EP 258: The Murder of Shauna Howe

to do anything tonight? Dinner plans? No, we're having nachos for dinner. I did not make a fancy meal. I don't think we're not going anywhere. I did get a gift this morning. It was in the waiting for me when I woke up. So that's what we usually do, is just exchange like a card and a gift. And yeah, which is anything? After how long you've been married? Twenty plus years? Yep, this year will be thirty. Oh my gosh, that means we've known each other for thirty years. I

know thirty. I want you just before I know, right, Yes, thirty blissful years of marriage. All right, well, no, and that is good because it takes some stamina to make it. Girl. If I don't survive this, I can survive anything I'm cooking. It's been a wild ride. Oh please, anyone who I would imagine, anybody who has as much time as you know exactly how powerful those simple words are. We've been through some stuff. Yeah yeah, marriage isn't easy, but we

have weathered many things. But that's awesome. Well, and it's Valentine's weekend. That'll be good. It'll be great. So anyway, well, I know you have an episode for us, so before we get into it, I would just like to remind everyone to hit the subscribe or follow button on what app you're listening to because it really helps us out. And Shannon, what do you got for us today? Well, today, Tanya, I do have any crime against children? Of course, all

terrible children. It's the worst. This is the story the murder of Shauna how Shawna Melinda Howe. She was born on July eleventh, nineteen eighty one. Cancer, sweet girl to her parents, Lucy and Robert Howe, who were from Oil City, Pennsylvania, and at the time of her abduction, she lived with her mother Lucy and her stepfather, John, and John was a really good father figure in Shawna's life. Now, Shawna seemed to have lived an ordinary life for a girl

who grew up in the eighties and nineties. She loved playing outside and hanging with her friends, but she was a really shy child. Shawna was part of the Girl Scouts and she loved Halloween. Oh Yes. Sadly, Halloween was the holiday that was being celebrated at the time of her murder, and it would be the last holiday that

she ever shared with anyone. Although the initial crime against Shawna was labeled by the perpetrators as a prank, her murder completely shook the entire community of Oil City, and due to the murder of Shauna, other hapless circumstances, and the murder of another little girl, the longtime citizens of the oil town will never feel the same way about Halloween again. Oh It's terrible. In nineteen ninety two, Shanna was eleven years old who just wanted to celebrate Halloween

at an annual party with her fellow Girl Scouts. Were you in Girl Scouts? I was in Girl Scouts for a short period of time. The only reason I wanted to join was so that I could get the outfit. Yes, the sash. Yeah, I wanted the little blouse. I wanted the beret. I wanted the whole kitten kaboodle. The catalog was just filled with great wag oh yeah. And then I was all excited because you got your little book of how to get all your patches and stuff. Right. Yeah,

I love getting catches. I was Brownies Girl Scouts. So here's Sean. But the field and the where I can wear a sash, I'm there. And Shawna was there for her Girl Scouts troop in nineteen ninety two, but after the annual party, she never returned home to enjoy all the candy that she had collected for Halloween. At the time, she was a student at Seventh Street Elementary School, and on October twenty seventh, she went to school that day dressed as a gymnast, sporting a black and turquoise leotard.

I love that. All that's cute. I'm a gym I do later That same day, still wearing the same leotard, Shawna was heading out with her fellow Girl Scouts to sing for the community's senior citizens. I love the Girl Scouts and I know the Boy Scouts to too. They help elderly. Oh that's just adorable. Absolutely. After the troop was done performing, Shauna, along with her friends, went to the annual Halloween party at the close by Free Methodist

Church on Wilson Abaue. When the party was over around eight pm, her ride fell through and Shauna was forced to start walking home, but she never made it home. The party was only half a mile from where Shauna lived, but nobody in her family was able to pick her up from the party that night. Now, even though Shauna could have easily walked home, she was afraid of the dark, and her parents did not want her walking home alone anyway.

