First Date: The Shayna Hubers Case

0:06 Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime podcast where I tell stories of real crimes with real victims, whose cases are so shocking that many are left wondering, how is this even real? I use my experiences in law enforcement, corrections, and combined with my years as a criminal justice educator, dig deep into complex cases of evil acts, some so evil, many feel they are unspeakable.

0:50 Warning. Unspeakable is intended for mature audiences. If you are easily offended, then I'm not your girl. Listening discretion is advised. Hey y'all, KJ here back with another episode of Unspeakable. How's your week going? Mine is going fantastic. I've got a pretty good episode for you today, but I do want to let you know that this is going to be part one of a part two. So there will be two parts to this. However, I'm going to leave you off at a good stopping point. I'm not going to stop mid-sentence or anything like that. So if you like to wait, you can do that. But I think you'll be happy where we cut off on this one before we pick up next week. And I will finish it next week. And I'm also... working on a bonus episode for my Patreon members that will be released sometime in the next couple of days. So be looking for that. So I want you to come with me to the great state of Kentucky. And this was a place where a single man was looking to hang out. He was looking for somebody to spend his time with. Now, this man wasn't just any run-of-the-mill fella, okay? I want to give you a little bit more information about him because he was a freaking catcher. And any young lady who saw him, I think, would likely agree with this statement. Now, his name was Ryan Poston, and he did nothing short of make his parents extremely proud by the year of 2012.

2:08 And that's kind of when all of this is going to take place. It was that year that he would turn 29 years old, but that short amount of time that he had been alive, he had accomplished a whole lot. He had made the most of his time. Now, just by looking at his business cards, you could learn a whole lot about him because his name was followed with the word Esquire, i.e. he was a practicing attorney. A young guy had it going on. And I want you to think about the TV show Suits. If you've watched that on Netflix, I'm watching that right now. I know it's older. But if you remember that show, Suits, that is pretty much the type of person or the vibe that Ryan gave off, kind of that boss attorney handling business, Kind of slick, but smart. He was sleek. He had his hair always nicely combed and in place. You would see him in a three-piece suit. He had sparkling blue eyes.

3:09 shiny straight teeth. And when you looked at it all together, he really just had a really good look about him. He was extremely masculine too. He would have a well-manicured beard, a heavy brow that made him even more attractive, especially when he was sitting there and you could see the intensity in his eyes whenever he would be playing a chess match with some of his coworkers or with a friend. This guy was just really, really neat. And if you aren't picking up on what I'm laying down, the ladies would notice him for a multitude of reasons. But aside from this, his law degree and his killer looks may have been a good thing, but he had something that was even more attractive than any of that. And no, it wasn't his money. It was his compassionate heart. Not only was he a good looking guy, he was kind.

4:03 And he decided to become an attorney in not only because it was a family tradition, both his grandfather and his uncle had served as very successful attorneys, but it also had another faction of desire behind it because his passion really centered around helping people that are of limited means and limited resources get justice. He really, truly believed that everyone should be entitled to representation and good representation in a court of law, regardless of what your bank balance was. It should be afforded to you by law, right? Not by status. After all, those are your rights. And if you can't afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. You hear that if you ever read your rights.

4:48 So with all of this in mind, Ryan went to law school and he would graduate via Northern Kentucky University. And he certainly didn't half-ass his education before any of that either, because he had declared a triple major as an undergrad. And he had a really... strong focus in political science, history, and geography. It's a well-rounded, but a nice grouping of, you know, minors to, or majors to focus on. He had a history of taking advantage of his education because even in high school, he studied at the International School of Manila, and that's over in the Philippines.

5:30 And he graduated from Geneva International School. This is in Switzerland. So I guess what I'm getting at is that this guy was no dummy. And even with all of the luxuries and the opportunities that were afforded to him by a really good family, he still wanted to help the less fortunate, which I find completely admirable. I think that's a wonderful thing. He also was a big brother, a very protective brother of his three sisters, Allison, Catherine, and Elizabeth. And the whole group of kids turned out to be really, really impressive people. So in April of 2011, so we're going to back up about a year from what I'm telling you all about. Ryan was single and he was certainly willing to mingle whenever he was lounging on his couch one day and he found himself scrolling through Facebook like many of us do on our downtime. We're just mindlessly just trying to entertain ourselves. But As he aimlessly was scrolling his phone, his attention was quickly grabbed by a photograph of a beautiful young lady. Now, obviously, the attraction right off the top was physical, but he decided to go ahead and shoot a shot. Look at it hurt.

6:42 I mean, this girl was beautiful. And much to his delight, he heard the sound of an incoming message. Ding. And guess what? It was her. That beautiful woman had messaged him back. Her name was Shana, and there is no doubt that she is an absolute stunner. Ryan carefully scrolled through the photos that she had posted on her profile, and there was no doubt that he was liking what he saw. So Shana, if you were just to check her out, she was very thin, very lean. She was attractive. and very confident in her posing. She would be in a bikini, she'd be sporting a bronze tan. And while some of those photos were really casually attractive, others were more obviously photography where someone had taken these photos. And she'd be in a bikini and high heels, one hand on the side of her head and kind of pushing up her long barreled curly brown hair. And she'd have this coy smile. Her eyes were big and they were bright and they were beautiful. And you know I'm going to mention it, but her teeth, they were just gorgeous too.

