CHAPTER FIVE: The Fugitives

Hey there, listeners, I want to give you a heads up that this episode will discuss sexual assault. Please take care while listening. Previously on Hello John Dale.

When I couldn't find him, I packed everything in a duffel bag because somebody said he went to Michigan.

I was going to find her. I had to find her.

And I kept screaming, She's not his child, he's not her father, and he just wanted her. I never thought it would be the Knight fair it one.

There's this case I keep returning to. In nineteen sixty two, a man kidnapped a four year old from a bowling alley in Hateful Georgia. He didn't make it very far before the police got him. Authorities all agreed the man needed psychiatric hile, so they hospitalized him, but he didn't get any help. Instead, he escaped from the hospital, stole a car, and bought a gun. Now he is on the run. Eventually he ended up in Making Georgia, and this man, who was just twenty years old, ropped a

He knew he was going to go back to prison for that because they knew who it was.

And he goes on to run again towards Charlotte, North Carolina, where he meets a woman in dire need of help. She lost her children and was desperate to get them back. You're probably wondering why I'm telling you about this fugitive. It's not just a scary story or one of the horrible things I come across in my work with NamUs. By now, this man was a known fugitive, and you know him too.

Franklin Floyd was caught, his probation clearly violated.

And the mother, desperate to get her kids back from social services, was of course Sandy. This was the faithful moment when Floyd kidnapped her daughter, Susie Sabakas. It took law enforcement several years to put the pieces together. By then, Floyd had already committed more crimes, each worse than the last, and it didn't help police that Floyd used more aliases

Wanted to answer was there ever a missing child report for this girl? And the FBI was never able to locate one because it didn't exist.

While Steve's story was hidden for so long, his sister SUSY's would end up well documenting. In fact, it was her kidnapping that first made me aware of this family. A book had been written about her ordeal. A couple of decades later, Susie was a subject of a Netflix documentary. Susie employed assumed so many aliases over the years. By the time she was twenty, no one knew who she was,

He'd been all over the country with her, started in Georgia, Florida, eventually ending up in Oklahoma.

This is former FBI agent Scott lob He had ended up dedicating several years of his life to this case. As he began putting the pieces together, he realized that Floyd criss crossed the country and started passing off his captive as his daughter.

We didn't know at the time. The FBI didn't that with any evidence that Franklin Floyd had kidnapped her. Now had we had that, certainly there's a kidnapping investigation to be had there because he drug her all over the country.

In other words, the FBI would have been on the case had they known Floyd was crossing state lines. But remember there wasn't even a missing person's report because when Sandy tried to report Susia's missing, authorities turned her away because Andy was married to Floyd. Finally, in the mid eighties, when Susie was a teenager, they stopped out side of Atlanta, Georgia, Floyd and Rose Susie in high school. Except he didn't use her real name. He told the schooler name was

Typical eighties, big hair. It was really a good time.

The way me or Murdock describes it, it was kind of an all American high school, kind of like Ferris Bueller's Day Offer something. She was in Sharon's grade Classic in nineteen eighty six.

I was a cheerleader.

Yes, we had the jocks, the cheerleaders, but everybody got along.

It wasn't bullying and.

Any of that stuff, So it wasn't like it is today, totally different.

Every Friday or Saturday nights to play the schools that surrounded our area, so that was a big thing.

Everybody loved.

At football games, their mascot was the Panthers. It wasn't exactly a small town. It was right outside Atlanta, but it was small enough that you noticed when there was someone new.

It was kind of weird coming into the middle of the semester.

I guess this is Sherry Bailey, also class of eighty six. She was in the gifted program.

I mean, I was gifted, but I was also one of those that didn't really care.

In the middle of sophomore year, she noticed a new student in her gifted English class, Sharon.

Obviously, her father, her whatever, moved her around a lot, but she ended up staying I think.

Probably the longest. At first part.

She was there middle of sophomore year, junior year, and then senior year.

Sherry noticed a minute she stepped into English class. Everyone then Sharon was beautiful, blue eyes, long blonde hair that was blown out, kind of like Farah faucet.

Of the boys jaws dropped to the floor, and you know they were They thought that they'd been gifted an angel from heaven.

She was also exceptionally smart. You had to be to be in those gifted classes.

We're Generation X, so we were the ones that you know, we were.

The people who basically didn't care.

You know, we still don't. She did the She cared a lot about her education.

Not just that, but Sharon went out of her way to be kind.

