Mother's Murder: A Daughter's Fight for Justice

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Gunshots echo through a quiet Sedona night in July 1993, forever changing the lives of two young sisters. Ten-year-old Nikki goes to bed after hugging her mother goodnight, unaware it would be their final embrace. Hours later, she wakes to police flashlights in her face, the beginning of a three-decade nightmare seeking justice for her murdered mother.

Stephanie Wasilishan was a 32-year-old pastry chef and mother of two who had finally made the decision to leave her abusive relationship with boyfriend Russell Peterson. After a lengthy phone call with her ex-partner making plans to move out, Stephanie was shot in the neck and killed. What followed was a series of bewildering decisions by law enforcement that allowed a killer to walk free despite overwhelming evidence.

The story unfolds like a true crime nightmare - a suspicious 911 call where Russell can't decide who shot Stephanie, a three-year-old witness repeatedly telling police "Poppy killed Mommy," forensic evidence showing Stephanie couldn't have shot herself, and Russell's own admission of staging the crime scene before calling for help. Even the medical examiner ruled it a homicide. Yet inexplicably, the case was never brought before a grand jury.

Most heartbreaking is what happened afterward - Russell separating the sisters, convincing the younger daughter her mother committed suicide, and a family fractured by tragedy and injustice. Years later, his second wife revealed shocking confessions he made about that night, yet still no justice came.

Today, Nikki refuses to let her mother's story fade into obscurity. Through social media and relentless advocacy, she fights to reopen the case that robbed her of her mother and her childhood. Her courage reminds us that behind every unsolved case is a family still searching for answers, still hoping that truth will eventually prevail against time and indifference.

Follow Nikki's fight for justice through the links in our show notes and share her story. Sometimes all it takes is getting the right information to the right person to finally bring three decades of injustice to an end.

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