7:52 Bright white, and she had thick, pouty, pouty lips. So when you're kind of thinking about what she looks like, very sorority girl meets beauty pageant. That's the vibe that she gave off in her photos. So the two flirted in a very cool but confident way until it turned into a phone call, which developed into a we should meet up and go out sometimes. That natural progression happened. of let's get to know each other. Now, when they did finally meet in person, the attraction was strong between them. And getting to know Shana better, Ryan was pretty intrigued because she was way more than just beauty. She was brains. She had a package going on here. Shana Huber was six years his junior. She was only 21 years old, but she too was a very educated young lady. She was smart and successful in high school. Her career had been really good. She won multiple academic awards and leadership accolades, but she really dove in to the arts during that time.

8:53 She loved music. Drama was one of her big passions. And so she was a focused woman or young lady in those realms. Theater and singing were where she really, really loved to shine. And she honestly, she had a good voice too. If you didn't know better and you heard her sing, she kind of sounded like a Disney princess, like one of the older Disney princesses with the real like, ah, you know, like the real, I don't know what the word is, not the current princess sound, maybe like the old Snow White type sound. So she made her mother very, very proud because she had earned a psychology degree from the University of Kentucky, but she was now well on her way to obtaining her master's degree. So when she was done, she had plans to somewhat follow in her own mother's footsteps, which, hey, nod to mom. She really made an impact there because her mom was a small woman, but one who made a big impact in the school system as a beloved teacher. So Shana was her only child.

9:52 And so she supported Shana in every way that a mother would be expected to and then some. Very devoted. Shana was her mother's world, and everything that happened in their lives, they shared with one another. So Shana's upbringing had also been in church, and honoring her mother was something that was well ingrained in her as she grew up. They were extremely close, and Shana knew that if she ever needed anything, she could depend on mama. So both of these young people, Ryan and Shana, were very lucky to have loving families that backed them and supported them. And now they were excited to start dating officially and introduce each other to their respective families. So from about April to around November, it's about, I don't know, nine months, they were in constant contact with each other. They spent a lot of time together and Shana was much more talkative than Ryan, who was also very busy with legal responsibilities.

10:52 So he was less communicative over the phone. And I mean, like in frequency. So Shana would send texts much more often. And he was, you know, he texted, I guess, less than she would. And I'm like that. I know people probably hate me because I'm one of those people that will send a thought and then, ooh, I'll have another thought and I'll send it right after and then another and I'll send it right after. I think it's an ADHD thing, but I'm like a multi-texter. Sorry to the people who hate that. But she seemed to be the same way. Normal people, I recognize, send a text message all in one. I've been made aware that I am not normal, but that's okay. That's a badge I'm willing to wear. Well, Shana's age is, at the time that this is going on, it really somewhat showed because while she was still in college, and I know she was going after a master's degree, but she was still in college and young. She had a little bit more of a carefree way of doing her life. Ryan was a professional.

11:49 He had deadlines. There were real consequences if he wasn't locked in at work and showing up and handling his business. So if he didn't answer her texts, she would often text him back to back to back, but then she would call the law office and ask to speak with him. Well, I'm sure you can imagine that that wasn't ideal, obviously. And it would be frustrating at times while he was working. So, you know, it is what it is. You're dating somebody. Look, please don't call up to the office. I'll answer you when I can. Yada, yada, yada. But other things started to become irritating to Ryan as well until he kind of started to pull away and to lose interest. And this was around November. But there were aspects of the relationship that were good. Now, not to be gross, okay?

12:39 But I'm talking about like spending the night together here and there. They seem to really connect in the nighttime. So I wasn't there, of course. I'm not going to claim that I was. And I can't tell you exactly what they were doing behind closed doors. I'm sure they were just talking about worldly issues. and probably just studying their Bible, right? That's probably all that they were doing. But at nighttime, they seemed to get along really well. So as this kind of gap between them had grown, the breakup, as you can kind of see, wasn't really clear, clean cut. They would get together, then they would break up, and it would just be multiple times that this would happen over the next further months. And it was like they would get mad at each other, not talk. But then when boredom would take over, then they would hang out.

13:27 I think we all have probably one experience with a situation like that. And if they wanted a fun night out, of course, they knew that they could make that happen with each other. But long term, it just was not going to be a sustainable long term relationship. So on October 11th, Ryan and Shana would hang out once again. And they ended up going over to Ryan's parents' house for the evening. So that night was the vice presidential debate that was being televised. And as a man that was really interested in politics and law, Ryan wanted to go watch that. Well, Shana was also happy to tag along. I mean, they wanted to be around each other this day. And after the debate, things were nice at the house and they had a good time. Ryan hugged his parents goodbye.

14:12 And then the two of them returned back to his apartment for the evening. Now that following morning, When Shana woke up, she was not feeling too well. And it wasn't morning time like 8 a.m. or something. It was very, very early hours in the morning, like around 3 a.m. And she was feeling so bad that it scared her. It wasn't sick like vomiting or fever or something like that. This was very, very severe chest pains. And it was one of those pains that no matter how old you are and no matter how much you try to calm yourself, you just want your mama. And so Shana started texting her mother in these early morning hours about how bad it was. And her mother became very concerned because it wasn't easing up. She was so worried that her mom actually jumped in the car and drove all the way from Lexington. to Highland Heights to check on her and to make sure that she was okay. So I knew that that was a bit of a distance, but I looked it up because I wanted to know. And from what I saw on the map, that was roughly a two-hour drive, give or take, depending on conditions. But if she needed her mama and it was something serious like this, mama was coming and you can't blame her. That's her kid.

