The Victim's Final Audio Recording

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With Pure' summer fragrance collection, you can Store your sense of place Bring in the moments set toine your summer right into your home exactly the way you remember them. Clean fragrances, smart control. all from your phone Visit pure. com to shop the summer collllection. Introducing the tootal Solutions advantage only from Comcast businessusiness. It's the largest fastest fiber powered network for small business, gig speeds with equipment and security included, and a five year price lock No one does business like Ccast business Which today Get started for sixty dollars a month for twelve months when you add an advanced solution to a qualifying internet package. Limited time offer. restestrictions apply. newew customers only, requires three hundred megab per second internet, securityedge and additionalifying service, one year agreement, paperless billing and autoay with bank account requred. tax and fees extra A popular high school teacher was found dead of a gunshot wound. Investigators believed it was an accident. january twenty n, But an audio tape recorded by the victim just three days before his death raised serious questions that required answers Historic Durham, North Carolina is both a big city and a small town best known as the home of Duke University and its world famous medical center But it is also a close knit southern community where families stay for generations At Durham High School, Russell Steager was a popular baseball coach and driver's education teacher. A man respected by faculty and students alike. Jennifer Joyer was one of Rus Steager's students. All the kids who needed advice or needed someone to talk with about their problems. Coach Steager, his door was always open and Ary He just meant a lot to the kids there. After college, Rus Steagger married his high school sweetheart Joel Ly Russ was a very Channel Compassionate cararing full of life human being. He embraced life He had a very tender heart Unfortunately Stager wasn't as successful in his personal life as he was in his professional life After four years of marriage, Russ and Joel Lnn divorced Less than a year later, Russ married a thirty one year old widow, Barbara Ford. He adopted her two sons, Brian and Jason. He took in Barbara's sons as his own They love them He cared for them and treated them like they were his own sons Barbara worked as a secretary at Duke University Medical Center Russ continued to teach and coach. He worked weekends in the National Guard. with his new wife Barbara, taught Sunday school in their church By all outward appearances, Russ and Barbara Steager lived a storybook life But all that changed in the early morning hours of february first, nineteen eighty eight Just as the night shift was ending Police got an emergency call of a shooting at the Steager home Rus Steager was found sprawled on his bed with a bullet wound to the back of his head He died three hours later in the hospital She kept saying, she kept making the comment. I kept telling him about those damn guns. I kept telling him about those damn guns Barbara Steager said that Russ slept with a twenty five caliber pistol under his pillow because of some recent burglaries in the neighborhood Just before dawn Barbara said she was awakened when one of her sons went into the bathroom Barbara was worried that Russ might mistake her son for a prowler So she tried to remove the pistol from underneath Russ's pillow When she did, the gun accidentally fired, shooting Russ in the back of the head The death was ruled an accidental shooting When I first heard it, I couldn't believe it. I was like, No, not cooach Staker. He was a great coach in everything. When he it the news, I felt sorry in my heart. History had unfortunately repeated itself. In a bizarre coincidence, Barbara's first husband had died in a shooting accident too He was cleaning his twenty five caliber pistol when it accidentally went off, shooting himself in the chest Barbara Staker was now a widow once more because a shooting missap A few hours after Rus Steager's death, detective Rick Buchanan went to the Steager home to ask some routine questions. When he got there, Barbara Steager's father was removing the bloody sheets, pillow, and bedspread Since the death had been ruled accidental, the beddting was not considered evidence It was Buchanan's first interview with Barbara Steager. She was a little withdrawn perhaps, but she was not overly friendly. She was not B who went all the way through the interview Barbara Steagger repeated her account of her husband's death, saying the gun went off accidentally as she pulled it from under her husband's pillow. She told Buchanan that her nine years of marriage to Russ had been happy, that he was a great father to her two young boys Something wasn't right. I couldn't put my finger around it. I didn't know exactly what it was But it still wasn't enough to indicate anything other than an accidental shooting. The news of Rus Steager's death was particularly troubling to his first wife, Jo Lynn My reaction was it was no accident. and that's what I said to my parents And I remember my dad said, you can't know that it was no accident. You can suspect, but you can't know. And I said, No, I know that it was no accident. Joe Lynn wrote a letter to police because Russ often confided in her Russ told her that Barbara removed large sums of money from their bank account And that he suspected Barbara was having sexual affairs with other men He had once caught her kissing another man in a parking lot When investigators looked into Barbara Steager's background They learned some surprising information about her first marriage her first husband had died in bed and was killed at the business end of a twenty five caliber pistol And so now we have a lady who's had two husbands killed in bed with a twenty five caliber gun. And on both occasions, she was present Barbara's first husband, Larry Ford, had been cleaning his twenty