20/20 - The Lies Beneath

Episode Date: January 18, 2025

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Air Transat presents two friends traveling in Europe for the first time and feeling some pretty big emotions. This coffee is so good! How do they make it so rich and tasty? Those paintings we saw today weren't prints. They were the actual paintings. I have never seen tomatoes like this. How are they so red? With flight deals starting at just $589, it's time for you to see what Europe has to offer. Don't worry, you can handle it. Visit airtransat.com for details, conditions apply. Air Transat, travel moves us. Tonight, the sensational trial that just finished.

Why would a beloved family man suddenly disappear on his family and friends? And then tell them not to come looking for him. The stunning courtroom confession on an all new 2020 beginning right now. Stunning courtroom confession on an all-new 2020 beginning right now. I'm living in the Twilight Zone and I can hear the theme song going on. He opened the door and he was covered in blood. He was here one moment, gone the next.

There's no goodbye, there's no I'll talk to you later, there's no nothing. He was gone. They were getting these weird messages. Roses are red, violets are blue, my wife is a whore, your husband is too. My family and I are begging you, asking for your assistance. Nothing added up, nothing made sense. Had she ever mentioned anything about Mike? Concerns about Mike? She's sobbing. She's just, I know he's coming around.

There's stuff, you know, doors that were closed or open. Lori told her that Mike got picked up in a black SUV one day. Never came back. And I started putting those pieces together. It made it alarming. It gave me chills. Everything that had been happening for the last two and a half years was likely a lie. There was just more and more twists and turns. You know, they ask, well when's the last time you've seen them? Frankly, I said years.

What? This is Claremont, Florida, a rural community about 20 miles west of Orlando, but a world apart from the tourist-filled amusement parks. Michael and Lori Shaver were raising their two children here when his lifelong friend Scott Amatuccio started to get worried. We were best friends. We were just always around each other. I could tell something was off. I just haven't heard from Mike for a while.

I had texted him at some point in time, he never responded. And then I'm like, what's going on with Mike's Facebook? I go to his page and he wasn't even my friend anymore. For friends so close, an unexplained social media slight like this was too strange to ignore. And it turns out Scott wasn't the only one worried. I would get strange messages. We were just questioning it. Like is he having that many troubles that he has to turn away from his family? The communication went down and it seemed to be just a text or a social media Facebook message.

We had conversations all the time about, where's Mike? Have you seen Mike? Have you heard from Mike? Someone said Michael just took off in a black SUV and never came back. None of this adds up. Clearly something wasn't right. Michael was missing. He was here one moment, gone the next. Just gone.

Everybody's hair was raised and what's going on? It was that concern that started the unraveling of a years-long mystery as deep and dark as the lakes that surround this place. Hi, I'm Michael Schaeberg. Oh, there I am. That's me. Let me see. Michael grew up the third child of four with his brother and two sisters in the tiny rural

village of Lawrence in upstate New York. Our relationship was a very special bond. My mom was a single mother, so I would help my mom out whenever she needed help with Michael. I would always put Michael first. This is a photo of Mike and I. We're at my house that I grew up in. We would just have fun as kids, ride our bikes all day long, go on adventures, always playing around the neighborhood. I'm still playing all by myself. He was great at playing drums. Eventually he learned to play guitar.

We used to have this band. We called it Rifles and Dandelions. Instead of Guns N' Roses, that was our silly way of coming up with a band. As a young man, Michael showed a talent for working with his hands. I played with tools all my life. I believe that the genes were passed on to Michael because as a kid, he used to repair stuff around the house. He would go around the town, and people would actually give him stuff.

He would fix it. He might take an old bicycle or something and fix it up and make it work again for somebody. It's like a sense of accomplishment, saying, I fixed that. One time, him and his friend built an airplane out of wood in the backyard. And I swear, if they'd had a motor,

they would have taken off. It was really something. You should have seen it. Michael's love of tinkering with things, I believe, led him to wanting to work on airplanes. And then as he got a little older, he wanted to learn how to fly. Flying wasn't the only thing Michael loved. By the time he'd gotten to high school, his head was also in the clouds for Lori Paddleford, seen here in their yearbook. We all grew up together. It was around seventh or eighth grade. Mike had a crush on Lori. He wanted to figure out the best way to ask

her out. We had come up with this great idea of playing boys to men in the background. ["I'll Make Love To You"] So that's how they ended up dating. I don't think I really understood how serious it was until after they graduated. Then they were talking about marriage. This is a picture of Mike and I at his wedding. I was his best man and this was us together.

Their wedding was beautiful. Lori, she was so happy. I remember Michael couldn't stop smiling. He eventually got his commercial pilot license, worked for Piedmont. He loved it and he used to take his friends up and do loop the loops with them and they loved it. Soon Michael and Lori became parents to daughter Isabel and her younger brother Aiden. After moving up and down the East Coast, Michael and his family ended up in the Sunshine State. When I moved down to Florida, it's when they moved down to Florida.

They moved to Claremont, bought a property, five acres. It's pretty rural, it's beautiful lakes, some rolling hills. It's pretty rural, it's beautiful lakes, some rolling hills, it's pretty quiet. They had chickens and guineas and turkeys and quite a few ducks and he wanted them to have their own duck pond. In his off hours he worked as a mechanic for Precious Metal, a local flight team that performs in races all over the country. We were both volunteers for

the precious metal air racing team. Reno Air Racing has been compared to NASCAR of the sky. It's multiple planes on a closed course at one time. Speeds are up to 500 miles per hour. You're 50 feet off the ground. It's a huge adrenaline rush. We spent several years, several long nights, sometimes three days in a row working on the plane together. The people who described him as a genius, I would agree, he just took care of it.

He knew that the job was gonna be completed as it should. Lori worked from home for an insurance company while Michael was away for days at a time working as a pilot. Wanting to be with his family more, Michael quit the airline business for another dream job, this one at the most magical place on earth. Well, Mike and I worked at Epcot together.

He was a mechanic. Working at Disney was just his little kid inside, and he loved that job. You know, he was flourishing. inside and he loved that job. You know, he was flourishing. But then, for some reason, dependable Michael just stopped showing up. He was here one moment, gone the next.

No goodbye, no nothing. It seemed Michael Shaver was blowing off his friends, his family, even his job. When the manager contacted Mike, Mike's response was, you can go ahead and fire me, I'm not coming back. But if Michael Shaver wasn't coming back,

where exactly was he going? In the fall of 2015, Michael Shaver, father of two, a mechanic who loved to work on and fly planes, seems to just fall off the grid. He was here one moment, gone the next. There's no goodbye, there's no I'll talk to you later, there's no nothing. He was gone.