15:23 That's her daughter. So some hours passed until she got there. And then she tried to comfort Shana. But this was at Ryan's apartment. So when Ryan woke up that early morning, like normal morning hours, and he walked out of his room, he was yawning and, you know, kind of stretching off the tiredness. And it somewhat spooked him when he walked out and he found a woman in his apartment that wasn't Shana. So sitting on his couch was who he would then realize quickly was Shana's mom. But it was in his apartment. And she was rubbing Shana's feet as she was laying across the length of the couch. So for perspective here, Shana and Ryan did not live together.

16:07 That was Ryan's condo or apartment, however you want to call it. It wasn't like she just had carte blanche of his apartment. And so seeing her mother sitting there rubbing her feet in his apartment was just odd. It's like inviting someone over to someone's house that you've been invited over to. You shouldn't have that latitude. So Ryan was... weirded out a little bit by it, but he was polite. So he went back and he got dressed, but quickly thereafter, Shana and her mother would leave and Shana was going to go to the hospital. So Ryan in that moment was honestly happy to have them both leave because it was just awkward. But some time later, a couple hours later, Shana would start texting Ryan that this isn't good, man.

16:51 Her situation turned out to actually be really, really serious. So she had had some tests run. She had had an EKG. All of that type of stuff had been done at the hospital. And she was now going to be sent to a specialist as well as being given medication that she needed to take because the condition was bad and it needed controlling right then. And it was alarming. And it was scary, but it was a good thing that she had listened to her body and not blown it off because this ended up being a heart condition. And she was diagnosed with a left ventricular hypertrophy. So I don't claim to be a doctor. I never will. But the pain and the weird symptoms that she said that she had been feeling was lending itself towards heart failure.

17:39 And so she was really young. And she was shocked to be facing something this serious. And so later that evening, they were talking or whatever, Shana returned to Ryan's apartment when shortly thereafter, a call came in to 911. Ma'am, I have, I have an, um, um, I, I killed my boyfriend in South Dakota. Okay, where are you at? I'm at 12 Meadow Lane, Highland Heights, Kentucky. I mean, I'm not a murderer, ma'am, I just killed myself. What, what happened exactly? What happened? He, he beat me and carried me out of the house. He did? He did.

18:21 So Shana was beside herself, as you can tell, and her high-pitched cries that she needed help were immediately dispatched out. And so police started to race to the scene. So as officers got closer, their sirens got louder and louder. Obviously, this would be grabbing the attention of neighbors who were peeking out of their windows and kind of opening doors to see what in the heck is going on. But all they would see was officers rushing up the stairs to Ryan's second story apartment where his door was shut. So cautious as to what may be behind the door, Lieutenant David Fornash already knew that a woman had called 911 and that Someone was shot inside and that this woman had shot this person. So he and another officer that arrived right afterwards that were going up the stairs together, they didn't wanna rush in without putting their eyes on the woman who was armed. And you have to think about this. Of course you wanna run and you wanna help somebody, but you also don't wanna run blindly into a situation where you know there's already a weapon there and someone has allegedly been shot. So the dispatcher, luckily, And she had kept Shana on the phone the entire time up until this actual point. And so she was able to help the officers maintain control of the situation.

19:51 Knowing now that the officers were right outside of the door, the dispatcher gave Shana very detailed instructions on what to do and how to do it so that everyone's safety was kept at the forefront of them seeing each other. So as the door opened, an hysterical Shana stepped out, but she was immediately met with guns drawn. And whether she was expecting that or not, that's how this situation was going to go. So they told her to be quiet. They told her to turn around where she was placed in handcuffs for the moment. Now, I know some people right now are going to go, oh my God, you know, why would she be put in handcuffs? Again, they don't know the situation.

20:38 They know what they've been told is the situation and safety is paramount. So she is put in cuffs temporarily until they can sort through what is going on. But Lieutenant Fornash kept his gun up and at the ready. And as he entered the condo, he started scanning the room for anyone else and he quickly could see that there was in fact a man lying on the ground somewhat on his right side and he did appear to be deceased and he was lying behind a dining room table. So the lieutenant's heart is pounding. He's nervous because he doesn't know who else may be in the apartment and so he cautiously and carefully continued to clear that apartment room by room, closet by closet, opening doors and trying to see if anyone was hiding inside. And he did this until he felt confident that there was no one else that was in the apartment. And upon this realization and putting up his weapon, he's holstering it, he noticed, you know, pretty readily that the apartment was still and it was very quiet. So he walked back over towards the victim on the ground who would be positively identified as Ryan Poston. Now, When the officer got there and got close to him, it was pretty apparent that Ryan was beyond help and was clearly deceased. He was still dressed.

22:01 He looked to be wearing, like, we call them wife beaters down south. I know that is tacky and someone is going to hate me for saying that, but that's what people say. But it's like a white tank top undershirt that you would probably put under a dress shirt. And he had on black slacks. That tank top was tucked in too, to these black slacks. Now, I want you to imagine he's behind this table and he was somewhat on his stomach, like face down, but slightly rotated on his right side. But his arms were down by his side, but he was palm up. And I'm taking the time to explain this to you because I want you to have the visual. He's face down on the ground.

