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

Episode Date: July 22, 2024

In the final part of True Crime with Kimbyr, we bring closure to the heartbreaking case of Chanin. With all pieces of the puzzle in place, we reveal the full story of her tragic demise. Discover how the investigation's shocking findings led to justice for Chanin and the impact on her family. This emotional conclusion uncovers the dark truths and offers a moment of reflection on the profound loss. Don’t miss the powerful ending to this gripping case on True Crime with Kimbyr. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let's start with the interviews. A friend of Shannon's named Christy Levy, who didn't know Clay that well, took food over for the kids on December 4th, and after a while, Clay asked Chrissy to follow him into a bedroom. Clay told her that Shannon's death was not a surprise, saying, quote, you didn't know Shannon. And it was expected because she was dating lots of people, and she was engaged in promiscuity. She was online dating. She was having multiple relations. Needless to say, Christy was taken aback by what Clay had been saying.

But as we know, it is true. She was seeing various men. However, Shannon's neighbor, Lena McKay told police that on the afternoon before Shannon's body was discovered, she hadn't seen anything unusual instead. She said that Clay approached her at a grocery store, and it was like he had been looking for her. Clay came up to Lana and explained he was concerned that something happened to Shannon, which Lana thought was a little strange, as she had never spoken to Clay before. And at that moment, a horrible feeling came over her that Clay had done something to Shannon.

That is weird, but it's still only circumstantial. But then, two days later on December 12th, at a school event, Clay again approached Shannon's neighbor Lana. And during their conversation, Clay talked to her for at least a full five minutes about how Shannon was unfaithful, going into detail about how their kids had caught her having an online affair when he was away in Alaska, when they were together. Now, I know that five minutes doesn't seem that long. But when someone is talking about something that makes you feel uncomfortable and seems completely inappropriate, we know that those five minutes can feel like an eternity. So again, Lana left this conversation feeling extremely unsettled and like Clay knew more than he was letting on. Then Shannon's friends Doug and Janine

told detectives that they also went to Clay's house when they heard the news of Shannon's murder. While there, Clay invited Doug into a bedroom to speak to him privately, just like he had done with Christy. The conversation the men had was described to the investigators as Doug feeling surreal. Clay told Doug that Shannon was promiscuous, and Clay said that he had been trying to help her for some time now. Clay also told Doug that Marshall wasn't his biological son, with Doug recalling that Clay tried to portray Shannon as some kind of sexual deviant. and Doug found this conversation to be very bizarre, given Shannon's body had been found that day. He didn't believe a word what Clay was saying, and it seemed really suspicious. And it does seem even more strange that in the wake of Shannon's murder, Clay is adamant on making her look like a bad person.

Finally, the detectives obtained Clay's phone records. And these records revealed that his phone had been turned off at 808 a.m. Just after he texted Shannon to say he'd need her to take the kids to school. Yeah, it is interesting because remember when he said, oh, I realized my phone was off. I thought that was odd right away and I'm sure you did as well. Who turns their phone off? But I understand maybe he didn't want to be bothered because he needed to get a nap, but there is such thing as silencing your phone. Well, the records show it was off until 3.37 p.m., which Clay told the detectives was because of a dead battery.

But later that night, after Blake's basketball game, 9.06 p.m., he texted Shannon saying, Logan is pissed and we didn't see you at the game. You should be involved. and your child's activities. But when detectives studied Clay's cell phone activity for over the past year, they found that his phone had never been off as long as it was on the day of Shannon's murder. This is so interesting. I love when they backtrack like this and they go, yeah, this is unusual. According to these records, Clay never had text messages that he didn't respond to in a timely fashion,

and it never sat idle for a long period of time. Although these call records were suspect, it was only a piece of a much bigger puzzle, and investigators still had a lot of research to do. Additionally, the detectives were still waiting for those DNA results from the crime lab. This whole time, Clay was in constant contact with the investigators an attempt to be as helpful as he could. He was continuing to provide information about Shannon, all of her casual relationships, saying that he hoped law enforcement would apprehend one of the men who he was sure killed Shannon. But detectives were kind of struck by how much interest Clay had in his ex-wives from

