Murder: True Crime Stories - SPECIAL: The Halloween Nightmare 2

Episode Date: October 23, 2025

Six years after 11-year-old Shauna Howe was abducted and murdered on Halloween night, a new detective uncovered the clue that changed everything. With DNA evidence, a shocking confession, and a trial that exposed the truth, Oil City, Pennsylvania finally got justice...but the nightmare left scars that lasted for decades Murder: True Crime Stories is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. For ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts. Don’t miss out on all things Murder: True Crime Stories! Instagram: @Crimehouse TikTok: @Crimehouse Facebook: @crimehousestudios X: @crimehousemedia YouTube: @crimehousestudios To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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This is Crime House. Halloween was never the same in Oil City, Pennsylvania, after 11-year-old Shauna Howe was kidnapped and murdered that same week in 1992, a holiday known for costumes and fun had turned into a haunting reminder of one of the town's worst crimes. Parents kept their kids inside, porch lights stayed dark, and the community prayed Shauna's killer would be caught one day. But cold cases don't have to stay that way forever. After six excruciating years, a new detective took on the investigation. He was determined to bring Shauna the justice she deserved. And he was determined to bring Shauna the justice she deserved.

and he wasn't afraid to reveal the monsters who'd been hiding in plain sight along the way. People's lives are like a story. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end. But you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon, and we don't always get to know the real ending. I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder, True Crime Stories,

a crime house original powered by Pave Studios that comes at every Tuesday and Thursday. At Crime House, we want to express our gratitude to you, our community, from making this possible. Please support us by rating, reviewing, and following Murder, True Crime Stories, wherever you get your podcasts. And to enhance your murder, true crime stories, listening experience, Subscribe to Crimehouse Plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get ad-free listening, early access to every two-part series, and exciting bonus content. This is the second of two episodes on the 1992 abduction and murder of 11-year-old Shauna How. Last time, I walked you through the night a mysterious man snatched Shauna off the streets of Oil City, Pennsylvania.

Three days later, she was found dead in a rocky creek. after being thrown off the side of a bridge. Detectives had no shortage of evidence, including a DNA sample from her Halloween costume, but none of their suspects was a match. Today, I'll explain how a new detective caught the one clue everyone else had missed. His discovery would upend the case

and cast every previous suspect back under suspicion. Thanks to his efforts, Sean's family would finally get closure, and Oil City would take back Halloween. All that and more coming up. You know what's better than the one big thing? Two big things. Exactly.

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Bell Air Direct, insurance simplified. Conditions apply. In October 1992, 11-year-old Shauna Howe was kidnapped off the streets of Oil City, Pennsylvania. Local officials and community volunteers searched everywhere for the little girl until three days later, right before Halloween, when they found her body about eight miles outside of town at a local camping site. It looked like Shauna's killer had thrown her off a bridge and into the Rocky Creek below. The crime shook the community. The city council even banned nighttime trick-or-treating on Halloween indefinitely. No one felt safe until Shauna's killer was apprehended.

But for years, there were no arrests, and the case started to go cold. Detectives got reassigned or retired, and the people of Oil City were left to wonder if there would always be a murderer in their midst. In January, 1998, after six long years, A new investigator was given Shauna's file. His name was Rich Graham, and he was a former patrol officer who'd been promoted to detective. Graham took his new assignment seriously. One of the first things he did was visit Lucy Howe, Seana's mom.

He introduced himself and told her confidently that he would solve the case, no matter how long it took. Lucy had heard that before but something about Graham's conviction gave her hope he had a full workload as a detective something like 72 active cases at once but he was obsessed with Shauna's every night he went home and reviewed the files

he poured over them again and again making sure he'd absorbed all the details through that process he kept coming back to one line in the coroner's report. The medical examiner had determined that Shauna's kidnapper must have kept her alive for the three days she was missing. But there were no signs of restraints on her wrists or ankles. This suggested more than one person had been involved. When there are multiple assailants, someone can always stand guard, so there's no need for restraints.

