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Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Morland. And I'm Garrett Morland. And he's the husband. I'm the husband. I did want to remind everybody that our Patreon is ad-free and there are bonus episodes that drop every month on there. So if you want those extra episodes and you want ad-free listening, you can check that out on patreon.com slash murderwithmyhusband. It's really awesome and it's a great way to support us. But either way, we love you guys so much. Thank you for being here. Thank you for the continued support.
And I think with that, Gare, do you have your 10 seconds? I do have my 10 seconds. I just kind of took a couple of comments from Instagram, YouTube, Patreon. One was what sports I played in high school. Good one. Good one, huh? So I played soccer and volleyball. I think a lot of people might say volleyball, but yeah. So I grew up in California and they have a bunch of men's teams there. So I played volleyball in high school and soccer.
There was another one. Oh, I think you said it was your favorite band. Oh, yeah, my favorite band. So when I was younger, I mean, I liked a ton of like pop punk. So like Blink-182. Yeah.
Where are you? Exactly. Angels and airwaves, all that type of stuff. But now, I don't know. I kind of listen to everything now. Yeah. You're not... I'm a little bit more into music now than I say you. You still like music, but you definitely don't like take the time to sit and like find music. Yeah, like I do. And then the other one was, it was like our favorite place or my favorite place that we traveled out of the country. But...
I don't think you and I have been out of the country. Oh, we've been to Mexico. Yeah. We just haven't traveled. But we haven't traveled. I mean, I don't think anyone has really. Yeah. Just with COVID hitting. But we really want to go to Europe. Yeah. That would be really fun. So hopefully next year we go to Europe. Yeah. On tour. Just kidding. But we need to plan it. We need to do it. Anyways, those are my 10 seconds. It's awesome. Keep leaving comments and questions because that helps me a lot.
We're having a lot of fun with the spooky stories. A reminder, if you are wanting the last two, those will be Patreon exclusive. We personally are loving them. And we also have two more costumes set up and ready for Patreon spooky stories. I like Spain. I've been to Spain and Italy. I'm just throwing that out there. I like Spain a lot.
Forgot to answer that question. I think you mentioned once that you lived there. Yeah. Perfect. Okay. Well, let's get into this. So this case was suggested by Brittany and Evan Long. They say they're a married couple that listens to us when they clean the house and when they go on long car rides. Awesome. And then also Robin and Richard. And then I think one more person might've sent me this on Instagram too, but those ones are kind of harder for me to keep track of. Our case sources are
newspapers.com apnews.com findagrave.com goeerie.com a cold case files episode episode one lake erie murders season two episode ones and thecinemaholic.com so our case this week begins on october 27th 1992 in oil city pennsylvania oil city is just inland from lake erie and is a working class town on the banks of the allegheny river
It's Halloween week, obviously. We're on Halloween theme here. And most people in the community are going to be celebrating over the next several days. 11-year-old Shauna Howe loves Halloween and trick-or-treating. And this year, in 1992, she told her mom that she wanted to dress up as a gymnast. And she had actually made her own costume using stuff from her closet. We love a DIY queen. Shauna's mom and dad were separated, but she had a good relationship with both of them.
Shauna was born in July 1981 in Pennsylvania, and this specific morning, Shauna woke up and reminded her mom, Lucy Howe, that she had a Halloween Girl Scout event at the local nursing home that evening. The Girl Scouts that she was a part of were actually doing a thing where each Girl Scout would adopt a grandparent.
So she had actually spent some time at the nursing home this season, which is a fun thing because if an elderly at the nursing home doesn't maybe have a grandchild that lives nearby, they can come all the time. It's kind of like a cute idea. Yeah, that is kind of cool.
So as the time came for Shauna to head off to her best friend's house, who would then take her to the Girl Scout event, she dressed up in her gymnast costume. And then Lucy's boyfriend at the time, John Brown, actually describes her costume as tights, a leotard. It's like a bodysuit and even gloves, like the cutest gymnast you've ever seen. So Lucy kisses Shauna, gives her a hug and says goodbye as she heads off to her event.
and Shauna was so excited. It was around 7.30 or 8 p.m. that the Girl Scout event ended. Shauna and her best friend, Joey L., left together in their costumes. They begin the walk home from the nursing home, going as far as they can together before they would then have to separate to get to their respective houses. So as they approached the corner, Joey L. continued straight while Shauna made a left to finish the two blocks to her own home.
