•           Russell and Shirley Dermond, 88 and 87, were murdered in May 2014 - their bodies were found in or near their estate on Lake Oconee, Georgia

•           Lois Colley, 83, was found bludgeoned to death in her North Salem estate on November 9

•           The elderly victims were all very wealthy, had nothing taken from their expensive homes, and there was no forced entry in either location

•           All of the victims had been fast food franchise owners at one point

By KIRI BLAKELEY and ASSOCIATED PRESS and JAMES GORDON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Investigators are looking into whether the unsolved murders of three elderly victims in two states could be related.

Wealthy married couple Russell and Shirley Dermond, ages 88 and 87, were found murdered in May, 2014. Russell's body was discovered beheaded in the garage at his home on Lake Oconee, Georgia.

His wife, Shirley, was found weighted down with blocks on the lake on which the home stood.

On November 9, Lois Colley, 83, was found bludgeoned to death in the laundry room of her home in North Salem, New York. She was the wife of McDonald's franchise owner Eugene Colley, who is said to be worth at least $100million.

The murder weapon may have been a missing fire extinguisher. 

Stymied police detectives who have not yet found any suspects in the murders have turned to each other to see if the cases could be related since there are circumstantial similarities in the crimes, reports IndyStar.

Putnam County, Georgia Sheriff Howard Sills says while his gut tells him the cases are unrelated, there are enough similarities that detectives from Georgia and New York have banded together to examine the crimes.

He noted that the killings had some eerie parallels: The couple and the elderly woman were all wealthy. There was also no sign of forced entry at either crime scene.The victims lived in exclusive communities. The murders had no apparent motive. Nothing was taken from either of the homes, despite plenty of valuable property.

And the victims all owned fast food franchises. Colley was the widow of a wealthy McDonald's franchise owner who ran over 100 of the fast food joints.

The Dermonds owned Wendy's and Hardees franchises as recently as the late 1990's, according to WMAZ.

There was one other piece of information that detectives noted: the Dermonds' son Mark Dermond was killed in a drug deal in Atlanta 15 years ago.

But Sills said in the 1980s Mark Dermond was arrested in Nassau County, New York, only 50 miles from the Colley crime scene.

Sills said he spoke to New York State Police investigator Joseph Becerra for 45 minutes comparing the two cases.

He said he will be waiting to see if an arrest is made in the New York case and, if so, whether the suspect was in Georgia during the time of the Desmond murders.

Sills previously said the Desmond case is basically cold.

While investigators scoured the Dermond house and surrounding areas around it for evidence, whatever they collected has yet to render a linchpin clue. And in the year since the killings, despite $55,000 in reward money, the flow of tips has all but dried up.

Even the kooks have quit calling.

'Reluctantly, or regretfully I guess is the better word,' Sills said, 'I have to admit that things have slowed considerably. We are not getting any new calls. The reward is not seeming to initiate any information. ... We're not even getting the psychics,' he told AJC.

Meanwhile, the Colley murder drew attention for a reason besides its sheer brutality: Lois Colley was the mother of Bruce Colley, 62, the wealthy playboy whose 2003 affair with Kerry Kennedy resulted in the end of her marriage to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo suspected the two were having an affair and went to Colley's then-wife Ann. The two decided to confront their respective spouses on the same day, and both admitted to the affair.The couples later divorced.