Practice to Deceive

out anyway. She usually did what she wanted to do.”
    And, indeed, what a tangled web was woven when those without conscience practiced to deceive.

Russ Douglas worked hard to be physically fit. Besides building his muscles at a gym, he scuba dived and hiked difficult trails in Washington State mountains and foothills. But being in good shape could not save him when someone with a gun stalked him. Gail O’Neal

Russel Douglas photographed when he was in the army. He had so many dreams, so many goals, but very few of them worked out—even though he was highly intelligent. Gail O’Neal

Russel Douglas at his wedding to Brenna. They were a toxic combination, two people who never should have dated—much less married. Gail O’Neal

Brenna Douglas prepares to share wedding vows with Russel. They already had a son. Gail O’Neal

Russ Douglas with his son, Jack. Russ loved his two children—Jack and Hannah—but he and Brenna fought constantly. She tried to distance him from his family. Even so, they both seemed to want to keep their marriage together. After Russ moved out, he was on call to help around the house they rented and see his children. He came home for Christmas 2003, and it looked as though they might be able to reconcile after all. Gail O’Neal

Russ’s yellow Tracker where it was found on December 26, 2003. It sat in the driveway of an isolated cabin on Whidbey Island for more than twenty-four hours before horrified neighbors called 911. The first deputies to arrive were shocked at what they found inside. Police file photo

Russ Douglas was found slumped behind the wheel of his new yellow Tracker. It seemed clear that he had no warning as someone armed with a gun approached. Or was his instant death a suicide? What was he doing in this lonely place? Police file photo

Russ Douglas was highly educated, but sometimes he made the wrong choices. Gail O’Neal

This gun wasn’t found at the scene, ruling out suicide. Criminalists thought the death weapon was a Bersa handgun. Investigators found a single slug and a bullet casing—but they needed the gun they came from to make a case. Still, any killer with good sense would have thrown it into the deep water around Whidbey Island so it could never be traced back to him—or her. Police file photo

Washington investigators looked for expended bullets in the backyard of this Nevada home where someone had test-fired a handgun. They found casings that they hoped would match those fired from the death gun. Police file photo

Police file photo

Police file photo

Police file photo

At one time, Brenna and Russ sold sex toys at home parties. These were found in Russ’s apartment. Later, they had a more successful business—a beauty salon called Just B’s. Police file photo

This gated estate was right next door to the cottage where Russel Douglas was found murdered. A “person of interest” had once lived there, but the Island County investigators didn’t know that when their homicide probe began. Ann Rule

Ann Rule

Patrol officers in Freeland, Washington, guarded the crime scene where Russel Douglas perished on the dark, rainy night of December 26, 2003. Detectives would need daylight to thoroughly search the woods around Douglas’s yellow Tracker. Police file photo

The driveway where Russel Douglas was shot. The morning after his body was discovered, Island County investigators found tire tracks that they hoped to link to a killer’s vehicle. Police file photo

Prosecuting Attorney Greg Banks and his paralegal assistant, Michelle Graff, worked together on what seemed to be an unsolvable—or, perhaps, unprovable—homicide case on Whidbey Island, Washington. Leslie Rule

Island County Sheriff’s Detective Mark Plumberg was assigned to lead the investigation into Russel Douglas’s murder in mid-2004 and worked for nearly a decade on a case that appeared to have no motive, and no physical evidence. He never gave up and found a sad kind of justice for the victim. Ann Rule

Jim Huden, the man his longtime friends knew. He was voted Businessman of the Year in Punta Gorda, Florida. Huden was student body president of his high school on Whidbey Island. He was also an athlete there, and later a computer genius who sold the software he developed to Bill Gates’s Microsoft for a very high price.

Jim Huden had dealt with a number of discouraging issues in his life. He’d gone from rags to riches and back again, but he kept trying. The one influence he