The Murder of Diana Russell (Part 2)

Published: Sept. 12, 2022, 7 a.m.

Episode 236: In our last episode, we heard about the murder of 61-year-old retiree, and beloved mother, grandmother and recent great-grandmother, Diana Russell. On February 22, 2002, after her car was found abandoned, in out-of-the way Boston Bar, her family became concerned. Diana was not answering her phone and no one knew where she was.\nShe was later found by police in the basement of Kelowna ,B.C. townhome. Diana had been beaten, hogtied, raped and then strangled. The number one suspect was no stranger to the family. He was Ronald Leal Fowler, an ex-boyfriend of Diana\u2019s eldest daughter, Michele, and father to that daughter\u2019s two-year-old son, Brandon.\xa0\nAfter killing Diana, Fowler had fled in her car, but after it became hopelessly stuck after a freak winter mud and snow slide he\u2019d hitchhiked to Vancouver. Fowler was arrested there after the truck driver who\u2019d dropped him off in the Lower Mainland called police about the sketchy guy who\u2019d ridden with him.\nFowler, who\u2019d illegally walked away from half-way house in which he\u2019d been living, claimed amnesia due to drug and alcohol binge at the time. He denied responsibility for Diana\u2019s murder and maintains that position to this day.\nDiana\u2019s remaining family was left to pick of the pieces of their broken lives. This crime is still a painful wound for them, ripped open by Fowler\u2019s every appeal and applications for parole. In the second part of this episode we hear from Collin Lucksinger, Diana Russell's grandson, as he shares with us his feelings about the his grandmother and the crime.\nSources:\nFacebook \u2014 Biography of Diana Russell\nSearch Castanet News - Ronald Fowler\n2006 BCSC 1215 (CanLII) | R. v. Fowler | CanLII\n2006 BCSC 1214 (CanLII) | R. v. Fowler | CanLII\n2005 BCSC 1876 (CanLII) | R. v. Fowler | CanLII\n2005 BCSC 1875 (CanLII) | R. v. Fowler | CanLII\n2005 BCSC 1874 (CanLII) | R. v. Fowler | CanLII\nCN BC: Drug Experts Differ Over Blackouts - Rave.ca\nFemicide\nRamsReef \u2014 Twitch\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices