Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Beloved Lady Kid Doc Hires Hitman After Losing Custody

Episode Date: May 27, 2022

Dr. Stephanie Russell loses custody of her two children when it comes to light during court proceedings, that Russell has been coaching her children to lay claims of abuse against her ex-husband. The evidence was revealed to be video recordings of the children practicing. Russell then tries to hire a hitman, but the hitman is undercover FBI.  Now, Stephanie M. Russell pleads guilty to two counts of a federal indictment.   Joining Nancy Grace Today: Kathleen Murphy - Family Attorney (North Carolina), NCDomesticlaw.com,  Twitter: @RalDivorceLaw   Caryn Stark - NYC Psychologist, CarynStark.com, Twitter: @carynpsych, Facebook: "Caryn Stark"  Paul Szych [ZIKE] - Former Police Commander (Albuquerque, NM), Author: "StopHimFromKillingThem" on Amazon Kindle, StopHimFromKillingThem.com, Twitter: @WorkplaceThreat   Alexis Tereszcuk - CrimeOnline.com Investigative Reporter, Writer/Fact Checker, Lead Stories dot Com, Twitter: @swimmie2009  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A beloved female pediatrician now facing serious felony charges of what? Hiring a hit man? Yes, this so-called beloved family doctor, a pediatrician that has literally ministered to thousands and thousands of children, is now charged with hiring a hitman to commit murder. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.

Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. You know, when I take my children to the pediatrician, number one, I don't leave the room. But number two, I got to trust that doctor. I've got to trust that doctor with my children's lives. And you know what? We have a lady doctor. We have a lady doctor and she's so warm and she's motherly and empathetic and sympathetic and talks to you for a long time to the point where I'm

thinking, I know she's got other patients. How could she be spending this much time with my twins? Because she loves children, right? That's the way this doctor is. So how does that compete with hiring a hitman to commit a murder? Again, welcome. This is Crime Stories. I'm Nancy Grace, and I want to thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. Let's go, Jackie. Hit it. Dr. Stephanie Russell is a beloved pediatrician with over 3,000 patients in her practice. Kids Life Pediatrics website shows a child's dream office. Think Disney Overload with promises of things like a live-finding Nemo fish tank. Russell, a graduate from the University of Louisville School of Medicine,

has been a licensed doctor for nearly 25 years. I wanted you to hear that because that is exactly what the twins pediatrician's office looks like. They have these giant, they look real, but they're 3D pictures of fish tanks with the Finding Nemo fish swimming around and tons of books for children of all ages, just everything a child or even a tween would want to keep them amused and their mind off the fact they're probably about to get a shot. That's what I thought of when I learned about this woman, Dr. Stephanie Russell. Now, you heard about her kid-friendly workspace, her office. Well, listen to this. Russell and her ex-husband, Morgan Stanley financial planner Rick Crabtree, have been in a contentious custody battle for over two years. Allegations of abuse were leveled against the husband and allegations of a murder plot levied against Stephanie Russell. In 2019, a detective with the Louisville Metro Police Department was assigned to investigate Crabtree.

During that investigation, Crabtree told the detective that Russell wanted him dead so that she could take full custody of their two children. Crabtree's attorney gave police a sworn statement from the couple's former nanny, which said that she, identified as KS, had been approached by Dr. Russell on multiple occasions about getting rid of Crabtree. KS assumed Russell was joking, until Russell specifically asked if KS knew really bad people. The FBI interviewed various people about the plot, but none could corroborate Crabtree's allegations, and the case was closed. Soon after, Russell's claims of abuse were found to be unsubstantiated. Crabtree was awarded custody of the children, with Russell getting twice-weekly supervised visits. Well, there's nothing to clinch your custody case like trying to hire a hitman. With me, an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now

about this beloved female pediatrician out of Kentucky, Kathleen Murphy, family lawyer joining us out of North Carolina. She's at ncdomesticlaw.com. Renowned psychologist joining us from Manhattan, Karen Stark at karenstark.com. That's Karen with a C. Paul Zyke, special guest joining us. Former police commander in Albuquerque, author of Stop Him From Killing Them on Amazon. You can find him on Twitter at Workplace Threat. But first to Alexis Tereszczuk, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter.

