True Crime with Kimbyr - The Heartbreaking Mystery of Chanin: A Family Torn Apart Part 1

Episode Date: July 15, 2024

In this gripping episode of True Crime with Kimbyr, we delve into the heartbreaking case of Chanin, a mother of five who mysteriously stopped responding to her family's calls and texts. Despite welfare checks showing nothing unusual, the truth is uncovered once police enter her home. Follow the digital trail that reveals shocking clues and the devastating truths that shattered a family. Join us for an emotional journey through the twists and turns of this tragic family story. Don't miss this episode of True Crime with Kimbyr! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi everyone, welcome back. And if you've never been here before, I'm Kimberly Leah. Nice to finally meet you. The story begins on December 1st, 2011. 15-year-old Logan Starbucks sent her mother, Shannon, a text message at 2.45 p.m. asking where she was, and who was going to pick her and her siblings up from school? By 3 o'clock, Shannon should have been waiting for Logan and her younger sister and brother at the pickup line. But it was after 3, and Logan was worried. About 20 minutes after Logan sent that text to her mom, Shannon texted back saying, Dad, I have a headache. Stay there. Meaning her father was going to pick them up. At 306 p.m., Logan received another reply from Shannon's phone that said, quote, send Marsh a note. Dad will be there in 10 minutes, end quote.

Marsh is actually a nickname that Shannon used for her 10-year-old son, Marshall. However, Shannon's husband, Clay Starbub, also failed to make it to school to pick up the kids. So Logan texted her mother twice more, and these text messages went unanswered. Eventually, Logan contacted her 21-year-old brother, Austin, who worked at a local glazing company, and she asked him to pick them up. Because none of the children had a spare key to their mother's home, Austin took them to their father, Clay's house. Austin did think it was odd that he couldn't reach his mom either. Austin Starbuck, like I said, dropped off his younger siblings,

at their father Clay's house in Deer Park, which was only about a half a mile away from Shannon's home. When the couple separated, Clay moved out with their two oldest children, 21-year-old Austin, and 18-year-old Blake, who was a senior in high school. Logan, Serena, and Marshall, the couple's three younger children, stayed with Shannon full-time. But they did visit their father on a regular basis. Even after the divorce, Clay remained actively involved in Shannon's life. Since Clay lived close to the school, he would pick up his three children every morning and drive them to school. And then Shannon would usually be at the school to retrieve them, but not that day. Things were different that day.

First, Clay had texted Shannon that morning asking if she could take the children to school instead of him because his vehicle had broken down. He simply texted, car quit. Can you take the kids? In December, the temperature in Deer Park was freezing. This is in Washington. So Clay wanted his children to be comfortable in the car. So usually he would wake up early and drive around the block a few times

before he drove the half a mile to Shannon's house to pick them up. That way he could get the heater going. It would be nice and toasty in the vehicle. However, that morning, as Clay was warming up his car, it broke down on High Desert Road a few blocks away from his home in Deer Park. Since he couldn't get it started again, he couldn't drive the kids to school. That's why he texted Shannon. She had texted Clay back and agreed to take the children to school that morning.

She had replied to him with just one letter, K. And she dropped the kids off at school before heading back home. But later, when his oldest son, Austin, returned home with his younger children. Clay asked, where is Shannon? The younger children explained how their mom never showed up to get them. Instead, she texted them telling them that Clay was supposed to be on his way. After he didn't show up, they called Austin. When Clay checked his phone at 3.37 p.m., he found out that he hadn't turned it on since earlier that morning.

Shannon had texted Clay at 317 and said, I just got up. Can you get the kids? But Clay didn't see this text. And the fact that his ex-wife didn't show up to pick up their children didn't really bother Clay because these things happen. Plus, he expected to see her that night at Blake's high school for a basketball game. Clay just assumed he would find out what happened, when they were at the high school.

At 5.45 p.m., that same evening, Clay texted Shannon to say he and the kids were headed to the game at Deer Park High School, telling her, if you feel better, call me, and I'll meet you at the booth so you don't have to pay. But that was the next thing that wasn't normal. Although Shannon was supposed to show up at her son's basketball game, she never did.

