The Murder Of Stephanie Wasilishin

Who Was Stephanie?

If you’ve scrolled through true crime on Tik Tok, there’s a good chance that you’ve come across a video that starts, “Hi, my name is Nikki.  I am the daughter of a murdered woman….”   Nikki Wasilishin was only 10 years old when her mother, Stephanie (Stacy as she was known by friends and family) was murdered.  From the start, her family has said that Russell Bennett Peterson was responsible, and that her death was not an accident as he has stated to the police.  In this episode we are going to hear from the 911 call that he placed that night, but before we get there, we want to learn about Stephanie and the events that led to her death.  

Stephanie was born outside Chicago in 1961, along with her twin brother, Stephen.  But, Stephen tragically passed away around 7 months after they were born.  Now, Stephen’s death would plant the seed of distrust of the police in their family.  You see, Stephen died of the measles, because neither an ambulance service or the police themselves would transport him to the hospital.  Stephen was very sick, and the family had called emergency services who told them that help would be there within minutes.  But, they waited and waited, and an ambulance never arrived.  Two police officers eventually arrived, but then refused to drive them to the hospital.  Their suggestion was for the family to call a cab, but not to tell them about Stephen having measles.  

The measles vaccine wasn’t developed until 1963.  It’s a highly contagious disease that can spread through the air via a cough or sneeze.  Prior to the introduction of measles vaccination in 1963, there were more than 100 million measles cases resulting in 6 million deaths worldwide, with 4 million cases and 450 deaths in the US annually.  Despite the vaccine, the measles remains one of the leading causes of vaccine-preventable death, especially in children. 

At this point, the Wasilishin family is basically like what the fuck, we don’t want to wait for a cab after we’ve been waiting for an ambulance that never arrived and now that the police were refusing to take them, they asked if the police could at least escort them while they rode in a separate car.  This request was also denied.  An investigation later determined that the ambulance was told not to report to the call because of the contagious nature of the disease.  The fire chief told the ambulance not to report, and it was later determined that it would have been safe for them to go to the call and to help Stephen.  By the time the family was able to get to the hospital, it was too late for young Stephen, and he passed away later in the night.  

With those events in mind, it’s very easy to see why the Wasilishin family finds it hard to trust the police and take their word when they say that they’ve investigated something. 

After Stephen’s death, the family relocated to Arizona.  When Stephanie grew up, she wanted one thing… to be a mother, but not just a mother, but to be “that” mom.  The mom who was always there, who had her kids backs no matter what.  She met a man named Craig and they married and had a daughter, Nikki.  But, the marriage didn’t work out and they divorced.  

Stephanie then got into a relationship with a man named Russell Peterson, with whom she had another daughter, Christina.  The young family lived together in Sedona, Arizona, in a 2 bedroom house on Coffee Pot Drive.  Stephanie and Russell both worked at a nearby restaurant; she was a pastry chef and he was a chef in the kitchen.  

Nikki says that growing up, her mom was a clean freak, like cleaning the walls kinda clean.  Her dad jokes that he would go to take his clothes off and his dirty clothes couldn’t be on the ground for more than a few minutes before Stephanie came through cleaning and telling everyone to help clean up.  Nikki was so young when her mom died, but she remembers how she fostered a love of reading in her.  She would always have the newest Goosebumps books as soon as they were released.  Stephanie was still young too, she was 19 when she had Nikki, so she was that trendy mom who still had her finger on the pulse of what was popular with young people.  She dressed Nikki in trendy clothes and made sure she had the most fashionable clothes out there.  

July 8th, 1993

Nikki says that this day was like any other day, it was summer and her mom had worked all day before getting home around 5:30 / 6:00 that afternoon.  Nikki and her sister were playing, just like they would have any other day.  She says that her mom was “pissy,” but she didn’t know why or anything, she just knew that her mom was upset.  Stephanie called her sister, Wendy and they talked for around an hour about what she was upset about.  Stephanie had been saving up money for a while to take the girls on a trip to Disney, and they were finally getting to the point where it was going to happen. But, her boyfriend (sometimes they called each other husband / wife, which we will hear on the 911 call), Russell had gotten into a culinary training program in Ithaca, New York.  