As 8.30 rolled around and Shauna House had still not arrived home, John Brown, which is Lucy, her mom's boyfriend, actually called Lucy at work and told her, hey, Shauna hasn't come home yet. The event should have been over by now. Maybe it's running long. They
They wait another hour before worry overcomes them. Any previous Girl Scout event had never run this late, 9.30 p.m., and especially one that they were running at a nursing home. Like, they don't stay up that late either. So Lucy was actually still out, but John was home, and so he began calling hospitals to see if maybe there had been an accident. Like, he was like, maybe she's at the hospital or something. But when Lucy beat Shauna home at 10 p.m. and no hospitals had seen her, they called the police.
The police arrived to Shauna's house that night and began asking questions. The hope was that maybe she had just gotten lost or was staying with a friend. But while police are talking to Lucy and John, a report comes in that a guy named Dan Payton had reported to police that he had witnessed an abduction of a little girl that night. Wow, that's fast. I agree. Like, I mean, I mean, I think if you see someone get kidnapped, you're going to call. But I think...
putting two and two together. I don't know. So how do you know if it's like her? Oh no. The parent actually taking the kid or they fighting. Yeah. Knowing that it's a kidnapping or not. Exactly. Um, so panic kind of begins to set in for everyone in the room as they learn that Shauna, how,
might have been kidnapped, like someone reported a kidnapping, and now this little girl's missing. Dan Payton told police that he was walking west on First Street in Oil City that night when he saw a little girl walking alone on the other side of the street. It was dark out, but he did see that she was dressed in a costume wearing what looked like a bodysuit and tights. So for her family, they're like,
Like, okay, this is awful. Dan then noticed a tall skinny guy who was wearing a baseball cap also on the other side of the street. And Dan kind of like is watching, but then he's kind of like, okay, looks away. And the next thing he knows is he thinks he hears a scream. He looks over and there's a red car now where the skinny man and the girl that he had seen. And then the car drives away and both the skinny man and the girl are gone.
Okay. So he's kind of like that girl didn't just disappear. So he thinks she got into the car, but he heard a scream. And so he assumed that she had been pulled into the car by that skinny man. And that's why he called and said that he thought he saw a kidnapping. Got it. So let me just recap real quick. She was at Girl Scouts. She didn't come home. Someone reported her that someone...
Someone was kidnapped. They figured out that it was probably her. Most likely her. Okay. Yes. So Dan actually like panicked at this point because he was like, I'm pretty sure that little girl just got taken. So he runs up to the nearest house and he begins knocking on neighbor's doors around eight o'clock that night, trying to use someone's phone to call police because this is the nineties cell phones aren't that popular. And so this was his witness account to police that night.
So the police immediately send out 20 to 30 officers. Once they realized the gravity of the situation, a little girl's missing an 11 year old. And then there was a possible report of an abduction while police are like out searching. Shauna's uncles actually start searching on their own too during the night and
A roadblock was set up to talk to people and look for her. They're kind of looking car to car. Police are on foot and in cars and are searching the area that she was taken. They're interviewing neighbors and people out celebrating. Had anyone seen or heard anything else?
police know that they had lost precious hours already, and the chance of finding her alive was statistically decreasing by the minute. They had to act fast. Lucy and John are told to stay home with the phone just in case someone calls with information or...
possibly Shauna calls or possibly the abductor calls asking for ransom. And Lucy's like, everyone in this town knows I live paycheck to paycheck. There's absolutely no way they're wanting a ransom, but also there's no cell phones. So it's like, if someone does need to contact her, they're going to call her home phone. So they're like, you need to stay home. Sometimes I look back at these cases that are older and I'm like, dang, if only we had cell phones and cameras, but then I even think about now like Brian Laundrie. Yeah. Um, he,
He went missing. Right. No one can find him. So, I mean, no one can still go missing all the time. I know it kind of like makes you crazy. How did they even solve any case? I know. You know what I mean? But I, you know, I'm thinking about this and like, can you imagine these hours as, you know, Lucy sitting at this home while her daughter is missing? Lucy actually explains them that she was just kind of wandering around the house all night.
hoping that police were finding leads, hoping that someone knows something. But by morning, news had broke out about the kidnapping. Everyone in town is like, oh my gosh, a little girl was kidnapped. And so Lucy actually sees friends, family, and neighbors, even strangers standing in front of her house that next morning getting ready to go search for her little girl.
