Before the sun had time to warm the sand on a brisk Saturday morning last November, Dean Russell walked the Oak Island shoreline, scouring the beach for body parts.
The 53-year-old construction worker and landscaper looked inconspicuous in jeans, a T-shirt, and sneakers. His dark sunglasses and the bandana holding back a shock of salt-and-pepper hair might’ve drawn suspicion, but the beach was mostly deserted, save for a few early-rising power walkers who seemed oblivious to Russell’s macabre mission.
Russell, an Oak Island property owner since 2020, had walked that beach plenty of times, occasionally finding arms and legs that had washed ashore. Or hands. Or feet…