Nikki goes on to say that her mom left her father in the mid 80s after Peterson pretty much came in and swept her off her feet.  Well, the years that followed, she wasn’t happy, and tried to go back to Nikki’s dad half a dozen times or so.  But, each time, he was in a relationship and just wasn’t available.  This night though, he had just recently broken up with his girlfriend, and they spent an hour or so talking about her moving back in with both of the girls and the pets… basically getting back together and starting over. They talked for almost two hours and after this conversation, Stephanie called Wendy again.  This time though, Wendy could tell that she was much happier and not angry anymore.  Stephanie didn’t tell her why, because Nikki says that her father and Wendy didn’t get along at all, so Wendy would have probably had something to say about it.  But, Stephanie was just soo excited to be getting out and getting a second chance.  

If you watch the TikTok series that Nikki has put together, she throws in the statistic that we’ve all heard: Women are 70 times more likely to be killed in the two weeks after leaving than at any other time during the relationship.  Stephanie would be killed about 5 hours after making the decision to leave Russell Bennett Peterson. 

Nikki says that she remembers her mom talking on the phone that evening and telling her and her sister to go play in their rooms or outside.  But, eventually, her mom was on the couch, watching TV, just relaxing.  She says that she can’t clearly remember where her sister was but assumes she was already in bed.  It was around 11 PM, and she was going to bed herself.  She came up behind her mom on the couch and put her arms around her and hugged her.  She then says that her mom asked her either if she brushed her teeth or walked the dog and as a kid she was like “of course, yes.” But now she laughs and says that she lied through her teeth and was happy that she got away without having to do whatever she was asked.  That was the last memory she has with her and her mom.  She heard Peterson arrive home around 11:15 PM.  That’s the last thing she remembered before falling asleep. 

The next thing she recalls is flashlights shining in her face and someone telling her to wake up.  It’s three hours later, just shy of 2:00 AM.  

Nikki can’t tell what he was saying or remember it, but he was talking really fast.  Nikki remembered that there were at least three officers around him while he was sitting there, rocking back and forth.  She was taken out of the house and into a police car.  She recalled the “cherries and blueberries” (the flashing lights of police cars) everywhere.  When she got into the car, her little sister was already in there.  As soon as Nikki got into the car, her sister repeated over and over “poppy killed mommy.”  Nikki was telling her no, that her mom was at the friends house like the police said, but her sister is just repeating it. She remembered getting mad at her sister because she didn’t like hearing that.  

Then, the car door opened, and Russell Peterson was put in the car with them.  She said that was when she knew something was wrong, when he got in the car and saw how he looked when he saw her.  She said that she was basically the spitting image of her mom, a 10 year old mini – me version of Stephanie.  He hugged them and whispered things to them like “I’m sorry, I love you, I want to keep the family together…”.  She had no idea what was going on, she just knew that it was bad, something was very very wrong.  They were taken away, and at this point, no one has told Nikki that her mother had passed away.  They were taken to the Sedona Police Department.  Nikki says that he was being weird and her sister was saying fucked up shit and she didn’t know what to do or what happened.  All she could do was sit there and be freaked out.  Then, foster care showed up and took her and her sister.  They were put in a small room with bunk beds and put to bed.  The next few days were basically a blur.  Family started showing up and eventually Nikki was told that yes, her mother had in fact been killed.  Another effffed up detail is that they allowed Peterson, the man who murdered her mom, to be the one to tell her that she was gone.  She would go to live with her father, and her sister would live with Peterson.  

