The Dollhouse Woods Murders | The Case of Josie Russell | UNSEEN

"All the members of my family have been killed." The voice you've just heard is Sean Russell, father of Josie and Meghan, and loving husband of Lynn Russell. On July 9th, 1996, Sean comes home from work to an empty house. His entire family is missing, even their dog, Lucy, police search the countryside near their house. Just after midnight, Sean's entire world falls apart. Officers have found the bodies of Lynn, their two children, and their dog. This belief was my first reaction when I heard and I thought that anybody could do anything so, so crazy. The monstrous crime petrifies the small village of Chilenden, Kent, police have no leads and no idea what happened. This became the most extensive and difficult forensic examination I've certainly had dealt with in my career. He is holding a whole region to ransom. The nation was horrified, the killer is still at large. It seems the events of that day would remain a mystery, but at 6 o'clock the following morning, Sean is at the police station when he hears the news of one last hope. "We told you last night that we thought all your family members were dead. We discovered this morning one of the girls seems to still be alive." Nine-year-old Josie Russell lives in the East Kent Village of Chilenden with her six-year-old sister, Meghan, her mom Lynn, and her dad, Sean. The girls love animals and the outdoors, and they often play with Lynn's horse, Rosie. "Can just remember two very bubbly little girls with a super mom and dad." Josie was in a way the leader, Meghan was quieter, but very determined, just like her mum. I looked back at the photographs, all the flowers and the pets and the ponies and the little cottage and it was a very lovely existence. It's July 9th, 1996, Josie and Meghan get ready for school. Sean drops the girls off before heading to work. Later, that afternoon, he runs errands as Lynn walks with her dog Lucy to meet the girls for the walk home after a swimming competition. "We saw Josie and Meghan just about to walk down the steps and we thought we'd give them a lift home and we'd be, and I remember we'd be quite a few times and I thought it was really weird how they didn't hear us and we just thought, "Oh, you know, that's fine. We'll just see her later." "If they had hired us, the leader would have given them a lift home." Sean gets dinner ready as he waits for his family to come home. When they aren't back on time, he figures they're just running a little late. But as the evening goes on, he starts to panic. It's now 9 o'clock and they still haven't returned. Sean calls the police, who tell him no one has reported any accidents. He calls the vet to see if they took their dog Lucy in. He calls hospitals, but no one has any answers. He drives along the route they would walk. It usually takes about half an hour for them to walk home. The Russell family has now been missing for over 5 hours and he can't find anyone who has seen them since they left the school. "Now I'm trying to have tried everything. There can't be a woman and children wandering around in the countryside at this time of night without something being desperately wrong." But before we continue, we'd like to take a brief moment to think our sponsor. Our sponsors help us continue our mission of sharing powerful survivor stories. And for this episode, we've partnered with Factor. At Unseen, our days are busy with researching and editing. And when we're tired at the end of the day, cooking something healthy can feel like a lot. But it's not willpower. It's bandwidth. Factor solves the setup problem. With Factor, hitting your nutrition goals is effortless. No planning, grocery runs, or hours in the kitchen. Whether your aim is weight management, better nutrition, GLP1 support, or more protein, Factor has meals built to fit your goals. Factor's meals are fresh, never frozen, with over 100 globally inspired options, like Mediterranean and Asian, rotating weekly so there's always delicious meals to look forward to. One of our Unseen editors absolutely loves the green peppercorn grilled chicken, which is a great high protein option. Factor's muscle pro-collection prioritizes protein for strength and workout recovery. At defactormeals.com/unseen50off and use code Unseen50off to get 50% off in free daily greens per box. With new subscription only, while supplies last until September 27th, 2026. See website for more details. Sean calls the police again. They bring search dogs and look around the countryside for any trace of Lynn, Megan, and Josie. They ask Sean about his family life and marriage. "Have you had an argument, is there any reason that she might have taken the children sort of thing, which of course is rubbish, but you accept that they have a job to do so you answer as best you can?" Officers continue to search the area. It's now 11.30 p.m. as they return to Sean's house. He fears the worst. "Before he said a thing, I just knew what a summary terrible was about to happen and he just explained that it was a worse thing he'd ever had to do. He had some terrible news for me. It looked like there'd been some sort of accident, but that all the members of my family, and the two girls, have been killed." The police found the bodies of Lynn, Megan, Josie, and their dog Lucy just a few hundred meters from the house, right along the route Sean drove only a few hours before. After investigating the crime scene, police are left with more questions than answers. What was a search for a missing family is now a hunt for a killer on the loose. "This belief was my first reaction when I heard. This belief is my continuing reaction and the thought that anybody could do anything so, so crazy. A woman with two small children and a little dog." Over the course of just one night, Sean has lost all that matters most to him, but early the next morning, an officer comes with news that changes everything. "By this time, the family had been found and