Speaker 1: This episode MA contained content of a graphic nature, including
Speaker 1: descriptions of physical and sexual violence against adults, children, and animals.
Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. Hi, this is Tanya. Hi this
Speaker 1: is Shannon, and we are Crimes and Consequences, a hardcore
Speaker 1: true crime podcast. Hey Shannon, Hey girl, how are you?
Speaker 1: I'm doing great? How are you? Oh?
Speaker 2: Could be better?
Speaker 1: Maybe adjusting the microphone just as you hit record.
Speaker 2: I'm struggling with chords over here.
Speaker 1: No, you sound good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but everything's going good. Had a great day.
Speaker 1: Visited the parents visited, very nice, great grandma and great
Speaker 1: grandpa Levi and I did, Oh.
Speaker 2: They're doing great, good things. What about you?
Speaker 1: How was your day? My day was good. I worked
Speaker 1: sports from home today and fucking eight If an eight
Speaker 1: hour day didn't last for sixteen hours, I swear, but
Speaker 1: that's what it felt like today. I sent eighteams message
Speaker 1: to some people that I work with today and I'm like,
Speaker 1: it's only two thirty six, and then like the crying
Speaker 1: emoji because I just was like, I can't fucking believe
Speaker 1: it's only two thirty six, because I swear it was
Speaker 1: seven pm.
Speaker 2: Days like that are insane. It's like being on another
Speaker 2: plane of existence.
Speaker 1: And it's not that I'm not busy, because I am.
Speaker 1: I have tons of work to do, but I just
Speaker 1: was like I was ready for this day to be
Speaker 1: ten minutes afore I woke up.
Speaker 2: So tgif yes, tgif.
Speaker 1: Whoo. So I am going to tell you this crazy
Speaker 1: story today, and before I get into it, if everyone
Speaker 1: can hit the subscribe or follow button, that would be wonderful.
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you the story about Michael Douglas Shaver.
Speaker 1: He was born January fourteenth, nineteen eighty two, making him Capricorn.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: He was born in upstate New York and he had
Speaker 1: a brother, Brian, and a very overprotective sister, Stacy. Michael's
Speaker 1: mom was a single mother, so oftentimes Stacy would step
Speaker 1: in to help with anything that needed to be done
Speaker 1: around the house. Growing up, Michael enjoyed making his own
Speaker 1: drum set out of things like tupperware and buckets. Eventually
Speaker 1: he would learn to play the guitar. He, along with
Speaker 1: his friends around the neighborhood, formed a little band of
Speaker 1: their own called Rifles in Dandelions, which was a play
Speaker 1: on guns n' roses. Nice. Michael, from a young age
Speaker 1: was a fairly decent mechanic. He was able to fix
Speaker 1: anything and everything around the house. His grandfather was the
Speaker 1: same way, so it was always thought that Michael inherited
Speaker 1: that gene. Neighbors would give him various things that needed
Speaker 1: fixing and he'd happily help them. He was even known
Speaker 1: to have built an airplane in the backyard with a friend,
Speaker 1: and the airplane was completely made out of wood. A
Speaker 1: family member said that if he had gotten his hands
Speaker 1: on a motor, he would have flown away. While Michael
Speaker 1: was still in high school, Not only did he become
Speaker 1: infatuated with the learning to fly a plane, he also
Speaker 1: became infatuated with a young girl named Laurie Paddleford. He
Speaker 1: and Laurie had basically grown up together in the Utica,
Speaker 1: New York area, and even from middle school, Michael had
Speaker 1: his eye on Laurie, and his crush developed as they
Speaker 1: made their way into high school. The only thing Michael
Speaker 1: wanted to do was to figure out a cute, cool
Speaker 1: way to ask Laurie out on a date. His best
Speaker 1: friend helped him come up with an idea. So this
Speaker 1: is the idea. Michael was going to ask her out
Speaker 1: to the song I'll make love to you by boys
Speaker 1: to men playing in the background. Oh my gosh, I
Speaker 1: am in love with the cheesiness of this.
Speaker 2: You know, isn't it adorable? It is.
