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Beloved Lady Kid Doc Hires Hitman, Gets Lengthy Jail Time · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
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Speaker 2: Did a beloved lady pediatrician specializing, of course, in treating children,
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Speaker 2: hire a hit man after she loses custody in the
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Speaker 2: last days a courtroom showdown. I'm Nancy Grace. This is
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Speaker 2: Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. This woman
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Speaker 2: actually has a medical degree and was beloved in the
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Speaker 2: community as a pediatrician. Everybody wanted their child to go
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Speaker 2: to doctor Stephanie Russell. Well, little did they know this
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Speaker 2: woman talked to people on her staff about hiring a
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Speaker 2: hit man in order to kill her husband. This after
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Speaker 2: evidence comes to light that this pediatrician also tried voodoo
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Speaker 2: right black magic. She reportedly consulted with spiritualists euphemistically called
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Speaker 2: to put a deadly spell on her husband. Spiritualists, voodoo
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Speaker 2: princes and princesses that promised death success rates eighty five percent.
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Speaker 2: Hold on just a moment, Okay, Hiring a hit man
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Speaker 2: is one thing, but trying to use voodoo and death
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Speaker 2: spells on your husband that is a whole another thing.
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Speaker 2: Admitted into evidence a series of WhatsApp text messages showing
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Speaker 2: the doctor try to enlist services of would be occult
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Speaker 2: practitioners to kill her ex husband with a quote death
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Speaker 2: a spell end quote. Then she ended up paying a
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Speaker 2: fake assassin half a retainer. Ah, this is after her
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Speaker 2: attempts with the supernatural.
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Speaker 1: This is a doctor with a medical degree.
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Speaker 2: She writes on the WhatsApp to the occult leader's quote,
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Speaker 2: what is your success rate? Your price, your guarantee? She
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Speaker 2: asks in one message with a flurry of questions. One
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Speaker 2: princess of the occult identified only as Mama, replies death
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Speaker 2: success rates are eighty five percent and then tells Russell
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Speaker 2: quote the price depends on the number of people what
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Speaker 2: you want dead. The occultist offers a one hundred percent
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Speaker 2: guarantee or money back. Russell, the pediatric doctor, actually writes,
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Speaker 2: do you use sacrifice your Lord in heaven, to which
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Speaker 2: quote Mama end quote responds no. At five hundred and
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Speaker 2: eighty dollars per death spell. Dr Russell asked the voodoo
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Speaker 2: princess if payment can be made after the death. The
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Speaker 2: voodoo princess replies she only works on a cash basis. Okay,
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Speaker 2: let's get out of voodoo and focus on the hit man.
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Speaker 1: This is what we know. Let's go Jackie hit it.
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Speaker 3: Doctor Stephanie Russell is of a loved pediatrician with over
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Speaker 3: three thousand patients in her practice. Kids Life Pediatrics website
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Speaker 3: shows a child's dream office Think Disney overload with promises
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Speaker 3: of things like a live finding Nemo fish tank. Russell,
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Speaker 3: a graduate from the University of Louisville School of Medicine,
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Speaker 3: has been a licensed doctor for nearly twenty five years.
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Speaker 2: Now you heard it, her kid friendly workspace, her office,
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Speaker 2: Well listen to this.
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Speaker 3: Russell and her ex husband, Morgan Stanley financial planner, Rick Crabtree,
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Speaker 3: have been in a contentious custody battle for over two years.
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Speaker 3: Allegations of abuse were leveled against the husband and allegations
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Speaker 3: of a murder plot levied against Stephanie Russell. In twenty nineteen,
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Speaker 3: a detective with the Louisville Metro Police Department was assigned
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Speaker 3: to investigate Crabtree. During that investigation, Crabtree told the detective
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Speaker 3: that Russell wanted him dead so that she could take
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Speaker 3: full custody of their two children. Crabtree's attorney gave police
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Speaker 3: a sworn statement from the couple's former nanny, which said
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Speaker 3: that she identified as Ks, had been approached by doctor
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Speaker 3: Russell on multiple occasions about getting rid of Crabtree. KS
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Speaker 3: assumed Russell was joking until Russell specifically asked if ks
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Speaker 3: knew really bad people. The FBI interviewed various people about
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Speaker 3: the plot. None could cooberate Crabtree's allegations, and the case
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Speaker 3: was closed soon after Russell's claims of abuse were found
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Speaker 3: to be unsubstantiated. Crabtree was awarded custody of the children,
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Speaker 3: with Russell getting twice weekly supervised visits.
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Speaker 2: Well, there's nothing to clinch your custody case like trying
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Speaker 2: to hire a hitman. With me an all star panel
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Speaker 2: to make sense of what we know right now about
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Speaker 2: this beloved female pediatrician out of Kentucky. Kathleen Murphy family
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Speaker 2: lawyer joining us out of North Carolina. She's at NCD
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Speaker 2: Domestic Law dot com. Renowned psychologists joining us from Manhattan.
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Speaker 2: Karen Stark at Karenstark dot com. That's Karen w Esse.
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Speaker 1: Paul Zeike special guests joining us.
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Speaker 2: Former police commander and Albuquerque author of Stop Him From
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Speaker 2: Killing Them on Amazon. You can find him on Twitter
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Speaker 2: at workplace threat. But first to Alexis Terestchat Crime online
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Speaker 2: dot com investigative reporter, you were just hearing from our
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Speaker 2: friends at crime online. But Alexis Trestchuk, let's just start.
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Speaker 1: With hiring a hit man.
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Speaker 2: I mean, I know we're going to have to backtrack
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Speaker 2: and talk about this mom losing custody of her children.