Hundreds of people were turning up the next morning to look for Shauna. Volunteers were walking the streets. And then also with all these volunteers out walking the streets, fear was kind of setting in like reality of what was happening. There was an unseen pressure on everyone to find this girl safe. So the unimaginable wasn't true in their community. Like maybe she just got lost. They don't want this. Like she was actually kidnapped by someone as local.
Yeah, it's horrible.
Despite the efforts, though, time keeps ticking with no sign of 11-year-old Shauna. By October 29, 1992, two days after Shauna was taken, spirits were low and fear was running rampant. Searches are still happening, and they've now made their way to Coulter's Hole, which is a cyclone that has been in place for over a decade.
and private hunting area a little bit like out of town. There is a deep stream which locals would sometimes swim in. The area was known for kind of a place for the underage kids to go drink and party. It's kind of just out of the way, wooded area.
And in this area, there are some campsites that people use. And it was this day that a man was driving home from his camp. Some sources said he might've actually been out searching for Shauna. Some said he was just camping, so I'm not sure. But when this is when he says that he caught a glimpse of something underneath one of the bridges. And so back at home, John and Lucy get a call asking John and her to head out to Coulter's Hole to identify something that they might've found.
So they arrived to the area and John walks down to where police are surrounding the section of land. And as he gets closer, his fear lessens as he noticed that they aren't surrounding a body. That's what I was thinking. That's all he's thinking. When he sees it's not a body, he kind of,
like it, it wasn't her. It's not her. You know what I mean? But his heart drops when he notices what all of these police are surrounding and looking at Shauna's costume, leotard body suit that she had been wearing the night she was kidnapped was lying on the ground in Coulter's hole. Um,
Oh, my gosh. It looked as if it had been there overnight because it was wet from the moisture. Yeah. Obviously, this was a relief for everyone that it wasn't her, but it was also a sign that something awful probably had happened to her. The bodysuit was tested and they found several semen deposits on it, which I don't need to clarify why those would be there. I just need to acknowledge how awful and evil this whole thing is. Yeah.
But there was enough semen on one of the stains to obtain DNA from it. But like we all know, if you have nothing to compare it to at this time, all you have is an unknown DNA sample because it wasn't like it is now where they could run it against familial matches, the database, all of that.
Which is awesome that we can do that now. Yes, awesome. But this news doesn't discourage the police or the search parties. They know that until they have a body, there is always a small chance that she is still alive, so the search pushes on. On October 30th, 1992, three days after Shauna's abduction and the day after the bodysuit was found, a guy had gone to a nearby cottage in Coulter's Hole and called police.
He told them that he was walking on a bridge and he had looked over and found something. Oh no. Just three days after being kidnapped, Shauna's body was discovered out in the open at the bottom of the bridge. Okay. Her shoes were found on the bridge and a candy wrapper nearby. Like she had possibly been alive on the bridge at one point. Cause why would her shoes be there type thing?
Police are confused because they had just been in the area the day before. I kid you not, this was like just down the street from where they found her body suit. And she wasn't hidden. Like she was out in the open. Like anyone who walks over, drives over this bridge is going to see her. So how had they not seen her? They had searched the area. They had combed through it the day before and she wasn't there. They are all convinced.
Had the kidnapper really come back during the middle of the night with Shauna, killed her, disposed of her body, whatever. The guts that would have taken knowing that the police had just been there that like that day and had still been there. Something isn't adding up. Yeah. Something's weird. So either police are like either the killer wanted Shauna's body to be found, like they wanted her to be discovered. So that's why they chose that area because police had just been there.
or they were taunting police by, you know, dumping the body somewhere where they had just been thinking they were smarter than them. It's, it's one of the two. Cause it really doesn't make sense. They left her shoes placed on the bridge side by side. And one was facing one way and one was the other.
So it's like very clear that they were set there, not just like thrown there. Police almost feel like the abductor is kind of like, catch me if you can. Like I was just, you were just here and now I'm here type thing. Which is so messed up. Yeah. So after examining the body, it's actually believed that Shauna was thrown over the bridge down into the creek, which was about 33 feet high. Oh my God.
Gosh, she was alive when this happened and was probably still alive for five to 10 minutes in the Creek until she passed away from blunt force trauma to the head and chest from the fall Lucy's brothers. So Shauna's uncles actually identified the body for the family and then relayed the information back to them. And I can't fathom this moment. The cold case files episode on this case interviewed both Lucy and John and
And then the other episode I watched interviewed the uncles and you can see that the pain is still so raw and real for all of them. - I can't even imagine. - Yeah. - I really can't. - Okay, let me guess. Your medicine cabinet is crammed with stuff that does not work.