Speaker 1: Once he asked her out, Laurie said yes, and the
Speaker 1: two became inseparable. They dated throughout high school and they
Speaker 1: were really excited to get married after graduation. Throughout the
Speaker 1: duration of their wedding ceremony and reception, no one could
Speaker 1: wipe the smile from Michael's face. His biggest dream had
Speaker 1: come true and he had married the girl that he
Speaker 1: had fallen in love with at the ripe old age
Speaker 1: of thirteen. Laurie was all that Michael had ever wanted,
Speaker 1: and the two of them were so excited to start
Speaker 1: their life together. After the wedding, Michael got his commercial
Speaker 1: pilot's license and he had even gotten a job at
Speaker 1: Piedmont Airlines. He loved every single second working as a pilot,
Speaker 1: and he would always take his friends up in the
Speaker 1: sky every chance he got. Not long after Michael had
Speaker 1: secured his dream job at Petemont Airlines, Laurie became pregnant,
Speaker 1: first with a girl named Isabelle and soon after a
Speaker 1: son named Aiden. When the happy couple became parents. They
Speaker 1: decided to relocate to Clermont, Florida. They purchased a five
Speaker 1: acre property in the more rural area of Clermont, and
Speaker 1: the family would live quiet and peaceful life surrounded by hills, lakes,
Speaker 1: and the love of wildlife. They eventually would buy some chickens,
Speaker 1: some guinea hens, some turkeys, and a couple of ducks.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, Michael got a job for a local
Speaker 1: flight group called Precious Medal. He worked as a mechanic
Speaker 1: and the pilots would perform all over the United States
Speaker 1: in races along with air shows. While with Precious Medal,
Speaker 1: Michael became a volunteer pilot with the group so that
Speaker 1: he was able to go up into the sky. These
Speaker 1: races are often compared to NASCAR racing, but obviously race
Speaker 1: cars are on a closed track and these races are
Speaker 1: airplane flight races, so kind of similar, but just up
Speaker 1: in the sky as a huge scale called the sky,
Speaker 1: up in the sky on a closed course. So I
Speaker 1: guess they had like a carry off, yeah, an area
Speaker 1: that was probably you can't see it, I guess, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I'm trying to like picture it.
Speaker 2: But there something aviation where a designated air space that
Speaker 2: they're allowed to be in.
Speaker 1: Right, right, and the planes would race at over five
Speaker 1: hundred miles an hour and they remained fifty feet off
Speaker 1: the ground, so they were not really high up.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: Those who participated were just adrenaline junkies, to say the
Speaker 1: Those who worked closely with Michael at Precious Metal would
Speaker 1: always describe him as a genius when it came to
Speaker 1: his mechanic skills whenever he would touch a plane. Well,
Speaker 1: Michael stayed away for three days at a time working
Speaker 1: as a pilot mechanic, so I guess it's his schedule
Speaker 1: was kind of like how firefighters have, or they'll go
Speaker 1: to the station and sounds like it. They lived there
Speaker 1: for a couple of days, yeah, and come home and whatever.
Speaker 1: So Laurie took care of the kids and she worked
Speaker 1: from home for an insurance company. Biko was a great
Speaker 1: father to Isabelle and Aiden and knew he was missing
Speaker 1: out on quality time and memories with his kids, so
Speaker 1: he ended up quitting his job doing what he loved
Speaker 1: for the sake of fatherhood. He was able to find
Speaker 1: a job with a secure schedule, and that way he'd
Speaker 1: be home with his family every single night. So even
Speaker 1: though he dropped his dream job, he quickly found another,
Speaker 1: working for a business everyone knows and loves. It's also
Speaker 1: known as the happiest place on Earth, So you guessed it.
Speaker 1: He found a job at Walt Disney World, located in Orlando, Florida.
Speaker 1: This job was where he could still do what he loved,
Speaker 1: being mechanic, but it was no longer fixing planes. It
Speaker 1: was to be the mechanic for the monorail at the
Speaker 1: park on the Epioge.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: That way, he would only ever be about twenty min
Speaker 1: miles away from home, and he was still able to
Speaker 1: live out his dream of continuously working with his hands,
Speaker 1: and he also made people happy, So I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: did you want? One day in twenty fourteen, a nine
Speaker 1: one one call was placed, and it was a desperate
Speaker 1: Lourie telling the nine one one operator that she was
Speaker 1: on her way to the sheriff's office and that she
Speaker 1: had her children with her. When the operator asked Laurie
Speaker 1: what was going on, she replied that her hand was
Speaker 1: bleeding from a domestic violence dispute. While that was happening,
Speaker 1: Michael phoned a neighbor. He asked neighbor to come by
Speaker 1: the house because he needed help, and when the neighbor
Speaker 1: got to the house, Michael was completely covered in blood.
Speaker 1: His clothes had been ripped to shreds, and there was
Speaker 1: blood pouring down his face. The neighbor's only thought was
Speaker 1: to take as many photos as she could of what
Speaker 1: she had walked into, just in case. This neighbor had
Speaker 1: often heard many arguments coming from the Shaver home, and
Speaker 1: oftentimes they were screaming and yelling. Laurie, while on the
Speaker 1: phone with nine one one, said she and Michael were
Speaker 1: fighting a lot up to that point, but their fights
Speaker 1: had never gotten physical until then. Most people thought that
Speaker 1: maybe the marriage was on the rocks. Whenever Laurie was
Speaker 1: asked by friends and family previously if everything was all
Speaker 1: right between her and Michael, she almost acted like she
Speaker 1: didn't know what they were talking about, like everything was fine.