It was a disappearance that just didn't make sense to Michael's friends. Who wondered after nearly a decade marriage could this have something to do with his rocky relationship with his wife, Lori. I'm Wilma Nicklaus and I was the neighbor for Lori and Mike Shaver. Mike was about the same age as my oldest son so he was kind of like another son to me. My home was probably 50 feet away from their home, no trees in the middle. I would be just outside doing my chores and I could hear the arguments happening inside. I talked to Lori, I just said, you guys okay? You know, I hear you fighting sometimes. Lori acted like everything was fine.

She was all smiles and he was all smiles and they covered it up pretty good. I had no idea the extent of what was going on. I guess that's typical. Nobody knows what's really going on inside the house. On a hot, late summer afternoon, the simmering tension inside the house erupts. Now, do you need police fire or the ambulance service? Please. I'm on my way to the sheriff office right now. I got my kids in a lot.

What's going on? It was domestic violence. My hand is bleeding. I had just gotten home from work and my phone rang and it was Mike and he said, can you come over? I need your help. He opened the door and he was covered in blood. Blood streaming down his face. There was torn clothes. I took a whole lot of photos just in case he needed it at any point in the future. There was a domestic abuse incident in September of 2014 at Michael and Lori's house. We're dealing with a scenario where we have the allegations made by Lori Shaver. Lori tells the 911 operator she and Michael have been fighting a lot lately, but it never got physical until that night.

Mike's version of events was, she was the one that grabbed the gun. She was the one that was initiating the violence. He was trying to calm the situation down. He said that they had been in a fight. And Lori had threatened to kill him and herself and that they had wrestled with the gun. Has there been any drinking tonight? Yes, there has.

We probably had three beers down to a fox. You both had three beers? Yeah. Michael admits he kept the car keys from Lori to prevent her from leaving, but he says that's because he didn't want his wife driving with the kids after she'd been drinking. Both say during the struggle, Lori hit Michael on the head with her revolver. The revolver that was on the bed looked like a.38 and it had pink plastic grips. Then I noticed there were roses all over the floor.

She didn't go up to Michael Shaver and just wail on Michael Shaver. He had a handgun he pulled on her, and I believe she tried to deflect the gun and it hit him. Police are unable to determine who started the physical altercation with the pistol. Ultimately, Michael was arrested for not anything dealing with the firearms, but he admitted I grabbed her and law enforcement arrested him for battery. The battery charge is ultimately dropped, but things are never the same between the childhood sweethearts.

Both Michael and Lori dug in and pointed fingers at each other. Lori had been the victim of years of physical abuse by Michael Shaver. These acts were extreme. Lori was locked in a closet. Lori would be physically beaten. I never heard Mike scream at Lori or do anything physically. Lori trying to paint Mike into this monster

and the abusive person in the relationship. Everybody in that knew Mike knew that wasn't the case. I do think Lori was abusive towards my brother and controlling. She would only let him talk for 20 minutes on the phone to me. His friends would say that he'd come around and have bruises and they'd ask him what was the matter, what happened, and oh, Lori got mad.

Michael Shaver was not some innocent victim that married some violent woman. Michael Shaver was an aggressive guy and she was always the victim of this aggression. In the fall of 2014, a judge grants a no-contact order against Michael, and he's forced to move out of the house he shared with Lori and his kids. Mike was staying in the airplane hangar where the precious metals plane was. I just figured it was for a day or two, and then later on I learned that he'd been down there you know for a week or even more. He was

sleeping, living basically at the hangar. There was like a meeting room with some nice big comfortable couches. There was a shower there in a bathroom. She would kick him out, he would leave, a month or two would go by and then she would have him come back again. Michael's friends say that while he was living out of the house, he still keeps tabs on Lori, suspecting she's seeing other men. When they would split up and Mike would be gone, there would be men that would come over quite often to the house. Michael believed that Lori cheated on him quite frequently. Lori always denied that she was cheating on Michael.

He would say, what do you think? Does it sound like she's cheating or am I just losing my mind? There was a time where I think Mike just needed to know what was going on at home. He and a friend would fly over Mike's house just to see whose truck was in the driveway, maybe just to make sure nobody was there.

He was willing to overlook that and get past it, but it showed the love that he had of willing to fix stuff to be with his family. He loved her so much, I guess he forgave her. Michael's repeated attempts to save his marriage began to strain his other relationships. I tried to go visit Michael and his children in Florida and always at last minute I would get a message saying that

Lori said it was a bad time, that we shouldn't come down. But soon the communication from Michael went from infrequent to almost non-existent. He seemed to simply vanish. He was there at the Tractor Show, and then the next week he was gone. Then there was nothing in between. It was just gone.

And when Frank checks in with Lori, her answer only deepens the mystery. According to Lori, Michael blew out of town, didn't want to be part of the family anymore. Gone without a trace, or was he? family anymore. Gone without a trace or was he? Michael and Lori had a rollercoaster relationship but in the fall of 2015 things seemed to be going well. So well that Michael has moved back in with Lori and the kids. I know that he went home and that they were trying to work things out.

He had quite a few ducks and they were staying with the chickens in the chicken coop and he wanted them to have their own duck pond. He was digging out a duck pond in the back for her ducks because she wanted to raise ducks and chickens. So he was home they were back together again. So he was home. They were back together again. But then things take another turn. November 7th, 2015. It's a day Frank Merritt says he will never forget. He and his family met Michael and Lori Shaver and their children at a local tractor show. Oh, it was really hot that day. They do show three or four times a year during the winter months. It's just a bunch of antique tractors and it's like a flea market.

Mike was really into that stuff. He really liked that old stuff. But Michael's friend and coworker, Frank, says he could once again sense an unspoken tension between Michael and Lori. She just wouldn't make eye contact with us. She wouldn't speak with us. And it was just kind of weird, because she was usually more bubbly than that.

And then he says, hey, I gotta go. So they left. The next time Frank hears from Michael is by text, two days later. He had texted me on Monday that he was gonna have to quit his job to save his marriage. So I just kind of backed out of it. I just left him alone. So when he didn't show up Tuesday, I didn't think nothing of it. It's just, well, he's got some problems. They'll work it out.

Then Wednesday he didn't come, and Thursday he didn't come. And it wasn't until Thursday night that our manager came to see us. After three days of no showing at work Michael's manager reaches out to him and gets a surprising response back. Mike's response was you can go ahead and fire me I'm not coming back. So just none of it made sense at all that Michael had sent a text message to his boss just up and quitting. He was known to be a very dependable worker and a diligent worker that didn't add up at all.

