CBS News Correspondent Natalie Morales and 48 Hours Correspondent Anne-Marie Green discuss the survivor story of C.C. Opanowski, who was violently attacked by her ex-boyfriend, Shawn Doyle, when she was a teenager in 1996. They examine Doyle’s escalating pattern of violence, which ultimately led to the 2005 murder of Lori Leonard, a single mom of two young sons, and how C.C. bravely faced Doyle in court a decade after her assault. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who are Natalie Morales and Anne-Marie Green discussing in this episode?
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Chapter 2: Why does the story start with survivor Cece Opanowski's experience?
Welcome back to Postmortem. I'm CBS News correspondent Natalie Morales, stepping in as host today to speak to 48 Hours correspondent Anne-Marie Green about her report on Sean Doyle, who we know assaulted at least two known victims before murdering Lori Leonard back in 2005.
One of the survivors, Cece Opanowski, has broken her decades-long silence, and she is telling her story publicly for the first time to 48 Hours. Anne-Marie, thanks so much for talking with us today. It's interesting to be on this other side of the microphone right now. You're in the hot seat today. I am.
I just want to remind you, to all of our listeners, if you haven't listened to the 48 Hours episode yet, you can find the full audio just below this episode in your podcast feed. Go take a listen, then come back and join us for our conversation. So, Anne-Marie, this story is a little bit unusual in that we start with a survivor's story instead of a murder.
Can you tell us a little bit about that decision of starting with CeCe Opanowski's story and how she survived that frightening attack by Doyle back in 1996 when she was just 18 years old?
Natalie, I don't know about you, but one of the questions that I always have when I watch true crime is, you know, I always want to know, well, how did we get here? How did this person end up like this? So here we had an opportunity to start from the very beginning. And a huge part of the story has to do with Sean Doyle's history of domestic violence.
And we were lucky enough to have Cece be willing to talk to us. She was his high school girlfriend. And we're able to paint this picture of how his pattern of violence got worse and worse and worse over the years. The challenge, I think, a little bit is that normally we have, you know, one victim and the people who are impacted by them.
In this case, we had three different victims with two victims who survived with different approaches to the trauma. And for Cece, it took decades for her to feel strong enough to talk publicly about what happened to her. And having her come forward, I think, was part of the reason why we thought we need to start with her.
It seemed like the best way to tell this story was from the very beginning, which was with Cece.
Speaking of, you know, how that attack took place, let's talk about her friend, Shannon, who was so instrumental. I mean, truly, perhaps saved her life. So Shannon was calling Cece over and over again. And when Cece wasn't picking up, the alarm bells were going off with her. Something wasn't right. And so then she finally gets through. Cece answers the phone and says,
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Chapter 3: How did Shannon help save Cece Opanowski during the attack?
They are in touch again now. You've probably seen this before with some of the hours that you've worked on, that sometimes actually getting involved with the 48-hour story brings people back together. But they hadn't been talking for a while.
I found Shannon so fascinating and I could not understand how a teenager was so intuitive because when she tells the story of that phone call, I mean, the cues are so subtle. I couldn't understand if she could pick this up. But I asked her over and over again, but how did you know? How did you know? How did you know something was going wrong?
And then finally she said, well, I've seen this sort of thing within a family member. And I was like, there you go. That's why it makes sense. If anyone else had been hanging out with Cece that day. They might not have picked up on it. She was clued in on it because she knew the signs to look for.
So in the hour, CeCe talked about when the police did arrive at her house, she thought that she would then be protected from Doyle. Instead, she said she didn't feel safe because she said they put her in the backseat of that same squad car with Doyle. And then later, she said they questioned them together in the same room. I mean, how unusual was that back in 1996?
I mean, I don't know how unusual it was back then. It seems stunning that, you know, law enforcement would do that from this vantage point. And certainly our producer spoke to the current police chief of the Hudson Falls Police Department. And he said, look, it sounds terrible. We would never do anything like that now. You know, we are trained. We know how to handle victims.
And he was really, you know, sympathetic about. to what Cece went through. And she just sort of felt like, you know, the officers then, they kind of treated it like a lover's quarrel. They weren't taking it seriously. She couldn't understand because she said, you know, she had bruises, her hair was cut. It was obvious that this wasn't a little sort of teenage spat.
