Ann Mack agreed. and laid out some ground
26:04
Speaker 6: rules about Bob Russell not being there, not coming into
26:08
Speaker 6: the house, nothing like that whatsoever.
26:15
Speaker 1: But it was not enough to keep Robert away from Shirley.
26:19
Speaker 1: Mack was worried about her. Mack told investigators that Robert
26:24
Speaker 1: was stalking Shirley. On several occasions, he showed up at
26:28
Speaker 1: the house early in the morning as Shirley was leaving.
26:35
Speaker 1: He harassed his wife until she agreed to spend some
26:38
Speaker 1: time with him. Mac said that Robert Russell was living
26:49
Speaker 1: off base. He had moved in with one of his
26:53
Speaker 1: new colleagues. An FBI agent checked the address. It was
27:11
Speaker 1: the home of Sandy Flint. Sandy Flint offered little. She
27:19
Speaker 1: said she knew nothing about Robert's missing wife. On the
27:32
Speaker 1: way out, the agent met Robert Flint, Sandy's father-in-law. He
27:38
Speaker 1: was a retired painter who had worked at the base
27:40
Speaker 1: at Quantico for 10 years. Mr. Flint told the agent
27:45
Speaker 1: about a conversation he had with Robert Russell two days
27:48
Speaker 1: after Shirley's disappearance.
27:51
Speaker 6: Robert Russell had asked him how to clean up stains
27:54
Speaker 6: from concrete floors. And the father-in-law had told Bob Russell
27:58
Speaker 6: that you could just use chlorine or soap and water
28:00
Speaker 6: and that would pretty much clean it up or dilute it.
28:03
Speaker 6: And Bob had asked him, what if it's blood stains?
28:06
Speaker 6: And the father-in-law had said, well, you could use muriatic acid.
28:12
Speaker 1: Mr. Flint told the agent something else of interest. Sandy
28:16
Speaker 1: and her husband had recently separated. He suspected Sandy was
28:21
Speaker 1: now having an affair with Robert Russell. With each new
28:27
Speaker 1: person agents interviewed, they found more deception from Robert Russell.
28:32
Speaker 1: If Sandy was indeed involved with Russell, she might know
28:35
Speaker 1: if he had killed Shirley. Agents would inform her it
28:40
Speaker 1: would be unwise to obstruct a federal murder case. Sandy
28:50
Speaker 1: agreed to speak with the FBI. This time, agents found
28:54
Speaker 1: her to be far more cooperative. She described her role
29:02
Speaker 1: in Robert Russell's obsession.
29:05
Speaker 6: She had admitted to having an intimate affair with Bob
29:09
Speaker 6: Russell while Bob Russell was still married. She advised us
29:14
Speaker 6: that she, at Bob's request, she had surveilled Shirley Russell.
29:18
Speaker 6: She could report to Bob Shirley's activities and whereabouts.
29:23
Speaker 1: He enlisted her as his spy. Sandy told the FBI
29:28
Speaker 1: Russell was convinced that Shirley was having an affair. He
29:35
Speaker 1: wanted to know where Shirley went and who she met.
29:42
Speaker 1: Sandy followed her everywhere, but found nothing to support his
29:46
Speaker 1: delusional fixation.
29:51
Speaker 8: He was so compulsive. He wanted to catch his wife cheating.
29:53
Speaker 8: Of course, the irony of all of this is she
29:55
Speaker 8: wasn't cheating at all. It was he who was cheating
29:57
Speaker 8: on her.
29:59
Speaker 1: Robert was too far gone for logic. He refused to
30:02
Speaker 1: believe the assurances of his mistress. In his own mind,
30:08
Speaker 1: if he was cheating, so was Shirley. And he would
30:13
Speaker 1: go to any length to prove it. He told Sandy
30:17
Speaker 1: that he broke into his wife's car and planted a
30:20
Speaker 1: voice-activated recorder. When it failed to record anything incriminating, he
30:26
Speaker 1: decided he needed to get closer. Robert broke into Anne
30:33
Speaker 1: Mack's house to bug Shirley's bedroom. What happened next told
30:38
Speaker 1: Sandy that her lover's obsession had completely consumed him. Robert
30:46
Speaker 1: called his mistress from his wife's bedroom, speaking in a whisper.
30:52
Speaker 1: He told Sandy he was drinking Shirley's wine and reading
30:55
Speaker 1: her journal. Then he said something she would never forget.
