Dark Downeast - The Suspicious Death of Shawn O'Brien (Rhode Island)

Episode Date: January 31, 2022

RHODE ISLAND, 2006: Was it a seizure or did somebody murder Shawn O'Brien? His daughter, Natalia St. Louis, just wants to know the truth, but the details of that July afternoon in 2006 don’t make any sense. It was labeled a medical call, an apparent seizure, but the autopsy report and blood evidence at the scene point to something much more violent than that. Over 15 years later, Shawn O’Brien’s case is still labeled a suspicious death.She’s been told to keep quiet, but if she’s not asking questions, chasing down leads, and talking about father’s case, who will?NOTE: At the time of this episode’s original release day in January 2022, no one has been arrested or charged with any crimes as it relates to the suspicious death of Shawn O’Brien. Names mentioned in this episode are in the public record, though no individuals have been publicly named persons of interest or suspects in this case.If you have any information regarding the death of Shawn O’Brien in July of 2006, please contact Cranston Police Detective Rob Santagata at [phone] or text the tip line at [phone]. For more information and updates in Shawn’s case, visit justiceforshawnobrien.com. Contact information and photos are listed at darkdowneast.com.  View source material and photos for this episode at darkdowneast.com/shawnobrienFollow @darkdowneast on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTokTo suggest a case visit darkdowneast.com/submit-case Dark Downeast is an audiochuck and Kylie Media production hosted by Kylie Low.

I just want to know what happened. I just want to know. I just want to know, like, after 15 years of imagining all these horrific things, I just... I just want to know truth. That's it. All Natalia St. Louis wants is the truth about what happened to her father. The details of that July afternoon in 2006 don't make any sense. It was labeled a medical call, an apparent seizure, but the autopsy report and blood evidence at the scene points to something much more violent than that. But over 15 years later, Sean O'Brien's case is still labeled a suspicious death. She's been told to keep quiet,

but if she's not asking questions, chasing down leads, and talking about her father's case, who will? I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is the case of Sean O'Brien, told by his daughter, Natalia St. Louis, on Dark Down East.

When Natalia St. Louis was a kid growing up in Cranston, Rhode Island, she didn't really notice anything was missing in her life. She was close with her mother, Amy, and had a big Italian family who supported and celebrated everything she did. My mom always did the best by me. My whole family always did best by me. I grew up Italian, so it was like, you know, Sunday dinners were our thing and going to church on Sunday mornings. And I loved school. I loved going to school. I loved playing school. I always wanted to be a teacher. So I think I had a really good childhood. I think despite, I don't remember ever realizing like, oh, I don't have a dad. Like I don't, it didn't dawn on me that there was anything amiss. Like it didn't dawn on me that there was anything amiss. Like, it didn't dawn on me that my dad wasn't in my life at the time.

Her parents were together when Natalia was born, but they split when she was about two years old. For seven years, it was just mother and daughter. They were best friends. Nothing was lacking. Natalia was happy. It wasn't until her parents reconnected when she was nine years old that she realized just how special dads can be. So my mom and dad finally reconnected when I was about nine. And right off the bat, we

just spent time together. Like, I don't know, my mom and dad, I think, tried to do like a friendship co-parenting thing in the beginning. They did eventually like date, if that's, I guess, what you would call it when you already have a child and like you guys are playing family. And my dad and I, we connected like in a friendship way, I think, the way that my mom and I did when we were younger. He was a carpenter and he was really good at it. And there were times that like he would take me to Lowe's or whatever. And I was like, OK, this is cool. Like this is what it's like to have a dad to go and pick up wood and nails and work on projects around the house. Though her parents dated again and they were spending time together as a family,

Sean had a different lifestyle than Natalia's mother, including alcohol and substance use. It became a barrier for them. It's a funny thing. They reconnected, but they still definitely had different lifestyles. It's not a secret. Everybody knows that my dad had his struggles with alcohol and recreational occasional drug use. I think that my mom definitely does not. My mom doesn't drink. She never has. My mom doesn't touch drugs. My mom is very straight-laced. My dad was functioning and he did all the right things, but it was definitely a very different lifestyle. It got in the way, I think, of them being able to fully reconnect and for us to fully be a family. I definitely think that it got in the way of me appreciating him for all that he was and

and I think I held a lot of like resentment over the fact that 10 and 11 I saw that this was getting in the way but I didn't realize how much so and I think he tried I think he tried really hard I think he pushed a lot of things aside and tried to like hide some things for me and like kudos to him for doing that. He put me first. He put me first in a lot of ways. And so did my mom. And I think like if years later, I think they probably could have gotten their stuff together. But unfortunately, it didn't work out because I think they both just were really good parents. Despite their romantic relationship not working out, Natalia's mom and dad continued their relationship as her parents. In the summertime, they went to the beach together as a family, they went out to dinner, or grabbed a pizza for movie nights at home.

