48 Hours - Bad Boy

Episode Date: October 30, 2016

A young mom vanishes after visiting her ex-husband.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

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Everybody kind of likes to date a bad boy. Everybody does at some point in time in their life. He was so mysterious and nobody knew anything about him and I think that we really wanted to know. Shelly is my friend. She's my best friend. None of this makes any sense. She was a loving person, an amazing mother. For her just to be gone, to vanish, it's not like her. So there were a lot of secrets in that house. A lot of secrets. So there were a lot of secrets in that house.

A lot of secrets. Were you scared for her? Definitely. We all were scared for her. What we're dealing with here is the case of a missing woman. My name is Kevin Keel. I've been working this case for over five years. Shelly Mook went missing back on February 28th, 2011.

She just up and vanished. Beautiful young woman. She was 24 years old. A schoolteacher here in Tennessee. This is 911. Do you have any emergency? Hello? You think this is just one more piece to the overlying mysterious puzzle? Correct. When was this 911 call taken? 2012. He inadvertently dialed 911.

Who inadvertently dialed? Tyler, Shelly's ex-husband. How does this happen? He must have had some phone similar to this iPhone. You stick it in your back pocket. If you lean against something, you're going to press the button. So he butt dialed? He butted out. Oh, they got people seeing me leave that time.

Oh, they seen Sean's car going down the road that night. No one knows where she is or exactly what happened to her. But I'm pretty damn sure I know who did it. I'm Michelle Miller. Tonight on 48 Hours, Bad Boy. Did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free, with a 48-hour plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. Hotshot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty, her specialty

representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defence attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth

behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, and listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. Flash it off with a little gasoline. Back when all this happened, I remember hearing the story about the car being found out in the field that it had been burned. As these firefighters practice knocking down a car fire, they remember another night back in 2011.

It was 1230 in the morning and in an empty farm field outside of town. A car went up in flames. Normally people wouldn't think it was a big deal, but this is something that we deal with quite often. A lot of times people will steal a car, go joyriding, and then when they get food with it, they'll take it out in the country somewhere and set it on fire and burn it, and then walk off leaving. Just another car. But it wasn't just another car.

It would turn out to be a clue, a clue that could lead to a murderer. Here in central Tennessee, 20 miles down the road from that mysterious car fire, something else strange happened at a middle school here in Shelbyville. An eighth grade teacher named Shelly Mook never showed up for class. This is not something that you ever expect to happen in your life, to have somebody that goes missing. What do you think happened to her? It's really hard to say. I mean, not having found very much evidence or, I mean, there's so many

possibilities. Brittany Brooks grew up with Shelly Mook. She had these amazing eyes, beautiful smile. We always called it the million-dollar smile. After Shelly's divorce in 2009, they became even closer. Were you her lifeline outside of the marriage? I think part me and part her mother and her family. Neither one of us had sisters and it was kind of the sisterhood. Shelley also loved her daughter, six-year-old Liliana. They called her Lily. Shelly would never abandon her daughter. She would never

left her without saying goodbye or kissing her goodbye. And she did that day. That day was Monday, February 28, 2011. And just one person would tell police what happened in the house that afternoon. That was Shelly's ex-husband, the father of their daughter. They'd been divorced a couple of years. He lived right here. Shelly's ex-husband was a man by the name of Tyler Mook. Tyler's very smooth.

He had this mysterious, dark way about him. He was absolutely, he was definitely more than just a bad boy. Brittany and Shelly met Tyler back in high school. Shelly and I were like, oh, you know, take a look at who just walked in. We don't know him, but we want to know him. All that happened in Pennsylvania, where Shelly and Brittany grew up. Tyler was a bit older. He liked engines and cars, and he liked girls.

Were you there when Shelly walked over to him? We met him at a party one night, and her and I just kind of made bets to see who could end up going out with the cute guy that we don't know. So he was intrigued. Yes. She was intrigued.