romantic attachments. It went beyond the usual level that you would expect. Especially because none of these men had even been introduced to Shannon's children and therefore they had no involvement in their life. So it wasn't really a co-parenting thing. The detective started to believe that no one except Clay had motivation to use what he knew about Shannon's private life to his advantage, especially if he wanted to shift the focus of the investigation away from himself and onto others. And when he showed up during the crime scene processing, it was like he was trying to get information that the police knew. And it was then that Detective Rends already had suspicions from that point on

that Clay was trying to throw off the investigation. Shannon had also confided in her family back in Florida about her concerns. They were so far away. But Shannon had considered packing up and moving the kids back to Florida for good. But she didn't want to be selfish because she knew that her children would be unhappy being away from their friends and their community. So Shannon's family tried to always be there by phone, providing counseling and support in any way they could.

Shannon's friends from school tried to offer her support as well because sometimes she would be brought to tears because of the things she was dealing with. And one time, Shannon confided in her school friends that Clay had sent her a very odd gift. It was a sex toy. He left it on the front porch in a gift bag. Shannon came into class crying that day

and told one of her friends the note that he left said something like, If I can't have you, you can have this. Yeah, that is very odd. Summer Stark, Shannon's friend said in interviews that Shannon confided in her that she was afraid for her safety around Clay. And Summer reassured her that Clay would never hurt her. But now Summer was rethinking her feelings about Shannon's ex-husband.

Shannon had repeatedly urged her mother that if anything were ever to happen to her, they should have Clay investigated. Well, now he was being thoroughly investigated. On Shannon's cell phone records, police found threatening text messages from Clay from late August to mid-September. Things like, well, thank you, you stupid bitch. You gave me a three-day notice on $5,000. We will need to talk on how to recover. You just keep jerking guys off Shannon and you alienated four of your five kids.

Let's talk. Another text said, instead of doing what's right and what the kids would like, you're more concerned with trying to screw me. But you hurt them. and they don't like you for it. And by you keeping the kids from me, they just like you even more. They love being with and seeing me. Can't you see that? You're a deadbeat mom.

You have no concern of how money is made. You just take, take, take, and I give, give, give. I'm trying. These aren't very nice, but they were going through a divorce, and they're also not that out of ordinary for people going through a contentious separation. But instead of just making efforts to repay Shannon what she was owed as per the court order, Clay would send these angry text messages

to his ex-wife. And at the same time, he would insist to police that he didn't mind having to pay her. He wasn't bitter about the court's decision. But from what they could tell in the messages, he was pissed off about the custody arrangements and he was demanding to have more time with his younger children and how they were raised. So things were really far from amicable. Clay seemed obsessed with his ex-wife and her romantic life. Prior to the murder, Clay had used every opportunity he could to unnecessarily and maliciously spread information to multiple people in their community about Shannon's private life, whether it was true or not. Back in April, he actually complained to their dentist and fellow church member

about Shannon dating lots of men online. He also told this doctor that he had placed a device on Shannon's laptop to track her keystrokes. Yep, this way Clay could monitor every website. It was interesting, I was wondering how he knew all the different dating sites she went to, even though this wasn't something he said he normally talked to her about. Shannon herself later confided in the same dentist that she was afraid of Clay. She thought that he would harm her to get out of paying child support. Shannon said she even knew that Clay had installed that spyware on her laptop,

that she tried to have it removed. And in one text to Clay, Shannon made it clear that she knew what he was doing, saying, you came in my house, you stole my rings, among other things, you put a key logger on my computer, you're capable of anything. She had already confided in one of her instructors at the dental course that she feared Clay would kill her. She had also been open with many of her friends at church, fearing for her life she didn't know what he was capable of.