Sean still called Natalia's mother every morning at 6 a.m. to check in before work. But on the morning of July 22, 2006, that call never came. During the summer of 2006, Sean O'Brien was subletting the basement of a duplex apartment in Cranston, Rhode Island, from a man named Armand Rouleau, who lived on the main level of the apartment with his girlfriend, Lynn Halal. The arrangement wasn't ideal. He didn't have a lot of space or privacy. Sean felt uncomfortable there. You would walk into the back door and you would be in Armand's kitchen. And then directly to the left were a set of stairs. And that was how you would get into my dad's place. So it was just a regular door. And yes,

there was a fluid movement between the floors because the laundry room was in my dad's space. And because he only had a half bath, he would have to use the shower upstairs, which was a little bit odd and uncomfortable. I remember him being so uncomfortable with even being there that he would only shower when no one was home. It wasn't just the shared space that made Sean uncomfortable. He didn't always get along with his housemates, particularly Armin's girlfriend Lynn. Their interactions were chaotic and sometimes violent.

Lynn allegedly threatened Sean. Slowly over time, there were more and more 911 calls and arguments and fights at the house that every time I saw my dad, it was always about Lynn is crazy or Lynn's making me uncomfortable. Or there were instances of Lynn coming down into my dad's part of the apartment, flipping a table and saying, I'm going to kill you and kind of like going off her rocker. And they were absolutely like substance abuse issues with them. And it was a whole thing. And so he was definitely uncomfortable living there. And in about June of 2006 or so, he, him and his sister Erin were talking about getting an apartment on their own. He was trying to get out. Until he could get out, Sean adapted to his less than ideal living situation and minimized his interactions with Lynn and Armand. Whenever he could be, Sean was out of the apartment, often spending time with Natalia and her mother Amy. That was the plan on that Friday night. The big historic St. Mary's Feast in Cranston was that weekend. It was a Friday night, it was July 21st. There was a feast going on in Cranston that we were all set to go to. He had

worked during the day, we were going to go to the feast at night. He got home from work, gave my mom a call, let her know he was home. That was kind of always his thing. He was always checking in, touching base and making sure that, you know, everyone knew that he was safe and he was okay. And we went by the house and my very younger cousin was in the back seat. We're all going to go together. And I don't know, I had a headache. And because I had a headache that night, we didn't go out. They postponed their plans to go to the feast that night. But Sean still didn't want to spend his night at the apartment. And he, I vividly remember him leaning in the car and saying, well, she's here. And he pointed to her, to Lynn's car that was in the driveway. And he said, I don't, he said, I can't be here. I can't do it tonight. And he pointed to Lynn's car that was in the driveway. He said, I can't be here. I can't do it tonight. Just take me to Billy's. Billy's was a bar down the street within walking distance of Sean's apartment.

He said he was going to drink a few beers, play Keno, and just get out of the house to avoid any interactions with Lynn and Armand. Amy double-checked that Sean would be able to get home later that night, and he said he'd walk or call his sister to meet him later. Satisfied with his plan, Amy agreed to give him a ride. Before they left, though, Natalia watched her dad hand something over to her mother. He handed my mom some money for me, said, here, go get clothes or whatever, like, I guess like a child support thing, but more like an informal thing. And he handed her an extra like $180 out of his, he had cash.

And he said, put this in the glove compartment. I don't want to party tonight. He knew ahead of time, like he can get himself into some drama, right? And he could go buy drugs whenever he wanted. And he was like, I don't want to do that. I literally just don't want to be in the house. It was just not, it wasn't comfortable. So we said, all right.

