PART 2 | ANOTHER Knoxville Nightmare

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. Warning. Unspeakable as intended for mature audiences. If you are easily offended, then I'm not your girl. Listening discretion is advised. Hey, y'all, it's kJ You're back with an another episode of Unspeakable. What is going on with you? I know that y'all have been waiting for this part too. You sent me the messages.

1:07 Release it now, Release it now. Y'all had to finish writing it because I was still doing more research, so I wasn't holding you up just for no reason. But we're gonna jump right back into this one now. I'm gonna finish it up today. Now I will give you a quick recap because people have requested that, and hey, I want to give you exactly what you want, so quick recap. In part one, Remember Shannon and Chris, they're dating They were supposed to go to a party that night, but they never showed. Family and friends became upset by this, obviously alerted to the fact that, hey, they didn't show up, where are they? They began searching for them. The following day, they were alerted at some point to a burning body on the railroad tracks, and then it would be followed up with the fact that, oh, my gosh, it's Chris, and now everyone is desperately trying to find Shannon. Now her forerunner, her vehicle. It was found near Chipman Street, which was about ten minutes from town or ten minutes from where the apartment complex was that they were last seen at. And everything was missing from this vehicle down to the stickers that were removed, except for one sticker that remained right on the windshield on the outside where the rear view mirror would have blocked it if you were sitting on the inside. Remember that the carpets were muddy.

2:26 Inside of the car, police were able to find Newport cigarettes that were kind of crushed or used on the floor. Her iPod was missing, and that was something that was very special to her. So while friends and family were wanting to search for Shannon, they still were asked to step back. The police said, look, you've got to let us do this investigation in a controlled way. We understand how desperate you are. We want to find her just as much as you do, but we have to do this in a controlled manner. We don't possibly do something that could affect things long term. Now, Chris's family, I want to go back to them real quick. Chris's family was now left with only the knowledge that someone had shot their son multiple times, and they would eventually find out that he was shot multiple times after he had been violently raped, and then he was set on fire.

3:24 So they just went from what should have been an absolute normal week in their lives to planning their son's funeral overnight. And I know there's a lot of people that have experienced this. You know, people die unexpectedly, things happen that are tragic, but it still doesn't take away from the fact that you never planned to be burying your son and just in just a short amount of time from not even you know, knowing where he was. Now you know you have to plan this funeral. Their son, who was a certified he went to school, he was certified in marine and motorcycle repair, the one who switched and was decided that, you know, carpentry was something he really really enjoyed. The kid that had devoted his time to becoming somebody that just played golf in his spare time.

4:15 He was shot and he was burned, and then on top of that they have to process he was raped. This is not something that you normally hear. You don't typically hear this type of thing happening specifically too, because he was an adult male. How had they gotten to this point in their lives? Chris's mother had stayed up all night calling him after they initially realized that Shannon was missing and that he was missing, and she never got a callback from her son. She's thinking back through how this just had happened. She then tried to file a police report the day prior, but they wouldn't do anything, or wouldn't do anything because he was twenty three and it hadn't been he was twenty three years old and it hadn't been twenty four hours yet. It's just like she felt like, my god, what do we do. I'm here talking to the people I know to talk to, but because of that technicality, the police weren't doing anything in that moment. They did suggest to her, Hey, maybe you should call the hospitals. Maybe he was in an accident or something. She had done that everything that she tried to locate her son had led her to a dead end. Even though he was a grown man at twenty three years old. Her baby was missing. And that was until someone arrived at her home and then had broken the news to her that Shannon's vehicle had been found. Now,

5:47 before Chris's body had been located, his parents and I just want to point this out, before his body was even located, his parents had already been suffering. That's why I bring up what she had been through and her his dad had been through in those last hours before this realization that he was dead. The unknown in those moments was damn near as bad as the eventual known the suffering. At least it just was you know, It's not like it just was like, oh he's missing, Oh he's dead. I mean, there's just so much emotion involved in this that his family suffered for such a long time. No parent ever wants to see a chaplain show up at their door. And when she saw that, she knew, she knew immediately, my baby is gone. And she immediately went blank after that, nothing else really mattered. Her child was dead. So police in the meantime, they are having to break the news to Chris's family that devastation is now just now starting to you know, evolve. But they still on the other side of that, are searching hard for Shannon because they're clinging to the hope that not only may she still be alive, but hopefully she's just being held somewhere and the police are now determined they're going to find her. And so as these minutes are passing, Shannon's mom is also still in a world of distress.

7:17 She too, was thinking back over the last time she had spoken to her baby girl. These mamas, you know, if you're listening and you're a mama or you're a daddy, you probably are grasping the point of why I'm spending so much time on talking about these parents, because we're all the same in the regard that we love our children, and the suffering involveteer is something that I just you know, I would not wish on my worst enemy. So she's thinking back about the last time she spoke to her baby girl. Shannon had gotten up that last morning and she took a shower, and Dina, that was her mama's name, she had just finished a load of laundry and so she folded it and she brought it up to Shannon's room and she placed it on her bed, an everyday normal thing. Shannon by that point had gotten out of the shower, and so Miss Dina sat down on the bed and she was chit chatting with her daughter while her daughter was getting ready, and Shannon was telling her, Mama, look, I'm trying to figure out what I want to wear for this party tonight, and she was, you know, she had just gotten some new clothes for Christmas, so she had all these new choices and it was just a simple but sweet moment between a mother and a daughter.

8:27 And after Shannon ended up getting dressed, her mama walked her to the front door, and the last thing her mama ever said to her was have a great shift because she was driving, she was heading to work. She said, have a great shift and drive careful and I love you, baby. And although now missing, at least her mother did have that bit of solace that the last words that she could remember speaking to her in person where I love you, And in some way I think that we would all pray that should some try tragedy strike our lives in this manner, we would hope for that too, because when it's all said and done, it's all that matters is that you love your children. But the truth was that Shannon had called home again very late that same night.

