Who is Russell Adkins? Harrowing details of Dana Rosendale's murder on Dateline: Unforgettable, explored

Dateline: Unforgettable, an anthology of the show's most memorable cases, featured the murder of Dana Rosendale in Season 2 Episode 8, titled Return to the Lonely Road.

Rosendale was murdered in 1982, and her case was solved almost after three decades, in 2016, when her daughter re-opened and pleaded to exhume her body for new evidence, which opened her investigation once again.

Upon this re-investigation, and as shown in Dateline: Unforgettable, a bouncer, Russell Adkins, was convicted for her murder, who reportedly offered a ride to Dana and her best friend on the night of her murder.

While justice was served to Dana through her daughter's efforts and Adkins was convicted, he was later acquitted by Ohio's 6th District Court of Appeals. Since this acquittal means that he cannot be further retried for the murder, Adkins is allegedly a free man as of now.

More on Dana Rosendale's murder as shown in Dateline: Unforgettable in our story.

Dateline: Unforgettable: Russell Adkins was convicted after three decades for Dana Rosendale's murder

Dateline: Unforgettable's July 26, 2022 case featured the murder of 19-year-old Dana Rosendale, who was out with her best friend on the night of September 5, 1982. But she did not return home to her boyfriend and 8-month-old infant because she was murdered by a bouncer, Russell Adkins, who offered her a lift that night.

Dana was found injured and unconscious the next morning when she was admitted to Mercy St. Charles Hospital, but she died on September 11.

As per Adkin's report, Dana fell out of his vehicle because of an open latch and suffered various injuries due to this. As per then Lucas County Coroner Dr. Steven Fazekas's autopsy, he could not find any specific injuries, and declared her cause of death as 'undetermined', which ruled out the possibility of a homicide.

But decades later, Dana's daughter pleaded to exhume her body and Dr. Diane Scala-Barnett concluded that she sustained three blows to the head, hinting somebody deliberately beat her, and her case was opened for homicide.

While Adkins pleaded innocence, he was found guilty of Dana's murder, and Wood County Common Pleas Judge Reeve Kelsey sentenced him to life in prison in January 2016. But this was definitely not the end for Adkins.

Why was Adkins acquitted of Rosendale's murder as shown in Dateline: Unforgettable?

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While Adkins was found guilty by a jury of 12 members in 2016, the Appeals court declared that he could not be convinced of Dana's murder in 1982 because of insufficient evidence. In addition, her coroner, who performed the original autopsy, was dead by 2016. He had ruled out the possibility of a homicide, which was used in favor of Adkins.

After his initial sentence of 15 years, many of Adkin's friends, including David Liner, called it an 'injustice' and stated that Dana's accident was a 'horrible accident'.

Surprisingly, many people resonated with Adkin's friend and felt that his conviction was unjust after almost three decades of Dana's murder. Ohio's Appeals court overturned his murder conviction, and he was declared a free man in 2018.

While the Dateline: Unforgettable episode explored how the state again requested a retrial, it was overturned on the grounds that Adkins was acquitted and cannot be retried further.

Watch his case as shown on Dateline: Unforgettable on Oxygen now.