# 6 Solved True Crime Cases With Shocking Twists

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 24 Nov 2025, 1 h 08 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO6608332089.mp3

Join me as we discuss 6 shocking true crime cases you need to know. 👇 Youtube links: Lazy Chill True Crime Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8dVJtzeHcJgd_Z0bHrJTHQ Lazy Chill History Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillHistory Lazy Chill Zone Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LazyChillZone 👇 Support My Work: 🛍️ Merch: https://lazy-chill-zone-shop.fourthwall.com ❤️ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lazychillzone 👇Social Media Links: https://www.instagram.com/lazychillzone/ 👇 Podcast links: ⚡History Video Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/7km5pLWpYWEj1mrPpEfRUr?si=0FHYnZf-Qs2FY1GyLevfig ⚡True Crime Podcast on Spotify⚡: https://open.spotify.com/show/0klIz08pAr7wR4we0Ia4sk?si=68qZxCeAQkysXzMZrHE0Iw 🍏 True Crime Podcast on Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lazy-chill-true-crime/id1815534472 true crime, cold cases, unsolved mysteries, missing persons, murder investigation, forensic evidence, serial killers, crime scene analysis, dark history, criminal psychology, real life horror, police investigations, DNA breakthroughs, forensic genealogy, crime documentaries, criminal profiling, mysterious disappearances, solved cases, justice system, law enforcement stories, cold case files, creepy mysteries, true crime storytelling, crime reconstruction, chilling cases, investigative reporting, modern forensics, victim advocacy, unidentified remains, crime scene forensics, disturbing cases, true crime analysis, hidden clues, infamous crimes, real crime stories

## Transcript

[0:00] Hey everyone, it's Jimmy with a reminder to like subscribe and
[0:03] hit the notification bell and turn on all notifications.
[0:06] Also don't forget to leave a comment saying where you're
[0:08] listening from or just saying I'm doing my part.
[0:12] In a chilling cell phone video recovered by Florida
[0:15] investigators, 32 year old Sonia Exelby appears bruised and
[0:20] hesitant as a man off camera presses her to state how she
[0:23] wants to die. This vulnerable British woman
[0:27] had flown across the Atlantic in October 2025, not for a dream
[0:31] vacation, but for a dark purpose.
[0:35] She allegedly arranged to have a Florida man do horrific things
[0:38] to her and then ultimately kill her.
[0:41] Yet even as she haltingly consents on camera to her
[0:44] violent end, her visible hesitation hints that she may
[0:48] have been having second thoughts.
[0:51] Just days later, Exelby's remains were found buried in a
[0:55] Florida woodland grave, and an international investigation race
[0:59] to unravel how this macabre pact turned deadly.
[1:04] Sonia Exelby was, by all accounts, a troubled soul
[1:07] seeking a way out. Hailing from Portsmouth,
[1:10] England, she had privately battled extreme mental health
[1:13] issues for a long period. British investigators later
[1:18] discovered writings on her computer and even a letter in
[1:22] which XLB described plans to travel overseas to be killed.
[1:26] She even anticipated with apparent excitement that she
[1:29] might be mutilated or disabled if the grim plan didn't finish
[1:33] her off. On October 10th, 2025, XLB
[1:39] boarded a flight to Florida, arriving at Gainesville Regional
[1:43] Airport with this fatal mission in mind.
[1:47] Family and friends were unaware of the full extent of her
[1:50] intentions, but they knew she was vulnerable.
[1:54] When Exelby failed to return on her scheduled flight back to the
[1:57] UK three days later, alarm bells rang.
[2:01] She had missed her October 13th return flight without
[2:04] explanation, prompting her loved ones to report her missing.
[2:09] One concerned friend posted on social media that Exelby was a
[2:13] vulnerable person, likely in an extremely dangerous situation
[2:17] after meeting someone in Florida.
[2:20] Unfortunately, their worst fears would soon be confirmed in the
[2:23] most disturbing way possible. By mid-october, the
[2:28] disappearance of Sonia Exelby had escalated into a
[2:32] cross-border case. On October 13th, UK authorities
[2:37] contacted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement via Interpol,
[2:41] urgently reporting Exelby as a missing and endangered person.
[2:46] The information they provided was startling.
[2:49] Exelby had openly discussed wanting a violent death and
[2:52] travelled specifically to find someone to carry it out.
[2:56] This was no ordinary missing tourist.
[2:59] It was a potential arranged meet up with the expressed purpose of
[3:02] ending her life. Florida law enforcement
[3:06] immediately joined the search, aware that time might be running
[3:09] out. Authorities had access to her
[3:12] digital footprint, including the ominous letter and online
[3:16] communications which revealed the depths of her desperation.
[3:21] Armed with these clues, Florida authorities began retracing
[3:24] Excel B steps from the moment she landed in the state.
[3:30] Central to the investigation was identifying who XLB had come to
[3:34] meet. It didn't take long for
[3:36] detectives TO0IN on a suspect, Dwayne Hall, a 53 year old man
[3:41] from Ocala, FL Hall was no stranger.
[3:46] Evidence later showed that he and XLB had first connected
[3:49] about two years earlier on a website called Motherless.
[3:52] I decided I wouldn't look this one up for my research and based
[3:56] on the descriptions of the site I've read, I'd suggest you also
[3:59] do the same on this platform known for extreme content.
[4:04] The two allegedly formed a twisted pact.
[4:08] Hall claimed that Excel B had reached out because she wanted
[4:10] someone to kill her, and he answered the call.
[4:16] According to police reports, Hall portrayed himself as a kind
[4:19] of, quote, mentor, trying to talk the woman through her dark
[4:22] desires. In reality, he admitted he had
[4:26] violent tendencies of his own. Investigators suspect that Hall
[4:30] was an eager participant in Exilby's deadly plan.
[4:34] They allege that he was fully prepared to kill her from the
[4:37] outset, a theory supported by his suspicious actions before
[4:41] and after her arrival. In fact, Hall had gone shopping
[4:45] at a Walmart for rope and a shovel right before picking
[4:48] Exilby up at the airport, indicating careful preparation
[4:52] for what was to come. After landing on October 10th,
[4:57] XLB met Hall in person for the first time.
[5:01] Hall picked her up from the Gainesville airport and drove
[5:04] her to a rented Airbnb property on a quiet Rd. in Reddick, FL.
[5:09] There, over the course of that weekend, events took a gruesome
[5:13] turn. Hall admitted that he and XLB
[5:16] had consensual encounters multiple times at the rental
[5:19] house. And just to be clear, these were
[5:22] his admissions, so whether anything was ever consensual
[5:26] remains highly contentious. But far from a vacation fling,
[5:31] the encounter reportedly devolved into extreme acts,
[5:35] allegedly with consent. Hall himself confessed to taking
[5:39] a disturbing video on his cell phone during the weekend, a
[5:43] video he tried to delete but which forensic experts
[5:46] recovered. The footage is harrowing.
[5:49] It shows Sonia Exelby in a disheveled state with bruises
[5:52] covering her body. In the video, Hall can be heard
[5:56] interrogating her, asking why she's here and seeking her
[5:59] explicit consent. Exelby's response is
[6:03] heartbreaking. She says she's there because she
[6:06] feels she's an awful person who has hurt everyone, whoever loved
[6:10] her. It's a statement that
[6:12] underscores her fragile mental state, as Hall pressed her with
[6:16] questions about what she agrees to.
[6:18] She nods and gives answers, at one point indicating she
[6:22] consents to being stabbed. But detectives noted, she
[6:26] appears hesitant, visibly upset and afraid even as she
[6:30] acquiesces. It seems that in the cold
[6:35] reality of that Airbnb, Sonia Exelby began to regret the very
[6:39] fate she had sought On October 11th, likely overnight during
[6:44] her captivity, Exilby managed to send a desperate message to a
[6:48] friend via the Discord messaging app.
