Barbara Stager – Staging Murder

Barbara Stager (born October 30, 1948) is an American woman who was convicted in 1989 of murdering her husband, Russell Stager in 1988. Stager is suspected of the murder of her first husband, Larry Ford.  Watch Deadly Women Money and Murder  During their brief, troubled marriage Russ and Barbara spent beyond their means until Russell curtailed their financial excesses. Barbara didn’t like being thwarted; she opened up credit cards without his knowledge and kept spending. Barbara was always the first to get the mail before Russell to keep her activities a secret. Due to her obsession with money and her propensity for having affairs, Russell became suspicious of Barbara and he tape recorded himself, asked questions such as “Why if I was asleep at 3 or 4 in the morning, would Barbara wake me up to give me sleeping pills?” Meanwhile Barbara forged his signature on a will.

Barbara did bizarre things involving friends, too. She lied to Russ and a couple they knew socially, telling all three adults she was advanced $400,000.00 on a novel she was writing for a major publishing house.  After someone checked into her story it was determined to be false. The couple in question stopped seeing Russ and Barbara socially. Russ had several conversations with Jo Lynn Snow, his first wife, about their financial problems and his wife’s promiscuity. Russell discovered that Barbara was stealing from his personal accounts. She was kiting checks, forging his name to his checks and other documents. She took out more insurance on his life. During their last conversation, Russ asked Jo Lynn a favor. Watch similar case Deadly Women – oversexed wife kills husband

At 6:08 a.m. on 1 February 1988, the police in Durham, North Carolina got a call from Stager, reporting her husband had been shot. She told officers her husband kept a handgun under his pillow. When Barbara heard a noise she reached for Russ’s gun, discharging it and killing Stager. Investigators noticed her lack of concern and emotion but ruled the incident an accidental shooting. Barbara cashed in on Russ’s life insurance policies. Jo Lynn Snow put a promise she made to Russ into action and directed police to the audiotape in his office at school. After listening, police re-opened the case, asking Barbara to re-enact the death so they could videotape it.  Incredibly, she obliged and crawled into the same bed where Russ died. Barbara re-enacted the scene several times, each time changing her story to make it more plausible. However, the angle at which she was lying when she claimed to have accidentally shot her husband didn’t make sense. Barbara Stager was charged with first degree murder in the death of Russell Stager.

Watch Deadly Women Fortune Hunters  At the conclusion of her trial for first-degree murder on 30 August 1989, the jury deliberated for 44 minutes to reach a guilty verdict, and Stager was sentenced to death the next day. The death sentence was changed to life imprisonment now being carried out at the North Carolina Department of Corrections. Stager was given the possibility of parole in 20 years as required by law. According to shocked friends, coworkers and family members, Barbara was a devoted wife, mother, and Christian. What they did not know was Barbara Stager was a sex addict and serial killer, who certainly would have killed husband number three had she not been convicted. Jo Lynn Snow, Stager’s first wife whom he divorced to marry Barbara, is credited with provided continuing evidence of Barbara’s spendthrift and adulterous ways, as well as the similar death of her first husband. Attorney Eric Evenson was also convinced of Barbara’s evil nature, and piecing together the puzzleand determining Stager was guilty of murder.