True Crime with Rachel Shannon
SOLVED: She Tried to Warn Them About her Son, Then he was MURDERED. THE CASE OF GUNNAR SCHUMACHER
Mon, 17 Mar 2025
A desperate mother tried to warn authorities about her son’s dangerous behavior—but no one listened. Then, tragedy struck. This is the chilling case of Gunnar Schumacher.
Chapter 1: What is the case of Gunnar Schumacher about?
Hello everyone, my name is Rachel and welcome back to another true crime video.
So the case that I have for you all today is a very frustrating, angering case. The way this case was handled is just going to make you want to scream. This should not have happened the way that it did and I'm really looking forward to hearing what you all think after learning the details. I also want to make the disclaimer that a lot of the information in this video is alleged.
Chapter 2: Who are Christina and Ludwig 'Sonny' Shoemaker?
It's mostly from one point of view who you will learn more about in just a few minutes. A lot of the claims are not necessarily confirmed by the police, so don't take them all as complete fact. More so accounts from those who were involved in this case. Let's start the video off with introducing Christina and Ludwig Sonny Shoemaker, who went by Sonny.
Sonny Shoemaker was an Air Force pilot for the National Guard. He joined the Connecticut National Guard in 1982, originally serving as a UH-1H helicopter pilot. Then he went on to the University of Connecticut where he earned his bachelor's degree. Then he went on to the University of Connecticut School of Law where he earned his Juris Doctorate to practice law.
By 1989, he then joined the Vermont Air National Guard. He worked as a commercial pilot for a few years as well with Delta. From there, he went on to school a few more times to earn other degrees, such as his master's degree in security studies from the Naval Postgraduate School. Then he served in the Air Force Reserve as a regional emergency preparedness liaison officer.
while also pursuing a Master's of Business Administration degree at Norwich University. He also worked as an F-16 pilot with the National Guard while working part-time as an associate at a local law firm. Then, by the time of the incident, Sonny was working as an executive for Timberlane Dental in South Burlington.
So clearly, Sonny was a very accomplished man, but beyond his accomplishments and his career, he also had a wife and two children. Sonny met Christina Shoemaker in Vermont in the early 90s, while they both happened to be working out at a local gym. Sonny introduced himself to Christina, who was a dancer at the time,
saying that he just moved to Vermont, working as a pilot for the National Guard, and he was looking to meet people. He was handsome and charming, so Christina told him that she was going jet skiing that afternoon, and he asked if he could join her. So she told him if he could make it on time, that he could come. Things blossomed from there, and the couple were married by October of 1994.
By 1996, Christina gave birth to their daughter, Elise. Then, by January 7th, 1999, they had their son, Gunnar. Gunnar was a freshman at Essex High School at the time of his death. Gunnar was known for having an amazing sense of humor, a ton of energy, and a sense of adventure. He was curious and passionate for life.
To those on the outside, it seemed that Sonny and Christina were just the best parents who gave their children the perfect lives. They had a nice house with a fenced-in yard in Essex Junction in Vermont and the kids went to a private school. They rode four-wheelers, dirt bikes, relaxed in the hot tub, and spent their summers at Cape Cod.
The family traveled all around the world to places like Bermuda, Rome, France, London, Switzerland, Washington, Alaska, and Montana. Sunny loved telling everyone around them all the places that they've been to and all the stuff that they've done together as a family. But as you can expect, I wouldn't be making a video about this family to tell you about how perfect they were.
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Chapter 3: What signs of abuse did Christina Shoemaker report?
Who, by the way, it seemed that Gunner was the main target for the abuse outside of Christina. We don't know that for sure. Elise could have been abused as well. But because she wasn't necessarily involved in what happened at the end, we don't really know much about what happened with her. But we know what Christina has told us, essentially.
Anyways, for example, there were times, allegedly, that Sonny would say, "'Let's wrestle,' to Gunner." Which, again, seems innocent enough. some rough play between a father and his son. But he was a trained military professional, so he would use all sorts of military pinches and holds on Gunner.