taken straight to the hospital. We thought everyone had died." He said, "We told you last night that we thought all your family members were dead, but we discovered this morning that one, one of the girls, sings, to still be alive. Doctor was going out at his business and the one of the police officers was there. He noticed some flicker of life and a doctor jumped over and said, "No, you're right. This one's still alive, get her to hospital. It kind of switched me from complete despair. I can't go on this no point to go on, suddenly to having a reason to go on at last. Something to, um, hold on to." It's now 9 a.m. on July 10th, over nine hours after the discovery of the murders. Sean rushes to King's College Hospital. He still doesn't know which of his family members is alive. After being told that his entire family was dead, Sean is now reunited with his daughter, but the nightmare isn't over. While Josie is shockingly still alive, she has major brain damage and she is on full life support. They have to operate immediately. Doctors insert a 4-inch titanium plate to rebuild Josie's skull. She survives the emergency surgery, but she is in distress and unable to speak because of her injuries. Sean now has the heartbreaking task of having to tell his daughter that her mom and sister both died. "She responded well, just turning her face away from him." All the while she was in the hospital ward, she was almost trapped there and clearly she needed to get out. She had to prove to herself that Lynn wasn't there and that Megan wasn't there. She went around each room, making sure in her own mind that they had gone. One of the few things that brings Josie some peace during her time at the hospital is when she gets to spend time outside. Much like she used to with her family. While she continues to recover at the hospital, police are now faced with a daunting task, finding the man who attacked her. They find a blood-stained towel and clothing nearby, along with a hammer, but it's not enough. "It wasn't just outside, it was in a wood, with trees and leaves, and it was in the summer where the leaves were full on the trees, and that meant lots and lots of surfaces inappropriate surfaces to get fingerprints from, to get DNA from. This became the most extensive and difficult forensic examination I've certainly had dealt with in my career." As the investigation stalls, Josie also struggles with her recovery. She attacked, impacted, the communication area of her brain, so she has issues with speech, reading and writing, but she has already defined the odds to make it here. "There is quite an important archery in that region, and if you had broken that archery, you probably wouldn't have survived until they found you." Doctors notice a gradual improvement, and Josie only spends six weeks at the hospital, before she is able to return home. "Even a couple of doctors talked about this as a miracle. That resilience, that strength, was very evident. She was kind of like a backler." Josie is back at home, but the usually peaceful countryside now seems more threatening every day. "Before you could just walk down to the field and it wouldn't be a problem, and now there's just psycho at least, you know, and it's just not safe anymore, there's kind of pristine place that you want about ready stuff. You just didn't anymore. Please give yourself up for the sake of yourself and others around you. Many people are living in fear still unable to take their children out for walks in the countryside. He is effectively holding a whole region to ransom. I fear for the safety of anybody, any person who he is near, any animal who he is near. He killed my dog at the same time as my wife and child. Police are racing to find the killer, hoping to provide some form of closure and relief for the Russell family. Detectives are able to determine that the murder happened sometime between 4.30 and 4.45 pm, but they don't have many leads. After asking the public for help, multiple witnesses come forward. Police learned that a light-colored car was spotted near the crime scene, and a woman reports seeing an agitated man in the area, carrying a hammer. Another witness tells police he saw a similar beige car less than a mile away, around 20 minutes later. He also saw a man standing along the side of the road, appearing to be searching for something. After the man leaves, the witness looks around the area himself. He finds a bag stained with blood, but he doesn't contact the police until hearing about the murders. He tells officers he didn't realize the stains were blood and left the bag where it was. For the first time, investigators can place the killer at a second location after the murders, but the blood doesn't help them identify the suspect and the trail goes cold. The attacker still out there, Sean wants to get Josie out of Chillendon, so she can start to feel safer and happy again. They move to North Wales. His daughter still isn't speaking, and Sean approaches the local schools for help. They offer to take her in at any time, and they tutor her to help her relearn the basics of language. "If I stayed in Kent, I would take her and they'll give me too many memories, and so when I came back to North Wales, my friends were there, and even though I couldn't talk much, I just settled in really good, I know." It's been months since the attack, police still do not have a suspect or a motive, and they're running out of ideas to find the killer. Desperate for answers, detectives Pauline Smith and Ed Wintingly turn to the only other known witness. Josie, the nine-year-old girl, is their only hope for finding answers. It's a long, slow process, but Josie is gradually improving, and the detectives can tell that she wants to help. They work with her for months, and finally make a breakthrough in the case. Detective Smith has the idea to make models of Josie, her family, and the attacker, and she asks again about what happened. "It was a bit bizarre really making models of a