Nor did she contact the kids or Clay to say why. Now a bit concerned, Clay sent a few more text to Shannon, asking her to get in touch with him when she could. But following the game, Clay had still not received a text or a call back. So he and the children dropped right over to Shannon's house, but when they tried to get inside, the door was locked and no one answered. So they walked around the house and they didn't see Shannon inside or anywhere around the home. It was just dark.

So they headed back to Clay's house. The thing is, the three youngest children, they didn't live at Clay's. They didn't have their everyday necessities. they'd always bring them over from their mom's house. And she still hadn't answered. So by that night, Clay figured he would just keep the kids until further notice. But because the kids did not have any fresh, clean school clothes, they did not go to school the next day on Friday, December 2nd, 2011.

Clay and the children had yet to hear from Shannon that next day. And their concerns continued to grow. That afternoon, Clay texted Shannon again, stating that if he didn't get a response by 7 p.m. that night, he was going to call the police. Meanwhile, Shannon's mom, Melanie, lives back in Florida. She was also concerned. She had also been trying to call Shannon,

but she kept getting a message saying her daughter's voicemail was full. And Melanie had this terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. She felt like something had happened to her daughter. And when she checked with Shannon's siblings, Stephen and Amy, they hadn't heard from her either. So at 5 p.m., Melanie called law enforcement to her. request a welfare check on Shannon. In that evening, two deputies showed up, Jeff Schover and Dan Dutton.

They got to Shannon's around 6.15 p.m. The door was still locked and no lights were on. And there was a package that had been delivered that day and it was still sitting by the front door. When the officers knocked on Shannon's front door and walked the exterior, no one answered. And they didn't see anything that seemed suspicious. After looking into a few windows,

the officers decided that, decided that nothing unusual is going on. And since this was simply a welfare check and there were no signs of a disturbance, the deputies didn't have enough information to do things like apply for a warrant to go into the property. So after about 10 minutes, they left. When 7 p.m. rolled around on December 2nd and Clay still hadn't heard from his ex-wife, he called the police and he also requested a welfare check on Shannon. Around this same time, those two officers who had just left Shannon's, actually went to Clay's to see what he could tell them. He told them he was already on the phone with the police.

Clay said he had no idea where Shannon was and he showed the deputies his phone and his text messages. The officers told Clay that they checked all the doors and the windows and they saw no signs of foul play. So where was Shannon and why wasn't she answering? Now I know I usually start my videos by introducing you to the person I'll be telling you about. Well, that would be Shannon.

This time, I wanted you to get some context as to what was going on that alerted people close to her that something may have been wrong. But I do want to backtrack and tell you all about Shannon and what led up to this winter day in 2011. To understand the full story, I have to take you back in time. Shannon Denise Conway was born on April 19th in 1969 in the city of Anderson, Indiana. Shannon was one of three children to her parents, Lawrence and Melanie, along with her parents. brother James and Stefan. Shannon grew up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which for brevity were going to refer to as the church in today's story. Shannon was an active member of the church and her deep faith guided her throughout her entire life. At some point during

Shannon's childhood, her parents, they decided to end their marriage. And it appears as James stayed in Indiana with their dad, but Melanie moved with Shannon and Stephen to Florida. And Shannon's mother, remarried to a man named Charles Borsier around 1975. And from what I could gather, it seems like Charles already had six children of his own. And that truly expanded their family. And then Charles and Melanie had a little girl named Amy. Shannon and her brother, Stephen, were very close. They were like best friends. And she always invited him along with her and her friends. Being maternal came naturally to Shannon. She loved babysitting for her neighbors. And she was also artistically gifted from a very young age. She was well known for her award-winning talent and passion

for drawing. Shannon attended Lake Mary High School in the city of Lake Mary in the greater Orlando metropolitan area located in Seminole County. Shannon was a loyal friend with a compassionate, kind, nurturing, and gentle disposition. She'd always been very fun-loving and spent a lot of times with her friends hanging out at the beach and of course Disney World because they're living in Florida now. And Shannon was a very busy student. She was a very busy student. She was a very fun-loving. She was a involved in a school band, the future business leaders of America, and was the historian for her high school tri-high Y club. After graduating in 1987, she attended Florida State University in Tallahassee and then Seminole Community College where she won a scholarship and obtained an

