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Possible break in decade-old murder case as DNA not belonging to Dermonds found on evidence, sheriff says

Sheriff Howard Sills said he's received word from a DNA testing lab that DNA not belonging to the Dermonds was found on evidence.

PUTNAM COUNTY, Georgia — DNA testing is possibly offering a fresh break in the decade-old murder case of Russell and Shirley Dermond, who were brutally killed nearly 10 years ago at their home in Putnam County.

In May 2014, homicide detectives were called to investigate the murder of Russell and Shirley Dermond. Russell, 88, was found decapitated inside of his garage. Ten days later, a pair of fishermen found Shirley, 87, dead near a Lake Oconee dam about five miles from their Eatonton lakefront home.

Authorities said her remains were found in the water, with two red cinder blocks tied around her ankles, in an effort to weigh her down.

RELATED: Sheriff: Private lab finds DNA in Dermond murders, 9-year-old cold case

No suspect has ever been pinpointed in the case. But investigators may be able to hope for a new lead in the case thanks to DNA testing.

Putnam Sheriff Howard Sills told 11Alive's sister station in Macon, WMAZ, last year that there had been a "DNA hit" from evidence in the case. On Wednesday he spoke to 11Alive's Cody Alcorn and said he'd been told by one of the labs doing testing that they've now found DNA they can confirm doesn't belong to either Russell or Shirley Dermond.

"Over the last couple of years we have taken articles of potential evidence, things that we've had since these crimes occurred," to labs outside of Houston and Salt Lake City, the sheriff said. "These laboratories have found DNA on these articles and yesterday I got a call from one of the labs, informed me they had located DNA or found DNA on some of the things we took to Utah that did not come from Shirley or Russell Dermond."

That could offer a potential major break in the case, if the DNA can lead back to a suspect. Sills said right now the lab is looking for more DNA to "hopefully get enough to where it can be submitted" to criminal DNA databases. Sills noted they can't yet entirely rule out the DNA may belong to a law enforcement officer, investigator, state crime lab technician or someone else who has been involved in the case over the years.

"Unless it's something like that," he said of the DNA possibly belonging to an investigator or lab technician, "it's probably gonna be whoever perpetrated these murders, or at least somebody who was a party to the crime."

He added, "I consider it promising, you know what I'm saying, that we may get to that point" of identifying a suspect through an eventual DNA match.

"These people committed a heinous crime, depraved act. They need to be caught," he said. "They may well do it again, ay already have done something again, so the public deserves whoever did this to be apprehended, prosecuted and put away where it can't happen again."

Sills has said in the past he believes the killer or killers likely knew the couple, who left behind a daughter, two sons and nine grandchildren. He's noted before there were no signs of forced entry or resistance at the crime scenes, and called the murders the most frustrating homicide in his career. 

Nearly a decade later, he has not given up on the murder investigation that has shaken the neighborhood that surrounds Lake Oconee. 

"That's the only purpose of any law enforcement officer," he said, "is to protect the public."

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