Speaker 1: Both of them put on a happy face, not seeming
Speaker 1: that they had any troubles, so those who knew them
Speaker 1: didn't really notice, but they also didn't know, like is
Speaker 1: everything all right with them? So you know, they're not sure.
Speaker 1: Is this the same happy couple who had fallen in
Speaker 1: love in middle school? Or are they at each other's throats? So, Laurie,
Speaker 1: while still on the phone with Diamond one, said that
Speaker 1: she had grabbed Michael's gun and whacked him over the
Speaker 1: head with it. He had the pistol okay. After that happened,
Speaker 1: she grabbed Isabella and Aiden and left as quickly as
Speaker 1: she could. The operator asked if Michael was the one
Speaker 1: who pulled the gun on her, and she said, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: he grabbed my car keys and shoved them in a pocket.
Speaker 1: She only had used force, I guess to get the
Speaker 1: keys from him, and she grabbed the two children and left.
Speaker 1: According to Michael, she was the person who had initiated
Speaker 1: all of the beating him with the gun that she
Speaker 1: had initially pulled on him, and he had been trying
Speaker 1: to calm her down. Michael told the neighbor that he
Speaker 1: and Laurie had been in a pretty physical altercation and
Speaker 1: his wife had threatened him with the gun. Not only
Speaker 1: did she threaten to kill him, she had also threatened
Speaker 1: to kill herself as well. Laurie told the nine one
Speaker 1: one operator that the two of them had consumed three beers,
Speaker 1: and Michael admitted that he had taken the car keys
Speaker 1: from her to prevent her from drinking and driving with
Speaker 1: their children in the back seat. Both she and Michael
Speaker 1: said it was Laurie who had struck him in the
Speaker 1: head with the thirty eight caliber revolver, which had been
Speaker 1: left on their butt inside the home. In the end,
Speaker 1: Michael was arrested for grabbing Laurie by her arm and
Speaker 1: he was charged with battery, and after that the marriage
Speaker 1: just was never the same. Those who knew Michael said
Speaker 1: he never raised his voice and would have never yelled
Speaker 1: at her, let alone beat her physically. Michael had even
Speaker 1: gone over to his mother's home a few times with
Speaker 1: bruises on him, and when his mom asked him what happened,
Speaker 1: Michael would respond with Lurie got mad. In the fall
Speaker 1: of twenty fourteen, the judge from their domestic violence case
Speaker 1: granted Laurie a no contact order against Michael and he
Speaker 1: had to move out. Michael stayed in the hangar at
Speaker 1: Precious Metal, as there were showers inside the bathrooms there.
Speaker 1: Those who were close to him said that Laurie kicked
Speaker 1: him out just to invite him back into the house,
Speaker 1: even though there was still the no contact order in place.
Speaker 1: Laurie was playing mind games with him, and while she's
Speaker 1: doing this, she's seeing other guys. Michael suspected that Laurie
Speaker 1: was cheating on him, and he would often tell his family.
Speaker 1: She denied it, though, but the neighbors would see men
Speaker 1: coming and leaving the house. Michael also thought that maybe
Speaker 1: he's just being paranoid and maybe she's not sleeping around,
Speaker 1: but friends of his said that while he was staying
Speaker 1: in the hangar, he would jump into a plane and
Speaker 1: fly over the house just to see if there was
Speaker 1: an unknown car in the driveway.
Speaker 2: That's genius. I think I would do that too.
Speaker 1: I know, I know all day exactly exactly. I'm not
Speaker 1: that too. But even when he would see an unknown vehicle,
Speaker 1: he was still willing to fight for their marriage, and
Speaker 1: to fight this was not something that his family necessarily
Speaker 1: thought was the right thing to do, but that was
Speaker 1: just who Michael was. Wanting to stay married and keeping
Speaker 1: his marriage together put a strain on his relationships with
Speaker 1: his siblings and other family members. Whenever his family would
Speaker 1: make plans to visit Michael, visit him, visit Laurie and
Speaker 1: the kids, there would always be a last minute cancelation
Speaker 1: and the reason behind it would often be that Laurie
Speaker 1: thought that it was just a bad time know your
Speaker 1: family come over. So since Michael was trying to save
Speaker 1: his marriage, he had no other option than to just
Speaker 1: roll with it because he wanted to make Laurie happy.
