The trope of being the friend who will help someone hide a body has been in Hollywood movies, songs, and of course the Internet memes for a long long time. But I want you to ask yourself. I want you to ask that question for real, could you help dispose of a body? Or better yet, how would you feel if you learned that you already have without even knowing it. Today we talk about a case that involves all of that.
This is the story of Shannon Graves and how she was murdered, dismembered, and stuffed into a freezer.
My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked and Graham, a true crime podcast.
The following podcast.
Listeners, that was quite an intro. You think, so would you hide a body? I don't know if I can help someone hide a body. That's the I can't if.
I can honestly answer the question, because it's so tough. We all like, oh, yeah, you're my best friend or significant other needs to help hiding a body. I'd be there. But it's also like, would you actually.
Well, because you also have to think of living with that right after the fact, Yeah, it would eat you alive.
Probably, I think for a lot of people though, it would be the potential of even getting caught, because now it's like if this person didn't cover their tracks, but you don't know if they have already, you're just being called to the scene. Are you now going to be held accountable for what happened as well?
Yeah? Because like you if you say, if you didn't kill them, I mean you would get charged for a lot less, but you would still get charged.
Oh definitely, right.
Yeah, that's that's that's a tough one.
Yeah, we'll look at the difference of being the one to do the murdering versus being the one to just help later on here in this episode. Okay, but first, before we get into the actual show, I did have an announcement I wanted to make to everybody. If you've been a long time listener, you probably know you know, we've got all our pets, right, We've got chickens, we've got two dogs, We've got Honey and Ripley, and we also have our cat, Kiwi. Kiwi was almost sixteen years
old and unfortunately he has passed away. He If you go back to the very earlier episodes, we actually announced Kiwi as our official mascot of the show too, So he was a black cat. He lived his best life with us in this tiny home.
I can tell you that much. He was king of the castle, that's for sure.
He was. And we really miss him. And we put a little post on Patreon, and the support from you guys over there was a lot and meant a lot, So thank you very much.
Yeah, we were definitely missing I mean, he had a dang good life, but gosh he did. There is a void in this house now for sure.
But it's not to say he didn't live a good life. It's not to late say he didn't have a good life span. Our time all comes to an end, right, and unfortunately it was his. We were with him at the end though, so we're happy happy for that.
Yeah, we won't have our best Halloween decoration anymore, hey, no, come October.
Yeah, he was our best Halloween decoration. He was the world's softest Kiwi. He was a lot of things, and in recent last couple of years we started calling him old Man Kiwi and the last few months that was really becoming a relevant name for him. Yeah, unfortunately. Yeah, but besides that, we just wanted to say thank you guys for the support and you know, just go give your go give your fur babies a little little pet to pat in a snuggle, because you know, I.
Know, like, I mean, he lived, he was fifteen years old. But I just feel like with pets, it's just never long enough? Is it? Never long enough?
No, never is. But such as life, this is a bit of a rough shift. But into that we're gonna from that, We're gonna go into Patreon. Thank our Patreon subscribers. I mean, you guys are the ones who I just thanked for those incredible comments. So I guess maybe it's not that bad of a shift.
No, it's not too bad.
So individuals who signed up this week to go support us over there and would have been able to see that KEYWI post is Laura Lacey, Norman Bryner, Kimberly, Tuscin Tack, Mason Anderson, Haley Fisher, and Bobby thank you very much. We appreciate it.
Yeah, that's awesome, Thank you so much.
Yeah, they are getting a live episode coming up here too. Oh yeah, ding Dan, which we got to prepare for.
Oh, how is it already like the end of August Wild.
It's absurd, but it's it's the situation we're in.
Apparently we had to turn our furnace on this morning.
Yeah it wasn't like super cold, but it was like, oh, there's a bite in there.
You know, you are really chilly. He couldn't sleep last night and he was so chilly.
It's not that I was chilly, it's I wasn't cozy. There's a difference. Okay, there's a big difference. Okay, Okay, what did I say this morning? I am a fair, fair weathered fellow.
Now I don't know what's cute.
Anyways, let's get onto this episode. So have you heard of the story of Shanning Graves.
I don't think so.