22:44 His arms are by his side where he would be palm up, but he's rotated a bit to his right. So the reason I bring it up is that the way that his arms were down by his side looked as if he had gone down without ever even attempting to try to catch himself as he went down. There was blood covering the side of his face that could be seen that was side up. And then there was a river of blood that ran from his head across the floor for about a foot before it then pooled into a puddle. He appeared to have multiple gunshots to the head, and he was dead. So this was officially now going to be a crime scene that would need formal investigation. So Shana, at the meantime, was continuing to sob.

23:36 She was really shaken up by what she said had just taken place. But the officers were clear, look, we don't want to talk right now. You need to be Mirandized. We want to take you down to the station to question you about exactly what took place here and what led to Ryan being dead in his own apartment. Police also had another really hard job to handle as well. And that was that they had to go notify Ryan's family that he had passed away. And I don't want to gloss over this. I just don't have a ton of information of exactly how that was done. But I do know that when the news was broken to his mother and his stepfather, as well as his father, that they were all in utter disbelief. And his mom's like, no, no, no.

24:25 He was just here last night. He was fine. How can he be dead? He was fine. And the officer's like, you know, I'm sorry, ma'am. And the next question that comes out of her mouth is what a lot of murder victims' families would say. And it's the two-question sentence that in the moment is so difficult to explain. And that was, what happened? What happened to my child? And I say that this is the hard part because The officers are only able to give limited information to a desperate and grieving family who is trying to understand how could this even be possible? And it seems in just that little viewpoint, it seems almost cruel. But protecting the investigation is a must. And so while the officers know what happened, for the most part, they're not going to be able to tell his mother and father and stepfather everything that they know. Because they don't know what led to this and they just don't want to say anything that might compromise solving it. So overall, the family was left with the basic understanding that he had been shot in what seemed to be some sort of domestic disturbance.

25:39 And so, I mean, I say that they were left with an understanding, but they just didn't understand that because Ryan was not a violent guy. They did not know that side of him at all. And this is one of those things where I have to stop and say, well, we don't always show all of our sides to everyone. And so that was gonna have to be determined by law enforcement. So Ryan's body was taken for autopsy and the medical examiner's findings would show that a barrage of gunshots were strewn about his body. And there was no clear pattern. And I mean like a pattern grouping, which would make sense if someone was fighting with someone else And they were shot during this wild out domestic situation.

26:29 But in total, Ryan had been shot six times, a lot of shots. Two of those shots were in his head. And then the remaining shots had hit him in a variety of places, the chest, the torso. He was even shot in his back. And one shot was through his side And when I say his side, I mean somewhat underneath his, like where your, if your arm was resting down by your side, if it was just hanging down through that way, through the side of his body. So the medical examiner's report would list his cause of death as homicide. And that's basically an unnatural death. And so with the autopsy and the medical assessment report complete, it was going to be detectives' jobs now to determine exactly how this took place and why. So this would initially begin with questioning at the police station where Shana was brought in to that interrogation room. So when she walks in, she was dressed in jeans. She had on a white T-shirt.

27:30 She had a red zip-up sweatshirt. And she just looks like your average 20-something. She looks well put together. She's very girly. And as she's explaining and talking, she alternated between sobbing and then talking and then breaking down and then kind of getting it back together for a minute. But ultimately, From the very beginning, she did say that she wanted to get an attorney. So the police said, all right, that's fine. But if you get an attorney, then that means that your questioning is going to have to stop and we can't sort this out right now. But even though Shana had asked for the attorney, she wasn't trying to stop the interview. So she continued speaking with them. And with that, as it is, the police continued to listen. And Shana would give insights to just what all was going on behind closed doors and that Ryan and the people that knew Ryan at the law office versus his parents and versus friends that he hung out with, well, that Ryan was a lot different than the Ryan that she knew behind closed doors. So this interview that she gives is gonna last over two and a half hours. And in that questioning, she really opened up about the abuse that she had been experiencing at the hands of Ryan. She explained that he would get physical with her, that he was not above pushing and grabbing at her whenever they would tussle. And the emotional

29:00 abuse that was in this relationship seemed to really be in the norm directly after that initial honeymoon phase kind of went to the wayside. And Part of that emotional abuse, she explained, was that he did not respect her in the ways that he initially portrayed himself to be and the way that he wanted to treat a woman and all of the ways that she expected that he would be, okay, based on the honeymoon phase. He had very high expectations of the women who were going to be with him. So she told police specifics that Ryan would contact put her down and that it was just emotionally abusive, saying things to her like, ooh, you need to get a boob job and you need to work on your looks.

29:50 You need to improve the way that you carry yourself. And basically, no matter what she did or how hard she tried, it just was never enough. And he also had given her even more restrictions than what were originally expected. So he said things like, you know, you need to get a respectable hobby that you can take up and things that can keep you busy whenever I don't have time for you. And he also said, and you need to stop talking so much. But most off-putting things, in the moment was that Ryan had these expectations that she would participate in sexual activity with him and other women, as well as that the food that she was eating.