You were just hearing from our friends at CrimeOnline. But Alexis Tereszczuk, let's just start with hiring a hitman. I mean, I know we're going to have to backtrack and talk about this mom losing custody of her children. And you know what? You got to bend over backwards and do some sort of a contortion for a mother to lose custody. Okay. We all know that Alexis Tereschuk, you have a baby as I like to call him. I have a baby. And as many times as I would probably like to do my husband harm, I would never jeopardize being with the twins ever. Never. Plus, I mean, you know, David, he's very lovable. So Alexis Tereschuk, how do we get to hiring a hitman? What evidence is there that she, this beloved pediatrician, wanted to hire a hitman? Now, what did I hear about co- coworkers? So she actually tried to hire a hitman two different times.

The first time she kept talking to her nanny. The couple had a nanny, her husband, the pediatrician's husband. Alexis, hold on just a moment. I mean, really, Kathleen Murphy, you want to hire a hitman? Murder, bloody, stinking, gooey, sticky murder. And you go to, of course, Hitman Central, your nanny. Really? Stupidest, stupidest, stupidest move ever.

This woman has a medical degree. She is not an idiot. She's got a practice of about 3,000 children. She's rolling in money. What? A nanny? She's got a practice of about 3,000 children. She's rolling in money. A nanny? She's not stupid. Clearly, she's a psychopath. She thinks that she's not connected. Obviously, she's missing some links. I don't know how. Okay. Now, wait a minute. When you say she's not connected, to me, that means you don't know anybody in a gang or a mob if you're not connected. What do you mean? She's not connected mentally.

She's not all there. For her to be able to think that nobody is going to speak about this is ludicrous. Everybody loves to talk, especially if there's a custody trial and they want to share the gossip, which they do, and they will come into court. And that's exactly what this nanny did. She came into court and gave a deposition and spoke about how she had come to her and approached her with a murder for hire wish. You know, Kathleen Murphy, I was expecting a little more from you then. She's not connected. Guys, hold on just a moment. I want you to hear. I'm looking for proof because it's going to take a lot of proof for me to believe that this mom, this mother, this beloved pediatrician that has a client list of over 3,000 children that everybody loved, they all love her, would try to commit murder. And that's what hiring a hitman is. You're committing murder. In fact, it's even worse under the criminal code because murder for hire is an aggravating

circumstance under which the state can seek the death penalty. That is not true in every bar brawl that ends in a death. But this is murder with a pecuniary or money interest involved. And that is taken even more seriously by the criminal codes. Take a listen to our cut 7C, our friends at WLKY. New documents show Russell used the code FLOWERS in text messages when discussing the murder with two nurses at her practice. One of the employees told Russell in December she knew someone who would commit the crime. According to text messages, Russell wanted the murder to take place before Christmas. Documents show when that employee told Russell the alleged hitman had died and couldn't commit the hit, Russell then asked if the employee would pull the trigger themselves.

That employee said no and soon after left the practice. I guess so. I guess she did leave the practice. I mean, Paul Zeit, former police commander in Albuquerque and author, I wouldn't put a whole lot of stock in one nanny that said, yeah, she told me she wanted her husband dead. Did I know anybody that could kill him? No, that's not enough to make a case. But now I have an employee that says she was approached by the defendant, the female pediatrician. And when that hit man didn't work out, she asked, well, could you do it yourself?

Can you kill him? Well, the woman or man says no and leaves the practice. Now we're cooking with gas, Paul Zeit. Now I feel like we might have an investigation going. Absolutely. When you reach a point in an investigation where you have corroborating witnesses that have direct evidence, things that they've seen themselves or heard themselves who have nothing to gain from the situation by telling the truth. Absolutely. You now are starting to build a foundation to move this case forward. Again, one witness, an ear witness, with no further corroboration,

that's not going to convince a jury. You've got to work this case harder. But then another witness appears, an employee. Music crime stories with nancy grace karen stark joining me new york Of course, the person left the practice because not only did she pressure the employee to find a hitman, find a hitman. Then the hitman goes and dies. Then she asked the employee to pull the trigger for Pete's sake. Two, two of the nurses that work for her, Nancy. She had a code with them.