9:18 So she had gone to work, like you already know, and then she went and she had met up with Kara Caro left and went to the party. But that night, later that night, and this was around midnight, one am, Shannon did call back to the house, but her mama was in the restroom, and so she yelled out to her husband and said, Hey, answer the phone. Someone's calling. It's really late. Answer it please. She just thought it was really odd. Well, it turned out that it was Shannon, and so the last person to actually speak to Shannon was her daddy. Now, Shannon had told her dad that, Hey, Daddy, I just want to let you know. So I'm gonna be home around three am. Right now, I'm with Kara.

10:04 I'm at her house and we're watching a movie. Now. Since mom was awake at this point, Dad fell back asleep. But because Mom was already awake and it was the early morning hour. She decided that she was just gonna stay up and wait for Shannon to come into the house because they had dogs and she didn't want the dogs to start barking and disturb or wake up Shannon's dad whenever Shannon came in. But the thing was, she never came home. So by three point thirty am, when Shannon never walked in the door, her mom started calling her because, like I said, she was a girl of her word. If she said she was gonna be home at three, she was gonna be home at three now. The first time her mother rang, it kept ringing, ring, ring, ring, until eventually the voicemail picked up. Well, her mom continued to try to call some more, but every subsequent call seemed to now go straight to voicemail. But then some times she would wait, then she would call again, and then it would ring until the voicemail would pick up.

11:04 She'd leave a message Shannon called me back, I'm worried, And then when she would try to call again later on again it would go straight back to voicemail. So her mom's like, okay, did she turn off her phone? Why would she turn off her phone, well, maybe it died. Well, if it died, then why is it now ringing again? It just was kind of odd. But her mom eventually fell back asleep, but when she woke later that morning, she started calling Shannon again and now the phone was not going to be answered. Okay, so something had happened with that phone. Now her mom did remember getting frustrated at that point, but now in the moment, knowing what she knew that her daughter was missing, she didn't care what the situation was. She just prayed the phone had died at this point and that Shannon wasn't calling her back.

11:51 She just wanted her baby girl back. How would she break the news when they got her back. How was she going to break the news to shann that Chris was dead. There were so many emotions, so many thoughts. She just knew, oh my god, she's going to be devastated when we have to tell her that Chris is dead. It was just too much to even consider. Her brain was just all over the place with possibilities and the thoughts. But later that day was when the manager from the store where Shannon work called and that's when she it solidified in her mother's mind. Oh my god, something is definitely wrong. So what did Shannon's mom do at that point, Well, of course, she too called police, but Shannon was too old to immediately at least jump into trying to look for her. She called the hospitals, just like Chris's mother had done. She even called the jails, although that just seemed just ridiculous, but she thought, I don't know, maybe the party got out of hand, maybe something happened and she did get arrested. She even called the jails looking for her daughter, but no one at any of these places recognized her name or had seen anyone come in under another name or a Jane Do or anything like that, so it just wasn't very helpful. Her mother became so just you know, enraged isn't the word, but just became so overwhelmed by everything. She even contacted the local FBI office trying to get some help, but again, because of Shannon's adult status, nothing would be done. The helplessness in

13:22 those moments, that's the only word I can think of, is the helplessness. You are trained your whole life that you call the police in a time of need, but due to this technicality being her age, nothing It's like you're on an island all your own. You're all alone. The police don't know your kid, they don't know her nuances or her the way that she behaves. You know, in majority of the time, people do show back up when they're adults. So there, you know, their urgency just wasn't there. But her mom knew. So when the police got the results from herself phone pinging and it showed that that Shannon's phone was pinging off of that Cherry Street tower, that's when her mom now is falling apart.

14:08 Because Cherry Street was a known area of town that was no good. Shannon would have been terrified to have even gone near that area of town. Now, we all live wherever we live. We all live in areas where we know that there is an area of town that we just don't go. Come on, let's be for real. Okay, this is the real world. I know in my own parish, there are places that I just don't go, and there are certainly places that I'm not going to go after dark. You know why, because I don't belong there and there's nothing there that has anything to do with the way my life goes. Okay, her mom knew that Shannon would have been terrified to even go near that part of town.

14:56 So let's talk about the Cherry Street area. They were lower income homes, crime rate high. Shannon would certainly never have been there on purpose at least. So the question now became why had she told her daddy that she was at Kara's apartment when that obviously was not true. Shannon, though, was not a liar. She wouldn't have had to lie. She was an adult. Her parents recognize that. Matter of fact, Shannon's brother was off at college too. I think he was older than Shannon. So the agreement they had made was, Shannon, you know your brother gets to go move off and go to college, and he has his freedom. If you don't want to live in a dorm and you know you can't afford an apartment, then you can stay home and we will give you the freedoms of an adult, so long as you check in with us and you don't make us worry. That was the agreement. She had the freedom, so there was no reason for her to have lied and say I'm at the apartment when she was over on Cherry Stree. Now, when her mother had run over to Cherry Street, when Shannon's car was found, there was an immediate question in the minds of police when they arrived, and basically the police were wondering, was it possible that maybe Chris and Shannon had been on Cherry Street to go and buy drugs, because, like I told you, this is not a good part of town.