Speaker 1: The communications with his family was rare up until that point,
Speaker 1: and not only was it rare, but it was rare
Speaker 1: among his friends too. So at this point within the marriage,
Speaker 1: Michael was invited back into the house to live with
Speaker 1: Laurie and the kids. They were going to try to
Speaker 1: work things out. Laurie knew that since Michael was desperate
Speaker 1: to work things out with her, that she could pretty
Speaker 1: much ask for anything and Michael would make her wishes
Speaker 1: come true. In November twenty fifteen, Michael, Lourie, and the
Speaker 1: kids attended a tractor show with some of Michael's close friends.
Speaker 1: This is something that would happen at least three times
Speaker 1: during the winter months in the Claremont area, and that
Speaker 1: was always something Michael loved to attend because he really
Speaker 1: had a passion for the old tractors that were being
Speaker 1: shown off. Cool. Yeah, that specific tractor show. The tension
Speaker 1: between Michael and Laurie was so thick that you could
Speaker 1: literally drive a tractor through it. Laurie never made eye
Speaker 1: contact with Michael's friends, and they all noticed she wouldn't
Speaker 1: even talk to them, and Michael's friends thought that part
Speaker 1: was pretty strange because she was always friendly with them
Speaker 1: whenever they would hang out. She was known to just
Speaker 1: be a bubbly person who was happy to be there.
Speaker 1: And then, you know, in the middle of this tractor show,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, Michael told his friends that he
Speaker 1: and the family needed to leave, and they left, and
Speaker 1: that would be the last time that anyone would ever
Speaker 1: lay eyes again on Michael. Two days later, Michael's coworkers
Speaker 1: received a really odd text from him, and in that text,
Speaker 1: Michael said he was no longer coming to work and
Speaker 1: that he was planning on moving away to Georgia. His
Speaker 1: coworkers and family members tried to contact him, and when
Speaker 1: he didn't respond, even after hearing that his mother was sick,
Speaker 1: people who knew him best began to worry something was up.
Speaker 1: Some close friends of his even log down to their
Speaker 1: Facebook accounts and noticed they weren't even friends with him anymore,
Speaker 1: so why is he unfriending them? They didn't have falling
Speaker 1: out here. This man was dependable for years and then
Speaker 1: he's just going to.
Speaker 2: Blow off this now he can't be reached.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he's going to blow off this job at
Speaker 1: Disney World out of the blue. And it was just
Speaker 1: couldn't be more dependable as an employee as the sounds like,
Speaker 1: is trying to be a husband, a dependable father.
Speaker 2: A husband. He was how his family would say.
Speaker 1: It was never like him to do that. It was
Speaker 1: just it was just really odd. When Michael's boss reached
Speaker 1: out to him, Michael's boss received a text back that said, quote,
Speaker 1: you can go ahead and fire me. I'm not coming
Speaker 1: back end quote. His coworkers all thought that was really
Speaker 1: weird because he wouldn't just leave a job without saying
Speaker 1: goodbye to anyone. He had friends, everyone had known him
Speaker 1: and grown to love him because of his dependability and
Speaker 1: his personality skills, yeah, his skills. His coworkers were just perplexed,
Speaker 1: you know, they had no idea what was going on.
Speaker 1: He was just gone. Everyone began to have their own
Speaker 1: suspicions and draw their own conclusions. Soon after, Michael's friends
Speaker 1: began to get text messages from his saying that he
Speaker 1: just wanted everyone to leave him alone. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: he didn't want anything to do with anyone that he
Speaker 1: knew and loved. According to the texts that were sent
Speaker 1: from his phone, he didn't want to be found by
Speaker 1: anyone who knew him, and he was just done with
Speaker 1: everything and everyone. Obviously, his friends his family are saying
Speaker 1: these are out of character, this is bullshit. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: his niece even received a text message that said, quote,
Speaker 1: I don't have a family anymore. I have no clue
Speaker 1: who you are, so stop messaging me. End quote. It's weird.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's so red flag. It's like, oh, he
Speaker 2: has his phone? Who has Michael's phone?