Even though nobody could pick her up from the party, Lucy, her mom told her daughter not to worry and that she would set up a ride to take her home when the party was over. Shauna dreaded the thought of having to walk home alone in the dark, so when her mother guaranteed that a ride would be there to take her home, safely and soundly. She felt nothing short

of relief. She was able to enjoy the party without having to worry about a thing, and by the time eight pm rolled around, Shawna's mom called home to make sure that everyone was all right since she was still at work. John, Shawna's stepdad, said that everything was okay, but he informed Lucy that Shawna had not come home

from the party yet. As it turned out, with the cast with work, Lucy her mom completely forgot to set up a ride to get her daughter home, so by this time she knew that Shauna had to be walking home now. John waited at the house for Shauna to arrive home, and at a thirty she still had not come through the door. So John did what he thought was best. He got in his car to search for Shauna because something in his brain told him that something

just wasn't right. That Girl Scout party would be the last time that anyone saw Shauna alive, and this story of her case is gruesome as well as frustrating. The facts show what happens when the police in charge of the case failed to follow up on leads the way that they should have. Killers rapists and crucial details slipped through the cracks that forced a case to stay open

for way longer than it should. So, worried out of her mind, Lucy called Shanna's close friend in her troop, Joey, and asked her if she knew where Shauna was or might have been. Joey explained that Shawna was at the party having a great time, but when the party ended and she realized that nobody was coming to pick her up to take her home, she and Joey began to

walk home together. Somewhere along the way to their individual homes, they needed to part ways, but before then, Shawna told Joey that she was really scared to walk home alone, and Joey, like a good friend, then suggested that the two girls walk to Joey's house and then Joey's dad would drive Shauna to her house, but Shauna refused and the girls parted ways. Now after hearing all of this from Joey, Lucy knew what needed to be done next and contacted the Oil City Police Department so that she

could report set a missing. Her daughter was supposed to be home two hours ago at the time she had made the call. This phone call was the beginning of the now retired FBI agent Tom Carter's long career, and this case was one that Carter would not soon forget. Carter was moved to a different division before the case was eventually solved. While on the phone, Lucy gave a

timeline of what her daughter's plans were. But before Lucy even made this call, another concerned citizen phoned the police department. The caller said that they had seen a little girl get grabbed off the corners of West First in Reed Streets, and the person who took the girl was tall and shaggy looking. At around eight po six pm, a man named Dan pay Eaton was walking down the street mining his own business when he saw a young girl dressed

in a Halloween costume walking all alone. Dan then noticed a man walking on the opposite side of the street from where he and Shawna were. The man crossed the street and began chatting with Shawna. According to Dan, this man was very tall in stature, skinny, and was wearing a jacket. The next thing that Dan saw was the man pick up Shawna, picking her up taking her away quickly.

She was literally abducted right in front of him. Dan was noticed by the tall, lanky kidnapper, but who would think it was smart to kidnap a kid with a witness right there? Shawna let out a yelp loud enough for Dan to hear it. Dan had no clue what to do, but he had a feeling that Shawna was in trouble, so he ran towards the screen. But by the time he got there, the only thing he saw was a little red car driving away. So he did what anybody else should do in that situation. He called

nine one one. Thankfully, he saw the man's face and gave the police an accurate description in his report. The police took these two calls very seriously, knowing that Lucy and Dan's calls were related due to how Shawna was dressed, and recruited volunteers, FBI agents, and police officers to look for Shawna. Roadblocks were set within a one hundred mile radius, and police departments within the radius were on the lookout for that little red car. While the search continued for Shawna,

Oil City canceled Halloween for the unforseeable future. The city thought that it was wise to cancel since someone else could use this holiday as an opportunity to abduct someone else, and they were not about to risk that. There were still a few more days until the thirty first, so they needed to make sure that that they covered all of their bases. Shawna's uncle formed a huge group of volunteers to search for his niece. On day two of

the search, something of Shawna's was found. While a lot of Shawna's family members joined in on the search, it was her uncle who found evidence that his eleven year old niece was once where they were standing, and this location was so far from home. Shawnas leotard was found near an abandoned railroad track bed near a hiking trail located in a heavily wooded area in Rockland, Pennsylvania. Her costume was found eight miles from town, and her family knew that there was no way Shawna got there on