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Chapter 4: What was the police response to Cece Opanowski's assault in 1996?
It was something much more serious. You know, decades ago, the way domestic violence was viewed was at times very different. Things have changed, thankfully.
And everybody has learned to treat domestic violence very seriously because we know how much these things can escalate, as it did in this case with Sean Doyle. Now, CeCe didn't want to relive the trauma by testifying against Doyle, but... He struck a deal and he received a sentence of three years probation. But then in 2000, Doyle violently attacked then 23-year-old Sarah Vollmer.
And it was it was bad, Natalie. Like, you know, we have this archival footage. We can see the interview that she did with the local news station in Albany. And she's kind of relaying these facts here. her experience in a really matter-of-fact way, it sounded terrifying. She's in the bedroom. He ties her up. He uses duct tape. It is stunning that she survived.
And this happens and her mother walks in the room. And that's what ends this horrible, violent assault.
Thank goodness her mom walked in at that time. Absolutely. Absolutely saved her life. I'm curious then why Doyle was able to get yet another three years probation for that second attack instead of facing a more serious sentence.
So in terms of Doyle's charge, he was only charged with two misdemeanor assault and imprisonment charges. And basically, and I'm going to just kind of refer to my notes because I don't want to get it wrong. The punishment guidelines are much, much less for these two charges. So in 2005, a local reporter by the name of Don Lehman, you saw him in the hour. He asked the district attorney at the time.
His name is Robert Wynn. You know why these charges? He said that the allegations did not fit the criteria for more serious charges like felony assault or felony murder. unlawful imprisonment. And without a felony charge, there wasn't much of a possibility for a lengthy prison term. I can see you shaking your head, Natalie, because I know.
I know. To me, it's like, you know, if the pattern of behavior is there, he's done this before, it's escalated, and had her mom not walked in when she did... Sarah Vollmer might not be here today. Thankfully, that's not the case.
Absolutely. And when you see what he did with Sarah, you see that he was well on his way because he used some of the same techniques that he used with Lori.
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Chapter 5: Why did Shawn Doyle receive probation instead of a harsher sentence after attacks?
Do authorities suspect, though, I mean, given that pattern, that Doyle perhaps had more victims than Lori, CeCe and Sarah? Do authorities suspect?
They do. Do they have anyone who's willing to come forward?
They don't. As we learn in the hour, Sean Doyle's assaults tragically would lead to murder. And when we get back, we're going to dig into Lori Leonard's case and the lasting impact her death has had on both her family and CeCe. Stay tuned.
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Chapter 6: Are there suspected additional victims of Shawn Doyle beyond those known?
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Chapter 7: What is the impact of Lori Leonard's murder on her family and Cece Opanowski?
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Welcome back to Postmortem. So let's talk about Lori Leonard's case. On May 5th, 2005, Lori's sister Jennifer reported to police that Lori was missing after she failed to answer her phone all day and she never returned home after saying that she was going to pick up Yankees tickets in Albany. Now, Lori never ended up making it to Albany to pick up those tickets.
Her body was discovered three months later in that toolbox floating in an upstate New York canal. Police were able to link Doyle to the crime from a key that was found in his car that matched that toolbox lock, as well as materials that were found in his home, including duct tape, And the bandanas, like the ones that were used to bind and gag Lori, just horrific.
Jennifer immediately suspected that Sean Doyle was involved, and that was Lori's ex-boyfriend at the time. But Doyle's friend, Dorothy, was absolutely convinced of his innocence. Why do you think she believed him?
Look, I don't have a psychology degree or anything like that, but I think that it gives you a little hint as to sort of the charm that Sean Doyle could have when he needed to turn it on. There's obviously another side to Sean Doyle. Dorothy, and I really should pronounce her name Dorothy with a sort of a sound because that's how she pronounced it.
It's the upstate New York.
Yeah, 100 percent. Her husband, her ex-husband now was friends with Sean Doyle. And so he would come around and they would, you know, hang out together. And then she took him under custody. her wing, like kind of a maternal figure. You know, he would come in and ask her for advice on his love life, his home life, his family. She liked him. So, you know, she believed Sean Doyle until she didn't.
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