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John actually remembers Lucy wailing after they told her. And he said that this cry, this scream was a sound that he never wanted to hear again. And it could only be the sound of a mother losing her child. That's how just...
the sound was. And after the news broke to the rest of the town, Oil City actually decided to ban Halloween. No way. There was no trick-or-treating, no parties. Parents were not letting their kids out of their sights and they weren't going to celebrate right after this child had just been found murdered, thrown off a bridge. So the whole city felt this loss and this ban on Halloween would actually last almost a decade. Whoa.
In this city. Oh, okay. Yeah, and I'm sure people still did go out, but there was like an official ban on it. I mean, that's pretty scarring, right? Right. That's a big deal. Yeah, and so on Halloween, a candlelight vigil was held for Shauna, where like the whole town walked the route that she walked that night home. And three days after that, her funeral was held, which was just...
So heartbreaking for her family. So after Shauna's body was found, police knew they needed to find the match to that DNA that they had collected off her body suit. And they had actually collected off her body in multiple places at this point. And they're like, that's how we're going to solve this case is to match this DNA. DNA is solid evidence at this time. You know what I mean? I mean, it still is solid evidence.
But this is a lot easier said than done. So they started first with the family. They started DNA testing the men in the family. Stranger abductions are very uncommon. So this is why they started with family first. But after losing their daughter in the way they had, the ask for DNA felt like a slap in the face to Shauna's family. Lucy was even more hurt when they asked for a sample from her son.
um, Shauna's brother, but it was still done and everyone was excluded after excluding family. They moved on to friends and people from Shauna's life, people from school and girl scouts, stuff like that. But every person they tested came back, not a match. And after some time they were running out of possible people. Yeah. After more than a year of investigating Shauna's death, police still had no leads. So at this point,
We're a year into the investigation. Yeah. How long do they decide to like investigate it before they drop it or call it a cold case? Yeah. Or they just depend by city? I think it does depend probably by county. But also a lot of these places will keep a case open for certain reasons.
but sometimes they will clarify I'm cold, but I have read stories before where they like keep it open, even though they're like not really showing. Okay. I actually just listened to a podcast about this. And in the case, the family was like, we want the evidence from the police. And the police were like, no, it's still an open investigation. And they were like, you haven't done anything in years. You've had no leads in years. So they went to court and,
And the judge ruled whether the police were still actively working on an investigation or not. Okay. So I really do think it kind of just depends county to county. Yeah. Police knew she had been grabbed by a tall, thin man. Cause at this point they're like, that was, that was an abduction. That was her.
So please know that she has been grabbed by a tall, thin man in a hat who pulled her into a red car. And as police went back through the evidence, they realized that the man who had found Shauna's body, Bill Crabtree drove a small red car. Was he tall and skinny? I don't know. Like,
Like they didn't clarify that he was tall and skinny, but they did clarify that he had a red car. So police searched his vehicle, took his DNA, but it didn't match. Got it. So still no answers. But around this time, a tip came in stating that the description of the man who took Shauna that night kind of described a man, a local man named Ted Walker. And Ted Walker worked at the pizza shop in town, and he knew Shauna from when she would come in and get pizza. Yeah.
Ted was kind of a little creepy with the young girls and boys who would come into the pizza shop. Like he was kind of known as a creep. He would always try to give like hugs to the kids. And Lucy even remembers a time when Shauna and her friends actually were running around from Ted as he tried to chase them and give them hugs. That's a little weird. It's a little weird. So Ted also drove a small red car.
But when police all these red cars, right? But when police took his DNA, it didn't match. It was another dead end. So police begin re-interviewing neighbors and people who lived around where she was abducted. So they are still actively working on this case.
Which is awesome considering it's been so long. It's been like over a year, right? Had they missed something the first time, they're like, we're going to keep looking. This is when the name Michael Pruitt came up in the investigation. Michael lived a couple houses away from where Shauna was abducted. And the day they found her body, he actually left town.
So at this point, police are like, we have nothing else to go on. This guy is a suspect. Police search his house and they actually find a cubby in one of his walls in the house. And Shauna actually had scrapes and bruises or like bruises
burns, scratches on her knees when she was found. And since they figured she had been held alive for a couple of days because they don't think her body was there when they were there the day before, police felt like maybe the secret weird cubby in Michael's house could have been the place she was held and it's small. And so that's why maybe her knees were all scratched up. Also going back, why would he throw her off a bridge? To kill her? I feel like that doesn't happen very much to people that are like,
Right. Is it? Yes, it's an odd way. And yeah, I don't know, because it's also like we have had a survivor case where someone survives that way and it's not a for sure. So it is a little weird. Yeah. I mean, in this case, she did pass. But I yeah, it's a little weird. So they test Michael's DNA. They're like, maybe this is a lead. This cubby, he left town. Nope, it's not a match. They had taken over 100 DNA samples at this point.