31:03
Speaker 6: He had informed her that if Shirley comes missing, it'll
31:07
Speaker 6: be me. I'll have taken care of her. And she
31:11
Speaker 6: had said, we can't do that. You know, they're going
31:13
Speaker 6: to look for her. He says, if anybody questions you
31:16
Speaker 6: on this, deny it. Don't even admit to the conversation
31:19
Speaker 6: we're having now.
31:22
Speaker 1: Sandy's statements were incriminating, but it was her word against his.
31:28
Speaker 1: To corroborate her story, the FBI needed physical evidence.
31:34
Speaker 6: We requested a consent search of Captain Anne Mack's residence
31:37
Speaker 6: and retrieved several items. And some of those items, one
31:41
Speaker 6: was a telephone and one was a wine glass. And
31:44
Speaker 6: when we sent those to the FBI laboratory for analysis,
31:47
Speaker 6: we were able to develop Robert Russell's fingerprints on those items.
31:53
Speaker 1: The FBI now had its first piece of physical evidence
31:56
Speaker 1: to corroborate that Robert Russell obsessively stalked his wife. But
32:01
Speaker 1: without Shirley's body, it was still not enough to charge
32:05
Speaker 1: him with murder. In March of 1989, there was little
32:13
Speaker 1: evidence to link Robert Russell to the murder of his wife,
32:16
Speaker 1: Marine Captain Shirley Gibbs Russell. Early in the investigation, agents
32:22
Speaker 1: learned the suspect had been having an affair with Sandy Flint.
32:27
Speaker 1: Flint now told the FBI more about the day Shirley
32:30
Speaker 1: Gibbs Russell disappeared. She said Robert Russell had borrowed her car,
32:37
Speaker 1: a blue station wagon, to drive to his parents' house
32:39
Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania. She remembered he left her house sometime after
32:46
Speaker 1: 4 p.m. Sandy thought this was strange because he could
32:54
Speaker 1: have used his own pickup truck. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence
33:00
Speaker 1: Leiser believed Russell borrowed her car there. to transport Shirley's
33:04
Speaker 1: body to Pennsylvania.
33:06
Speaker 8: The reason he asked to use that car was because
33:10
Speaker 8: he had an open-bed pickup truck. The body was still
33:14
Speaker 8: in the storage shed, and he had to dispose of
33:17
Speaker 8: the body. And he couldn't do it in an open-bed
33:19
Speaker 8: pickup truck, so he borrowed the closed station wagon of
33:23
Speaker 8: his girlfriend to dispose of the body.
33:28
Speaker 1: Agents hope to substantiate this theory. They returned to Russell's
33:32
Speaker 1: former residence where his neighbor had seen the same blue
33:35
Speaker 1: station wagon backed up to his shed. Investigators needed to
33:41
Speaker 1: take a closer look at the floor where Lieutenant Colonel
33:44
Speaker 1: Hodges had seen the rust-colored stain. But the stain was gone,
33:51
Speaker 1: at least on the surface.
33:54
Speaker 6: And as they were chiseling the whitewashed pieces of the
33:57
Speaker 6: concrete up, Bob Russell had asked them what's going on,
34:01
Speaker 6: and they had told him that they're taking these samples
34:02
Speaker 6: to determine what the substance is on the concrete.
34:06
Speaker 1: And Mr.
34:07
Speaker 6: Russell had voluntarily told them, well, I had cleaned that
34:10
Speaker 6: up with some muriatic acid.
34:14
Speaker 1: The FBI lab confirmed that muriatic acid was present on
34:18
Speaker 1: the concrete. The same substance that Mr. Flint had suggested
34:24
Speaker 1: Russell use to remove blood from cement. Technicians found no
34:30
Speaker 1: trace of blood or paint on the chips. What could
34:36
Speaker 1: have been a key piece of forensic evidence had been destroyed.
34:42
Speaker 1: Agents hoped Sandy Flint's car would reveal more. FBI examiners
34:49
Speaker 1: scoured the station wagon inside and out. It was unusually
35:01
Speaker 1: clean for an older car that had so recently made
35:03
Speaker 1: a round trip from Virginia to Pennsylvania. It turned out
35:09
Speaker 1: to be another dead end. As the investigation stalled in Virginia,
35:16
Speaker 1: Robert Russell split up with Sandy, packed his things, and
35:19
Speaker 1: moved to Pennsylvania to start a new life. The FBI's
35:26
Speaker 1: investigative focus turned north as well. Agents followed Robert's every move.