On November 21st, Clay and Shannon attended a parent-teacher conference for Marshall. Remember he mentioned that was the last time he saw her? When Shannon headed off to a book fair after the meeting, Clay told Marshall's teacher Meredith Pearson that he was concerned about Shannon's dating activities and how the kids hated her. But then Clay said something even more shocking when he told Meredith, quote, I wouldn't be surprised if we found her dead. I wouldn't be surprised if we found her with her throat slit open, end quote. It seemed to everyone that Clay was hyper-focused on Shannon's safety and this perceived risk of her online dating activities. The case

against Clay being the person who did this was entirely circumstantial, but it was very compelling. He had both the motive and the opportunity, and he knew enough about Shannon's routine to prevent the discovery of her body for at least two days. During an interview in January of 2012 with Detective Ricketts, Clay was visibly nervous, and his hands were shaking when they asked him what he was wearing the day of his ex-wife's murder.

Still, he totally rejected the idea that his ex-wife was scared of him. Instead, he claimed she was scared of other men that she was seeing, which you couldn't tell anyone, because she was so promiscuous, and she didn't want anyone to know. Well, that's when the detectives decided to look at that route that Clay said he took from his house to his vehicle on the day it broke down on December 1st. According to Clay, he walked a certain route twice to and from his broken down vehicle. Well, when they searched this route, they found out there were video cameras. The footage was provided to them and they reviewed it a number of times and they were stunned by what they found or what they didn't find.

There was no sign of clay at all. You'll recall that DNA swabs from Shannon's autopsy had been taken for testing to be compared to John, Tom, as well as clay. Investigators had also taken DNA from Shannon's two older sons, Austin and Blake, as a matter of routine. They weren't seriously being considered as suspects. The type of testing conducted for this was something called YSTR,

and this identifies DNA consistent with the paternal side of a contributor's family through the Y-Corp. chromosome, which is only present in males. The downside of this test is it can't narrow the results down to a specific male, only men in a certain paternal line. So it's really only suitable for excluding someone as a DNA contributor. I know this is confusing, but Shannon's autopsy revealed she had fought for her life against her attacker. When the results came back in late January to early February, they were complex but telling. The swabs taken from Shannon's neck and right-hand fingernails showed DNA profiles from two different contributors. The major contributor was consistent

with males on Clay's side of the family, but there was another unknown male contributor to the DNA on Shannon's neck. The swabs from Shannon's face showed a partial profile matching again, Clay's paternal bloodline. But because Clay, Blake, and Austin didn't live with Shannon, there was no reason for their DNA to be anywhere on her body, let alone on that day. And in those And in those three areas, they were most likely touched by the killer in the attack. The only male who lived with Shannon was her son Marshall, who didn't have the same DNA profile as the ones found on her body. Because as Clay suspected, it was confirmed through further DNA testing that Marshall was not Clay's biological son. Wow. So there was another reason that Clay may resent Shannon. Swabs were taken from Shannon's vaginal area, which she was

showed the presence of seamen. It's pretty obvious the DNA came from either Clay or someone on his paternal line. Well, his son's Austin, he was working. His boss confirmed that he was there all day, and then Blake was at school. His attendance was confirmed by the principal. So this just left Clay, whose DNA was not only found on Shannon's body, but whose alibi was flimsy, and he seemed unhinged when it came to being obsessive about Shannon being with other men. So the detectives were convinced that they knew what happened to Shannon on December 1st. They believe Clay texted her to ask her to take their three youngest children to school that morning, but they think that Clay lied about his car not working to get Shannon out of her house.

While Shannon was out driving the kids to school, they believe that Clay somehow snuck into Shannon's house and was lying in wait for her to arrive back home. When Shannon returned from dropping the children off at school, The detectives think that Clay had attacked her. And during this attack, Shannon attempted to call for 911. But during the struggle, the phone call ended, because Clay gained control over Shannon's phone and turned it off.