[6:52] In that text, she revealed that the situation had spiraled
[6:55] beyond her control. She wrote that the man she was
[6:59] with had made it clear there was no way out.
[7:02] According to these messages, he advised that she could leave,
[7:06] but only if she killed him first.
[7:08] It's been speculated that this was another form of sick
[7:11] psychological control. Knowing that this extremely
[7:15] emotionally distraught woman couldn't stand up for herself,
[7:19] Ex will be lamented that she had expected him to end her life
[7:22] swiftly rather than prolong her terror and give her mind time to
[7:26] Stew in fear. This chilling message, later
[7:30] recovered by investigators, shows she felt trapped, afraid,
[7:35] and realized she'd made a terrible mistake.
[7:41] Exelby's panicked communication would be her last.
[7:44] After October 11th, all activity from her phone and bank card
[7:48] ceased. Unbeknownst to her friends or
[7:51] family, within a few days, Sonia would be dead.
[7:56] On October 17th, acting on investigative leads, Florida law
[8:01] enforcement made a grim discovery.
[8:03] Sonia Exelby's body was found in a shallow grave in a wooded,
[8:08] undeveloped area of Marion Oaks, Florida.
[8:11] The spot was not far from where she had been held.
[8:15] Forensic examiner's quickly confirmed the identity of the
[8:18] remains through fingerprints. At the burial site,
[8:22] investigators uncovered critical evidence linking the crime to
[8:25] Dwayne Hall. Inside the makeshift grave, they
[8:29] found a price tag and label from a shovel that matched one
[8:32] recently purchased by Hall. In fact, receipts showed Hall
[8:36] bought a shovel just before picking Exelby up, and a
[8:39] matching shovel was later found stored in his garage, stained
[8:42] with Exelby's blood. This was the same shovel used to
[8:46] dig her grave, solidly tying the suspect to the body disposal.
[8:53] An autopsy provided further answers.
[8:56] The medical examiner determined that Sonia Exelby died from 4
[8:59] stab wounds. Disturbingly, investigators
[9:03] learned that Hall had mailed a package to an associate in Ohio
[9:06] shortly after the killing. Acting on this lead, authorities
[9:11] in Ohio searched the recipient's home and discovered a knife that
[9:15] tested positive for blood and carried Exelby's DNA.
[9:19] It appeared Hall attempted to hide the bloody knife by sending
[9:22] it out of state, but law enforcement caught up with this
[9:26] evidence as well. Piece by piece, the physical
[9:29] proof was mounting against Dwayne Hall.
[9:33] Even before Exelby's body was found, investigators had begun
[9:37] following a trail of digital and financial clues that pointed
[9:41] squarely to Hall. One major red flag surfaced when
[9:45] Exelby's bank in the UK noticed unusual attempts to access her
[9:49] funds after she went missing. According to arrest affidavits,
[9:55] on October 11th and 12th, there were multiple tries to transfer
[9:59] money from Exelby's accounts to a Florida business.
[10:03] This was a company later tied directly to Dwayne Hall.
[10:07] In fact, a payment of roughly $1000 was successfully made from
[10:11] Exelby's bank to a company that listed Hall's home address in
[10:15] Ocala. Other withdrawal attempts were
[10:18] declined, but this activity was enough to alert authorities.
[10:22] Hall effectively left a financial fingerprint by
[10:25] attempting to loot his victims bank accounts almost immediately
[10:29] after her expected death. These transactions LED law
[10:33] enforcement to identify Hall as a suspect early on.
[10:37] By tracing The Solver, Wolf's roadside assistance company
[10:41] associated with those charges, investigators connected Dwayne
[10:45] Hall to Exelby's disappearance. And yes, this guy was a tow
[10:50] truck driver who was quote UN quote, helping people out in
[10:53] difficult situations. Confronted by detectives, Dwayne
[10:59] Hall's responses raised immediate suspicions.
[11:02] Initially, Hall denied knowing XLB at all and offered various
[11:05] inconsistent stories about his recent activities.
[11:09] But faced with evidence, including the financial links
[11:13] and possibly knowledge of the video, Hall's account shifted.
[11:18] He eventually admitted that he had indeed met up with Sonia
[11:21] Exelby and spent the weekend with her.
[11:24] Yet Hall painted himself not as a killer, but as a reluctant
[11:29] participant in a bizarre scenario.
[11:32] He claimed Exelby had essentially asked to be killed
[11:36] and that he was trying to help her fulfill that wish.
[11:39] In an alleged attempt at justification, Hall told
[11:43] detectives that if he hadn't been acting consensually, he
[11:46] would have tossed her body to some Gators.
[11:50] I like to call this the If I Did It Defense, named after OJ
[11:55] Simpson's book of the same name. He stopped short of directly
[12:00] confessing to everything when pressed point blank if he had
[12:04] killed her. Hall declined to answer
[12:07] chillingly, though he said that she's happy now because she got
[12:11] what she always wanted. This unsettling statement
[12:15] suggested that Hall wanted police to believe he had merely
[12:18] given Exelby the violent end she sought.
[12:23] With a body recovered and a mountain of evidence,
[12:25] authorities moved swiftly to charge Dwayne Hall.
[12:29] On November 17th, 2025, a little over a month after Sonia
[12:34] Exelby's death, Hall was formally arrested and charged.
[12:39] The charges reflect the allegations that he not only
[12:41] killed Exelby but also unlawfully restrained her once
[12:45] she tried to back out. In addition, Hall faces a
[12:49] variety of charges for his financial crimes against Exelby,
[12:54] including fraudulent use of her credit card after he eliminated
[12:58] her. At the time the indictment was
[13:00] filed, Hall was already sitting in jail on those earlier fraud
[13:04] charges, meaning he had been in custody since mid-october.
[13:09] Hall's case has only just begun winding through the Florida
[13:12] courts, and he's pleaded not guilty to all four charges
[13:15] against him, and he remains innocent until proven guilty.
[13:21] The killing of Sonia Exelby stands as a heartbreaking
[13:24] cautionary tale. It highlights the extreme
[13:27] vulnerabilities of those struggling with mental illness
[13:31] and how predators can take advantage of such despair.
[13:35] In the end, regardless of any prior agreement, the law is
[13:39] clear that no one can consent to their own killing if the
[13:43] allegations hold true. Dwayne Hall took the life of a
[13:46] troubled young woman in a horrific manner, and he may pay
[13:50] for that with the remainder of his own.
[13:56] Hey everyone, it's Jimmy here reminding you to subscribe and
[14:00] hit the notification bell and turn on all those notifications.
[14:05] Also remember to check out the membership option by clicking
[14:08] Join or hit the Patreon link in the description.
[14:15] A routine trip to a Georgia Walmart turned into a nightmare
[14:19] on an October evening. The father of 18 year old JT
[14:23] Schroeder rushed to the store parking lot after receiving the
[14:26] call no parent ever wants. He arrived to a horrific scene.
[14:32] His son lay critically injured in a pool of blood, surrounded
[14:35] by shocked bystanders in the suburban shopping area of White
[14:40] Marsh Island, a normally quiet community just outside Savannah.
[14:45] The eruption of violence was startling and brutal.
[14:48] This shocking violence over something as trivial as a
[14:51] shopping cart left the community reeling. 48 year old Delano
[14:57] Middleton was pushing his shopping cart out of the store
[15:00] when 18 year old Schroeder allegedly kicked the cart while
[15:03] walking past. For reasons still unclear, that
[15:08] brief encounter exploded into violence within seconds.
[15:12] Middleton allegedly pulled out a knife in an instant and stabbed
[15:15] Schroeder multiple times in a frenzied attack.
[15:18] The teen was stabbed more than 10 times, according to his
[15:22] father's account of the crime scene.