No, well I didn't about day it's uh, well, yeah, I kind of already touched on a little bit. There is some some gruesomeness to this case, and there's I will admit, this one's almost like a bit of a soap opera. How it goes out or how it goes down. Okay, so there is gonna be a little bit of like this and that and that and this like kind of back and forth is happening with how this this episode's
going to go. So you might want to make sure you have that little extra paying attention going on some of the situations because it can get a little bit confusing at times. It's not that bad, don't get me wrong, I just more so than typical. It's not quite so linear at times. Okay, So to start off, we are heading to a small town called Campbell, which is a small city in I'm going to pronounce this wrong, but
I'm going to do my best. Mayoning County. Mayoning County, which is located near the Norstern northeastern part of the Ohio state in the USA. Now, originally it was founded as East Youngst Town Youngstown in nineteen oh two. I'm already off to butchering. Shit, I'm sorry, I'll get there. It's morning time, Okay, East Youngstown in nineteen oh two, but it was later named into you know, Campbell in nineteen twenty two after James A. Campbell of the Youngstown
Sheet and Tube Company. Yeah. So the hit the city's history is is very deeply tied to this steel industry, which what I mean it was a very big industry in the area. It thrived really pushed a lot of like the economy, right, which is similar like we can really sympathize for that because for us, it's forestry up here. Yeah, it's logging, it's lumber, it's plywood, you know, it's it's pulp, it's paper, it's a lot of that sort of stuff.
But however, for them, the once booming steel industry has since slowed in its lucrative industry, resulting in plant closures and people losing their jobs and of course a deteriorating economy, which is also something we can relate to up here because there's been many sawmill closures. Yeah and yeah, so it's not easy. But this area was once known as the quote steel belt because of this industry, basically describing that, you know, geographical region that's thriving from this industry sort
of thing. But instead it's no longer known as that. Instead it's now known as the rust belt. Oh, which is pretty depressing.
That's real rough. Yeah, Oh, I don't like that. That's kind of sad.
It is. So like many Rust Belt towns, Campbell faced significant economic decline following the downturn of the steel industry, leading to a decrease in population, economic challenges that persist still to today. And despite these struggles, Campbell maintains a strong sense of community, though, where a diverse population that reflects the industrial past and ongoing efforts to revitalize the
local economy while preserving its cultural heritage. For these people living there, despite what had happened to their town and the downturn of the economy and the crime that has since become much more prelevant, Campbell is simply home.
M Ah, what that's so nice.
Well, that's that's what it is.
I don't know that. Wow, you made us feel really shitty about it, and then you made us feel really nice about it.
Well, I mean, like that's what it was like. I was watching some like some documentaries and episodes and stuff on this and they interviewed some people, like some people in Campbell, and that's that's what they said. Like, you know, despite like the hardships, it's it's home. It's home.
Yeah, there's no place like home exactly.
And that's a situation with many of the residents in Campbell. It's they're not going to leave. It is home for them. So now they're home. Though, would soon experience a horrific discovery from a local residence from their freezer, actually, and this discovery would be one that would send chills down everyone's spine pun intended.
Ooh good one, good one.
Okay, I got to applaud you for that, pretending you didn't hear that, because when I was writing this case, I was so proud of that.
Oh my god, you're going to just make me seem like such an asshole.
No, you did good. But I read that pun to Nicole, so she was anticipating it, and she she really hyped me up on it. So thank you. Yeah, I appreciate that.
That was good. But I was literally about to have a sip of chea and the freezer thing just called, like I don't know, even though it was in your intro, I was like, freezer, Oh my god.
Well, it's like you almost kind of forget about it. We were just talking about Campbell and so it's like, you know.
Now we're talking about her damn freezer.
Yeah, and what's well, it would be on July twenty ninth, twenty seventeen, when a call to nine one one was placed, Dispatch picked up on the phone. There was a man on the other end. Now, the man's name was Ken Essenbaugh, and he informed the Dispatch that his wife, Jill Essenbaugh, had just discovered a dead dismembered body in their basement, freezer in their their freezer, in their freezer. So he's calling nine to one. He's like, we just found a fucking in our freezer.
That is that is something that oh my goodness, I would probably just like faint.
Yeah, I do, got to clarify. Yeah, it's not technically their freezer in a freezer in their basement. Okay, we'll get into that though.
Huh.
So Ken was trying to stay calm during this call. You can hear panic in his voice as he tries to control and slow his breathing and really make sure he's he's being diligent in conversing with this dispatch person. Right, So he tells them that the freezer is a friend's freezer who moved into his place last week. Now, the friend didn't move in, but the freezer moved in. Apparently the freezer was moved in because the friend's electricity was being turned off. So we asked if he could store
it there in the meantime. He didn't want things to thought out the freezer, so he was like, yeah, sure, we can move it over here, plug it into the basement.