And that is when the murder occurred. That Clay strangled Shannon to death and then positioned her body to humiliate her, but also to be consistent with Tom Walker's message. So Clay posed her body in the exact way that Tom Walker requested. Detectives believed Clay used Shannon's phone to try to frame John and Tom for Shannon's murder by trying to place them at the crime scene. Clay pretended to be Shannon by texting people so that it seemed like she was still alive long after she had already died. The detectives believed that Clay

had planned out a significant amount of premeditation and anyone that would plan out something so calculating and so terrible to a human being, especially to the mother of their children, deserved a life sentence. On February 6th, Clay was arrested for first-degree murder and second-degree burglary. After picking him up, detectives took him to the police station to speak with him, and during his almost five-hour interview, he repeatedly denied killing Shannon. He claimed his DNA was only in the house because he used to live in the house, and that he and Shannon had been intimate following their divorce. He said he had been in Shannon's home several times before her murder because his three children lived there.

But he had no explanation for how his genetic material, had been found under Shannon's fingernails and on her body the day she was found dead. In his first interview, Clay could not stop talking about Shannon's sex life, but in this interview, Clay was silent when it came to that aspect of her life. He told detectives he didn't have any scratches or bruises, so how could Shannon have scratched him? The detectives took photos of Clay and his hands on the day of the murder, and one of the detectives recalls that he saw a small wound on Clay's right hand and on his forehead. But for some unknown reason, this was never noted. At Clay's first court appearance,

the day following his arrest, he was appointed a public defender and bail was set at $1 million. He was also barred from contacting his children who were sent to stay with a family friend. When they executed a search warrant for Clay's house, detectives seized multiple items, including Shannon's photo ID that was found in Clay's locked walking closet, along with a computer hard drive that was labeled Shannon's desktop computer. They also collected a notebook, handwritten notes, thumb drives, a woman's watch, three Xbox consoles, and documents in a backpack, including a number of divorce papers,

and printed emails between Shannon and another man. But they also noticed something else. Inside this closet was Shannon's death certificate? And it wasn't just lying on the ground or shoved in a corner. To police, it looked like it was on display. propped up on a shelf, almost like how Shannon's body had been propped up. It's just morbid. Two days later on February 9th, Clay was charged with one count of aggravated first-degree murder in five aggravating factors, including the murder being committed during the course

of a burglary and in violation of Shannon's protection order. He was additionally charged with one count of sexually violating human remains. At the time, a conviction for aggravated murder carried the penalty of life imprisonment or death. These days, the death penalty is no longer in effect in Washington state. In 2018, the Washington Supreme Court unanimously declared the death penalty unconstitutional, and in 2023, it was signed out of state law. But back in 2012, it was still in place, and the previous execution was only in 2010. Fortunately for Clay, if he were convicted, he wouldn't be sent to death row because the prosecutors were not seeking the death penalty. Clay and Shannon's five children remain supportive of their father,

believing he was innocent of murdering their mother. They described their father as loving, caring, and kind. In an interview, Clay and Shannon's youngest son, Marshall, said, why would you kill your ex-wife that you still love and leave your five children parentless? He wasn't really questioning his father, who's actually not even his biological father, but he was making a hypothetical, like, why would somebody do this? The children seeing their father accused of such a horrific act baffled them. The Starbuck children claimed their mother Shannon wasn't always who she seemed. According to Shannon's children, they knew that she slept with many different men. She was promiscuous. Shannon's oldest son Austin even said that it was just part of who she was.