He got in the car, drove around the corner to Billy's. He got out, walked around. That was the last time I saw him, to me, what would be alive. And that was it. That was it until Saturday. He was supposed to wake up on Saturday morning and go to work. And he would call her every day, every Saturday at least, before work. Let her know, like, hey, I'm up, like, what are we doing later, right? Like, checking in about the rest of the weekend. And he didn't call her.

At first, no call from Sean didn't really worry Amy. Despite his precautions to ensure he wouldn't party that night, maybe Sean did anyway. And my mom admittedly says that she just thought he got into, he went home with somebody or he got into some trouble, whatever. And she didn't think anything of it. Natalia and her mother went about their day, assuming they'd hear from Sean later that afternoon. It wasn't until Sean's sister, Karen, went to check on her brother that they discovered why he never called. My Aunt Karen, his sister, went by his apartment Saturday, I don't know, like around 5.30. And because he lived in the basement part of the apartment, there was this basement window that was like our communication system.

So if we pulled up and we wanted him to know that we were there and his phone didn't have minutes because it was 2006 and that's how we had phones, we would go and knock on this little basement window. And Armand, the man that rented the house for real, had a dog named Floyd. It was a golden retriever. And he was the most beautiful dog. But he was oddly, fiercely loyal to my dad. He was Armand's dog and Armand raised him. But when my dad came, that was it. Like he was with my dad all the time.

If my dad was having a seizure or anything, he actually sat by him and would be there. He, every time anyone knocked on the window, Floyd was downstairs and he would bark. So we would go, oh, all right, dad knows that we're here because Floyd's barking. And Karen says by her accounts that Floyd didn't bark. And so she knew like something's not right. Karen knocked on the window again and waited. She couldn't see through the blacked out screen. That's when Armand, the man who rented the townhouse, came running out the door. And Armand came running from the back of the house and said,

you have to come in right now. You have to hurry up and come in. Sean's been in a seizure for over an hour. And Karen said, what do you mean? Like, why didn't you call 911? And he said, oh, I went down there and I checked on him, but he's been, hurry up, you need to get in. Karen found her brother in the basement, unconscious. And he, he did have a history of seizures. It wasn't like diagnosed epilepsy. It wasn't anything like that. It would usually happen if he had done drugs the night before. He would have a seizure in the morning. But he always knew they were coming.

He knew they were coming. He had like that sense thing. And if he felt one coming on, he would go right back to bed, lay down, let it happen, and then rest the rest of the day. Sean was not known to sustain any injuries from those seizures. He might bite his tongue, which is common, but nothing like this. But Armin said it was a seizure, and that's what Karen told the dispatcher when she called 911. And when she calls 911, I listened to the tape years later. She says, you have to hurry up, my brother's having a seizure.

He was gargling. You could hear on the 911 call that he was not, like there was nothing there. Natalia's mother got the news that Sean was in the hospital, but she didn't know how serious it was at the time. She didn't tell me immediately. She just kind of went and made sure like that it was nothing too bad. And then somebody called my aunt Jen, my mom's sister,

and said, you need to take her down here because this is kind of it. Like, this is, it's happening. Natalia arrived at the hospital to see her dad, but she didn't fully grasp what was happening at first. And I remember I walked in and the doctor was sitting with my family and telling them, them like we had done you know brain surgery to relieve pressure we like I remember them saying that they took out a piece

of his brain to try to like make space in his skull but it wasn't wasn't promising at all and I remember everyone crying and I sat there and I was like why is everyone crying what is like they just did surgery like this is okay like what is the big deal like i 13 years old who knows and so that's when i found out something happened doctors delivered the heartbreaking news that sean was unlikely to survive his injuries he was on life support kept breathing his family goodbye. But as if it wasn't hard enough, a concerning update from surgeons added to the confusion and emotion. Was it really just a seizure that claimed Sean O'Brien's life? One of the doctors and one of the surgeons had come out and said, does anyone know what happened to him?

And my family said, what do you mean what happened to him? Like, by all accounts, he had a seizure. That was what the call was. It was a seizure. And the surgeons were like, no, no, something happened. Like, somebody needs to look into this. The extent of his injuries and classification of those injuries would not be fully known until an autopsy was completed.