Uh-huh. It was definitely a few months, and that was it. She was hooked, and he was intrigued. Yes. She was intrigued. Uh-huh. It was definitely a few months and that was it. She was hooked and he was hooked. After high school, Shelly and Tyler got married. They had their daughter and moved down here to central Tennessee. To be closer to Tyler's family, everyone said family was important to Tyler Mook. Did you ever feel that he loved her? Absolutely.

She loved him? She did. She did. In the beginning, was the marriage, was it a good one? When it was good, it was really, really good. When it was bad, it was really bad. There was no happy medium. There were some problems at home, like allegations of cheating. Everybody has their troubles, but it seemed like he genuinely loved her.

The couple had an on-again, off-again relationship. And when they finally divorced in 2009, Tyler kept trying to get back with her. Listen to this. This is a letter he wrote to Shelly. Shelly, my love, congrats on your first full day of teaching. My love for you grows like a wildfire. I'm polishing myself for you. polishing myself for you. He also tells her he's going to take her for a Caribbean cruise and then says, I love you with all of my heart. I don't want anybody else but you. That cruise never happened and the couple didn't reconcile. Tyler and Shelly each went on to date other people and shared custody of their daughter, Lily, until Shelly disappeared. Let's talk about that day. That particular day, she taught school, picked up Liliana after school, and picked up a box of Tyler's belongings that she had found.

Kevin Keel is a former cop. Now, he's a legal investigator. He worked the case for Shelly's family for several years and is now consulting for CBS. We know Shelly arrived at Tyler's with Liliana in a car seat. By all accounts, we know Shelly was upset when she went into Tyler's residence. What exactly happened after that is a mystery. The next day, when she didn't show up for work, her mom called police. But it took a while for an investigation to get going. And there wasn't much to go on. I wouldn't say no evidence.

There's no direct evidence. There is circumstantial evidence. Remember that burning car, the one that firefighters rushed to in the middle of the night? That happened right here in this field.

And it wasn't long before police discovered who owned that car. It belonged to Shelly. It was arson. They had burnt the car intentionally. Most likely it was to get rid of fingerprints or any kind of evidence that they might have left behind. And if covering up a crime was the goal of the arsonist, it apparently worked. There was no body in the car, no keys, and no clues.

Shelly was gone. The last person to see her was her ex-husband, and he was not being very cooperative. On February 28th, did Shelly come to your residence with Lily? On advice of counsel I respectfully decline to answer on the grounds of the Fifth Amendment. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal.

There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still have heard it. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn trials I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely, Pacific island to the brink of extinction.

Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk-takers who brought them to life.

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So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. When did you learn that Shelly was missing? It wasn't until Wednesday after she went missing I got a phone call. Where did your mind immediately go? It immediately went to Tyler. Tyler Mook. He was the last person known to be seen with Shelly. And he wasn't being very cooperative.

He wasn't even helping with the search. You have to wonder, if you're not guilty, why are you not out searching with us? Why are you not helping us? He never helped? No, not at all. You'd think the police would have been all over him. How did they handle this case as far as you're concerned? I feel that they dropped the ball in the beginning. It seemed like they thought that she possibly left on her own and they didn't take

our feelings seriously. Our feelings of knowing that this was much more than they knew. How did the police first proceed with this? Did they look at Tyler right away? I can't speak to what they did initially because that was before I became involved. I do know they were at his house searching with a mobile crime lab three days after she disappeared.

Three days seems like a long time, but local authorities are not commenting, so we don't know what happened. How frustrated are you that there hasn't been an arrest in this case? I am frustrated. To my knowledge, Tyler has not been interviewed about this case in depth at all. He hasn't been interviewed by the police? To my knowledge, he has not. Tyler may not have been grilled by police, but Shelly's family, fearing his involvement in her disappearance, took him directly to court. Family court. You solemnly swear or affirm, tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I do.

With Shelly gone, someone had to take care of Lily, and that was up to a judge. Shelly's family tried to use the custody case to get some answers about what happened to Shelly. What did you tell Lily about her mother's disappearance? But when Tyler was deposed, he was not forthcoming. So this is the testimony he gave during that deposition? Yes. On February 28th, did Shelly come to your residence with Lily? On the vice of counsel, I respectfully declined to answer on the grounds of the Fifth Amendment. In the deposition, he asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 140, 150 times plus. Is that normal?