her own. Police extensively searched the area where her costume was found. They were unable to locate her or anything else of hers in that same area. The leotard was sent to the crime lab and the analysts were able to find evidence left behind on the crotch area of the costume. Shauna had been sexually assaulted, and now the police had the DNA of the person who took her. Two days later, the case would go from an abduction

case to a full fledged homicide investigation. The following morning, on October thirtieth, Shawna's dead body was located two hundred miles from where her costume was recovered. Her body was found under a railroad bridge in East Sandy Creek. Shawna was found face down and jammed in between a log and a rock, with her feet slightly submerged in the

shallow creek. A man who had been out camping in the woods noticed that something was in the water, and he was shocked that it turned out to be the remains of a person who has just so happened to be the missing little girl from Oil City. When Shawna's body was found, she was wearing shorts, an inside out T shirt, and socks that didn't belong to her. This was the same area that was searched by the police the day before, so this means that the killer came

back to dump Shawna, leaving her there to die. At the time, the investigators automatically assumed that Shauna was thrown over the bridge into the shallow creek. From the bridge to the creek is a thirty foot drop, so it made sense to them based on how her body was wedged. An autopsy was done on her lifeless body and it showed that she was raped and that she was severely abused before she was murdered. Shawna's face had a shoeprint

on it the killer stepped on her face. Her cause of death was blunt forced trauma to her head and chest from the fall, and she was either pushed or thrown off the bridge, falling over thirty feet to her death. This fall also caused multiple rib fractures along with lacerations, bone bruising, and hemorrhaging. The medical examiner concluded that Shawna was definitely alive when she was falling due to the severe damage to her hand, wrist, and shoulder. These injuries

indicated that she tried to break the fall. Forensic evidence was taken from her body since more DNA was discovered on her mouth and was sent to the Pennsylvania State Police Crime Laboratory and to the FBI laboratory. The DNA analysis unit collected two hairs from her body One hair was located on Shawna's girl scout sash and the other was found on her sock. The DNA found on her mouth and leotard are critical to this case and a lot of abduction cases. The person who kidnaps is usually

someone who knows the victim, usually a family member. The police obtain warrants to take DNA samples from every member in Shawna's family, which included her her own brother. The forensic analysts got a foreign DNA sample from Shawna and they needed to compare it to whoever had access to Shawna within the days leading up to her killing. None of the DNA taken from her family members matched. The FBI began to get involved in the case and they were able to come up with a psychological profile of

the person persons who killed Shawna. Profile determined that the killer was a white Caucasian male in their twenties, and the killer likely had a prominent shift in their behavior after the murder. For example, after Shawna was thrown a push to her death, the killer would have began to drink more or had a rapid life change, such as

leaving his home or quitting his job. This information was published to the community and the police asked if anyone in the town could think of anyone who fit this profile description or knew of anyone who had suddenly experienced an intense life modification. With the release of information like this comes a lot of leads, and one of the people who called told the investigators to look into a

man named Ted Walker. He fit the description to a tea. Coincidentally, Ted Walker actually knew Shawna because she and her friends would always go into the pizza shop where Ted worked to hang out and grab a bite to eat. He also owned a little red car. Ted was known as the town creep because anytime that younger girls would come into the shop for something to eat, he would always try to hug them. Oh gross right. Although he did fit the profile for the killer, the DNA found on

Shawna's clothes did not match his. To law enforcement, this detail was big. In nineteen ninety five, another investigator was brought in and added to the case, and once the investigator took a look at the case, he immediately concluded that the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Shawna had been done by more than one person. To everyone else this made complete sense. Shauna had been held by her kidnappers for a few days, but she had no ligature marks

from being restrained. Once these facts were taken into consideration, two more suspects were added to the mix, brothers Tim and James O'Brien. The O'Brien boys had been looked at within the investigation from the jump. Tim and James grew up in town and they both had records that were not limited to sex crimes against adults and children. Although the brothers were seasoned criminals, neither of them matched the

