Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 'Monster' Stabbed Ex-Girlfriend 37 Times, Slit Her Throat and Abused Her Corpse

Episode Date: August 14, 2024

Shannon Hiott was 29 when her ex-boyfriend, Chance Donohoe, broke into her home in August 2023 and stabbed her 37 times. Hiott had broken up with Donohoe over his drug use and had tried to warn other women about him on a social media groups. Prosecutors in Columbus, Ohio say Donohoe saw those warning and it made him angry. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy talks with Shannon's sister, Lana Hiott, about her sister and Donohoe's sentence in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefix and access information about almost anyone!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Lana HiottCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee 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 binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. She had everything ahead of her. She had her dream job that she had been working really hard for, and she was all about protecting other people. A 29-year-old woman is brutally murdered by a man she once dated and trusted. She even tried to warn other women about the man who took her life. Shannon Hyatt's sister is here to remember her. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Shannon Hyatt was a beautiful woman who loved music, art, and rescuing cats. She also loved her family and friends. She worked as a fraud

investigator for an insurance company, but was also active in the local music scene in Columbus, Ohio. But her life was cut tragically short nearly a year ago by a man she once dated. His name was Chance Donahoe. Shannon had broken up with Chance Donahoe after dating him for more than a year. She broke up with him because she didn't think he was a good guy, and she let others know about that on social media. Shannon had posted on the Facebook group, Are We Dating the Same Guy, Columbus? It's a group in some cities that women use to exchange information about men. Shannon had posted, Chance with several red flags. The post read,

Was dating for a little over a year, stole my prescription medications and money out of my bank accounts. Comes off super sweet and honest, but isn't. The money was spent on powdered drugs. Not an assumption. I found them. Chance was recently seen on Tinder, so I'm posting for awareness. Shannon had posted about him in other places on social media too, and the prosecutor says Chance Donahoe saw at least one of those posts. On August 29th of last year, Chance Donahoe admitted to driving past Shannon's home in Columbus and seeing what he thought was another man's car. He drove home, changed into all black, and drove back and forced his way into Shannon's home.

He admitted to stabbing her more than 30 times. The prosecutor spoke about Shannon's wounds at the sentencing and we have audio from that hearing. He changed into that outfit. And going over these sentences, the seriousness and recidivism factors, the state would argue that certainly the victims suffered serious physical and psychological harm. I can only imagine what was going through Shannon's mind as he busted her door and started stabbing her. He told the police that he slit her throat to speed up the process. Shannon had been stabbed in the back,

in the chest, and in other areas, And she had defensive wounds, so she had actually tried to fight back. Donahoe had used drugs, but the prosecutor said Donahoe did not commit these murders because he was high or mentally ill. He's been using drugs probably almost every day, certainly multiple days a week for years. And had no issues. This was not drugs. This was not ketamine. This was not methamphetamine. This was not cocaine.

This is someone that's angry. Pissed off about posts being made about him on social media. He's upset about their breakup. And he goes to her house that night and he sees another male's vehicle that he recognizes at her house. He's not having a mental health crisis. He's not some drug addict who broke with reality. He's angry. And this was planned and premeditated. After stabbing Shannon Hyatt and taking her life, Chad Donahoe screwed shut Shannon's front door and stayed in the home with her body. Donahoe also admitted to abusing her corpse. Shannon's mother, Jamie Hyatt, spoke at Donahoe's sentencing about the pain of losing her daughter.

What I cannot talk about is how devastating this has been on me and my family. She was only 29 years old and was the executor of my will. Not the other way around. It was heartbreaking to go through her things and see that she kept birthday cards and many other remembrances of her and our life together. How scared she must have been. You were a foot taller and 100 pounds heavier. You decided to kill her, drove 20 miles to change clothes and get a knife,

and then drove back 20 miles. You had all that time to change clothes and get a knife and then drove back 20 miles. You had all that time to change your mind, but you're a monster. Donahoe's mother wrote a letter to the court saying her son had mental health issues and had used drugs. The letter also said, what he did was beyond terrible and he must pay a consequence for his actions. For a long time, I have been worried that Chance would hurt himself, but I was never afraid that he would hurt someone else. The judge sentenced Donahoe to life in prison with the possibility of parole after he serves 31 years. Cases like this one go to show you that you have to take steps to keep yourself safe. Truthfinder.com is a website that can help

