Tammy had had her house for sale for a long time, so when she saw that stranger stop in front of the ‘for sale’ sign, placed at the entrance of her property, she did not hesitate to invite him to visit the interior. However, there was something about that man, nervous and sweaty, that made her uncomfortable: he had a dark, deep and somewhat distant look.
After touring some of the rooms, the individual asked for the husband, who was absent at that time, which further puzzled the owner. It was then that the crying of his daughter, a baby barely two years old, interrupted the conversation and the future buyer quickly put an end to the conversation. “Tony”, the aforementioned identified himself before leaving and assuring him that he would return with his wife. But he never came back. Unknowingly, Tammy had just escaped the jaws of a sadistic murderer and sexual offender whose biggest fetish was strangling her victims.
The story of Patrick Anthony Russo, better known as Tony Russo, is enigmatic to say the least. And it is that biographical data of the criminal are hardly known, and even less of his childhood. Among the confirmed information: since 1999 our protagonist lived in a mobile home in Bastrop (Texas) with his wife Janet, a school teacher, worked as a carpenter and cabinetmaker and combined this work with that of pastor and musical director at the New Life In Christ.
His neighbors, however, were unaware of Tony’s sexually predatory nature: he had a criminal record for multiple rapes and had been convicted of trying to suffocate one of the victims. In fact, in 2001, at the time of his first and only crime, Tony was on probation for the aggravated kidnapping of another woman. He was 40 years old.
Added to this violent temperament were his sadistic-sexual fantasies, in which Tony searched the Internet for images of women, bound hand and foot, being subdued and dominated while being strangled, suffocated, hung or drowned. This is how this predator found a pornographic website, Necrobabes.com, characterized by offering its users “adult erotic horror”.
The pastor did not hesitate to become a member and pay a six-month subscription. First under a false identity, in February 2001, and on a second occasion, another six months under his real name, in July 2001. Visits to this page were constant, the last two days before the murder of Diane Holik. And, among the more than 1,000 photographs that he came to download on his computer, those that showed manual strangulation and lasso stand out. That had become his dark bondage fetish.
Tony’s sexual depravities grew to the point of stalking potential victims to satisfy his sadistic fantasies. To do this, he would climb aboard his champagne-colored Ford minivan and tour the streets of the famous Great Hills neighborhood in Austin, under the guise of being a potential real estate buyer with cash.
In his search for plausible prey, he watched those who lived alone or whose husbands were absent. Later, he would approach the house in question under the aforementioned pretext and, after scrutinizing the victim, he would summon her to a future visit in the company of his wife.
All the women who were visited by the killer and who lived to tell about it agree on something important about the visitor: his dark gaze and strange behavior made them feel very uncomfortable.
Such was the concern that it generated in some of them, that in the case of Johna Ramírez, the woman decided to write down the registration number of her vehicle as a precaution. It was a reflex act and without thinking: that stranger had left her body very bad. Months later, her sixth sense was key to solving Diane Holik’s murder.
Originally from New York and at the age of 42, Diane Holik had decided to move from Austin to Houston for love. She had recently met the man of her life through a dating application and had fallen madly in love with her. In fact, he had proposed to her right away.
So, faced with such a promising future, the supervisor listed her home at 6313 Pathfinder, in the Great Hills subdivision, where she had settled in 1996, for sale, putting up a “for sale” sign in her front yard.
That afternoon of November 15, 2001, a strong storm was falling on Austin. It was a dark and bleak day, with no buyers in sight. Diane was concentrating on working when suddenly the doorbell rang. On the other side, a man appeared, in his forties, interested in the property. It was Tony Russo.
Diane ushered him in and began a tour of all the rooms. However, Tony had other plans. At one point, the woman offered to make him tea to discuss price and terms of payment: the killer had assured her that she could pay him promptly and in cash, which Diane was excited about. She could finally move in with her fiancé.
Unexpectedly, Tony lunged at Diane’s back and began to choke her with his hands. That maneuver left her unconscious for a few minutes, while the predator took the opportunity to masturbate on her. When the victim came to, she screamed in terror and tried to wriggle away from her assailant.
