Suicide or murder? The fate of Russ Stager

In several episodes of Forensic Files, the victim’s spouse has events in their background that are questionable at best and suspicious at their worst. Barbara Ford’s ex-husband’s demise was one of these ‘red flag’ items. Larry Ford was “accidentally” shot in the chest while cleaning a .25 caliber pistol in bed. Despite Larry’s family’s vigorous requests to have their son’s case investigated as a homicide, it remained merely an accident. Of course, hindsight is 20-20, so when Russ was also killed “accidentally” in bed with a .25 caliber pistol, it’s easy to point a finger to Barbara’s past. But it’s curious why the Russ Stager shooting was so quickly deemed an accident before investigators could spend time analyzing the scene and help make that determination. Instead, Barbara and her father were allowed to destroy evidence of what turned out to be an egregious crime, instead of allowing the properly trained people help make this determination. The circumstances of Larry Ford’s death should have been considered before chalking up these shockingly similar events as mere coincidence.

Russ’s ex-wife JoLynn was an interesting character in the episode. She and Russ seemed to have maintained a close relationship after their divorce. It was indicated that Russ had confided in JoLynn regarding the suspicion he’d had about Larry’s “accidental” shooting. It was with JoLynn that Russ also shared the knowledge of Barbara’s moving large sums of money out of their account, and of her infidelity. To me, JoLynn seemed genuine and felt sincere remorse for Russ’s death.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Barbara’s attempt to demonstrate the events of that early, fateful morning was laughable. Trying to position herself and the detective playing Russ clearly indicated she was trying to make the circumstances align with the story she’d told investigators. In every case, the gun’s position when it “accidentally” fired due to its “hair trigger” was not nearly high enough to align with the bullet’s trajectory at the point of entry. And I laughed a little thinking about that detective lying in the bed, facing away from her while his gun was holstered on his right side – I’d have feared she might panic and grab it!

And how chilling was the victim’s audio tape? There’s nothing like the deceased victim himself sharing his fears of being killed by the perpetrator recorded just three days before the murder to help clinch a guilty verdict at trial. It was interesting to think how it was found, by a student while cleaning out a locker. The episode included a handwriting analyst to detect Barbara’s forgeries of Russ’s signatures on bank loans and a life insurance policy, but it didn’t mention a voice analyst to confirm Russ had recorded the audio tape. But it also implied that it wasn’t needed; apparently it was obvious the tape had been made by Russ and no one else. I wondered what the “aspirin” Barbara had attempted to get Russ to take really were? And if they were dangerous enough to kill him, where did she get them? If he only pretended to take them, couldn’t he have saved them and had them examined? Maybe he did, but he didn’t have time since he died only days later. Maybe they were barbiturates in an attempt to make him docile enough to suffocate. I guess only Barbara herself will ever know.