Phone Calls & Evidence

Let’s talk about what Peterson says happened that night, beginning with the 911 call that was placed.  In the longer version, the 911 operator asks if Peterson knows how to do CPR, and he says no.  He’s asked where Stephanie was shot and he says in the neck or chest.  Everything he says, he hesitates, as if he’s thinking about what exactly is the best way to answer.  We’ve talked a million times about how people react to situations differently.  

The story that Peterson tells is that he got home from work, got a shower, then they shared a bottle of wine.  Then, the conversation shifted when she told Peterson that she had been talking with Nikki’s dad. Then they argued about his trip to New York and taking the money.  Peterson told the police that Stephanie then went into the bedroom and got the gun, a Ruger Redhawk .44 magnum revolver.  This is not a small handgun, and it’s heavy.  It’s not the type of gun that someone Stephanie’s size is going to easily grab and maneuver around.  

Peterson told police that she then told him that she was going to shoot him and he put his hands up and said, “Steph, what are we talking about here?”  He claims that she fired a shot which missed, then went into the bedroom where he followed.  A struggle ensued.  He was asked if they were close or far apart, and where the gun was when it went off.  “No, we were not far apart. We were close together. I can’t give you exacts on that. It all happened so fast. I don’t know. I mean, we were there, there was a struggle, next thing I know there was a pop, and she dropped.”  

We know that Peterson didn’t call 911 immediately.  He took the time to put the gun back in the holster and put it in the closet before deciding to bring it back out because “it’s happened, there’s nothing you can do about it at this point.” He put it on the floor.  

Nikki has said that there was no way her mom would have ever grabbed that gun.  Not with her children sleeping just feet away.  The house on Coffee Pot Drive was a 2 bedroom as we mentioned.  Stephanie and Peterson had the master, while Nikki’s younger sister had a bedroom that was nearby.  Nikki’s room was actually a garage that had been converted, which was on the other side of the house, down a couple of steps.  People question how she wasn’t woken up by the struggle, but she was across the house, through a couple closed doors, down some steps.  

The 911 call was placed at 1:40 AM.  But, before that, at 1:36 AM, another call was placed which lasted about a minute.  It was to a number in Glendale, Arizona.  That one minute call was between Peterson and his father, and we don’t know what was discussed.  So, that’s a four minute window that he had to stage the crime scene.  But, the police report states that the altercation started around 1:15 AM, so Nikki’s family believes that he actually had much more time to stage the scene.  

The medical examiner ruled the manner of death to be homicide.  The bullet entered through the left side of her neck.  Stephanie was right handed.  Remember, the gun was not one that she could have easily handled, definitely not with her non-dominant hand.  Gunshot residue was found on Stephanie’s left palm, none on her right hand.  He says that Stephanie had her left hand up, in a defensive position when the shot was fired.  They never checked Peterson’s hands for GSR.  

Investigators simulated the shooting with a .44 magnum gun and someone of similar size and build to Stephanie.  They determined that it would have been extremely difficult.. Damn near impossible for her death to have occurred in the way Peterson described.  

Peterson was interviewed a total of three times, twice fairly quickly after the shooting, then a third time a few weeks later.   At the end of that final interview, the detective confronted him about his lack of cooperation in the investigation.  “I think we’ve been more than understanding with you. You’ve canceled appointments with us. We’ve scheduled appointments with you, OK. I’ve tried calling you, you’ve moved. You promised me you’d give me your phone number as soon as you got a new one, and then you had a phone you just didn’t recall it. You never returned that. We’ve bent over backward to show that it was an accident for you.”  He was never given a polygraph, but he did consent to the search of his home which turned up nothing.  In December of 1993, the Yavapai County Attorney’s Office declined to bring charges against Peterson due to lack of evidence to present to a grand jury, although there were inconsistencies in the suspect’s story.  A letter from the office said that his confusion over the facts could be from the trauma or “wishful thinking.”