Not if you're innocent. Did you have sex with Shelly on February 28th? Yes. What time? An evasive counsel, I respectfully decline to answer on the grounds of the Fifth Amendment. So he refuses to answer that she came over to his house, that she came into his house, but he doesn't have a problem answering, I had sex with her? Correct.

For whatever reason, he chose to answer that question during the deposition while refusing to answer numerous other questions. We do have a transcript from another hearing in the custody case. Tyler Mook was more forthcoming in this one. He says that Shelly came over that afternoon and that they spent over an hour talking about problems in her life. Tyler said she broke down crying over a boyfriend who may have been cheating on her. Then Tyler claims they made love while their daughter, Lily, was in another room.

Finally, Tyler says Shelly left to do some errands, leaving Lily and promising to be back before 10 p.m. He says she never came back and he spent the entire evening with Lily. Tyler says he texted and called Shelly but only got one mysterious text message back from her around 7 p.m. It said, I will babe. But there's one other account of that afternoon. It comes from Shelly and Tyler's six-year-old daughter, Lily. A child specialist interviewed Lily. What did Lily tell her?

On the day her mother went missing, she and her mother went to Tyler's house. Her mother got out of the car. She stayed in the car. Shelly went to the door, appeared upset, went inside, and that was the last time she saw her mother. She never saw her mother inside the house? That's correct. She was taken in the front door and placed in her bedroom with the door closed with instructions not to come out. It seems that only Tyler Mook knows exactly what happened in that house that afternoon. But during the custody hearings, more allegations about Tyler Mook's behavior before Shelly disappeared came out, and it didn't look

good. Court documents say numerous witnesses testified to the father's history of illegal drug use, drug trafficking, violent behavior, and verbal and physical abuse towards mother. The red flag would have been probably the emotional abuse, the verbal abuse. Such as? You know, just telling her that nobody would ever want her or she wasn't pretty enough. Would he do this in front of you? He would do it in front of me, other family members. The physical abuse, he would grab her by the wrist.

He'd, you know, push her against the wall. Were you scared for her? Definitely. We all were scared for her. In the child custody case, the court ruled in favor of Shelly's family. Her mother got primary custody of Lily and moved her hundreds of miles away. A year passed. As Tyler and his his family stood about the court decision. The authorities seemed no closer to making an arrest in Shelly's disappearance. Then something really strange happened. 911 gets a call. For lack of a better word,

911 gets a call. For lack of a better word, the caller had butt-dialed 911. He apparently did not know the 911 operator was listening to him and recording the call for 22 minutes. The caller was Tyler Mook. You can't take somebody's shit away from them for the next 13 years. That's something that I've never been charged with. It's something that somebody said. The call is very difficult to hear.

But listen, Mook seems to be talking about that night, the night Shelly vanished and her car was burned. Oh, they already got a bunch of people lined up. Oh, they got people seeing me leave that night. Oh, they seen Shelly's car going down the road that night. Oh, somebody seen me walking down the road that night. He was in the garage with his father. They evidently were working with some power tools,

probably had the phone in his back pocket, and inadvertently leaned back and dialed 911 without meaning to. What was he worried about the car for? I think he was worried that there may be some evidence linking him to Shelly's vehicle that was found burning around 1230 a.m. on March 1st. At the end of the phone call, Tyler suddenly realizes he must have accidentally called 911. This is Robin. May I help you? Yes, I was curious with my phone dialing 911.

