UPDATE: Fred Russell has been captured!

[Cain]

Fred Russell, the man suspected of killing 3 people in Pullman, Washington by vehicular homicide in 2001, has been captured in Ireland sometime on Sunday. Here's a link to the story from the Seattle Times website:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...russell24.html

Here's the link to the story about this guy to refresh your memory:

http://www.unsolved.com/0218-Russell.html

Glad to see this guy has been caught.

C

[crystaldawn]

Great news!! Thanks for the update Cain.

[Kane]

I too am glad that he has finally been caught. He should never have been released on bail.

I had no doubt that he would be caught. I didn't know exactly when his capture would happen, but I suspected that he was not going to be on the run for over a decade. And thank god my suspicion was right.

[Awsi Dooger]

Thanks Cain for that update. And I agree with Kane that this guy should never have been released on bail. As someone who drives cross country and back every summer, I see the ravages of aggressive drivers all the time. Very frequently they cause accidents and have no idea it happened, since they're so self-absorbed and tunnel-visioned. I'd throw the book at clowns like this, especially after causing fatalities.

I was struck by paragraphs at the end of the Seattle link. Hard to believe so many people tried to help this jerk:

"Russell left other casualties besides those in the wrecked car.

In July 2004, former University of West Florida criminal justice professor Bernadette Olson was sentenced to six months in federal prison and three years of supervised release for helping Russell flee. Olson, a family friend, pleaded guilty to a charge that she lied to federal investigators.

She was a graduate student at WSU when she drove Russell from Pullman to the airport in Calgary, Alberta, on Oct. 23, 2001.

In December 2001, a friend of Russell was charged with witness tampering, accused of trying to get a bartender who had served Russell to change his story about how much the defendant drank."

It's funny, I've traveled extensively including several continents. Many times I've wondered where I'd flee if I were on the run. Ireland is always atop the list. Not just due to family heritage, and English speaking. It's a gorgeous country with friendly people and plenty of open land to get lost. Hey Fred, you genius, you should have tried to blend in at Connemara amongst all the sheep. Dublin is the one place I would have rejected immediately.

[PrettyinPink55]

Wow! Thanks so much for the update!!!

[MetalHybrid]

Great to hear that! Now let us hope he gets a fair trail so that his whole claim about fleeing from vigilanties and lynch mobs who wouldn't let him have one will go right out the window. He's a guilty fugitive, as evidence clearly shows, who ran from prosecution, not some innocent victim of public rage who fled vindictive lynch mobs.

And both UM and AMW were right. He lacked street smarts and was getting by with the aide of others. Not others who were the kinds you'd expect(i.e. organized crime figures)but from people you'd never expect, like a criminal justice professor. Ironic and appauling.

[Composite Sketch]

Of course, he'd have to be found in Ireland. Everyone should have figured as much, looking at him.

[crystaldawn]

He was also recently charged with 3 additional felonies:

New charges for Fred Russell
Ex-fugitive accused in fatal crash faces three more felonies


Fred Russell, 27, the former Washington State University student who fled charges in three drunken driving deaths, leaves a Colfax courtroom after being charged with three additional felony offenses on Monday. (DAN PELLE The Spokesman-Review )


Related stories
Fred Russell



Shawn Vestal
Staff writer
November 14, 2006


COLFAX – Karen Overacker feared she might never actually see Fred Russell.

She'd seen his picture, of course. Russell is accused of causing the drunken-driving accident that killed her son and two other Washington State University students in June 2001. But it wasn't until Monday afternoon – after Russell had disappeared for four years, and after another year of extradition battles in Irish courts – that Overacker finally laid eyes on him.

"I did feel that maybe they would never find him," said Overacker, of Wapato. "I was thinking hard about how I was going to handle it if he never came back."

Overacker was one of several victims' relatives present in Whitman County Superior Court for Russell's first public appearance here since he fled five years ago.

In a brief hearing before Judge David Frazier, Russell was charged with three new felonies – counts of forgery and theft for allegedly forging and cashing a check on his father's account in 2001, and a single count of bail jumping. He had previously been charged with vehicular manslaughter and vehicular assault.

On Monday, Russell pleaded not guilty to the charges of forgery and theft, but he won't be arraigned on the bail-jumping charge until Dec. 1. That charge may be dropped as part of the extradition agreement. His attorney, Francisco Duarte, told the judge he didn't want to raise the issue of bail Monday, so Russell will remain in the Whitman County Jail until his next hearing.

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Russell, 27, wore a blue sports coat and red tie, and said little during the hearing apart from entering his pleas.

Prosecutors say he was drunk, driving 90 mph and attempting to pass other cars on June 4, 2001, as he returned from an Idaho bar on the Moscow-Pullman highway. Russell crashed into three other cars, killing three students and injuring four people.

Killed in the crash were Overacker's son, Brandon Clements, 22; Stacy G. Morrow, 21; and Ryan Sorensen, also 21.

According to the charges, Russell registered a 0.12 blood-alcohol level after the accident, above the legal limit of .08. Russell was charged with three counts each of vehicular manslaughter and vehicular assault. He pleaded not guilty and was released on $5,000 bail – far below the prosecutors' request of $100,000.

In October of 2001, prosecutors say, he persuaded a friend to drive him to Canada, where he flew to Europe and eventually settled in Dublin, Ireland, under an assumed name. Irish police arrested him in October 2005 after receiving a tip.

Russell spent the last year fighting extradition – a legal battle with uncertain prospects, given the fact that Ireland has routinely refused to turn over alleged criminals to the United States. He lost that battle last week, however, and left Ireland for the jail in Colfax on Friday.

Monday's hearing was brief and largely procedural. Frazier read Russell his constitutional rights, noting that even though he'd heard that recitation in 2001, there were new charges and "it's been several years, Mr. Russell."

[LooksLikeCRicci]

Cool. I remember seeing this case profiled, but I didn't realize it had been updated. I had friends attending Washington State during this time... it was a bunch of crap if you ask me that he was given bail. I know I'm new to the legal profession, but I still don't understand how judges can grant bail to someone when it's an almost certainty that they are going to be a flight risk. I've seen it happen 6-8 times in the 6 months I've been lurking around the courtrooms... It doesn't make sense.

[Janel "Jaycee" Miller]

Bumping, is the Mr. Russell in this link below the same one who is Frederick's father? Towards the bottom there is a reference to Washington State.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/...d-rape-charges

[tsaun]

Yes that's him:

Previously Russell was the director of the criminal justice department at WSU when his son Fred drove drunk and caused the crash that killed three people back in June of 2001. He left for a position at a university in Arkansas soon after his son Fred disappeared and fled the country.

[Cori aka ChrisSCrush]

I have driven this highway numerous times and sometimes think of this case when I do.