She always tried to make other people feel like they were worthy, specifically people who were not popular, not not smart, not the normal. She was always rooting for the underdog.

There was a sweetness of Matterr that Sherry recognized instantly, the two bonding right away. They went from classmates to real friends when Sharon started dating Jason. He was Surry's friend and he was on the football team. Cherry would pick up both Jason and Sharon from their houses on the way to school. Sharon lived less than a mile away from Sherry in a plain, little ranch house.

I would go to pick her up, and Jason would have to lay down on the back floorboard of my car because her dad would date Jason.

So this big old football player would have to squeeze his ass into the back of sherry seventy eight Mustang.

So we would pull up and her dad would stand on the front porch and wait for her to get into the car and wait for us to leave.

He always stayed on the porch, so we didn't really come close to him, but we knew he was creepy.

Sneaking around was a little strange to Sherry, But what was really strange was that she wasn't allowed inside Sharon's house.

Her dad would not let us in, and my other friends who were friends with her were never let inside either.

Sherry said she just seemed embarrassed by Floyd's rules, the way most teens would be by their parents. But Sherry said, what made the relationship unusual was how Sharon went out of her way to do things for her father.

You know, she had told us that her mom died of cancer and that she had to take care of him and do all the things that mom did, you know, cook for him and clean and do all that stuff.

So that was why she had to go straight home after school, which.

Was a weird way to put it, but that was the way she put it to us.

Sherry didn't know what went on in that ranch house behind closed doors. No one really did. I don't know if Sharon, your mom is alive and well and hoping she'd come home, but even her peers were skeptical of the story, Sharon told, here's her classmate, me and Murdock again.

She told one.

Friend that her mom died of cancer, and then told another friend she died in a car wreck over a bridge. And then one friend says, well, wait a minute, you said she died of cancer. She said, well, she had cancer when she's in the car wreck. So I'm sure she was just trying to shut them up because she couldn't say anything.

Franklin Floyd was a lifelong criminal, and like most he had patterns. He would kidnap children and he would assault them when he is barely an adult. Floyd was convicted of molesting a four year old girl. What kind of nineteen year old attacks a child in the woods? Floyd did, and after he kidnapped Sharon, he studied sexually abusing her too, from a very young age. This wouldn't come out until many years later, but on a level, Sherry already knew what her friend had been going through.

A Few of the friends that she did make were people who were also also were abused, But I think that she probably knew people just generally kind of recognized people who had been through similar things.

Sharon never told Sherry what was going on at home, and vice versa. But neither of them had good childhoods Mine wasn't normal.

I would like to say it was, but it wasn't. I had stepfather who was sexually abusive me. I just think that like finds like whether they know why or not, your heart just think your car just knows.

Based on what Sandy tell me about Floyd's behavior, I can say he probably controls Sharon with fear. If he threatened Sandy against leaving, he likely did the same as Sharon made her stay quiet, not just about the many names and secrets, but about the abuse. Sharon was trapped and we had no idea how close we were to a monster. Though the whole time, Sherry seemed to know all was not well with her friend back in high school, but Mia didn't really get it until her ordeal was

People didn't talk about what happened in people's houses, so nobody would have thought anything different. So after the story came out, it was very eye opening for all of us because none of us would have ever thought she.

Lived the life she lived.

What's amazing, sureI said, is how Sharon maintained such composure. She got great grades, participated in ROTC, had serious romantic relationships.

She had a spirit that nobody could break. He knew he was never able to break her. He tried really hard.

Back then they buckled down and hit the books. Surey said, Sharon had a seriousness about her a drive.

I don't know that she watched TV.

I don't remember talking about that at all, because of course that was of boat days and Fantasy Island and.

All that good stuff.

So I think she spent most of her time studying because that was her escape.

Maybe all that studying would even be her way out, a way to escape Floyd. Sharry remembered that day in Gifted class when she showed up ecstatic.

She had a full ride to Georgia Tech. That was all she ever wanted. She was beside herself. I mean, that was what she'd been wanting all along.

She was absolutely tickled. This was her dream school that would jump start her aerospace career. Around that time and senior year, everyone geared up for graduation, excited for what would come next. But then Sharon's life changed again. She was with a new boyfriend, a guy named Curtis.

I was hopelessly, helplessly, deeply crazy about it.