35:34
Speaker 1: They observed that while he relied on his parents for support,
35:37
Speaker 1: he was very close to his brothers, Mike and Ron.
35:43
Speaker 1: Agents approached the brothers on several occasions. Mike Russell agreed
35:51
Speaker 1: to meet with agents. He told them that the day
35:57
Speaker 1: after Robert arrived in Pennsylvania following Shirley's disappearance, Robert took
36:01
Speaker 1: Sandy Flint's station wagon to a nearby car wash. Robert
36:08
Speaker 1: and his brother thoroughly cleaned the inside of the car,
36:11
Speaker 1: vacuuming it and spraying it with deodorizer. Agents believed Robert's
36:18
Speaker 1: actions demonstrated his intent to remove any evidence that Shirley's
36:21
Speaker 1: body had been in the car. Mike Russell told agents
36:28
Speaker 1: he never saw a body, He did concede that his
36:32
Speaker 1: brother's behavior had seemed desperate since Shirley left him. Two
36:37
Speaker 1: months before she disappeared, Mike and his older brother Ron
36:40
Speaker 1: drove to Virginia to take away Robert's guns. Agent Quirk
36:46
Speaker 1: recalled that his brothers felt this was necessary to prevent
36:48
Speaker 1: Robert from hurting someone.
36:52
Speaker 7: He was depressed in the fact that he was no
36:55
Speaker 7: longer in the Marine Corps.
36:57
Speaker 1: That he loved the Marine Corps. He didn't have money.
37:00
Speaker 7: He was a captain in the Marine Corps.
37:02
Speaker 1: Now he's a special education teacher.
37:06
Speaker 7: Shirley had removed him from her checking account. So he
37:11
Speaker 7: was having problems financially.
37:16
Speaker 1: Circumstantial evidence was mounting. But the FBI lacked one crucial
37:22
Speaker 1: piece of evidence for their case. Shirley Gibbs Russell's body.
37:30
Speaker 1: The first question was where to look. Agents learned the
37:34
Speaker 1: answer from Robert Russell's first wife, Pam. Robert's boyhood home
37:41
Speaker 1: was in Schuylkill County, a rural mountainous region in northeastern Pennsylvania.
37:50
Speaker 1: Thousands of coal mines, mostly abandoned, are scattered throughout the
37:54
Speaker 1: rugged county. Some are hundreds of feet deep and partially
37:59
Speaker 1: filled with water As a young man, suspect Robert Russell
38:06
Speaker 1: had spent much of his time hiking and hunting in
38:08
Speaker 1: the region. His family said he knew the place like
38:12
Speaker 1: the back of his hand. A search conducted in this
38:17
Speaker 1: terrain would be daunting. But nobody ever questioned whether it
38:22
Speaker 1: should be done. 150 people participated in the extensive ground
38:29
Speaker 1: search for Shirley Gibbs Russell in early May. Volunteers from
38:34
Speaker 1: the FBI, the Marines, the Naval Investigative Service, and the
38:37
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania State Police participated. None of them were more eager
38:46
Speaker 1: to find the missing Marine than her own peers from
38:49
Speaker 1: the United States Marine Corps. Nine helicopters and six transport
38:56
Speaker 1: trucks filled with Marines were deployed. Over three days, they
39:01
Speaker 1: searched 2,000 acres of land They never found Captain Russell's body.
39:12
Speaker 1: Agents would soon develop a theory as to why the
39:15
Speaker 1: search was not more fruitful. Agent Quirk learned about a
39:21
Speaker 1: strange phone call Ron Russell received from his brother Robert.
39:26
Speaker 1: Robert had asked Ron if he could get him some dynamite.
39:30
Speaker 1: And Robert had stated that he.
39:33
Speaker 7: Couldn't get dynamite in Quantico because it was too expensive.
39:38
Speaker 7: And Ron had asked Robert, why do you want dynamite?
39:44
Speaker 7: And Robert's response was, I want to blow up Shirley.