Oh my word, Well, why are they rummaging through his freezer. What are they looking for?
We'll get to that too, don't you worry. Okay, So the dispatch asks questions and you know, keeps him on the line, right, And she asked Ken if he could tell if the body was out of a female or male, and he responds that he thinks it's a female. Police were, of course, on the way to the scene and arrived very quickly, but even before they stepped foot inside the home to investigate, they had a pretty good idea of who this dismembered person in the freezer could be.
Okay, you know, I'm really like it's very sad, but for some reason, it's just like almost comical that this person's phoning nine to one trying to calm himself down that he just found a fucking body and like a freezer that's in his home. Like it's just it, like you said, it's that alone right there. I feel like it's a bit of a soap opera. But it's terrible. It's terrible.
It is terrible, But like I said, it is very much like a soaproper thing, Like how the fuck does that happen? Yeah, that's what like everyone's asking this case, the police are how the fuck does a dead body end up in a freezer in your basement, because of course there are sauspects number one, right, So well, you just trust.
People and stuff like remember that one time we were on a road trip and brought something back for someone in the truck. Oh yeah, and you were just like They're like, oh, you're gonna run, George, Yeah, can you take this and deliver it to here? And we're like sure, And we didn't freaking look in there, like god knows what the hell we were transporting.
It was maple syrup.
Hopefully no, it was hopefully no, it was.
Because when I delivered the box he opened it up. It was maple syrup. It was one of the most Canadian things. We stopped at a roadside poutine shop, had some proteine chatted them up and they're like, oh, you're headed up to like this city, which is like a five hour drive away, and like, could you take the shipment for us because like the truck broke down or whatever.
So it wasn't a whole lot, you know, it was like a couple armfuls of boxes and we're like yeah, sure, So we got like a couple cans of maple syrup for free.
We got our lunch for free or something like that. This isn't about a skinny, this is ridiculous story.
And so we threw the maple syrup in the back of the truck in the boxes. We didn't actually know what it was. He just took their word for it, threw it in the back of the truck, continued our road trip, got to town, dropped it off of the address, and they thanked us, and we went on our way.
So if you ever need us to transport anything, or if you need any transport your guts fatally.
Yeah. But anyways, we digressed. Let's get back to the case here. So the police arrived at the home and they descended into the basement and they were confronted with exactly what was described in the nine one one call. There was a freezer and when opened, it contained black plastic bags and a five gallon bucket, so one of those orange like home depot gallon buckets. Okay, Inside were dismembered body parts. There were arms, legs, but no torso and no head.
Oh.
Investigators began questioning the couple, Ken and Jill about the freezer and the story that they had told authorities. Now, the two were taken into the station and questioned both separately because they wanted to make sure that they got like, you know, see if there's any discrepancies in between what they're saying or anything. But they both gave the exact same stuff.
Oh good, because that kind of sucks for them really, Like you'd almost have a thought like, shit, like do we phone this in and kind of you know, because you know that you're gonna get questioned, and oh, definitely right, you have to.
For sure, I mean, you didn't do anything. Just just tell the fucking story and I'm sure the police will you know, find the right perp and yeah, follow the evidence, right.
Yeah.
So the story that they gave was a friend had moved the freezer into the basement a week prior as his electricity was going out. The freezer had a padlock on it, but they didn't really think anything of it.
You know, it's kind of odd, but whatever. Right, So, on the day of the discovery of the remains, Jill was home alone and now there was some reports that they had a kid, so she was home alone with the kid or she was home alone, but either way, she was getting ready to make dinner, and she was looking to make spaghetti, but after pulling out a bunch of ingredients, she realized they didn't have any ground beef.
Instead of abandoning the plan, she thought maybe there was some ground beef and the freezer from the friend downstairs. So she thought she could you know, borrow a package and then when they buy groceries next week she would replace it. Yea, and what she's used sort of thing, right, So she went downstairs into their home, you know, where the freezer was being stored. She took a screwdriver undid the screws on like the latch that was holding the lock in place.
Oh, she really went to town looking for this ground beef.