[15:25] Bystanders immediately called 911 and officers arrived around
[15:30] six that evening to find Schroeder bleeding badly from
[15:33] numerous stab wounds. Emergency responders rushed the
[15:37] gravely injured teen to a local hospital.
[15:40] Despite doctors efforts and life saving measures, Schroeder
[15:43] couldn't be saved. He died from his wounds after a
[15:47] few days on life support. News of his death sent shock
[15:52] waves through the community. Those who knew him spoke of his
[15:55] kind and selfless nature. His girlfriend said he had an
[15:59] incredibly big heart and a remarkably sweet soul, and
[16:04] friends noted he would do anything for the people he
[16:06] loved. At a candlelight vigil held in
[16:09] his honor, his father revealed he hadn't slept in weeks.
[16:14] Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the devastation done to
[16:18] his son. Right after the stabbing, police
[16:23] began working to piece together what happened and who was
[16:25] responsible. Both Middleton and witnesses
[16:28] were questioned by officers at the scene, but no charges were
[16:31] filed. Initially, while the
[16:33] investigation was ongoing, the area was treated as a crime
[16:37] scene as detectives gathered evidence and reviewed Walmart
[16:42] security footage. Police said they would consult
[16:46] with the district attorney's office to determine appropriate
[16:48] charges pending the victim's condition.
[16:53] For several days, Middleton remained under scrutiny but
[16:56] wasn't charged. While Schroeder clung to life in
[16:59] hospital. Once he passed away and the case
[17:03] became a clear homicide, authorities swiftly moved
[17:06] forward. One week after the attack,
[17:10] police secured a warrant and arrested Delano Middleton.
[17:14] He was booked into the Chatham County Jail and is being held
[17:17] without bond. And yes, in case you were
[17:20] wondering, and in case I wasn't clear enough, this psychopath
[17:24] was walking around on the streets for a week after
[17:27] stabbing an innocent teenager. But trust me, the twist gets so
[17:32] much worse, and it'll have you questioning why this man was
[17:35] turned loose to begin with. As the case unfolded, disturbing
[17:41] details about Middleton's past came to light.
[17:45] Court records showed he had a history of violence, with prior
[17:48] arrests for aggravated assault, battery and weapons offenses in
[17:53] 2021 and 2023. Notably, he had stabbed another
[17:58] victim back in 2021, an attack on a Savannah woman named Erica
[18:02] Young that was similarly sudden and unprovoked.
[18:06] Young, a U-Haul employee, tried to help Middleton at her
[18:10] workplace, only to be viciously assaulted and knifed multiple
[18:14] times in the stomach and head. She recalled that during the
[18:18] frenzy, Middleton told her he wanted to watch her bleed out as
[18:22] she lay wounded on the ground, underscoring the level of rage
[18:26] in his actions. Middleton was eventually
[18:29] arrested for that crime and underwent a court ordered
[18:32] psychiatric evaluation in 2022. The psychiatrist initially found
[18:38] him mentally unfit for trial and after months of treatment, he
[18:42] was later ruled competent. In 2023, he pleaded guilty to a
[18:49] reduced charge of aggravated assault and was sentenced to two
[18:53] years in prison followed by 8 years of probation.
[18:57] Having already served about two years behind bars awaiting the
[19:00] cases resolution, he was released on probation under the
[19:04] plea deal. Thus, at the time of Schroeder's
[19:08] slaying in 2025, Middleton was still on probation from the 2021
[19:13] stabbing case. The revelation that a repeat
[19:16] violent offender was free to allegedly slay an innocent teen
[19:20] fuelled outrage in Savannah. Erica Young was interviewed by a
[19:25] local Fox affiliate and was especially angered to see the
[19:28] man who nearly killed her now accused of doing the same thing
[19:31] to someone else. She bluntly said that the
[19:34] justice system completely failed not only her, but the entire
[19:39] Schroeder family and society in general.
[19:44] Notably, Erica Young drove several hours to stand with the
[19:47] Schroeder family at his public memorial to show support.
[19:51] Bonded by trauma, the two families offered each other
[19:55] support and vowed to ensure that justice is served this time.
[20:00] As of now, Delano Middleton awaits trial, and if convicted,
[20:04] the 48 year old faces the possibility of spending the rest
[20:08] of his life in prison. In the sprawling, sun drenched
[20:16] suburbs of Clermont, FL, manicured lawns often conceal
[20:20] the quiet desperations of the families living within them.
[20:24] On Sandy Pines Rd. A5 acre property sat under the
[20:28] heavy humid air of Central Florida, appearing to the
[20:32] outside world as a slice of semi rural paradise.
[20:37] But beneath the surface, quite literally, lay a secret, encased
[20:41] in concrete and buried under the ashes of a fire pit.
[20:46] It was here, in March 2018, that the facade of Lori Shaver's life
[20:51] finally cracked. For nearly three years, she had
[20:56] lived on this property with her children and a new partner,
[20:59] hosting parties and building a future.
[21:03] Little did they know this was all occurring while the
[21:05] decomposing remains of her husband, Michael Shaver, lay
[21:09] just feet beneath the soles of her shoes.
[21:13] The discovery of Michael's body launched a legal saga involving
[21:16] digital impersonation, a wedding held over a grave, and a defense
[21:21] strategy that left a courtroom gasping.
[21:24] This is a story about the lengths to which a person will
[21:27] go to curate a reality and the chilling ability to maintain a
[21:31] lie while literally building a life on top of the truth.
[21:36] Michael Shaver was a monorail technician at Walt Disney World,
[21:40] a job requiring precision and reliability.
[21:44] By all accounts from his Co workers, Michael was a man of
[21:47] routine. He showed up and got the job
[21:50] done. In the ecosystem of Disney's
[21:53] transportation network, he was a known quantity.
[21:58] He married Lori, his high school sweetheart.
[22:01] They met in the 7th grade, a detail Lori would later
[22:04] reminisce about on the witness stand.
[22:07] To the casual observer, they were a typical family unit.
[22:11] Yet the Fishers were forming long before the fatal shot.
[22:16] The transformation of a childhood romance into a lethal
[22:19] trap suggests a slow erosion of trust replaced by a toxicity
[22:24] that would eventually consume them both.
[22:29] The timeline of the tragedy anchors itself.
[22:31] In November 2015, Michael Shaver simply stopped showing up.
[22:37] His Co workers at Disney were the first to notice.
[22:41] Then came the text message. A message sent from Michael's
[22:44] phone stated abruptly that he was quitting and that they
[22:48] could, quote, keep all his tools.
[22:51] For a technician, tools are a livelihood, an investment of
[22:56] thousands of dollars. To abandon them was to abandon
[23:00] one of his biggest investments. The message raised immediate red
[23:04] flags. It was a chaotic gesture
[23:07] attributed to a steady man. Simultaneously, Michael's family
[23:12] felt the chill of his absence. When they reached out, they
[23:16] received hostile texts or Facebook messages from Michael's
[23:20] account. He told them to leave him alone,
[23:23] and a narrative of a disgruntled husband fleeing domesticity for
[23:28] a fresh start quickly formed and would be accepted by everyone
[23:32] for a time. However, if Michael had truly
[23:36] left to begin a new life, he would need cold, hard cash.
[23:41] Yet his bank accounts remained frozen.
[23:44] There was no withdrawal of funds, no credit card activity,
[23:48] no digital footprint of a man moving through the world.
[23:52] There was only the digital phantom typing angry messages
[23:56] from an IP address that traced back to his own home, where he
[24:00] apparently no longer was. I guess Lori didn't know about
[24:04] VPNs. It was a different time.
[24:08] Between November 2015 and February 2018, Lori Shaver lived
[24:14] 2 lives. Prosecutors argued this was
[24:17] clear evidence of her consciousness of guilt.
[24:19] She began dating, eventually moving a new man, Travis Filmer,
[24:24] into the home she had shared with Michael.
[24:27] She told PEOPLE Michael was a deadbeat, a stalker, or in jail.