Well, if he's not showing up and not calling, I'll go by and check on him. But when Frank goes to Michael's house looking for answers, he only ends up with more questions. Lori answers the door, asks where Mike is at, and she said he's not home. And I said, well, what do you mean he ain't here? And I said, well, his car's here. And his car was in the driveway. So she said, he's not here.

Frank says Lori eventually told him that after a heated argument, Michael stormed off, catching a ride with his friend Robert to Georgia. And she hadn't seen him since. Mike catching a ride with his friend Robert to Georgia. And she hadn't seen him since. Mike never told me he wanted to go to Georgia. He had never spoken about wanting to leave, leave the state, leave the marriage, any of that. I thought he was happy here and we were doing so well.

And then I said, huh, what an idiot. I felt like that was the wrong thing to do, you know, let's just walk away. I reached out to Lori through Messenger on Facebook and I said, do you know where Michael is? And she said, no, he left. He left the kids, he's not paying child support. This strikes Michael's sister, Stacey,

as completely out of character for the brother she knows. His kids meant more than anything in the world to him, and he would not just up and leave his children. And when I was texting with him, he says, I'm never coming back, and just wasn't answering his phone, never coming back. I knew they were having some marital problems, so I felt like he needed some space.

He doesn't want to be involved with this craziness. Could Michael have finally had enough of his rocky marriage and decided to ditch it all, his job included, and had North to start over? It was his dream job. He would never quit. Nothing added up. Nothing made sense. What was strange and unusual about the messages that Mike was sending to

his friends and family? The common theme of all of them would have been leave me alone. I don't want to have anything to do with you. Just leave me alone. I don't have family. He didn't want to be found. He wanted to be left alone. He was not coming back. He had abandoned his family and he was gone. These text messages were completely out of character for Michael. I think that the family really noticed that very quickly. Michael's niece Desireiree Ruggles, got this text from him, flat out saying, I don't have a family.

Is there a reason why he's pulling away from our family? Cause he doesn't talk to us anymore. Does he just need time? And I got a little angry and I'm just like, you know what? If you don't want to be a brother, don't be a brother. Just when it seems he's gone for good and his wife Lori is moving on. Lori met Jeremy at a park and their children began to play together.

Michael Shaver seems to show back up. Had she ever mentioned any concerns about Mike? Yes. She goes, I know he's coming around, I know he's harassing me, there's doors that were closed or open and like you need to get a restraining order. Michael Shaver seems to be abandoning his life. He hasn't shown up to work. And when friends and family reach out to him, they get messages saying, just leave me alone. According to Lori, Michael blew out of town,

didn't want to be part of the family anymore, left the state. Over time, with blew out of town, didn't want to be part of the family anymore, left the state. Over time, with no sign of Michael, Lori moves on with her life, meeting a new man, Jeremy Townsend, or Jay, as he's often called. He's in the military or was in the military. They ended up exchanging numbers and a relationship developed. Lori's fresh start also includes getting fit. She starts working with a personal trainer named Rebecca Filmer.

That a girl? Way to work, way to work. How did you meet Lori? So I originally met her at Gold's Gym. How did you meet Lori? So I originally met her at Gold's Gym. I met her through her then boyfriend, Jay Townsend. He introduced us as his girlfriend at the time. She had just lost a lot of weight and she wanted to start working out. Lori was super sweet.

She was just someone that was very easy to talk to. She liked going out to dance and stuff, so we just kind of connected. Now you end up becoming roommates. You moved in in this neighborhood with her. Yes, we became friends pretty close. So close that Lori confides in her about relationships with men, including what Lori says was a difficult marriage to Michael Shaver. She told me she was in this relationship

that he made her feel bad about herself. And I started to understand why she wanted to lose so much weight, why she was so focused on her appearance. I mean, in session, she'd be in the mirror like fixing her hair and making sure everything was just so. And even though it seemed Michael had initially skipped town, Rebecca says Lori told her that she started to sense that he was back.

There was a time, we're sitting in the living room and she's sobbing. She's just, I know he's coming around. There's stuff, you know, doors that were closed or open. And I'm like, you need to get a restraining order, you know, doors that were closed or open and I'm like, you need to get a restraining order, you know, if it's getting that bad. She said, no, I don't want to be bothered. It's just going to kind of open up a whole other can of worms. Rebecca says Lori told her that she was divorcing Michael once and for all and moving on with her life. And she goes, oh, I had the quarter parents for her to settle their divorce. I'm like, Oh, okay, you know, how did that go? She said it was

settled. She's officially divorced and I was like, perfect. But Laurie's new relationship is far from perfect. She knows that man she's been seeing, Jeremy Townsend, is already married. Jeremy's wife didn't know about Laurie. And Jeremy doesn't seem to be leaving his wife anytime soon, something that texts between the two show was creating a strain on their relationship. In April 2016, Jeremy's wife Vanessa gets a surprise. She's at work one day when she receives a flower delivery,

but it's not from Jeremy. The delivery comes with a strange card. Roses are red, violets are blue, my wife is a whore, your husband is too, sorry about this. Check your Facebook message, we need to talk, Mike. Then Jeremy's wife goes onto Facebook and finds a message from Michael Shaver informing her of the affair.

He says he's installed a spy app on Lori's cell phone, and he includes screenshots of texts and explicit photos between Jeremy and Lori. Basically, Mike was outing this affair. Lori's relationship with Jeremy implodes after his wife finds out. It was clear that he wasn't going to be leaving his wife. They were going to work it out and him and Laurie were over. Laurie moves on from Jeremy pretty quickly to another guy, Travis. Travis Filmer was a youth leader at a local church. Lori met him through Rebecca.

I didn't know anything about her, but from appearances, she was really put together. I knew that she had kids. I saw how she interacted with the kids. So for me, that was a very important thing. I've always wanted kids. I've always wanted a family. I know when I was a kid and my parents got divorced, it destroyed me. The sparks between Travis and Lori first flying during a bonfire get together at Lori's house. Her smile is the one thing that just stood out to me. It drew me to her.