She was addicted to seeing men. Shannon's children also said that Clay always took her back and always saw the best in her even after they got divorced. Their oldest children, Austin and Blake, told the news station that Shannon would leave early in the morning and returned later at night, and the neighbors were even worried about the safety of the three youngest children. They also believe that the police were trying to frame their father. They said after reading the arrest affidavit, they both laughed out loud. It really seemed like, especially with the older children, that they were really going to bat for their father. They did not believe he did this, and they were questioning everything. They said he was telling the truth, he was providing all this

information, and they even questioned the DNA. They said it would be different if it was saliva or semen or sweat, but that their dad lived there until months before this happened. Shannon's family, on the other hand, felt very differently about Clay's arrest. Seeing Shannon's murderer behind bars greatly relieved her mother and siblings. According to her brother Stephen, Shannon was not someone who sat back and let others control her life. She was a fighter, and she fought until her last breath. As for the younger children, we know Austin was working at this time, but his siblings were all still in school and Logan had special needs. There was no way that Austin's income was enough to support himself and four other children. But sadly, because Shannon

wasn't working at the time and Clay had been fired from his job soon after they rest, this meant that the children wouldn't receive any death benefits. Friends of the family rallied around and held fundraisers to establish a trust fund for the children. Shannon's brother Stephen and his wife Angela, who lived in Florida, did seek permission from the court to take custody of Logan's service. and Marshall. He wanted to protect Shannon's younger children from the publicity of this case, and additional pain and anguish they would feel. But Stephen ultimately withdrew his custody application because Austin was also seeking custody of his siblings. Austin wanted to keep his family together and be there for them as a big brother. And Austin was eventually

appointed as a sibling's legal guardian. Okay, so stay with me to hear the rest because there's more. In late August 2012, while Clay was awaiting trial, his ex-wife who were going to call Candice, for privacy reasons, contacted detectives to give them some background on her marriage to Clay. Her insights into his behavior revealed a lot by the kind of person Clay was even prior to marrying Shannon. Candice was honest that she had no grudges against her ex-husband. They were high school sweethearts, but she'd moved on with her life since the divorce. However, during their marriage, things had not been good. They were quite rocky. Candice told the police that Clay had been unfaithful on multiple occasions and that she felt he had

had an addiction to adult material, starts with a pee, ends with oography, which he would leave all over their house. She also claimed that he was almost let go from his job for sending inappropriate pictures over the internet. And he'd even tried to hit on one of Candace's friends, who was completely creeped out and scared by the entire interaction. But when Candace confronted Clay about his infidelity, he was cold and he wouldn't even engage in a conversation about it. He liked to play mind and took advantage of the fact that Candace was socially isolated when they were living in Alaska. Remember, Clay was also living in Alaska with Shannon, and she felt the same way. But one of Clay's attractive qualities was that he could be incredibly charming.

When Candice finally decided to leave the marriage for good, she moved with her two children out of state, and her mom helped to watch them and take care of them. But one day, while Candace's mom was watching the kids, Clay came and kidnapped them, and he took them all the way to way back to Alaska. He called her an unfit mother and told her she would never see them again. So he had a history of making things very difficult for his exes. Even then, Clay always wanted to have the upper hand and the last word. He used paying child support as a way to exert control and power with Candace. She said that Clay's general attitude towards other people were that most of them were stupid, and he belittled anyone who didn't adhere to what he wanted. She

specifically remembers him getting extremely angry when the court ordered him. to pay Candace $1,000 and back child support. Does this sound unfamiliar? His behavior resulted in his daughter not wanting anything to do with her father at all. But the most shocking thing Candice told investigators was that when she heard Clay had been arrested for Shannon's murder, she wasn't surprised. In fact, she went so far to say she wouldn't have been surprised if he were a serial killer. She felt like her ex-husband had no conscience and no issues with just doing whatever he wanted, especially out of spite. Candice told the police the only reason she was able to escape the marriage was because she moved in with her parents who were all so scared of Clay themselves.