[24:32] The cruelty of the impersonation was most acute in how it
[24:35] targeted Michael's family. As they grew desperate for proof
[24:39] of life, the responses from Michael became more biting.
[24:43] When his mother grew gravely ill, the messages remained cold.
[24:48] To maintain the lie, Michael had to be such a jerk that no one
[24:52] would care to look for him. Within months of Michael's
[24:57] supposed departure, Lori began a relationship with Travis Filmer.
[25:02] Filmer testified that Lori told him Michael was, quote, no
[25:06] longer walking this earth and that something bad had happened.
[25:12] This admission suggests Laurie felt a level of security that
[25:16] she would not be caught. The construction of the fire pit
[25:21] and the pouring of the concrete slab became a focal point of
[25:25] this new era. At the trial, Travis Filmer
[25:29] admitted to helping construct this feature, citing practical
[25:33] reasons like a muddy backyard. Yet the timing was damning.
[25:38] The slab was a seal, a permanent lid placed over the volatile
[25:42] history of the marriage. In December 2016, Lori and
[25:48] Travis held a commitment ceremony on the property.
[25:52] Lori wore a white dress. Travis's grandfather walked her
[25:55] down the aisle. It was a celebration of the new
[25:58] life, held directly over the remains of the old one.
[26:04] The charade collapsed in February 2018.
[26:08] A childhood friend of Michael's requested a well-being check,
[26:12] reporting that no one had heard Michael's voice in three years.
[26:16] This was despite getting barraged with odd and aggressive
[26:19] messages from him throughout this entire time.
[26:23] When Lake County deputies arrived, Lori stuck to her
[26:27] script. Michael had left in 2015.
[26:31] She allowed them inside the house, which betrayed no signs
[26:35] of a struggle. However, when deputies asked to
[26:38] search the backyard with a sniffer dog, Laurie's
[26:41] cooperation evaporated. At that point, she requested an
[26:45] attorney and shut down completely, proving that there
[26:49] was definitely nothing a dog would find in that backyard.
[26:53] And honestly, it would have been better for her to just not
[26:55] cooperate at all. Being totally willing to deal
[26:59] with investigators until they wanted to sniff around the
[27:01] backyard literally with a dog is obviously a very bad look.
[27:08] On March 9th, 2018, the Sheriff's Office returned with a
[27:12] warrant and a team of German Shepherds AK-9 from the Brevard
[27:17] County Sheriff's Office alerted on the fire pit area.
[27:20] Jumping and digging before sitting down the signal for
[27:24] decomposition. Deputies broke through the
[27:27] concrete slab. Beneath the earth, they found a
[27:30] blue tarp. As the layers of soil were
[27:34] peeled back, the reality of Michael Shaver's final resting
[27:37] place was revealed. The fire pit was a sarcophagus.
[27:44] The trial of Lori Shaver began in September 2024, nine years
[27:49] after Michael took his last breath.
[27:51] The state painted Lori as a Black Widow who killed her
[27:55] husband to start over, using digital impersonation to hide
[27:58] the crime. But the defense, led by attorney
[28:02] Jeffrey Wiggs, chose a strategy almost unheard of in criminal
[28:06] defense. Blame the child.
[28:09] I call this The Who shot Mr. Burns defense.
[28:13] And yeah, this is clearly a Hail Mary pass at best.
[28:17] First, the defense dismantled the victim.
[28:21] They painted Michael not as a good-natured Disney technician,
[28:25] but as a violent monster. They argued his disappearance
[28:29] was the result of a violent confrontation gone wrong.
[28:34] The crux of the defense was a claim that sucked the air out of
[28:37] the courtroom. Lori didn't kill Michael.
[28:40] Her daughter Isabel did. The defense theorized that in
[28:44] 2015, Michael was attacking Lori to the point of potentially
[28:49] killing her. Isabel, then seven years old and
[28:52] quick on the draw, allegedly ran to get a revolver and heroically
[28:57] shot her father to save her mother.
[29:00] The defense further claimed that after the child fired, Lori's ex
[29:04] lover, a man named Jeremy Townsend, took the gun, fired a
[29:08] second shot to finish him off, and disposed of the body.
[29:13] Isabel Shaver, now 15, walked to the stand and told a harrowing
[29:18] story. She described A chaotic scene
[29:21] where her father was kicking her mother.
[29:24] She claimed Jeremy Townsend was present and fired a second shot.
[29:29] It was a dramatic confession, but the prosecution dismantled
[29:33] it with forensic logic. The medical examiner testified
[29:38] that Michael died from a single gunshot wound to the back of the
[29:41] head. There was no evidence of a
[29:44] second shot. This single fact devastated the
[29:47] defense's 2 shooter theory. Prosecutors pointed out that
[29:52] Isabel had been interviewed multiple times over the years
[29:55] and never mentioned shooting her father until the trial.
[29:59] They suggested she had been manipulated or groomed by her
[30:02] mother into taking the fall, knowing that she couldn't be
[30:06] found criminally liable as a 7 year old.
[30:11] Jeremy Townsend testified for the prosecution, likely under
[30:15] immunity or simply to clear his name.
[30:19] Townsend stated that he didn't even know who Michael was.
[30:23] He denied being at the house, shooting Michael, or burying the
[30:27] body. He testified his relationship
[30:30] with Lori didn't begin until December 2015.
[30:35] Importantly, this was a month after the slaying, making the
[30:38] timeline simply not work. Travis Filmer, the man who
[30:44] married Lori on the slab, was a reluctant witness.
[30:48] He admitted to pouring the concrete but claimed ignorance
[30:51] of what lay beneath. When prosecutors asked why he
[30:55] didn't ask questions. When Lori hinted there was
[30:57] something more there, his lack of curiosity painted a picture
[31:01] of willful blindness. He just wasn't a very
[31:05] inquisitive guy, he claimed. The jury was left with two
[31:08] competing realities, with the first being a calculated wife
[31:12] who executed her husband and impersonated him for years.
[31:17] The other potential reality involved a 7 year old, Annie
[31:21] Oakley, who saved her mom's life and a boyfriend from the future
[31:25] who solved all her problems. The physical evidence, the
[31:30] single gunshot, the digital deception, the concrete slab
[31:34] weighed heavily against the defense on a Friday in September
[31:39] 2024. After approximately 5 hours of
[31:42] deliberation, the jury returned their verdict.
[31:45] Guilty sentencing occurred on November 25th, 2024.
[31:52] Judge Carrie Radda sentenced Lori Shaver to life in prison
[31:56] with no possibility of parole. Lori Shaver is perhaps one of
[32:02] the most evil people I've covered on this channel, given
[32:05] the sheer scope of the psychological damage she
[32:07] inflicted as well. She didn't just kill Michael,
[32:11] she went above and beyond to damage everyone in her orbit,
[32:15] including, most disturbingly, her own daughter.
[32:24] On the evening of March 1st, 2017, a peaceful rural
[32:28] Pennsylvania setting was shattered by a gunshot. 22 year
[32:32] old Katrina Seaburn, a Clarion University senior, was found
[32:36] fatally shot in her car near Lake Lucy in Washington
[32:40] Township. This is the story of how a young
[32:43] woman's life was cut short and how the investigation, trial and
[32:48] conviction of her boyfriend, Damien Ditz, eventually brought
[32:52] answers and justice. It started as a routine drive.
[32:57] On that early March evening, Katrina Seaburn, a 22 year old
[33:02] student from Kerwinsville, sat in the passenger seat of her
[33:05] Suzuki hatchback while her boyfriend, 22 year old Damien
[33:10] Ditz, drove. A Glock had been resting on the
[33:14] dashboard since the night before, after the couple had
[33:17] gone on a fishing trip. As they pulled into the parking
[33:20] area of a trailer park near Lake Lucie, a 911 call came in at 543
[33:26] reporting a shooting. First responders arrived to a
[33:30] grim scene. Katrina had been shot once in
[33:33] the chest and was unresponsive. Paramedics couldn't save her.