I looked down and it said it was on emergency call for the last 20 minutes. Okay. Yes, we have received a call from your phone. Tyler's lawyer at the time told local media the whole 911 call meant nothing. It was simply Tyler Mook talking about his painful custody battle. What does this 911 call say to you? In a nutshell, it proves nothing, but it certainly, when combined with all the other circumstantial evidence, would lead you to believe that he has some culpability. What do you think his motive was? Tyler seems to be the type of person that would have the mindset,

if I can't have her, no one can. I think he just snapped after learning that his ex-wife had spent the night with her boyfriend that previous night. Authorities have not commented about the 911 call and Tyler Mook has never publicly spoken about the case. And what is the truth? My personal belief is that Tyler was involved, has knowledge of Shelly's disappearance, the burning of her vehicle, and I believe he has knowledge of where she is now, or her body may be. But years passed, and there was nothing. In spite of all the circumstantial evidence,

without a body, authorities were not willing to move forward. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation had named Tyler Mook a person of interest, but the case was stuck, and Tyler moved away. And then, Tyler got in trouble with a woman in Florida. I fought and fought and fought. it's been five long years since shelly mook disappeared since then tyler mook her ex-husband moved down here to the warm florida coast to start over the case of his missing ex-wife shelly has gone cold until this story took an unexpected turn. Tyler Mook had gotten himself into trouble, serious trouble. He attacked a woman in Florida on a boat. He grabbed my sunglasses off my head and he grabbed my bathing suit like he was gonna rip my bathing suit. The woman was Robin Donneth, Tyler's on-again, off-again girlfriend.

And then finally he picked me up and he threw me over the side of the boat. That's when he jumped in behind me, turned me upside down, and was holding me under. And I fought and fought, just trying to find bottom, trying to find anything. The attack happened on Tyler's speedboat here on the Intracoastal Waterway. Tyler and his brother Andrew and their girlfriends

were out for some fun in the sun. Robin says she'd had been late to the party, and that made Tyler mad. He was racing his boat through go-slow zones, and when she started complaining, he got angrier. I just kept telling him, slow down. I said, you're going to hit a sandbar and kill us all. Tyler really lost his temper. He stopped the boat and threw her off. Then he dived in on top of her. And I was just begging him and just pleading him to please let me go. I just screamed, Andrew, please help me.

She was screaming, he's trying to kill me, help me, let me on your boat. Dylan Wedgwood and Juliano Garzia were out on a boat with friends, cruising down the Florida Intracoastal when they came upon an unusual scene. What did you see? We saw two people in the water and she was just frantically splashing around. Should people be in this water? I mean, it's kind of murky, it's dark, it's a mess. It's just, it's uncommon for you to be swimming up against the mangroves

where you can't get to shore if anything does happen. And she was frantically splashing and swimming up to our boat. And we got her to the back of the boat, put down the ladder and got her in right away. And then he started freaking out and like yelling and she was back here crying. He was freaking out at you two? Yeah, kind of at everyone, yeah. He just looked extremely pissed off. Giuliano and Dylan took Robin back to the dock.

A police officer happened to be there. When Robin told the cop Tyler tried to drown her, Tyler was arrested and eventually charged with attempted murder. Surprisingly, Robin says he wasn't violent when they began dating. Very charming, like a perfect guy, pretty much. They were introduced by a friend and hit it off right away. Hi I'm Tyler and I said hi I'm Robin and we were together every single day. He filled the void of a guy that I needed. But Robin was curious about Tyler and after a couple of months of dating, she Googled him.

His ex-wife was missing, and he was the main person of interest. He was the last one to see her. And he just said, don't believe anything that you see on the Internet. None of it's true. And he just pretty much told me that she was dating a guy overseas or something, and he thinks that she just left and went overseas. Robin says she was skeptical of Tyler's story and a little freaked out when she saw Shelly's photograph.

She resembled me. Blonde hair, around the same age, pretty. Down in Florida, Robin wasn't the only woman who found Tyler charming. And I was like, you've got to be kidding me. Erica Tucker and her fiancé met Tyler through work, and the couple ended up spending a lot of time with him. The first question that he always had was regarding, how are your children, how are the kids doing, Erica?

And I always thought that was very nice of him. One day, she too found out he was suspected in the disappearance of his ex-wife. I said, Tyler, like, did you do that? You asked him that. I did. And he looked at me and he said, no, I didn't do that. He goes, you know me, Erica. Do you think I would do something like that? I didn't do that. Even Erica's friends seemed okay with Tyler. So my best friend was coming over, and she was like, Erica, which one is the one that they think is, you know, the murderer?