Oh, I forgot that part. She used the code word flowers and text messages when discussing the murder. And you're right, Karen Stark, not one, but two nurses were talking about murder. And, you know, Nancy, that's how in these kind of situations they get caught all the time. Because who do they know that they can turn to to find somebody to, you know, do away with the person they're trying to kill? They have to go to people that are close to them because they're not associating with people that would be hit men. But the irony here is, though, Karen Stark, I mean, you're a health care professional. You're asking a nurse who i know doctors have to take the hippocratic oath

where you vow to quote do no harm and i assume nurses take a similar oath you're asking a nurse not one but two nurses to murder somebody i mean that's hard for me to believe, which I'm actually starting to buy into Kathleen Murphy. Zany, dare I say it. She's a veteran trial lawyer. Tough as nails that she's, quote, not connected. I mean, Karen Stark, how many times have we talked about that idiot O.J. Simpson? About a million and the possibility that it was all just a big police cover-up. Do you really think, Karen Stark, that all those cops have stayed quiet, silent,

quiet as the grave for all these years when they could have sold out for a big book deal and made millions of dollars in granting movie rights, if there had been a cover-up, if there had been a conspiracy, people cannot keep their yaps shut. We've discussed it a million times, Karen Stark, for whatever reason. So there's no way these nurses were not going to blab. Well, of course, that's the whole point, Nancy. I mean, there's no judgment involved in this.

And no conscience, as we know, because not thinking twice about the idea of killing somebody. I mean, that's somebody who could, you know, just go point to somebody in the street and say, why don't we shoot them? Because she has no conscience. It doesn't matter. And her judgment is so off. It's a little scary because she's a medical professional. People will talk. Karen Stark, you've been with me from the beginning when I dreamed of a family.

And then when I got pregnant, I think you were in on the secret for several months before other people knew. I mean, I would want to kill anybody that got between me and the twins, but I certainly wouldn't say it out loud for Pete's sake. But, I mean, nothing, nothing can make me more angry than if this were to happen to me. Take a listen to our cut 1A, our friends at WLKY. Russell lost custody of her children in 2020 and was only allowed supervised visits. The documents also explain her ex-husband's concerns about safety, saying he testified that Russell had, quote, made statements that she would kill him in his sleep. That concern was also echoed by a court-appointed doctor who stated Russell could, quote, escalate her behavior and presents a high risk for violence, with the

doctor phrasing it as, quote, uncomfortably high. Harrelson believes the evidence was mounting against Russell. They finally did a warrant on her phone and found text messages or other evidence that corroborated the first attempt to hire a hitman. They found all these videos in the phone where she was having the kids practice making false allegations against her. If they didn't say it right, she'd start over again.

So she turned these videos over to authorities but all the failed videos were still on her phone. Oh dear Lord in heaven. This is a medical doctor that graduated with high grades at the Louisville Medical School. And she kept the videos on her phone of her children practicing a script, accusing their dad of wrongdoing. Wow. I'm drinking from the fire hydrant here. I just don't even know. It's more than I could take at once. I don't know where to start, but I'm going to start at the beginning of what you were hearing from our friends at WLKY. First of all, she loses sole custody. She lost custody of her children and only got supervised visits. First of all, let me start there. To you, Kathleen Murphy, family lawyer joining us out of

North Carolina, explain what is a supervised visit. Typically, a supervised visit is professionally supervised. There are people that are paid and they can report to the court any violations of the conditions of the supervision. And typically, they're for short periods of time. There are two types of supervised visitation locations. One can be a supervised visitation center and the children are inside and it's pretty weird. The other one is where people will go to public parks or libraries or museums or swim pools and the parents can have more of a normal experience with their children. My understanding is that the woman, the doctor in question here, had supervised visitation at her office,

which could be okay since the children may have been familiar with the location, but it was inside. And it was only two times a week, which is really, really a harsh type of supervised visitation order. It's a harsh order. Supervised visits, Kathleen Murphy joining me out of North Carolina. Does the case of Josh Powell ring a bell to you? Yes.