[33:38] She was pronounced dead at the scene, still buckled in the
[33:42] front passenger seat of her car. Ditz appeared immediately
[33:46] distraught. Witnesses later recounted that
[33:49] he was found outside the vehicle in extreme distress, vomiting
[33:53] and sobbing as emergency personnel arrived.
[33:57] He was even heard screaming. That it quote should have been
[34:00] me. An apparent raw display of shock
[34:04] and remorse in the moments after the shooting.
[34:07] Aside from the dying victim and Ditz himself, no one else was
[34:11] present. It fell to the Pennsylvania
[34:14] State Police and Clarion County detectives to piece together
[34:17] what had happened between the couple and those fateful
[34:20] minutes. In the immediate aftermath, Ditz
[34:25] told police that the shooting was a bizarre accident.
[34:28] During an interview with the cops on the night of March 1st,
[34:32] he claimed the loaded Roscoe had slid off the dashboard as he
[34:35] made a turn. As it fell, it hit the center
[34:38] console and discharged on its own, striking Katrina Square in
[34:43] the chest. Within hours.
[34:46] He changed his story. In a second statement that same
[34:49] night, Ditz said that when the gun slid off the dash, he
[34:53] grabbed for it and it went off as he caught it.
[34:57] Both versions painted the incident as an unfortunate
[35:00] mishap, with Ditz denying any intent to harm his girlfriend.
[35:05] Despite these explanations, troopers weren't entirely
[35:09] convinced. But they decided not to file
[35:11] charges immediately, pending further analysis of the
[35:15] evidence. Over the next three months,
[35:19] investigators dug deeper, and a possible motive emerged.
[35:23] The couple had been arguing over money that day.
[35:26] Katrina had lent Dits about 1000 bucks to buy a car, and he had
[35:30] in turn given some of it to a friend, which upset her.
[35:34] Shortly before the shooting, Katrina checked Ditz's bank
[35:37] balance at an ATM and discovered only $9 remaining, a finding
[35:43] that sparked A heated dispute in the car.
[35:46] This ultimately very minor financial feud provided context
[35:49] for why emotions were running high just before the weapon
[35:52] discharged. Katrina and Ditz had dated on
[35:56] and off for about four years, so those close to them struggled to
[36:00] fathom how an ordinary disagreement escalated into a
[36:03] deadly incident. On June 20th, 2017, after
[36:10] extensive investigation, state Police brought Ditz back in for
[36:14] a polygraph examination and intensive questioning.
[36:18] Confronted with the inconsistencies in his stories
[36:21] and other evidence, Ditz changed his account yet again.
[36:25] He admitted that his previous statements were false.
[36:29] Ditz now confessed that during the argument over the missing
[36:32] cache, he lost his temper and grabbed the weapon in anger,
[36:36] despite knowing it was loaded. He pointed the Glock at Katrina
[36:39] to intimidate her, and then without warning, it went off and
[36:44] the bullet fatally struck her in the chest.
[36:48] Ditz insisted he didn't intentionally pull the trigger,
[36:50] claiming the firearm discharged while he was irresponsibly
[36:54] waving it around. Following this confession,
[36:58] authorities arrested Ditz on criminal homicide and related
[37:02] charges. And I'll just add here that if
[37:05] he had simply stuck to one of his initial stories, it looks
[37:08] like this guy may have actually gotten away with it.
[37:11] Thankfully, Damien was engaging in some nominative determinism
[37:15] and lived up to his Ditz name, being unable to keep his story
[37:19] straight. In December 2018, Damien Ditz
[37:25] went on trial at the Clarion County Courthouse.
[37:28] The proceedings lasted about one week and drew intense local
[37:31] interest. Early in the trial, testimony
[37:34] had to be paused when Ditz suffered an apparent panic
[37:37] attack in the courtroom. Once the trial resumed, the core
[37:41] question was clear. Both sides agreed Ditz fired the
[37:46] gun, but whether it was an accident or not would determine
[37:50] Damien's fate. District Attorney Mark Aaron
[37:55] argued that this shooting was no accident.
[37:58] In his opening statement, he told the jury that by picking up
[38:01] a loaded weapon during a heated argument with a finger on the
[38:04] trigger, Ditz demonstrated an extreme disregard for human
[38:08] life. Such reckless behavior, Aaron
[38:11] contended, amounted to malice. To reinforce a motive, the
[38:16] prosecution recounted the couple's dispute over the money,
[38:20] suggesting that seething anger had overtaken Ditz.
[38:24] The jury was shown surveillance footage from a bank Dr. Thru
[38:27] earlier that afternoon, where Katrina can be seen checking
[38:31] Ditz's account. Shortly before the incident,
[38:34] investigators also presented the physical evidence, the Glock
[38:38] itself, and a box of ammunition from the car.
[38:42] A trooper testified that the ammo box had one round missing,
[38:45] presumably the bullet that felled Katrina.
[38:49] Additionally, Ditz's cousin, the weapons owner, testified that
[38:54] the Glock had never malfunctioned in its prior use.
[38:58] This potentially undermined any claim of a spontaneous misfire,
[39:02] though no expert evidence appears to have been LED in this
[39:05] regard. The defense maintained that
[39:09] Katrina's death was a tragic accident and nothing more.
[39:13] Defense attorney Adam Bishop acknowledged that Ditz caused
[39:17] the fatal shot, but urged jurors to see it as the result of
[39:20] negligence, not intent. He portrayed Ditz as
[39:24] inexperienced and foolish with firearms, but not a killer.
[39:29] He was a stupid person, not a malicious person.
[39:34] The defense emphasized that Ditz had no reason to deliberately
[39:37] harm the woman he loved. They pointed out that the young
[39:41] couple had shared hopeful plans for the future.
[39:44] They even kept a bucket list of goals, like getting engaged and
[39:48] buying a house. And nothing in Ditz's background
[39:51] suggested malice toward Katrina. All evidence of his panic and
[39:56] grief after the incident, they argued, was consistent with
[39:59] someone horrified by his own mistake.
[40:03] The most dramatic testimony came from Ditz himself taking the
[40:07] stand in his own defense. He broke down and reiterated
[40:11] that he never meant to do this to Katrina.
[40:13] He admitted he handled the gun recklessly and expressed
[40:17] profound remorse. However, under cross
[40:20] examination, Ditz had to confront his shifting stories.
[40:25] When pressed about the moment the weapon fired, he ultimately
[40:28] conceded that he had pulled the trigger, an extremely damaging
[40:32] admission that undermined his accident narrative.
[40:35] This acknowledgement gave credence to the prosecution's
[40:38] claim that, whatever his regrets afterward, Ditz's actions in
[40:43] that instant were criminally reckless.
[40:48] After closing arguments, the case went to the jury.
[40:51] The prosecutor stressed that waving a loaded gun at someone
[40:54] in anger is not a simple mishap. The defense, in turn, pleaded
[40:59] for jurors to recognize Ditz's lack of intent and genuine
[41:03] remorse, suggesting he should be convicted of involuntary
[41:06] manslaughter at most. The panel of seven women and
[41:10] five men began deliberations, tasked with determining what
[41:14] form of punishment suited this situation.
[41:19] On December 7th, 2018, the jury returned its verdict after
[41:24] nearly 4 hours of deliberation. They found Damien Ditz guilty of
[41:29] negligent homicide in the death of Katrina Seaburn.
[41:33] The verdict meant the jurors concluded Ditz acted with
[41:36] malice, that he intentionally or knowingly caused death through
[41:40] his reckless actions, but they stopped short of saying that he
[41:44] committed the ACT willfully and declined to find him guilty in
[41:48] the first degree. Six weeks later, on January
[41:52] 23rd, 2019, Ditz faced his sentencing hearing.