Nikki says that she and her sister saw each other at their mom’s funeral, then they didn’t see each other again for six months, when they were allowed to visit at Christmas.  They wouldn’t see one another again until the summer of 1994, when their aunt planned the Disney trip that their mom wanted to take the girls on the previous summer.  

That’s when it hit Nikki that Peterson had spent the year pretty much brainwashing her sister into thinking that their mother killed herself.  Nikki talks about how a few days after her mother’s murder, before custody was given to her father, the courts released her and her sister to Peterson for an afternoon.  He took them on a Pink Jeep Tour, which is a tourist attraction around the area.  It stuck out because they NEVER did anything like that.   On the Jeep tour, he did his best to convince her to tell the courts that she wanted to live with him and “keep the family together.”  

Nikki told her grandmother and aunt about what Peterson was saying and they confronted him.  As a result, he kept her sister from them.  It would be a decade before Nikki and her sister talked, and even to this day to say that their relationship is strained is an understatement.  

Frustratingly, no one has ever been charged in the murder of Stephanie Wasilishin.  Russell Bennett Peterson was initially referred to as a suspect, which was eventually changed to a witness who had information.  

We’re Just Getting Started

Nikki is the third generation of her family to take up the cause of getting the Sedona PD to pay attention to her mom’s case.  She’s following in the footsteps of her grandmother and aunt and has made it her goal to get justice for her mom.  The Sedona PD  has time and time again dropped the ball and failed Stephanie every step along the way.  

 Nikki was in her 20s by the time she was able to try to reconnect with her sister.  She would go visit her and they were working to re-establish their relationship and form a bond together.  In doing so, Nikki also met Diane, the woman that Peterson married after Stephanie was murdered.  They got along well, and eventually Diane told Nikki about conversations she and Peterson had.  Particularly, confessions from him.. She told Nikki that he essentially confessed to the murder, to the fact that he took a shower before he called 911,  he started a load of laundry, he called his father, he staged the crime scene.  She said that this was somewhere between 2003 – 2005.  She didn’t even know what to do with the information.  

But, the rekindling of the relationship didn’t last long, only a few weeks / months before they stopped talking, and it would be another 15 years before they spoke again.  But, again, their relationship didn’t last long.  Nikki says that she doesn’t really know her sister.  She has said that her sister is an angry, hostile person and you can’t blame her because of everything she’s had to go through.  But Nikki also describes herself as angry and says that they clash and but heads.  The last time she heard from her was in July of 2020, when her sister called to tell her that the Sedona PD had just contacted her and asked her to do a confrontation call with her father.  They wanted her involved in the investigation.  

Nikki is the first one to tell you that she had to grow up before she was able to take on her mom’s case.  She says she’s a completely different person now than she was four years ago, after making changes and going through things in her personal life.  Back in 2020, when her sister called, she had nothing to say to her.  She didn’t take the phone call and had her boyfriend relay it to her.  While she didn’t want to talk to her sister, she was excited that there seemed to be movement in her mom’s case.  Her sister gave her the contact info for the detective in the Sedona PD as well.   Unfortunately, when Nikki didn’t talk to her sister, her sister didn’t go forward with the confrontation call with her father. She says that she doesn’t know for sure if her not taking the call was the reason, but she regrets it deeply, but that call was the thing that jump started her personal investigation into her mom’s murder.  

Nikki expected a call from the Sedona PD since they were apparently looking for help from her sister.  But that call never came… She sat on the contact info she had for a couple of months, then sent an email.  She laid out everything she remembered, everything she could think of.  Basically “Thank you for looking into this. I know she was murdered.  I was sleeping when it happened… etc, etc..” She sent the email and got a response fairly quickly from Sgt. Michael Dominguez.  By this time, the case had been transferred to another detective, so Sgt. Dominguez gave her the new detective’s info, but he also told her that she should limit / lower her expectations.  Nikki reached out to the new detective, and received a response from Sgt. Leon at the Sedona Police Dept.  At this point, Nikki had the fire in her belly regarding jumping into her mom’s case.   But the response she got transformed it into a raging inferno.  It was basically “Hi Nicole.  I’ve been meaning to reach out to you and I’m glad that you did…. I did have some questions for you, but you’ve already answered them.  You were sleeping and you don’t remember.” 