FBI profile or description at all. In addition, investigators said that they were both in jail around the time Shawna's life was taken and because of this, their DNA was not tested and because of that they were not considered suspects. The case would be at a standstill for almost a decade, and a fifteen thousand dollars reward was offered to anyone

who had information about Shawna's murder. In the early two thousands, eight years had passed since Shawna had been murdered, and Tim O'Brien was arrested again for another crime, and while he was being interrogated for the crime he committed. The detectives thought to ask Tim about Shawna. Up to this point, Shawna's case was incredibly high profile, and due to this, any man that was taken into custody in town was

asked about Shawna. While still being interrogated, an investigator asked Tim if they could take a DNA sample, since they had not done so many years prior now. Tim anxiously agreed and seemed very nervous about the results, but the DNA did not match. The detectives knew that they still

had to test against James's DNA his brother. Since any man that was taken into custody was asked about Shawna's case, detectives began carrying cotton swabs on them at all times, just in case they caught and break in the case. I think that's so smart too. I know I got swabs right now. Up to this point in the investigation, eight whole years have gone by since eleven year old Shauna was brutally killed, and come to find out, the

O'Brien brothers were not in jail at the time. During the time frame of all this taking place, with Shawna they were in custody for some reason, but they were quickly released. Someone didn't have their facts straight and that really fucked this whole big time. So because someone said, oh, I think they were locked up at the time Shawna went in disappearance, just hearsay. That is so fucking lazy, right,

It's yeah, definitely disgusting. Yeah, So the investigators took the DNA samples from James and it came back to be an exact match for the foreign DNA found on Shawna's mouth and leotard. At the time the DNA sample was taken from James, he was already locked up and was serving a prison sentence for attempting to kidnap another woman

in Oil City. It was now obvious to everyone involved in the investigation into Shawna's murder that Tim and James O'Brien were both involved, but everyone was stumped on why they didn't match the initial profile, But they forgot that someone did match Ted Walker. At the time of the murder, Tim and James actually were living with Ted and when the police initially went to Ted's home, he did tell them that he had a red car, but the car wasn't working and the police took Ted at his word.

Really yep, and they never lies to the police. Shannon, nobody, Yeah, nobody, So yeah, tell me that it doesn't work. Yeah, and we'll note it down. The car drove just fine. In two thousand and two, Ted was brought back in for questioning and he admitted to the police that he had originally kidnapped Shauna as a joke, as a joke, just a joke. This was all going to be really funny in the end, hilarious. Before he told the truth about

the brothers. He changed his story many times, police said at least fifteen and back on the night of Shawna's disappearance, Ted teamed up with Tim and James O'Brien to initially plan to kidnap a friend of his son's as a prank. But according to Ted, that was all it was meant to be. They were supposed to pick up a child and then later drop them off at home. Apparently that plan fell through and one serious thing led to another, and the sick joke finished with a child being raped

and killed. Ted was the tall, lanky dude who Dan saw picked Shawna up after he crossed the street and started talking to her, and after he picked her up, he handed her over to Tim and James, who drove off with her in the car. Tim told the detectives that he did hear a meek female voice begging get off me, let me up, let me go from Tim

and James's bedroom later that night. Although Ted did not turn his friends into police, he claimed that he allegedly did not approve of what was going on in that bedroom. He did not approve of that, and he did not approve of the murder. So Ted is some you know, in his head, some hero sounds like okay, yeah, exactly, He's gonna let it go on. He's gonna hear the girl struggling in the room, and he's not. He just

gonna stand and not approve it or nothing. Tim O'Brien apparently liked to run his mouth while he was locked up, and he actually admitted the murder to his cellmate Ryan Heath in two thousand and one. He told Heath that he and his brother drove out to Cultur's hole while Shawna was in the trunk of the car. Tim never revealed if Shauna was alive before she was tossed over the bridge, but he did disclose that he was the

one who threw her body over the bridge. The preface for the joke had to start somewhere, right, Yeah, Apparently, in the days leading up to what happened to Shawna, Tim, Ted and James had been talking about how shitty the Oil City Police Department was, and to these three dickwads, the force was a complete joke and they were going to prove it. The three hatched a plan to abduct someone as a joke, and they needed it to happen

in front of a witness. After the person who was taken in front of the witness, the person would then be released to prove that the cops would still not be able to find or identify the abductors. So from men who are pedophiles, this is their joke. Yeah, we're to play a joke that involves a child. Yeah, abducting

