Shortly before midnight on the evening of June 3, 1989, thirteen-year-old Russell Evans telephoned his father saying he would be home shortly. One hour later, he was rushed to the hospital, clinging to life. At 9:10 a.m. on June 4, he was pronounced dead.

The Spokane Police and the Spokane County Coroner determined Russell had been the victim of a hit-and-run accident. His parents, however, believed he had also been physically beaten and their contentions were backed by a leading pathologist.

For many years, the death of Russell Evans was ruled an accident, but it is now declared a murder. Either way, thirty-five-years later, the person or persons responsible have not answered for the act.

Russell Evans

Russell and several friends were hanging out at Spokane’s Thornton Murphy Park on the evening of June 3. At approximately 9:00, three teenage boys approached their group. Aaron became upset after one of the boys began hitting on his girlfriend, Dawn Hepburn, and tried to give her his phone number. Heated words were exchanged and the boys shoved each other.

Aaron Abrahamson

Russell’s Friend

As the altercation escalated, Russell came to Aaron’s aid, shoving the boy who had shoved Aaron and ordering him to back down. As they were outnumbered and because Russell, at six-feet-three-inches tall and one-hundred-eighty pounds, was bigger than any of them, they complied and left the park. As they were leaving, however, one of them yelled they were going to “go get their home boys” and return to the park to settle the score.

Neither Russell nor Aaron knew the boys, but several of their friends in the park knew of them and said they were troublemakers. Russell and his friends soon left the park; he and Aaron went to another friend’s house where Russell called his father approximately three hours later, in the early morning hours of June 4, saying he was on his way home.

An Altercation At The Park

A few minutes later, Russell’s friend, Seyd Matteson, saw him jogging toward his home on a near desolate street. The two boys chatted briefly before heading their respective ways.

Seyd Matteson

Russell’s Friend

Approximately an hour later, at 1:05 a.m., motorist Sandy Ferris was startled to come upon Russell lying in a street only two blocks from his home, unable to move. Ambulance personnel and police were summoned.

Russell was rushed to the Sacred Heart Hospital where he lapsed into a coma shortly after arrival. He was pronounced dead eight hours later.

Russell Does Not Make It Home

The police investigation concluded Russell Evans was the victim of a random hit-and-run accident, possibly involving a pickup. Upon impact with the vehicle, investigators believe he was separated from his shoes and came to rest approximately seventy-five feet from where he was struck.

Forensic pathologist Dr. George Lindholm supported the police’s contentions, determining Russell’s wounds were consistent with those caused by a car accident.

Death Ruled Due To A Hit-And-Run

Both of Russell’s parents had medical backgrounds. John Evans had formerly been a cardiopulmonary technologist and Sue Evans was a registered nurse.

Upon viewing Russell’s body, the Evanses believed it looked like their son had been in a fight. They obtained a copy of the official police report, along with crime scene photographs.

John and Sue Evans

 Russell’s Parents

The photos showed that Russell’s shoe laces, in addition to having been torn out, also had blood on them. Both the shoes and shoelaces were downhill, eighty-six feet away. In addition, three separate pools of blood were found as far as fifty feet from where Russell lay.

Map Of the Incident

John and Sue Evans hired Kansas pathologist Dr. William Eckert, one of the nation’s leading death investigators, to examine their son’s body. He partially supported Dr. Lindhom’s ruling, concurring that Russell had been struck in his back by a car, but he also supported the parents’ belief that their son had been in a physical altercation shortly before his death.

Russell had bruises on his hands, face, the side of his nose, and his upper arms, as though he were being held. Dr. Eckert believes Russell was struck with something such as a baseball bat or a 2X4 prior to being struck by a vehicle.

What Russell did not have was also telling. Dr. Eckert says when a body flies through the air after being struck by a vehicle, it will incur massive scraping upon hitting the pavement. Russell had no such scrapings, leading the pathologist to believe he was run over by a car while he was lying on the ground after having been beaten as opposed to being hit while he was walking.

Was Russell Beaten Before Being Run Over?

When Sandy Ferris arrived at the scene, Russell was hysterically yelling for “Brian” to come to his aid. Sandy thought it sounded as if Russell believed Brian was in the vicinity. She also says that after the police and ambulance arrived on the scene, she saw a boy in white shorts in the bushes watching what was unfolding. Upon making eye contact with her, the boy proceeded to run up a hill, away from the scene.

Sandy believes the onlooker may have been the Brian for whom Russell was yelling, but her repeated pleas to call the boy to the police’s attention were ignored.

Sandy Ferris

Bystander Who Found Russell

Russell had a friend named Brian. John Evans said Brian told him he was wearing white shorts and a white t-shirt that evening/early morning, but that he was not ever near where Russell was found. When he was questioned by police, however, Brian denied owning such an outfit.

Shortly after Russell was taken to the hospital, and even before his parents arrived, someone identifying himself as Brian had called the hospital inquiring about Russell’s condition. The friend denied being the Brian in question.

Spokane police say they interviewed Brian and do not believe he was in the area at the time Russell was found. They never determined who the boy was who Sandy Ferris saw running from the scene, but concluded he was a merely a curious onlooker.

Parents Suspect Brian Knows More

The police questioned the three boys who had argued with Russell and Aaron at the park, as well as examined the car belonging to one of the boys, a seventeen-year-old. Nothing was found suggesting the vehicle had been involved in an accident or had any involvement in Russell’s death.

All three boys were cleared of any involvement after passing polygraph tests.

Suspects Cleared . . .

In 1996, seven years after Russell Evans’ death, however, a man claimed to have heard one of the boys involved in the altercation at the park saying he had killed Russell and run over him with his car. Other people also claimed that the two other boys had also boasted about killing him.

When questioned, the now-adult men denied making such statements and police say no other evidence has emerged suggesting they had any involvement in the death of Russell Evans.

. . . But They Reemerge

John and Sue Evans believed their son was involved in a fight with several people in the early hours of June 4. The group that attacked him, they believe, probably included the three boys involved in the earlier altercation at the park.

Russell’s parents have both passed away—John in 1998, Sue in 2011. His sister, Dianna Gulick, was five-years-old when he was killed. She is a member of my Facebook group and is keeping Russell’s case in the news.

If you have any information relating to the murder of Russell Evans, please contact the Spokane, Washington, Police Department at 509-625-4100.

The Evans Family

When she came upon him lying on the road, Sandy Ferris saw a blood-soaked sock, presumably Russell’s, lying farther down the road.

The socks Russell was wearing that night were somehow lost. Detectives suggested they may have been discarded in the hospital’s emergency room.  John and Sue Evans believed the socks were probably bloodied and could show that Russell had been in a fight when he lost his shoes.

What Happened To The Socks?

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/151685828/russell_sigurd-evans/photo

SOURCES:
• Seattle Times
• The Spokesman-Review
• Unsolved Mysteries