By Maya McFall
Mail

Nikki Wasilishin’s life changed forever when her mother was murdered more than 32 years ago.

Now the Cave Creek resident, a Cactus Shadows high school graduate who teaches Pre-K at Quality Interactive Preschool and Montessori, 33212 North 56th St., has a podcast and social media account that delved into her mother’s death to find who killed her.

Nikki isn’t alone in the search. She now has more than 221,000 followers on TikTok, and her podcast, “Papi Killed Mommy,” has been downloaded 240,000 times. It was in the top 20 podcast charts for true crime, and has been played in more than 106 countries, and 6,000 cities worldwide.

“Papi Killed Mommy,” with 23 episodes, has a 4.8 star rating with 190 reviews.

“The response has been overwhelming, to be honest with you. I didn’t expect it to get this big,” Nikki said.

But there are still questions to answer that Nikki has sought since she was 10 years old. The weight of that single night in Sedona has followed her, remaining in the background of her life.

Nikki remembers giving her mother a kiss, seeing her talk on the phone, and then going to bed.

“The next thing I know, the police are waking me up, there’s a flashlight in my face, and they’re telling me to get up and get dressed,” Nikki said.

An unexplained death

Stephanie Wasilishin was shot in her Sedona home on Coffee Pot Drive on July 9, 1993. Who did it remains unsolved.

Sedona Police discovered her body in the bedroom of the home she shared with her boyfriend, Russell Peterson, according to the 1993 case file.

When questioned by police, Peterson claimed he came home from work at 11 p.m., took a shower, then sat on the couch and talked with Stephanie. Peterson then said the conversation became “a little confrontational” when discussing his upcoming two-week trip to culinary school at Cornell University.

“We’re talking, we’re talking. It becomes a little heated, but nothing that a relationship hasn’t had happen in the past,” Peterson told police. “So, I didn’t think anything of it.”

Then, Peterson said Stephanie got up, went to the bedroom, and came back with his Ruger Redhawk .44 magnum. She allegedly fired the gun once and shot the wall beyond Peterson.

Stephanie then returned to the bedroom, and Peterson said he followed her. When he met her in the bedroom, Peterson told police, “I grabbed her hand. And we struggled a little bit, and the next thing I know it went off and she dropped.”

When Sedona Police questioned how long the struggle lasted, Peterson replied, “It couldn’t have been more than 15 seconds, 20 seconds.”

Changing stories

In the days following, Sedona Police interviewed Peterson multiple times. When asked a day later to repeat what occurred after Stephanie went into the bedroom, Peterson changed his story, according to the police report and recordings of the interview.

“I think she committed suicide,” Peterson said. “I might be contradicting the fact, but I might have saw her shoot herself.”

Peterson then agreed to undergo hypnosis and a polygraph test while repeating that he “might have” seen Stephanie commit suicide.

The last time Sedona Police interviewed Peterson was Sept 9, 1993. This time, Peterson told police he did not remember what happened in the bedroom on the night of Stephanie’s death.

“I don’t think there was a struggle. The struggle was my own struggle,” Peterson said. “I never, I don’t think I ever, put my hands on her.”

When lead Detective William Spokes questioned why he believed there was no struggle, Peterson replied it was because he saw Stephanie fall from a distance, according to the interview tapes.

Stephanie’s death was ruled a homicide by Maricopa County Medical Examiner Philip Keene. According to the autopsy report, Keene’s reason for the homicide ruling was due to gun powder residue on Stephanie’s non-dominant left hand, suggesting a defensive posture at the time of her death.

No suspect was ever charged with Stephanie’s murder.

The Cave Creek Independent was unable to reach Peterson for comment.

Telling the story

Nikki said she remembers climbing into the back of a police car with her 3-year-old half-sister Kristina Miller.

“Papi killed mommy,” Kristina said repeatedly to Nikki, and to police, according to the case file.

“I’ll remember that all my life,” Nikki, 32 years later, reflects.

For many years, Nikki lived with the unanswered question: Who killed her mother. But through much it, she thought there was little she could do. That changed in 2020 when Kristina called Nikki and said their mother’s cold case was being re-investigated.

Hopeful, Nikki awaited a call from Sedona Police. After five months of silence, she decided to take matters into her own hands.

Nikki requested her mother’s case file from Sedona Police, and nine months later, she finally decided to read it.

Unsure of where to start, she took the advice of an old friend she used to waitress with, Sarah Turney, and started a TikTok @nicolewasilishin.

Turney herself had created a podcast “Voices for Justice,” and a TikTok account in 2020 that talked about her sister’s 2001 disappearance.

The podcast led to the arrest of her father, Michael Turney, in August 2020. He was charged with second-degree murder of her sister, Alissa. All charges were dismissed when the court did not find enough substantial evidence for a conviction.

Following Turney’s advice, Nikki created a podcast in July 2025, on the anniversary of her mother’s death.

In the podcast “Papi Killed Mommy,” Nikki goes through the case and reveals interviews with Peterson, the 911 call made that night, and conducts interviews with her family members.

Nikki never imagined how much support she would gain from her listeners.

Finding a community

Nikki went to Crime Con, an event for true crime podcasters and fans. She was able to share her story there and was surprised to meet her supporters face to face.

“They’re just as mad as I am, which is overwhelming, you know, to have strangers care just as much as you do,” Nikki said.

Although she has had success with her podcast, chasing justice for her mother has been exhausting, Nikki said.

“When I finished the podcast, I thought that I would be relieved, excited. It was everything that I didn’t think I was gonna feel. I felt like she died again. I couldn’t believe it was over,” said Nikki.

However, Nikki is determined to keep sharing her mother’s story.

“Anybody out there listening to the podcast could be the key to justice, so I’ll keep talking, you know, even if one person listens or a million,” she said.

Although season one of Nikki’s podcast is over, she is planning season two, which will explore true crime stories similar to her own.

“It’s not just a mission for my mom anymore,” she said. “It’s gonna be a lifelong obsession to figure out what the breakdown is with domestic violence in Arizona.”

Her message to victims’ family members is this: “You are your loved one’s own best advocate.”