Nikki responded to her that she wanted copies of everything.  Case files, everything they had, she wanted.  She was taking it on, she was going to take it nationwide and do whatever it took to get justice for her mom.  The Sgt replied with the county records contact info and told her that if this is what she needed for closure, good luck…. 

The Letter

In March of 2022, they received a letter at Wendy’s house, from the Sedona Police Department.  We will let Nikki talk a little bit about the letter before reading it in full.  When Nikki talked to a detective earlier and got the response of basically “You were asleep, you don’t know anything,” the fire in her belly was burning bright, but this new letter… set her on fire even more.  She was ready for WAR.

The letter: 

“This letter is to address the status of case #930004944.

The current status of this case is inactive.  This means the case will only be accessed when new viable information, evidence, or leads are reported.  Periodic reviews of the case will be made by the assigned investigator to review any new evidence or leads. 

Many police officers and detectives have investigated this case since 1993.  After completion of the initial investigation, the case was submitted in consideration of filing charges, and the Yavapai County Attorney’s Office declined prosecution.  There is not another charging body or agency that has the authority to bring charges in the case.  Jurisdiction for charging remains with the Yavapai County Attorney’s Office. 

Re-investigations into this case have been made during which leads have been tracked down to include interviews and attempts to contact a suspect.  During this latest re-investigation effort, the suspect was not able to be contacted in person or by electronic means.  Please know, any contact with a suspect by law enforcement at this point must be consensual, and the suspect cannot be forced to speak, or answer questions, should they choose to decline the opportunity for an interview. 

Attempts to intimidate and harass police personnel involved in this investigation, including sworn, non-sworn, legal, or clerical personnel, cannot be tolerated.  The level of repeated demands as well as on-line attacks of police personnel on their private social media pages is inappropriate and could rise to the level of harassment. 

Requests for material related to this case are in progress through our records department and will be available as soon as possible.  We are dealing with old technology and are working diligently to provide an accurate, complete case file. 

Lt. Karl Waak”

Around this same time, Justin Lum, a reporter with their local Fox Affiliate, Fox 10 Phoenix, reached out to cover the story.  They produced a 15 minute segment  that would air in June of 2022.  Nikki described that airing as the Superbowl for her family.  They were all gathered around and were so excited that the mainstream media was finally covering it.  Remember Ashley Perez, the ABC Affiliate who had reached out?  After only a couple of months of talking back and forth, she stopped responding to Nikki’s messages and ghosted her.  She never released anything about Stephanie’s case.  

So, that just fuels the fire more for the family and Nikki.  They now have a legitimate investigative journalist backing up their claims; it’s not just a family speaking out anymore.  Nikki says that she thinks this is it, it’s all going to pop off from this.  They put together a big packet of documents and questions and send it to the Sedona PD after the Fox segment aired.  And their response… 

Crickets…. Nothing. 

So, Nikki went back to what she had seen work.  Back to TikTok and the true crime community.  There are smaller true crime content creators that reach out and do small segments here and there, but then she heard from the Mombies podcast.  They covered Stephanie’s case and released the episode in September of 2022.  But, for basically the rest of 2022, there is just no traction on the case, outside of the Fox segment and the Mombies podcast.  

2023 rolls around and Nikki writes her annual letter to the Sedona PD.  Basically a check in, “hey, how ya doin, I’m still here and I’m still coming for ya.” Shockingly… they didn’t send her a response. 