30:35 He even wanted to kind of control that. He had these expectations. He wanted her to eat better and to eat less. So she opened up about that type of abuse. But she wouldn't go so far as to say, oh, he was beating me every day. She didn't say that. But she did say that there's domestic violence in our relationship. He would sling me around. He would grab me and get physical whenever he wanted to. And the reason that she was so afraid this night was because Ryan was also a gun enthusiast. And she told these investigators about the fact that he had guns all over the apartment.

31:16 And basically he had it set up to where he could access a gun from anywhere in the apartment from the multiple places that he would sit. So anywhere that he would go in the apartment, you could bet that there was a loaded gun within arm's reach, no matter where you were. He also would yell at her and he would just be so ugly to her. And the problem that she had was that she was just so in love. And, you know, this isn't uncommon for people who are abused to remain in relationships because the love that they felt initially in that love bombing phase, they just hope that it's going to somehow get back to that. That was so great. And so people may act up and may mistreat them, but they're willing to stay in the relationship because they know what could have been or what was, and they just want to gain that back.

32:05 But the gun was of interest. OK, because Ryan was a was a guy of habit. Everyone knew that he did carry. That's true. And when he would come home, he would place his gun on his dining room table. And that same gun was the one that was believed to have been used to shoot him. So Shana explained that what happened that night just was a horrible escalation of a it just blew up. They had gotten into another argument like they did all the time, but this one just blew up. It just went to a whole new level. So Shana, as well as Ryan were arguing and they both reached a boiling point. And in Shana's mind, she, she was, she was done. She was done with the crazy and she decided that this was it. She wasn't doing this anymore. But Ryan's reaction is what led to the out of control-ness that ended up her having to shoot him. So Shana was wanting to get her things.

33:05 They were fighting. She wanted to get her things and she wanted to leave the apartment. But Ryan became enraged. And when he thought that he was going to hurt her again, this time in Shana's mind, it just wasn't happening. She was not going to be a victim again. Not one more time. So she said he grabbed his gun off of the table and he pointed it at her. And she knew... in this instance, that she was very possibly in a situation where she might actually get killed this time. This fight was just, it was different. So when investigators asked her if he had ever done this before, her answer was kind of too pronged. She said, yes, he's done it before, but never with this level of anger behind his eyes. She said that in the past, he would point the gun at her and he would basically say, I could shoot you. And what are you going to do about it? That type of thing to kind of make her cower. When he pointed it at her this time, she reacted instead of cowering. She grabbed at the gun and that physical altercation just ensued. And it was just a just clusterfuck of fighting and moving and they were wrestling. about the apartment trying to have control.

34:20 She said he slammed her into a bookcase before slinging her, you know, slinging her down. And so they're fighting over the control of the gun. So detectives are like, okay, we kind of get the gist here, but we're going to need you just to back up. And we need a much more step-by-step, walk us through the event, very detailed, so we can kind of understand the progression of things. And Shana said, okay. And through tears, She explained, all right, we got into an argument at the condo at the apartment and it kind of had started with the insulting that he would do. He said that she was crazy.

35:01 She was unstable, that everybody knows how crazy she is. But his anger when he's doing this, she said it was his eyes were just like black. They're normally these crystal blue. And she's like, they just it was almost an evil in them. It was terrifying. And she said, you know what? I'm done. I'm just going to go get my things and I want to leave. But that moment when she went to go leave, that's when everything really changed. popped off. She said he was behind her and he was screaming into her left ear, just continuing to berate her and insult her and say the just most vile things. But when he started in on insulting her mother after all of the things that he had said about her and everyone that she cared about, that's whenever he had started grabbing a hold of her. So she said, he picked me up. He grabbed me so hard that he grabbed me like with my clothing. He squeezed so tight that he got a hold of my bra and he got a hold of my pants. And then while he's holding her, that's how he started to start throwing her around the apartment. And as the fight ensued, that's whenever he slung her into the bookcase. And that terrified her because this was more than just words now.

36:18 This hurt. And it was scary. And so she then at that point went into straight fight mode. She wanted to live because the force of slamming her into that bookcase in her mind thought, you know, oh, my God, like he's going to snap my neck like this is this is insane. So Ryan was six foot three. He was much larger than the 120 pound Shana. So at one point while they're tussling, he ended up on top of her, full body weight. He had pinned her down and then he had grabbed a fistful of her hair and was trying to gain control of her by pulling her hair. So at that point, he then picked her up again and they're struggling and he slung her on to the couch. Now that's whenever she started thinking, oh my God, he's going to knock me out because I don't think I can keep this up. He was raging.

37:06 And so she just had to do something different. She had to fight back even more than ever if she wanted to live. So while she was trying to get away from him, That fight continued. They were tumbling and hitting things. There was a large television against the wall that was on like a television like table and they slammed into that. And then the fight made its way towards the kitchen. When they got into the kitchen, the table was right there. And she said that's when Ryan grabbed the gun, pointed it at her, and then she had to grab a hold of it as well. They tossed and they fought basically for control of the gun. And then by a stroke of luck or maybe divine intervention, she was able to pry it from his hands. And when she realized that she had the chance, she just started pulling the trigger. It was loud. It was scary.