The social worker was bringing the children, though, to his house where he had control. And that's why they do the supervised centers and people are patted down and they have to go through a security. They're not allowed to bring gifts and they are very controlled. And for Josh Powell to be able to have those children supervised by a social worker at his own home may have been a fatal mistake. It was a fatal mistake. Josh Powell murdered his two little boys during a supervised visit because the social worker let the children run into the home

and then Josh Powell slammed the door, hacked them with an axe, and set the home on fire, blew up the home and then Josh Powell slammed the door, hacked them with an axe and set the home on fire, blew up the home. He had already murdered their mother, Susan Cox Powell. Cops never did anything about it, even though the boys drew pictures of mommy in a trunk, a car trunk, with the boys and dad driving the car. That's a whole other can of worms. There's no doubt that he murdered his wife. But he was never prosecuted, so he was still out and somehow got supervised visits with his children.

That's what a supervised visit is. You're either sitting in the room with a court official watching you with your children, or you are somewhere in public like a park or a McDonald's, or in this case, the pediatrician could only have two supervised visits a week with her children. Karen Stark, do you know how crazy that would make me? Even when I have to go out of town to travel, which I have to do a lot for various criminal investigations, I go crazy. I have a rule. I try to never stay away over one night. The children are fine, Karen Stark, because when I'm not at home, they get to order pizza

and watch TV during dinner while holding their cell phone, staring at it. See, none of that would happen if I were home. Absolutely not. It's veggies around the table where you interact, you say your prayer first, and you talk about your day and your next day or anything else you happen to think of. Oh, all that just goes to hell in a handbasket if I go out of town. But they're fine. It's me. I suffer.

I hate it to be away from the children. Can you even imagine? You've been like that from the very beginning, Nancy. Right from the start, you would not spend a night away from them. Awful. I can attest to that. Excruciating. And I mean, finally, by the end of it, my son, I'll do yet another FaceTime. He's like, hi, mom. This is like the 10th FaceTime we've done. But anyway, how mad do you think this mom is? She's so smart. She's so educated. And somehow she's painted herself into the corner of two supervised visits a week at her office with her children.

That's it. And that's because she's a danger to those children, Nancy. She's not among my kids. No, I'm asking you how mad did that make her? It's making me mad just saying it. Obviously, she was mad to begin with. She wanted this guy dead. That's right.

Right from the start. Who's jumping in? This is Kathleen Murphy. And she was mad that she had supervised visitation. But as Karen said, she was mad before that. She was crazy before that. And that's what led up to it. You know, you of all people, Kathleen Murphy, cannot throw around the term crazy at will, willy nilly.

Crazy means something under the law, under the old McNaughton test that we brought over to our country from Great Britain. All right. It means, did you know right from wrong at the time of the act? That is crazy. That is insane. She clearly knew what she was doing was wrong. But that was the beginning of what we learned from our friends at WLKY. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. She was reduced to two supervised visits a week at her office. But then we go on to a court-appointed doctor who stated her behavior escalated, and the doctor found it was, quote, uncomfortably high that Russell would spin out after these text messages were found on her phone and the videos. Alexis Tereshak, tell me about the videos on her phone. Was she trying to frame the husband? So yes, as their divorce began, she accused her husband of sexually

abusing the children. They were really young because at this point now, I think they're four and two. So this was a couple of years ago. They're just little babies. And she had videos. She'd taken videos on her phone of them that she gave to the authorities where the children explained how they had been abused by the dad and little kid versions. But also on the phone were videos where she was coaching the children. So she would say to the little child, the little child would give a statement. You know, this is what happened to me. Daddy did this to me. She's like, wait, wait, you're not you're not doing it right.

Let's back up. Let's try again. Have try again have to say it oh dear lord and so she had videos she didn't even delete those videos they were still on her phone of her prompting the children and leading them and making them say these things so that was also given to the judge paul zeich joining me former police commander and albuquerquean author of Stop Him From Killing Them on Amazon. Man, the cops just got handed a case on a silver platter. You might as well put that on top of the Christmas tree and open it up on Christmas morning. To have all that one search of her phone reveals all that? It's a lot harder. Usually we don't have things served up to us so easily. We've got tons of software investigative means to find things that have been erased, but things that are actually still on the phone, phones that are still, you know, literally just have the data this. And I think that speaks to another point that she just literally, you know,

