True Crime with Rachel Shannon
38: Mom Tries to Frame her OWN Daughter After Cops Discover her DISGUSTING Secret
Sun, 29 Dec 2024
When Michael Shaver told everyone in his life that he was taking a break from work and trying to save his marriage, they had no choice but to accept his decision. However, after YEARS passed and no one heard from him, those closest to him knew something was horribly wrong. His wife, Laurie, always had a tale to spin, until everything came crashing down when her horrifying secret was uncovered.
Chapter 1: Why is it important to check in on loved ones?
Today's case is a great example of why it's so important to check in on your loved ones whenever you can. Those in Michael Shaver's life thought that they were doing just that.
But in hindsight, they realized that they could have done more. They could have called him, heard his voice, checked in to truly see how he was doing. But years passed, and by the time his loved ones realized they hadn't heard his voice in a long time, it was far, far too late.
Most of us are very busy adults who don't always have the time to call family members or check in as often as we would like, so it can be easy to let that kind of communication slip to the back burner.
but truly no matter who you are or how busy you are, try and take the time to talk to those who mean the most to you even if it's just for a few minutes every couple weeks because you never truly know what could be going on in their lives and checking in on them could be exactly what they needed. With that being said, Let's get into today's case.
Lori Shaver was married to her husband, Michael Shaver, and together they had two children. The two had been together for quite some time, meeting as teenagers in upstate New York before ultimately settling in a home in Clermont, Florida. Michael worked as an aircraft mechanic at one point. He was a pilot as well.
but just before his death, he had been working as a ride mechanic at the Epcot Center in Disney World. By 2014, Michael had moved out of the family home due to issues within the marriage, but by 2015, he moved back in, seemingly in an attempt to try and work things out with his wife.
By November 7th, 2015, Michael, Lori, and their two children met up with Michael's coworker Frank and his wife at a tractor show. There, Frank noticed that while Michael was acting relatively normally, his wife Lori seemed a bit standoffish and cold. The two clearly had some tension going on between them, so the two left the tractor show early and went home.
The following day, Frank texted Michael asking him if everything was okay, but he got no response. Frank texted Michael once again on November 9th, asking again if things were okay. This time, Frank did get a response. Michael texted him saying that he was actually quitting his job at Epcot to focus on saving his marriage.
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Chapter 2: What were the events leading up to Michael's disappearance?
So, by the time November 10th rolled around and Michael was scheduled to work, he didn't show up. He didn't call his boss or anyone else to notify them of his absence, which definitely was odd to those who worked with Michael. According to his boss and coworkers, Michael was a very responsible employee. He never missed a day of work without at least calling or texting someone to let them know.
that following day november 11th once again he failed to show up to work without letting anybody know by november 12th after not hearing from him again michael's boss texted him asking him what was going on at that time michael finally responded saying that he was having issues at home and won't be returning to work anytime soon because he was in georgia
he said to either fire him or he'll just quit. Of course, this was very unlike Michael to just walk out on work like this, not even telling anyone until they reached out to him. So by November 13th, Frank actually went to the home where Michael and Lori lived hoping to see Michael so he can come check on him.
But once he got there, Frank was met with Lori, who told him that she and Michael had gotten into a fight over him apparently talking to another woman, so he up and left and went to Georgia. Frank noticed that Michael's car was still parked in the driveway and it actually seemed to have a flat tire, so he asked how he drove to Florida without his car.
Lori said that Michael's friend Robert Mercado picked him up and drove him there. At this time, Frank really didn't have anything else to go off of. He had no choice but to take Laurie at her word and just continue following up with Michael to make sure things were okay. For the days and weeks that followed, Frank, along with other friends of Michael's, texted him to see what was going on.
Michael would sometimes respond to messages and other times he would ignore them. At one point, Michael told Frank to just keep his personal tools because he wouldn't be picking them up for work. Then, Robert, the friend and coworker who apparently drove Michael to Georgia, texted Michael to ask about Thanksgiving plans.