Candice didn't feel safe maintaining any contact so she completely cut ties. In a recorded jailhouse conversation with his sister Kathy, Clay wanted her to pass on some information to one of his sons, which of course violated the no contact order. But the investigation was continuing. You might have noticed, I haven't mentioned much about what happened with Shannon's laptop after they seized it. And that's because police didn't analyze it until April 12, 2013. But aside from some sexually explicit photos and videos of herself, which Shannon had sent to men online, there was nothing to indicate that Shannon had been killed by anyone she met on those platforms. Investigators did find that spyware installed on her

computer. This was a keystroke program that Clay had installed. So that was true. He had been spying on her. The prosecutors planned to call all five children as witnesses for the state, but it was proving to be more challenging than they thought it would be. The two oldest children were refusing to cooperate. They thought their dad was 100% innocent. It's totally understandable. Their world had been destroyed. And what do you do when one of your primary caregivers has been ripped away from you forever? You cling to the remaining parent who's still alive. The last thing the Starbucks children wanted was to have both of their parents taken away. So in a sense, I can sympathize with them. These are just unbelievable circumstances. But given how vocal clay was both

before and after the murder and publicly degrading Shannon's character and ruining her reputation, it's more likely that the kids were exposed to this narrative. When you're young, you're impressionable. These things have an impact, especially when they're coming from a person you trust. And don't forget that the children themselves were apparently the ones who had seen these graphic images on Shannon's computer. We don't know if they were snooping or if they were told to look at at them from their father or if Shannon had just left her device somewhere and they accidentally stumbled upon them. Regardless of Shannon's personal life, she loved her children to the end of the earth. And it's very unfortunate that Clay would tell the children and other people that she was a terrible mother and

use this to influence his children's perspective of the situation. I want to end with what happened at Clay's trial. Forty-year-old Clay Starbucks trial finally got underway in May of 2013. Clay was unable to clarify what information he relied upon to support his belief that Shannon's online dating made her susceptible to being murdered. At the time, around 49 million people across the country had tried online dating. So it wasn't uncommon. The court excluded a lot of information that would have been too prejudicial. Shannon's mother, Melanie, and brother Stephen traveled from Florida to attend every day of the trial. Melanie positioned herself in the courtroom so that when Clay was led inside, he'd have no choice

but to look at his former mother-in-law and see the contempt in her face. The prosecutor called over 70 witnesses. The state's case was that months before the murder, Clay worked to create a picture of Shannon living a lifestyle that placed her at risk of being harmed by the men she met online. He put the spyware application on Shannon's computer.

Clay knew that Shannon had a date planned with John in the morning of her murder. Clay decided to kill his wife and then framed someone she was dating as the killer. So Clay faked his car trouble before walking to Shannon's. While she dropped the kids off at school, Clay gained access to the home and was waiting for Shannon to return. During this prolonged attack and torture, Clay's DNA was left at the scene. During the struggle, Shannon managed to call 911. But aside from emitting a split-second gasping sound, she was unable to speak, likely being incapacitated,

just after the operator picked up. The prosecution claimed that Clay turned Shannon's phone off for a brief period before turning it back on and sending multiple text messages to Tom and John, giving the impression that Shannon was still alive and continuing the same ruse with their children that afternoon. In terms of a motive, prosecutors claim that Clay was consumed by greed, anger, obsession, and jealousy over Shannon moving on and dating other men. and also pursuing Clay for outstanding child support. Shannon's children were not in the courtroom as the jury was shown the graphic photos of their mother and the crime scene. The prosecution argued that Clay was the only person who could have known the context of the text messages on Shannon's cell phone. The killer was familiar not only with Shannon's

life, but acted upon what they knew of Shannon's life. The fact that Shannon's body was posed in a way similar to the way that Tom had requested in the text messages proved, not that Tom, Tom had committed the murder, but that whoever killed Shannon had access to her phone. The court heard that Clay sent dozens of texts from Shannon's phone that day an attempt to learn who she was talking to. Clay's actions in providing information about Shannon's personal life to police were not motivated by a genuine desire to help, but in an attempt to disparage her and defame his ex-wife and portray her in an unfavorable light. Shannon was out living her best life post-divorce and Clay wasn't, so he was bitter and angry.