a child? Okay ugh. Originally the prank was supposed to be them kidnapping a little boy who happened to be friends with Ted's son, but they quickly changed their minds and decided to kidnap a little girl since that would get a lot more attention. So when Ted spotted Shawna. He knew that in order to grab her, he had to stop her in her tracks and make her feel comfortable enough not to run away screaming. He saw that she was wearing a girl Scout sash and took advantage

of that by asking her about girl Scout cookies. This made shawn A comfortable enough to chat. He then placed his hand over her mouth to her from screaming while he forced her into the little red car where the O'Brien brothers were waiting. Tim O'Brien then forced her in the backseat of the car before they took off, and Ted drove home separately. Ted added that he didn't want to kidnap her, but when he went against the brothers, they threatened to kill his son, so he did what

he had to do to keep his own son safe. Allegedly, Tim and James made fun of him by calling him a chicken when he said that he didn't want to follow through with this twisted plan. Well, don't call me names. I'm just gonna stop because that's mad. I am. I'm a man. Ted said that he eventually left his house while James and Tim took Shawna to the upstairs bedroom. And his reasoning for leaving was because she was begging them to stop assaulting her while he was trying to

cook spaghetti, So I gotta get out of here. When he came back to the house, the brothers and Shawna were gone. After Ted finally said what happened, his house was investigated and his disgusting face was all over the news. Once the public became aware of the person who was responsible for Shawna's kidnapping and murder, Dan the original witness, called the police and told them that Ted was in fact the man who he saw take young Shawna. He

could not forget that face. The police had acient ton of information now after almost a decade later, but they were still struggling to get their ducks in a row. They had all of this proof that James was the one who raped her, but they had no physical proof that James, Tim or Ted killed her. But they weren't giving up. They were still fighting to find any proof that Ted, Tim and James had something to do with Shawna's murder. During this time, Tim O'Brien was racking up

more prison time, convicted of two more crimes. This time he sexually assaulted an eleven year old boy and a six year old girl. The police eventually made a deal with Ted in exchange for his testimony against the brothers, he would need to plead guilty to third degree kidnapping and murder charges to get a reduced sentence of forty years in person. All, yeah, that's the reduced yeah right,

and he agreed. Ted did agree, So in two thousand and four, James and Tim were arrested in charge with kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder. In October of two thousand and five, the child began. Images of the murder scene were shown to the jury via movie screen. The screen was similar to ones that are used in elementary schools for presentations. On the screen, many crime sceen photos were shown of

Shawna's battered body and face. The scrapesenter, knees, and face, along with her broken test were extremely visible to the court and it was obvious that this girl suffered before she died. A smaller version of the images were passed from juror to juror, and this photo was the one used to convey the sexual assault. According to a forensic pathologist, the wound presented in the smaller photo would only happen if the victim resisted, and it was clear she gave

it her all to fight back. But two men can obviously overpower an eleven year old little girl. The prosecution did present a lot of physical evidence that Shawna was murdered by the O'Brien brothers, her body, fibers from her clothes found on the pier, evidence left on her body, and clothes from the sexual assault. All of this is known to be enough when tied to testimony from witnesses.

After so much time, the prosecution needed this to be able to convict James then aged thirty three, and Tim then aged thirty nine, of kidnapping, raping, and throwing Shauna to her death. And this is exactly what District Attorney Marie Bian told the jurors. She also said in her opening statement, it may have taken thirteen years for law enforcement and the prosecution to hear what Shauna was telling us through the circumstantial evidence she had for us, but

we finally listened and heard. The defense did not dispute the condition of Shauna, but the defense did try to get the blame away from Tim and James and tried to have it all thrown on Ted Walker since he had already played guilty to third degree charges. According to the defense attorney, all of the evidence had to do with whoever pleaded guilty. The O'Brien's lawyer, Wayne hunder Mark, said that Shawuna did not die from being thrown over

the railroad bridge because she was murdered by Ted. While making this state hunter Mark pointed to the physical evidence, the statements that Ted made to others, and even the smell of flesh rotting that one person smelled in Ted's car. The opening statements by the defense ended with the statement about the prosecution They've made a deal with the devil and now they've got to live with it. And this is meant as an insult to the prosecution for cutting