And back in the 90s in their little town, the DNA tests that this department was taking was blood samples, not saliva swabs. So this is a lot more work and this is a lot more invasion into what turned out to be innocent people. Like you have to get your blood drawn. You know what I mean? Every test would come back negative. And as time went on, Shauna's case was growing colder and colder.
On July 30th, 1995, three years after Shauna was brutally kidnapped and murdered, the same police department received a call that a little girl had just survived a kidnapping. She was walking down the street at night when a man came up behind her and tried to hit her and put her into the trunk of his car.
Was it red? No. She fought back and was beat up pretty badly, but she told police that she knew if she got into that trunk, she would die. So she fought as hard as she could. I can't believe a little girl fought back. Right? That is awesome. I mean, and she might have been like- A little older? Like just under 18. Oh, okay. Like she might've been just a child. They don't declare her age because it's private information, but yeah. Okay. So-
Still it's scary to fight back the man who attacked her was actually named James O'Brien But he went by Jim or Jimmy and he had a brother named Tim And so the O'Brien brothers Jim and Tim or Jimmy and Timmy were well known to the police They were sexual offenders. They had been like the police had known them since they were like early teens they had been getting in trouble for a very long time and
Jim was arrested for the attempted kidnapping, but everyone couldn't help but notice the eerie similarity between this and what happened to Shauna three years earlier. I mean, it was literally on the same path that Shauna had walked that night. Also in the same city. This city has to be like, what the heck? On the almost same road. It was the same path. What the heck is going on? Right? So when a meeting in the police department was had about Shauna's kidnapping, possibly
you know, being linked to this one, police discovered that the O'Briens were both in jail at the time of Shauna's murder. So,
So they did this one, but they couldn't have possibly been responsible for what happened to Shauna. Yeah. So more time went by without any justice for Shauna and her family. But five years after the murder, Halloween just still wasn't the same in Oil City. It had been canceled and people hoped for answers. And every time it rolled around, everyone was on edge. The killer was still out there. This is still very real for this town. On October 29th, 1997, the five
year anniversary of Shauna's body being found. Five-year-old Shanae Freeman went missing out of her backyard in Oil City. What is going on? So another little girl is kidnapped. Holy crap.
in October, literally on the five year anniversary of Shauna being found, another little girl goes missing. So the community is freaking out. They're like, is the same monster back again? It's, it's like the anniversary. Is this like a serial killer type thing? Um,
John and Lucy hear about Sinead and they decide to reach out to her family. They have been through this. They might be able to help aid the investigation or navigate the trauma the family is now going through. The search starts immediately with this new investigation and it's honestly just like deja vu for everyone in this city. It's Halloween time and searching for a missing girl who had been kidnapped. Uncertainty.
Unlike Shauna, there was no eyewitnesses to this abduction. So the interviews with houses surrounding the area were also started immediately. A young man named Nicholas Bowen was hugging Sinead's mother and comforting her. And then when police began to question him, they felt like his body language and demeanor was off. It was just a vibe. And they're like, we're not comfortable with this. Okay. Police would probably think that about me too, honestly, because I get so nervous under pressure. Like,
People are like, like a cop can be like, when's your birthday? And I'm like, I don't know. I don't know. They probably think that about me too, but they're feeling that way with him. And the cops decide to keep questioning Nicholas. Everyone's out searching and they're questioning him right then and there. And he eventually broke.
telling them that Sinead was hurt and bleeding bad, that he had been at Sinead's housing development hanging out with his friend that day, and he had decided to kidnap her and assault her and throw her into a ravine where she hit her head. What? Yes, he just killed this little girl. And he was comforting the mom. Yes.
What in the world? And then he just broke down. Right there. Like as police, this is the first time they're talking to him on the street outside her mom's right there. So you must have known the mother.
Yes, he had been over like he had been hanging out with a friend that lived nearby. So I think like this was like a community kind of and they all kind of knew each other. And he actually claims that he was high on marijuana at the time, which I do just have to say that doesn't have anything to do with him kidnapping a girl. But he kind of claims that and that he just got suspended from school. So he's like, I was sad. But once again.