39:51
Speaker 1: Ron never bought it. But agents now wondered whether Robert
39:55
Speaker 1: Russell had thrown Shirley's body into a mine shaft, then
39:58
Speaker 1: sealed her grave with an explosion. The search did yield
40:03
Speaker 1: one surprising result. An agent found what appeared to be
40:07
Speaker 1: the grip of a gun handle. It was sent to
40:14
Speaker 1: the Firearms and Tool Marks Unit at the FBI's lab
40:16
Speaker 1: in Washington, D.C. for analysis. By comparing the samples to
40:23
Speaker 1: hundreds of other guns, examiners determined that it was consistent
40:26
Speaker 1: with the grip of a. 25 caliber Raven semi-automatic. It
40:31
Speaker 1: was the same type of gun Robert Russell had purchased
40:33
Speaker 1: from a pawn shop on March 2nd, two days before
40:36
Speaker 1: his wife disappeared. Unfortunately, the tantalizing discovery would not help
40:44
Speaker 1: with the prosecution. Agents never found Robert's fingerprints on the
40:51
Speaker 1: gun part. To prosecutors, it looked as if the ex-Marine
40:57
Speaker 1: had covered his tracks well. Without a murder weapon or
41:04
Speaker 1: a body, it would be next to impossible to convict
41:08
Speaker 1: Robert Russell of murder. Very clearly, After an investigation spanning
41:16
Speaker 1: two months, two states, and thousands of man hours, the
41:19
Speaker 1: FBI was no closer to arresting their prime suspect, Robert Russell,
41:23
Speaker 1: for the murder of his wife, Marine Captain Shirley Gibbs Russell.
41:29
Speaker 1: Though agents had gathered a significant amount of circumstantial evidence,
41:33
Speaker 1: Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence Leiser didn't have enough physical evidence
41:37
Speaker 1: to prosecute Russell for the crime.
41:41
Speaker 8: We didn't have a body, we didn't have eyewitnesses, we
41:43
Speaker 8: didn't have weapons, and it just took a tremendous amount
41:46
Speaker 8: of investigative skill and effort to put the pieces together,
41:50
Speaker 8: to go out and search out the leads, tremendous amount
41:53
Speaker 8: of hours and energy that these FBI agents took to
41:57
Speaker 8: gather the evidence.
42:02
Speaker 1: Authorities didn't even have enough evidence to make an arrest.
42:07
Speaker 1: Agents were frustrated. as were the hundreds of Marines whose
42:10
Speaker 1: lives have been touched by Captain Shirley Russell.
42:13
Speaker 3: It was like the loss of a child or a
42:16
Speaker 3: dear friend, and there was nothing you could do about it.
42:19
Speaker 3: And what frustrated me so much was she was so
42:22
Speaker 3: close to being extricated from her bad marriage. And for
42:27
Speaker 3: her to be killed, it still bothers me to this day.
42:30
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just one of those things that you
42:32
Speaker 3: just never really totally get over.
42:36
Speaker 1: It looked as if Robert Russell was going to get
42:38
Speaker 1: away with murder. But Russell's past indiscretions would come back
42:43
Speaker 1: to haunt him.
42:46
Speaker 6: We had been contacted by the Naval Investigative Service at Gulfport, Mississippi,
42:52
Speaker 6: that there was some evidence in a locker there that
42:57
Speaker 6: they had maintained from when Bob was discharged from the
43:03
Speaker 6: Marine Corps. And so they sent it to us, and
43:07
Speaker 6: it turned out to be a floppy disk.
43:12
Speaker 1: It had been confiscated when Russell was relieved of duty
43:15
Speaker 1: in Mississippi, a year before Shirley Russell disappeared. For security reasons,
43:25
Speaker 1: no service member who has been relieved of duty is
43:27
Speaker 1: allowed to go through their documents after dismissal. one of
43:36
Speaker 1: Russell's former superiors found the disc and read its menu
43:39
Speaker 1: of contents.
43:42
Speaker 8: One of those items that he saw on the menu
43:44
Speaker 8: was the word murder. And he pushed the mouse on
43:52
Speaker 8: that word murder, and up came 26 steps, very detailed
43:56
Speaker 8: and elaborate steps, on how Robert Peter Russell was planning
44:01
Speaker 8: the murder of Captain Shirley Gibbs.
44:07
Speaker 1: Russell's plan clearly documented his intentions.
44:15
Speaker 8: The 26 steps was a very revealing piece of evidence
44:19
Speaker 8: because it showed the man's state of mind, his willingness
44:22
Speaker 8: to even contemplate murdering another human being, let alone his wife.
44:26
Speaker 8: Step one is leave Thursday, January 18th, for Parris Island. Well,
44:32
Speaker 8: who was at Parris Island?