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Speaker 2: And you know what, you got to bend over backwards
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Speaker 2: and do some sort of a contortion for a mother
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Speaker 2: to lose custody. Okay, we all know that Alexis Terrestchuk,
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Speaker 2: you have a baby, as I like to call him,
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Speaker 2: I have a baby. And as many times as I
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Speaker 2: would probably like to do my husband harm, I would
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Speaker 2: never jeopardize being with the twins ever.
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Speaker 1: Never.
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Speaker 2: Plus, I mean, you know David, he's very lovable. So
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Speaker 2: Alexis Trestchuk, how do we get to hiring a hit man?
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Speaker 2: What evidence is there that she, this beloved pediatrician wanted
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Speaker 2: to hire a hit man? Now?
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Speaker 1: What did I hear about coworkers?
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Speaker 4: So she actually tried to hire a hitman two different times.
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Speaker 4: The first time she kept talking to her nanny, the
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Speaker 4: the couple headed nanny, her husband, No, the p nutrician.
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Speaker 1: Cousin, Alexis Holton. Just a moment.
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Speaker 2: I mean, really, Kathleen Murphy, you want to hire a hitman?
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Speaker 1: Murder?
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Speaker 2: Bloody stinking, gooey, sticky murder, and you go to of.
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Speaker 1: Course, Hitman Central, you're nanny, really.
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Speaker 5: Stupidest, stupidest, stupidest booth ever.
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Speaker 2: This woman has a medical degree. She is not an idiot.
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Speaker 2: She's got a practice of about three thousand children.
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Speaker 1: She's rolling in money a nanny, she's not stupid.
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Speaker 4: Clearly she's a psychopath.
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Speaker 5: She thinks that her she's not connected. Obviously she's missing
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Speaker 5: some links.
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Speaker 2: I don't know how okay, now, Witte, when you say
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Speaker 2: she's not connected to me, that means you don't know
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Speaker 2: anybody in a gang or a mom.
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Speaker 1: If you're not connected, do you know she's not connected?
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Speaker 5: Mentally, she's not all there.
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Speaker 6: For her to be able to think that nobody is
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Speaker 6: going to speak about this is ludicrous. Everybody loves to talk,
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Speaker 6: especially if there's a custody trial and they want to
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Speaker 6: share the gossip, which they do, and they will come
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Speaker 6: into court.
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Speaker 5: And that's exactly what this nanny did. She came into
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Speaker 5: court and gave a deposition and spoke about how she
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Speaker 5: had come to her and approached her with a murder
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Speaker 5: for hire.
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Speaker 2: Wish you know, Kathleen Murphy, I was expecting a little
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Speaker 2: more from you than she's not connected.
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Speaker 1: Guys, hold on just a moment. I want you to hear.
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Speaker 2: I'm looking for proof, because it's going to take a
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Speaker 2: lot of proof from me to believe that this mom,
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Speaker 2: this mother, this beloved pediatrician that has a client list
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Speaker 2: of over three thousand children that everybody loves, They all
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Speaker 2: love her, would try to commit murder. And that's what
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Speaker 2: hiring a hit man is. You're committing murder. In fact,
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Speaker 2: it's even worse under the Criminal Code because murder for
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Speaker 2: hire is an aggravating circumstance under which the state can
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Speaker 2: seek the death penalty. That is not true in every
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Speaker 2: bar brawl that ends in a death, But this is
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Speaker 2: murder with a pecuniary or money interest involved, and that
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Speaker 2: is taken even more seriously by the criminal Codes. Take
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Speaker 2: a listen to Hour Cut seven c our Friends at WLKY.
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Speaker 7: New documents show Russell used the code of flowers and
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Speaker 7: text messages when discussing the murder with two nurses at
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Speaker 7: her practice. One of the employees told Russell in December
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Speaker 7: she knew someone who would commit the crime. According to
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Speaker 7: text messages, Russell wanted the murder to take place before Christmas,
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Speaker 7: documents show when that employee told Russell the alleged hitman
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Speaker 7: had died and couldn't commit the hit. Russell then asked
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Speaker 7: if the employee would pull the trigger themselves. That employee
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Speaker 7: said no, and soon after left the practice.
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Speaker 2: I guess, so I guess she did leave the practice.
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Speaker 2: I mean, Paul Zeke, former police commander in Albuquerque, in
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Speaker 2: author I wouldn't put a whole lot of stought in
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Speaker 2: one nanny that said, yeah, she told me she wanted
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Speaker 2: her husband dead. Did I know anybody that could kill him? No,
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Speaker 2: that's not enough to make a case.
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Speaker 1: But now I have an.
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Speaker 2: Employee that says she was approached by the defendant, the
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Speaker 2: female pediatrician, and when that hitman didn't work out, she asked, well,
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Speaker 2: could you do it yourself?
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Speaker 1: Can you kill him?
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Speaker 2: Well, the woman or man says no and leaves the practice.
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Speaker 2: Now we're cooking with ask Paul's like, now, I feel
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Speaker 2: like we might have an investigation.
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Speaker 8: Going absolutely When you reach a point in an investigation
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Speaker 8: where you have coroborating witnesses that have direct evidence things
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Speaker 8: that they've seen themselves or heard themselves, who have nothing
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Speaker 8: to gain from the situation by telling the truth, absolutely.
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Speaker 8: You now are starting to build a foundation to move
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Speaker 8: this case forward.
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Speaker 2: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace Karen Starr joining me in
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Speaker 2: New York Psychologist. Of course the person left the practice
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Speaker 2: because not only does she pressure.
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Speaker 1: The employee to find a hit man, find a hit man,
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Speaker 1: then the hit man goes and dies. Did she ask
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Speaker 1: the employee to pull the trigger for Pete's sake?