you research the people that you meet each day. Truthfinder.com will give you a lot of information about a person, including past addresses and criminal history. Just put in a person's name and you will get past criminal records, traffic tickets, addresses, and the names of relatives. What's really great about Truthfinder, it will also give you the addresses of sex offenders who live in your neighborhood if you want to try truthfinder i have a great deal for you you can get 50 off of confidential background reports just log on to www.truthfinder.com lc crime fix log on and start accessing information about almost anyone. Lana Hyatt is Shannon Hyatt's sister, and I want to bring her in to talk with us about Shannon and her loss and to remember her sister. First of all, Lana, I want you to talk with me about how you feel about the sentence that Chance Donahoe got. Oh, gosh.

I don't think that anything would be enough personally for everything that he did. I think that for a lot of women, even living ones, it's kind of insulting because it wasn't just that he got mad and beat her or that he stabbed her one time it's that he stabbed her 38 times and then according to what he told police he didn't know what to do so he raped her and then had a cigarette that's the thought of somebody like that even in 31 years being on the street sickens me not just for myself and for other women but for my kids so especially when all she wanted to do was break up with him. It really is unbelievable. And I'm so sorry for your loss, your mom's loss, the loss of everybody in Shannon's life. I mean, she was such a beautiful woman and I can tell she had a

beautiful soul as well. I mean, I was reading about her and just talking with you before we did this interview. I mean, she sounds like she just was a fun loving woman who loved music and art. And I was reading about the cats, her love of, you know, rescuing these cats and creating these kind of structures for her. I mean, she just sounds like a lovely person. And I want to hear from you about her, because she just sounds like the type of person who would, you know, scoop up a spider in the house and put it outside rather than kill it or something like that, you know? That part I wish was true. I was definitely more of the sister to do that than her, but she was well known for always bringing her own cutlery and disposable

napkins, you know, like chemical free because she didn't want to create waste in the world. And she just got into composting. She had a little garden outside. The cats is a whole thing. She had seven, five of her own. and then she had two kittens that she was fostering as well my parents have one of them now the black one that's in a lot of pictures um and all the others have we found homes for them but she worked with the local rescue doing trap neuter and spay so she would trap them get them fixed and then release them there were outdoor cats that she had and custom add-ons to her home for her cats, which, you know, she had cameras and stuff just to be able to watch them. So huge cat girl.

But more than that, yeah, she loved small businesses. She supported people as much as she could, especially friends of hers. It wasn't just, hey, let me get a discount. It was, hey, let me pay full price and let me also, like, tell people about what you're doing. And her house, there wasn't a blank wall. I mean, there was even a huge mural in her basement. One of the pictures I think that I sent you, you can see the back of it. That was in her basement that she had a friend do for her as well. But she could also draw exceptionally well. I don't think people knew that. You sent me some really lovely photos of her with your children. So she just, I mean, they look like they love their aunt, obviously. I mean, she just looks so happy and just full of joy. Yeah. I mean, there wasn't a stranger to her, really. But the thing

about her was that if you did cross the boundary that she set she would stick true to it she'd make sure you knew why she wanted you to become a better person she wasn't just i'm gonna block contact with you completely it was hey this is why i'm upset this was my boundary you crossed it if you want to get back with you know into my good graces or being my friend or whatever the relationship is here's what i need to see from you and that was no different with with chance she set a boundary she sent a message saying hey i just want you to go to rehab i'm going to block your number but if you call me from there i don't have their number blocked so i'll know so she wasn't completely done

she wanted the best for him, even though he stole from her and did horrible things to her even before he murdered her. And I want to talk about that because she had ended this relationship, but you're saying she just wanted him to go to rehab and to get healthy. But she had tried to warn other women in this online forum, Facebook and some other places that, hey, you know, I dated this guy. I thought he was I thought he was a good guy, but it turned out that he wasn't. He stole from me and did some other things. And this was a Facebook group. And there was some other ways she was warning people about him as well, in which women exchange information about men that

they have dated. So you had shared those posts with me. And the prosecutor even said in court that he saw things on social media that she had posted. And that's what led to this. And that just horrifies me. Because the prosecutor said this was not about drugs this was not about him being high this was about him being angry because she had tried to warn other women about him and so this is what he did he he took the time to go to her place drive all the way back home put on a black outfit drive all the way back there another 20 minutes and then attacked her i i just can't even imagine what what you guys were feeling and thinking when you found out what had happened so for me i i remember it clear as day i also have it recorded just because

i tend to record any time I get a weird phone call or whatever. I have a pretty bad memory. So I remember the detective calling me at the super busy at the house and it's like, hey, you know, we're trying to reach your parents, you know, we're at your house and nobody's answering. Do you know where, you know, how we could get in touch with them? And I was like, what?