associate's degree in art therapy. Shannon wasn't the kind of person who wanted to be the center of attention. She was very soft-spoken and quiet. She had a very gentle manner about her, and she was perfectly happy just being in the background listening and observing social interactions. But she was also known for her quick wit, brilliant smile, and her laugh. People just felt very comfortable around her. She made you feel it ease. And throughout her life, Shannon had been an active member of her church and in 1989 when she was 20 years old, she met 24-year-old Clay Starbuck at a church dance while he was on vacation visiting South Florida. Clay Duane Starbuck was born on September 1st,

1964. He grew up with his sister Kathy and parents Larry and Betty in Oregon before the family actually moved to Alaska where Larry took up a job in law enforcement. Clay graduated high school in 1982 and then went on to study at a diesel and automotive school in Denver, Colorado. Around 1986 he returned to Alaska where he began working on the trans-alaska oil pipeline. When Shannon met Clay, he already had two children, a son and a daughter, Jesse and Drew, from a previous marriage of about five years. After somewhat of a whirlwind romance, Shannon and Clay got married in Florida on June 1st, 1990. It was Clay's second marriage and Shannon's first. They ended up moving to Valdez in Alaska where Clay continued working on the pipeline. And as a pipeline

manager, Clay spent weeks away from Shannon and his family in Alaska before returning home on leave. This was a huge change for Shannon. She was moving away from her family. There was an entirely different climate and she had to be more independent. But she was totally in love with her new husband and welcomed her two stepchildren with open arms. She was committed to being the best stepmom and wife that she possibly could. When Shannon was just 21 years old, she and Clay welcomed their first child together. His name is Austin, followed a few years later by another son who they named Blake. Their first daughter Logan arrived in 1996. Now she was diagnosed with being on the autism. spectrum and had special needs. But Shannon took all of this in stride and

understandably she was always protective of her daughter. And then Clay and Shannon welcomed another little girl into the world and we're going to call her Serena out of respect for her privacy. Shannon was a devoted full-time stay-at-home mom. She loved her kids more than anything. She was their biggest cheerleader and she threw herself into her children's school, sports, and church activities. Shannon was also a fantastic cook. It was one of her many talents. She also did a lot of quilting and sewing. Her creations were so amazing that she could sell her quilts for up to a thousand dollars at local craft shows. She also had the

reputation for being one of the best seamstresses when it came to things like altering prom and wedding dresses. So later she would even embroider the back of the hats of her son's baseball teams with their names and phone numbers in case they lost them. And throughout her church community, she also made handcrafted Christmas ornaments, and she was an active member of their book club. She loved helping out with the church nursery as well. But even though things were going great, the marriage became rocky. Clay had been unfaithful with a coworker. And remember, he was away a lot at this time working on the pipeline. Well, questions of faith also became an issue. Shannon remained deeply committed to the church, but Clay, who wasn't a member, didn't want to join.

So Shannon was heartbroken, and in March of the year 2000, the couple decided to divorce. 30-year-old Shannon moved to Arizona and she began dating another man named Dexter McClary, but her heart was still with Clay. And within just a matter of months, she called Clay, saying she wanted to come back and try again. So Shannon returned to Clay in Alaska and they got back together. And that's really tough. Experts say that there are deal breakers when it comes to relationships and one is religion. Sometimes you can try to make compromises, but when your beliefs are strong, it is hard.

And sometimes love is just not enough, but they gave it another shot. And guess what? They made it work. And around a year later in 2001, Shannon gave birth to another child, a son they named Marshall. However, Clay had his suspicions. He thought that Marshall wasn't his biological son because he was doing the math and he felt like the time frame that Shannon conceived, she would have been dating Dexter. But nevertheless, Clay treated Marshall with the same love and affection that he did with all his other children.