But there was enough there for the surgeons to put Sean's family on alert. Somebody needed to look into it. Three different people called the Cranston police and said, something happened, you need to get to that house because something happened there. Unfortunately, they didn't go at that point, but there was, you could feel it. You could feel this like air of there's something not right. Nobody actually went to the apartment until Wednesday the 26th. So he had passed on the 25th. My mom and my Aunt Erin went to the apartment just to get his things, right?

Like, he had just passed away. We just wanted to get a few things. And there was blood everywhere. There was blood on everything. Like, the mattress had pools of blood, the carpet. There was a handprint on the bathroom door. There was vomit in the toilet. There was blood on the dining room.

He had like a dining room table set up. There was blood on the chairs, but then things had blood on them. And then pieces of his clothing were covering it, not like tucked in, just draped over. So if you picked up that shirt, you found a blood stain. His pillows were soaked with blood. There was blood on like his bureau, his dressers, everything. Going up the wall to the stairs, there was this like smear of blood. His kitchen had been tidied up, which was a weird thing. Everything kind of looked like it had just been touched. So they went.

They just got a few things. And while they were downstairs, and they tried to take a few pictures. My Aunt Erin had a flip phone at the time. Not the best camera, obviously. They were trying to take a few pictures really quickly and then get out of there. And Armit had a nephew who was about my dad's age, big guy. And he comes down the stairs about halfway. And my mom said she, and she looked at him and I was like, hey, what's up? Armand's nephew just said, my uncle never had any problems with Sean. And my mom said, all right.

And she said that every hair on her body stood up. She looked at Aaron and she said, we have to go. That's it. We have to get out of here. What they found in the apartment, the blood, the tidied kitchen, the interaction with Armin's nephew, it all heightened to the feeling that something wasn't right, that something bad happened in that basement. Amy wasn't waiting for the police to decide that this deserved a closer

look. The day after he passed away, my mom and my aunt Lisa walked right into the Cranston police station right when they opened and said, we need to talk to somebody. And my mom spent hours there going through everything, going through all of the injuries on my dad's body, not just the skull fracture, not just the brain bleed and all of that, but like cuts on his chest, rug burn on his knuckles, cuts on his knees, like all of these random injuries that weren't documented on the hospital reports, but just in him, he was laying there on life support, what everyone

noticed. Finally, the week after Sean was found in the basement, Cranston police decided to take a closer look. In a largely redacted supplemental report by Detective Alan Hall of the Cranston Police Department, he details the interview of Sean O'Brien's housemates at the time of his death, as well as the search of his basement apartment. Detective Alan Hall reported that during his interview with Armand about what happened on the previous Saturday when Sean O'Brien was found in his basement, Armand requested a lawyer and was advised of his rights. However, he did consent to a search of his home and photographs of his person. He was free to leave after the photos. An hour and a half later, Detective Hall followed Armand back to his apartment to conduct the search. According to the report by Detective Hall,

another officer at the scene started a crime scene roster in the event that some form of evidence to a crime was found within the house. Meanwhile, Detective Hall sat down with Armand and his girlfriend, Lynn Halal. Detective Hall asked Lynn if Armand told her how Sean O'Brien was laying in the basement when he first found him. Armand tried to answer, but the detective cut him off. He'd already asked for an attorney, and investigators couldn't speak with him. Detective Hall turned back to Lynn, who said she didn't remember if Armand said anything about how Sean was lying. He asked Lynn if Armand told her how Sean was lying the second time he

went into the basement to check on him. Again, Armand tried to cut in and answer, but Detective Hall reminded him that he couldn't answer any questions without an attorney present. Armand told the detective that he changed his mind. He did want to speak without an attorney. Detective Hall phoned his sergeant to explain the situation and then Armand was given another reading of his rights and a new rights form to sign, saying he wanted to talk to police without an attorney present. Very little information about the content of the interview is included in this supplemental report. However, Detective Hall noted that Armand had scratches on his face, and when asked how he got those scratches, Lynn spoke up and said

she scratched him. They had an argument on that Friday night, July 21st, 2006, and she scratched Armand. July 21st, the night before the event, in Sean's basement bedroom. Rhode Island has mandatory domestic violence arrest laws, and so following the interview, Lynn was brought to the police station where she was placed under arrest and processed for domestic violence charges. In the midst of making arrangements for Sean's funeral,

Sean's mother called the funeral home and learned that her son's body had been claimed for an autopsy. It was a sign that the investigation into Sean's death was ongoing. So we thought, oh, thank God, like this is gonna, this is it, right? And the police were finally starting to talk to my mom and said, don't worry, slam dunk, by the funeral, by the time the funeral comes, we're going to have them arrested. You can sleep peacefully, it's all going to be wrapped up by the funeral. I'm looking at the autopsy report right now.