Apparently, he had plans to go to the Shavers' home to celebrate Thanksgiving with them and a few other coworkers, but at first, he got no response. He texted Michael a few more times trying to confirm their plans until Michael finally responded, Then, by January of 2016, Michael's sister Christine reached out via Facebook.
Still, it seems like Michael couldn't be bothered because he responded saying, everyone just needs to leave me alone just like they did my entire life. For the months that followed, various family members and friends continued reaching out to Michael over Facebook and text, all checking in with him to see how he was doing.
But he usually didn't respond to these messages, and when he did, he either told everyone to leave him alone, Or he said that he was traveling to different states such as New York, California, and Georgia. He would say that he's taking a break from everything to work on his marriage.
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Chapter 3: What suspicious behaviors did Lori exhibit?
Based on all of that information, investigators knew that this situation was suspicious, so Michael was officially entered into the system as a missing person. Upon starting their investigation, detectives continued talking to those within Michael and Lori's circles and finding out any information they could.
They found a lot, and I'm going to tell it to you in chronological order to hopefully avoid any confusion. First, they found that on September 4th, 2014, the two were involved in a domestic violence incident. When police were called to their residence, it was reported that the two got into a very heated argument which escalated into physical violence.
Each of them had a different story of what happened, both blaming the other for running and grabbing Lori's .38 revolver and brandishing it at the other. They both said that they had to wrestle the gun out of the other's hands. But in the end, Lori was able to get the gun and ended up hitting Michael over the head with it, causing a laceration to his head.
The gun was taken in for investigation, as was Michael's own personal gun, though it was not used in this incident as far as I could tell, and this second gun, Michael's gun, was returned to him the day following. At the time, though, it was determined that Michael was the main aggressor, so he was arrested for simple battery.
It was after this in which he moved out of the home and the two separated. Michael ended up pleading guilty to his charges in exchange for a plea deal that allowed him to enter a 12-month intervention program, which he completed in six months. After he left the home and the two separated, each of them started dating other people.
In November of 2014, Michael started seeing a woman he worked with at Disney, Kendall. while Lori was also seeing someone else during that time. However, according to Kendall, all throughout her relationship with Michael, she was constantly harassed by Lori. She said that even though Lori was seeing other people, she was not cool with Michael doing the same.
There were times in which Kendall heard Michael on the phone with Lori, who told him that he would never see his kids again if he didn't do what she wanted. Then, Lori started sending Kendall numerous messages on Facebook calling her all sorts of different insults, threatening to expose her to her family as a homewrecker, specifically naming her grandmother by name.
And once, she even called Kendall's grandmother at 3 in the morning to harass her. In March of 2015, Michael called Kendall and told her to park in a different parking lot than where she normally did at work because Lori was on her way to Disney with a gun. Then in April, Lori called Disney HR and sent them photos from Kendall's Facebook to try and report her.
Then once Kendall blocked her, she started making a bunch of other Facebook accounts and started sending requests to her over and over and over again. It got to the point that any time Michael would stay over at Kendall's place after work, he would first go to his own place to make sure he wasn't being followed.
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Chapter 4: How did Lori manipulate Michael's circle?
Then, according to one friend and co-worker, Corey, in July or August of 2015, Michael showed up to work with bruises all over his face, chest, and arms. Michael told Corey that Lori had become irate and blew up about something, though he didn't say exactly what, and started punching Michael all over.
Corey asked why he didn't at least defend himself from the attack and Michael said that it just wasn't worth it. According to Corey, this wasn't the first time that Michael told him about Lori blowing up and being physical towards him, though this did seem to be the worst of it. Then, as we know, by November of 2015, he stopped all contact with friends, family, and coworkers.
Well, turns out that in September of 2015, Lori actually started a new relationship with Jeremy Townsend, telling him that she left her husband. Jeremy was also married at that time, but he apparently told Lori that he too was leaving his wife. The two seemed to have a pretty normal relationship until February of 2016, when it seemed that Lori found out that Jeremy was still with his wife.