Up until this moment, Sharon was focused on her future in the file. She was going to move to Atlanta and start Georgia Tech. Then she would begin her career in aerospace, maybe as an engineer, maybe she'd go into space herself. For Sharon, the sky was well the limit. But then something happened in her senior year that slung her off course. It would jeopardize everything she didn't build, and even if she didn't say anything, the secret she'd been keeping became clear.

And then it started being obvious that she was pregnant.

She started showing people at school.

Noticed our counselor was a male. He asked a female counselor to talk to Sharing because he didn't feel comfortable, and so she brought her in the office and she said, Sharing, you know, if you're pregnant, your scholarship's going to be avoided.

You can't have it. And Sharing says, I'm not pregnant.

Sharon tried to hide it, but couldn't. She knew what was at stake. This was nineteen eighty six teenage pregnancy, particularly in the South was an incredible taboo. She lost her scholarship.

They took it away from her because she was pregnant. They couldn't have that, which ridiculous. I mean, through all everything that she'd been through, not that they knew that, but I'm pretty sure she could have still gotten an aeronautics engineering degree and had a baby and taking care of it.

You know, she could have juggled that.

To me, this feels like such a knife twist. Charon already endured being kidnapped by Floyd, lied on his behalf, changed her name from Susie to Sharon, moved around, survived sexual abuse, and the one thing that stood in the way of her dreams was some old fashioned policy about teen pregnancy. Some say it was a school's decision. Curtis as Floyd kept her from college.

He talked her out of going.

Here's her friend Cherry again.

People said that she wasn't at graduation. She was at graduation. We talked to her in the parking lot. She was in her cap and gown.

I did see her, but she was nine months pregnant at graduation. That would not let her walk.

Charon and made salutatorian. Basically, that's the runner up to the valedictorian. In other words, she was a damn good student.

She looked so pregnant in that white gown. I don't even were talked about.

I just remember, you know, standing out of the parking lot, talking about what was going to happen after her graduation, about the parties or whatever.

But when Sherry went out that night, she didn't see Sharon like she had hoped. She didn't see her that summer either. Sharon just dropped off the map.

It was that night, you know. It was after that night, which is never saw each o threed. She just disappeared.

It's not like there were social media or even cell phones. With Sharon out of her house, there wasn't a landline to call. Sherry kind of assumed Sharon and going somewhere to have the baby, but wasn't sure what happened beyond that.

I mean, I guess we must have thought that he took her somewhere to like a girls, you know, away where teenage girls or something.

I don't know, but she.

Never forgot about Sharon. Imagine what she'd be doing after college and into middle age.

She'd probably be living in Texas working for NASA. I have a couple of sweet little kids.

When Cherry thinks about Sharon, she can still picture her in the hallways at Forest Park High School.

Probably just propped up against lockers, talking and just being the girls, laughing and being happy. When we finally get out of side of her dad. She had the you know, the blown out curl, super blonde, and she weared.

She would wear Jason's letterman jacket, which.

Would swallow her old because she was all of maybe five foot two.

Sherry wouldn't be the only person to lose track of Sharon Marshall. She's right. Right after graduation, Sharon employed packed up and moved across country, just as Floyd had done for decades. It was by design. It's why he changed her name from Susie to Sharon. He didn't want her to ever be found. So let me tell you what actually happened. After graduation, Sharon, her boyfriend Curtis, and her father left Georgia.

I pretty much sold everything I had so we could have money to move out to Arizona.

Curtis wasn't exactly thrilled about the situation. He hated Floyd, said he was a rattic. He could yell at the top of his lungs in public.

Sharon or Suzanne would giggle whenever he did that, like it was nothing, and I'm like sitting there looking at him like freaking morn. I was nice to him because of her, and there were a few times where I tried to talk her into her and I'd taken off somewhere else, but she didn't want to leave her dad.

That's why Floyd followed him to Arizona. She didn't want to leave him behind. Previously, Floyd had done odd jobs for money, but now I let a teenager beat the breadwinner.

At the time, waterbeds were still kind of popular, so I do some waterbed installing, so I would work. Those two would be at home at the apartment. It's a single level apartment, but I know that Diphit used to sleep on the couch most of the time. I'm always complaining about his back and excuse my friends sometimes, but I really hate that guy.

One day, Curtis came home to a horrible surprise. There were two strangers standing in his apartment.

She pulled me in the bedroom and told me the child not yours. I'm giving it up for adoption. And I'm like flabbergasted, and of course I get mad, I get pissed. I started screaming because I felt very betrayed.

Curtis kicked the two out, he was so pissed off.