Initially, detectives assumed Shauna's killer was the one whose DNA was on her body suit, so they'd ruled out anyone who wasn't a match. While that was still possible, Graham's revelation opened the doors to another possibility, that if more than one person had been involved, then maybe they shouldn't be so focused on the DNA. Because chances were, the killer's accomplice with someone the police had all already looked into and mistakenly ruled out. After Graham's realization, he and his fellow detectives reviewed the persons of interest over the years,

and that brought them back to a man in his early 40s named Eldred Ted Walker. Walker was the pizza parlor employee who knew Shauna and her friends, the one who was always trying to give the schoolgirls hugs, even though they ran away from him. He lived in what detectives described as a flop house. A whole manner of people came in and out of the place, and he often invited local kids over. Detectives had found Walker suspicious for a number of reasons. First, he knew who Shawna was.

Second, he fit the description of her kidnapper given by a witness, and third, he drove a small red car, the type the abductor had forced Shawna into. but he'd been ruled out because he wasn't a match for the DNA found on Shauna's body suit. Now, detectives took a deeper look, and they found that after Shauna's murder in 1992, the fire department had gotten an emergency call. Apparently, Walker's red car had been found engulfed in flames.

First responders put out the blaze, and that was that, nothing more had been made of it at the time. But when Detective Graham saw that report, his stomach sank. He had a feeling the car had been purposefully set on fire to destroy evidence. It was enough to bring Walker in for questioning. One of Graham's fellow detectives took the lead on interrogating Walker. Of course, Walker denied any involvement. But when the detective asked Walker how he'd learned about Shauna's abduction,

and Walker gave a straightforward answer. His two friends, Jimmy and Tim O'Brien, came over to his house and told him. That piqued investigators' interest. Walker could have given any vague answer. Well, pretty much everyone in town had known about the kidnapping within hours, and yet he specifically named those two men who just happened to be violent sexual offenders. Detective Graham reached out to the previous lead on the case, retired Detective Chuck Daly.

He asked if they'd looked into the O'Brien's, and Daly said yes, but the brothers couldn't have been responsible because they'd been in jail at the time. That puzzled Graham. If that were true, then how did they tell Walker about Shana's abduction? It would have been an odd lie for Walker to tell.

And that was when Graham realized. In all the time he'd spent sifting through the case files, he'd never actually seen any paperwork that confirmed the O'Brien's had been in jail in October 1992. So he started poking around, and what he eventually found shocked him. The brothers hadn't been in jail at the time. They had been out on Bond. Graham couldn't believe it. All that time, they'd ruled out the two men because of false information, but it was possible they'd been the ones responsible all long. At that point, both brothers were behind bars for separate crimes.

27-year-old Jimmy O'Brien was in the state prison. He'd been arrested by Oil City Police three years earlier in 1995 for trying to abduct a woman and stuffing her in a trunk. The case was eerily similar to Shana's, and it's what first put detectives on to Jimmy. Meanwhile, his brother, 32-year-old Tim, was being held in the nearby county jail on sexual assault charges. Graham didn't waste any time. He rushed down to the station to talk to him. He asked the older brother if he would give a DNA sample.

Tim hemmed and hawed, then he said he had to check with his attorney. That was a red flag as far as Graham was concerned, but he nodded, knowing he would get the sample he needed one way or another. As he turned to leave, he caught something out of the corner of his eye and froze. There on the table was a candy wrapper that Tim had discarded. A chill went down Graham's spine. It was just like the one that had been found. on the bridge near Shauna's body. Graham knew in his gut that he had the right guy, at least one of them,

and once he found the second, he was finally going to make them pay for the murder of Shauna Howe. More points. More flights. More of all the things you want in a travel rewards card, and then some. Get your ticket to more with the new BMO ViPorter MasterCard, and get up to $2,400 in value in your first 13 months. Terms and conditions apply. Visit BMO.com slash ViPorter to learn more. Td Bank knows that running a small business is a journey,

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But around 1998, Detective Rich Graham took the lead on the case and narrowed in on three previous suspects, 40-year-old Ted Walker, 32-year-old Tim O'Brien, and 27-year-old Jimmy O'Brien. Initially, Walker had been ruled out because he wasn't a DNA match, but investigators were now considering that more than one person might have been involved, so he was back under the microscope as a possible accomplice. However, the O'Brien brothers were never asked for a sample. Back in 1992, authorities believed they were in prison at the time of Shauna's murder. In reality, they were out on bond.