And I was like, Tyler, the tall, handsome one. And she was like, get out. He was the nicest person here. Let's fast forward to the incident here in Florida. I was scrolling through Facebook and somebody shared a link and I was like, holy goodness. And I was like, honey, you got to see this. This is, you know, Tyler was arrested for doing this. You knew they had a volatile relationship. They would break up and get back together, break up and get back together. And I knew that they would have arguments between them. But when she claimed he tried to kill her, what was your reaction? I was shocked. I was shocked. But what shocked Erica Tucker more was the severity of the charges.

He grabs a hold of Robin. And he holds her down. Under the water. Tyler Mook stood accused of attempted murder. Those who were on the boat that day will tell you that the defendant picked his girlfriend, Robin Donniff, up, threw her into the water, jumped in after her. He held her underwater. They're going to try and establish that he had a conscious intent to kill. Two years after the incident, Tyler Mook goes on trial. They're going to try and establish that he had a premeditated design

to effectuate the death of Robin Donoff. What happened that day in that water wasn't a game. It wasn't a splash in the water. The defendant attempted to murder Robin Donneth. It's our position that there's just insufficient evidence to establish that under the facts of this case. The evidence will show you that the defendant is guilty as charged. Thank you. Prosecutors were forbidden from telling the jury that Tyler Mook was a person of interest in his ex-wife's disappearance, because under Florida state law, that critical piece of information was simply inadmissible in court.

Don, for the record, state your name again, please. Robin Donneth. Did you two think someone was trying to kill her? I think the way she was acting somebody was definitely trying to hurt her or do something like that she seemed to be as like in danger how are you fighting him to get up just trying to push away from him and just trying to get away from him with my hands robin says that after an outraged Tyler threw her in the water, the terror continued. He jumped in right behind me and grabbed me right away.

He turned me face down and held me under the first time. And then it happened again? Yeah, I got up and I got one really quick gasp of air and then he pushed me right back under. So the second time, did he spin you around? No. And you thought you were going to die at the hands of Tyler Mook, correct? Yes. So when you got up the second time, you got away from him

and you were able to start yelling for help, correct? No, I was just begging him and pleading him just to let me go. Under subpoena, Tyler's own brother, Andrew Mook, is forced to testify against him. Would it be fair to say that you don't want to be here today? That is correct. As Tyler and Andrew's anxious parents sit just a few feet away, Andrew says he witnessed Tyler throw Robin overboard. Do you recall if she said anything when she came up?

She yelled for me. He's trying to kill me. Responding to Robin's pleas for help, Andrew says he jumped into the water and wrestled Robin from Tyler's arms. What did you do towards your brother? Put him in a chokehold. Okay, when you say you put him in a chokehold using me, tell me what you did. Okay. Okay. And when you did that, what happened? He let go of her, swam back to the boat.

Nicole Guajardo, Andrew's girlfriend, who watched this terrifying scene unfurl from the back seat of the boat remembers Tyler's chilling words. He looks at me and says, no one disrespects me in front of my family, I'll kill her. The evidence is not going to suggest that he should win any awards for boyfriend of the month or get on the cover of Gentleman's Quarterly. He was wrong. MOOC's defense attorney, Arthur Marchetta, never put Tyler himself on the stand. And he argued there's just no evidence of attempted murder. When you hear what happened, it just doesn't seem to make sense. Robin was able to yell for help. Robin was able to scream for the other boat.

She didn't need mouth-to-mouth. She didn't need to be resuscitated. She didn't need CPR. She got back on the other boat. If Tyler Mook was guilty of anything, says his lawyer, it was of behaving badly. So he throws her in the water. It's not as if he threw her into the rocks or threw her into the trees or into the mangroves. He threw her into the water as if he's throwing her into a pool.

Robin was drowning. Robin was fighting for her life. He doesn't stop there either. After three days in court, the trial was over. What he did was moronic. What he did was probably wrong and rude, but not cruel. Not an attempt to kill. I'm asking you to find him not guilty. It's not an attempt to kill. Verdict. We, the jury, find the defendant, Tyler Mook, guilty of attempted second-degree murder. Tyler Mook is found guilty of second-degree attempted murder. I think I probably started crying a little bit. Just happy, I guess, that he was convicted of what he deserved.