the whole issue of having restricted access to her children, and we've seen this in cases with domestic violence and stalking over the years, is that that's a conduct inhibitor. It's something that makes people go a little more out of their mind, a little more extreme extreme and take more risk to do harm. What did you call that? A conduct inhibitor. A conduct inhibitor. Yeah, it's one

of the things in my book. What is that? That's things that I have a list of them in my book, that when you remove them from rational people or even irrational people, and especially when you remove them in groups, you know, like custody, status in the community, you know, ability to take care of your children, you know, upcoming restraining order hearings. There's a whole list of them that in my, you know, 10 years of work in those cases that I found caused people to do unexpected things. Right. You're starting to sound like the crazy old guys in trading places, you know, with Eddie Murphy. Yeah, essentially. You take away somebody's money, their credit, their home, their family, their loved ones, their status, their position,

and they start committing crimes. Okay. Dan Aykroyd did not start. Wait, actually, he did start committing crimes. Never mind. So you're saying conduct inhibitors are when you take away what people value the most, they are more likely to commit a crime. Is that what you're saying, Paul Zyke? Absolutely. Not just a crime, especially a crime of passion, a crime where somebody gets stabbed 58 times instead of twice. Things that are really out of the box,

things that, you know, people go, oh, they were such a quiet neighbor, quiet this and that, and then we didn't expect any of this. Well, you remove enough conduct inhibitors from people, and you can just about get anybody to do anything if you remove enough of them, especially if it's done quickly. Paul Zyke is with me, and he's saying that this information is in his book, Stop Him From Killing Them on Amazon. You know, I see what you're saying, and I think you're right, Paul Zyke. You take away the chance of her being with her children, and she goes haywire. But when was it, Alexis Therese Chuck, was it before or after she lost? It had to be

before she lost custody that she was getting the children to create these videos accusing their dad of sex molestation. It was before she lost custody. That was their divorce started. And that was her attempt to have full custody of the children. Oh, OK. I see what you mean. So she was threatened with losing custody and she started doing these videos. So Paul Zyke's theory about conduct inhibitors is actually correct in this case. Guys, take a listen to our cut for our friends at WAVE. Russell was the one to lose custody in 2020

after a court-appointed representative for the children claimed she was coaching the kids into making allegations about her ex-husband and, in May 2018, that she tried to hire a hitman to kill him, according to court records. Russell's attorney called the allegation preposterous in a lawsuit against the judge, writing in this complaint, there have never been any criminal charges. They would come four years later when the feds set up a sting. On May 15, 2022, officials say Russell reached out to a hitman and agreed to pay him $7,000 to kill her ex-husband. On May 18, officers say she put half the cash in her dropbox at her office and promised to pay the rest once the murder was complete.

According to court records, the next day, she was behind bars because agents say the person Russell thought was a hitman was an undercover cop. Of course he was. You can't swing a stick around your head without hitting an FBI agent posing as a hitman. So not only does she leave the videos on her phone coaching her children to make claims of sex molestation by dad, reach out to her nanny and two of her nurses in her practice to hire a hitman or commit the murder themselves. It just keeps getting worse. Now, what did I hear about a previous attempt to hire a hitman? Take a listen to our friends at CrimeOnline.com, Hour Cut 7G. The investigation into a second murder-for-hire plot came after a Louisville Metro detective contacted the FBI. The detective had been contacted by a local private investigator

who had potential information, and that information came from someone who worked at Kids Life Pediatrics. The PI learned Russell had approached several employees about killing her ex-husband, and then the PI urged the employee to contact the FBI. The informant met with agents saying that Russell had been asking for help in killing Crabtree for the last 10 months. One of the nurses provided screenshots of text conversations with her boss, Dr. Stephanie Russell, discussing delivery of Christmas flowers, Russell's code word for murder. A screenshot of the exchange, in part, went like this. Are you still looking for flowers?