[41:57] A standing room only crowd filled the courtroom, including
[42:01] dozens of Katrina's family members and friends wearing
[42:03] Justice for Katrina shirts emblazoned with her photo.
[42:07] Emotions ran high as loved ones spoke.
[42:11] Katrina's mother, Tammy Seaburn, delivered a heart wrenching
[42:15] statement about the impact of losing her only child.
[42:19] She described Katrina as a gifted student and athlete, a
[42:23] young woman who had excelled in school and was just weeks from
[42:26] graduating college. All of those achievements and
[42:30] future milestones, Tammy noted, were stolen in an instant.
[42:35] She recounted how her life and family were shattered on that
[42:38] day in 2017 and how every day since has been a struggle with
[42:43] grief. Pleading for the maximum
[42:45] punishment, she urged the judge to take a firm stand against
[42:49] violence so that no other mother would have to endure what she
[42:52] has. Ditz, given a chance to speak,
[42:57] sobbed as he apologized and insisted he never wanted to hurt
[43:01] Katrina. Judge James Arner, before
[43:04] announcing the sentence, acknowledged that no outcome
[43:06] could truly compensate for the loss of a life.
[43:10] He then sentenced Damien Ditz to 10 to 20 years in state prison.
[43:15] This punishment ensured that Ditz would spend at least a
[43:18] decade behind bars before being eligible for parole.
[43:23] It was less than the 40 year maximum that Katrina's family
[43:26] had hoped for, but it held Ditz accountable for his actions to a
[43:30] significant degree. The conclusion of the court case
[43:35] brought some closure but little comfort to those who loved
[43:38] Katrina. However, personally, I think the
[43:42] result is about as good as it could have possibly been given
[43:45] the circumstances. If Ditz had simply stuck to his
[43:48] initial story, there would have been little way to disprove it,
[43:52] especially if he went with the second story where he grabbed
[43:56] the trigger accidentally. The night was cold and quiet on
[44:03] February 6th, 2021, in the East Rock neighborhood of New Haven,
[44:08] CT, a place typically synonymous with academia.
[44:12] Yale University student Kevin Jiang was driving home about a
[44:17] week after the happiest moment of his life.
[44:20] At 26, he was a dedicated graduate student in the Yale
[44:24] School of the Environment, a former Army National Guard
[44:27] officer, and a man whose life was deeply anchored in faith and
[44:31] service. Just one week earlier, Kevin had
[44:34] become engaged to Zion Perry, a fellow Yale doctoral candidate
[44:39] in molecular biophysics and biochemistry.
[44:43] They were a couple built on shared values, scholarship and
[44:46] commitment. That Saturday, Kevin and Zion
[44:50] had spent the day indulging in nature, hiking and ice fishing
[44:55] before sharing dinner at her apartment.
[44:58] When Kevin left her home around 8:30 PM in his Toyota Prius,
[45:03] intending to drive the short distance to his own residence,
[45:07] he couldn't have anticipated the violence awaiting him.
[45:10] He barely made it two blocks. At the intersection of Lawrence
[45:15] and Nickel streets, Kevin's car was struck from behind by a dark
[45:19] SUV. At first, this seemed to be
[45:22] nothing more than a minor Fender Bender.
[45:25] This common low stakes interaction was in fact an
[45:29] ingeniously designed trap, an intentional setup that
[45:33] guaranteed Kevin would leave the safety of his vehicle.
[45:37] As he stepped out, likely to check on the other driver and
[45:41] exchange insurance information, the facade of an accident
[45:45] vanished. The driver of the SUV pulled a
[45:48] gun and, in an act of staggering brutality, opened fire.
[45:53] The noise shattered the quiet academic streetscape, marking
[45:56] the end of Kevin Jiang's vibrant life in a volley of bullets.
[46:02] The crime scene itself immediately suggested this was
[46:05] no random act of road rage. Witnesses reported hearing the
[46:09] minor collision followed by a torrent of gunshots.
[46:14] One witness saw muzzle flashes and noted that the shooter,
[46:17] dressed all in black, continued to fire bullets into the victim
[46:21] after he had already fallen. Kevin Jong was struck a
[46:25] devastating 8 times. The proximity of some shots was
[46:29] so close that gunpowder left burn marks on his face.
[46:33] A chilling home surveillance video captured Kevin's final
[46:36] moments alive, confirming the swift and clinical execution
[46:40] described by witnesses and the powder marks.
[46:44] Detectives from the New Haven Police Department quickly
[46:46] gathered the physical evidence, including the eight spent
[46:49] casings. Here, the case deepened
[46:53] considerably. Ballistic analysis linked those
[46:56] casings not just to a single incident, but to four recent non
[47:01] fatal drive by shootings. They had all occurred in the
[47:05] immediate area in the months leading up to the killing.
[47:10] At every non fatal scene, one to five casings were recovered, all
[47:14] linked to this weapon. The emerging understanding of
[47:18] the evidence revealed a much more sinister truth.
[47:21] The shooter hadn't acted randomly.
[47:24] He had laid a meticulous multi stage plan, staging the prior
[47:28] shootings as decoys to mislead police into concluding that
[47:32] Kevin's death was merely part of a random string of violence.
[47:36] This strategic use of pre crime suggested a perpetrator whose
[47:39] intelligence and planning extended far beyond typical
[47:43] offenders. It pointed to a motive that was
[47:46] highly personal and targeted. Despite the perpetrators attempt
[47:50] to construct a misleading narrative of randomness, the
[47:56] investigative focus soon shifted from the seemingly random nature
[47:59] of the ballistic evidence to the dark vehicle used in the attack.
[48:04] The vehicle used in all the crimes were 2013 GMC terrains,
[48:09] which the perpetrator had taken out for test drives for the
[48:13] vehicle he used to eliminate Kevin.
[48:15] He just straight up stole the vehicle during his test drive.
[48:20] The perpetrator had executed a careful deception Around 11:00
[48:24] AM. He'd persuaded A salesman to let
[48:27] him take the SUV for an extended test drive.
[48:31] He claimed he needed to bring it to his mechanic for inspection
[48:34] before purchasing it. The salesman attached a dealer
[48:37] license plate, believing the arrangement to be legitimate.
[48:42] When the salesman called later that afternoon, the driver asked
[48:45] for more time, citing A fabricated family emergency,
[48:50] then stopped responding altogether.
[48:54] By 5:30 PM, the car was reported stolen.
[48:58] The vehicle was eventually found abandoned on railroad tracks in
[49:02] North Haven, CT shortly after the final shooting.
[49:06] The chain of evidence, the stolen car, the specific caliber
[49:10] weapon, and the orchestrated decoy shootings quickly LED
[49:14] investigators to the individual who had stolen the SUV.
[49:19] This was Chinchwan Pan, a 29 year old Massachusetts Institute
[49:23] of Technology researcher. Pan, who had received his
[49:28] Bachelor's in computer science in 2013, was working as a
[49:32] researcher at MI TS Computer Science and Artificial
[49:35] Intelligence Laboratory. Notably, he had been described
[49:39] as a genius by virtually all that had met him, but he had
[49:43] severe difficulties socializing. Authorities moved swiftly,
[49:48] naming Pan as a suspect on February 10th, 2021, and issuing
[49:53] a warrant for his arrest on February 26th.
[49:57] For the attacks and the vehicle theft.
[50:00] Pan was considered armed and dangerous, having vanished
[50:03] almost instantly after his deranged spree.
[50:09] The moment Pan was identified, detectives began exploring his
[50:13] link to the victim, Kevin Jong. The connection LED not to Kevin,
[50:18] but to his fiancee, Zion Perry. Both Pan and Perry had attended
[50:24] MIT, where they were acquaintances.