Determined to make the relationship work, Clay and Shannon remarried on December 29th, 2006. And you don't always see couples reunite like this after a breakup, let alone a divorce, but it just shows you how much they truly loved each other at the time, and they were really trying to make it work. Around 18 months later, in May of 2008, The family moved to Washington State, this time to the city of Deer Park, which is where I initially began this story. 39-year-old Shannon had fallen in love with this area after making a visit to one of her longtime high school friends, Doug Carter, and his wife, Janine. They lived in this area raising their own children, and Deer Park seemed to be the perfect place to settle down and raise a family. And Shannon was excited about what the future would bring.

It was precisely the kind of warm and supportive community that she always wanted for her. kids. The family moved into a four-bedroom, three-bathroom rental home, 509 North Riper Street. In Deer Park, every resident seems to know one another and what's happening in their neighbors' lives. And those who live there consider themselves lucky because violent crime is not a problem in Deer Park. And the Starbucks and Carter subsequently spent a lot of time together. They went to Theam Parks, they did barbecues, and they celebrated holidays. Clay continued working on the pipeline, but given the distance, he was away from home for weeks at a time. And Shannon tried to keep herself busy with the kids and their church activities,

but being apart from her husband for such long stretches again took a toll on their marriage. And in June 2010, the couple once again made the difficult decision to separate. No matter how much they loved one another, it was impossible to overcome the space and the time apart. And they just kind of make it work. The following month in July, 41-year-old Shannon filed for divorce. And that is really tough. to pick up, to move on, to go somewhere new, and then have to start your life over. Especially being in your 40s, but Shannon was determined to independently find ultimate happiness. Now, in no way is this a good coincidence. The irony is sad, but while Clay was working away in Alaska, he suffered a significant back injury, and he effectively had to stop working. And he was

placed on medical leave in February of 2011. Work was one of the biggest things keeping Clay and Shannon apart. And when he stopped working, he actually decided to return to Deer Park so he could be close to his children. He ended up moving into a house at 1625 East 2nd Street, about a half a mile from where Shannon was living. The idea of divorce never appealed to Clay. He told Shannon that he would love her no matter what. However, Shannon believed that the couple was incompatible and it was time for her to enjoy her newfound freedom. So they were not getting back together. However, it was nice that Clay was living close by for the children. Shannon's mom, Melanie, she was so proud of her daughter. Since the divorce, Shannon had been doing a great job with the kids and becoming her own

person. She was finding her own identity aside from Clay. Clay did undergo his surgery in July in that same month. The couple's second divorce was finalized. 21-year-old Austin and 17-year-old Blake, who was a senior in high school at the time, decided to move out of Shannon's and Gulles. live with their father. Now at this stage, he was on disability and Shannon was awarded custody of 15-year-old Logan, 12-year-old Serena, and 10-year-old Marshall. And Clay was ordered to pay his ex-wife around $5,000 a month in child support and maintenance. And then Shannon would have to pay a small amount to Clay for Blake until he turned 18. But that was coming up. Having the freedom to do what she wanted when she wanted it gave Shannon a sense of independence that she hadn't had in a very long

which can be very empowering. While Shannon was eager to get back to work after being a stay-at-home mom for about 20 years, she also needed to do so because I mentioned Clay was on disability, which meant he didn't have income coming at the time. However, Clay being home in Deer Park made it so that he was around more and could help with the kids. They stayed with Clay every other weekend and every Wednesday after school. He also picked them up every morning to drive them to school like I told you in the beginning. But Shannon was really doing most of the work, especially with Logan, Serena, and Marshall. She wanted things to be as least disruptive as possible

after all the upheaval that comes with a marriage ending, especially with kids involved. Shannon still drove them to all of their sports practices and basically wherever they needed to go. As messy and traumatic as the second divorce was for everyone, Shannon knew she had to start making money as a single mom. So she enrolled in a dental hygienist course at Spokane Community College.

Shannon quickly became popular among her classes. and even arranged study sessions for everyone. That was just her maternal instinct. It came naturally. Even with everything that was going on in her life and the demands of single motherhood, Shannon was driven and determined to be in a better situation for her kids.

