For eighteen long minutes, Nikki Wasilishin’s three-year-old sister repeated a shocking claim as they sat together in the back of a police car.
“Papi killed mommy!” little Kristina cried to Nikki, who was 10 at the time. “Papi killed mommy!”
Their mother, 32-year-old Stephanie Wasilishin, had just been gunned down inside their family home in Sedona, Arizona on July 9, 1993, after getting into a fight with longtime boyfriend Russell Peterson.
Authorities ruled the death a homicide, but no one was ever charged. Peterson has never been charged and has not responded to a request for comment.
Now, 33 years later, Nikki is pushing for answers with her TikTok page and her podcast, Papi killed Mommy, which launched in 2025. She told The Independent that she is grappling with the reality that no one may ever be charged in her mother’s death.
“If I’m not going to get justice in the court of law, I will get justice in the court of public opinion,” she said.
Stephanie Marie Wasilishin, who went by “Stacy,” was a “cool mom” who was fiercely dedicated to her daughters, filling their home with small joys – new clothes, new books, a lush garden bursting with sky high sunflowers and massive pumpkins.
“I’d come home from school to the latest R.L. Stine book waiting for me on my bed,” Nikki recalled.
“She loved her kids. That’s all she ever wanted,” Nikki said. “She didn’t want to be a doctor or a lawyer. She just wanted to have kids and a family.”
Stacy was a pastry chef who worked with her chef boyfriend Peterson at Pietro’s Restaurant. Nikki lived with them and they welcomed baby Kristina in 1989. Nikki said that for a brief time in her life, she felt like they were a family. But behind the scenes, the couple had a tumultuous relationship.
The night her mother was killed, Nikki remembers her being on the phone most of the evening. She later learned that Stacy had been speaking to Nikki’s father about breaking up with Peterson.
“She made plans to leave Russell Peterson and go back to my dad,” she said.
Less than four hours later, she was dead.
“Three hours and 47 minutes,” Nikki said. “Women are 75 percent more likely to be killed within the first two weeks of leaving a relationship than any other time.”
Before it all ended horribly, Nikki remembers July 9, 1993 as being a perfect Sedona evening, playing with her sister.
“I remember we were running though the garden of sunflowers taller than us,” she recalled.
Hours later, around 11 p.m. she hugged her mom goodnight and went to bed. It would be the last time she ever saw her.
Around 1:15 a.m., Stacy was shot. Sedona police responded to their home on Coffee Pot Drive after receiving a 911 call from Peterson at 1:40 a.m. Peterson told the 911 dispatcher that he and Stacy had been fighting, according to a transcript.
Peterson: “Me and my wife, we were in an argument, and she is hurt very bad.”
Operator: “OK, what is wrong with her?”
Peterson: “She has been shot.”
Operator: “She was shot? Who shot her?”
Peterson: “… We were … I don’t know who.”
Operator: “You don’t know who shot her?”
Peterson: “I might have … She might have shot herself.”
