Who Killed Mom of 2 Stephanie Wasilishin?

Stephanie Wasilishin wasn’t like other moms. She was a cool mom.

“She was super young when she had me,” her daughter, Nikki Wasilishin, explains to A&E Crime + Investigation. “One summer we were at a pool party, and somebody asked her what her favorite color was: She took a drag on a cigarette, and said, ‘Green, because that’s the color of weed and money.’ And I thought that was so cool.”

But life would come crashing down for 10-year-old Nikki on July 9, 1993.

Around 1:15 a.m., her mom was shot to death at the Sedona, Ariz., home they shared with her mom’s longtime boyfriend, Russell Peterson, and Nikki’s 3-year-old half-sister, according to police.

There were no signs of forced entry, and although Stephanie’s death was ruled a homicide, investigators never officially identified her killer.

Stephanie was a 32-year-old mom of two and pastry chef who worked alongside her chef boyfriend, Peterson, at Pietro’s Restaurant. According to Nikki, the couple had a tumultuous relationship.

“He started neglecting my mom to the point where she was stepping out with multiple guys,” Nikki says. “She was very unhappy, and the reason why she wouldn't leave is because they had my sister, and she kind of got chained to him.”

Despite the troubled romance, Stephanie was a doting mother who was preparing to take her girls on vacation.

“My mom had this whole Disneyland trip planned that summer,” Nikki recalls.

So, it didn’t make any sense to Stephanie’s family when Peterson alleged she killed herself while her kids were asleep.

“She would never grab a gun with her two children in the home,” Nikki maintains.

Stephanie’s mom, Bernice Wasilishin, told Sedona police that her daughter was “deathly afraid of firearms,” while her former stepdad, Reginald Evans, said that Stephanie “lived for her daughters” and was making plans to leave Peterson. Family members insisted she was not suicidal.

“Everyone who knew her knew she would be a lot happier without being involved in that constant loveless, cold relationship,” Evans wrote in a letter to investigators, according to police records obtained by A&E.

On July 9, 1993, Stephanie and Peterson shared a bottle of wine together in their living room, while their kids were asleep. The events that followed remain unclear.

When questioned about what led to the shooting, Peterson claimed conflict with Wasilishin had been “brewing and stewing for a while,” but also said they may have argued over a two-and-a-half-hour phone conversation she had with her ex, earlier that night, according to the police report. Peterson also alleged they quarreled over him working too much and a business trip he had planned for the near future.

Although she was asleep at the time, Nikki, now 43, says she believes Peterson killed her mom. Her sister, then 3, signaled that she allegedly witnessed the shooting when police responded that night.

“The first thing she said to me in the back of the cop car is, ‘Papi killed mommy! Papi killed mommy!’” Nikki says. She also alleges that Peterson, who was typically distant, was acting suspicious when he was put in the police cruiser with them.

“He instantly embraced me and started whispering things in my ear like, ‘I love you and I'm sorry and I want to keep the family together.’ And in my little 10-year-old brain, red flags are going off, like, ‘Something's wrong. He doesn't touch me. This isn’t my dad.’ It was the most uncomfortable ride to the police station.” Nikki adds.

Peterson called 911 to report Stephanie was shot. However, he said he was unsure where the bullet entered her body, according to police. The call-taker attempted to walk Peterson through CPR, but it’s unclear if he in fact tried to resuscitate the victim. Stephanie was pronounced dead on the scene. An autopsy revealed she died from a gunshot wound to the neck.

The medical examiner noted gun powder residue was recovered on the victim’s left hand and consistent with a “defensive posture than with a self-inflicted injury, intentional or not.” Stephanie was right-handed.

Over the course of four interviews with detectives, Peterson’s retelling of the events that led to Stephanie’s death were inconsistent, and he pivoted back and forth between whether the incident was a suicide or a struggle between them, according to police. All that was known with certainty was that “one of the participants procured a pistol from the bedroom, and at least two shots were subsequently fired,” the police report read.

During the investigation, police alleged Peterson was difficult to get a hold of and canceled appointments. He also refused a polygraph and a reenactment. In November 1993, prosecutors announced there was insufficient evidence to charge Peterson with Stephanie’s death.

“The inconsistencies, together with all the other evidence, still does not amount to sufficient evidence to prosecute,” Yavapai County Attorney Jim Landis wrote in a letter to police. “The suspect vacillates between whether there was a struggle or whether it was suicide. The physical evidence, however, does not clearly support either one of his stories to the exclusion of the other. The suspect’s confusion over the facts could be the result of trauma and/or wishful thinking.”

For the rest of her childhood, Nikki was raised by her biological dad, while her little sister stayed with Peterson. The siblings lost touch in 2018 following the death of their grandmother.

Around the COVID-19 pandemic, Nikki says she felt a sudden compulsion to reinvestigate and bring closure to her mom’s case, and in 2025, on the 32nd anniversary of her mother's death, she launched the Papi Killed Mommy podcast. She also actively speaks about the case on TikTok in hopes the continued exposure will pressure authorities to take another look at Peterson.

Peterson and the Yavapai County Attorney’s Office did not respond to A&E Crime + Investigation’s requests for comment, while the Sedona police declined to make a statement on the investigation.

“They [authorities] are waiting for a confession,” Nikki purports. “They want this case to solve itself. It's just ridiculous.”

She tries to remain optimistic that investigators will officially identify who pulled the trigger that night. In the meantime, Nikki does her best to honor her mother’s memory.

“I brought her back to life through old, still photos and 16 minutes of VHS footage of her,” she says, “so I do what I can to remind people of who she is.”