In January, Nikki reached out to the Sedona City Council, laying everything out.  She got a response from the Vice Mayor saying that basically her family had a chance to talk and didn’t take the opportunity, so there wasn’t anything to be done.  Nikki was like… naaaaah, and responded telling them that was incorrect and she wanted to talk with the police or anyone who would actually listen. She said that she hasn’t been interviewed in over 30 years, and she wanted to be heard.  The fourth week in January, Nikki, her aunt, and a cousin went to Sedona PD for the sit down they wanted. 

Nikki says that throughout the meeting it was just finger pointing to the Attorney’s Office for not filing charges.  Then the Attorney’s Office points back at the police.  They were just wanting to get the heat off of themselves.  As Nikki stated, she told them about the confession from Peterson’s wife, and they told her it was hearsay, and nothing could be done with it.  To this day, she doesn’t know if anyone has investigated it.  

Nikki talks about how her father was interviewed just once, over the phone thirty years ago, and that the interviewer was hostile and questioned how he could know things he was saying.  He told them the story of how they were preparing for Stephanie and the girls to move out and leave Peterson, but they never questioned him further about anything.  In Feb of 2023, an investigator went to talk to him in person, and Nikki says that afterwards, her dad just didn’t seem the same.  He doesn’t really talk about it, but she feels like they pretty much just showed up to pour cold water over everything and move on.  

After Nikki had the interview with Sedona PD, the next day she went to TikTok… and her account was banned.  She talks about it and says that when she first started, she didn’t know all the rules and what it meant when you got a strike against your account or anything, but basically that account was gone.  But it was a blessing in disguise.  When you have community strikes and things like that, it is much harder for your videos to appear on people’s “For You Pages” and the TikTok algorithm doesn’t really push your videos.  So she started a new account, with more knowledge about what can and can’t be done. So in March of 2023, she had a video go viral, for like 200K views.  With those views came many new followers, and also more podcasts wanting to cover the story.  Too many to name… She lists them all off on her account, and she is genuinely grateful for any and everyone who helps spread her mom’s case.  A sense of relief starts to wash over as people are starting to hear about her mom.

For the rest of 2023, Nikki says there isn’t much to report.  Her new TikTok account quickly gained more followers than her original one, but plateaued around 50 – 55K.  There were changes in her personal life though, which probably took a lot of her attention.  She went through a breakup, a move, and a job switch, so lots happening on that side of things. 

Nikki talks about how her mom visits her in the one o’clock hour.  Stephanie was killed in the 1 o’clock hour, and Nikki often has trouble sleeping or gets inspiration around that time.  In December of 2023, she woke up one night / morning and had an idea for a TikTok, just a quick 30 second thing set to “Carol Of The Bells” from Home Alone, in which she just recounts the different podcasts that had covered her mom’s case up to that point.  And it hit… it sits at around 2.6 Million views today, and with that video, a whole new wave of interest about Stephanie’s case came in.  A few weeks after that, another video went viral, sitting at around 12 million views.

At one point, Nikki heard from a documentary filmmaker about making something about her mom’s case.  She had sent the production company the case file and pretty much everything she had.  They had progressed to the point that she was going to fly out to film parts for the documentary.  3 days before she’s set to fly out, a second production company contacts her and asks if she’s under contract with the first, and she never signed anything or was told it was an exclusivity thing, so she told them no and they wanted to do some kind of episodic, TV series.  She talked to the first filmmaker and he told her that it was exclusive and she had to choose him or them.  Then she tried to message and call him, but he didn’t answer or message back until the next day.  The way he responded to her initially turned her off, so she’s moving forward with the other company for something around her mom’s case.  She’s met with them, but at this point can’t disclose any further information. 