16:22 Drugs rampant, drug sales rampant. And her mother immediately took offence to this question posed and she told the cop that that question was total bullshit. Don't you dare ask me that about my child When I am telling you she would have never stepped foot in this part of town. It would have tore her up. But the reality is this, while her mother knew that Shannon did not do drugs and would not have been in that area, the cops didn't know that there are kids lie to their parents. Adult kids lie to their parents. They don't run home and say, hey mom, I'm gonna go snort a line, or hey I'm gonna go, you know, smoke weed. They just don't do that. So the police I think were fair in asking that question. But there was something else that her mother was banking on that that you know, look, her stickers have been removed from her vehicle. So even if she did go down here to buy drugs, she didn't stand outside and pull the damn stickers off of her vehicle. Of course, okay, we all understand what Mom's getting at here, and of course we all understand, but the police have to look at everything. So while this was completely and totally offensive to her mother, I will tell you it was the right call to question all of these possibilities so that they could be ruled out.

17:44 But a mama knows. And there's another thing that her mama knew, and it's that Shannon always had clothes in her car. The reason was because she was always staying with Kara or staying over with other friends, and so she would have to goas or overnight bags packed. And she said, half the time Kara would bring home her dirty clothes after she stayed with her friend a couple of days or whatever, and her mama would wash them. She said, hell, half the time Kara's clothes were in there. You know, they shared stuff, so she would just bring home these clothes to be washed. Also, Shannon was a very very very good student, and so she would always have her books and her booksack and all of that in the car, All of that was gone. Her mama knew everything here was wrong, but the police have to look at every single avenue to rule them out. Like I said, so another thing would happen. Whenever they cracked open the car h Shannon's car, they were searching through and the police opened the glove box and they found a needle. So it's like, uh oh, maybe this is the thing that the mom didn't know. Maybe this is the drugs, Maybe this is the connection of why they're downtown.

18:56 So they go to the mom and they say, miss Dina, you know, we found a needle in her car. Would there be any reason you would know this would be in here? And to their surprise, she said, well yes, wait, what what do you mean? Yes, why would there be a needle in the car? And she said because one of her best friends that's always with her is a diabetic and she is insulin dependent, and so they always have the insulin with them. Further looking into that, it checked out this was not drug related. So now that the news of Chris's dead body being found was revealed to Shannon's family, the whole family at this point knows this is not going to be good, and they were now at the mercy of the police to find their daughter.

19:42 But science, science itself would make a big difference in this moment because while there wasn't much left in the vehicle, there was a bank envelope that was found on the floorboard inside of Shannon's car, so that was collected as possible evidence. And when they they took that to the lab and it was treated with a n ynhydron, they were able to develop a print on that envelope. Now, Chris had gone by the ATM earlier in that afternoon to get some money, right thee hundred dollars that he pulled out for dinner, So it's probably going to be Chris's print that's developed on the envelope. So they take the print and they run it through APHIS and they do get a match. Now here's the thing. Chris wasn't a criminal, so there was no reason for Chris's thumb print to be in APHIS. That meant this was someone else's print, and when it was matched up, it was found to be the right thumb print of a LaMarcus Davidson. Now, in episode one, I mentioned if you remember that there was another party that was happening on Chipman Street at the exact same time as the party that Shannon and Chris were supposed to be at their party on the other side of town. Well, Chipman Street is also going to be that place where Shannon's forerunner would be located. Now, the right thumbprint of the very man who lived at

21:13 the very house where the vehicle was seen parked was just identified on an envelope inside of Shannon's vehicle. So this isn't rocket science, guys. The police are like, there's a clue, and so they go up and they knock on the door of this home that is known to be the home of LaMarcus Davidson. Now, either no one was home or they were refusing to answer. They weren't sure that with the answer was at that point, but police knew, all right, guys, we got to go secure a warrant for this house and we're gonna have to make entry to see what's going on inside. Well, that warrant was swiftly granted. The SWAT team was called and they were like, you know, setting up, we've got to make entry into this house and doing a background check on LaMarcus Davidson. It was now realized that this is not a god be playing around with. He had a violent history, a prior record, and it turned out LaMarcus and one of his best friends named Eric Boyd, those two liked to commit armed robberies together and so they had been convicted before. These guys were not somebody that you'd want to be messing with. So the swat team arrives, they suited up and on the signal, they busted down the front door, and they quickly entered into the home with guns drawn, ready for a fight. Sunroom that's at the very beginning of the house. When you're first walking in, there's a sunroom there. So the sunroom on the porch, clear bedroom, one, clear bathroom, clear closet, clear bedroom two, clear kitchen, clear back porch, all clear. Nobody was there.

22:50 The home was extremely small. It was only about eight hundred and five square feet, so it took less than five minutes to clear this whole house. No one was home. The house was completely silent, so the officers are just kind of looking at each other like, well, okay, it's empty, no wonder nobody's answer in the door. In the quick assessment that was made, while these officers are going through guns drawn, you know, trying to clear the house. It was very obvious that whoever lived here was clearly the home was being maintained by someone who lived in poverty, all right. There was no furniture really to speak of in this house. There was trash on the floor. There were just random items on the built in shelving in the living room. The closets held just a few pieces of clothing in them. It looked to be like there was drug paraphernalia in certain places. There was a scale with some powder residue on it. There was no food in the cabinets. There was only a blow up mattress for a bed in one of the bedrooms. They did find They did see some firearms in the closet leaning up.

24:03 So it just wasn't your ideal home to be living in. But two officers who last cleared the back patio area stepped back into the kitchen, and when they did, they immediately grabbed at their guns, and they did so while making eye contact with one another. They didn't speak a word, but they both realized at that exact second that they were probably in immediate danger. And they realized it at the exact same moment because there was a large rubber made trash can in the kitchen, and they both happened to look at this trash can at the same time and recognize that it was completely misshapen. And by misshapen, I mean the only way that it could be shaped this way was that something very very heavy would have had to have been inside of it to distort the shape of the trash can in that way. They knew immediately someone was hiding in that trash can. I know that sounds silly, and someone might be like, really, but I can tell you if you've listened to prior episodes of mine, I had a warden friend of mine one who that very thing happened to her. She looked in a trash can, and an inmate that had escaped was hiding in a trash can. Okay, so crazier things have happened.