[50:28] Perry received her bachelor's degree in bioengineering from
[50:32] MIT the year prior. The two had crossed paths
[50:36] multiple times and had even been photographed together multiple
[50:40] times. However, the actual extent of
[50:43] their interaction was minimal. Perry stated they had never had
[50:48] a romantic relationship and that they barely knew each other.
[50:52] When Perry graduated, Pan had asked to video call her to
[50:56] congratulate her, an invitation she politely declined.
[51:01] Despite this minimal contact, detectives concluded that Pan
[51:04] had cultivated a severe obsession with Perry.
[51:09] This delusion, unknown to both Perry and Jiang, was likely
[51:13] triggered by the one piece of public information that
[51:16] shattered Pan's self constructed fantasy.
[51:20] The announcement of Kevin and Zion's engagement on Facebook
[51:23] one week prior to the killing must have utterly destroyed his
[51:26] delusional world view. Though the official motive was
[51:30] never fully confirmed by prosecutors during the legal
[51:33] process, the circumstantial evidence strongly points toward
[51:37] extreme obsessive jealousy. Pan's highly premeditated
[51:42] actions stealing a vehicle hours earlier and staging multiple
[51:46] decoy attacks suggest he wasn't reacting impulsively.
[51:51] He was executing a plan devised specifically to eliminate the
[51:54] man who was living what he believed should have been his
[51:57] own reality. However, the fact that he
[52:00] started his series of decoy attacks before the Facebook post
[52:04] throws a wrench in this theory, in my view, at any rate, we'll
[52:09] never know the truth for reasons which are about to become
[52:12] apparent. Pan's calculated planning didn't
[52:16] end at the scene he had prepared extensively for life on the run.
[52:21] Shortly after abandoning the stolen vehicle, he changed his
[52:25] cell phone number and began a cross country flight.
[52:29] The Marshall Service was quickly enlisted to spearhead the
[52:32] manhunt, offering rewards for information that eventually
[52:35] reached $10,000. Pan was initially tracked to the
[52:40] suburban Atlanta, GA area, driving with relatives and
[52:44] reportedly acting strangely. Investigators recognize that Pan
[52:48] posed a significant flight risk, especially considering his
[52:52] family's reported access to large financial assets in
[52:55] Shanghai. The marshals implemented a key
[52:59] strategy, meticulous surveillance of Pan's parents,
[53:03] believing that their movements and financial activities would
[53:05] eventually lead them to their son.
[53:08] Financial records showed the parents had been making large
[53:11] cash withdrawals, heightening the risk of Pan attempting to
[53:15] leave the country. This surveillance strategy
[53:20] finally paid off big time. In May 2021, approximately 4
[53:25] months after Kevin was gunned down, investigators tracked
[53:29] Pan's parents S to Georgia again.
[53:32] During this trip, Pan's mother, Hong Huang, was observed at a
[53:37] hotel making a phone call using the clerk's phone.
[53:40] After this, she was observed attempting to delete the number
[53:44] that had been called. The marshals were able to track
[53:48] that critical communication which led them over 1100 miles
[53:52] away to Montgomery. AL Pan was located at a boarding
[53:58] house, living under the false name Henry Choi.
[54:01] When confronted by what was described as a small army of law
[54:04] enforcement, he surrendered peacefully, immediately
[54:08] admitting he wasn't Choi. The evidence found on him
[54:11] confirmed his intention for long term evasion.
[54:15] Pan was in possession of approximately $20,000 in cash, 7
[54:20] cell phones, and his dad's passport.
[54:23] His capture marked the culmination of countless hours
[54:26] of interagency cooperation across multiple States and
[54:30] federal agencies. Following his arrest and
[54:35] extradition back to Connecticut, Qin Shuan Pan was charged with a
[54:39] litany of crimes. In 2022, Pan's defense attorney,
[54:44] citing Pan as a commutative challenge, requested a mental
[54:48] competency exam. The attorney argued that Pan was
[54:52] evasive and uncooperative, providing only disjointed
[54:55] details about a potential second person being involved.
[55:00] This maneuver, which stalled the proceedings and raised questions
[55:03] about Pan's ability to assist in his own defense, required
[55:07] assessment by a state or court appointed psychiatrist.
[55:11] However, state appointed psychiatrists eventually
[55:15] assessed Pan, and he was ruled fit for trial in late 2022,
[55:20] confirming he understood the seriousness of the proceedings.
[55:25] Pan initially pleaded not guilty in December 2022 and maintained
[55:30] this position for quite some time.
[55:33] In February 2024, facing the prospect of a potentially
[55:38] devastating public trial, Pan unexpectedly changed his plea,
[55:42] admitting his guilt on all the charges.
[55:46] This crucial step was part of a plea agreement that allowed
[55:49] Pan's family to avoid getting caught up in the crossfire of
[55:52] the trial. The agreement stipulated a
[55:56] sentence of 35 years in prison without the possibility of
[56:00] probation or parole. This choice guaranteed certainty
[56:05] of punishment for the prosecution and provided a path
[56:08] to closure for the Jiang family, circumventing the trauma and
[56:12] unpredictability of a full courtroom battle.
[56:17] The final act of the legal drama occurred on April 25th, 2024,
[56:22] when Judge Gerald Harmon formally sentenced Chinchuan Pan
[56:26] to 35 years imprisonment at Cheshire Correctional
[56:30] Institution. This was exactly as outlined in
[56:34] the plea agreement, though the judge did have the ability not
[56:37] to agree to the terms as specified.
[56:41] During the hearing, several relatives and friends delivered
[56:44] powerful impact statements, underscoring the senseless
[56:48] devastation caused by the crime. Kevin's father eloquently
[56:52] described the vast potential lost, the bright future his son
[56:56] had planned, rooted deeply in faith and service.
[57:01] Pan, in a brief statement, offered an apology, saying he
[57:06] felt sorry for his actions and all the harm he had caused.
[57:10] Ultimately, since he pled guilty, we'll never really know
[57:14] what motivated Pan to commit this sick act, and I'm not even
[57:18] sure he fully understands it all himself.
[57:25] Hey everyone, it's Jimmy here with a quick reminder to hit the
[57:28] like and subscribe buttons if you haven't done so already.
[57:31] Also remember to check out the membership option by clicking
[57:34] Join or hit the Patreon link in the description.
[57:41] It's the worst fear a parent can face, walking into a child's
[57:45] room and finding nothing but a chilling absence.
[57:49] For the family of 15 year old Megan Nichols, that fear
[57:52] materialized on a hot summer night in Fairfield, IL.
[57:57] This quiet community would soon be gripped by a mystery that
[58:00] lasted 4 long, agonizing years. Yet what made this disappearance
[58:06] so immediately devastating wasn't just the vanishing, but
[58:10] the calculated quiet. Left behind an intentional crime
[58:14] scene designed to scream run away.
[58:18] The individual who took Megan's life employed A sophisticated
[58:21] psychological deflection, leveraging the tensions of
[58:25] teenage life to build a wall of plausible deniability.
[58:29] This strategy successfully stalled the investigation,
[58:33] transforming the search for a killer into a fruitless quest
[58:36] for a missing person. Megan Nichols disappeared on
[58:41] July 3rd, 2014, leaving her home in Fairfield, IL under
[58:47] profoundly suspicious circumstances.
[58:50] At first glance, the evidence suggested a planned, voluntary
[58:53] departure. A note was found, presumably
[58:57] authored by Megan, telling her mother that she loved her, but
[59:01] that she wouldn't ever find happiness at home.
[59:04] It went further, containing strange, cryptic language and
[59:09] pleading with her mother not to look for her because she simply
[59:13] didn't want to be found. This written communication,
[59:17] combined with footage showing Megan making a bank withdrawal
[59:20] on the day she vanished, suggested she had chosen to flee
[59:24] her small town life. However, the perpetrator wasn't
[59:29] satisfied with merely leaving a note.