After that night, it was Travis's, Travis's that. And I'm like, oh my God. Here we go. I think she has a type. When I've seen pictures of Mike and the way that he would dress, it was similar to Travis. We ended up going out to dinner. We just hit it off. We had a lot in common and decided

to keep seeing each other. Lori also told Travis details about her relationship with Michael. From the things that she described to me, it was a very bad situation. She had told me that they were divorced. And I did ask if she was receiving any child support. And she told me that she wasn't, that he didn't want anything

to do with the kids. I'm Kendall Windsor. I'm Travis Filmer's mother. Laurie was lovely. It was like he was with us one day and then next thing you know, he's living with Laurie. This is the person I want to be with. Not only did I fall in love with Laurie, but I fell in love with Aiden and Isabel too. Travis and Laurie's love affair is moving quickly,

and on New Year's Eve 2016, they decide to have a wedding ceremony right here in Lori's backyard. We had friends, family come over. It was fantastic. I was told they were getting married this day, that time, and I showed up. Lori had fixed up the five-acre property prior to the occasion, putting in a backyard fire pit.

The couple later etched their initials into the concrete around it. Lori walked out to the Brantley Gilbert song, Fall Into Me. So we're sitting on bales of hay. My dad walks her down the aisle. The ceremony was underneath this big oak tree. Hi Travis. Hi Travis. Hi Travis. Thank you Lori.

Thank you Lori. We did this to really just show everybody in front of God that we're committed to each other. This is a lifelong thing. Travis, you may now kiss the bride. Yay! Calling all sellers, Salesforce is hiring account executives to join us on the cutting edge of technology. Here, innovation isn't a buzzword, it's a way of life.

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at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an advisor free of charge. Bet MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. So Lori has moved on and put her ex Michael Shaver behind her, but Michael's friends and family have not been able to do the same, still wondering why it's been so long. At this point, more than two years since any of them

have laid eyes on him. Clearly something wasn't right. And that lifelong friend Scott Amatuccio is about to make a stunning discovery. It made my stomach sink right away. New Year's Eve 2016, Lori Shaver and Travis Filmer had a wedding ceremony in their backyard. Until death do us part. Just steps from that fire pit where their initials are etched in the concrete. And a year later, the couple had even more to celebrate.

And I looked at her and I was like, are you serious? And she's like, yeah, I'm pregnant. I was just floored. Like absolutely floored. They would quickly add another child to their growing brood along with the two kids Lori shared with her ex, Michael Shaver. Michael hadn't been seen by friends and family since he seemingly walked away from his life. Michael would pop up every now and then with Facebook messages to his family, to his friends.

I don't want to be bothered. I'm working on myself. Even though the years were passing, friends and family said the occasional texts and Facebook messages led them to believe Michael wanted to be left alone. Facebook messages led them to believe Michael wanted to be left alone. Everybody rationalized it as give the man space. We knew what he was going through with the family by this point.

I should have probably text Mike more and call them, but we were never much in the text in her phone. I had my first daughter and I was so consumed in that. It was just not on my mind. Scott then gets a phone call from his ex-fiance, Katina Vasquez, that would change everything. She tells him she happened to be over at Michael and Lori's house two and a half years ago. Right after, Lori said, Michael, skip town. She had noticed that Mike's possessions were there.

Clothing was there, his wallet was there, his phone, all that was there. His car was still there. His guns were still there. Basically everything he owned. Yes. He walked away with nothing. I don't even know that he took his toothbrush.

Katina tells Scott that during that visit, she asked Lori where Michael was. Lori told her that Mike got picked up in a black SUV one day, never came back. He would never do that to his family or kids. In a vacuum, you're not gonna put anything together, but you start getting these other details, clearly something wasn't right.

It's those details that made my stomach sink right away. Eventually, Scott pieces together that no one has seen or spoken to Michael in two and a half years. He decides it's time to reach out to Michael's sister in upstate New York to compare notes. Scott and I just happened to be messaging back and forth one night and we're like, none of this adds up. Stacey and I had been talking, they were getting these weird messages.

They'd be kind of short, out of character. There was a wording that he didn't use. He never called me bro. There was a couple there that said, just leave me alone, I'm moving to California. Just some crazy stuff that just didn't sound like him whatsoever. Just some crazy stuff that just didn't sound like him whatsoever He had texted me one day and asked what's mom's number I've tried to call her it must have be changed My mother's phone number has been the same for 30 years with his suspicions growing Scott does What any of us might do when trying to track down his now long lost friend, he logs onto Facebook.

I wasn't too active on Facebook back then. So I go to his page. And then I had noticed the profile picture had just been updated the month prior to some group of guys in a bar. I had to, like, zoom in and make sure. Like, nobody looked like Mike in a bar. I had to like zoom in and make sure, like nobody looked like Mike in that picture. Scott then does a reverse Google image search trying to determine where this photo came from.

Turns out it matches a photo from a Bloody Mary mix company. Clearly somebody took that picture online and put it as his profile picture. And Michael's recent posts also seemed off. They were different from what he typically posted in the past. His activity on Facebook was usually pictures of himself, pictures of friends, pictures about the plane that they would work on. All of that ended and then it started up with various silly memes that were just not in keeping

with his personality whatsoever. Michael's friend Scott, along with his sister Stacey, knew it was time for something drastic. Since I was in New York and Scott was in Florida, Scott told me that he would go to the police. When I called, I said I'd like to file a missing person report. You know, they ask, well when's the last time you've seen them? Frankly, I said years.

They didn't take me seriously at first because you now file a missing person report years later. Scott is able to convince police in Florida that his concerns are serious enough to warrant a welfare check. And when a deputy goes to Lori Shaver's house, something catches his eye that's been hiding in plain sight for years. And that's when I really started

to get chills up my back. I'll take you there to see for yourself. This has got to be the strangest case in my career. What happened to your husband though? Have you not seen him since 2015? I had to rethink and re-question myself. Everything that had been happening was likely a lie. And just when you think you know where the story is headed, a new twist. Today I'm coming to you, my family and I are begging you, asking for your assistance. Everyone was just like, what? There was just more and more twists and turns. I'm living in the Twilight Zone and I can hear the theme song going on. Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do happening next door to me. That's when you knew something was up. We just started asking her questions about the whereabouts of Michael Shaver.

Did she say why he left? What happened? She did not. She has no idea where he would be. Lori called me crying, saying, the police are here and they're looking for Michael. He proclaimed he had the special skills to kill somebody. When you walked out here, were you immediately surprised? I really started getting chills up my back. But what about the chills

when a totally unexpected person confesses? Everyone was just like, what? When you have a witness take the stand that says, I had a role in it, that's pretty incredible. I know it sounds weird. I know it does. The reality was that he was digging his own grave. That was one of the most career that I've ever seen. It was as though this guy had literally just vanished.