25:22 So while one officer drew down with his weapon on the can, he nodded as the other one quietly but swiftly grabbed a hold of the lid and ripped it off. But no one jumped out of the can. No one was hiding inside the can. It was actually quite the opposite. No one was hiding inside, but someone had been hidden inside. The officers quickly realized that this was the body of a white female. Oh my god, Shannon, Shannon, but she never responded. They did check for signs of life, but there were none, and they radioed to the others. We found her, but Shannon Christian was dead. So a command post had been set up by the Sheriff's office at this nearby restaurant on Cherry Street, and Shannon's family had remained there constantly to await updates or any additional information if they could help. They wanted to be right there and be available in any way, shape or form. A matter of fact, just a little while earlier, Shannon's mom had run home and grabbed one of Shannon's hair brushes for a tracking dog to use as a scent marker, and that dog had been sent out searching because the hope was still high that they would find her. So Shannon's mom and dad were initially elated when the word came the words came out of someone's mouth at the command post, Shannon's been found, but when it was followed

26:53 up with the fact that she was deceased, her whole family just fell apart. Her daddy began way and her mother almost lost consciousness, the weight of her or her legs just giving out. The officers knew in that moment that there was nothing to do and there was nothing to say. Everyone's eyes just dropped to the ground as the finality of their daughter's life had just been confirmed, and now the moments of forever living without seeing Shannon alive had just begun. So the family was now left to grieve this unimaginable loss with no answers, and the command post was no longer holding any value for them.

27:43 Their daughter was dead, they didn't need to be there, but the command post still had work to do locating whoever was responsible for all of this. So the family left and they go back home to try to make sense of this, to just start the initial steps of grief. While the medical examiner was showing up and taking everything in, taking note so that she could take Shannon in for an autopsy. Now she made the decision the emmy did to take Shannon in the can so that they wouldn't disturb or lose any evidence contained therein So once at the office, Shannon remained in the trash can undisturbed until the following morning, when a proper autopsy would be performed. Now, I want to tell y'all, I've been doing true crime a long time, and I've been podcasting a while now, and I'm gonna warn you that Shannon's autopsy is not one that if you are extremely sensitive to this type of thing, that you may want to hear. I want to just tell you that, I know I don't normally warn you about these things, but this one's pretty brutal.

29:02 So there's your warning if this is not something that you would like to listen to. But I'll tell you that her autopsy took me two pages to document. This autopsy would reveal brutality and abuse taken far beyond the force that it would have required just to subdue somebody. Shannon's capture had served a very specific purpose for her captors, and this was revealed as the doctor went through the examination. So to start, Shannon, when looked at in the can before removal, was believed to be in the fetal position, with her head dropped down slightly between her knees a bit. Now, as they go to remover, they're not just pulling her body out, because it turns out that she was bagged in trash bags. And it wasn't just one or two.

30:09 She had been bagged in five trash bags, one on top of the other before she had been stuffed into that trash can. So they carefully pulled her out, and they removed these trash bags layer by layer until her full body was exposed. Now, while it had looked at first like Shannon was dressed because she had on a sweater, when the final bag was removed, it was realized that Shannon was nude from the waist down. And this next set of information that I'm gonna give, I want my listeners specifically to rise to the occasion with me. And what I mean by this is that I'm sharing this information as a woman woman, and I expect full protection of Shannon's dignity as you listen to what I am saying, because I am not sharing this for any reason other than I want you to have the full truth and full transparency on what this doctor saw. Not only was Shannon nude from the waist down, but she was also found to have been hogtied with strips of cloth or sheeting. Now, the positioning of this hogtie on her made it to where she could in no way fight back, and her

31:44 legs and her ankles were pulled up and secured in a fashion that her genitalia was readily exposed and accessible. And this is what I mean. There was a ligature tied around her ankles, so if you want to imagine, put your ankles together next to each other. There was a ligature around her ankles and her feet, and then that ligature had a long piece to it that which if you pull up, which is what was happening here, that the captor had pulled up to where her knees would come up to her chest, and then that was tied around her neck and tightened fashioned, you know, in a knot behind her neck, so she was in the fetal position, but her feet were tied together, her knees drew completely up, and it was fashioned behind her neck secured.

32:41 So if you can see what I'm saying here, you understand what I mean that she was fully exposed and accessible to someone. And there was also another ligature holding her thighs together so that she could not move. Her vagina and her anus were readily viewable by the medical examiner due to this positioning without any type of modification or movement. Required proof in itself that there was absolute purpose in her being tied up this way. It made accessing her private parts for rape automatic, and there is no way she could reposition or fight back. And this, oh, there is a fire burning in me to know that someone could do this to somebody and there's nothing she can do about it. It just angers me. It's an anger.

33:45 It's an anger coming from a woman that you know. I'm not a prude, guys, but I am. I believe in dignity and I believe in privacy, and she was just it was taken from her and there was nothing she could do about it. Nothing. And the doctor knew that that was the case, that this rape was the cause and the reasoning for all of this because of the trauma that she could see that had been suffered, and it was right there. They didn't have to do any type of investigation to find out if she was raped. It was so obvious this girl had suffered brutality in the form of rape, unlike anything that you would ever want to hear. And it's times like this where I'd love to just skip right over this information, but in a way, I feel like it takes away from the full reality of what we are dealing with here. I always try to put myself in a victim's shoes, and for that reason I refuse to gloss over this information because the word rape here is not enough. I'm telling you it is not enough. Her final days and moments were document and very clearly by her own small body's attempt to try and heal itself, with no chance of it, because you could see readily that she had suffered horrific vaginal and anal bruising. The word hematomas was what was used.