Speaker 1: Right? Frank, one of Michael's friends and a coworker at
Speaker 1: Epcot that he was the closest with, decided to drive
Speaker 1: by his house to see what was going on. When
Speaker 1: he got to the house, Frank was confused when Laurie
Speaker 1: was the one who came to the door. Frank asked
Speaker 1: Laurie where Michael was, and she said he's just not home,
Speaker 1: but his car was in the driveway, and Laurie kept
Speaker 1: insisting that Michael was at home. She went on to
Speaker 1: say that the two of them had gotten into a
Speaker 1: pretty bad argument and he had stormed off. He then
Speaker 1: got picked up in a black suv and he just
Speaker 1: never came back home. She said that he caught a
Speaker 1: ride with his friend Robert and that the two of
Speaker 1: them decided to just go to Georgia. They were gonna
Speaker 1: move up and move okay. Frank thought that the entire
Speaker 1: communication with Laurie was weird because not only did Michael
Speaker 1: never wish to leave the state of Florida, he also
Speaker 1: never wanted out of his marriage with Laurie. He wasn't
Speaker 1: going to leave his kids, and everyone that he knew
Speaker 1: knew that. Yes. Stacy, Michael's sister, sent Laurie a Facebook
Speaker 1: message asking where her brother was, and she just replied
Speaker 1: with quote no, he left end quote, and she went
Speaker 1: on to say that he left his children with her
Speaker 1: and that he wasn't paying any child support. This was
Speaker 1: strange to Stacy because she knew her brother would never
Speaker 1: do anything like that because those kids were two of
Speaker 1: the most important people in his life. Michael wouldn't have
Speaker 1: never left this job at Disney World to go to
Speaker 1: Georgia to start completely over without his kids or his wife,
Speaker 1: and at some point his sister Stacy and his brother Brian.
Speaker 1: They just didn't know what to think. While Stacy became angry,
Speaker 1: Brian just thought maybe Michael did need some space and time.
Speaker 1: You know who didn't need space and time? Ri. No,
Speaker 1: she moved on without a second thought, and she began,
Speaker 1: he's gone yet. Yeah. She began a data man named
Speaker 1: Jeremy Townsend. The two had met at a park where
Speaker 1: they gave each other their phone numbers. When she began
Speaker 1: dating Jeremy, though, she was also telling her friends that
Speaker 1: Michael was harassing her. Laurie and Jeremy didn't work out, though,
Speaker 1: and you want to know why. Jeremy was married to
Speaker 1: another woman, Vanessa. One day, while Vanessa was at work,
Speaker 1: she got a random flower delivery, and with the delivery
Speaker 1: was a card. The card said quote roses are read,
Speaker 1: Let's are blue. My wife is a whore. Your husband
Speaker 1: is too end quote. The car was signed sorry about
Speaker 1: this like your Facebook message, We need to talk Mike.
Speaker 1: So Vanessa did as the card said, and she went
Speaker 1: on Facebook to check her messages. She then found a
Speaker 1: message from Michael saying, quote, I believe your husband is
Speaker 1: having an affair with Mike soon to be ex wife
Speaker 1: end quote. He then told Vanessa that he had installed
Speaker 1: some spy software onto his wife's phone, then sent screenshots
Speaker 1: of text messages that had been sent between Laurie and Jeremy.
Speaker 1: Jeremy's affair with Laurie obviously came to a screeching halt
Speaker 1: after that, and Jeremy went back to Vanessa in hopes
Speaker 1: of working things out between them. Glori began dating someone
Speaker 1: who would become her next husband, and this guy's name
Speaker 1: was Travis Filmer, who was a youth group leader at
Speaker 1: the local church in the area. Travis looked an awful
Speaker 1: lot like Michael, and he fell head over heels for
Speaker 1: the two of them. Were married on December thirty first,
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, which I'm not sure how that happened if
Speaker 1: she never got a divorce from Michael, but what Yeah.
Speaker 1: The wedding took place in Laurie's backyard, the same house
Speaker 1: she had once shared with Michael. It was a small ceremony,
Speaker 1: but Travis was really happy. Laurie had spent so much
Speaker 1: time fixing up the backyard for the ceremony. She even
Speaker 1: went as far as to install a fire pit in
Speaker 1: the backyard for the ceremony, she and Travis actually utched
Speaker 1: their initials into the concrete while it was still wet
Speaker 1: like it was literally like this fire pit, and it
Speaker 1: was to symbolize their love and affection for one another.
Speaker 1: Not long after the two were married, Laurie told Travis
Speaker 1: that she was pregnant. Travis was over the moon with
Speaker 1: excitement because all he had wanted to do was be
Speaker 1: a father, and after seeing Laurie with Isabella and Aiden,
Speaker 1: he knew she was going to be a great mom.
Speaker 1: As Laurie was building a new life with Travis, Michael's
Speaker 1: Facebook page was still active and were made here and
Speaker 1: there saying he was working on internal struggles and that
Speaker 1: he just wanted to be left alone. Michael's friends and family,
Speaker 1: who hadn't seen him since he allegedly walked out on
Speaker 1: all their lives, Yeah, just thought this was obviously was
Speaker 1: strange again that you know, they hadn't heard from him,
Speaker 1: but here he is posting on Facebook. At least two
Speaker 1: years had gone by without anyone seeing him in person.