So, Tony pulled out a rope and strangled her to death. Just before fleeing, the killer stole her engagement ring, valued at $17,500, and a jewelry box with very expensive pieces.
Police found Diane’s body the next day, after her co-workers reported that they couldn’t locate her. That was not typical behavior of the supervisor, so they called 911.
Upon entering, the agents found the woman’s body fully clothed, with no signs of sexual assault, but with marks on her wrists -she had been tied-, in addition to deeper ones on her neck. The scenario indicated that Diane had been killed by ligature strangulation.
According to the autopsy report, the victim had died between three in the afternoon of November 15 and three in the morning of November 16. From there, an arduous investigation began in which the testimony of the neighbors was crucial.
Several witnesses claimed to have seen a man hanging around in a vehicle similar to a champagne-colored van, who claimed to be interested in buying his home in the Great Hills area. Thanks to the description provided, a robot portrait was made and published in the local media.
Days later, Johna Ramírez recognized the drawing and contacted the police: it was the same man who had visited her and whose license plate number she still kept. The data led to Tony Russo, a pastor at New Life In Christ Church in Bastrop, a short drive from Austin, with a long history of sexual assault and, at the time, on probation. They had stumbled upon a possible suspect.
In the early hours of November 21, the investigators proceeded to search the criminal’s mobile home in search of evidence and transferred him to the police station for questioning. According to the detainee’s statement, the afternoon was lost due to the storm, but he did not enter any house. He just asked an old man for directions to get to the KNLE station where he had an appointment. When he arrived, no one opened the door for him, so he assumed that everyone had left due to the storm.
Finishing his story, Tony asked the officers what motive he would have for killing the victim, a woman he had not previously met. Silence filled the room. At eight in the morning, the suspect was released, despite the fact that the positioning of his mobile phone placed him in the victim’s neighborhood. But without more solid evidence they couldn’t hold him.
Fortunately, during the investigation of the case, unequivocal evidence was found that incriminated the pastor with the death of Diane Holik. To begin with, he never appeared on the radio station, if he had he would have seen all the employees in the lobby preparing the building due to the very strong gusts of wind that were expected.
Second, the agents never informed Tony that Diane’s jewelry had been stolen. So how is it possible that Pastor Fox, the reverend of Tony’s church whom he called as soon as he was released, knew this information if the police had never told him this information? Only the true author of the crime could know something like that.
On the other hand, traces of DNA, collected both on a green towel from Diane’s house and under the victim’s fingernails, belonged to Tony Russo. Not to mention that both the neighbors and the stalked women pointed out the detainee without hesitation in a lineup.
Finally, the agents analyzed the Internet search history of the pastor’s computer and discovered hundreds of hits and a subscription to a pornographic page called Necrobabes.com, where Tony had downloaded 1,200 images related to strangulation and submission. They had hit the nail on the head. Tony Russo was his man.
During the trial, held in February 2004, the experts who examined the defendant described him as a “predator skilled at deceit and cunning and at finding ‘lairs’ for potential victims”. Even the prosecution presented a hypothetical scenario to the State’s expert, psychiatrist Richard Coons, who was asked to indicate what motives someone would have for searching erotic asphyxiation websites.
The doctor explained that a sexual sadist is sexually stimulated by a fantasy life until he becomes obsessive. In fact, the person will “act out” the fantasies, looking for potential victims, as they become aroused by watching and controlling another with knives or guns or by injuring them with other methods, including strangulation with ligatures.
Therefore, as revealed by the psychiatrist, the underlying purpose of those who seek this type of content may be to kill, dominate or humiliate another. And, transferring this information to the case at hand, Coons confirmed that what the defendant was looking for on stage was sexual gratification through strangulation with ligatures.
Tony Russo was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Diane Holik. Appeals to the sentence came in 2007 and 2015, but both times they were denied by the Texas Court of Appeals.
Currently, the pastor remains incarcerated in the Thomas Goree Unit in Huntsville, Texas, awaiting possible parole in the year 2044. By then Tony Russo will have turned 83 years old.
At the moment, the predator alternates his daily routine in prison with interviews for television channels interested in his story. It is his terrifying way of continuing to be present in the lives of the relatives of his victims. He doesn’t want to be forgotten.