And at some point in the late 90s, Detective Graham managed to get DNA swabs from both brothers. Unfortunately, DNA testing takes a while, and there's all kinds of bureaucracy about which case takes priority, so even once Graham submitted the samples, he didn't get immediate results. But eventually, in February 2002, nearly 10 years after Shauna's murder, and four years after first visiting Tim in jail, Graham got a call from the crime lab. Tim O'Brien wasn't a match, but his brother Jimmy was. Graham and his fellow investigators are were floored. Finally, they had a match, which meant they had to talk to Jimmy ASAP. On March 1st, 2002, authorities transferred Jimmy from the state prison to FBI offices for

questioning. It was disappointing. Jimmy refused to say anything, except that he was innocent. Jimmy's mother believed her son was being set up. She said he often went camping in the area where Sean was found, the police must have gotten his DNA from some trash and were now falsely accusing him. Despite her pleas, investigators weren't buying it. Because Jimmy was a suspect, it meant his brother, 36-year-old Tim O'Brien, was too. They were incredibly close, and both of them had been mentioned by Walker. If one was involved, the other probably was also. Walker hadn't escaped suspicion either. Although he was the only one who'd offered detectives any information, they still felt like he was holding something back. In March of that same year, the FBI got a

warrant to search Walker's house. The media caught wind of the raid and staked at the front, eager to capture any new developments in the story. Walker reportedly started talking to some of the journalists. He admitted that he'd let all sorts of people into his house over the the years, and he was worried that some of them were really bad people who might have done some awful things. He was obviously trying to distance himself from the crime. But it didn't work. Whatever the police found in his house, it was enough for them to want to question him further. On June 28, 2002, investigators brought Walker down to the station, and they kept pressing him for details on Shauna's murder, and after several hours, they finally wore him down.

Eventually, Walker confessed that he had been a part of the kidnapping. In fact, he'd been the man in the baseball cap who'd snatched Shauna off the street. Walker told detectives that he'd gotten Shauna to approach him by asking if she was selling Girl Scout cookies. Then when she was Close enough, he grabbed her and hauled her to the car where he handed her to Tim. Jimmy was in the driver's seat. Then the three men drove Shauna back to Walker's house. According to Walker, once they got to his place, Tim and Jimmy brought Shauna upstairs. He heard her screaming and struggling, and he told the brothers to keep her quiet by giving her candy.

He claimed he overheard them sexually assaulting her. Walker said that afterwards, the brothers left with Shauna and he didn't see her again. It was possible the O'Brien's dumped her body suit but kept her alive in the trunk of the car for the next three days. That might explain the rug burns later found on her knees. They could have been from the trunk's carpeting. Based on Walker's testimony, detectives figured the brother, others must have realized Shauna would be able to identify them, which meant they couldn't let her live. Presumably, that was when they took her to the bridge and threw her off the ledge

into the Rocky Creek 30 feet below. Listening to Walker's confession, Detective Graham felt sick to his stomach. The O'Brien brothers were pure evil, and they'd escaped justice for far too long, And while Walker played dumb, Graham didn't want to let him off either. He may not have been the one to abuse Shauna, but without him, none of this would have happened. It had been his house, his car, his friends, and for all that he needed to pay. Oil City detectives had Walker's statement implicating himself and the O'Brien brothers, and they had a DNA sample from the semen stain on Shauna's body suit that matched Jimmy O'Brien. But for some reason, arrest didn't come immediately. It would take two more years

until the summer of 2004, when authorities finally charged Jimmy and Tim O'Brien with the abduction and murder of Shauna Howe. The official charges were first-degree murder, second-degree murder, rape, kidnapping, and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. Between 2002 and 2004, Walker had tried to take back his confession. He said police had used coercive tactics and that he'd never seen Shana in his life. He claimed that everything he told the police had been misconstrued. That didn't stop officers from arresting him. In July 2004, he was arraigned on charges of second-degree murder and kidnapping.