35:21 There was blood leaking out of her genitals from the violence that she had endured. Her head was pushed into her knees, she was so tightly crammed into that trash can, which the medical examiner confirmed. Shannon was alive when they put her in those bags and they put her in that trash can. She knew what was happening to her after she had been viciously raped. This type of damage is not from one sexual encounter, not this level. Her lips were purple. They looked at her face and those lips were purple from lack of oxygen, which was due to positional asphyxia, meaning that she was crammed so tight and hog tied so tight that when she was put in the can, she could not even expand her chest enough to get oxygen in. And to top it off, while she is suffocating, some animal put a white trash bag over her head and then tied it behind her neck.

36:39 So there was a combination of a lack of oxygen not only from the trash bag, but the inability to breathe effectively due to all of the compression in the trash can and the longer that she sat in that confined space, gravity was causing her body to settle. She couldn't reposition, she was tied, She couldn't do anything but just sink under her own weight. And then they put a lid on top of her. There was no air. I mean, you take this in and there's no way that we can even fathom what her mind was thinking all of that known. She hasn't even been uncurled yet by this doctor. So they got her out after all of this. They took her ligatures off and they were able to lay her out on the examination table and the internal examination would then be completed. And I'm gonna tell you it only got worse if you can even believe this. Internally, Shannon was suffering contusions, bruising, and abrasions to her cervix inside up inside of her body. Her cervix was bruised, it was bleeding, There was pockets full

38:11 of blood hematomas from such violent damage being done to her. Internally, she was so brutalized. Both her labia majora and manora were bruised and swollen. On the outside. There was a large hematoma in her perianal area. So that area between your vagina and your anus right there with such documented swelling that the doctor said she had to have been alive when all of these rapes were committed. And the way that the doctor explained it was that when you are alive, your body is going to immediately begin sending blood cells to this traumatized area to try and repair itself.

38:53 And we all know that like if you cut yourself or if you get hit, the first thing that happens is swelling. That's the typical initial response. So the fact that her body was so swollen told the doctor she was absolutely alive while she was being traumatized in this way. When the doctor rolled her over on her backside, the doctor noted that she had carpet burns on her bottom. Of course she did. She was hogtie, she couldn't move from the position she was in and someone was raping her on the carpet, literally causing carpet burn to her bottom.

39:33 She had an injury on her lower neck as well, almost in the shoulder area, and it wasn't until the doctor made the incision on her scalp and peeled back her scalp that the doctor was able to identify multiple areas of contusions on her skull. Her hair had masked it. There were contusions on both sides of Shannon's skull, both the left and the right, and the doctor said they were large. She even had a contusion that reached the level of her brain on the back of her head. So basically, the doctor's report said that Shannon had been hit so hard in the head towards the top that it impacted her brain and it caused her brain to be damaged in the back of her head. The lack of oxygen that she suffered while she suffocated in that trash can had caused her brain to swell, and her brain had oozing inside of the skull. From this, inside Shannon's mouth would also tell a story of just animalistic abuse.

40:41 Right now, while you're listening to this, I want you to take your tongue and I want you to lick inside of your mouth up underneath your upper lip, that little piece, that little string that's attaching your upper lip to your gum, your frenulum. Everyone knows what that is, right, Well, your friendulum is not an easily ruptured thing. Okay, It's got to have some sort of excessive force applied to it. Shannon's frinulum had been completely ripped away from her gum. If there's got to be some type of forceful action in this mouth enough to rip Shannon's frinulum, the doctor opined that this was forced penile insertion that would have ripped her frienulum. She's trying not to let that happen, and someone's forcing her to give oral sex, cramming this in her face, and it ripped the frinulum underneath her lip.

41:47 All over the other portions of her body, there was documented bruising, and there were bruises that were consistent with people forcefully grabbing her or a person forcedly grabbing her u There was beatings, There was bruising, the whole all of it. But there was one thing that the medical examiner was initially stumped by, and that's that Shannon's skin was showing slippage in some areas, like it's slothing off, but most notably, it was on her size. But the doctor couldn't quite figure this out at first, because she hadn't been dead long enough to expect that. Okay, so the doctor started to wonder if maybe she had been exposed to some sort of chemical or something like that, because she did notice that whenever Shannon's body was being you know, looked at, she could smell something that smelled chemical like, but it was also mixed with the typical decomposition smell, and so she couldn't readily identify it in that exact moment. But when further testing was done, it would reveal that this was exactly the case. The medical examiner was spot on because whoever had done this had taken a bottle of bleak and poured it not only all over Shannon's bottom half, all over her vaginal area and all of that to try to, I guess, get rid of evidence, but they had also poured bleach in her mouth. This chemical created an environment for that slippage,

43:19 and while she was gasping for breath, she was breathing in these fumes. It combined with the warmth of the trash can and her body and the lack of oxygen in the cairn. Shannon had been sweating, so that's why Shannon's body still had maintained some moisture. It just the horrificness of this is beyond So the doctor obviously did a rape test kit. Swabs were taken from all over Shannon's body and those were sent off to the lab for DNA testing, but that would take some more time for those profiles to be developed, if any profiles could be developed. But when it's all said and done, Shannon's cause of death was ruled as ex asphyxia due to the bag that was over her head, combined with positional asphyxia because she could not breathe because of the way she was tied up and crammed in that trash can.