November 7th, 2015 was the last time anyone saw Michael Shaver alive. His family hadn't seen him. His friends hadn't seen him. No one had actually talked to him on the phone or talked to him in person. It was very weird. They will tell you he would never, ever leave his two children. He had five acres of property and a tractor. He walked away with nothing. It's been two and a half years since anyone has seen or spoken to Michael Shaver.

His loved ones are concerned. So his longtime friend, Scott Amatuccio, decides to call law enforcement. He requests a welfare check. decides to call law enforcement. He requests a welfare check. So this is South Claremont. We're probably 40 minutes northwest of Orlando. So this is a very rural area. Corporal Corey Anderson was one of two deputies that respond to the welfare check call that day in February 2018. It was out of the ordinary. I haven't seen a call like that in a long time.

What about it felt unusual to you? Usually a well-being check is, hey, I haven't heard my friend in a while. Can you go check on him or have him call me? Not anything like he's missing, he's not responding to calls, he's making posts that aren't like him to make. People just don't up and leave, you know? So you pull up to the house, what's the first thing you do when you get here? Deputy Morris and I, we meet and then we approach the house together.

Did someone answer the door? Yes, Ms. Shaver answered the door. She had a two week old infant in her arm, so she stood on the porch and we just started to ask her questions about the whereabouts of Michael Shaver. What was her demeanor like? Was she friendly? She was cool as a cucumber. And it made it almost alarming.

It gave me chills speaking with her. Lori really didn't seem very apprehensive or nervous or surprised. The way that she was answering questions, withholding information. What kind of withholding of information? Some of the dates that she used for when he was last seen, the last time he was at work. The day-to-day things that she would know were adding up. Did she say why he left, what happened?

She did not. She simply said that he absconded and has not been seen or heard of. Has no idea where he would be. Corporal Anderson then asks Lori if he can take a look in the backyard. She welcomed them onto the property. She appeared to be very cooperative. She appeared as though she had nothing to hide. Obviously, they noticed it was a beautiful, sprawling, five-acre piece of property, and they were able to walk the outside of the property and look around.

The deputies noticed multiple outbuildings in the backyard, as well as a chicken coop, rabbit hutch, a fire pit, and an above ground swimming pool. But when they ask if they can perform a more thorough search of the backyard, things take a turn. And that's when her cooperation ended suddenly. She said, you guys need to get off my property. Oh, immediately.

And you can contact me when you turn. So that off my property. Oh, immediately. And you can contact my attorney. So that was a huge red flag for me. That's when you knew something was up. She shut that down and couldn't get them out of there fast enough. So detectives got the report from the deputies, and they began to plan their next steps and how they were going to move forward to get back out to the property and do a more thorough search. I had just left work.

I was on my way home and Lori called me crying saying the police are here and they're looking for Michael. She was very upset. She seemed like she didn't really know what was going on. Lake County deputies say it was his friend who initially reported him missing. Today, we're learning more about Michael Shaver. I turned on the news, and that's when I hit

that he's actually missing, that it's not good. I remember thinking it's a complete misunderstanding. They're gonna find that he just wasn't where he was supposed to be. It just kinda snowballed into he's missing, missing. Working to learn what happened to a man who's been missing. Channel 9 was there from the beginning. We went out to her house and said,

hey, your husband's missing. Is there anything you want to say? We wanted to ask you about the sheriff's office investigation into your missing husband. I have an attorney. You have an attorney? Yes. I have that kind of attorney statement. She basically told us to get away from her truck, and she didn't want to talk to us.

What happened to your husband, though? Have you not seen him since 2015? His wife didn't report him missing at all in years go by. You would think a spouse would want to talk and get his picture out, get the information out. She blew by her cameras. She had nothing to say. -♪ Meanwhile, as the tech does our digging for more clues her cameras, she had nothing to say. Meanwhile as detectives are digging for more clues into Michael's possible whereabouts, they discover some startling information. They learned that his driver's license was expired. There was not a new driver's license issued in any other

state. His pilot's license were expired. There was literally no trace of Michael, no matter what they tried, no matter where they looked. Detectives then start interviewing Michael's friends, relatives, and co-workers. They start building a timeline to try to pinpoint exactly when someone last laid eyes on him. And it turns out, they think it was at that tractor show that Michael and his family attended two and a half years earlier with his friend and co-worker Frank Merritt. He was there at the tractor show and then the next week he was gone and there was nothing in between.

And it was just days later that Michael sent that strange text to his boss, abruptly quitting his job. Based upon all of these bizarre circumstances, we knew something had happened to Michael. Three weeks after that initial welfare check, detectives finally secure a search warrant for Laurie Shaver's property. It was a huge scene. There was law enforcement up and down the road. Investigators come in with cadaver dogs, and they start searching the property. I've seen it on TV, on the news, but I never ever imagined this would be happening next door to me. One of the cadaver dogs is walked along the backyard and alerted to a dirt mound multiple times.

That's when they brought in all the big guns, the big equipment. We begin digging up that yard. We began digging up that yard. We dug a very significant area. We realized that there was nothing to be found there. The fire pit was our next point of interest. Once they started digging, we heard some yelling. All of a sudden I noticed activity happening and running around. I could tell something had been discovered.

Investigators with Florida's Lake County Sheriff's Office are back at Michael and Lori Shaver's home armed with a search warrant. They're now scouring the property. And they knew that it was something about that fire pit, something was going on in that area. The decision was made to bust up that concrete and dig down below that fire pit to see what we could find. And there were tents up from investigators as they were excavating and sifting through the dirt. Once they started digging, we heard some yelling. We knew we were on to something. I have never seen anything like this before in person in my backyard. Oh, they're running. in my backyard. Oh, they're running. At one point, investigators in the crime scene, technicians, they're digging in that area.

We see them put their hands over their eyes, and we said, hey, something just happened. And I can tell you that we have found what appears to be a bone that is consistent with that of a human upper arm bone. They began to dig and three feet below there was Michael. A gruesome discovery in a backyard in Florida. Police are finding what are believed to be human remains. What did you find in that grave site? There was a blue tarp, and beneath the blue tarp were the remains of Michael Schaeber.

His body was found to be wearing a pair of underwear, a pair of shorts, he had on a pair of socks. There was a piece of a fitted sheet also around the body, so it was evident that the body had been wrapped up and placed in that grave. How deep was this grave? About three and a half feet. Investigators say the remains were skeletonized

and looked like they had been there for quite some time. When the body was discovered, Lori was sitting in her truck. My photographer and I walked over and we knocked on the window. I'm on the phone with my attorney right now and I'm not making a statement. Shortly after she took off. It just seemed strange that that's when she decided to take off and leave after being there for hours while the search was being conducted. to take off and leave after being there for hours while the search was being conducted.