Then to Christina, he would do moves where he would hold her neck and restrict her breathing to threaten her, but he never left bruises on either of them. He always knew how to intimidate and physically harm both Christina and Gunnar in a way that they couldn't tell anyone because it didn't leave marks. Again, this is all alleged by Christina's retelling.
Christina went on to say that if she ever threatened to tell, he would say things like, "'It's my word against yours, and I'm a military officer.'" So who's going to believe you? These are just a few small examples of physical abuse at the hands of Sunny that Christina has reported, but there is so much more to that.
Chapter 4: How did Sonny control the family dynamics?
This was years and years and years of control and manipulation tactics, threats, violence, and physical beatings to keep Christina in line. When she was later asked about why she didn't leave, she said that she knew he would kill her if she tried to leave and if she ever did run off with the kids, he would hunt her down or would have someone else hunt her down.
She was afraid to lose her kids to him, so she stayed so she could avoid that and protect her children from the monster that Sunny allegedly was. But near the beginning of 2013, the pressure became far too much to handle. Christina said that she had a nervous breakdown. She literally shut down to the point that she couldn't do laundry. She couldn't go grocery shopping.
She couldn't even leave the house, even though she absolutely hated being in that house with that man. Christina said that between January and February of that year, she just crashed. It even got to the point where she could no longer perform her work duties. So she left her job. So she started seeing a psychiatrist for her mental health. but at that time, Sonny was always with her.
He was always at her side during the appointments and wouldn't leave her alone. Christina said that she had a family history of bipolar disorder, so the doctor thought that this explained her mental health issues. So they prescribed her medication to treat depression and anxiety, and she went on her way. But even after she was prescribed medications to get some help,
Sonny wanted to control that too. According to Christina, he kept her medications locked up in his office and gave it to her each evening. Just like he controlled everything else in Christina's life, he controlled her mental illness and her medications and treatments for it. From there, things continued to escalate.
On Easter of that year in 2013, Christina recalled one of the more brutal and violent attacks that Sonny delivered to Gunner. Now, around that time, 14-year-old Gunner had this smoke machine that he was really having fun with, but his parents told him not to use it in the house. That Easter Sunday, Gunner did just that, and he turned it on in the house, filling the bathroom with smoke.
So, Christina was upset and she told Sonny to do something about it. This is something that she says she regrets saying because she wasn't expecting the extreme reaction that she got from Sonny. According to Christina, Sonny stormed upstairs and confronted Gunner about the smoke machine and started beating him.
Gunner got himself free, ran down the stairs and outside through the back door as Sonny chased him. Sonny then pinned Gunner down, put his knee on his back, and put Gunner in a pinch hold. Based on what I was able to find online, it looks like a pinch hold is when you're on top of the other person and you hold them by the neck in a headlock and you pull up.
As Sonny was doing this to his 14-year-old son, Gunner was trying to fight him off and was screaming and crying. Then he picked Gunner up, holding him in a bear hug, as Gunner was fighting and kicking the side of the house to free himself.
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Chapter 5: What events led to Gunnar's tragic fate?
No one had any idea of where he could be. So they drove past Sunny's apartment and they found that the car was still in the parking lot where it should have been and it was covered in snow. It hadn't snowed since earlier that morning so they knew that the car had been there all day. So, the next stop they made was to the police department. She told the police that she needs help.
She believes her son is in danger. But they told her that they were short-staffed and that it would just have to wait until the morning. So, Christina left and started calling around to anybody that she could. She called her sister who told her to relax and just go to bed and try to get some sleep. but she couldn't.
She knew that Sonny had family in both France and Russia, so at that point, her fear was that he had left the country with Gunnar. That was her fear the entire time that they were battling for custody. So, she contacted the Amber Alert to see if there was anything that they could do, but again, she was turned down.