five caliber pistol when it accidentally discharged, shooting him in the chest Although the death of Larry Ford had been ruled an accident, his family vigorously fought to have the case investigated as a possible murder the ruling was never changed Barbara inherited Larry Ford's entire estate and suspicions remained Investigators now had another suspicious death and more questions about the same woman. I desperately wanted to know that truth I wanted a full blown investigation If it was accidental, I wanted that to be known But if it was not accidental, as I so suspected I wanted that to come out too Nine percent of what we do It's common sense. and then we apply the other ten percent to law And if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, by God, it's going be a duck Was it possible Barbara Steager was not unlucky at all was in fact A serial killer Hi, this is Brooke DeVard from Naked Beauty. I am always looking for ways to elevate our daily rituals, and the Kohler smmart toilet is proof that design changes everything. It's this stunning sculptural piece that feels like quiet luxury for your bathroom It totally transforms your daily ritual into something elevated with customizable cleansing and touchs screen controls. It's functional art that makes your space feel cleaner and more intentional. 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Mail and ship when you want, how you want with stamps dot comot Print postage on demand twenty four seven and schedule pickups from your office or home, save up to ninety percent with automated rate shopping. That's why over one million small businesses trust stamps dot com d Go to stamps dot com and use code podcast to try stamps dot com risk free for sixty days The Barbara Stigger's first husband, Larry Ford, by an accidental self inflicted gunshot wound to the chest, had officially been declared an accident And after ten years, the case had long been forgotten shortly before his death clearly been on the mind of Russ Steaker, Barbara's second husband Russ Steager told his ex wife, Joel Lynn that he feared for his own life. He also knew that her first husband had died under somewhat mysterious circumstances. And so when he put all of that together, I think he He was a little concerned for his safety, but it mostly he felt paranoid According to Bara Stager The gun under her husband's pillow, had gone off accidentally as she tried to remove it Bara said the gun had a hair trigger and that she had barely touched it before it went off Firearms expert Eugene Bishop performed what's known as a trigger pull test on the gun Weights are attached to the trigger in one pound increments to measure the force required to pull the trigger The gun had a four pound trigger pull whichich is no hair trigger Dliberate force. would be required to fire the gun Contradiction of Barbara Stager's story in the autopsy. Medical investigators discovered another discrepancy The trajectory of the fatal bullet was not consistent with Barbara Stagger's account. The bullet struck Rus Steager's head in a downward angle. Bob recclaimed The gun fired as she pulled it from under the pillow which would have sent the bullet in an upward trajectory the angle of the trajectory. would indicate that she was above and behind Rush when when the shot was fired So it was all toppe was inconsistent with the story she was telling The spent shell casing was found just inches from the gun near Rus Steagger's head Eugene Bishop test fired the pistol and found that it ejected shell casings to the right and rear of the shooter, which meant If Barbara's version was correct shell casing should have been found somewhere in the middle of the bed When any firearm is discharged, dust, oil and gunpowder are expelled from the barrel Barbara's version was correct Powder burns would have been present on the sheets. The sheets had been removed by Barbara's father immediately after the shooting and had been laundered. Powder residue can be identified Even after fabrics have been washed. When the sheets were examined Scientists found no evidence of gunpowder residue With all of these contradictions Detective Rick Buchanan asked Barbara Steager to demonstrate on videootape what happened on the morning of the accident No, I'm standing face to face with a killer. I know it, but she don't know I know it with the detective playing the part of Rus Steger Barbara Steager recreates her version of the story. And I don't know how it was in my hand. I have no idea if I touched I don't know. I don't know. And almost immediately. She realizes there are inconsistencies Well, what minute that one' quite honest Okay And then I start getting up. okay, that's how it was. I start getting up with it in my hand, but I don't know how I had it in my hand Okay. But she's repositioning the body in the bed with her trying to make it fit her story And she can't do it. There was no doubt at all that she intentionally shot and killed Rus Bager. No doubt Whatsoever. Police also doubted that Russ Steager, a member of the United States National Guard with weapons training, would have placed a loaded pistol under his pillow with the safety turned off and cocked with a round already in the chamber This, along with Barbara Steager's videotape recreation, was enough to convince investigators that Russ Steager's death was no accident But investigators were not prepared for the next clue in the case A message from the victim himself. This is Rus Steager. This is january twenty ninth, nineteen eighty eight. Best thing that's ever happened to you financially. Go. Easy. Sold my car on Carvana. Amazing offer. Really? I hit two hundred on the scratcher. Did the scratcher come to your house and hand you a check? No. How many scratchers did you hit to get that? I hit a button on carvana d. com Once Okay, that's fair. It's like the lottery, except you always win. Not like the lottery at all, actually. Exactly inexplicably good. Offers worth bragging about. 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