Mook is sentenced to 12 years. And just happy that he's going to stay away from me. I'm just happy that he's going to stay away from me. With Tyler in jail for a violent crime against his girlfriend, what will this mean for Shelly's case back in Tennessee? How did you react to the news that Tyler had been arrested for attempting to kill his new girlfriend? Knowing what I did about Tyler's violent temper, his controlling nature, it didn't surprise me. What did surprise me is learning that Andrew stepped in.

And basically saved Ms. Donneth's life. Do you swear at war for him that the evidence you're about to give? Why did that surprise you? Primarily because of the lack of involvement in locating Shelly and learning what happened to her up here. Do any of the family members hold the keys to this case? All I can do is guess at that, but it would be hard for me to believe after listening to the 911 call.

They can't prove nothing. And they know that there's a better chance of me leaving. There will. So, mom, they want to come arrest you. We don't want all the guys doing something like this. that no one had a clue what was going on. Would it surprise you that his family would do anything to protect him? No, absolutely not. I think his family would go to the end of the earth to protect him, no matter what it took.

Brittany Brooks stood up for her friend Shelly. But throughout 48 hours' investigation... Do you solemnly swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Before and after Tyler Mook's trial, we have reached out to Tyler, his family, And you would lie for him to keep him out of the penitentiary? No, sir. and past and present lawyers.

No one has been willing to defend Tyler. No one, except his friend Erica Tucker. When you hear about everything in Tennessee, When you hear about everything in Tennessee, it's scary and it's very upsetting, I think, for everybody involved in this. However, I also know that he hasn't been charged with anything regarding Shelly. I decided in my heart that I will never know the answer or the truth, and I'm not here to judge him. Erica, his parents haven't talked to us. His brother hasn't. His brother's girlfriend. No other friends. You're the lone person who stands out and who is in essence defending his honor. What is it about him that has so struck you in a way that you see good in him? I think what struck my heart the most is he has a daughter.

And when Tyler would talk to me, he would talk to me and address me about my children. And I remember he had a lot of sadness that he never got to see his daughter. And I remember saying to him one time, at least in the future, even if you can't see her now, one day you can show her that you've been trying to. But Tyler Mook will have to keep trying. Remember, a court in Tennessee had given custody of Lily to Shelly's family. Tyler's family appealed that, but they lost. The court said that Mook was, quote, unfit to parent the child because of his history of domestic violence and the danger from exposure to the father's drug activities. The court also slammed him for consistently taking the fifth during

his testimony. The court wrote, ordinarily a party seeking custody of his child would testify of his love for his child, his activities for his child, and his plans. Well, in this case the father did not testify for his love for Lily. Where are you taking me? We are going to a cell tower in Beach Grove, Tennessee. A cell tower? Yes. Meantime, investigator Kevin Keel is not giving up. He's working the case pro bono. He hopes, at least, to find Shelly's body. What is the significance of this particular cell tower? This particular cell tower is the last tower that had any communication at all

with Shelly's cell phone on the day of her disappearance. That's the cell tower up there. That's the cell tower up there. That's the cell tower that her phone last pinged. So how would that have happened? About 7.30 p.m. Now, that was several hours after she was supposed to have last been seen. What would she be doing here? That's a good question. I personally

don't think she was here at least voluntarily. So Tyler has been convicted now of second-degree attempted murder. It certainly makes the world a safer place for women, I think. Robin Donneth got justice. Shelly has not. And Lily either. And Lily either. I hate the thought of having that little girl grow up

thinking my mother abandoned me. Did she not love me? Did she not want me? Why did she leave me? Why didn't she say bye to me? Those are all valid questions that that child has to deal with and has dealt with every day since February 28, 2011.

I think she deserves some measure of closure and justice. Tyler Mook remains a person of interest in the disappearance of his ex-wife. Shelly and Tyler's daughter Lily still lives with Shelly's mom. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.