They ended up moving to staying in a motel or something in town. She was a waitress somewhere last I heard, and I just I didn't talk to him again.

At the time. Curtis Hitt now the full extent of Floyd's abuse, Mia said she can imagine how scared Sharon must have been.

People want to judge and say, why didn't she do this and that?

But how can you stand up to a man when you're that tiny and you're scared of death of him?

So I'm sure she couldn't stand up. Jim sawen to stay with Curtis.

The baby, born in nineteen eighty six, was put up for adoption in Arizona, and not long after Floyd and Sharon took off again. Floyd had a habit of ducking and dodging questions. He'd been doing this since the nineteen sixties. It's what allowed him to continue living as a fugitive. You could say Stateton federal agencies are also to blame. Considering how many cracks in the system that Susie fell through.

Wouldn't talk about it. He wouldn't talk to anybody about it. If he did, he he lied and just or just outright was defiant, said, I'm not going to say anything.

This was the time before we had cell phones in our back pockets, bouncing across towers that tracked our every move.

They didn't have the technology back then, you know, the instant access to the fingerprint database when he fingerprints somebody. But when he thought somebody was getting too close, if something didn't seem right to him, one of the neighbors gave him a sideways glance or started asking too many questions, he'd pick up and off they go to the next town. So he just continually moved when he felt the walls were closing in.

Which led them to Florida. Two years after she graduated, Sharon was pregnant again. This time, it wasn't entirely clear who the baby's father was, but Floyd apparently thought it was his. The boy was born on April twenty first, nineteen eighty eight. Sharon called him Michael Hughes Here's her friend Sherry.

Michael was the only one he let her key, and he knew how much she loved him.

While in Florida, they moved into the Golden Lantern trailer Park, and instead of doing anything related to aerospace or Georgia Tay, Sharon became a dancer at a strip club. It was called Mann's Venus, and there was a brunette dancer who apparently took a liking to Sharon. The two became fast friends. Her name was Cheryl and comesso. Cheryl was a natural performer. She always sang and danced, and she was even in the nineteen eighty seven Miss Brandon beauty pageant, named for

They had dialed in where Franklin Floyd had taken her. He'd been all over the country with her, started in Georgia to Florida, eventually ending up in Oklahoma.

Tanya aka Sharon aka Susie worked as a dancer at an Oklahoma City strip club. After years on the run, Floyd was caught in Oklahoma City on a complaint of assaulting another woman.

He was a handyman at an apartment complex and got caught in some girl's apartment.

But Floyd, being slippery, wouldn't stay in custod deeper loan. He had continued dugging and dodging until authorities finally caught up with Floyd and locked him up permanently. This time the charge was murder. After high school graduation, Mia and Surry went on with their lives. Mia started organizing class reunions, but her old classmate Sharon never once showed up. Then in nineteen ninety one, she got the news our.

Five year reunions.

Someone had said that she had passed away and we didn't know all the details.

Sharon Marshall. She was found the victim of a hit and run accident in Oklahoma City and died five days later in a hospital.

Mia remembers when Curtis found out, he got in.

His car and drove four hours. I think he said to her grave.

Site, and then I found out all was shit about Franklin. It was just stuff starting adding over my head, and so God, I wish I would have figured that out for a long time ago. She was approbably had a better lady, and you know, it really messed with me for a few years. I felt very guilty.

This is what the police report said. In April nineteen ninety, a woman left her motel room in Oklahoma City to go to a convenience store to buy milk. She was wearing headphones as she walked along the center of an interstate road. She was struck by a car. Police identified her as Tanya Hughes, but when they went looking for a birth certificate, they found she used the name of an infant born in nineteen sixty seven who died in pneumonia.

A big one.

Who was behind the wheel of the hit and run? Next time on Hello John Doe.

The actual folders for the case, I would say, would stack about six feet high. It's one of the most unique cases I was ever involved with.

Sometimes I screamed, sometimes I cried.

It was.

It was like reading a horror story that you're a part of, but not a part of.

I'm about to put my hand up to cut him off, and that's when he leaned back, closed his eyes, lifted his head a little bit, and I realized at that point he was recalling facts.

Hello John Doe is an original productions by Revelations Entertainment in association with First and Last Productions from Revelations. Our executive producers are Morgan Freeman and James Younger from First to Last. Lindsay Moreno is the executive producer. Our producing partner is nee On Home Media. It was written and produced by Kate Michigan. Our editor is Katherine Saint Louis. She is also ni On Home Media's executive editor. Our