44:14 You know, it kind of makes you wonder. It makes me wonder what must the vicarious trauma be like for people who have to deal with these cases, You know, people who have to see this day in and day out. We know that law enforcement officers suffer over time. Imagine being the medical examiner just the day before she had done the autopsy on Chris, seeing him burned to helen back and raped, and now here's Shannon in this condition. Takes a very special person to be a medical examiner. So police, now that they've got this fingerprint and they know that it was la Marcus's on that bank envelope, the pressure was now on. They had to go find this guy. Okay, we got to go find him. Now this is not a joke. And now we have Shannon's body in his house. The pressure is on. So multiple agencies became involved by this point, and through some information that was obtained. And I'm gonna explain more, but the police now even knew that it's more than just LaMarcus, they're probably looking for. They're gonna have to go across state lines and they're gonna actually have to go into Kentucky to grab more people. Okay, why did they think that? Well, do you remember Daphne. Her name was Daphanie Sutton. Daphne was the boy, the girlfriend of LaMarcus. And if you remember, in episode one, I told you they had gotten in a fight very night that Shannon and Chris went missing and she left the house. Remember it was a big fight. Well, police had gotten a hold of Daphne, and the reason they were able to get her, if you're curious, is because that address, that of the house where Shannon was

45:47 found was tied to LaMarcus. Well, there was a cop in that actual police I think it was a sergeant or something, but that she was related. Daphnie was related to this cop. Well, the cop was able to get in touch with her because he knew her and said, we got to talk to you. We have some questions. So Daphne's like, okay, sure, I'll answer your questions. Well, Daphne worked at Sonic. Okay, she didn't have a high paying job or anything. Remember she was the only one employed in that house on Chipman Street. But she had lived with LaMarcus as well as her two children. So she starts explaining to the police why. She says that things have gone south, and her biggest complaint was that she couldn't trust him anymore. Well, why why are you having trust issues with him? She said, Well, let's start with this. Okay. Remember this is January, so Christmas had just happened. So LaMarcus had told her that allegedly, while she was at work one day, that someone broke into their house and stole everything of Daphne's. This included all of her money and all of her Christmas gifts. So she's just looking at him like, are you be so for real right now? Are you for real right now?

46:58 He's like, yes, not only he said that he thought it was racially motivated because whoever broke in the house had spray painted the inward on the wall. So she's like what, And so she goes inside of their home and she looks, but it just strikes her as not quite right because it wasn't the inWORD with the hard R on the wall. It was the slang inward. It was nigga. And so she's like, I don't think a racist is gonna come in here and spray paint the slang word on the wall and just steal my stuff.

47:39 That's crazy. Plus, while she's arguing with him about that this don't seem right, she looks down at his shoes and the same paint that was on the wall that had the racist who broke in and did it used, that same paint was on his shoes. She was like, oh, hell no, no, this cat took her stuff, spent her money, and probably sold all of her stuff, okay, and she's She's like, no, I'm not doing this. So the reason she finally left that night in question was because he had been hitting her and he was pushing her and she just wasn't gonna deal with this anymore. And they asked her who all was at the house when you left? Was there anybody there? And she says, yeah, everybody was there.

48:20 So police are now all ears, well who is everybody? And she says, well, it was LaMarcus, me, his brother La Talvis, his girlfriend Vanessa Coleman that's Talvis's girlfriend, and then another friend named George Thomas. Remember I told you this in first episode. La Talvias, George, and Vanessa were visiting from Kentucky. Bingo police now had more names of people they needed to go talk to in reference to what all likely went down. She also told them that after the blow up fight later that evening, LaMarcus showed up at her friend's house where she had gone to stay for the night. And when he showed up, he was blaring music out of this vehicle. Mind you, LaMarcus didn't have a vehicle, and so she goes outside because it's late. It was against the rules of the apartment complex have blaring music. And she goes out to the car, like, turn it down, what are you doing? And when she went out to speak with him, she said it was a silver SUV. So the police go, okay, was there anything about it that stood out to you? And she said, well, yeah, there were stickers on it. There was a large power tea sticker and there was a north Face sticker on the rear window. And that's about all I can remember. Now.

49:38 Daphne didn't know it in this moment, but she had just described Shannon's vehicle literally to the tea. But there was more because the next day, LaMarcus had called her again and he had started blowing up her phone. Now you need to remember it. Daphne knows nothing about the house or Shannon's body or any of this. While she's talking, she said, he was blowing me up the next day and he said that he had some clothes for me. So she said, I went back over to the house and she noticed that everybody was being kind of stand office. She said, La Talvis wouldn't speak to her. And George was sitting there rolling up a blunt never said anything to her. She went to go in the bathroom, but LaMarcus said, no, you can't go in there, and kind of pushed her, and he said that there was somebody in there. She assumed that it was Vanessa, and then she said she tried to go back into the bedroom because she had left some of her makeup or something there, and he wouldn't let her in the bedroom either. He starts yelling at her and he tells her, this is my house. Now you left, you don't get free access to my house. He tried to then give her some money, and then he gave her a ring. And by the way, this was weird to her too, because he had never done that before. LaMarcus was broke and he was unemployed.

50:58 He was a scrub. I guess how could you could refer to him? He had never bought her clothes before, for sure, but they were in a Sears bag, and so she took it. But then looking through it, she realized, wait a minute, these clothes aren't even new. LaMarcus, where did you get these? And he said he had gotten them from like a thrift store or a resell type store and he had bought them for her. But even if that was the case, Daphne wasn't stupid. Okay, I'm also not gonna say she was an angel, but she wasn't stupid. And she was super skeptical about this because LaMarcus was a known gang member and that gang repped Blue. Okay, who reps Blue? I'm gonna assume the crips, Okay, I don't know, but he was a known Blue repper. She was never allowed to wear red for any reason because of that. But in the bag of clothes that he gave her there was a bright red skirt. This one against everything LaMarcus would ever allow. So she's just totally like, what is going on here? But she did try on the clothes. She kept some, but she gave the rest back because she said some of it was just a little big for her, it didn't fit. The police said, well, do you have the items that you kept? She said, I sure do, and she turned over the items she kept to the police and guess what those items were identified as Shannon's clothing. But Daphne had no idea about this. Remember, this is kind of ghetto where they live. It's kind