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Speaker 9: To two of the nurses that work for her, Nancy,
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Speaker 9: she had a code with them.
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Speaker 1: Oh, I forgot that part.
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Speaker 2: She used the code word flowers and takes messages when
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Speaker 2: discussing the murder. And you're right, Karen, starting not one
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Speaker 2: but two nurses.
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Speaker 1: We're talking about murder, and.
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Speaker 9: You know, Nancy, that's how in these kind of situations
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Speaker 9: they get caught all the time, because who do they
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Speaker 9: know that they can turn to to find somebody to
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Speaker 9: you know, do away with the person they're trying to kill.
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Speaker 9: They have to go to people that are close to
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Speaker 9: them because they're not associating with people that would be hidden.
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Speaker 2: But the irony here is, though, Karen Stark, I mean,
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Speaker 2: you're a healthcare professional. You're asking a nurse who I
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Speaker 2: know doctors have to take the hippocratic oath where you
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Speaker 2: vow to quote, do no harm, and I assume nurses
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Speaker 2: take a similar oath. You're asking a nurse, not one,
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Speaker 2: but two nurses two too murder somebody. I mean, that's
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Speaker 2: hard for me to believe, which I'm actually starting to
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Speaker 2: buy into. Kathleen Murphy zany dare I say it. She's
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Speaker 2: a veteran trial lawyer, tough as nails, that she's quote
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Speaker 2: not connected. I mean, Karen Stark, how many times have
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Speaker 2: we talked about that idiot OJ Simpson about a million
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Speaker 2: and the possibility that it was all just a big
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Speaker 2: police cover up. Do you really think, Karen Stark, that
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Speaker 2: all those cops have stayed quiet, silent, quiet as the
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Speaker 2: grave for all these years when they could have sold
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Speaker 2: out for a big book deal and made millions of
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Speaker 2: dollars in granting movie rights if there had been a
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Speaker 2: cover up, if there had been a conspiracy. People cannot
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Speaker 2: keep their yap shut. We've discussed that a million times,
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Speaker 2: Karen Stark, for whatever reason.
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Speaker 1: So there's no way these nurses were not going to blab.
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Speaker 9: Well, of course, that's the whole point, is I mean,
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Speaker 9: there's no judgment involved in this, and no conscience as
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Speaker 9: we know because not thinking twice about the idea of
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Speaker 9: killing somebody. I mean, that's somebody who could you know,
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Speaker 9: just go point to somebody in the street and say,
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Speaker 9: why don't we shoot them? Because she has no conscience,
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Speaker 9: it doesn't matter and her judgment is so off. It's
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Speaker 9: a little scary. Because she's a medical professional, people will talk.
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Speaker 2: Karen Starr, You've been with me from the beginning when
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Speaker 2: I dreamed of a family, and then when I got pregnant.
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Speaker 2: I think you were in on the secret for several
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Speaker 2: months before other people know you. I mean, I would
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Speaker 2: want to kill anybody that got between me and the twins,
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Speaker 2: but I certainly wouldn't say.
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Speaker 1: It out loud, say but I mean nothing.
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Speaker 2: Nothing could make me or angry than if this were
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Speaker 2: to happen to me.
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Speaker 1: Take a listen to our cut one aar friends at
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Speaker 1: w l k Y.
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Speaker 10: Russell lost custody of her children in twenty twenty and
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Speaker 10: was only allowed supervised visits. The documents also explain her
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Speaker 10: ex husband's concerns about safety, saying he testified that Russell
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Speaker 10: had quote Maine statements that she would kill him in
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Speaker 10: his sleep. That concern was also echoed by a quarter
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Speaker 10: pointed doctor who stated Russell could quote escalate her behavior
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Speaker 10: and presents a high risk for violence, with the doctor
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Speaker 10: phrasing it as quote uncomfortably high. Harrelson believes the evidence
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Speaker 10: was mounting against Russell.
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Speaker 11: They finally did a warrant on her phone and found
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Speaker 11: text messages or other evidence that corroborated the first attempt
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Speaker 11: to hire a hitman. They found all these videos in
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Speaker 11: the phone where she was having the kids practice making
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Speaker 11: false allegations against him. If they didn't say it right,
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Speaker 11: she'd start over again. So she turned these videos over
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Speaker 11: to authorities, but all the failed videos were still on
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Speaker 11: her phone.
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Speaker 1: Oh, dear Lord in heaven.
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Speaker 2: This is a medical doctor that graduated with high grades
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Speaker 2: at the Louisville Medical School, and she kept the videos
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Speaker 2: on her phone of her children practicing a script accusing
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Speaker 2: their dad of wrongdoing.
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Speaker 1: Wow, I'm drinking from the fire hydrant here. I just
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Speaker 1: don't even know.
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Speaker 2: It's more than I could take it once. I don't
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Speaker 2: know where to start, but I'm going to start at
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Speaker 2: the beginning of what you were hearing from our friends
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Speaker 2: at WLKY. First of all, she loses soul custody. She
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Speaker 2: lost custody of her children and only got supervised visits.
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Speaker 2: First of all, let me start there. To you, Kathleen Murphy,
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Speaker 2: family lawyer.
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Speaker 1: Joining us out of North Carolina, explain what is a
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Speaker 1: supervised visit.
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Speaker 5: Typically, a supervised visit is professionally supervised. There are people
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Speaker 5: that are paid and they can report to the court
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Speaker 5: and the violations of the conditions of the supervision, and
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Speaker 5: typically there for short periods of time. There are two
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Speaker 5: types of supervised visitation locations. One can be a supervised
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Speaker 5: visitation center and the children are inside and it's pretty weird.