Speaker 1: Even Brian, Michael's brother, had known something was up when
Speaker 1: a text came over that was from Michael's phone and
Speaker 1: Michael had called him bro and he had never called
Speaker 1: him that before, so none of this is adding up.
Speaker 1: Michael's childhood best friend, Scott had received a phone call
Speaker 1: from someone who had been over to Michael and Laurie's
Speaker 1: house shortly after he had left his family, and it
Speaker 1: apparently walked out on them. On the phone call, Scott
Speaker 1: was told that even though Laurie said he had completely
Speaker 1: left them to go start a life in Georgia, all
Speaker 1: of Michael's belongings were still in the home, and with
Speaker 1: his belongings obviously was his cell. Phoned his w in
Speaker 1: his car, but Laurie stuck to the story that Michael
Speaker 1: had gotten into a black SUV and never came back home.
Speaker 1: Scott even went on Facebook after not logging on for
Speaker 1: a while, and he went onto Michael's profile. He noticed
Speaker 1: that Michael's profile picture had been changed that same month.
Speaker 1: It was the beginning of twenty eighteen at this point, okay,
Speaker 1: He zoomed in on the photo though he noticed that
Speaker 1: it was a group of random men drinking in a bar.
Speaker 1: The odd thing about the photo was that Michael was
Speaker 1: nowhere in the picture. It was just a random picture
Speaker 1: that was uploaded from somewhere, so somebody had changed his
Speaker 1: profile picture and why wasn't Michael in it? Yeah, Michael
Speaker 1: had only ever posted photos of himself and others while
Speaker 1: working on planes in the past. None of his more
Speaker 1: recent posts were anything like that. Once again, something was
Speaker 1: up and someone had to do something. And finally February
Speaker 1: of twenty eighteen, the police were called and sent to
Speaker 1: Laurie's house to do a wellness visit on Michael. And
Speaker 1: it was Michael's childhood friend Scott who called the cops
Speaker 1: since he also lived in Florida. When Scott got a
Speaker 1: hold of the local police, he filed a missing person report.
Speaker 1: Scott was able to convince the local authorities that there
Speaker 1: was something that needed to be looked into immediately. When
Speaker 1: the police got to Lourie's house, she repeated the same
Speaker 1: exact thing. Her husband had walked out of their lives
Speaker 1: without a single trace. She said she had no clue
Speaker 1: where he went. The police then asked if they could
Speaker 1: search the property, and at first Laurie was very cooperative
Speaker 1: and allowed the officers into the backyard, but once they
Speaker 1: asked if they could bring in the canine unit, she
Speaker 1: said get out and come back with a search warrant
Speaker 1: on March ninth, twenty eighteen, the police brought in caidaver
Speaker 1: dogs to the property and searched for Michael. And when
Speaker 1: the dogs got to the property, they stopped at a
Speaker 1: concrete slab which was the same concrete slab that had
Speaker 1: LORII and Travis's initials marked on.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, fire pit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the fire pit and yep, the foundation of the
Speaker 1: fire pit that Laurie had made in preparation for her
Speaker 1: marriage to Travis. Detectives tracked down that friend that Lurie
Speaker 1: had Saiden Michael had gotten into the Blacky sv with
Speaker 1: that was Robert. Robert had an interview with detectives and
Speaker 1: he said at that time he had a Mitsubishi Gallant
Speaker 1: which was a sedan and the color of the car
Speaker 1: was blue. So obviously our girl Lourie was.
Speaker 2: Full of shit. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: The police began excavating the property and they ended up
Speaker 1: finding Michael's skeletal remains under the cement. Wow. It was
Speaker 1: discovered that he had been killed from a single gunshot
Speaker 1: wound to the back of his head. There was remnants
Speaker 1: of the bullet that came from a thirty eight caliber Revolver,
Speaker 1: the same gun that Louri had owned and whacked Michael
Speaker 1: over the head with previously. He was buried wrapped in
Speaker 1: a fitted sheet, wearing only a pair of airpostyl underwear
Speaker 1: and under armor athletic shorts along with a pair of socks.
Speaker 1: Remember that Louri and Michael had owned all types of
Speaker 1: different birds around their five acre plot of land. Remember
Speaker 1: I told you there was chickens and docks and yeah,
Speaker 1: Laurie had always wanted a duck pond for the ducks
Speaker 1: to live in. And this was around the time. Remember
Speaker 1: they were having these marital troubles and Michael would do
Speaker 1: just anything for her. Yeah, he knew that she could
Speaker 1: take advantage of Michael wanting to save the marriage, so
Speaker 1: she asked him to dig a hole for him to
Speaker 1: create a duck pond. But little did Michael know that
Speaker 1: he was digging his own grain.