Well, it's only like I saw a photo of the actual freezer. It's only three screws. It's just like one, two, three, and it's you can't really like actually padlock a freezer
very well, those screws just come out like nothing. Yeah. So, once she had the screws undone in the lock off, though, she opened the freezer and was immediately hit with an odd odor and the sight of the black plastic bags and the bright orange five gallon pale bucket she she didn't know what to think, but her stomach immediately sank,
telling her something wasn't right. She didn't open the bags, didn't open the bucket, but instead she closed the lid, put the screws back in place, secured the freezer once again, and went back upstairs. Now, when her husband got home, Ken, it didn't take long for him to notice that his wife was acting odd. I mean, if you've been with someone a while, it's pretty easy to act or understand
when the behavior is a little bit off right. Yeah, And he pretty much picked on that right away, and he asked her what was going on, and she told him exactly what happened, that she thinks there might be a body in that freezer. So Ken went down to check. He did exactly what she did, took the screws out, opened it up, and sure enough, once he opened the freezer and removed a bit of plastic, he saw human remains.
Wow. What shitty friend too though to also like put them, you know, in that situation.
Oh yeah, for sure, we'll we'll get into what kind of shitty person that was?
Okay, Like, I mean, he probably really wouldn't have thought they would have, like undid the screws to go in there, like, that's that is a bit surprising to me, but still, that's that's rude, yeah, like very rude.
Yeah. So while the questions were occurring with these two, both Ken and Jill, other officers were of course hard at work beginning other areas of the investigation. They were almost certain they knew who the remains belonged to, but without a head, it was difficult to specifically identify the individual. Eventually, though, through a tattoo identification and fingerprints, they were able to identify the victim of that of Shannon Graves, which was
exactly who they were expecting. Okay, now, Shannon Elizabeth Graves was a twenty eight year old woman from Youngstown, which was the town just next door. It was about a ten minute drive northwest of Campbell Now. She was known for her vibrant personality, deep love for animals, and Shannon was described by those close to her as full of life, outgoing, and incredibly loyal. In fact, she even had a nickname that her friends had given her Star because she lit up a room when she walked in.
Are you kidding me?
That's serious?
She sounds wonderful, I know to have.
A nickname Star because you're like you just fucking light up a room.
Wow. Yeah, dang, I love that.
So, as I already mentioned though too, she had a deep love for animals. She actually absolutely adored her dog Brownie, and rarely reportedly went anywhere with el Brownie, Brownie, Brownie.
Holy yeah, I'm in love with her And this is so sad.
Yeah, I know. So she was raised in a loving family and she had shared a close bond with her sister, Debbie de Paul. Now, Shannon was a bit of a free spirit, so it wasn't abnormal for to not hear from her for a while, to go off an adventure or something like that, right, and for her to not call for a few weeks that sort of thing. But she would always be in touch, whether it was responding
to text messages or eventually getting in touch herself. But in this case, a couple months had passed and no one heard from her, and they began to get worried. It was very uncharacteristic for her to actually lose contact for an extended period, and they were all beginning to think, you know, what, is something happened. She's not responding to texts or calls what's going on? Right, Well, a couple months,
that's quite a waw exactly. So, now the authorities had a confirmation of finding Shannon's remains, they began to dive into her background to see if they could possibly find a suspect on who could be responsible for her murder. Now,
first up on the list was her ex boyfriend John. Now, John seemed like a stand up guy at first, but like he had a roofing company and stuff, like, you know, he's a hard work and individual, right, But he also had a history of drug dealing and the two both, you know, John and Shannon ended their relationship when John was arrested and went to prison. But the problem is John had been released right before Shannon went missing.
Huh And is that who's freezer?
This is sorry, we haven't talked about who's free it is yet?
Okay, I'm like, did I just miss something?
No, Well, we'll get there now. The the two individuals at the very beginning, Ken and Jill, they tell police whose freezer it is, but for suspense reason, I'm I'm looping around because like I said, it's.
Very like I bet okay, Well, I'm I bet ye, it's not John's freezer.
Then okay, but we get this whole like soap opera effect because the reason why it's like this is authorities new right away, but before they you know, had to could act on anything, they had to follow all the evidence, and that evidence follows them all the way back back to the names that they were given at the fucking beginning. So that's what we're doing. I'm omitting those names at the beginning, you know, for story's sake, and then we're following all this evidence and then we're going to pop
right back to that freezer. So don't you worry about.
It, Okay, I'm not worried, all right.
Well, police began to question John and he told police at the last time he saw Shannon was around February fourteenth, twenty seventeen.
Which was, you know, Valentine's Day.