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Speaker 5: The other one is where people will go to public
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Speaker 5: parks or libraries or museums or swim pools and the
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Speaker 5: parents can have more of a normal experience with their children.
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Speaker 5: My understanding is that the woman, the doctor in question
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Speaker 5: here has supervised visitation at her office, which could be
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Speaker 5: okay since the children may have been familiar with the location.
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Speaker 5: But it was inside and it was only two times
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Speaker 5: a week, which is really really a harsh type of
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Speaker 5: supervised visitation order.
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Speaker 8: It's a harsh.
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Speaker 2: Order supervised visits. Kathleen Murphy joining me out of North Carolina.
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Speaker 2: Does the case of Josh Powell ring a bell to you.
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Speaker 5: Yes, the social worker was bringing the children though to
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Speaker 5: his house where he had control. And that's why they
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Speaker 5: do the supervised the centers and people are padded down
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Speaker 5: and they have to go through a security and they're
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Speaker 5: not about to bring gifts, and they are very controlled.
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Speaker 5: And for Josh Powell to be able to have those
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Speaker 5: children supervised by a social worker at his own home
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Speaker 5: may have been a fatal mistake. It was a fatal mistake.
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Speaker 2: Josh Powell murdered his two little boys during a supervised
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Speaker 2: visit because the social worker let the children into the
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Speaker 2: home and then Josh Powell slammed the door, hacked them
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Speaker 2: with an axe, and set the home on fire, blew
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Speaker 2: up the home.
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Speaker 1: He had already murdered their mother, Susan Cox. Powell.
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Speaker 2: Cox never did anything about it, even though the boys
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Speaker 2: drew pictures of mommy in a trunk, the car trunk
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Speaker 2: with the boys and dad driving the car. That's a
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Speaker 2: whole other can of worms. No doubt that he murdered
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Speaker 2: his wife, but he was never prosecuted, so he was
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Speaker 2: still out and somehow got supervised visits with his children.
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Speaker 2: That's what a supervised visit is. You're either sitting in
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Speaker 2: the room with a court official watching you with your children,
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Speaker 2: or you are somewhere in public like a park or
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Speaker 2: a McDonald's, or in this case, the pediatrician could only
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Speaker 2: have two supervised visits a week with her children. Karen Stark,
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Speaker 2: do you know how crazy that would make me? If
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Speaker 2: even when I have to go out of town to travel,
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Speaker 2: which I have to do a lot for various criminal investigations.
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Speaker 1: I go crazy. I have a rule.
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Speaker 2: I try to never stay away over one night. The
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Speaker 2: children are fine here and start because when I'm not
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Speaker 2: at home, they get to order pizza and watch TV
20:17
Speaker 2: during dinner while holding their cell phone staring at it. See,
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Speaker 2: none of that would happen with if I were home.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely not. It's veggies around the table where you interact.
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Speaker 2: You say your prayer first, and you talk about your
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Speaker 2: day and your next day or anything else you happen
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Speaker 2: to think of. Oh all that just goes to hell
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Speaker 2: and a hand basket if I go out of town.
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Speaker 2: But they're fine, it's me I suffer. I hate it
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Speaker 2: to be away from the children. Can you even imagine you.
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Speaker 9: Didn't like that from the very beginning, Nancy, Right from
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Speaker 9: the start, you would not spend a night away from them.
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Speaker 1: Awful. It's I can attest to that, appreciating.
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Speaker 2: And I mean, finally, by the end of it, my
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Speaker 2: son I do yet another face and he's like, Hi, Mom.
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Speaker 1: This is like the face time we've done. But anyway,
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Speaker 1: how mad do you think this mom is?
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Speaker 2: She's so smart, she's so educated, and somehow she's painted
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Speaker 2: herself into the corner of two supervised visits a week
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Speaker 2: at her office with her children.
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Speaker 1: That's it.
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Speaker 9: And that's because she's a danger to those children. Nancy,
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Speaker 9: she's not a man.
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Speaker 1: I'm asking you how mad did that make her? I'm
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Speaker 1: just making me mad just saying it.
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Speaker 9: Obviously she was mad to begin with. She right from
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Speaker 9: the start.
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Speaker 5: Who's jumping in This is Kathleen Murphy. And she was
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Speaker 5: mad that she had supervised visitation. But as KARENCEA, she
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Speaker 5: was mad before that. She was crazy before that.
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Speaker 1: And that's what letter do you know?
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Speaker 2: You? You, of all people, Kathleen Murphy cannot throw around
21:58
Speaker 2: the term crazy.
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Speaker 1: At will Willy nilly.
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Speaker 2: Crazy means something under the lawn to the old McNaughton
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Speaker 2: test that we brought over to our country.
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Speaker 1: From Great Britain.
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Speaker 2: All right, It means did you know right from wrong
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Speaker 2: at the time of the act. That is crazy, that
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Speaker 2: is insane. She clearly knew what she was doing was wrong.
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Speaker 2: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. We go on to a
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Speaker 2: court appointed doctor who stated her behavior escalated and the
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Speaker 2: doctor found it was quote uncomfortably high that Russell would
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Speaker 2: spin out after these text messages were found on her
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Speaker 2: phone and the videos. Alexis Treshak tell me about the
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Speaker 2: videos on her phone.
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Speaker 1: Was she trying to frame the husband.
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Speaker 4: As their divorce began. She accused her husband of sexually
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Speaker 4: abusing the children. They were really young, because at this
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Speaker 4: point now I think they're four and two, so this
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Speaker 4: is a couple of years ago, they're just little babies.