37:56 And multiple shots did hit him because he reacted, but he was not completely incapacitated. So in the shock of the moment, she did watch as he dropped down. But what happened next had her in just total emotional turmoil. And she didn't know what to do. She started to panic because Ryan was hit and he went down to the ground. She said, you know, his glasses were still on his face. He was bleeding out, but she said he was twitching and he was, and he was jerking. And it was the most unnerving, unsettling thing that she had ever seen. And that fear that she had felt during this fight now turned into just complete and total distress because she was just watching him suffer. And she said, I, I didn't want him to die, but watching him jerk and twitch and make these noises, it was almost just too much to take. She could not watch him suffer the way that he was suffering. She did not want this for him. It was horrible. He was very clearly dying.

38:55 She said that he was beyond help and she just knew that he was suffering. So she made the choice to not let it continue. And this is going to be a very brutal reality, but a fact that she, in that moment, made the decision to just step closer and pull the trigger again to make it stop. And that's when she called 911. So domestic violence of this magnitude, it's not new. This is a story that you've probably heard a million times where fighting gets out of control and somebody dies. But y'all, it is becoming more and more prevalent in the United States. And police are dealing with this now more than ever. They're hearing these stories more and more and more. So the FBI included in this, they released a recent report. By recent, I mean 2024.

39:46 And it really backed up a lot of the trends that this case was echoing during the questioning of Shana. And I want to give you a couple of examples of what I mean. The average age of victims and offenders in domestic violence situations is 32. So Ryan is almost 30, and she's a little bit younger, but they're still in that younger adult timeframe. Males are usually the aggressors. Females are usually the victims, right? Both victims and domestic violence, both victims and offenders, tend to be white people. And offenses usually happen at the house. And the other trend is that the offender usually has been using drugs and or drinking alcohol right before the event takes place. So with all of this trending in mind, police asked Shana, did Ryan do drugs? And Shana said, oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

40:42 But this seemed to be something that he did in private. So like, and he wasn't out like doing heroin or something like that. I mean that he was an attorney. He had a reputation to uphold. And so she said that this was something he kind of did, you know, on a daily basis. But he was able to have control of himself, except that sometimes he would get whacked out on the drugs. And this night, that's exactly what happened. And so that was a huge part of the issue. So looking over her body, She did have abrasions. She had them on her shin. She had some older looking like yellowy green bruises on her arms. And so there were some, you know, all of that had to be photographed and documented as part of the evidence of what had happened. Now, the investigation at the apartment, that would be important in terms of documenting not only the fight, but also the shooting. So police would want to do, you know, everything possible. And so this, they would also want to go talk to witnesses who may have heard or seen anything that, you know, they got all the basic things that they've got to do. They took Shana's phone into evidence as well as Ryan's because digital evidence is invaluable. You know, that's the way of the, of the world. Now we're going to have the digital evidence.

41:53 So the phones were turned in, they were set to be analyzed and those reports would be submitted to the detectives as soon as they were complete. Now, of immediate concern at this moment was going to be the physical crime scene, the apartment. Ryan's body had been removed at this point by the coroner and photographs were taken. They went around, took pictures all around the apartment. And in real life, like right now, let's be so for real, everybody that's listening, we're all friends. In real life, homes are not always spotless. Now, I do have some friends that don't have kids and their house stays pretty clean. And obviously, Ryan didn't have any kids. But most of us don't keep our houses absolutely spotless, especially when you aren't expecting your home to become a photograph crime scene.

42:40 And you certainly don't expect to be killed in your own home. So while Ryan was a clean cut, well put together guy in dress and work and all of that, the house was a total bachelor pad. The condition was And I keep saying house, apartment, condo. Y'all, he's the second floor of an apartment complex. I'm all talking about the same thing. But the condition of it was contradictory to the way that he kind of presented himself out to the world. He wasn't the best housekeeper. But what they couldn't tell, based on the condition of the apartment at that moment, was whether he wasn't like a good housekeeper, or whether this was the result of the fight, because it wasn't immediately clear. Anything around the apartment or on the floor or anything like that could have potentially been evidence.

43:35 It was not a hoarder home. I don't want you to think that or anything. It was just lived in. Okay, it was a lived in place. So like in his bedroom, his bed wasn't made, but it did look like it had been slept in. The living room, he did have artwork on the walls. And it was like a nice job, I guess, for a guy. The photos, as I recall, of the photographs that are the things that were on the wall, they were framed, they were matted. You know, he did a good job of that. There was an exercise bike in the living room. There was this tall cherry bookcase. There was a couch. And he had that large flat screen TV on that TV stand. So there was an effort for it to be nice, but it just didn't have a woman's touch. Let's put it that way.

44:16 It wasn't, you could tell it was a bachelor pad. The kitchen was kind of narrow. It was like this inset. And then right outside of that was the dining room. It was small. And it had a wooden kind of oval shaped table right there in the center underneath the light. Now looking at that table, it seemed to be a catch-all area for Ryan's things. Again, but they couldn't tell if it was messy or if it was like disturbed messy. They weren't sure yet. There was a large, it was like a cardboard box But there were vitamin supplements, there were papers, there was drinking glasses, other odds and ends and things just on the table. And they were kind of strewn about on the table. Also on the ground, there were some pieces of clothing on the ground that looked to be Ryan's tennis shoes. There was a yellow hand towel on the ground. There was other just random items in the area. And so they weren't sure, is this part of the fight and things being moved or was that there before? All of that was going to have to be determined later. through assessing the entire scene.

