This week I will be talking about the brutal murders of the Dardeen family. On the night of November 18, 1987 police went into the mobile home of Russell Keith Dardeen after he had failed to show up to work that day. Inside, police found Keith’s wife, Ruby Elaine Dardeen and their son Peter beaten to death. The wife was pregnant at the time with their daughter and she was beaten so bad that the she went into labor and they also killed the newborn baby. When police entered the home they found the 3 bodies all tucked into a bed together. The killings had taken place a day before and police thought that Keith was the prime suspect but the next day his body was found shot and his genitals mutilated in a nearby field. Elaine had been bound and gagged with duct tape; both had been beaten to death–apparently with a baseball bat found at the scene, a birthday gift to Peter from his father earlier that year. Keith was shot three times and his penis was severed.
A total of 30 detectives worked full-time on this case and there was over 100 people interviewed but nothing was found. This was a very weird murder case considering that no one had anything bad to say about this family. There had been a small quantity of marijuana that was found in the trailer but evidence suggests that the killer or killers put the drugs there. Evidence shows that Keith died 24 to 36 hours before he was found and his wife and kids had only been killed 12 hours before they were found. This evidence made it harder to determine how the crime was committed, since Keith’s body was found not in the trailer and his wife and kids were. At the trailer investigators think that the killer or killers took their time considering the bodies were all tucked into bed and there wasn’t really a mess left behind. This also suggests that the crime happened at night because the Dardeens lived on a busy highway and this person or persons took their time.
Determining the motive and possible suspects of this case was actually quite difficult. There was no evidence of forced entry, no evidence of stolen jewelry, and no signs of rape or sexual assault. There have been theories that the Dardeens were purposely chosen but their identity was mistaken for the wrong family by the killer or killers.
Whaaaaaatt weird. It always bothers me when cases like this are never solved because it leaves you wondering every single day.
This is very interesting given how there was so much put into the investigation and the killer(s) was never found, and how no one had anything bad to say about the family. It’s also gruesome to think about how they had the mother go into labor and murdered the infant as well.