a deal with Ted Walker. Please, I know, so whah shut the fuck up, honestly right. The first person to take the stand was a forensic pathologist who went through Shawna's autopsy report. Tim and James were being charged with first and second degree murder, rape, kidnapping, involuntary deviot sexual intercourse, and criminal conspiracy of abduction and connection with Shawna's death. The courtroom was packed since everyone in the Unity had

been stunned by the horror that took place. Shawna's family was there and filled the first two rows of the courtroom, but they struggled to hear all of the gruesome details surrounding their young loved ones murder. Shawna's great aunt, Alice noted that listening to what happened made her feel half sick, but she felt relief in the fact that this was all coming to an end. Parents of fellow Girl Scouts

also were an attendant, which was so thoughtful. One mother said that if her daughter was the one who was murdered, she would want someone there showing how much they cared. As the trial went on, Ted Walker's testimony was brought into question. He was questioned by police from nineteen ninety two and two thousand and four, and he originally denied even knowing of Shauna, and then he admitted the plan

between himself and the O'Brien brothers. Ted also heard the brothers sexually assaulting the victim while in the other room as she bagged for them to stop. The inmate who Tim O'Brien confessed to while incarcerated at the Venango County Prison, Ryan Heath, he took the stand to testify. He came forward on his own in favor of Ted to corroborate

his story. Heath testified that Tim O'Brien admitted that he was the one who threw Shawna over the railway bridge, and directly under that bridge was where her lifeless body was found. The jury hung onto every word that was said, regardless of who was on the stand, testifying their town

was not the same safe place as it once was. Next, the prosecution turned the court's attention to the seminole body fluid that was found on Shawna's leotard and her mouth, and the district attorney reminded the court that James O'Brien's DNA profile matched with it. Went on to compare this case and circumstantial evidence to a jigsaw puzzle with a few missing pieces and said, if you have the right pieces,

you can still recognize the picture. She went even further to say that just because they didn't have all the pieces to the puzzle, they aren't needed to know that the O'Brien brothers were guilty of murder, sexual assault, and abduction. The district attorney was known for speaking to the jurors in a calm, low and even tone, but the defense attorney spoke in quite the opposite. Hunter Mark immediately went back to point the finger at Ted Walker by saying

that he is a murderer and a child molester. He spoke louder and said that Ted was evil and cruel sadistic, while he noted to the jurors how the prosecution had already made a deal with someone of his caliber. The defense was certain that the evidence would point to the fact that Ted acted alone and he only turned on

the O'Briens when the police pressed him. The fact that Ted had seen Shawna and her friends in the pizza shop many times where he worked was brought up again, and according to defense, the evidence would show that he stopped her and waited for her on her last walk home alone. He was the town creepy after all. Even though Ted said that the O'Briens sexually assaulted her in the other room while he was cooking dinner. There was apparently a call that Ted made to his ex wife

that was brought into question. On that call, Ted told her that there was a kidnapping in Oil City and that there would likely be a body found that Colter's Hole, which is exactly where Shawna's body was found. The first witness to take the stand was a forensic pathologist. He was hired to review the autopsy and said that Shawna fell from the bridge, hit a concrete pier on the way down, which scraped side of her face. Then she put her arm out in front of herself to break

her fall before hitting the creek bed below. Her shoulder was dislocated due to the impact that her arm took, and this left Shawna with fatal injuries both to her chest and her head. He ended his testimony by saying that the victim had to have been conscious as she fell because she clearly stuck her arm out to brace

her fall. After seventeen hours of deliberation, the jury found both Tim and James O'Brien guilty of second degree murder, third degree murder, involuntary deviot sexual intercourse, kidnapping, and criminal conspiracy to commit kidnapping. The two were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, since second degree murder felony murder carries the same weight. They were acquitted of first degree murder along with rape and to find