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Speaker 4: And she had videos she'd taken videos on her phone
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Speaker 4: of them that she gave to the authorities where the
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Speaker 4: children explained how they had been abused by the dad
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Speaker 4: in little kid versions. But also on the phone were
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Speaker 4: videos where she was coaching the children. So she would
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Speaker 4: say to the little child. The little child would give
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Speaker 4: a statement, this is what happened to me.
23:33
Speaker 5: Daddy did this to me.
23:34
Speaker 4: And she's wait, wait, you're not doing it right. Let's
23:36
Speaker 4: back up, let's try again. Have to say it this
23:38
Speaker 4: your lord and home. And so she had videos. She
23:40
Speaker 4: didn't even delete those videos. They were still on her
23:42
Speaker 4: phone of her prompting the children and leaving them and
23:45
Speaker 4: making them say these things.
23:47
Speaker 1: So that was also given to the judge Paul.
23:50
Speaker 2: Zide joining me, former police commander and Albuquerque and author
23:54
Speaker 2: of Stop Him From Killing Them on Amazon. Man the
23:59
Speaker 2: cop shays got handed a case on a silver platter.
24:03
Speaker 2: You might as well put that on top of the
24:04
Speaker 2: Christmas tree and open it up on Christmas morning. To
24:08
Speaker 2: have all that one sort of her phone reveals all that.
24:11
Speaker 8: It's a lot harder. Usually we don't have things served
24:15
Speaker 8: up to us so easily. We've got tons of software
24:18
Speaker 8: investigative means to find things that have been a RaSE,
24:21
Speaker 8: but things that are actually still on the phone, phones
24:24
Speaker 8: that are still you know, literally just have the data there.
24:27
Speaker 8: You just have to look for it. We don't get
24:30
Speaker 8: it so easily, especially when you're looking at something as
24:33
Speaker 8: serious as this. And I think that speaks to another
24:36
Speaker 8: point that she just literally you know, the whole issue
24:41
Speaker 8: of having restricted access to her children, and we've seen
24:45
Speaker 8: this in cases with domestic violence and stalking over the years,
24:49
Speaker 8: is that that's a conduct inhibitor. It's something that makes
24:52
Speaker 8: people go a little more out of their mind, a
24:55
Speaker 8: little more extreme, and take more risk to do harm.
24:58
Speaker 1: What did you call that a conduct inhibitor?
25:02
Speaker 8: The conduct inhibitor. That's one of the things in my
25:04
Speaker 8: life is that that that's things that I have a
25:07
Speaker 8: list of them in my book, that when you remove
25:10
Speaker 8: them from rational people or even irrational people, and especially
25:15
Speaker 8: when you remove them in groups, you know, like custody
25:18
Speaker 8: status in the community, you know, ability to take care
25:21
Speaker 8: of your children, you know, upcoming restraining restraining order hearings.
25:25
Speaker 8: There's a whole list of them that in my you know,
25:28
Speaker 8: ten years of work in those cases that I found
25:31
Speaker 8: caused people to do unexpected things.
25:33
Speaker 2: Right, you're starting to sound like the crazy old guys
25:36
Speaker 2: in trading places.
25:37
Speaker 1: You know, with Addie Murphy.
25:38
Speaker 8: Essentially, you take.
25:39
Speaker 2: Away somebody's money, their credit, their home, their family, their
25:45
Speaker 2: loved ones, their status, their position, and they start committing crimes.
25:49
Speaker 1: Okay, Dan Akroyd did not start right. Actually he did
25:52
Speaker 1: start committing crimes. Never mind.
25:54
Speaker 2: So you're saying conduct inhibitors are when you take away
25:59
Speaker 2: what people value the most, they are more likely to
26:03
Speaker 2: commit a crime.
26:04
Speaker 1: Is that what you're saying, Paul Zike.
26:05
Speaker 8: Absolutely not just a crime, especially a crime of passion,
26:09
Speaker 8: a crime where you you know, somebody get stabbed fifty
26:13
Speaker 8: eight times instead of twice. Things that are really out
26:17
Speaker 8: of the box, things that you know, people go although
26:19
Speaker 8: they were such a quiet, you know, neighbor quiet of
26:22
Speaker 8: this and that, and then we didn't expect any of this. Well,
26:25
Speaker 8: you remove enough conduct inhibitors from people, and you can
26:29
Speaker 8: just about get anybody to do anything if you remove
26:32
Speaker 8: enough of them, especially if it's done quickly.
26:34
Speaker 2: Paul Zeke is with me and he's saying that this
26:37
Speaker 2: information is in his book stop him from killing them
26:41
Speaker 2: on Amazon. You know, I see what you're saying, and
26:44
Speaker 2: I think you're right, Paul Zike. You take away the
26:48
Speaker 2: chance of her being with her children, and she goes haywire.
26:53
Speaker 2: But when was it, Alexis Treschuk, was it before or
26:58
Speaker 2: after she lost It had to be before she lost
27:00
Speaker 2: custody that she was getting the children to create these
27:03
Speaker 2: videos accusing their dad of sex mostation, it was before
27:06
Speaker 2: she lost custody.
27:07
Speaker 1: That was their door started.
27:10
Speaker 4: And now when you were attempt to have full custody
27:13
Speaker 4: of the children.
27:14
Speaker 1: Oh, Okay, I see what she means.
27:15
Speaker 2: So she was threatened with losing custody and she started
27:19
Speaker 2: doing these videos. So Paul's likes theory dot conduct inhibitors
27:23
Speaker 2: is actually correct in this case. Guys, take a listen
27:27
Speaker 2: to our cut for our friends at Wave.