Three weeks before the remains were found back on the day of that welfare check, Corporal Corey Anderson was convinced there was something underneath that concrete. And this is where the fire pit was. Yes, the cement slab was here. This is where the fire pit was. Yes, the cement slab was here. It's what he noticed then that raised investigators' suspicions enough to come back with a search warrant. As I was approaching the cement slab, you could clearly see a depression. And I took out my cell phone and just started snapping pictures.

And you saw that depression. Were you immediately surprised? I was. And that's when I really started getting chills up my back. You immediately thought it was a shallow grave? Absolutely. It's unmistakable. It was the size of a human adult body.

It was really a remarkable sequence of events where a deputy who actually had the experience that this particular deputy did just asked permission permission, hey maybe I can guys mind if I take some pictures and walk around the back of the yard. The right person saw what started this case. I mean I considered Mike my best friend. It's pretty tough knowing that he's laying in the dirt like that. It was absolutely devastating. Then I had to go and tell my mother.

It was the hardest thing in the world I ever had to do. I just started just we all of them crying and it's a terrible thing. It's terrible. As painful as that moment was, Michael's family says, finally, all the hurt and confusion

around his unexplained disappearance made sense. When they said that they got all the remains out, I just, I knew in my heart that was Michael. Are you guys Michael's family? You know, even though he couldn't have been identified that day, I knew that it was. Buried in the backyard, police revealing new clues in the mystery disappearance of a husband. I mean that's just not something that we deal with and see every day. The media attention just grew.

Human remains were found buried in his wife's backyard. The headline for the day was Missing Man's Body found in his backyard. In that same place, his wife had remarried. In the wedding video, you see her come down to that oak tree where they exchange vows. And her husband is dead, buried underneath that concrete slab that she's walking down to marry the next guy.

She had her wedding virtually on top of her husband's body. We were sitting in the fire pit by the fire pit not knowing that Michael is under that fire pit. That's where I sat. So this whole scenario, it's like I'm living in the Twilight Zone and I can hear the theme song going on. That's what's going on in my life. Excuse me, sir. You guys know anything about what's going on inside?

No comment. When they found the remains under the fire pit, I couldn't believe that. Lori had kept telling me that she didn't know of anything. But now investigators have Lori Shaver in their sights, and they want to hear exactly what she does know and when she knew it. Get ready for Las Vegas style action at Bet MGM, the king of online casinos. Enjoy casino games at your fingertips with the same Vegas strip excitement MGM is famous for when you play classics like MGM Grand Millions or popular games like Blackjack, Baccarat and Roulette.

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to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. After Michael Shaver's remains are recovered from a shallow grave in the backyard of the home he once shared with his wife, Lori, the medical examiner determines that what put him there was a single gunshot to the head. The projectile was found inside of the skull. It was a pretty much a straight on shot

to the back of the head. Any DNA, any evidence of who would have put him there? Pretty much everything in that grave site was sent to Fort Department of Law Enforcement for analysis and there was no DNA that was found. Mostly because of the decomposition process. Over time it's really hard to find DNA if it's in the ground, even if it had been there.

Yes. But to many people's surprise, even after the gruesome discovery, Lori Shaver remains a free woman. Lori wasn't immediately arrested and that was something that was pretty frustrating for the family, but investigators had to build a case against her and they knew that they would only get one shot. Lori Shaver didn't get arrested right away. Correct. Why?

There were still phone records, Facebook records to obtain, and piecing together all of these different pieces of evidence to try to figure out what happened. We knew he was last seen November 7th and didn't show up to work November 10th. So we believe it happened during those three days that he was killed by Lori.

If that's true, that's months before Lori met Travis Filmer, who says he believed she was divorced from Michael Shaver. Lori didn't divorce her husband during this time that Michael was missing. Lori never went after him for child support. Finding out that Lori was not divorced, that was a shock. And detectives are the ones that told me. Travis says that after Michael's body was found, he and Lori didn't discuss the investigation. Lori and I, we didn't talk about things.

She never told me that there was a body on the property. I know based on my experience with law enforcement and being in trouble, it was extremely important for me to not ask about anything. Did I have questions? 100%. I very much did. But I knew that I could not talk to her about the case.

But detectives are asking questions, interviewing those close to Lori like Katina Vasquez, the ex-fiance of Michael's childhood friend. They wanted to know what she knew about Lori's supposed divorce from Michael Shaver. She was telling me that she was filing for divorce and then next thing you know she's married. I was like how does that happen that quick? Like it was just weird. Like I'm like this makes no sense. Investigators also tracked down that friend of Michael's who Laurie said picked him up in a black SUV and drove him to Georgia. Did you ever give him a ride to Georgia? Georgia? No. No. do you recall what kind of vehicle you owned? I believe it was a Mitsubishi Galant.

Do you remember what color it was? Uh, blue. When detectives talk to the Shavers' neighbor, Wilma, they hear something really dark and unexpected. She tells them Michael Shaver actually started the project that eventually became the fire pit and concrete slab where his body was found. He was working very hard to make her a duck pond back there and the reality of what he was doing was that he was digging his own grave. What physical

evidence was there? We have a body buried in the backyard, we have evidence of a gunshot wound, and we have a caliber bullet that was consistent with the type of weapon that was sold by Lori Shaver. Another witness comes forward to say that after Michael disappeared, leaving everything behind, Lori began selling his belongings. You are the owner of JB Guns in Bushnell, Florida? Is that correct? I am, yes, sir.

After I had seen the news report, and I saw the lady's picture as in the wife of the missing person, I was like, I bought all of his guns. I'm pretty sure of. She's like, well, he just up and left. And I'm just selling all of his guns, I'm pretty sure of. She's like, well, he just up and left. And I'm just selling all of his stuff. Key to this case, police think Lori Shaver

was hiding that her husband was gone for good, pointing to data suggesting those Facebook updates and messages to family and friends, seemingly from Michael, were actually coming from her. These Facebook message postings by both Lori Shaver's account and Michael Shaver's account had the same IP address, which means the same person was using them both. Everything pointed back at Lori Shaver.