I actually do need flowers, Russell replied. Oh, nice. Can I drop by your house tonight, tomorrow night, Friday night, Saturday, Sunday? Ultimately, Russell and the nurse met in person, but the nurse was wired for audio and video, courtesy of the FBI. Yeah, you don't want to say no to an FBI agent, if possible. I mean, Kathleen Murphy joining us, veteran trial lawyer out of North Carolina. Kathleen Murphy, so there's not just this attempt to hire a hitman, there wanted the nurse or first she wanted her nanny to help her hire a hitman. Then the nurse in her practice and then the second nurse in her practice because the first nurse said that the hitman that she was going to send her away had died.

And then that nurse left the practice. So she went to the second nurse in the practice. I mean, the evidence continues to mount. I'm just curious, Paul Zyke, former police commander in Albuquerque. The FBI must have a whole wing of agents that are posing as hit men. It's something they specialize in. I mean, they're really good at it. It's one of the, you know, just like economic crimes type of thing where they can follow the, you know, the breadcrumbs, if you will. A lot of these things cross state lines and, you know, and generally speaking, there is some complexity to it. But yes, they have a lot of field agents that are highly skilled at this.

They're looking, you know, the first time they looked at this, you know, it's not something you see a whole lot of. Unfortunately, well, I should say fortunately, when when it was brought to their attention, they kind of closed the case. Well, the second time around, it was enough to get their attention. And they got lucky because if it would have happened after the first time, they would have been left holding the bag because they had some of the information before. But obviously, the second time they were given the case, they grabbed onto it with both hands. That is not giving me a lot of confidence that they just, quote, as you said, kind of closed the case the first time she tried to hire a hitman. Hey, Alexis Tereschuk, this happens to me at the dentist. And I hope my dentist, who, crazy story, Jackie, he, I hung him out. And he was doing something.

He goes, you know I was on one of your juries, right? I'm like, really? Yes. Then suddenly it all came rushing back to me. I can even remember what he wore as a juror. He wore a tan pullover. It looked like cashmere. V-neck sweater with a kind of a brown shirt underneath.

He's perfectly dressed, perfectly everything. This dentist, he's awesome. But he'll do whatever he's doing. And then it has to wait sometimes. I can sit there I can't move I can't get on my phone or anything else I can hear the dental assistants talking and they're always talking about like their vacation or this or that it's never anything incendiary they're not talking about other patients they're just passing the time of day don't you know these nurses were all talking about she wants to hire a hitman she wants to kill Crabtree the husband you know they were all talking about it right well and then

what they would have had to have done you know the one says well I'm so sorry the hitman that I tried to get you died. There's nothing like, oh, my gosh, how was he killed? What happened there? Anything like that? Like, that is also a huge red flag. Like, did they talk to the nurses, talk to each other and say, how can we get out of this? Just tell him he died and then you'll get out of it because you think, oh, well, he died.

OK, how many people know more than one hit man? It's absolutely crazy. And she kept doing it again. The first time she was investigated for it. So she must have known that they were on to her. But yet so arrogant, so confident in her own ability to trick law enforcement and the judges and her ex-husband, who is a very smart finance guy, and that she could still hire a hitman to do it can we talk about him for a moment can you imagine how his his whole life would have been ruined with these allegations of molesting his own children i mean does that bother anybody but me kathleen murphy you're a family lawyer and that is

certainly a euphemism because family law it sounds sounds all cozy, is actually down and dirty. Have you ever seen that where one party tries to get the children to fabricate allegations against the other parent? I do. But Nancy, you know, what's worse is when I have a client who believes that there's something going on and they're damned if they do and they're damned if they don't. If they don't say anything and they have these realistic concerns, you know, that's not good. And then if they say something, then they're seen in this light of she's just making it up to get leverage in a custody case. It's very difficult. But people would always wonder, did he do it? Did he molest his children? You know, I was just making a note to talk to you about Kathleen Murphy, a high profile lawyer joining me out of North Carolina to prove a conspiracy. You have to have more than just shop talk. You can't just, hey,

I want to kill him. You know, a hit man, you have to make what is called under the law, an overt act. You actually have to do something. Otherwise, you could just say at trial, yeah, I dreamed about it. I talked about it. I knew it was wrong. I'd never do it. But here, she's accused of putting nearly $4,000 in a drop box to pay the hitman.