Natalia obtained it herself as part of her work to learn the truth about what happened to her father. The medical examiner, Alexander Shurkov, wrote in his final opinion, It is my opinion that Sean O'Brien, a 34-year-old white man, died as a result of blunt force injury to the head with skull fracture, epidural and subdural hemorrhage, and contusion of the left hemisphere. Circumstances of condition related to injuries is unclear, so manner of death is undetermined. Toxicologic examination revealed presence of cocaine, barbiturates, and opiates in blood. Manner of death, undetermined. That's what the official autopsy report says. But Natalia told me her family had conversations with the medical examiner, and he reportedly told them that this was a homicide.

But for reasons unclear, that manner of death didn't make it on paper. He initially ruled it a homicide. He did not write that on any report, but he met with my family and he let them know this is a homicide. Perfect. Cranston police can take that and run with it. They were ready to pull a grand jury. They were ready to bring charges. And then the ME ultimately put blunt force trauma by undetermined means. He says he needs information from the police. The police say they need something to say homicide in order to charge anybody. The attorney general is sitting there in the middle with their hands tied. On an autopsy report, you're likely to see one of five manners of death,

natural, accident, suicide, homicide, and undetermined. In cases like Sean's, determining a manner of death relies on more than what the body reveals during the autopsy. Without context, the medical examiner couldn't make a conclusive determination that this was, in fact, a homicide. And without a homicide ruling, police didn't have a case to investigate. However, Natalia told me that Cranston police did follow up on certain details from the scene of Sean's death. They went to the dump and tried to locate some missing items from Sean's apartment, a lamp, a hammer, and an alarm clock. Police searched Lynn

and Armin's vehicles and collected Sean's mattress, pieces of the flooring, and ceiling tiles from the apartment as evidence. But if anything came from that part of the investigation, it clearly wasn't enough. And then after about six months, they said it was a cold case. And that was it. This is a cold case. Someone will say something one day. Someone's going to have one too many at the bar and spill. Imagine being told that the justice and closure you so badly want and deserve for your father's death is left to someone maybe possibly spilling the beans at a bar one day. As frustrating as it sounds, that's often the scenario for surviving family members. For years, Natalia's family kept up with Cranston police, but updates were far and few between. By 2019, Natalia was ready to take matters into her own hands. Late at night when her house is quiet, Natalia opens up her laptop and steps back into the world of her father's death.

She's teaching herself how to be a private investigator. It feels like the best recourse she has to seek answers for the father she only got to spend four years with. Natalia stays in contact with detectives, requests investigative records, and messages possible witnesses and those who knew her dad and his housemates online, hoping to piece together the nebulous details of a 16-year-old case. Natalia started making noise in the media, and Cranston police didn't like the attention she was garnering for his case. But if she doesn't do it, who will? I've just tried to hold people accountable. Like that's where I'm at.

I met with the attorney general and I was like, you're not going to, you're not shaking me off. I'm not, I'm not going away. So, and I hate being that person. I hate that. I hate that. I hate, I don't like it. I don't like being this, but it's the only way I'm going to make progress. There are pieces of her father's case that bother Natalia, details that don't add up. It starts with the 911 call itself. Why didn't Armand call for help if Sean had been in a seizure for over an hour as he stated? Why didn't anyone else in the

house call 911? My Aunt Karen called 911 and they were on the 911 report. I did get it years later. A lot of it's redacted. There were a bunch of people there. There were a bunch of adults there. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know who it is. I don't know who was hanging around the house and knew that someone was downstairs having a seizure allegedly and didn't do anything about it. It's a very weird. It was a very weird scenario. Another issue that raises concern for Natalia are the discrepancies between what was reported by the responding officer, Karen's recollection of how she found her brother, and the state of Sean O'Brien when he arrived at the hospital. Officer Sean Parker covered the neighborhood where Sean lived, and he'd responded to domestic incidents and other 911 calls at the address before. He also responded when Karen called 911 that July evening.