27:30
Speaker 12: Russell was the one to lose custody in twenty twenty
27:33
Speaker 12: after a court appointed representative for the children claimed she
27:36
Speaker 12: was coaching the kids into making allegations about her ex husband,
27:40
Speaker 12: and in May twenty eighteen that she tried to hire
27:43
Speaker 12: a hitman to kill him. According to court records, Russell's
27:47
Speaker 12: attorney called the allegation preposterous in a lawsuit against the judge,
27:51
Speaker 12: writing in this complaint there have never been any criminal charges.
27:55
Speaker 12: They would come four years later, when the FED set
27:58
Speaker 12: up a sting on May fifteenth, twenty two, official say
28:01
Speaker 12: Russell reached out to a hitman and agreed to pay
28:04
Speaker 12: him seven thousand dollars to kill her ex husband. On
28:07
Speaker 12: May eighteenth, The officer say she put half the cash
28:10
Speaker 12: in her dropbox at her office and promised to pay
28:13
Speaker 12: the rest once the murder was complete.
28:15
Speaker 1: According to court records.
28:16
Speaker 12: The next day, she was behind bars because agents say
28:20
Speaker 12: the person Russell thought was a hitman was an undercover cop.
28:24
Speaker 1: Of course he was. You can't swing a stick around.
28:29
Speaker 2: Your head without hitting an FBI agent posing.
28:33
Speaker 1: As a hitman.
28:34
Speaker 2: Oh so, not only does she leave the videos on
28:38
Speaker 2: her phone, coaching her children to make claims of sex
28:41
Speaker 2: mostation my dad reach out to her nanny and two
28:46
Speaker 2: of her nurses in her practice to hire a hitman
28:50
Speaker 2: or commit the murder themselves.
28:52
Speaker 1: It just keeps getting worse.
28:54
Speaker 2: Now, what did I hear about a previous attempt.
28:59
Speaker 1: To hire a hit man?
29:01
Speaker 2: Take a listen to our friends at crimeonline dot com
29:04
Speaker 2: our cut seven g.
29:06
Speaker 3: The investigation into a second murder for higher plot came
29:10
Speaker 3: after a Louisville Metro detective contacted the FBI. The detective
29:14
Speaker 3: had been contacted by a local private investigator who had
29:18
Speaker 3: potential information, and that information came from someone who worked
29:22
Speaker 3: at Kids' Life Pediatrics. The PI learned Russell had approached
29:27
Speaker 3: several employees about killing her ex husband, and then the
29:30
Speaker 3: PI urged the employee to contact the FBI. The informant
29:34
Speaker 3: met with agents, saying that Russell had been asking for
29:37
Speaker 3: help in killing Crabtree for the last ten months. One
29:40
Speaker 3: of the nurses provided screenshots of text conversations with her boss,
29:45
Speaker 3: doctor Stephanie Russell, discussing delivery of Christmas flowers, Russell's code
29:50
Speaker 3: word for murder. A screenshot of the exchange in part
29:53
Speaker 3: went like this, are you still looking for flowers? I
29:57
Speaker 3: actually do need flowers? Russell replied, oh nice, Can I
30:00
Speaker 3: drop my your house tonight tomorrow night, Friday night, Saturday Sunday. Ultimately,
30:05
Speaker 3: Russell and the nurse met in person, but the nurse
30:08
Speaker 3: was wired for audio and video courtesy of the FBI.
30:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, you don't want to say no to an FBI
30:14
Speaker 2: agent if possible. I mean Kathleen Murphy joining US veterin
30:18
Speaker 2: trial lawyer out of North Carolina, Kathleen Murphy. So there's
30:23
Speaker 2: not just this attempt to hire a hit man. There's another,
30:28
Speaker 2: a first attempt.
30:29
Speaker 1: To hire a hitman.
30:30
Speaker 5: There were three total attempts in my in my reading,
30:35
Speaker 5: first she wanted the nurse, or first she wanted her
30:39
Speaker 5: nanny to help her hire a hitman. Then the nurse
30:43
Speaker 5: in her practice, and then the second nurse in her practice,
30:46
Speaker 5: because the first nurse said that the hitman that she
30:49
Speaker 5: was going to send her way had died, and then
30:53
Speaker 5: that nurse left the practice, so she went to the
30:55
Speaker 5: second nurse in the practice.
30:57
Speaker 1: I mean, the evidence continues to mount. I'm just curious.
31:03
Speaker 2: Paul Zike, former placed commander in Albuquerque, the FBI must
31:08
Speaker 2: have a whole wing of agents that are posing as hitmen.
31:12
Speaker 8: It's something they specialize in. I mean, they're really good
31:15
Speaker 8: at it. It's one of the you know, just like
31:17
Speaker 8: economic crimes type of thing where they can follow the uh,
31:21
Speaker 8: you know, the the breadcrumbs, if you will, a lot
31:25
Speaker 8: of these things cross state lines and you know, and
31:28
Speaker 8: generally speaking, there is some complexity to it. But yes,
31:32
Speaker 8: they have a lot of field agents that are highly
31:35
Speaker 8: skilled at this. They're looking, you know, the first time
31:38
Speaker 8: they looked at this, you know, it's not something you
31:41
Speaker 8: see a whole lot of. Unfortunately, well I should say
31:44
Speaker 8: fortunately when when it was brought to their attention they
31:48
Speaker 8: kind of close the case. Well, the second time around
31:51
Speaker 8: it was enough to get their attention, and they got
31:53
Speaker 8: lucky because if it would have happened after the first time,
31:57
Speaker 8: they would have been, you know, left holding the back
31:59
Speaker 8: because they had some of the information before. But obviously
32:02
Speaker 8: the second time they were given the case, they grabbed
32:05
Speaker 8: down to it. With bold hands.