More than two years after Michael Shaver's remains were found that his wife has now been arrested for his death. Lori Shaver is charged with second-degree murder with a firearm. She pleads not guilty. I didn't understand how she was possibly arrested. Yes, they're saying that they found a body on the property. Yes, they're saying that Lori had some major involvement

in this. There's always two sides to a story. There always is. There's no doubt sides to a story. There always is. There's no doubt in my mind that Lori did not. She didn't kill Michael. After about two and a half months in jail, Lori Shaver is released on bond. That's when this bizarre video services of Lori and her defense attorney making a plea to please donate to her defense fund. Good morning, I'm Jeffrey Weggs. Sitting to my left is Lori, a client of mine. I don't know why I've been targeted, why I've been set up or charged with this heinous crime.

I am not guilty. I am a daughter, I'm a friend, I'm a neighbor, I'm a servant of God, I'm a wife, and I am a devoted mother of four. In that same video, Laurie's attorney says his client is innocent and at trial they are prepared to say who actually killed Michael Shaver. We're not going to mention his name. He proclaimed he had the special skills to kill somebody. As her trial nears, Lori Shaver's attorney makes another shocking claim. Now, it's not just one person responsible for her husband's murder, but two.

And who they say that second shooter is takes everyone by surprise. Honestly, I've never heard such craziness. Happening today, jury selection will begin in the trial of a Claremont woman accused of killing her husband. In September, almost nine years after Michael Shaver was last seen alive, prosecutors are now hoping to prove that Laurie Shaver was

the one who killed him. But they'll have to do it without fingerprints, DNA, or other forensic evidence. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a case about common sense. In your opening remarks, you made the comment that you have to use a little bit of common sense here. We have the defendant's husband buried in her own backyard. And that points directly to Lori Shaver.

In their opening statement, the defense finally discloses who they say actually killed Michael Shaver. It wasn't Lori. It was Jeremy Townsend, or Jay, that man she had an affair with before meeting Travis. And they say someone else fired a shot too. Lori's then seven-year-old daughter, Isabel. I shot my dad. That was a bombshell.

The defense presents a stunning story to the jury. The defense presents a stunning story to the jury. This bell shaped, and this young girl, in desperation and in fear, runs and retrieves time. As she believes she shall, Michael. They were separated. Michael came in the residence one morning. Lori was getting the children ready for school. Lori refused to go back with him.

He got angry, started beating on her. Lori ended up on the floor. Isabel retrieved a handgun and she believes she shot Michael Shaver. And at that very moment, the defense says Jeremy stormed into the house and took control. And walks in, takes a gun from this about, shoots Michael Shaver. Says, Lori, get these kids out of here, I'll take care of this. But prosecutors say this story is preposterous. They argue that Lori Shaver acted alone and killed Michael for her own selfish reasons. To be with her then boyfriend, Jeremy Townsend.

What is the motive here? Lori really wanted to be with Jeremy. She actively sought to ruin that relationship between Jeremy and his wife. She pretended to be Michael in order to out Jeremy to his wife and she tried to do that through Facebook messages from Michael's Facebook account and when she didn't get a response from Jeremy's wife Vanessa, she sent a bouquet of flowers to Vanessa with a card. The card that came with those flowers, did that include a message? It did.

And can you go ahead and read that message to the jury please? Sorry. That's okay. The spouse says it's a difficult day for you. It is. Says roses are red, violets are blue, my wife is a whore, your husband is too. Sorry about this. Check your Facebook message, we need to talk, Mike. The flowers that were delivered to Vanessa Townsend were actually paid for from Lori Shaver's bank records. were actually paid for from Lori Shaver's bank records.

Up until this point, did you have any knowledge that your husband was eventually having an affair? No. Lori was convinced that Jay was leaving his wife, and that couldn't have been further from the truth. State calls Jeremy Townsend. He walked into the courtroom in a suit, but he looked like Aquaman with the long hair. Was there ever a time that Lori Faber expressed to you that she wanted you to leave your wife to be with her?

Yes. And was that what you wanted? No. We were supposed to be friends with benefits and no strings attached. He went on and said, I had nothing to do with us. At any point did you shoot or injure Michael Shea? No. At any point were you involved with disposing of the body of Michael Shea?

No. And after the affair was exposed, what happened with your relationship with Laura? I cut it off. They say it's not the crime that gets you caught, but the cover-up. And prosecutors argue that Laurie's attempts to impersonate Michael online show all the signs of a badly executed cover-up. Facebook helped solve the murder. Michael's family up north had heard from his Facebook account.

Was there a period of time where you reached out to Michael Schaefer in attempt to communicate with him? Yes. It says, hey, Uncle Michael. And what was that response? Who are you? I don't have any family anymore. I have no idea, no clue who you are. No stop messaging me. Lori was using his cell phone and his Facebook account to present this facade that Michael was still alive.

The defense argues the digital evidence is unreliable. It could have been anyone accessing Michael Shaver's Facebook account. But prosecutors say they have more than digital evidence. They argue that Lori had access to multiple firearms that could have killed Michael Schaeber, including the pink and black 38 caliber revolver that she sold after Michael was last seen. Did you examine that firearm? Yes, I did. You also provided a projectile

recovered from the stolen of Michael Schaeber? Yes. The projectile was in very rough condition. Despite the damaged condition of that projectile, were you able to determine the caliber? In this case, the caliber was determined to be 38 caliber class. But the defense points out that the bullet recovered

from Michael Shaver's skull could not be definitively linked to her pink handgun. Let me just say if I'm summing this up correctly, the projectile that was in the body could not be linked up to the gun that your seven-year-old wrecked. All class characteristics were in agreement. The result of the individual comparison was inconclusive. How many guns fit into that class? were in agreement, the result of the individual comparison was inconclusive.

How many guns fit into that class? Thousands of guns, if not tens of thousands. With the state's case laid out, it's now the defense's turn. And they're about to call their star witness, Isabel Shaver, Lori and Michael's daughter, who was just seven years old when he was last seen alive. She's now 15 and says she's prepared to tell the jury what really happened.

Isabelle, I'm sorry. I have to do this. Do you know anything about the death of your father? I do. Get ready for Las Vegas style action at Bet MGM, the king of online casinos. Enjoy casino games at your fingertips with the same Vegas strip excitement MGM is famous for when you play classics like MGM Grand Millions or popular games like Blackjack, Baccarat and Roulette. With our ever-growing library of digital slot games, a large selection of online table

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Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. Bet MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Have you given thought to taking the stand? Still haven't decided. I would love to be able to speak my story. Now the defense also confirms with me that they say her daughter will take the stand. Laurie Shaver's defense is built on what she says really happened the day her husband died. And to lay out that story, they call to the stand the person they claim fired what they say was the first of two shots, her 15-year-old daughter, Isabel.