In Officer Parker's report, he says he responded to the apartment for a quote, report of a male having a seizure not cooperating with the Cranston Fire Department. On arrival, I entered the basement bedroom and CFD had already secured a male, later identified as Sean O'Brien, to a backboard and were carrying him upstairs. Sean appeared to be conscious and I did not see any marks or injuries on him. End quote. Alert enough to be combative. No visible injuries.

Which version was accurate? The fact is that Sean was rushed to the hospital for emergency brain surgery. Is a person conscious, alert, and combative with that level of injury? Natalia wonders if the officer misremembered the incident. The report from Officer Parker was entered on July 22, 2006, the same day of the incident. The report shows it was modified on October 23, 2006. It does not indicate what parts of the report might have been changed. Natalia was transparent with me about the more challenging details of her father's life.

The autopsy report noted the presence of cocaine and other substances in his body. But she hasn't always been ready to disclose this fact of the case. For a long, long, long time, I refused to talk about it. And I would fight the fact that my dad was an addict or an alcoholic in any way. I kind of went one of two ways. I would say, I'm not talking about it. So if the story came up or whatever, I would just pretend that that wasn't part of it. And I would completely exclude it from the story's, it kind of applies to the facts of the case, I guess, and to who he was as a person. And then for years, obviously, like through the grief cycle or whatever, I thought, and it's terrible, but I thought, you kind of put yourself in this

situation, you brought this into your life, you chose a certain lifestyle. And so whatever happened to you happened to you. And it's like, you know, you don't deserve like my pity or whatever. And it took a really long time. It took 15 years for me to realize people can have struggles, but they don't deserve to be killed. Doing this work, advocating for her father's case, it's not easy. The mental and emotional toll is enormous. And I have worked so hard to compartmentalize this in my life. And I try to explain it to everybody. And I don't know how many people actually understand that. When I want to do work, my dad's case, right? I have to literally step into that life. And it's a completely separate person. It's a separate person. And then when I'm done

with it, it's almost like it's like a detox, I have to like slowly step out of it. And back into my day to day life back into like, okay, you work in a school, and you are married and you are okay, and you are safe. And it is that you are the same thing is not going to happen to you and then I have to like prepare myself to step back into it and I have to like swallow it all down and I go back to being 13 again this is who I am now I'm two different people I operate in two very different worlds and it is the most bizarre feeling but it's the only way that I've been able to like get through it is considered an open, suspicious death.

They will not label it a homicide. So by their report, they are not actively investigating. They're just waiting for new information. It's a cold case. It's suspicious. They are not going to pound the pavement. That's it. In August 2019, Natalia appealed a decision by the Cranston Police Department to not release her father's case file. Cranston Chief of Police Michael Winquist responded with a letter. A letter that Natalia doesn't necessarily agree with or accept as the final say in her father's case.

Winquist wrote in part, I received your letter dated August 10th, 2019. First off, I want to express my deepest condolences for the loss of your father, Sean O'Brien, in 2006. The untimely loss of your father at such a young age must have been especially difficult. The fact that many questions remain concerning what led to your father's demise is not lost on the many detectives who worked diligently on the investigation and me. I am aware you and other family members have been in contact with investigators from the Cranston Police Department Detective Division throughout the years who have explained the many challenges associated with determining what ultimately led to your father's death. The medical examiner, who conducted an autopsy on your father in 2006,

was unable to conclude the manner of death. Investigators also conducted numerous interviews and collected evidence from the residents. Based on all the information we have gathered up to this point, there is nothing to suggest that your father was the victim of a homicide and his death appears it was more likely associated with a medical event and fall. In addition to multiple detectives reviewing the case throughout the years, an external review was also conducted by prosecutors from the Rhode Island Attorney General's office, who concurred with the opinion of the detectives.

The case remains open, but is inactive, pending receipt of new information. I want people to know that my dad was killed. I want people to, when they hear my dad's name, not think that it was justified in any way or that it was some accident or some medical incident. I really want my dad's name to be, that is a very sad story. And that's not like a pity thing.

