2018 Out in STL article.
Former St. Louis con Dustin Mitchell, who is currently incarcerated in Texas, has victimized many people over the years—but he must rue the day he messed with Stephanie McMurry. It was the night of June 28, 2017 when Mitchell steered McMurry and her then-husband to his Frisco, Texas townhome, where he drunkenly claimed to perform an exorcism on McMurry while assaulting her. Mitchell then had her committed to a psychiatric ward while claiming to be the couple’s attorney. The entire story can be read here.
Since then, McMurry has been tireless in her quest to take Mitchell down. Through her Bustin’ Dustin Facebook page, McMurry gathered information from other victims, which she shared with detectives. And because McMurry was herself a victim, detectives would tell her far more than they would tell the media. McMurry would also call Mitchell’s associates, who, surprisingly, had long conversations with her, which she’d secretly record.
“Stephanie’s life was not easy. She was always fighting one battle or another, either real or imagined,” says acquaintance Lacey McCullough. “Even when her only real opponent was herself, the fight was real. It was astonishing how committed she was to bringing Dustin to justice. Long after the rest of us [victims] had given up and tried to move on with our lives, Stephanie kept fighting. She enlisted an actual army of people to battle alongside her. The attrition rate was high, but she fought on. There are things we know now that we never would have known without her. ”
Like McCullough, I was briefly made an admin of the Bustin Dustin’ page, but one by one McMurry pushed everyone out until she was the sole administrator.
McMurry is survived by her partner and her three children, ages 13, 3, and 7 months. A gofundme is being set up, and this story will be updated with that information.