52:29 of like you know, people don't ask a lot of questions. They just kind of go with whatever. She probably assumed you stole them, to be honest. Well, with all the new names and the information, police were now searching for all of these people and ultimately trying to figure out how did Shannon end up with these people in that house and how did Chris end up beside railroad tracks raped and set on fire. It still was not making sense. They were kind of getting some pieces here to the puzzle, but it still wasn't making complete sense. While well, Kentucky police were out searching for la Talvis, George and Vanessa. The Knoxville police, well, they were searching for Eric Boyd. That was the friend, the best friend of LaMarcus. So by now, just to put it into perspective, by now, it was Thursday, January the eleventh, and it's around one pm when Eric Boyd was driving down the road and he gets stopped by police in a traffic stop. But it wasn't actually just a traffic stop. They had been surveilling him and they now had questions. The basic question was where is your best friend LaMarcus. Of course he knew nothing. He didn't know where LaMarcus was his best friend, He had no idea, couldn't tell him a thing. Well, police knew better, so it says robbing partner. They were best ease, so they continued to pressure him. Now, while all of this is happening, inside that van that Boyd was driving, a completely frightened mother and daughter were inside

54:02 of it. Now, this woman, I'm just gonna describe her to you because I just thought she was quite lovely. But the mother was from Africa. She has a very thick African accent, very well put together a lady. And the police are like, what are y'all doing together? What are you doing with this guy? Right? Because Boyd's a criminal. And she says, she's just shaking, she's totally just fearful. And she says, we were heading to a doctor's appointment. My daughter has a doctor's appointment. He was taking us there. But they would never make it to that appointment because they were going to spend the next four hours on the side of the road with the police. This mother and daughter were completely in shock, did not know what was going on, and were terrified out of their minds. Well, eventually Eric would break and he would tell police exactly where his best friend la Marcus was hiding, and so the police are like, cool, that's what we need from you.

54:56 The police photograph him at that time in this parking lot and then they release him and then they're on their way to go find LaMarcus. Now I have to tell you this, it's it would be comical if this wasn't a true crime podcast. But the shirt that he is wearing in this photograph, it's a yellow shirt and it says watch out for the Alphabet Boys, and then underneath it there's like cartoons of cops and it says CIA atf FBI, you get it. The Alphabet Boys watch out for him. And the Alphabet Boys had just pulled his ass over, but they cut him loose. So LaMarcus he told them that LaMarcus was hiding in a house that was for sale and was abandoned. It was nearby, so about four pm police followed that lead and they do in fact find him there hiding. They take him into custody without incident. Interesting though, was that the only things that were in that house when they took LaMarcus into custody were these tennis shoes that didn't fit him.

55:57 A McDonald's bag, a rev and a cell phone that belonged to none other than Eric Boyd, you know, his bestie, who knew nothing about anything, but just knew where he was hiding by chance. So the police go, oh, we got to go back and get his ass because this is his phone right here in the house. So he's obviously involved more than they know. So they go they track him down. Eric was just walking down the road when they found him, and he was taken into custody right then and there. So later that same day, George Thomas, La Talvis Cobbins and Vanessa they remember, had fled to Kentucky. They were apprehended by police and taken into custody there.

56:39 Of course, when they were questioned, y'all they knew nothing about anything. Uh, I didn't know. This is crazy, But that's when, just like freaking cockroaches, when you turn on a light, they all start turning on each other and they're all trying to distance themselves from everything. Right, But the story that would eventually emerge is one that confirms, without a shadow of a doubt, that evil and a lack of compassion and heartlessness runs in groups. So if you are still wondering at this point, what in the hell happened. I'm trying to make sense of this. Trust me when I tell you right now you can't. It makes no sense. But here is what happened to Shannon Christian and Chris Newsom on January fifth, the day before they went missing. Eric Boyd's cousin had loaned him her car, which he kept all weakened. Okay, this was a small white Pontiac Sunbird. It matters that I'm telling you this, That's why I'm sharing it. So he took that white Pontiac Fire Sunbird and he drove it over to visit with LaMarcus. And when he got there, of course the other group of people were there. It was George and everybody over there hanging out. But when he got there, Daphne and LaMarcus were in the middle of that fight that I've told you about. She stormed out. Well, they

58:12 all continued hanging out at this Chipman Street address when a woman made a phone call to LaMarcus wanting the money that he owed her. Now, who is this lady, Well, she was a sweet older lady. Her name was miss Ethel, and Miss Ethel had just gone through a divorce, and in the process she had sold her house and she had sold all of her furniture. Well, when that happened, LaMarcus agreed to purchase some of it, so he took the items from her. But I'm sure you're shocked to find out he never paid her. But now she had her bills due, and miss Ethel said, I need the money, LaMarcus, I'm not playing bring it to me. She had sold him some furniture, like I said, but also a floral patterned set of sheets and a comforter. LaMarcus didn't have a job, y'all, So how the hell was he about to go pay miss Ethel. Well, this will answer your next question. Miss Ethel, who was selling the house, had just moved into an apartment at none other than the Washington Ridge Apartment Complex complex. And yes, that's the same complex that Shannon's best friend Kara lived at. And that's the same one that Shannon was sitting outside waiting for Chris to arrive to take her to dinner the night they went missing. And that is where the first link is made. LaMarcus didn't have a car to go pay miss Ethel, but his best friend Eric Boyd did because

59:44 he had barred one, and all of the peeps that were at the house decided to pile up in that white car, but not for a joy ride and not to go together as a team to pay miss Ethel. No, they went together, becase, because they were going to go help create some income through a planned carjacking. They didn't know who they were going to carjack, but they were going to steal from people so they could pay Ethel. Now, LaMarcus, his brother, let Talvis, George, and Eric all set out to steal a car, and as they made their way into the apartment complex, that's when they realized that there was an unsuspecting couple who wasn't paying any attention to them.