It's just like, I want people to know. I want people to know that my dad was killed. I want people to know that at 29, I sit up at night thinking, my dad is dead and I don't know why. I don't know what happened to him. And if it was an accident, fine. If he had a seizure and he fell fine like I'm not even I'm done fighting everybody on it but explain it to me I want the truth every family member I speak with for this podcast teaches me something. I always walk away with a heavy reminder that life is not guaranteed, that loss ravages our hearts in brutal ways and weaves unfair thoughts into our minds. Natalia was vulnerable with me about how she's navigated the grief and healing journey that comes with losing your father. At times, that grief can be cruel. The what-ifs take over in her head. She wonders if her 13-year-old self could have

prevented the outcome. It's always been this thing of, what if I didn't? What if I didn't? What if, what if we went out? Or what if I didn't say anything? Or what if I said, Yeah, I have a headache, but let's still go out. We don't know how we got home Friday night. Presumably he walked home because he had walked home from Billy's before. But there's nothing to say that he didn't get a ride home or anything. And still to this day, we don't have a timeline. We don't know what time he left Billy's. We don't know what time he left Billy's. We don't know what time he actually came home. There's conflicting stories.

So I think like if we had gone to the feast, I know we would have been home at 10 o'clock and he would have gotten a ride home directly from my mom and gone right in and went to bed. So it's just another one of those what ifs. But it's the final what if. It's not the what if police did their job. It's not what if the treatment had worked or like what ifs, but it's the final what if. It's not the, it's not the, what if police did their job? It's not, what if the treatment had worked? Or like, what if he didn't do drugs? Or what if he, it's not, there are bigger what ifs. This is the smallest final what if. There is not a single action after that one that could have changed

the order of events. And that's, that's, I think what bothers me the most is like, not, not all the big ones, right? We could go through those all day, and I could work through those, but it's like, wow, what a small thing that changed everyone's lives. Amidst the challenges of pursuing answers in Sean O'Brien's case,

the demands of everyday life, and the never-ending journey of healing and grief, Natalia thinks back to the funny, giving father she knew, and the special Beach and it's in Warwick, Rhode Island. And it's, I mean, there's water and sand, but it's not the best beach. And we would, they have like a little like dough boy clam shack thing. And, you know, people just kind of go and hang out in those old car shows and stuff. And I remember going with him and my mom and my best friend, Becky, and we would drive around and he would roll down the window because it was so busy. He would yell stupid things at people. Like he would just yell, Hey, people just to see who would turn. And it would have me and Becky cracking

up in the back seat. And it was like just the stupidest thing to do, but it was, it was just what he did. He just made people, he made everybody laugh. I think in his soul, he was a really good person and he wanted everyone around him to be happy and to laugh and to just be laid back and have fun. And like, that's who my dad was. At the time of this episode's original release date in January 2022, no one has been arrested or charged with any crimes as it relates to the suspicious death of Sean O'Brien. Names mentioned in this episode are in the public record, though no individuals have been named persons of interest or suspects in this case. If you have information regarding the death of Sean O'Brien in July of 2006, please contact Cranston Police Detective Rob Santagata at 401-942-2211.

You can also text the tip line created by Natalia at 401-284-9555. For more information and updates in Sean's case, visit justiceforshawnobryan.com. Links to this website, contact information, and photos are listed at darkdowneast.com. Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. Source material is always listed at darkdowneast.com so you can dig in and learn more. Thank you for tuning into the show every week and thank you to those who have left reviews. If you're so inclined, leave a review on Apple Podcasts and leave a lobster emoji so I know where you came from. This week for Missing New England, I want to bring your attention to a very much active and ongoing developing situation, a missing woman out of Lewiston, Maine. Reading directly from her missing poster, Caitlin Danforth has been missing since

January 20th, 2022. She is 26 years old, 5 foot 2 inches tall, and 85 pounds. The poster reads, Her hair has some blonde in it now since the picture on the poster was taken. Her family is concerned for her safety. I will share her photo and this information at darkdowneast.com slash missing, but if you have seen her or you want to share a tip, please contact Lewiston Police Department at 207-795-9010. Thank you for supporting this show and allowing me to do what I do. I'm honored to use this platform for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers in cold missing persons and

murder cases. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe and this is Dark Down East.