Like, why are you at my parents' house? And so I was able to reach my mom at work. Luckily, I have all the extension numbers for her because she calls me all the time. And my dad must have been on a bike ride. So my mom's very much into the news, keeping up with what's going on. She ended up going onto the internet and searching, seeing what was on the news and saw with what's going on she ended up going on to the internet and searching and seeing what was on the news and saw my sister's house and i remember her calling me saying you know just deadpan i think she's dead i think chance murdered shannon i was like what

because originally they corrected it but originally it said like man murders wife. And it was like, that's sweet. What? It wasn't his wife. And I remember getting all upset with the papers because she broke up with him and how horrible to say that. And I remember having to drop my kids off at preschool, begging them to take my kids early so that I could go to my parents' house. And that poor school, like, hey, my sister was just just murdered you have to take my kids so i can go their faces were shocked as well but then going to my parents house waiting for my mom to get there so that she could tell my dad that was one of the worst things i've witnessed in my life i've never seen my dad be that broken both my parents really but yeah it was just what do we do next how can we see her what's going on we wanted information faster than they were able to provide it and that was

a lot of the worst part too was that we know who did it and we didn't really know why at that point but searching through everything to figure out if we could connect the pieces even though they pretty much already had so it's so horrible and he confessed um so at least he didn't deny it you didn't have to go through that type of thing where he tried to say he didn't do it but still it doesn't it doesn't make this any less painful um but there's just the fact that your your sister saw red flags and she put that in her facebook post um it's just so, uh, upsetting and disheartening. Um, having gone through this, do you have any words of advice for women who might be dating men where they think there are some major red flags? Obviously, I don't think Shannon saw this type of thing coming. She just

thought, Hey, I need to put the word out about this guy because he he stole from me and maybe other women need to know this but this just is unbelievable yeah I mean I've always preached this not just to my sister or my friends but to my kids your gut that intuition that you have is a primal thing for us to protect ourselves. So just trust it. If you don't feel comfortable around somebody, don't try and convince yourself that they're okay. Just leave. You don't like somebody, just leave. Because this is our, if I've learned anything through everything that I've gone through, I have one life. When I die, people are going to be sad, but they're

going to keep moving on with their lives. So it's not my job to please other people. It's my job to be happy with myself as much as possible. So if I'm not completely comfortable with somebody, I'm just going to go. That social situations, dates, if you see somebody and you're like, you shouldn't have to convince yourself you shouldn't just continue on and she was very much like that as well i remember the detective saying that even if he hadn't confessed because of everything that she's done and you know how much documentation that there was it wouldn't have been difficult to connect the dots to know that it was him. I mean, she did everything. But if somebody wants to hurt you, they're going to find a way. That's why people get killed in prison.

And that's a prison, but you can still get killed there. So people will find a way. But definitely leave breadcrumbs. And I hate to have to say that. Lana, is there anything else you'd like to add? She had everything ahead of her. She had her dream job that she had been working really hard for. And she was all about protecting other people. She was my support person. And I guess it's the little things that

you don't think about when somebody is gone. I mentioned this before in some articles but like who am I gonna bitch to about my parents? You know who am I gonna say oh my gosh remember that one time or oh my god mom just did this thing that she always does how annoying is that or you know whatever the case may be and that person that knows your whole life story is suddenly ripped apart, like ripped away from you. It's, it's the unexpected moments that you really realize that they're gone when you just want to text them and check in. Yeah, definitely the, you know, that you have a bond, an unbreakable bond with your sister.

So I'm so sorry for your loss. And I really appreciate you joining us to talk with us about Shannon and to remember her. And, you know, we hope we've honored her here today. Thank you so much, Lana. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your time. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Annette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.