Clay was not able to keep up with the child support payments, and that meant Shannon's car ended up getting repossessed. And ultimately, she had to resort to seeking assistance from the local food bank. Things were tough financially financially for Shannon, but she knew with the help of her friends and the church community, she was going to make it through it. If she had to stay late at school, her friends would help

with the younger children and make sure that they weren't left unsupervised. Despite Shannon's struggles in the summer of 2011, she graduated with honors from her dental hygienist course. Now Shannon spoke with her mom almost every single day. They were still very close, even though they were no longer living in the same state. And she confided in her mother all the time about all the struggles that she was facing and her desire to possibly meet Mr. Wright. So Shannon wanted to get back out there in the dating world. She was 42 years old at the time and she felt like she had a lot of love to give to the right person, even if she just dipped her toe back in the water to see who was out there with no initial expectations of anything serious she wanted to do it.

Shannon had given so much to others throughout her life that she really deserved happiness. so she joined online dating sites like Plenty of Fish, where her profile said she wanted to learn how to ski, and that fall was her favorite season. When it came to her ideal partner, Shannon said on the dating site, she was looking for someone tall and educated with a good sense of humor. And that's what life was like before December 1, 2011, where I began the story. Now Shannon isn't answering calls or texts, and officers didn't find her at her home when they're. did that welfare check. Shannon's mom at this point knew that she hadn't been able to land a job yet and she always called her at 9 o'clock in the morning to check in, so something wasn't right. When I left off earlier, I explained the welfare check turned up nothing. And after checking in with

Clay that night, the deputies left. But later, Clay called Deputy Dutton at 1142 p.m. for an update to see if Shannon had been located. But no one had heard from her. The next morning, around 8 a.m. on December 3rd, this is now Saturday. Shannon's friend Doug Carter, remember her longtime friend from high school, he was also having trouble getting a hold of her. And he too ended up calling the police. Doug asked them to again check on Shannon saying this was very out of character for her. And another call had come in to the police from Shannon's mom, Melanie, saying that she still hadn't heard from her daughter and it had almost been 48 hours. She was insisting that officers actually go inside to make sure that Shannon wasn't passed out or in distress.

Shannon lived in a rented home. And remember, neither Clay or any of Shannon's children had a key. But this time, Deputy Schofer and David Trotman contacted Shannon's landlord so they could access the property. Maybe she accidentally fell and she was inside unconscious. They just had to find out. So when Shannon's landlord unlocked the door around 9-11 a.m., the detectives went inside. There was no sign of any disturbance and the house was quiet. Shannon's closed laptop was in the living room and a gold mercury stable was parked in the garage.

Nothing was knocked over. It didn't indicate that there was any kind of struggle and the house wasn't ransacked in a robbery or anything. In the main bedroom, Shannon's cell phone was seen on the nightstand and on a dresser was her journal and a bottle of lubricant. The bed was unmade with the blanket sort of folded on the floor at the foot of the bed, but there were no sheets on the bed. The only linen on the bed were pillows and a mattress protector, which appeared at first glance to possibly have blood stains on it. But that wasn't what deputies noticed right away because they were confronted with something much more disturbing. They immediately called for backup. On the bed was the body of a partially naked woman. She was laying on her back naked apart from an unbuttoned robe that covered her arms,

but had been pulled up from behind her back and pulled open at the front exposing her breasts. Though they were only able to do a preliminary identification, it was pretty clear that this woman was Shannon Starbuck and she was no longer alive. She had been brutally attacked. She was covered in bruises and had been badly beaten, possibly even tortured. Whoever had killed her hadn't left her in the position she had died in. Instead, they had posed her body in a sexually suggestive way. What I'm about to say is appalling, but sadly there's no other way I can explain it to you. Shannon's legs were spread apart and there was a sexual device that had been inserted inside of her.

There was also an electric powered massager that had also been placed on her pubic area with her hands on the massager and the cord threaded through her robe. So Detective Mike Ricketts was informed of the shocking discovery and was appointed as the lead investigator. He was joined at the crime scene by Detective Mark Renz and Lyle Johnston and crime scene technicians. The investigators chose to focus her attention on the bedroom where Shannon's body was found. While the bed sheets were missing, the blankets were folded onto the floor, and in the room was a gun safe which was open. On the shelf inside the safe were things like condoms, sex toys, but the thing is they looked like they had been intentionally displayed.