45:19 But what was noticed as obvious to the case was that blood was pooled on one side of the table. And it was like roughly a one foot by one foot area of that table where all of this blood was pooled up. Now, in the living room, the coffee table was also somewhat cluttered. There was empty paper plates. There was a bag of some sort of snacks, a candle, a remote. Again, it wasn't gross. It was just really lived in. The bookcase that I keep mentioning, the contents of that bookcase became a real focal point for detectives because they had been briefed, obviously, on the general situation, which was guiding their assessment of how they were going through the apartment. And to that point, the bookcase held things that you would expect to see like in a lawyer's office, things like a fancy globe and this old leather attache, nice books, and a small collection of of old school smoking pipes, like a grandpa would smoke, not bongs or anything, but like old school smoking pipes. They were put on nice stands. If you looked really closely, like if you went up close, you could see that there was a bunch of large caliber bullets that were lined up in a row. And right in front of those lay the gun that was believed to have been used to shoot Ryan. So this was going to be a.

46:43 380 caliber. So it's a smaller gun. It was a Sig Sauer. And that's a small handgun, but certainly deadly. It was black. And then on the grip, the grip of the gun, that's where you hold it, it had like this dark green, almost gray-looking grip on it. So it's small, it's compact, and it's one that would be used for like maybe... concealed personal carry, personal defense, whatever. And that really aligned with what detectives were told about him being known to have a gun and to carry. Also, the bullets that were recovered from Ryan's body also supported that that was probably the gun used to kill him.

47:24 And so while detectives were in there and they were trying to envision the fight and determine exactly how it could have played out, they walked it out as it had been explained to them. Now, the apartment was roughly a thousand square feet, two bedroom, two bath, not huge, and certainly small enough that if a fight went on of this magnitude that you could easily be thrown around and hit all of these things that she had explained. So proximity wise, it made a lot of sense. If you were standing in his bedroom and you were facing out of the doorway, the living room was right there. And this bookcase that I'm mentioning was directly against the wall to the left hand side. Now, the TV that was on that TV stand in the living room would have been right across from the bookcase, only about maybe three steps away. And then the couch was directly across from the TV, just where you would expect a couch to be. That said, the tight area and like bumping into everything totally and completely checked out. But the detectives had an issue with the bookcase. Because if Shana had slammed into it during the fight, then why hadn't all of those pipes on those little plastic stands and the bullets that were standing directly on their ends, why hadn't they fallen over? If this fight was as serious as it obviously was, Those things would not have remained standing up.

48:56 If you even look at a bullet on its end, that thing falls over. If you were slamming into this bookcase, you would have expected that stuff to shift and to knock over. To that point, they then looked more closely at the cluttered coffee table. And again, nothing looked disheveled, but, you know, there was stuff there, but it made sense where the stuff was. And what I mean is there was a candle, the snack bag was right next to the paper plate, the remote control was on the edge of the table. And so, you know, if just the things on the table didn't look like they had been strewn there from a fight, it looked like they were where they were set. And then that TV that they had bumped into while they were struggling. Ryan wasn't the best housekeeper. And to that point, the TV had a full layer of dust on the top of it. And that dust had not been disturbed. There was no swipes through it, no fingerprints, none of that. And you couldn't help but wonder, why? How had none of this been strewn about? So back over to the dining area where Ryan's body had been found on the ground, The blood on the table was something that they wanted to look at and they wanted to look at it closely. The question became, why was there a puddle of blood, not only on the table, but also on the floor? What would have caused the blood to pool on top of the table? Because the fight would make it seem like

50:28 there would have been swipes of blood after, you know, if you're shot and you're trying to fight with somebody or whatever, it would have seemed more like there would have been more struggle there. like maybe, like I said, swipes, but also if you had been shot while you were standing by that table, wouldn't you expect there to be spatter, not a puddle of blood right there on top of the table? So police were trying to determine the cause of that blood that was on top of the table, but nothing was quite making sense. Because even if you were shot in the chest and blood was pumping out of that wound with every heartbeat, it wouldn't shoot forward immediately. and then puddle like it had on the table. It's just physics. It's gravity. It's all of those things. That's not how this works. So they were trying to figure out what were they missing. What are we missing here?

51:16 Because this is not fitting. All of the blood was really consolidated to one localized general area, the table and then the floor to the right of the table where Ryan's head was when he finally went down on the ground. So the question was really this. Was Shana directly lying about the events as they unfolded? Or was it possible that she was just misremembering it based on the stress of what was occurring as she was fighting? Because you have to think about this. Perception is reality for everyone. And so in her head, she may have thought that's how everything played out bit by bit. But maybe it was her perception that was skewing exactly how it took place.

52:00 But Shana, back at the police station, she was more than willing to talk to the police during her interview. And in only what I could describe as like word vomit, she shared everything. She was not holding back. She shared everything. So much talking was happening. And it was all over the place that police eventually decided that they wanted to take turns interviewing her. because she was so wound up and she was talking 90 to nothing that it was low-key exhausting to sit there and just hear the barrage of the information. So they would switch out and they would take breaks during this interview. And during those couple of breaks, Shana was gonna be left alone in the room because she wasn't free to leave, but detectives continued to watch her. And so during these breaks, she would kind of walk around the room, messed, she like messed with some items. There was like a, I don't know, there was something on the table. I don't know if it was like a comm system that you would press to communicate outside of the room. I don't know what it was. It looked like that or a recorder. I'm not sure. But she kind of messed with that item while she was pacing back and forth. And there was just obviously some type of pent up anxiety that had to go somewhere. But then in other breaks, she would sing.