It was Valentine's Day, and it was around the time when she went missing. No one really knows exactly when she went missing, because no one was too concerned with reporting her after a few months, right, so that date is a little bit foggy, but that's you know, it's getting close to about that time. Now. He had also told them that she had a new boyfriend by the
name of Arturo Novoa. Now, apparently, when he last saw Shannon, she had told him that the two her and Arturo were going through a bit of a breakup situation, but she's going to give him another shot to make it try and work with them. Now, John also gave the police one more crucial piece of information. The man by the name of Arturo had apparently attended a fire party. A fire pit party everyone describes as a bonfire. But I've seen the fire because like there's photos and stuff
of like you know, seeing stuff. It's just a standard fire. It's not a fucking bonfire. So it's just a fire pit party.
It's not your definition of a bonfire.
A bonfire should be like at least twelve feet tall, twelve ft place, that's a bonfire. It's like a brush pile that's a bonfire.
Okay.
Anyways, So the man by the name of Arturo had attended this fire pit party with a friend by the name of Steve Barringer. Now, he told police how at this party, a Turro and a few others were burning items and articles of clothing pretty much most of the night. Shit. So the authorities attention quickly turned to the current boyfriend by the name of Arturro. Which is interesting because when we discussed that freezer that Shannon was found in, it
was hoarded to have been stored in the house and everything. Right, the friend's name was ur Turo. The man who owned the freezer was ur Turo Novoa.
Oh man.
Okay, So investigators went to the man's house. Yeah, Steve Barringer, who hosted the firepit party when ar Turo had attended the party, right, Okay, So they went to Steve's house to inquire about this fire and Arturo's actions at night, And once there, they quickly identified the fire pit that was freshly used. In that fire pit, after rummaging around just a little bit, they found a bracelet. Now it's one of those homemade style bracelets with like those white
block letters. Yeah, and what do you think those white block letters and this bracelet spelled out Shannon Shannon. What the so?
Okay? And I'm already confused about something. I just need to clarify. So Steve is just Steve is just this dude that hosted the party. Correct, Okay, he doesn't, He isn't in a relationship with Shannon.
Nope. So John the ex boyfriend, yeah, reported that his buddy Steve hosted this firepit party. He and the new boyfriend Arturo was.
There throwing shit into the fire.
To be burned with some other people.
Okay, yes, heay got it.
So with questioning on Steve, Steve told the police that Arturo had told everyone that night at the firepit party that Shannon had left him for another man. So to get even, he was burning her clothes. That's his story.
Okay, I mean, I mean we've heard shit like that before.
Yeah, for sure. He also told police the police that Arturo's wasn't alone that night burning those clothes. He was accompanied by a friend named Andrew Herman. Now, the connection of Arturo's continued to grow around the mystery of Shannon Graves, but police were hesitant to move in quickly. They wanted to ensure that they looked at every bit of evidence and took their time to build a case up against him.
They want to make sure they gathered everything so that there was no chance that he could ache it away or be that they got it wrong.
Yeah. Meanwhile, he's like, I need to come and get something from a freezer. Man, No, you gotta be careful of that too.
Yeah, now you have to think of the intro though. Remember when I said that you could what if you hit a body without even knowing it? Remember that? So I'm just gonna throw that out there right now, just to keep you guessing. But the police were wanting to make sure that they did their do their due diligence there we go, and needless to say, they did exactly that. So before bringing our Turros in, the police even interviewed the friend who helped him, sorry, the friends who helped
move the freezer into the basement. Okay, so they told officers the exact story that they heard the very beginning. It was being moved into the house of Kennon Jilled Essenbah due to electricity at Arturo's home being turned off, and then he didn't want anything to thaw and or spoil. He even offered our Turros even offered Kennon Jill one hundred dollars a week to store it there a week a week, and they're like, we can't accept that. Are
you kidding through us? Like twenty bucks a month for electricity?
Huh? That's interesting because I see, I'm I was feeling like electricity was getting turned off because they can afford their bills or something mm hmm, and then to be able to just like one hundred bucks a week, that doesn't make any sense exactly.
So while moving the freezer, though all these friends that were involved, no one thought anything suspicious. The lock was a bit odd. They all kind of thought that, but no one really questioned it, and it didn't seem too heavy for them to move either. To consider that there was, you know, something out of the ordinary contained inside, well yeah.
I'm like that would be heavy as hell.