This is a pathetic excuse if that's what he's trying to use it as. So the police go with Nicholas to a shallow grave where Sinead was no longer alive. She had died of blunt force trauma. It had been too long. Why did he kill her?
No, no, I did. That's what he said. I was high on marijuana and I was sad from being suspended. Okay. So this is another young girl brutally murdered and left to die on Halloween in the same city. Yeah. John Brown hears that scream that he never wanted to hear again. Only five years later, this time from Sinead Freeman's mother, finding out that her daughter had been found dead. He knew what it was. He knew what had happened before anyone had told him that Sinead had been found dead.
17-year-old Nicholas Bowen is arrested in front of hundreds of people who had come out to search for Sinead, and then he was sentenced to life in prison. And it probably wasn't him because he was 12 at the time of the other kidnapping, correct? Are you looking at my notes? I was saying, and the one thought going through everyone's mind, police, onlookers, Sinead,
Shauna's family is that Nicholas would have been 12 at the time of Shauna's murder. So he wasn't driving the car at 12. He wasn't the tall, thin man who wrestled her into the car. There was another Halloween abduction in the same area within five years, and it was not the same offender. This news was devastating for Shauna's family. They had been waiting five years for
for justice and there was still no answers. And once again, the case goes cold. In January 1988, now six years since the murder, a detective named Rich Graham is invested in the cold case of Shauna's murder. He actually visits Lucy Howe and looks in her eyes and tells her that he's going to solve this case. It's probably not going to happen to
But he will eventually solve it and then he continued to work on it in all of his off time He would finish a day on the job and then come home and spend hours reviewing the paperwork for her case Detective Graham is actually dyslexic So he reads things multiple times just like get it clear in his head Which I do need to point out is kind of amazing like he's a detective you can be anything you want He's dyslexic and he just figured out a way. You know what I mean? I just thought that was cool
Anyways, he's going over the case for the third time when he notices something that he didn't the first two times.
Something with the autopsy photos and the coroner's report just didn't make sense. Detective Graham recalls a bruise or a mark on Shauna's cheek that is not even mentioned during autopsy. So he's like, where, where did this information go wrong? So he decides to take photos from the crime scene and autopsy to a special medical examiner and have them look at the reports. Had they missed something else? Like, is there anything else here that looks weird to you? I just want to make sure that we like had a good grip on this when we did it the first time.
The medical examiner notices that besides the mark on her cheek not being noted, there is also no sign of restraints on her ankle or wrists.
She was never tied up. And this makes the medical examiner feel like there was more than one person involved if they never needed to tie her up because someone else was there to hold her or restrain her or guard her. And then as police are going through notes, they also remember that this red car had come up and there had been like a tall, you know, thin man that pulled her into the car, but he pulled her into the car, closed the door, went around, got inside. You know what I mean? They kind of start to feel like,
there was someone else driving that car, drove up, he grabbed her, dragged her into the car, they drove away. They start to kind of feel like, okay, this is a little, you know, how did we miss this the first time? Maybe this is weird. Okay, that makes sense. All right, probably not expecting me to start this ad, but I'm going to start this ad, the Skims ad. And let me tell you about something that Peyton's been wearing. The Skims soft loungewear is amazing. It feels great.
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So kind of this is a huge moment for Detective Graham and, you know, this team that's working on the cold case because up until this time, they were working under the assumption that this was one person who had kidnapped her and killed her. The DNA on Shauna's body was from only one person, which probably enabled this theory even more that there was only one assailant. But what if they looked at this case through the lens that they were looking for a team or a partnership or a group of people who had done this?
When this bomb is dropped by detective Graham and the new team, police decide to go back through reports and look for crimes or incidents, you know, from this new lens, maybe like a new team or, you know, a possible, just, just kind of relook at the cases. Okay.
And they discovered that in 1992, the year she was murdered, the fire department was called to a scene where a car was on fire. A red car was on fire. And this red car belonged to Ted Williams.