It was an important step, but, the work wasn't over. Now prosecutors had to find a way to ensure that all three men would be convicted. In September 2005, the authorities offered Walker a plea deal. If he testified against the O'Brien's, he could plead guilty to lesser charges in exchange for a lighter sentence, as in third-degree murder, not second. Only three states hand out third-degree murder charges and Pennsylvania is one of them, it's when someone intentionally causes a person's death while committing a dangerous act.

The penalty is up to 40 years in prison. Walker thought about it, then signed on the dotted line. He claimed he'd lied over the years because he was afraid of losing his own children if he was arrested, but he was willing to come clean now so that Shauna's family could have peace.

Of course, the real reason was probably much simple. Flare, Walker didn't want to spend the rest of his life in prison or worse, be sent to death row if a jury decided he was more involved than he'd initially claimed. But depending on how their trials went, it seemed like that's exactly where Jimmy and Tim O'Brien were headed. Deliver Me from Nowhere. One time! Baby we were born. Witness a true story of risking it all. These new songs, they're the only thing making sense to me right now.

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Every week, ride shotgun with me, your host, Laura Richards, criminal behavioral analysts, former head of New Scotland Yards Homicide Prevention Unit, as I profile behavior and center and honor the victims. Listen to me unraveled cases with a unique expert lens and answer the critical questions that are on your mind. Cases include Gabby Petito, the Menendez murders, the Murdoch murders, Corey Michalo, the British Airways Killer, Serial Killer Peter Sutcliffe, and cases I've worked. Crime Analyst is more than entertainment. It's life-changing. Follow and listen to Crime Analyst wherever you get your podcasts. And for deeper dives, exclusive episodes and videos, and to be part of my dynamic monthly live events and more,

join the Crime Analyst Squad. Go to patreon.com forward slash crime. In 2004, 33-year-old Jimmy and 39-year-old Tim O'Brien were charged with kidnapping, raping, and killing 11-year-old Shauna Howe in Oil City, Pennsylvania. In September 2005, 46-year-old Ted Walker accepted a plea deal. He agreed to testify against the O'Brien brothers in exchange for a lesser sentence of third-degree murder and kidnapping. Around the same time that Walker took his plea deal, an inmate who knew Tim O'Brien came forward and independently corroborated Walker's story. The inmate said that Tim had admitted that he and Jimmy had thrown Shauna off a bridge near Coulter's hole. This was just the information prosecutors needed, and they were confident heading into the trial.

The O'Brien's trial began in October 2005, just over a year after they were officially charged. By that point, Shauna's family had moved away from Oil City, but they returned to sit in the courtroom during the two-week hearing. Shauna's mother, Lucy, had been numb ever since the arrests were made. She had never met the O'Brien's and had no idea why they targeted Shauna. But she hoped the jury found both men guilty and gave them. them the death penalty for what they did to her daughter. For the next two weeks, Lucy and her family sat in the courtroom and listened to the prosecution, lay out all the facts of the case. The prosecutors detailed how the three men had abducted shone off the street, then how the

O'Brien's had sexually assaulted her, keeping her alive and terrified for three days. When they were finally finished with her, they tossed her from a bridge to her death. Shauna's family struggled to hear the details. It was like reliving the worst nightmare of their lives. Shauna's great-a-a-a-a-great-aunt said it made them physically sick. But the family hoped this was the beginning of the end of this awful chapter. They just wanted these men behind bars. The brother's defense lawyers were trying to avoid just that.

They argued that Jimmy and Tim had nothing to do with Shauna's death. that actually there was only one person responsible, Ted Walker, the man who had pleaded guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence. The defense painted Walker as an evil, sadistic murderer. They argued he was out to save his own skin with his plea deal and that he'd only implicated the O'Brien's because the police had fed him that information. Walker was the one who knew Shauna before the kidnapping.