44:33
Speaker 1: Shirley Russell.
44:34
Speaker 8: Make it look as if she left. Well, that's exactly
44:37
Speaker 8: what he tried to do when he did murder his wife.
44:39
Speaker 8: And then the last thing he says is, blame it
44:43
Speaker 8: on her own kind. Obviously referring to her race.
44:47
Speaker 1: This is a man who.
44:50
Speaker 8: Clearly had the mental wherewithal and intent and motivation to
44:56
Speaker 8: do this kind of act.
45:01
Speaker 1: On February 8th, 1991, The computer file convinced federal prosecutors
45:06
Speaker 1: to bring charges against Robert Peter Russell for the murder
45:10
Speaker 1: of his wife, Captain Shirley Gibbs Russell. Ironically, Russell was
45:16
Speaker 1: arrested in a prison. He had recently taken a job
45:25
Speaker 1: as a substance abuse counselor at Pennsylvania's Graterford State Correctional Institution.
45:32
Speaker 8: New York.
45:34
Speaker 1: But prosecution would not be easy. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence
45:39
Speaker 1: Leiser would have to assemble all the pieces of circumstantial evidence,
45:42
Speaker 1: like a mosaic. Hopefully, the jury would see the portrait
45:47
Speaker 1: of a killer emerge. Assistant U.S. Attorney and co-prosecutor Michael
45:53
Speaker 1: Rich would help to prepare the case against Russell.
45:56
Speaker 4: It was clear they were going to have to make
45:58
Speaker 4: it on circumstantial evidence. A lot of that circumstantial evidence
46:04
Speaker 4: was as a result of what Bobby Russell had been
46:10
Speaker 4: saying and doing since his wife's disappearance in 1989. So
46:19
Speaker 4: the plan was to assemble all that into some sort
46:23
Speaker 4: of coherent scheme and present that.
46:28
Speaker 1: Never before had the federal government attempted to try someone
46:32
Speaker 1: for first-degree murder based solely on circumstantial evidence. At trial,
46:40
Speaker 1: the prosecution asserted that Robert Russell intended to commit murder
46:43
Speaker 1: when he bought the. 25- caliber Raven semi-automatic on March 2nd.
46:46
Speaker 6: Sweet.
46:47
Speaker 1: How much? Several of his co-workers reported that he had
46:51
Speaker 1: told them a. 25- caliber is a perfect weapon. Seems I'm
46:55
Speaker 1: going to be happy to sell you mine. It leaves
46:57
Speaker 1: little evidence behind. He said there is virtually no blood spatter,
47:02
Speaker 1: and the bullet usually lodges in the body. On Saturday,
47:07
Speaker 1: March 4th, when Shirley gave him the separation papers, he
47:10
Speaker 1: refused to sign. Just after noon that day, the prosecution
47:18
Speaker 1: believed Robert Russell snuck up on Shirley in the shed.
47:36
Speaker 1: had to wait for nightfall before he could remove the body.
47:40
Speaker 1: To establish an alibi, he talked with a neighbor and
47:43
Speaker 1: lied to Shirley's friend about his wife walking to the
47:45
Speaker 1: base exchange to buy paint. Around 4 p.m., he went
47:53
Speaker 1: to Sandy Flint's house and borrowed her station wagon. After
48:01
Speaker 1: night fell, he wrapped Shirley's body in a tarp and
48:04
Speaker 1: placed it in the back of the car. Their neighbors
48:07
Speaker 1: saw it backed up to the shed.
48:13
Speaker 5: He then drove four hours to St.
48:26
Speaker 1: Clair, Pennsylvania with the body in the back of the car.
48:42
Speaker 1: Once there, he knew exactly where to go. There were
48:46
Speaker 1: hundreds of abandoned mines to choose from. Then, Robert Russell,
48:54
Speaker 1: who had once sworn to uphold honor as a member
48:56
Speaker 1: of the Marine Corps, dumped his wife's body into a
49:00
Speaker 1: mine shaft. He threw dynamite in to bury the evidence
49:18
Speaker 1: under thousands of pounds of rock. The jurors were convinced.
49:26
Speaker 1: On May 3rd, 1991, Robert Peter Russell was convicted of
49:31
Speaker 1: murdering his wife, Shirley Gibbs Russell. Robert Russell was sentenced
49:40
Speaker 1: to life. There is no parole in the federal system.
49:45
Speaker 1: He will never leave prison alive.