It's not the way someone would normally keep these items. And aside from the severe bruising all of her body, there were no other signs of trauma evident. This meant investigators weren't immediately clear about her cause of death. They would have to wait for the autopsy. But it appeared that whoever had killed Shannon had been let into her home. But whoever had killed her seemed to be extremely angry and clearly wanted to degrade and humiliate her by posing her body in such an undignified way. So Johnson and Rickett were disturbed by how this murderer had posed her.

And it was their assumption that it was to humiliate her after death. and I think that is so sad. I hate to even paint this mental picture of what they saw, but the technicians had to begin taking in the evidence. They took latent prints and also potential sources of DNA evidence. In terms of prioritizing what evidence was seized to be analyzed, officers worked in a circle. They started with Shannon's body and then they moved outward,

and crime scene technicians took more than 100 pictures of this home. They gathered 12 latent fingerprints from the massager, box, the bathroom mirror, sink, faucet handle, and a notebook. They also got laid in prints from the top of the dryer, the dryer door, and the interior of the front door. And one of the bathrooms that the kids used, there was a handprint on the bathroom wall. There were also some items that appeared to have blood on them and they were swabbed, and so was the bathroom drain, as well as the keyboards and mouse pads for Shannon's computer.

They seized all of the sex toys, a fitted sheet and a towel, both from the laundry room area, a washcloth, a blood-soaked mattress protector, and Shannon's laptop and her cell phone. The detectives believed Shannon had been killed in the main bedroom's attached bathroom, possibly after she got out of the shower. And then they think the killer moved her onto the bed before they cleaned the bathroom and put the fitted sheet and towel into the washing machine. Around noon, Clay arrived at Shannon's house to find out what was going on. When the police wouldn't tell Clay anything, he got mad. At this point, no one in Shannon's life knew that she was dead.

But it was obvious that something terrible had happened. When something like this happens, people in your neighborhood are going to know. There are going to be emergency vehicles outside. There might be a coroner's van, as well as things like yellow crime scene tape. But this is when the investigators get their first clue into Shannon's life. Clay told Detective Renz that his ex-wife was heavily involved in online dating and was seeing several men at the same time. He said that he had been concerned about her.

about Shannon's safety. And while showing his phone, Clay explained that he had an eight-minute phone call with Deputy Dutton the day before where he was explaining how concerned he was that he hadn't heard from Shannon. Clay was told that he needed to go to the sheriff's substation in Dare Park where he could give them more information. It was there that Detective Jim dressed back from the Major Crimes Unit met with him. And Clay told Detective Dressback the same thing he just told Rends.

He gave him a full rundown of the couple of the couple of the couple of. relationship history, their divorce, and everything he knew now, mostly from hearing things from his kids. Clay said he really only communicated with Shannon via text message and that they got along fine and he provided the names to all the sites that he knew about that she was on doing online dating. He said that the last time he saw her was about five or six days earlier at a parent teacher conference from Marshall. At this point, considering that the major crime unit was involved, Clay knew the news about Shannon couldn't be good. And he point blank asked them,

has she been murdered? And at this point, Detective Dressback did think it was odd that no one had told Clay what happened to Shannon. When the detective broke the news that Shannon had been murdered, Clay was overcome with grief. He buckled at the knees and he collapsed to the floor. And at one point, the detective overheard Clay actually vomiting in the restroom.

When he was back in the inner, interview room, Detective Dressback asked Clay what he thought happened to his ex-wife. He was distraught, he was shocked, but he actually yelled at them. And he's like, what do you mean? How would I know? But Clay did have a clue. He said he believed that she had been killed by someone that she met online. But he wasn't able to, of course, provide any of the names to the people.