Before and after Shannon's murder, Clay inappropriately and unnecessarily spread information about Shannon's personal life in attempt to divert suspicion away from himself. The court also heard the 911 call, which was central to establishing Shannon's time of death. The defense used the inadequacy in the police investigation, the 911 call confusion, and a large number of items and evidence that were not tested as a way to create reasonable doubt. 19 loose hairs were collected from Shannon's robe, her chest, her abdomen, around her pelvic area, the massager box, and the plug end of the massager. And they all failed to be tested. There were other item Cs that were not tested, including the sexual device, the fitted sheet, a towel, and the bloodstained mattress protector.

The defense was also critical of the YSTR testing being conducted in not mitochondrial DNA testing, which is said to be more discriminating. And unfortunately, the failure to test these things were not an oversight. It was actually because of a lack of funding. They determined that the most probative and timely evidence on Shannon's neck, face, and under her nails, were to be tested because they were the most important. And unfortunately, some of the samples that were tested were used up in their entirety, so it was impossible for the defense to retest them. The defense called around 20 witnesses arguing that the investigation wasn't thorough.

Because the defense was unable to explain how or why Clay's DNA was found in key incriminating places like under Shannon's fingernails where only the killer's DNA would have been found. Their arguments didn't exactly benefit Clay's defense. But Clay took the stand in his own defense. And Clay now changed his story about walking to and from his broken down vehicle on the day of the murder. He testified he didn't recall detectives saying where he walked, only that he remembered showing them where his car stalled. He also denied being a jealous person. But this contradicted the testimony he gave about wanting to spy on Shannon via the spyware application that he put on her computer. His claim was that he just wanted to make sure his children were safe and that's why he wanted to

look into what she was doing in her private life. All of Shannon's children testified, including Austin and 12-year-old Marshall, who both told the court their dad's vehicle was known to be unreliable. Marshall also testified to seeing his dad come home at 4 p.m. in the day in question with oil on his hands from working on his car. They also said their dad took naps all the time during the day to deal with his back pain. In closing, both the prosecution and the defense relied on the DNA evidence. The defense pointed to the failure to specifically identify Clay as a sole DNA contributor. The prosecution, however, pointed out that even if all the items and evidence were tested,

another DNA was found, it still didn't exclude or explain why Clay's DNA was present in the places it was. On May 28, the jury found Clay guilty of both charges. with four or the five aggravating factors present. Most of the jurors felt Clay was guilty right from the beginning. His lack of a solid alibi. His DNA being found under Shannon's fingernails, it was just too compelling. Outside the court,

Shannon's mom, Melanie, who was open about the fact that she believed Clay had brainwashed to children and so believing he was innocent, spoke of how she was so relieved, but she had tremendous sadness, saying that today is a little bit of closure, but I don't have my daughter back. There will always be an empty hole in my heart.

If she was going to date, more power to her. At least she had a life. She never had a life with him. At Clay's sentencing on July 19th, the multiple people from both sides addressed the court. Clay's family, including his children, were adamant that their father had been wrongly convicted and that the real killer was still walking free. Shannon's mom, Melanie, told Clay, you are a cowardly murdering psychopath and a spineless creature.

I hate you with every cell in my body for what you did, did to my precious daughter. Shannon's life mattered. You robbed her kids of their mother. You ripped the heart out of my family. Clay received the mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. But for the three youngest Starbuck children, the no contact order would remain in place at the prosecution's request. Clay would be prohibited from having any contact with Logan Serena and Marshall until he passed a mental evaluation with the Department of Corrections or when the children turned 18. Of course, Clay tried to appeal, but on June 25, 2015, his conviction and sentence were upheld by the court.

