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Russell Armstrong’s sister, 45 year-old Laurie Kelsoe, claims that there’s no way her brother could have killed himself. This comes in a new report on The Today Show, (above) in which Russell’s sister is interviewed and the narrator claims the family says he was murdered. To be fair it was the Today Show, not the sister who was interviewed, who threw out the term “murder.” They state that his sister “said there is no doubt he was murdered,” although she never exactly says that in the clips they show. It’s more like shock and disbelief on her part. The only thing she says to that effect is “From the minute I got the call, I knew it was not suicide.”

The coroner’s report claimed there were “no signs of foul play” however, and his death was ruled a suicide. Today also interviews a guy who owns the addiction and recovery website The Fix, and who was working with Russell on possibly investing in his site prior to his death. Russell’s sister Laurie used to be a meth addict five years ago when she was going through a divorce, and Russell paid for her to spend months in rehab. Russell approached The Fix about becoming a backer, and expressed a seemingly genuine interest in addiction issues. There’s a very good first person article there about their dealings with him prior to his death. In that article, Laurie is quoted but she doesn’t say anything about Russell possibly being murdered. The guy who runs The Fix also expresses doubt that Russell could have killed himself, but he never mentions foul play or anything. Here’s a little more, but I would recommend you read the full article if you’re interested, it’s very well written:

Since they first met at a party six years ago, both Taylor and Russell Armstrong assiduously cultivated a reputation as a high-flying power couple. But days after Russell’s suicide, their carefully crafted facade fell apart. According to Laurie Kelsoe, Taylor, an Oklahoma cheerleader whose original name was Shana Hughes, had changed her name to Taylor Ford and allegedly claimed to be claimed to be a member of the famous Ford family. “But we had a friend who knew the Fords in Detroit, and they didn’t know anything about her. We knew she was a phony from the beginning, but Russell wouldn’t hear of it,” Laurie said.

After Armstrong’s death, Taylor was pilloried as a venal social climber who tried in vain to keep up with her much wealthier fellow cast members. When Kelsoe first visited the couple’s lavish new mansion, she remarked how beautiful it was. “It’s nice,” Taylor reportedly replied, “but it’s not $40-million-dollars nice.” Kelsoe claimed that Russell had reluctantly agreed to appear on the show to satisfy his wife’s social ambitions. “He spent all his savings to maintain Taylor’s illusion that they were wealthier than they were,” she said, “He did anything to make sure she was happy, but nothing was ever enough.”

Even so, after his death it was Russell who bore the brunt of the media’s assault. Last Thursday, TMZ reported that Armstrong had beaten his wife so badly that she had stayed out of public view for weeks. The New York Post reported that he was a regular visitor to gay porn sites and had a proclivity for S&M. Back in Texas, Russell’s distraught sister, one year sober, read these revelations about her brother with horror. She had returned to the small town of Denton with her two sons to build a new life. But last week she broke her anonymity to speak out in Russell’s defense. “He’s not the man they’re saying he is,” she said, speaking from her ranch north of Dallas. She tearfully recalled her brother’s support at a time when other friends and family members had given her up for dead. “I was badly hooked on meth,” she said. “Russell visited me in rehab very week I was there. He paid for my care there and looked after my children. He called me every single day. He made sure I had everything I needed. I don’t recognize this man they’re talking about in the papers. I honestly would not be alive today if Russell had not been there for me.”

Disgusted with the media’s lurid rumors about Armstrong, she’s eager to set the record straight. “My brother is not gay. He’s not into S&M. His biggest mistake was falling in love with Taylor,” she said, adding with a note of irony: “Which is a form of masochism, I guess.” She noted that neither Taylor nor Bravo have bothered to contact her or her family since Russell’s death. “Not even a bouquet of flowers—only lawyers.”

She then wnet on to make some stunning accusations about Taylor—claiming that she stole watches, car keys and thousands of dollars from Russell’s bedroom soon after she discovered his body. Kelsoe said that her brother had been saving the cash to pay the college funds for his two teenage children from a previous marriage. “Taylor is a liar and a thief,” says said. “Her entire life’s ambition was to become a Housewife—you know, she was pregnant when they got married. She wanted a man, she wanted tons of money. and she wanted to be in the limelight. She’s just a gold-digger who reinvented herself and dragged my brother down in the process.” She was especially disgusted by the notorious $65,000 birthday party that Taylor threw for her five-year-old daughter at the former Harry Houdini estate: “That party was a complete embarrassment to everyone,” she says. “We don’t behave that way around here.”

Soon after Armstrong’s death, sources say, Bravo briefly considered canceling the top-rated show. But they quickly decided to carry on. The season premiere of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is set to debut on September 5. The conflict between Russell and Taylor was to be a key storyline of the new season. Armstrong’s family has demanded that Russell be excised completely from the show. “If they have a shred of decency, they won’t make us live through this,” Kelsoe said.

She alleges that Bravo execs, unhappy with early footage of the latest season, had informed Taylor that she would be fired if she didn’t amp up the drama. “Well, they got what they wanted,” she said. “Russell only did this to please his wife. Bravo never told him, ‘We are going to torment you, destroy your marriage, empty your life and rip you apart. Now will you please sign on the dotted line?’”

[From The Fix]

In that article, Laurie makes it sound like her brother was pushed to suicide, and it’s only now in that Today interview that she’s calling it suspicious. The most interesting part to me is the suggestion that Bravo is working to smear Russell after his death, and that they showed him as this wooden unlikable character that wasn’t anything close to his personality. Still, there were so many lawsuits against him, and so many verifiable charges of domestic abuse, that I tend to think at least some of it was true. Also, that stuff about Taylor snatching up all his watches and money immediately after discovering the body is pretty damning, but who knows if it’s true.

Incidentally, it wasn’t mentioned in this article or on The Today Show that Russell’s business partner committed suicide about a day after he did. To me that suggests foul play more than any arguments you could make about his state of mind. (Not that I’m saying it was, just that it should be been brought up by the sister.) Neither of the men left a note.