How would he know? That was not a part of her life that she shared with anyone, especially her ex. When detective dressed back asked Clay where he thought investigators should look, Clay said, I would just look in her laptop and her phone. He even volunteered information, like I said, about their divorce, but he also claimed that Shannon had been unfaithful. He told the detectives that at one point, he found nude pictures of Shannon and other men on their shared computer. And that he even remembers the time during Mother's Day when she left the children with him so she could go on one of these online dates. Clay even mentioned that he believed that Marshall wasn't even his

biological son and this was just a lot to take in but that's how it is in these interviews you're just getting a rundown of someone's entire life in a matter of hours. So Clay went on to say that Shannon often engaged in phone sex saying that she does all kinds of things even things with sex toys, dildos and such. Well that was interesting. I mean we know what they found at the crime scene. So could someone she was seeing have gone too far and become obsessed it was anyone's guess but detective dressback noticed that Clay had been crying throughout this entire interview. So we insisted Clay go home, be with his children, and they could catch this up later. As Clay was being escorted out of the station, he repeated

the information about Shannon supposedly visiting, you know, inappropriate websites, and telling the detectives their kids knew what she was doing and they hated her for it. And that's pretty harsh, but on one hand, it's important to tell everything you know. On the other hand, it looked like Clay resented Shannon. And after all, we know that Clay never wanted a divorce. And he probably didn't take too kindly, knowing his ex had been with all these other men, and that their children had seen this. So that evening, one officer went door to door in Shannon's neighborhood

asking anyone if they'd seen anything suspicious on Shannon Street. 20 of the 40 homes he visited had no answer. But among the remaining homeowners 13 said they saw nothing. The police department did not contact the neighbors any further. But that same evening, Shannon's very close friend, Doug, and his wife, Janine Carter, went to Clay's house upon hearing the news. Doug and Janine had been friends with Shannon since they were 15 years old back in Florida, and they had attended the same church. They wanted to be there for Shannon's family in this time of grieving.

Of course, Clay and the children weren't the only ones who had to be informed of the devastating news. Across the country in Florida, a sheriff's deputy knocked on the door of Shannon's brother Stephen. The officer delivered the shattering news. It was then up to Stephen to inform his parents and his siblings that Shannon was dead. It was the worst day of his life. When he told their mother, Melanie, she screamed. She was just like, no. She desperately didn't want this to be true.

None of her loved ones knew that when they saw Shannon last four months before her murder, happily posing for family photos, that they would never see her again. Whoever had done this had a two-day start ahead of the police department. So investigators had a big job ahead of them. The sheriff's office appealed to the public to get them to come forward about anything, any suspicious-looking people or vehicles that they may have seen in Shannon's neighborhood in the month leading up to her death. Meanwhile, at Shannon's autopsy,

the medical examiner, Dr. Sally Aiken, found chest injuries consistent with the use of a stun gun. Shannon had 10 broken ribs, and this was inflicted by blunt force, as well as a crushed larynx. The medical examiner had noted that Shannon weighed 169 pounds, and although the doctor believed that Shannon's body had been moved after her death, she said it would have been difficult to move her, indicating that someone would have had been pretty strong to have done this.

However, there was bruising underneath her underarms, which is consistent and is seen in people who are unconscious and moved during things like a medical procedure, or in this case, a death. There were multiple fresh bruises all over her body, including one under her scout, suggesting that she had sustained a blow to the head. They were bruising on both of her knees, on the tops of her feet, on both of her hips,

and this suggested that at some point, Shannon was faced down during this attack. There were pattern injuries and scrapes covering Shannon's entire body, including her breast. breasts in her left hand. Potentially from what I told you look like a taser gun. Some of the injuries suggested that she had been dragged along a surface and at one point she may have been stomped on by a shoe. This is just unbelievable what this woman had to go through.

Hairs were also present on Shannon's body that didn't appear to belong to her. The medical examiner believed from the marks on her extremities that Shannon's hands may have been bound together during the attack. the sexual device that I had mentioned and that was observed inside Shannon. I'm going to call it the front and the back of Shannon because I don't want to be too descriptive. It was in the front when she was discovered. However, during the exam, it was revealed that had actually been inserted into the back first prior to her death and then afterwards, post-mortem, meaning after she was already deceased,

the device was taken out of the back and put into the front and left in that area. There were no other injuries suggesting that she had been the victim of forced intercourse, let's say. But from the appearance of these injuries, it was difficult to establish the exact time of her death. But the medical examiner believed that Shannon had died on either December 1st or early December 2nd. She had also been killed while faced down and then posed on her bed.