murder scene, but I did actually make little models. Josie was able to show us how they climbed over the gate. Josie really got into this, and we could see that she was really growing. She was getting better and better, and she was able to start communicating more." "I was very worried about the effect this might have on her, however, she was quite elated by having to tell us and get it off her chest, perhaps, or been sort of in there for such a long time really." Little by little, Josie begins to talk more as she continues to heal. She still doesn't talk publicly about what happened to her, and she won't even speak to her dad about it, but for the first time, the only survivor is able to tell detectives what happened that day. As they walk home from the swimming competition, the girls see a man in a car. Josie waves at him as they walk past. He gets out of the car and demands money. The girl's mom says she doesn't have any, but she offers to go get some from their home. After the man refuses, she tells Josie to run, but the man catches her and drags her back. He rips up their swimming towels and uses pieces to tie Josie's hands behind her back. He also makes her take off her tights and uses them to tie her to a tree. The man blindfolds the little girl and tells her he's just going to leave them and drive away. He calmly says he isn't going to hurt them, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Josie can't see what's happening to Meghan or Lynn, but she is forced to listen as he repeatedly beats them with a hammer. When she desperately tries to free herself to help her family, he attacks her several times and leaves her for dead. "I can't imagine that anybody can be so cold and inhuman to have no feelings of guilt. Now Josie survived to this day. We still cannot imagine considering the damage that was caused to her. But for some reason, she pulled through and the other two didn't." One year after the attack, investigators have made little progress in the case. After releasing a picture of what they believe the suspect looks like, based on eyewitness reports, they are still struggling to find any evidence that could lead to an arrest. They turn to the public again, pleading for information. "Somebody must know who's committed this wicked and evil act." This time, a psychiatrist reaches out with details about one of his patients, a 37-year-old man named Michael Stone. Five days before the murders, Stone threatened to kill a family. He even told a psychiatric nurse that he wanted to kill children in the woods. A friend reports seeing him in bloody clothes on the day of the murders. But Stone tells police he burned all of his clothes, so they're not able to test them. This psychiatrist also believes that Stone's appearance matches the police description. "When Michael Stone was first identified as a possible suspect, that then triggered another for a lot of investigative activity around him, his background, his movements, his ability to do this sort of thing." It's now July 17, 1997. Just over a year after the attack, Michael Stone is arrested. Details of his past come to light. He was beaten with a hammer himself as a child, and he was abused both in his family home and in a care home. He turned to drugs at a young age, and he had already served time in prison for robbing at attacking a man with a hammer. It's now October 6, 1998. Over two years after the horrific attack on the Russell family, Michael Stone stands trial. He continues to claim his innocence. With very little forensic evidence, the prosecution heavily relies on testimony from other prisoners who claim they heard Stone confess to the murders in jail. They need more. The detectives recorded video of their sessions with Josie, which could be crucial to the case. The jury watches the tapes of Josie describing the attack, bringing some of them to tears in the courtroom. After 14 days, the trial comes to an end. The jury finds Michael Stone guilty by a 10-2 majority verdict. He has given three life sentences for the murders of Lynn and Meghan Russell, and the attempted murder of Josie Russell. After more than two years of tragedy, fear, and fighting for her life and justice, Josie is ready to put the pass behind her and live like a normal girl. I don't want to go to Kent again or talk about Michael Stone, because there's no point. The only thing I do think about maybe is like, why did he do it if he did? I just want to think about the good memories of Lynn and Meghan, and mostly about the future and now. I think she's been a very normal ordinary average teenager in the way that she's built her relationships with people. She's done all the things, a discovering alcohol and fashion and all those things that she knows is dabble with and partying and all that sort of stuff. Josie has loved arts and crafts since she was a child, and she is now a textile artist. She keeps her mom's memory alive by taking care of her horse, Rosie. She buys her childhood home in North Wales and gets engaged to her long-term boyfriend. And Josie and her dad also work together to support various charities that help animals and other people. I just want to make a difference and give something back to people who are less fortunate. It makes me think just how everybody else feels losing their family and it's not just me that's lost family. Josie and Sean will always remember what happened to Lynn and Meghan, but they refuse to let the attacker dominate their future. One watches Josie grow up into an incredibly strong, independent woman who continues to fight every day. I've not tried to shield her, obviously. She's been exposed to sort of worse things that could happen to anybody. I think some doctors and people are quite surprised of how well I am now. Even though bad and sad things happened, a lot of good things has come out of it. I don't want people to feel so for me in saying, "Are you better, Josie or anything?" Because I am better and there's nothing wrong with me. [Music]