That month, Jeremy's wife, Vanessa, started receiving Facebook messages from Michael's account. Vanessa didn't actually see the Facebook messages at first, though, until April, when she received a flower delivery at work with a note that read, "...roses are red, violets are blue, my wife is a whore, and your husband is too. Sorry about this. Check your Facebook messages. We need to talk. Mike."
This, of course, prompted her to check her Facebook messages where she found messages from Michael's account saying that he had installed a spy app on Lori's phone and found out that she had been texting, calling, and sending explicit photos back and forth with Jeremy. He then sent photos to Vanessa as proof of his wife's affair with her husband.
with hopes that she would leave her husband because he was cheating on her. Him and Vanessa chatted back and forth for a bit, and she alluded that she wasn't going to be leaving her husband. To that, Michael responded that he thought Lori could be pregnant by Jeremy. Michael then told Vanessa that he knows a good divorce attorney.
After these conversations with Michael's profile, Vanessa confronted Jeremy about the affair, which he admitted to. That same month, in April, during one of Jeremy and Lori's hookups, Lori showed Jeremy that she had gotten a tattoo of his nickname, Jay, in a heart over her vagina. This made Jeremy realize that she was a lot more serious about the affair than he was.
He said that he was just in it for the sex while clearly Lori wanted a lot more. This, along with him being confronted by his wife, prompted him to end the affair with Lori and start working towards patching things up with his wife. According to text messages found between Jeremy and Lori between the dates of February 23rd through the 26th,
Lori started confronting Jeremy via text, asking why he's still wearing his wedding ring, asking why he's not moving forward with the divorce, and asking if he was still in love with his wife. The first time that Michael's profile reached out to Vanessa about the affair was February 25th.
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Chapter 5: What did the investigation reveal about Michael's fate?
Chapter 6: What role did the concrete slab play in the case?
However, based on everything that we've discussed up to this point, it seems pretty obvious that Lori has to be the one responsible. Michael was last known to be seen with Lori before returning to the property where they both lived. Just days after he was last seen, Lori lied to Michael's friend Scott about him going to Georgia.
He said that a friend Robert drove him there, but Robert denies having done so. She continued lying to friends and family of hers and Michael's, coming up with all sorts of stories to explain his absence. During that time, she used his Facebook account and bank account for varying reasons.
It seemed that she most likely killed him, then placed him in that hole that Michael had previously dug to make that pond. She then covered him in sheets and a tarp before burying his body with the dirt. Then he remained in that grave while Lori went about her life dating different men until she built that fireplace and got her new husband to help pour concrete over the grave of her ex-husband.
As you can imagine, everything that was discovered in this investigation took a very long time. I know I spelled it out to you over less than a half hour, but it actually took over a year to finally bring charges against Lori. But finally, by September 17th, 2020, Lori was finally arrested and charged with second degree murder, domestic violence, and accessory after the fact.
At her bail hearing, she actually did post bond, which was set at $50,000. So she returned back to her home with her children. Then just after Lori's arrest, a shocking discovery was made. Lori's daughter, who was about 12 at the time, but would have been seven at the time of the murder,
came forward to investigators and told them that she was actually the one who shot and killed her father and she was ready to testify to that. Of course, her statements were taken by the defense and prosecution and over the course of the investigation, the story changed a few times.
But by the time trial started, she and Lori had their final version of the story, which I will get into in just a minute. Finally, after years and years of waiting, wanting answers, and a painstakingly long investigation, the trial for Michael's murder started in September of 2024.
The prosecution laid out everything I've discussed up to this point, arguing that after years and years of a tumultuous toxic relationship, Lori and Michael got into one final fight that ended in her grabbing the gun and shooting him in the head. Then, she disposed of his body in that hole in the backyard, burying it there before eventually covering him in concrete alongside that fire pit.
Then, for the months and years that followed, she did everything she could to pretend he was still alive. It seemed like she didn't know exactly who he worked with or who his boss was or who his friends were. so she couldn't reach out to anyone at first to quit his job.
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