Speaker 2: That is diabolical. Isn't it a one of the British hunt?
Speaker 2: What a cunt of Isn't that terrible?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: My goodness.
Speaker 1: Michael's neighbor was the one who told police that all
Speaker 1: he wanted to do was to make his wife happy.
Speaker 1: After Michael was killed, Travis was the one who poured
Speaker 1: the cement to then make that hole into a fire pit.
Speaker 1: Travis had no idea he was pouring cement over Michael's
Speaker 1: dead body, and Michael was only thirty three years old
Speaker 1: at the time of his murder. Laurie was able to
Speaker 1: dodge law enforcement until they could find enough evidence to
Speaker 1: pin Michael's murder on her. Since he was murdered leaving
Speaker 1: his phone accessible to Laurie, she was the person who
Speaker 1: was sending the text to all his friends and family,
Speaker 1: basically telling anyone everyone to never come looking for him. Yes,
Speaker 1: also had been the one who had been in control
Speaker 1: of his Facebook account and so Yes, this even included
Speaker 1: her own self sabotage about her relationship with the married Jeremy.
Speaker 1: She was the one who sent the flowers to Vanessa's work,
Speaker 1: stating that his wife was a whore along with Jeremy,
Speaker 1: so Laurie literally called herself a whore.
Speaker 2: No way, oh my gosh right, craziness. That is crazy.
Speaker 1: In September of twenty twenty, Laurie was finally charged with
Speaker 1: Michael's murder. He was charged with second degree murder along
Speaker 1: with being an accessory after the fact, and she was
Speaker 1: released on fifty two thousand dollars bond. Four years later,
Speaker 1: on September ninth, twenty twenty four, she finally stood in
Speaker 1: front of a jury for Michael's murder. Crazily, Laurie's defense
Speaker 1: team tried to blame the shooting and killing of Michael
Speaker 1: on their daughter, Isabelle in a May twenty twenty three motion.
Speaker 1: She was only seven years old at the time, but
Speaker 1: she was fifteen when she took the stand. Isabelle took
Speaker 1: the stand it admitted she accidentally fired a gun at
Speaker 1: her father while he and her mother were getting physical
Speaker 1: with one another. Isabelle also told the jury that a
Speaker 1: family friend, her mother's current boyfriend, Jeremy, also used a
Speaker 1: firearm against Michael right after isabel claimed she did. Jeremy
Speaker 1: eventually testified and said he never once came into contact
Speaker 1: with Michael at any point, and that appeared to be
Speaker 1: the truth. So I think isabel was lying for her mother,
Speaker 1: of course she was. Many of Michael's friends and former
Speaker 1: cohor testified that Michael was one of a kind. He
Speaker 1: had a great heart and tried to see the good
Speaker 1: in everyone. They told the court that Michael was the
Speaker 1: one who had been fighting to save the marriage with Laurie,
Speaker 1: although it had been rocky. Laurie's attorney said that her
Speaker 1: acts against Michael were because of the fact that she
Speaker 1: had gone years and years and during such violent abuse
Speaker 1: from Michael, and according to her attorney, the violent acts
Speaker 1: against her were severe. Laurie said that she had been
Speaker 1: locked in a closet at one point and that she
Speaker 1: was physically beaten bloody by Michael. Those who were closest
Speaker 1: to Michael always said that Laurie did everything she could
Speaker 1: to try to get the public to believe that Michael
Speaker 1: was abusive toward her, but he could never hurt anyone.
Speaker 1: He was a good man, and the accusations against someone
Speaker 1: who was no longer able to defund himself was a
Speaker 1: pretty below the belt blow. Michael's siblings have come forward
Speaker 1: saying that they always thought that Laurie did everything she
Speaker 1: could to control Michael and she was actually the abusive
Speaker 1: one within their marriage. Stacy even said that he wasn't
Speaker 1: allowed to speak with her on the phone for exist
Speaker 1: spended periods of time. She said that to Laurie, talking
Speaker 1: to Michael on the phone for twenty minutes was completely
Speaker 1: out of the question. The prosecution proved Laurie tried to
Speaker 1: pin everything on her daughter Isabelle. Not once was Isabelle
Speaker 1: brought up in the entire investigation until Lourie's defense team
Speaker 1: attempted to get Isabelle to lie for her mother to
Speaker 1: save her. Finally, on September thirteenth, twenty twenty four, Laurie
Speaker 1: was convicted after a four hour deliberation by the jury.
