The Dateline episode “On a Lonely Road” is about a young, determined woman named Brittany Stork and her quest to understand the mysterious death of her mother Dana Rosendale who died at the age of 19 in 1982. (Brittany was 8 months old.) Brittany had been told by her family that her mother died in a tragic car accident but that’s not what it said on her death certificate (it said “undetermined”).
The night of her death, new mother Rosendale went out with her friend Roxy Pelow to a night club. The bouncer, Russell Adkins, gave Rosendale and Pelow a ride home. Pelow made it home but Rosendale did not. Rosendale was found unconscious on the side of a road and died at the hospital from craniocerebral injuries due to blunt force trauma to the head. Adkins claimed Rosendale fell out of his car. Adkins was put on trial twice for the murder of Rosendale. (The first produced a hung jury.) During the trial, Pelow testified and said Adkins called her the follow day and told her that Rosendale, who was very drunk, had fallen out of the car and that Adkins had “freaked out” and left her there. In July 2016, Atkins was sentenced to life in prison. Dateline NBC at 9pm on NBC.
