In February 1988, a single gunshot shattered the quiet of a Durham, North Carolina, neighborhood. Barbara Stager told police her husband Russ's death was a tragic accident. But as investigators dug deeper, the picture-perfect image of a devoted wife began to crack.
In this episode of Hard Times & True Crimes, we step back into the 1980s Durham - a city caught between its tobacco past and high-tech future, where Baptist faith and family values shaped everyday life, and where appearances mattered. Against that backdrop, the story of Russ and Barbara Stager unfolds: a tale of love, betrayal, financial secrets, and deadly deception.
Was it an accident, or something far more sinister? Join us as we explore the twists and turns of a case that shocked North Carolina and left a community asking how well we ever really know the people closest to us.
Narrator: Curtis Hildreth
Intro and Outro Music: Isaiah Hildreth
Sources:
Bledsoe, Jerry. Before He Wakes: A True Story of Money, Marriage, Sex and Murder. Onyx, 1996.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/943650628/?match=1&terms=russ%20stager
https://www.newspapers.com/image/941772843/
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