And under the law, that is an overt act. Is it not not Kathleen Murphy? Not only putting the money in there, but then giving the individual a code to get in that medical lockbox to retrieve the money. That's how they were able to connect it because they didn't have a video of her during the surveillance of her putting the money in the dropbox. But what they had to connect it was that she had provided the code for that individual to remove the money from the dropbox. And even wiring the nurse still may not, but it may have been helpful. But it's still just talk does not a conspiracy make. There has to be that over act.

Guys, take a listen to our friend Rachel Droz in our cut six from WHAS. And I actually ran into one parent who was here today trying to pick up his children's medical records. She's been their primary caregiver for six years. So it's just freaky. It's shocking to say the least. And it's very sad. The FBI arrested Dr. Stephanie Russell last night and charged her with trying to hire someone to murder her ex-husband. Instead of hiring a hitman, Russell actually hired an undercover FBI employee. According to court filings, the Louisville pediatrician works in the Norton Commons neighborhood at Kids Life Pediatrics. I know several parents in this area

that bring their children here and like I said, I've only heard positive, wonderful things about them. When I went by there, a handwritten closed sign was posted on the door and when I tried to call, there was no answer. With Dr. Russell, everything was fine. She was pleasant. She was sweet. The girls liked her. Lance Dooley, the dad trying to pick up his kids' medical records, wasn't able to get in touch with anyone. We're right around the corner, and money drop-offs were happening right around the corner. Like, that freaks us out. I guess so. Now, take a listen to this. After the arrest, she tried valiantly to get a bond and get out. Don't you know that husband was hiding under his bed?

Take a listen to our cut 7B, our friends at WHAS. The judge ruled Russell will stay in custody, saying that the evidence presented so far shows she was persistent in her desire to execute that murder-for-hire plot. Dr. Stephanie Russell faces up to 10 years in prison. Court documents show an employee at Russell's pediatric office came forward, saying Russell asked several people to help her find someone to kill her ex-husband. Prosecutors argued the nature of the crime and her commitment were reason to keep her in jail. Russell's attorneys argued she'd never been convicted of a crime and needed to be released

on home incarceration to keep running her pediatric practice. The judge ultimately said Russell needed to stay in custody, believing she could be a danger. In an affidavit, texts between Russell and a witness show her seeking information about hiring a hitman, contacting the witness several times over the course of months. Central to this case as well,

Russell's contentious divorce, during which she accused her ex-husband of abuse. Court documents show an investigation found no evidence, and he was granted custody, a decision that is currently being appealed. To you, Alexis Tereschuk, now she's not getting bond as she awaits the resolution of this case. Can you imagine her in that cell? Oh, my goodness. Gnashing her teeth and switching her tail.

No way is she going to get out on bond. She'll probably go kill the husband. And she is facing like at least 10 years in prison for this. At least. Oh, 10 years. Why you sit in a jail cell while your children grow up without you. Oh, that is pure hell. H-E-double-L right there. To Alexis Tereschuk

and the rest of the panel, jump in. Remember, this is not a tea party at Highgrove with Queen Elizabeth. Jump in when you have a thought. I'm looking at her mugshot and she is actually wearing her scrubs, her doctor's smock. I guess they arrested her right there at her practice. So Alexis Tereschuk, jump. I was going to ask where the case at her practice. So, Alexis Tereshchuk, jump. I was going to ask where the case stands, Alexis, so get that question in your mind. Go ahead, Kathleen. She's facing 10 years, but they may be stacking some charges on her because of the fake videos and causing false testimony in court. They can have many more charges on this individual aside from the murder for hire.

The only place she can go because she is caught red handed is to plead some kind of a mother insanity that the thought of losing her children pushed her over the edge. So Alexis Tereska at CrimeOnline.com, where does the case stand? She is facing an indictment and she is behind bars. She is waiting for the next hearing. And she's not, she has been denied bond. She did. You were exactly right.

She asked, she said, can I go work with my patients? They don't have anyone else to help them, which you heard from the local news reporting. Patients were showing up saying, I need my kids records. My kids need to see a doctor. And they are having trouble even getting that. But the judge said, no records. My kids need to see a doctor. And they are having trouble even getting that. But the judge said, no way you're staying locked up. She is awaiting indictment, which means that will be put before an impaneled grand jury. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend.

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