32:06
Speaker 2: That is not giving me a lot of confidence that
32:08
Speaker 2: they just quote, as you said, kind of close the
32:11
Speaker 2: case the first time she tried to hire a hitman. Hey,
32:14
Speaker 2: Alexis Terreschuk, this happens to me at the dentist, and
32:18
Speaker 2: I hope my dentist.
32:19
Speaker 1: Who crazy story, Jackie.
32:22
Speaker 2: He hang in the mountain and he was doing something.
32:25
Speaker 2: He goes, you know it's on one of your juries, right,
32:26
Speaker 2: I'm like the Then suddenly it all came rushing back
32:32
Speaker 2: to back. And even remember what he wore as a juror.
32:35
Speaker 2: He wore a ten pullover. It looked like Kashmir v
32:40
Speaker 2: neck sweater with a kind of a brown shirt underneath.
32:45
Speaker 2: He's perfectly dressed, perfectly everything. This dentist, he's awesome. But
32:52
Speaker 2: he'll do whatever he's doing. And then it has to
32:55
Speaker 2: wait sometimes and I can sit there, I can't move,
33:00
Speaker 2: can't get on my phone or anything else. I can
33:02
Speaker 2: hear the dental assistance talking, and they're always talking about
33:09
Speaker 2: like their vacation or this or that. It's never anything
33:12
Speaker 2: in scendiary. They're not talking about other patients. They're just
33:15
Speaker 2: passing the time today, don't you know these nurses were
33:19
Speaker 2: all talking about she wants to hurry hit man. She
33:24
Speaker 2: wants to kill Crabtree, the husband. You know they were
33:28
Speaker 2: all talking about.
33:29
Speaker 4: It right well, and then what they would have had
33:31
Speaker 4: to have done. The one says, well, I'm so sorry
33:33
Speaker 4: that the hit man that I tried to get you died.
33:36
Speaker 4: There's nothing like oh my gosh, how was he killed?
33:38
Speaker 4: What happened there?
33:39
Speaker 5: Or anything like that.
33:40
Speaker 4: Like that is also a huge red flag, like did
33:42
Speaker 4: they talk to the nurses talk to each other and
33:43
Speaker 4: say how can we get out of this? And she
33:45
Speaker 4: would just tell me died and then you'll get out
33:47
Speaker 4: of it because you think, oh, well he died, okay.
33:49
Speaker 4: How many people know more than one hit man? It's
33:53
Speaker 4: absolutely crazy. And that she kept doing it again the
33:56
Speaker 4: first time she.
33:57
Speaker 9: Was investigated for it, so she.
33:59
Speaker 4: Must have known that they were on to her, but
34:02
Speaker 4: yet so arrogant, so confident in her own ability to
34:06
Speaker 4: trick law enforcement and the judges and her husband who
34:09
Speaker 4: is a very smart finance guy, and that she could
34:13
Speaker 4: still hire a hitman to do it.
34:14
Speaker 1: Can we talk about him for a moment.
34:16
Speaker 2: Can you imagine how his whole life would have been
34:20
Speaker 2: ruined with these allegations of molesting his own children.
34:25
Speaker 1: I mean, does that bother anybody but me? Kathleen Murphy.
34:29
Speaker 2: You're a family lawyer, and that is certainly a euphemism,
34:33
Speaker 2: because family law, it sounds all cozy, is actually down
34:37
Speaker 2: and dirty. Have you ever seen that where one party
34:41
Speaker 2: tries to get the children to fabricate allegations against the
34:44
Speaker 2: other parent.
34:45
Speaker 5: I do, But Nancy, you know it's worse is when
34:48
Speaker 5: I have a client who believes that there's something going on,
34:52
Speaker 5: and they're damned if they do, and they're damned if
34:54
Speaker 5: they don't, if they don't say anything, and they have
34:57
Speaker 5: these realistic concerns that's not good. And then if they
35:01
Speaker 5: say something, then they're seen in this light of she's
35:06
Speaker 5: just making it up to get leverage in a custody case.
35:09
Speaker 5: It's very difficult, but.
35:10
Speaker 2: People would always wonder, did he do it? Did he
35:13
Speaker 2: molest his children? You know, just making a note to
35:16
Speaker 2: talk to you about Kathleen Murphy, high profile lawyer joining
35:19
Speaker 2: me out of North Carolina. To prove a conspiracy, you
35:24
Speaker 2: have to have more than just shop talk. You can't
35:27
Speaker 2: just hey, I want to kill him, you know, a
35:29
Speaker 2: hit man. You have to make what is called under
35:32
Speaker 2: the law, an overt act you actually have to do something,
35:38
Speaker 2: otherwise you could just say it trial. Yeah, I dreamed
35:41
Speaker 2: about it, I talked about it. I knew it was wrong.
35:43
Speaker 2: I'd never do it. But here she's accused of putting
35:47
Speaker 2: nearly four thousand dollars in a drop box to pay
35:52
Speaker 2: the hitman.
35:52
Speaker 1: And under the law, that is an overt act, is
35:56
Speaker 1: it not Kathleen Murphy not.
35:58
Speaker 5: Only putting the money in there, but then giving the
36:01
Speaker 5: individual a code to get in that medical lock box
36:06
Speaker 5: to retrieve the money. That's how they were able to
36:09
Speaker 5: connect it, because they didn't have a video of her
36:12
Speaker 5: during the surveillance of her putting the money in the dropbox.
36:16
Speaker 5: But what they had to connect it was that she
36:18
Speaker 5: had provided the code for that individual to remove the
36:22
Speaker 5: money from.
36:23
Speaker 2: The dropbock and even wiring the nurse still may it
36:27
Speaker 2: may have been.
36:28
Speaker 1: Helpful, but it's still just talk. Does not a conspiracy make?
36:32
Speaker 1: There has to be that over, guys.