Walker. If you forgot, Ted Walker was the creepy pizza shop employee who always wanted to hug the little girls and knew Shauna. Yeah, but they already took his DNA. And it didn't match. So despite his name being brought up through like tips multiple times, and he was also matched the physical description from the witness. That was what led them to him in the first place. And that he drove a red car. Police had tested his DNA and it didn't match. So they just ruled him out.
but maybe he was still involved and he had a partner. Got it. And it was his partner's DNA, the new lens, remember? So police remember that around the time of the murder, Ted hung out with younger people and kind of used his house as a place for people to crash if they needed to. It was a place for young people to go smoke and drink and party and not get in trouble type thing. Police decide to re-interview Ted and they ask him how he learned about Shauna's abduction. And Ted tells them,
oh, Jim and Tim O'Brien, the brothers told me about it. If you forgot Jim and Tim O'Brien are brothers who police initially suspected after Jim attempted to, you know, kidnap another girl years later, but she fought back. Remember these are, these are those guys. Um, and they put Tim in jail for the attempted kidnapping and they wanted to suspect them and Sean has, but they discovered that they were in jail also at the time of her kidnapping. So they were like, they're, you know, they're not suspects.
So when Detective Graham hears about this connection between suspects, he decides to search reports and solidify the alibi for Tim and Jim the night of the kidnapping. He's like, what are the chances these three are being brought up all over again? You know, I just want to solidify it. Everyone is saying they were in jail, but, you know, how did they both get to Ted's house to inform him of the kidnapping faster than the word got through town? If Ted learned about it from them, but they were in jail...
That really doesn't make sense. So how could they tell him first if they were locked up? So he gets a hold of a trooper and he asks him to check jail records and make sure that Jim and Tim were in jail at the time of Shauna's abduction. The trooper comes back and tells detective Graham that he's not sure where he got that false information from, but Jim and Tim O'Brien were not in jail the night of Shauna's abduction. They had been right before, but they had actually bonded out.
So they were roaming free when Shauna was kidnapped and all these years had never been questioned or tested or looked into based off of hearsay, false information. They weren't actually in jail. Nobody had actually checked to make sure that they were right to make sure that, oh, well we heard they were, but let's just go check records to make sure if they had, they would have known that they bonded out the day before. That's crazy that everyone just thought they were in jail. Oh, I arrested him last week. He's in jail.
But he wasn't. You know what I mean? But he wasn't. Yeah. So Detective Graham and the new team has now found two leads that were ignored the first time around. So he knows he needs to interview the O'Briens as they were initial suspects. And Jim had been arrested for an attempted kidnapping years after Shauna was murdered. So he decides to interview Tim O'Brien because he was currently in jail already for sexual assault.
Detective Graham knows all he really needs is to ask for a DNA sample to close this case. He doesn't like actually need to know anything else. So that's what he does. And Tim hesitates when asked this because,
Um, he then tells detective Graham that he will have to ask his attorney to give a DNA sample. Of course he does. And detective Graham knows, okay, I need Jim and Tim's DNA and I'm going to get it. All of this new work on the case by the new team has taken some time and it's now actually been 10 years since Shauna was abducted.
But Detective Graham is right on the cusp of solving this case and he knows it. In February 2002, when he gets the call from the crime lab about Jim and Tim's DNA being tested against the semen found on Shauna's body and bodysuit. And after all of these years, they had a match. So I assume that somehow they were forced to give the DNA. Yes, eventually. I'm sure they were like, we have enough evidence to ask for this, get a warrant for it or whatever. Wow.
Wow. And Jim O'Brien's semen was stained on the costume of a murdered 11-year-old girl from 10 years ago. Absolutely horrible. The same Jim O'Brien who had been looked into weeks later
After Shauna was discovered but was overlooked because no one double checked their information. I'm surprised they didn't just get his DNA to be safe. Anyways, yeah. I mean, they were like, oh, he's in jail. No reason to waste another. Like I said, it was kind of time consuming. It kind of was invasive. It took a lot, you know. Oh, yeah, because they were doing blood. Yes. So they were like, if he was in jail, there's absolutely no reason. But they should have double checked, you know. Dang.
Although frustrating, the story adds up. Jim, Tim and Ted. The kidnapping and murder was three people. It had to be these three people. Their names were brought up immediately into the investigation. And now three years later, they're still brought up.
Ted Walker was arrested as an accessory to the kidnapping and murder of Shauna Howe. So Tim and Jim actually never talk. So all we have is Ted's account of what happened, which actually I know is surprising, is out to make Ted look good and is probably not the complete truth. So just kind of remember that. I'm sure it's along the lines, but he was the only one talking. So he was trying to make himself kind of seem like the best guy of the three. You know what I mean? What I think is interesting is that
Why would Walker admit to the police where he heard that she was kidnapped from? Because that's what got them in trouble. Like if Walker hadn't had told the detective that, oh, I heard it from Tim and O'Brien. Right? Like they actually bring this up in both of the shows I watched. Why did he just say it so nonchalantly? They're like, we would have never, he could have said from...