a defect and guilty of first degree murder. The jury needs to be absolutely sure that the killing was premeditated and deliberate, so apparently they couldn't find that, but the second degree they yeah. Yeah. This verdict ensued the day before the thirteen year anniversary of Shawna's disappearance. Annoyingly yeah, the Jew defendants showed zero remorse in court and they were seen laughing among one another as they waited for their verdict. This trial took two weeks and the verdict

was read by the jury foreman. The how families celebrated quietly to themselves and hugged one another, letting tears stream from their eyes. Lucy Howe was very pleased Shawna's mom with the sentencing and said, this is justice. They knew that the O'Briens would never have another chance to hurt

anyone again. Even though this justice took almost thirteen years to come to fruition, even though the people responsible for Shawna's death were behind bars, Oil City waited a few more years to allow trick or treating to happen again in their community. And for good reason. The town was and still is known as the Town that outlawed Halloween, but in two thousand and eight, all of the kids trussed as ghost, goblins, ballerinias, gymnasts, and even characters from

their favorite show or movie. They were finally allowed to dance their ways down the streets of the town, yelling trick or treat. It was something that the town had forgotten for sixteen years. No more, real life monsters were roaming the streets, haunting the community of eleven thousand people. Now, Shadaw was not the only victim whose life was taken around Halloween. In nineteen ninety seven, another Halloween tragedy struck

the community. Shane Freeman, who was four years old at the time of her disappearance, went to play outside, but she never came home, and her remains were later found after a long search. The person responsible for Shanet's brutal murder was seventeen year old Nicholas Bowen. He was one of the one hundred volunteers who assisted in the search for the little girl. He was later arrested for rape

and murder. He pleaded guilty and received the same sentence as the O'Brien brothers, life in prison without the possibility of parole. Needless to say, the town of Oil City truly felt that Halloween haunted this town, so they did what they thought was right and banned the holiday altogether because this shit could not keep happening. The authorities didn't

know what else to do. With everyone behind bars and no more children being raped and murdered, the community finally felt somewhat safe again, and in two thousand and eight, the holiday was reinstated, and this brought some normalcy back to Oil City, Pennsylvania. So that is one hell of a story. Yeah, family, this girl, I'm telling you. In the eighties, seventies, I remember it just seemed everyone's, Oh, these are the good old days. Yeah, Like I don't

always I think we were being gaslighted. Yeah, I do too a little bit because I don't remember it being a great time. So, I mean, I don't know, but not where kids can just be you know, swept. Oh, it's just frustrating, but I'm glad that it finally got justice. That was a long time coming. Oh my god, I know that was so long her poor family. I just can't even imagine, like losing a child. I just I can't imagine the heartbreaking. No, it's unnatural you're not supposed to.

And these guys are fucking pediphile, like you know, I'm saying, I can't even believe like their attorneys trying to put in their face probably is too. Yeah, however, your guys have already been fucking convicted of sexual devians and offense of eleven year old and a six year old. Yeah right now, and you have nothing to do with Shauna. Yeah, yeah, you think anybody's gonna believe that? Okay, how dare you? How dare you waste our time? So that is my

story this week, Sweet Shanna. How we of course good energy to our family and the stories we share. Yeah, they're heavy, they are all heavy. They're they're all heavy in their own way, you know, absolutely, yes, for sure, some stick with you and some are like incredibly disturbing, and they're all horrible stories. So anyway, well, thank you

Shannon for this week's pleasure. And before we go, we would just like to remind everyone to hit the subscribe or follow button on your favorite app and if you would like to, if you love Shannon and I and you want to hear more than you want, to join our patreon and it's found at Patreon dot com slash t NT Crimes. It's p A t R e o N dot com slash TNT crimes, or you can also join through the Apple podcast app. And they're the same episodes,

just different avenues of achieving the same thing. We release one extra episode a week, so check it out if you're interested. It's pretty cheap, so I think it's worth it. Yeah, some fun, affordable entertainment. Some fun affordable entertainment. And you can go to our website Crimes Andconsequences dot com. And I think that's about it. So you have a fabulous weekend, Shannon, and I will say that's my Valentine. You have a

wonderful weekends to you. Yes you well, I know you have a good one, and I will talk to you soon. And everyone have a great luck and I will see you soon. Bye bye,