He was the one who stalked her on her way home, and it was his car that drove away with her and the same car that ended up in flames. They added details that were rarely reported elsewhere. They had a witness who noticed the smell of rotting flesh in Walker's car after the abduction. They also said that Walker had called his ex-wife the night of Shauna's abduction and said there'd been a kidnapping. He apparently said that the police would probably find. Shauna's body at Coulter's Hole, where they did, in fact, find her three days later.

The jury took all of this into consideration as the two-week trial ended, and they went to deliberate. They took 16 hours over two days to come to a decision. When they came back to the courtroom, Shauna's family held each other's hands and bowed their heads, waiting with bated breath. Tim O'Brien was stone-faced. Jimmy was casually chewing gum. The jury read out their decision. The brothers were guilty of second-degree murder,

third-degree murder, kidnapping, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Jimmy momentarily stopped chewing his gum. One of Shauna's uncles pumped his fist with excitement. Lucy, Shauna's mom, wiped away tears and embraced her brother. It wasn't the first-degree murder count she had hoped for, which meant the brothers wouldn't face the death penalty,

but they would get a life sentence without the possibility of parole, and they'd never be able to hurt another little girl again. The whole of Oil City was thrilled that justice had finally been served. As words spread about the verdict, residents drove past the courthouse, honking their horns and shouting derisive remarks about the brothers. There would be no empathy for the killers. Thanks to his plea deal, Ted Walker avoided a life sentence, but he was convicted of kidnapping and third-degree murder, and he got the full 40-year max penalty. Although all three men were behind bars,

the ghost of Shauna's murder continued to haunt Oil City. At Halloween time, kids were still under mandate to go trick-or-treating during the day instead of at night. But as Halloween approached in 2008, one fifth grader decided enough was enough. 10-year-old Elizabeth Rose gathered 175 signatures from the community petitioning the city council to reinstate trick-or-treating after dark. She even wrote them a letter stating her case.

She said that Halloween decorations are best viewed at night and that more people are home to hand out candy when they're off work. The motives were so innocent, just a kid wanting to enjoy the holiday as it should be enjoyed. and to stop living in the past. The city council considered her argument, then voted unanimously in her favor. After 16 long years,

Halloween was officially back. There would be extra precautions taken, of course. The police chief made a public service announcement reminding parents to accompany their kids, make sure the children are wearing reflective materials, and examine any candy before being eaten. Still, it was an important step forward for the town of Oil City. They would never forget what had happened to poor Shana,

but they didn't have to live in the shadow of that tragedy indefinitely. Ted Walker died from natural causes in October 22 on the 30th anniversary of the discovery of Shana's body. He was 63 at the time of his passing, still behind bars, and two years away from being eligible. for parole. Jimmy and Tim O'Brien are currently still serving their life sentences. If Shauna were alive today, she'd be 44 years old. She might have had her own child by now. A child she might have helped dress up in a costume and gone trick-or-treating with.

Sadly, she never got the chance to do any of that. Because three men decided to cut her life far too short, turning a holiday into a nightmare, and a once happy night into the memorial of a tragedy. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy, and this is murder, true crime stories. Come back next time for a new murder and all the people it affected. affected. Murder True Crime Stories is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media at Crime House on TikTok and Instagram. Don't forget to

rate, review, and follow Murder True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. And to enhance your Murder True Crime Stories listening experience, subscribe to Crimehouse Plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad-free, and instead of having to wait for each episode of a two-part series, you'll get access to both at once, plus exciting bonus content. We'll be back on Tuesday.

Murder True Crime Stories is hosted by me, Carter Roy, and is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Murder True Crime Stories team, Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benadon, Natalie Pertofsky, Rachel Engleman, Lori Maranelli, Sarah Camp, Alex Burns, Honeya ASEID, and Russell Nash. Thank you for joining us.

Twisted Tales with Heidi Wong is perfect for spooky season. Dive into the real-life events behind the world's most terrifying blockbusters and beyond. Twisted Tales is a crimehouse original. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes out every Monday.