Yeah. So all these friends who stored the freezer and moved the freezer were all extremely shocked to discover the contents and what they had helped move. And they're like, we had no idea what was contained in our Turro's freezer. That's just like mind blowing.
Now.
The next step was to also interview Andrew Herman, who is present to help burn Sharon's belongings at that fire pit party, but in order to do so, they needed to prepare themselves as well, again doing their due diligence.
Is it Sharon or Shannon?
Shannon? Did I say Sharon? I feel like a couple times it is Shannon. Okay, okay, my apologies. So they learned that this Andrew herman who was the individual who helped clothing.
Right.
They learned he was married to a woman by the name of Michelle Einfeld. But the two of them had a bit of a third wheel, someone who has involved, you know, sexually with both of them, right, and her name was Jamie. So when police talk to Jamie, if you know they knew anything regarding our Turos and Andrew regarding Sharon Shannon, I am saying, Sharon, apparently it's Shannon.
Okay.
Yeah. She quickly confessed that, yes, she knew they killed her in her bedroom or bathroom.
Sorry, what the shit?
Yeah, She's like, oh yeah, they killed her.
Oh yeah, I know about that.
Yeah.
That's wild that you would just know about that and be questioned in this figure.
Yep, I know. So, as the story went, Andrew the friend was involved in dismembering and disposing of Shannon's body, but ar Turos and his new girlfriend, Katrina Layton were the ones who killed her. But why Well, Katrina hated Shannon. There was still something between Arturos and her, which is why Katrina wanted her dead. She wanted ar Turros all to herself. This was the last straw. Authorities immediately went
to Arturos and brought him in. And when they brought him into the police station, they even found something in its possession, a key, and what do you think that key unlocked the freezer. The freezer.
Okay, this is wild. So they killed there. The one lady was saying they killed her, but then the other couple dismembered her.
No, she's saying Arturos and Katrina the couple, yeah, killed her. But then Arturos's friend, Andrew, yeah, helped dismember Okay, okay, yeah, yeah, okay, So both Katrina and Andrew were of course arrested as well. But Arturos of course played dumb, denying having any involvement, you know, not even knowing that Shannon was in the fraser, didn't like she hasn't seen her for a while, didn't even know she was dead. Whatever. But the evidence was
just far too overwhelming at this point. Yeah, So when it came to Andrew being questioned, the pressure of the potential charges he would face was just too much, and he spilled what happened. He told the authorities exactly what they already knew, he said. Arturos got a hold of him to come over to Katrina's house, and when he got there, he was shown Shannon's body. He was told she was killed in her own apartment and then transported
to Katrina's. It was new information of the officers though, when he told them how she was killed, Arturos used a hammer and struck her in the head right above her right eye, killing her. Now that he was standing over her lifeless body between Arturos, himself and Arturos's girlfriend, Katrina, the three of them began to dismember her body under Arturo's instruction, using a machete.
Wow.
Now, Andrew did state that he felt the need to participate, as if like he might be next if he didn't, which understandable, but that also feels like a cop out answer that everyone fucking says. I get it, Yeah, you know if I fucking try and run away. Right now, he's got a machete in his hand, he's hacking a body. Yes, I get it.
It could be alarmed a bit. Yeah, there's the potential there, but there is.
But then he's also helping burn fucking clothes. Afterwards, he didn't say anything like you know, I.
Yeah, yeah.
So anyways, after the job was done and she was dismembered, the problem now was what to do with her remains.
It was Katrina's idea to dispose of her by disolving her remains in sulfuric acid, So they poured a few bottles that they had purchased onto Katrina's torso and head in a tub and you know, all the solution was getting poured onto her, but unfortunately, the amount of acid that they had was not enough to dissolve her remains entirely, which led them to storing the remainder of her remains in a freezer for the meantime until they figure out what to do next.
And hey, this is such a fucking story and a half.
I told you it's a bit of a soap opera. So then that's when, of course Jill would open up the freezer trying to make spaghetti and would discover her in the nine when one call was placed.
I wonder if Jill ever made spaghetti again after this, Oh wow, because I'm pretty sure that I would just be turned off spaghetti forever. Yeah, I mean, I can understand, like vegan spaghetti.
