A Kentucky pediatrician accused of plotting her ex-husband’s murder sought spiritualists to place a “death spell” on him, in accordance with courtroom paperwork.
Dr. Stephanie Russell allegedly confided in nurses at her workplace, Kidzlife Pediatrics in Louisville, that she needed her ex-husband useless and requested them for help hiring a hitman to get the job executed, however one of many nurses alerted the FBI to her scheming.
“In March 2022, Ms. Russell reached out to self-described spiritualists for help, asking (with all credulity) for a ‘death spell’ on her ex-husband and texting, ‘He is molesting my child,’” Russell’s attorneys mentioned in courtroom paperwork filed final month.
“Looking for a death spell,” Russell wrote in a single WhatsApp message to an alleged healer.
Dr. Stephanie Russell was booked into the Oldham County Jail in La Grange, jail data present. (Oldham County Jail )
The healer later informed Russell that her “death success” is 85%, including: “100% guarantee or money back.”
In a message to a different alleged healer, Russell asks if the healer makes use of “Quimbana” or “Voodoo.”
KENTUCKY PEDIATRICIAN ARRESTED IN ALLEGED MURDER FOR HIRE PLOT TO HAVE HITMAN KILL EX-HUSBAND
“I had a meeting with a Brazilian woman,” the defendant wrote in one other message. “She said I would find someone who would believe me and help me.”
One alleged religious healer provided Dr. Stephanie Russell a “100% guarantee or money back” on a “death spell.” (Western District of Kentucky)
Federal prosecutors allege that Russell thought her ex-husband, who had lately been granted full custody of their kids, was abusing them. Louisville police looked into Russell’s allegations of kid abuse however finally discovered them to be unsubstantiated and dropped the investigation.
That is when Russell allegedly turned to her colleagues for assist, and considered one of them put her in contact with an undercover FBI agent purporting to be a hitman.
“Consistent with all this, a chief part of Ms. Russell’s conversations with the undercover agent / pretend hitman in May 2022 was her certainty that her ex-husband was hurting her children. ‘He has been molesting my little boy,’ Ms. Russell told him, ‘[h]e’s been molesting him since he was two and a half.’ ‘He’s got early onset dementia that nobody f—–g cares about,’ she added in a later conversation,” the courtroom paperwork state.
Kentucky pediatrician Stephanie Russell allegedly sought religious healers to carry out a “death spell” on her ex-husband. (Western District of Kentucky)
Russell’s attorneys are actually arguing that the defendant was not in a sound mind-set when she allegedly reached out to the spy to kill her husband and make it appear to be a suicide for $7,000. She is accused of placing half that quantity in an envelope in a drop field exterior a medical workplace for the spy.
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“So I’m a really nice person, I tell the truth, this is not something that I do,” she informed the spy in a telephone name, in accordance with a transcript. “I mean, I have made peace with this a long time ago. I mean literally I have prayed every day to God, the spirits, the everything, like could I do some voodoo, where’s the pin, where’s the doll, can I push a tree over on him.”
Her attorneys are asking the courtroom to permit testimony from protection forensic psychiatrist Dr. Walter Butler, who says Russell “‘deteriorated to the point of a delusional psychosis under increasing intensities of stress and distress related to a very contentious custody battle.'”
Dr. Stephanie Russell allegedly reached out to an undercover FBI agent purporting to a hitman for assist killing her ex-husband. (Western District of Kentucky)
“By the time Ms. Russell engaged in the actions alleged in the indictment, Dr. Butler observes, she had ‘regressed into a kind of psychotic ’road rage state of mind,”‘ her attorneys mentioned.
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Butler additional argues that Russell “‘became profoundly delusional and obsessively fixated’ when dealing with issues related to her children’s welfare,” and “her behavior became singularly focused and obsessively goal directed in compelling that she protect her children at all costs.”
Employees on the Pediatric Forensic Medication company decided that Russell was exhibiting indicators of Munchausen syndrome by proxy along with her allegations of abuse.
Russell’s ex filed for divorce in 2018, and it was finalized in 2020, in accordance with native information outlet WDRB. The defendant is due in courtroom in April.