My name is Isabel Shaver. Because she's a minor, Judge Carrie Rada does not allow Isabel's face to be shown during her testimony. She's like my best friend and a mom in one. Has anybody pressured you to testify in this cause? Absolutely not, no. Do you know anything about the death of your father? I do. Do you know anything about how your father died?

I do. Isabel tells jurors a stunning story that when she was just seven years old, she witnessed a violent confrontation between her mother and her father, Michael, while the two were separated. He pushed her onto the ground, and he started kicking her in the stomach and in the back. And he was, like, saying that he was going to kill her at this time. Her mom was screaming for help, obviously, and then he put his foot on the side of her face

and pushed it into the ground, and I didn't hear her anymore. And so I went to my mom's room, and I went at her end table, and I grabbed her gun, and I shot him. Isabel Shaver goes on to say that after she fired that shot, the man her mother was dating at the time, Jeremy, or Jay as they called him, came barreling into the house. He took the gun from me and then he shot him again. He told my mom to take us out of the house, take us to school. We're not to tell anybody we can't call the cops, we can't say anything or

else he was gonna do the same thing to me and my brother. Isabelle stated this house was so riddled with so much atmospheric tension that it just didn't seem different. It just was kind of the way they were living, but she didn't say anything to anybody about it. Remember, Jeremy Townsend testified he had no involvement in Michael Shaver's murder or the disposal of the body. And when prosecutors cross-examine Isabel,

they challenge her memory of this event. You don't know what grade you were in when that happened, right? I don't. You don't know what month this happened in, correct? Correct. You don't know what year this happened in, correct? Yes.

When you have a witness take this down that says, I had a role in it, that's pretty incredible. I think it was very clear that she was willing to do whatever she could to try to protect her mother and avoid her mom going to prison. It also was not consistent at all with any of the physical evidence. Her version of events involved two shots and there was absolutely no question that there was only one shot in this case, and that was the one to the back of the head.

The defense would call Lori Shaver. Next up, the woman at the center of the case facing life in prison takes the stand in her own defense. Let's talk about the event that's landed you here. I got up the whole... got my coffee, and then that's when I noticed he was sitting out on the back patio. So I went out there, and we started talking, and it escalated. He was holding onto me. And, uh... holding on to me. And at that point, I was just trying to convince him,

like, okay, okay, okay, enough, we'll work it out. And he told me not this time. I was screaming as he's smashing my face into the porch. What's the next thing you recall? I more or less heard it. And then I think I seen her. What's this about, Deb? She had fired a gunshot.

The next thing I recall is seeing Jay, Jeremy, and hearing the gunshot at essentially the same time. He tells me to take the kids, get them out of the house, and he would take care of it. He insinuated that if we said anything, that he was not going to take the blame for this. So what did you do? I took the kids. I left. Laurie Shaver tells the jury that when she came home that day, Jeremy was gone and so was Michael's body.

According to Laurie, she had no idea his remains were buried in her backyard. Laurie, the jurors are going to ask themselves, why didn't you call the police? Garrett? I didn't know what to do. When prosecutors finally get their chance to question Laurie Shaver, they challenge her for more details about what they say is a story full of lies.

The biggest question I have for you is when did your husband get killed? The exact date I can never call. It was beginning of May 2016. It was not November. Prosecutors say Laurie wants jurors to believe that Michael was actually alive in May because that's a full six months after he was last seen by anyone. When he left and moved out, he left his car, correct? He stopped going to work and lost his job because of it, correct? I was not aware of that at that time. November 2015, he just vanishes off the face of the earth.

No one can account for him, correct? I don't believe that's true. The day that he showed up in May of 2016, what vehicle did he use to get to your house that day? I was not a vehicle. So he gets walked? When you take what she said happened there that day and then just break it down with well if that's true Where was Mike's car if that's true when his body is found? Why is he dressed like he was in bed sleeping?

It's hard to make a story fit all of the different pieces of evidence if it's not true. She made up this May 2016 story to distract. Jeremy Townsend talked to law enforcement three separate times. The evidence that has been presented is not that in May of 2016, Jeremy Townsend shot this man in the back of the head. It's that Laurie killed him in November of 2015. Mike is buried in her backyard. She's the one that installs the fire pit and puts the cement slab over his body.

She lied to friends, family, and law enforcement about his whereabouts for years. All the evidence points to her because she is guilty of murder in the second degree. Thank you. All right, thank you, Mr. Connachio. Mr. Wicks? Yes, sir. Has any single witness taken the stand and shown you one piece of evidence that established Laurie Lee Shaver killed Michael Shaver. Zero. Zero.

And then it's left to the jury to decide which version of the story is the truth. And you wondered in the end if the person who did this was ever going to be held responsible. Has the jury reached a verdict? Yes. Right now closing arguments are done for the Lake County woman charged with her husband's murder. She is facing three possible charges,

second degree murder being the biggest one up to life in prison. The biggest thing that I struggle with and that my heart breaks for is my kids. I don't want to see the look on their face. What I have to tell them mom's not coming home. The jury deliberates for just under four hours before returning a verdict. We the jury find as follows as to count one of the charge the defendant is guilty of second-degree murder. Second degree murder.

The jury saw through all of her lies, manipulations, all of it. They didn't buy her story for a second. They didn't buy her daughter's story. It was hard to hear Isabel saying those things about her dad. And I kind of feel really bad for her. Everybody that knows Mike knows he had a great relationship with both of his kids. Your reaction, your thoughts as soon as that verdict came down? Elation. We were very happy this was a long time coming. It will not bring him back,

but there will be justice for him finally. It was celebration, sadness, several different emotions. She was part of our family, somebody that you feel that you love and you trust. So also a let down in some ways and to see somebody that you did care for at one time that did something so bad. No, I did not get the answers. Why? Why wouldn't she have just let him go in a divorce? She could have carried on her life. She got married here. Yep, right out there. We walked by here, walked through here, walked all the way out and yep. Right past, you know, a human being that was just, it's so disturbing because again, we've

been out here. I've stood right where he was and I didn't know. It upsets you. Yeah. Michael, he was such a great, great person. He loved everybody with all that he had, and I think his spirit will finally be able to be at peace. Lori Shaver was recently sentenced to life in prison for Michael Shaver's murder. She says she plans to appeal her conviction. And for their part, Michael's family says

they are hoping to establish visitation with the two children he shared with Lori. That's our program for tonight. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Deborah Roberts. And I'm David Muir. From all of us here at 2020 and ABC News, good night. Hey there, Ryan Reynolds here.

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