Just vegan spaghetti or maybe chicken or something. I don't brutal, yeah, so uh yeah, So the court proceedings for this case, of of course, Arturo Novoa and his accomplices began in September. On September twenty first. In twenty seventeen, now Arturos was charged with multiple offenses, including murder, abusive a corpse, and tampering with evidence avoiding Now he avoided a trial and took a plea deal, though he pleaded guilty in May twenty nineteen to avoid the lengthy trial. But he did
not actually plead guilty. Like, he did not ever say like I was the one to kill her. He's like, yeah, I was involved. In fact, none of them were the ones who actually said yeah I killed her.
Oh okay, No, no one's taken ownership.
No one took any blame or ownership of that. But yeah, Arturros took a plea deal and everyone else did as well. So Arturos pled guilty to murder, abusive a corpse, tampering with evidence, obstruction of justice, engaging in pattern of corrupt activity, drug trafficking, and theft. He was sentenced to forty eight years to life in prison. Oh wow, oh, okay, His girlfriend, Katrina Layton, pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence, obstruction of justice,
and abuse of a corpse. So I guess technically speaking, Arturo's pled guilty to murder, but he still like, yeah, I didn't murder her, but so she would. Katrina would be sentenced to eighteen years in prison after her plea deal was revoked when it was discovered she continued to have contact with Arturros while incarcerated when that was strictly forbidden.
Okay, that's like actually quite a lot of time, it is, well.
Her plea deal was revoked, right, so then she actually went through trial. So Andrew Herman, who was the friend who helped dismember, pleaded guilty to abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence, and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. He was sentenced to twelve years in prison. Now, Andrew's girlfriend, who is the one who said, oh yeah, I know they fucking killed her, right, yeah, she pled guilty to tampering with evidence and engaging in pattern of correct activity.
She received two She received a sentence of two years in prison, followed by six months in the halfway house and five years of community control for her role in hiding the evidence.
Huh.
And that is the story of Shannon Graves A bit of a shorter one today, but it's definitely an interesting one.
Yeah, is just like spinning.
I warned you at the beginning. It's very soaproperty esque.
And also I'm like, nope, oh man, no, that's I was just going to say something very rude. Okay. Friend friends are great, friends are awesome, But I'm also like, is any friend having to spend twelve years in prison, like twelve years of your life?
Yeah, I don't know.
I mean, I'm sure they are. I'm sure they are, but that's that I don't know. I would struggle with that. That's a long time. That is life is real shortened to just have twelve years of yours taken away, you know.
Yeah, because your friend was, hey, help me to body, help me, not spend time in jail. It's a very selfish thing, in all honesty, putting someone else in that position.
Yeah, because technically those two could have dealt with it on their own without having to get the friend involved.
Definitely, they dismembered her easily enough. Yeah, So like, put it this way, if you were the person to help hide a body. Of course, there's that pride fact I'm a good fucking friend for helping my friend in a needy situation, right, mm hmm. But that also means your friend that you're helping is a piece of shit for putting you in that fucking situation, you know what I mean? Yes, what kind of friend would ask you to do that to risk your own neck?
Yeah, I mean, because I'm kind of thinking if it was like just like one of my friends and say they were just like a solo, single female, right, they would have a lot of trouble kind of probably doing that on their own, right, Yeah, so they may need help more so, but that still doesn't justify there's still a piece of shit.
If you're going to be a piece of shit enough to murder someone, you should fucking plan out enough to how to cover it up.
Well. And poor Shan she didn't freaking deserve this, just someone was jealous, Like, oh my word, that is just yeah.
Now, she did have a reported behavior of kind of going for the bad boy type a little bit. I was watching one show that covered this, and one of her friends was talking about that, like John who was like a bit of a drug dealer who went to prison. Now she moved on to Arturos, who was kind of also like a little bit like that, so she kind of like that was her type a bit. But yeah,
she definitely did not deserve it. Just because she's kind of going for the bad boy type does not mean she deserved to be fucking hacked up.
Yeah, well murdered and hacked up. Yeah, that's like two terrible things, like murdered and then also doing that to like the body that remains.
Yeah, the desecration of someone's remains like that. So I am happy that she was found, but yeah, did not deserve it.
And it's all really because of spaghetti like that, because if she wasn't out of around beef, they probably never would have looked in there.
Probably not you know. Now, I do want to say there is I did not talk about this within the case because it's a technically speaking, completely irrelevant and b it would have just muddied the waters more a little bit harder to follow. But during the search for that, for like what actually happened and interviewing and all this sort of stuff, there was another individual I don't have their name written down, but there was another individual who was missing, and she looked a lot like Shannon, Like
the two were like damn near spitting images of each other. Okay, so there was the suspect of is there a fucking serial killer on the loose, like targeting a specific type, and that woman's remains were actually found in a backyard when a human skull was reported. So authorities went investigated and they actually found that that individual had nothing to do with this. Okay, it was just kind of like
a red herring sort of thing. But this individual had apparently was quite heavy into drugs and everything and odeed and someone just kind of like didn't know what to do and just in the backyard.