So, Nikki and her Aunt have been working on this for years. By this point, they essentially have a 25 page packet made that is ready to be sent out to any agency they can think of.  They’ve sent it to the Yavapai County Attorney’s Office and all three of the Arizona Attorney General’s offices.  The A.G.’s office told them to send the packet to the Department of Justice.  In the summer of 2022, Nikki sent it off and they responded by sending an FBI agent to talk with them. The agent asked what they wanted him to do for them, like, point me in a direction. They told him that they wanted the Sedona PD to actually listen to them and talk with them.  So the agent went and talked with them. He asked them if they needed assistance on the case. Like… Duh, this is the FBI, they have the ability and resources to solve this.  Sedona PD rejected any and all assistance from the FBI. Because the FBI is federal, they can’t just show up and take over the case.  Nikki and her family were heartbroken.   

Let’s talk about the Red Rock News Articles (linked below).  The Red Rock News released two articles in which they spoke with Michael Dominguez, who was one of the detectives on the case in 2020.  When they wrote and released these articles, they only spoke with the police.  They didn’t bother to reach out to the family to get any type of statement or comment on what Dominguez was saying.  Dominguez says that the family doesn’t accept the fact that it was a suicide… Which is like out of nowhere.  The autopsy report states homicide.  Even on Peterson’s 911 call he doesn’t say suicide, because he doesnt’ know.  Nikki’s family raised hell about the Red Rock News articles, which was ultimately what got Dominguez reassigned from the case.  Remember the Detective who told Nikki to lower or monitor her expectations when she was emailing originally, that’s this guy.  Nikki goes over both of these articles on her channel, and points out all the discrepancies and wrong statements made throughout.  There are sooo many, it’s mind boggling. 

A little more about the Sedona Police Department….  Nikki’s aunt told her for the longest time, Sedona didn’t have their own police department because it was so small.  It was policed by the Verde Valley police up until 1989, when it was large enough to justify its own police force.  Stephanie was murdered in 1993.  The police dept was 4 years old at the time.  It was a small community, and this was very likely one of their first, if not the first murder investigation they performed.  Nikki and her family firmly believe that the Sedona PD botched this from the start.  Be it from lack of experience or anything else, the ball was dropped and no one picked it up.

So, we’ve gone over A TON of information in this episode.  Nikki is an open book when it comes to her mom’s case.  They’ve written to everyone they can think of.  The only thing that gets Sedona PDs attention is when something blows up on social media.  GO TO HER TIKTOK (nicolewasilishin726) AND WATCH THE SERIES, give her a follow, share everything you can.  She is constantly posting videos and updates on there.  She’s trying to get money together to hire a lawyer to look at her mom’s case and help get it re-opened.  Nikki is also selling a t-shirt to help raise money to find and pay for a lawyer as well.  If you’re so inclined, buy one by messaging her to help support her.  She’s also set up a Change.org petition requesting that a complete investigation for Stephanie’s murder take place.  

Nikki and her family want everyone to know how the Sedona PD is just not working with them.  They’re treating the victims’ family like suspects.  It took them 29 years to even get the 911 call.  Almost three years into her personal investigation, she still doesn’t have a complete case file.  At almost every turn, they have shown they are unwilling to work with the family to try to solve Stephanie’s case.  Nikki says that working with them has been difficult at best and wants everyone to know how they’ve turned down help from the FBI. She feels very strongly that they won’t accept help from anyone because they are going to find misconduct on the force and it will blow back on them.  She’s upset that her mom was murdered, obviously, but at this point she’s just as upset with how her mom has been failed over and over again. 

Here’s a little fun fact, not long ago, Nikki logged onto Facebook to a friend request from… Russell Bennett Peterson.  Through various people, she knows that he’s seen the videos and everything she’s doing.  He knows she’s coming for him, but time is running out.  She learned that he has been diagnosed with cancer.  Nikki feels the pressure has been turned up to try to get him in a courtroom.  She’s heard from some that he’s on death’s doorstep and from others that he’s going through chemo.  Initially she was unhappy and felt like she was going to be robbed of justice, but then she reframed it in her mind.  Even if she doesn’t get him in court, she knows she spent the last few years spreading the truth, and hopefully making his life miserable.  She’s not going to stop just because he’s sick, it’s going to make her come at him harder and faster than ever.