[59:33] The scene contained another, more alarming piece of evidence,
[59:37] Megan's personal cell phone, which had been intentionally
[59:41] wiped completely clean of data. This suggested a level of
[59:45] premeditation far beyond that of a spontaneous teenage runaway.
[59:51] What would later become apparent was that the effect of these
[59:54] calculated actions was immediately successful and would
[59:58] remain so for some time. By establishing A convincing
[1:00:02] runaway scenario, the individual responsible for Megan's
[1:00:06] disappearance successfully channelled the investigation
[1:00:10] into a false missing person case.
[1:00:13] This deliberate delay granted the perpetrator precious time to
[1:00:17] dispose of the body, solidify an alibi, and allow critical
[1:00:21] physical evidence to disappear. Megan's mother, Kathy Joe,
[1:00:27] immediately doubted the circumstances, reporting her
[1:00:30] daughter's absence at once and insisting her daughter hadn't
[1:00:34] simply run off. While the public was encouraged
[1:00:39] to believe in the runaway theory, investigators quickly
[1:00:42] identified a key person of interest, 18 year old Brody
[1:00:46] Merbarger. Megan, who was 15 at the time,
[1:00:51] had been dating Merbarger, a relationship that was reportedly
[1:00:55] a source of disagreement and tension with her mother.
[1:00:59] While the sources don't exactly state what the source of the
[1:01:02] disagreement was, I don't think you have to look further than
[1:01:05] the age gap to figure out why any parent would want this
[1:01:09] stopped. The relationship offered the
[1:01:12] perfect motivational framework for the planned disappearance.
[1:01:17] Merbarger could easily tell police they had decided to run
[1:01:20] away together, leveraging the existing familial rift to
[1:01:24] support the notes contents. The critical timeline detail,
[1:01:28] however, was Merbarger's actions immediately following Megan's
[1:01:32] disappearance. Those sources suggested the
[1:01:35] couple intended to run off as a pair.
[1:01:37] Merbarger returned home alone the following morning.
[1:01:41] He provided A narrative that initially seemed to satisfy
[1:01:44] immediate questioning, allowing him to resume his life.
[1:01:48] According to him, she just decided to go it on her own, and
[1:01:52] that was apparently good enough for the investigators at the
[1:01:54] time. The case remained in limbo for
[1:01:58] more than three years, featured on various national true crime
[1:02:02] programs designed to raise awareness for missing persons.
[1:02:07] Investigators faced intense pressure, but the breakthrough
[1:02:11] they desperately needed didn't come until late 2017.
[1:02:15] The waiting period demonstrated how effective Merbarger's
[1:02:18] initial concealment strategy had been, allowing him to live
[1:02:22] freely while Megan was listed as missing.
[1:02:26] In December 2017, the years of searching finally yielded A
[1:02:31] devastating answer. Human remains were discovered in
[1:02:34] a rural area of Wayne County, Illinois, on a farm.
[1:02:39] The discovery was initially described as a human skull and
[1:02:42] bones, which appeared to have been placed in a shallow grave
[1:02:46] and potentially wrapped in a blanket.
[1:02:49] A month later, authorities confirmed the identity The
[1:02:53] remains belong to Megan Nichols. This grim finding irrevocably
[1:02:58] shifted the investigation, validating her mother's long
[1:03:02] held suspicions and officially converting the case into a
[1:03:05] homicide investigation. Forensic analysis later
[1:03:10] determined the cause of death was probable asphyxiation.
[1:03:14] The nature of the concealment? A shallow grave suggested a
[1:03:18] panicked, opportunistic effort by the killer to hide the body
[1:03:21] quickly after the crime. This lack of careful planning
[1:03:25] ultimately contributed to the remains being found years later,
[1:03:29] negating Murbarger's hope that the body would never be
[1:03:32] recovered. Once the remains were identified
[1:03:37] and the cause of death established, the investigation
[1:03:40] rapidly returned to Brody Murbarger, who by 2017 had moved
[1:03:45] on with his life. The focus immediately shifted to
[1:03:49] finding the irrefutable physical link needed for prosecution.
[1:03:53] In a move that proved decisive, investigators successfully
[1:03:56] located and searched Merbarger's vehicle even though it had ended
[1:04:01] up in a scrap yard. This search represents a triumph
[1:04:04] of modern cold case forensics. Years after the crime,
[1:04:09] specialized forensic teams were able to recover and identify
[1:04:13] minute trace amounts of Megan Nichols blood from inside
[1:04:18] Merbarger's car. This physical evidence placed
[1:04:21] Megan inside his car at the time of her death or immediately
[1:04:25] afterward, providing proof that he had transported the body to
[1:04:29] the rural gravesite. Furthermore, digital evidence
[1:04:34] reinforced the physical findings.
[1:04:36] Investigators successfully recovered and analyzed thousands
[1:04:40] of text messages exchanged between Merbarger and Megan.
[1:04:44] These provided A crucial window into the nature of their
[1:04:46] relationship and the events leading up to her death.
[1:04:51] Faced with overwhelming forensic and digital evidence, Merbarger
[1:04:55] was indicted by a grand jury in September 2020 on multiple
[1:05:00] felony counts. He was subsequently arrested
[1:05:03] without incident in Evansville, IN awaiting extradition back to
[1:05:07] Illinois. The trial focused on the key
[1:05:11] pieces of evidence. The recovery of Megan's remains
[1:05:15] the cause of death, The history revealed through the thousands
[1:05:19] of text messages. However, most damningly was the
[1:05:22] presence of Megan's blood inside Merbarger's vehicle and his
[1:05:26] attempts to scrub it clean. Despite the passage of time and
[1:05:30] Murbarger's initial efforts to establish a voluntary
[1:05:33] disappearance, the state successfully proved that
[1:05:36] Murbarger had intentionally killed the teenager.
[1:05:40] In October 2022, a jury found Brody Murbarger guilty in the
[1:05:45] first degree. Murbarger's attorneys attempted
[1:05:48] to challenge the verdict, filing a motion for a new trial,
[1:05:51] claiming the evidence didn't align with the jury's decision.
[1:05:55] Despite this request, it was ultimately denied by the judge,
[1:05:59] who found that the evidence supported the jury's decision.
[1:06:04] In the culmination of the legal process, Brody Murbarger, by
[1:06:09] then 27 years old, returned to the courtroom for sentencing.
[1:06:14] Given the egregious nature of the crime and the calculated
[1:06:16] concealment of the body for years, the court handed down a
[1:06:20] sentence of 50 years in the Illinois Department of
[1:06:23] Corrections. This final legal resolution,
[1:06:27] however, only offered a partial form of closure.
[1:06:31] During the proceedings, impact statements delivered by those
[1:06:35] close to Megan conveyed A profound sense of catharsis.
[1:06:39] This confirmed that justice, to the best extent possible within
[1:06:43] the legal system, had been delivered, yet the pain remained
[1:06:48] palpable. Megan's mother, Kathy Jo, shared
[1:06:52] the enduring sorrow of losing not just a daughter, but her
[1:06:56] best friend. She also shared the additional
[1:06:58] trauma that was inflicted by Merbarger concocting a false
[1:07:02] runaway scenario. This of course gave false hope
[1:07:06] for years that Megan may have still been alive, when of course
[1:07:10] the person who had orchestrated that narrative knew she wasn't.
[1:07:14] The idea that he would have kept Megan's family believing that
[1:07:17] she was alive and out of contact for the rest of their lives is
[1:07:20] just absolutely disturbing. It seems like a level of mass
[1:07:25] psychological damage added on to the crime by this killer, and I
[1:07:30] question why he would commit such a sick act.
[1:07:33] That said, I guess I shouldn't expect much better from an 18
[1:07:36] year old guy who was dating a 15 year old girl and ultimately
[1:07:40] killed her anyway. Rest in peace Megan, you
[1:07:44] deserved so much better.

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