Why would he just say it so nonchalant? Right. Like he, they said, they were like, he could have just said from Robbie down the street. It was all over the place. Everyone knew about it. The next morning, hundreds of people were searching for her, but that's what screwed everything. Well, not screwed, but I'm glad they caught him. But that's kind of what led every, you know, everyone to being like, wait, but if they were in jail, how did he talk to them?
Right. So Ted Walker tells police that on October 27th, 1992, an eyewitness saw him walk up to 11 year old Shauna Howe on her way home from a Halloween Girl Scout event. So he's like, yeah, that was me. That was me. I'm the tall, skinny man in the hat and glasses. That's me. He says that he asked her if she was selling Girl Scout cookies to kind of put her at ease. He didn't want to scare her.
Jim and Tim O'Brien then pulled up in Ted's red car and Ted suddenly grabbed Shauna around her shoulders, making her scream, which is what the eyewitness heard. He then hands her off to Tim O'Brien because Jim is the one driving the car. Tim pulls her into the car and Ted jumps in after him and they all go back to Ted's house.
Jim and Tim carry Shauna into Ted's house and they take her upstairs. This is according to Ted. They take her upstairs and they give her candy to keep her quiet. And Ted says they picked Halloween because it was only supposed to be a prank. You don't kidnap a girl for a prank. Yeah. Horrible. Yeah. Stupid and gross. So Ted says he's not sure what happened upstairs.
But he could hear her screaming for help. Okay. But we all know, we all know what happened upstairs. We know what they did to her upstairs. And then Ted tells police that after that, Jim and Tim took Shauna out to Coulter's hole and police believe. So this is when he's like, I don't know what happened after this. So please kind of have to fill in the blanks.
Police believe that she is assaulted again once out there. Police also believe that she was kept alive in the trunk of the car all night. Oh my gosh, this is horrible. Because they didn't find her until the next day. Yeah. So they're like, she had to have been alive. And this is why police believe she had the scrapes and the marks on her knees because she was in the tight trunk all night getting rug burns on her knees, which kind of turn into scrapes.
Police believe that Jimmy was the leader, that Tim was kind of the follower, and that Ted was just gross, just as responsible, just kind of a bad guy who was like along for the ride. After spending time with her, police believe that they threw her off the bridge that night. Ted Walker was convicted of kidnapping and third-degree murder. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison and remains incarcerated today at the State Correctional Institution in Albion in Erie County, Pennsylvania. Okay.
Jim and Tim O'Brien were found guilty of kidnapping and first degree murder. They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Good. Jim is incarcerated today at the state correctional institution, Phoenix in collegeville, Pennsylvania. And Tim is at the state correctional institution, green in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. The new team that kind of solved this case is glad that they closed the case for Shauna, but they're just kind of really sad. They're sad for her that she was cheated life. Um,
that she didn't have a chance to grow up. She was just a child. Lucy misses Shauna every day. She loves her and it won't ever go away no matter what. Shauna left behind the legacy of love. She was a brown hair, blue eyed girl scout who wore little gold earrings and loved Sunday school. She loved Halloween and she loved life. Her uncle says that she had a lot of friends and she was very outgoing.
And Sine Freeman can kind of be overlooked because her case was solved so fast, basically in two days, but she was a victim too. And these two cases are kind of attached at the hip because she,
At first, it was like, oh my gosh, we have a serial killer, even though it ended up being two different people. And there has not been as much information released on her case, but she deserves to be honored just as much. She was five years old and a clever, friendly girl and popular in her neighborhood and with her Head Start schoolmates. She also enjoyed watching Disney movies, and that was the case of Shauna Howe and Sinead Freeman. Gosh, why are people...
Like horrible. Like it's not even bad. It's just like another level of just evil. Evil. You're like, this is why I don't like this stuff. Straight evil. I just can't. I know. And these two cases just happening on Halloween literally created a ban on Halloween in this city. And I don't, I don't blame them. They were just like, this is too much evil in one. Like we can't just go out and trick or treat and pretend like nothing happened. Yeah.
And it's like really bad things happen every day, which is just sad and awful. And this case is in remembrance of Shauna Howe and Sinead Freeman and their families and the awful things that they went through. So think about them today or tonight whenever you're listening to this. Thank you so much for listening. We love all of you and we will see you guys next week with another episode. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.
