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Diane Holik was a 43-year-old woman who was found strangled to death at her Austin residence on November 16, 2001. When authorities entered the crime scene, they found ligature marks at the victim's neck.
There were no signs of forced entry; however, Diane's $17,500 engagement ring was missing from her finger. When authorities began to interrogate Diane Holik's friends and coworkers, they found that the victim had put her house up for sale.
Notably, on the previous day, she had allowed a stranger to enter the house as a prospective buyer.
Dateline's episode titled After the Storm explores the entire investigation behind finding the murderer of Diane Holik. The episode was released on June 21, 2025, on NBC. Viewers can stream all the episodes on Peacock.
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5 key details about Diane Holik's murder
1) Diane Holik was planning to sell her house and move to Houston
As reported by Oxygen, Diane had gotten engaged shortly before her death. She had put her house in Austin for sale, and was preparing to relocate to Houston, where her fiancé, Dennis, lived.
As reported by her coworker, Cynthia Barajas, the Dateline subject, Diane Holik, had a conversation with her on November 15, 2001. During this time, Diane revealed that a man arrived to see her house. The man said that he would return with his wife later.
Cynthia said Diane was excited, thinking her house was finally sold. However, Cynthia warned her not to let any strangers enter into her house, when she was alone.
2) Diane Holik could not be reached after a violent storm on November 16, 2001
As reported by Oxygen, on the day of Dateline subject Diane's murder, a violent storm hit the area. After the storm passed, Diane's friends began calling to check up on her. However, none of them could reach Diane.
The next day, Diane missed her meeting, and this was when the Austin Police were reported to do a welfare check at her residence. Diane Holik's neighbor and realtor, Lakki Brown, led the police inside the property. During this search, they found the body of Diane Holik in the guest bedroom upstairs.
3) Diane Holik was tied and strangled to death
As reported by Oxygen, Diane's body had Asphyxial marks on her neck. Additionally, there were red marks on her wrist, indicating that she had been tied with a zip clipper, and the killer took them out before leaving.
During forensic examination, it was revealed that Diane Holik died due to strangulation. There were no signs of sexual assault on the victim. However, the $17,500 engagement ring on Diane's finger was missing.
4) Diane Holik's killer was tracked down with the license plate number
As reported by Oxygen, when authorities started the investigation, one of Diane's neighbours came forward. He revealed that on the day of the murder, around 5 pm, he had seen a brown or gold colored Van parked on Diane's doorway, and considered it to be one of the buyers.
When authorities started investigating around the neighborhood, a number of property sellers described a man who only wanted to look for vacant houses.
As per Oxygen, Real Estate agent Agent Melody Blount even said that the man was more interested in looking out of the windows than inside the rooms.
Reportedly, one of the house owners found this very suspicious. When the man paid a second visit, she wrote his license plate number and stuck it on the refrigerator, as reported by Oxygen. Using the licence plate, authorities managed to track down the gold coloured van belonging to a man named Patrick Tony Russo.
Patrick Russo was the singer of a Christian rock band and also worked part-time as a music minister in a local church. During the interrogation, he denied knowing anything about Diane. Patrick Russo even claimed that he had never been looking for any houses.
5) Patrick Russo was found guilty of the murder of Diane Holik
As reported by Oxygen, when authorities began interrogating Patrick Russo's past, they found him to be a convicted criminal. Reportedly, Russo had several cases of attack on women, who tried to strangle them when they were alone.
Patrick Russo was out of prison on parole and married to a woman he met during his time in prison, as reported by Oxygen. Investigators found strong evidence against Russo when they managed to retrieve his DNA sample from a flyer he had touched during one of his house visits.
During DNA analysis, the sample matched with DNA from some strands of hair found in Diane's residence. Additionally, the swab sample from Diane's finger, where her engagement ring was placed, also had a mix of Diane and Russo's DNA.
As reported by Oxygen, it was in February 2004 when Patrick Russo was arrested. He was charged with the capital murder of Diane Holik. It was in June 2007 when Russo was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Check out our other articles to learn more details about other cases on Dateline.