The next morning, a friend of Christina's called her to let her know that she heard about some sort of incident going on on the news, but she wasn't exactly sure what was going on. So the friend picked Christina up and drove her to Sonny's apartment. When they got there, they saw that the cops were everywhere. They were surrounding the apartment.
So Christina got out to talk to an officer and she said that when that officer looked at her, she just could see in his eyes that Gunnar was gone. In that moment, she just started screaming and breaking down.
It turned out that Sonny had been seeing another woman during that time and on that day, December 18th, the girlfriend had come to Sonny's residence and when she walked inside, she found that both Sonny and his son Gunnar were both dead inside. So, she immediately called the police. After police found their bodies, they were sent off to the medical examiner for an autopsy.
It turned out that Gunner had died from asphyxia and Sonny had died from hanging himself. It was a murder-suicide. And according to Christina, she believes that Sonny wanted to kill her and Elise as well. Like I said, he invited her and Elise over for dinner on the evening of the 17th.
That same evening was when Gunnar stopped replying, so it seems clear that this was the evening that Sonny murdered his son by strangling him and he was also planning on killing Christina and Elise that same night before killing himself.
ESSEX, VERMONT POLICE WERE CALLED TO A CARMICHAEL STREET APARTMENT BUILDING WHERE 49-YEAR-OLD LUDWIG SUNNY SCHUMACHER LIVED AFTER A FRIEND FOUND THE BODIES OF SCHUMACHER AND HIS 14-YEAR-OLD SON GUNNER INSIDE. WPTZ BROKE THIS GRIM STORY AND DAVID CHARNES REMAINS ON THE STORY TONIGHT. HE'S LIVE IN THE NEWSROOM WITH THE DETAILS. DAVID, FILL US IN.
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Chapter 6: What actions did Christina take to protect her children?
Chapter 7: How did the court respond to Christina's concerns?
Would you want to go to sleep? No. But they gave me shit over it every day, saying, you're not sleeping, you need to take more drugs. They put me on strong antipsychotics. I know I only have 30 seconds left. But the bottom line is no one should have to endure the death of their son, the death of their husband, and then put into that situation.
Only when I decided and determined, thanks to the help of Lindsay Owen, the attorney for disability rights of Vermont, she showed up. She saved me that day. She showed me what my rights were and then I started standing up to the doctors. And I started telling them off. They didn't know whether to kick me out or to lock me up forever. Well, guess what? I fought for my rights and I'm out of there.
And no one should ever have to endure what I've gone through. It has been hell. And I will not stop fighting this fight because no one should ever have to deal with this . Thank you.
After that, police continued to investigate the whole ordeal and they came to find out that Sonny had actually been planning this for a while and he did so very extensively. Police found out that just a day before the deaths, Sonny had sent out multiple packages that he sent out to various family members and friends with one being delivered to Christina.
In the package to Christina, there was a multiple page document that outlines Sonny's motivations for his actions. Other documents that he sent to other family members said much of the same. Using this, police have said that there was substantial planning before the murder-suicide.
But they would not elaborate further, and to this day, they haven't released the note or any other documents that were sent out to the family and friends. They also haven't revealed any of the other documents that showed the planning. All I know is that they combed through his phone records and financial records, and they came to that conclusion.
Another thing that they found out that we actually do have details on is that Sonny actually changed his will right before the deaths. On December 16th, he actually requested to change the executor of his will to his sister. He wrote that he leaves all of his tangible property to his sister.
He also wrote in the will, "...I intentionally omit making any provisions in this will for my wife, Christina F. Shoemaker. I am doing that because of the ongoing divorce proceedings that she initiated." He wrote in his will that should his children survive him, that he wants his sister to be their legal guardian.
He also requested that his sister distribute his ashes at the time and place of his choosing. So clearly, he knew that he was going to die and he wanted to make sure that if anybody survived, that his ex would get nothing. So I think that we can see that he clearly planned this. He planned to kill himself and his son. And I do agree that I think he tried to kill Christina and Elise too.
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