Speaker 1: She's guilty of second degree murder, but she was acquitted
Speaker 1: of the accessory charge. After the guilty verdict, Michael's family
Speaker 1: released a heart wrenching statement. They said their lives have
Speaker 1: been so difficult to maneuver since the disappearance of Michael
Speaker 1: back in the fall of twenty sixteen. Since that day,
Speaker 1: they never stopped searching for him, and not a single
Speaker 1: day had gone by that they had stopped thinking about
Speaker 1: him in his beautiful, caring heart quote on behalf of
Speaker 1: the shaver Of family. We are very grateful to be
Speaker 1: standing here today to recognize the guilty verdict against Lourie
Speaker 1: end quote. They I knew that the verdict could never
Speaker 1: bring Michael back, but after all that time, the vertical
Speaker 1: was the closure they needed to be able to move
Speaker 1: on in a positive direction. On November twenty sixth, twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four, Laurie was sentenced to life in prison for
Speaker 1: the murder of her husband and the father of her children.
Speaker 1: As of January twenty twenty five, Laurie was incarcerated at
Speaker 1: the Florida Women's Reception Facility without any visitation rights and
Speaker 1: no possibility of parole. I love it.
Speaker 2: I love to hear that.
Speaker 1: I know right well, and that's just terrible. I mean
Speaker 1: everything about it. Diabolical having your daughter life for you.
Speaker 1: How much lower can you go? I know, when your children,
Speaker 1: it's about the lowest. And then have your kid take
Speaker 1: the murder rap Yeah, for you, and you're the one. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I believe the Michael's siblings viewpoint of she was she
Speaker 1: Laurie was the abuser, don't I'm likely physical if she's gonna,
Speaker 1: you know, pistol whip him. Who does that to a
Speaker 1: person just has no sympathy or empathy, just coldly using them,
Speaker 1: the father of your children. I just know she had
Speaker 1: no you know, respects, not just for him, like because
Speaker 1: he's so nice and great just as a human life.
Speaker 1: I feel so bad because he sounded like a really
Speaker 1: great guy, sound like a cowboy yeah right, like yeah,
Speaker 1: he just you know, he just wanted to take care
Speaker 1: of his wife and his kids. And I don't know,
Speaker 1: you know, I always tell people like, just get a
Speaker 1: divorce if you're not happy, like yeah, Laurie, just sit
Speaker 1: down and be like Michael, I don't want to be
Speaker 1: with you.
Speaker 2: And I know you just I know you are head
Speaker 2: over heels in love with me. And that's just a
Speaker 2: hard conversation.
Speaker 1: It's done.
Speaker 2: I will not be happy with you, okay, right, Like
Speaker 2: just do it. People banding.
Speaker 1: I don't want to have to share my kids. Trust me.
Speaker 1: When you share your kids, you're gonna have so much
Speaker 1: time to your you're gonna love it.
Speaker 2: Yes, you work on yourselves, well.
Speaker 1: I mean you'll have some free time and they'll they'll
Speaker 1: be get their other parent living it up, and just
Speaker 1: you know, look at it that way exactly. You need
Speaker 1: to have your child with you twenty four seven, like
Speaker 1: it'll be okay, yes, And it's just hard when someone
Speaker 1: is yes, totally nice.
Speaker 2: Long weekends, those are nice.
Speaker 1: You need those as an adult parent for sure, right,
Speaker 1: but that's just crazy and then oh my gosh, to
Speaker 1: pour the cement and put their initials in who know,
Speaker 1: and she knows he's under that summont. Like you said,
Speaker 1: it was fucking diabolical.
Speaker 2: It is who does that? Why?
Speaker 1: Who deserves that? These are he fathered your kids, your
Speaker 1: kids are half him. That should be really really a
Speaker 1: cool thing because you're a part of it too, you know.
Speaker 1: But you know he dug that duck pond and she
Speaker 1: put his fucking body in there, like damn girl, and his.
Speaker 2: Energy is I love my LORI.
Speaker 1: I know she's sipping her coffee looking at him dig
Speaker 1: like sucker.
Speaker 2: Yeah right, how terrible?
Speaker 1: Fuck her?
Speaker 2: Right exactly. That's what I'm like. I love how the
Speaker 2: British speaks.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I'll cross the pond and grab a word or two.
Speaker 1: Oh well, thank you Shannon for.
Speaker 2: Oh hi, thank you for bringing that story.
Speaker 1: Thank you everyone for listening to this week's story too.
Speaker 1: And before you go, if you could hit the subscriber
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Speaker 1: what that is is you'll get an extra episode a
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Speaker 1: believe that's everything.
Speaker 2: Sounds like everything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, perfect, all right, Miss Shannon, I will see you
Speaker 1: at the next recording.
Speaker 2: Sounds great. Queen, you have a great week. Thanks, you
Speaker 2: have a great week. Adia.
Speaker 1: Everyone have a wonderful week. See you, love you, Bye bye.