36:35
Speaker 2: Take a listen to our friend Rachel Drose and our
36:37
Speaker 2: cut six from Whas.
36:40
Speaker 13: And I actually ran into one parent who was here
36:42
Speaker 13: today trying to pick up his children's medical records.
36:45
Speaker 4: She's been their primary caregiver for six years, so it's
36:49
Speaker 4: just freaking.
36:50
Speaker 1: Shocking, to say the least, and it's very sad.
36:53
Speaker 13: The FBI arrested doctor Stephanie Russell last night and charged
36:57
Speaker 13: her with trying to hire someone to murder her ex husband.
37:00
Speaker 13: Instead of hiring a hitman, Russell actually hired an undercover
37:03
Speaker 13: FBI employee, according to court filings. The Louisville pediatrician works
37:08
Speaker 13: in the Norton Commons neighborhood at Kids' Life Pediatrics.
37:11
Speaker 2: I now several parents in this area that bring their
37:13
Speaker 2: children here, and like I said, I've only heard positive,
37:16
Speaker 2: wonderful things about them.
37:18
Speaker 13: When I went by there, a handwritten closed sign was
37:20
Speaker 13: posted on the door, and when I tried to call,
37:22
Speaker 13: there was no answer.
37:23
Speaker 6: With doctor Russell, everything was fine, Like she was pleasant,
37:28
Speaker 6: she was sweet, The girls liked her.
37:31
Speaker 13: Lance Duley, the dad trying to pick up his kids'
37:33
Speaker 13: medical records, wasn't able to get in touch with anyone.
37:36
Speaker 4: We're right around the corner, and money drop offs were
37:40
Speaker 4: happening right around the corner.
37:42
Speaker 1: Like that freaks us out, I guess, So now take
37:46
Speaker 1: a listen to this.
37:47
Speaker 2: After the arrest, she tried valiantly to get a bond
37:51
Speaker 2: and get out. Don't you know that husband was hiding
37:54
Speaker 2: under his bed. Take a listen to our cut seven
37:56
Speaker 2: b R friends in whas.
37:58
Speaker 14: The judge ruled Russell will stay in custody, saying that
38:01
Speaker 14: the evidence presented so far shows she was persistent in
38:05
Speaker 14: her desire to execute that murder for higher plot. Doctor
38:09
Speaker 14: Stephanie Russell faces up to ten years in prison. Court
38:12
Speaker 14: documents show an employee at Russell's pediatric office came forward
38:16
Speaker 14: saying Russell asked several people to help her find someone
38:19
Speaker 14: to kill her ex husband. Prosecutors argued the nature of
38:22
Speaker 14: the crime and her commitment or reason to keep her
38:25
Speaker 14: in jail. Russell's attorneys argued she'd never been convicted of
38:28
Speaker 14: a crime and needed to be released on home incarceration
38:31
Speaker 14: to keep running her pediatric practice. The judge ultimately said
38:35
Speaker 14: Russell needed to stay in custody, believing she could be
38:38
Speaker 14: a danger.
38:38
Speaker 1: In an affidavit, text between Russell and.
38:41
Speaker 14: A witness show her seeking information about hiring a hitman,
38:44
Speaker 14: contacting the witness several times.
38:46
Speaker 1: Over the course of months.
38:48
Speaker 14: Central through this case as well Russell's contentious divorce, during
38:51
Speaker 14: which she accused her ex husband of abuse, court documents
38:54
Speaker 14: show and investigation found no evidence, and he was granted custody.
38:58
Speaker 1: To Alexis Raschak and the rest of the panel. Jump in.
39:01
Speaker 2: Remember this is not a tea party at high growth.
39:03
Speaker 2: Jump in when you have a thought, I'm looking at
39:06
Speaker 2: her mugshot and she is actually wearing her scrubs, her
39:10
Speaker 2: doctor's smock. I guess they arrested her right there at
39:13
Speaker 2: her practice. So Alexis Terresshak jump I was going to
39:17
Speaker 2: ask where the case stands.
39:18
Speaker 1: Alexis, So get that question in your mind. Go hey, Kathleen, they.
39:22
Speaker 5: May be stacking some charges on her because of the
39:25
Speaker 5: fake videos and causing false testimony in court. They can
39:29
Speaker 5: have many more charges on this individual aside from the
39:34
Speaker 5: murder for hirepod.
39:35
Speaker 2: The only place she can go because she is caught
39:39
Speaker 2: red handed is depleted. Some kind of a mother in
39:43
Speaker 2: sanity that the thought of losing her children pushed her
39:46
Speaker 2: over the edge. In the last days, a beloved lady
39:50
Speaker 2: doctor specializing in pediatrics gets twelve years behind bars. Twelve
39:58
Speaker 2: years behind First, she tries a voodoo princess known as
40:04
Speaker 2: Mama Okay.
40:06
Speaker 1: She wants a death spell.
40:09
Speaker 2: When that apparently goes nowhere, she hires a hit man
40:14
Speaker 2: a hit man to murder her ex husband Ouch. Twelve
40:21
Speaker 2: years in the can, the pen, the big dollhouse for
40:26
Speaker 2: pediatrician doctor Stephanie Russell.
40:29
Speaker 1: Why she not only.
40:32
Speaker 2: Tried to have a death spell put on her husband,
40:35
Speaker 2: she tried to hire a hitman. You know what, There's
40:39
Speaker 2: no telling what kind of voodoo spells and potions this
40:44
Speaker 2: doctor is going to cook up behind bars. Wow, I
40:48
Speaker 2: wonder if she's listening to crime stories right now?
40:51
Speaker 1: Go ahead, hex me.
40:54
Speaker 2: Nancy Gray signing off, goodbye friends,