53:19 She was singing Amazing Grace at one point while she was in the waiting room. And I'm going to play you an audio of it, which I will tell you it's not the best because, of course, it's not in a music recording booth. But this is a snippet of her singing while she's waiting during one of the breaks. She's waiting.

54:08 So hearing that, it makes you kind of wonder, was she appealing to God for comfort? Was she just trying to expel nervousness? Who knows? But another thing, that would be seen that really the detectives were kind of put off by it was that Shayna at one point began to dance. And I don't want to make it sound like she was, you know, getting down with her bad self, like she was in a club. That's not what it was. It wasn't like a crazy person out of control dancing. It was more of like a methodical ballet like turning that she was doing. And when you're seeing her do it, it looks a lot like if you've ever been around dancers, that maybe before a competition, or maybe if they're just dancers and they like to do that as their hobby or whatever, when a dancer is going through a routine in their head, and I'm not saying they're fully acting out the dance moves, but they kind of walk through the moves in their head and they do the motions with their feet and touch and tap and turn, that's kind of what it looked like. But no one knows how they're gonna behave or how they're gonna react in a stressful event such as this. but dancing? Like, it kind of makes you wonder, you know, what is she thinking about that would have her do this? It was odd. Like, what is going through your head? Are you, I would be thinking about the horrors of what just happened is what I would think I would be thinking about, but she was focusing on a dance move. So, a well-rounded investigation is going to require more, though, than just physical

55:38 evidence that they find at the scene and talking to Shana. And Detectives would be failing to do their due diligence if they didn't search for potential witnesses and speak to people who not only knew the couple, but were used to their behaviors and things of that nature. So detectives did go around, and when they were knocking on doors around the apartment, two neighbors at the complex had information that detectives felt that they needed to note. And that first bit of information was from an elderly woman named Miss Doris West. So Miss West and her husband lived directly underneath Ryan's condo, and they had lived there for the past year and a half. So her statements were that as far as being a neighbor, he was great.

56:22 No issues to speak of. And I don't know if you've ever had a neighbor in an apartment that lives above you. I did when I was younger and in college. And that can come with a lot of problems, especially with things like heavy walking and And people may be running or stamping through the apartment. It can be loud and frustrating. But the Wests told police that they had never heard any noise from Ryan's apartment until the night of October 11th. And that would have been the night before he was killed. That night, Ms. West said that she could hear a woman that was outside on Ryan's porch and she was crying. And then a male voice said, started to comfort her and was saying, it's okay, it's okay.

57:06 It was not a fight or anything like that, but she heard what was going on with the crying and the consoling. Then the following night, which was the night that Ryan was shot, she said she again heard a female on the porch crying. And then a little bit later, shortly thereafter, that's whenever they heard the gunshots and And not only did she say that she heard the gunshots, Miss West, who, by the way, she's like in her 80s, so she's older, but she was able to give the cadence of these shots. And the way she played it out for the cop was she said, when I heard it, the shots went bang, bang. Then there was a pause and then bang, bang, bang, bang. So she hadn't been told anything to that point of how many times Ryan had been shot. nor any other important details. And so the fact that her replay of events matched the number of times that Ryan was actually shot, it seemed pretty dang credible evidence. Bang, bang, slight pause, bang, bang, bang, bang.

58:13 She also added that the pause that was between shots was probably about six seconds and that she did hear a loud thump during those gunshots. So what police believed was that Miss Doris and her husband had unknowingly heard the shooting and killing of Ryan Poston. But another neighbor would also have detailed accounts, but from another day. So this neighbor told police that she had been witness to Shana needing help. I believe that she said it was sometime during that summer. But she was at home and she heard a lot of banging at her door. So when she opened it, there she found a very upset Shana.

58:58 She was there. She was crying. So the neighbor obviously wanted to be helpful. You know, what's going on? Are you OK? And so Shana kind of held out her arm and she had a red mark on it that looked like maybe like a handprint around. It. And she told the neighbor, you know, me and Ryan, we just got into a fight and it got physical. He picked me up. And then when he picked me up, he slammed me down on the ground, like on the concrete outside of the apartment door. So, you know, that's not good. And that shouldn't be happening. And so she and the neighbor were talking. They knew each other. And, you know, it wasn't like this was just a cold knock on the door from what I understand. They knew each other. But so they kind of were discussing it. And this neighbor said, look, I really think that you need to call the police. You know, domestic violence isn't a joke. It only escalates. And no one deserves to be hurt. No matter how mad somebody is, they shouldn't be picking you up and throwing you down outside. So at this point, in everything that's being checked out, This case was far from being shored up and it certainly would need tons more work done to be solved. But they were starting to get a picture here that there was a lot more going on than most people were aware of. But the digital evidence that was about to come in and that was going to open up a whole new level of insight into this couple's private life.

1:00:21 So this is where I'm stopping for today, and I will definitely be completing this story next week for you. I want to leave you with this question to ponder. How do you get a nose job without ever seeing a doctor? If you are totally confused right now with what that has to do with this case, sit tight and just wait until I explain this unbelievable connection to Ryan's shooting death next week.