However, six years later, just in June 2021, the Superior Court decided to allow a new post-conviction testing of the crime scene evidence that were not included the first time, like the hairs, the mattress protector, the washcloth, the robe, the footage sheet, the towel, and the sexual device. The judge also ordered repeat testing on the massager box, the swabs of Shannon's body and her fingernail clippings. But the pain wasn't over for her children or her family. Six months later on December 18, 2021, Shannon's third child, 25-year-old Logan, disappeared from Washington after boarding a bus. You recall that Logan was on the autism spectrum. And as an adult, with their father now in prison and their mother's murder, Logan had a caretaker.

Logan had grown into a driven young person who had achieved their goals living independently in their own apartment. Logan was determined to prove everyone wrong about being unable to do things themselves. Although it took multiple attempts, they paid to undergo driver's education and was thrilled when they got their license. Logan was designated female at birth, but in the spring of 2021, they commenced hormone treatment as part of their journey to transition. Logan also began using he and him pronouns on social media with gender reassignment surgery,

their ultimate goal. So that's how I want to refer to him going forward. By the end of 2021, Logan had hit a rough patch in his life. He'd been in a few minor car accidents and was pursued for $4,000 in insurance. As a result, his license had been suspended. He was also dealing with the pain of a recent breakup. To top it off, he lost his job that November due to not being able to get himself there because of his license issues.

On the day that Logan went missing, he didn't take a bag and was wearing shorts and freezing cold weather. Soon after his disappearance, tourists found his beanie containing his wallet, phone, keys, and earbuds in Riverside Park. Logan had plans to meet his caretaker on December 20th, but no one could get a hold of him. His car was at his apartment, the lights were off, and there was no answer. The last person that was believed to have contact with him was his ex. Just seven and a half weeks later, there was news, and it was the worst that you could imagine. On February 10, 2022, a 911 call came in reporting a site. of a body. Logan's remains were recovered from the river. He had taken his own life. The pain

and anguish that this family has had to go through was unbelievable and I am so sorry. At the time of this video, the outcome of that post-conviction testing in Shannon's case is not clear. The 59-year-old Clay continues to reside at the Airway Heights Correctional Center in Washington. Since Clay's incarceration, several heated fights have broken out between Shannon's family and Clay's family on a Facebook group that's supporting Clay's release from prison, including arguments between Shannon's children and their grandmother, Melanie. The group is filled with pictures of the Starbucks children visiting their father and fighting for his release. And sometimes even Clay shares his thoughts on this page, and the way he talks about Shannon does not put him in a good light. Whether he really is

innocent or not, there's no reason to talk about the deceased mother of your children in that way. I read all that I could take, and a lot of it is pretty harsh going back and forth. I thought I would leave you with some words from someone who knew Shannon, even though briefly, because I think these words are very powerful and meaningful. From one of the men that Shannon had gone out with, it was posted on January 29, 2019, and it read, quote, I knew Shannon briefly before she was murdered. I was among the men she dated the month before she died. We shared lunch once and went to an art museum on another occasion, and we never had sex.

Just a couple of nice times talking and eating and looking at paintings. Mostly we talked about our respective children and our failed marriages. I never met Clay, but Shannon certainly feared him. She explicitly said she thought he would harm her, and she related numerous stories about the way he controlled her and manipulated their children. I believe everything she told me. She struck me as a lady of the finest caliber, smart, artistic, articulate, a devoted mother, and so very much wanting to establish her own independent life.

She had absolutely beautiful eyes like I've never seen before, and I never will forget as long as I live. Some people paint her as a harlot. But I was one of her allegedly numerous online acquaintances, and never in my experience, did she behave as anything other than a beautiful, classy lady, and I treated her respectfully. As a grown gentleman should. Granted, I only know what Shannon revealed of herself to me over a very short time. I'm extremely sad that she was murdered and suffered as she did when she was a very short. attacked. I also feel very sad for her five children, whom I know she loved more than anything in this world. Shannon was a beautiful person inside and out. Anyone who says otherwise couldn't have

personally known her. Rest in peace, Shannon. End quote. I'm so sorry to everyone who loved and was close to Shannon. Thank you so very much for being here for her story. I will see you in my next video. Bye.