Wow. So okay, well two things here. First of all, so they just don't know where Shannon's head is, say, dissolved. Oh so they did actually get some parts of her dissolve.
Yeah, but they didn't have enough to do all of them all brutal.
And then also, if anyone ever asked me to like hold on to their freezer and it has a padlock, I will be opening that bitch up like it's just happening, Like I'm sorry, but you can't trust me with that, I'll open it or show Step one.
If you ask us to haul anything, it better be maple syrup. Step two. If it's a freezer, we're looking.
Inside, I know it would I would eat me alive like I would. I would be opening that. There's no way that I could.
Just not I know, even even if it's the fact that I have no suspicion of there being a body inside. I just want to know what you guys eat, Like do you do you guys have a lot of like shrimp in there, like you know, is there vegetables or is it just like all like hash browns and like cheap hamburger patties. Where are you getting your meat from? I'm curious.
It would be the middle of the night and you would be wanting a.
Snack and yeah in there, what kind of steak cuts do you buy? Do you go cheap or are you getting good? Do you have t bones in there? What are we talking?
You know? Like? Okay, so I would be opening it just because of sheer curiosity, and Ben would be opening it because you want some food.
Well, I want to judge you on what kind of food you eat. You know, are you spending that good money on the good food? Like what you're doing. I'm curious.
Do you open people's like cabinets in their homes and stuff and look like in the bathroom.
I'm not going to say I always do, but I will say I have. Okay, it's a in the heat of the moment. If I feel the whim upon me, then I will. I don't like dig I'll just like take a peek in. You know, I don't move anything. I just opened the cupboard, like, oh, what's in there?
Oh my gosh, Okay, what we better?
We can't tell me you've never done that. Oh yeah, we've all done that. You go to someone's house at like a house party or something, or some friends are just getting to know or whatever it is, and then you go to the bathroom and they got a medicine cabinet mirror. You tell me you don't just peek inside.
I don't know. I feel like I've got I was a kid one time. I got myself in trouble though, because I was at like an aunt and uncle's and they had the she had like electric toothbrush, and I like had wanted one, so I like, no, I like, I like just turned it on to like just see how it worked. But it had like the cover on there and made this like horrific noise the whole house like herd. So I feel like I'm pretty I'm pretty cautious now because it's just you can get caught and it's.
Like awkward, Like I say, I don't touch shit. I'll give it an open and I'm not going to go in like someone's bedroom and open and they're like nightstand drawer like no, like there's there's privacy, you know what I mean. But it's it's it's a bathroom cabinet. You know, everyone goes in the bathroom. You're not going to hide any suspicious.
Stuff in there, right well, and this is the last thing. We'll finish this up here. But we also have a scale that like announces the weight. So I remember when we've had this in like our spare bathroom at our old house. I will always warn proop of because like I think people at SIMS will stand on scales too if we're there, and I like, just so you know, like that scale will announce your weight to like the.
Whole house yep, yep. The nice thing is though, if you step off right before it actually confirms your number, it won't say anything, but you'll know your number because you.
Got to be like you have to be on it though.
Yeah. For example, if you if you're like two hundred even and it's like you're on it and it's like two oh one, uh or sorry, like two hundred point one, two hundred point two while it's deciding like that point one step off, just take your two hundred you know what I mean, and it will not announce it. But if it gets to too one hundred point one, it'll be like two hundred point one pounds and everyone knows. Would you like my impression?
Yeah?
It was thought on, wasn't it?
It was okay?
Anyways, this was this was an interesting episode. I've got a couple more interesting ones coming down the pipe. So if you guys want to check out more, there is of course live that's gonna be happening on Patreon here soon. There's more episodes on Patreon. We got socials. We got all those links down below, so don't forget to check them out, don't forget to rate the show if you wouldn't mind. We are the producers, we are the podcasters, we are the writers. It's Nicole and I. We are
the team. Nobody else. So we appreciate all the sports.
Just kidding, just us.
I'm not supposed to say that, I know. Anyways, thanks for being here, and until
Next time, stay wicked.