1:00:28 The girl was seated in a nice newer model Forerunner and the boy well, he wasn't paying any attention either. The boyfriend was leaning in and getting a kiss from the girlfriend, and that's when they found themselves all of a sudden, surrounded by four masked men at gunpoint. But those men didn't just steal the car and go. They decided that they wanted to keep the young couple too, so while miss Ethel was still waiting for her payment, LaMarcus never showed up, and that's because he and his boys were too busy binding and gagging and blindfolding Shannon and Chris. LaMarcus drove the Forerunner with his terrified captives inside with him, while le Talvis followed in the other car.

1:01:19 What was running through Shannon and Christopher's minds at this point because the level of terror involved in this moment I cannot equate to anything other than just pure sickness, like what is happening. They couldn't communicate with each other, they couldn't see one another because they were blinded and blindfolded, and they were gagged and they were tied up. So Shannon and Chris did the only thing that they could think to do, and they remained silent as they were instructed and just prayed to God Almighty that this compliance would hopefully result in their release. And meanwhile, these absolute heathens that are now in charge of their custody, while they're hooping and hollering at the awesomes of the vehicle that they just got. This is going to bring us a ton of money, isn't it. So when the Forerunner pulled up to Lamarcus's house, the couple was ripped from the back and they were escorted inside of this disgusting home.

1:02:14 Shannon was grabbed and jerked around so hard, that's why the bruises were left by whoever was grabbing her fingertips on her arm. And once they got inside that front part of the home, they split the couple up. Chris remained on the sun porch while Shannon was brought inside, and there was nothing either one of them could do. They couldn't see, and they were physically bound. Now Here is where evil begins to truly surface, dead hearts and lack of souls. Because when the couple was brought into the house, obviously against their will, Vanessa Coleman was there.

1:02:54 She looked up and she saw two people obviously kidnapped and bound brought into the home. Did everybody get wide eyed and stressed out by this? Nope? Did Vanessa try to free Shannon and help another woman out? No? Did anyone call the police or say you know this is a bad idea? No, they did nothing. George Thomas would eventually tell investigators what happened at that point. Shannon was brought in and he said she had an oversized hoodie on her eyes were blindfolded, her wrists were bound, and LaMarcus was the one behind her and kind of pushing and leading her into the living room. He said, Shannon was quiet. She never said a word. Eric Boyd had Chris knew some He was too, blindfolded and bound by the wrists behind his back, and they were bound by the way with strips of flower patterned cloth. You know, the same betting that miss Ethel had sold to LaMarcus and was wanting payment for. So at that point, LaMarcus takes Shannon and brings her into the front bedroom. And while no one will ever know exactly how it went down or what went step by step in that room, we can all assume with educated information here that this is the point where he ripped off her jeans, and

1:04:26 he ripped off her panties and then hogtied her into that unspeakable position where raping her would continually go uncontested. Fifteen minutes later, LaMarcus came out of the room and he said that George said that he directed George and Eric to deal with Chris. Now did they say at that point, no way, or what did you do with the girl? Or I don't think so? No, they didn't it didn't do any of that. They said, Okay, cool, let's do it again. While Eric Boyd had Chris on the porch alone. Isn't it possible that that's probably when he raped him? I think that's plausible. Now, George maintains at this point he never heard or saw anything of any sexual misconduct in the house. All of this, by the way, while all of them are in this poorly crafted eight hundred foot home where a hundred square foot of that home was the porch. Knowing what you know about Shannon and Chris and the sexual abuse that they both endured, do you think that's the truth, because I'm going to tell you right now, I sure as hell don't. So.

1:05:48 Let Talvis and Vanessa are. They're busy rolling blunts and getting high and smoking and doing what they do, completely unconcerned with the rapes that are happening around them. Now. At this point, when they're told to get rid of Chris, Eric Boyd grabbed Chris and led him out of the house to the Forerunner. And that's when they get in there. By day, I mean Boyd and George. They get in there, but not before they don't they shove Chris in the back on the back seat where he's laying over on his side. He's still blindfolded and bound and gagged. And then Eric Boyd drove them all to that industrial warehouse where they drove behind it to the railroad tracks. Now George says that Boyd got out. Eric Boyd got out, and he took Chris with him, and he took him off in the distance to a drainage ditch. It's implied at that point that he's saying that's whenever Chris was raped.

1:06:44 But I don't believe George. I don't believe him. I don't believe him on that portion because he says, oh, I remained in the car. He's just trying to distance himself from this. And I'm gonna explain why I think that, Because George said that Eric pulled Chris over to a tree line and then he saw a flash of a gun three times ba ba ba. Well, the reason I don't believe that for a fucking second is because of everything told to me and explained to me by the medical examiner. If you remember in episode one Chris's wounds, he was shot three times, but there's no way those shots were done in rapid, rapid succession. There's no way the shot to the arm had to be first. But she also said that Chris had to be bent over on all fours, basically bent over or his face down butt up for that second shot to enter his spinal column the way that it did. So ask yourself, why would he be in that position to be shot that way.

1:07:42 There's no way that he could have been shot three times bow bow bow, like George is saying. Chris would have had to have been shot collapse, shot, collapse, and then shot in the head. I don't believe George for a second there. But he then claims that Eric came back to the car, got a gas can, returned back to the body alone, poured the gas all over him and let him on fire. And he said there was a bright whoosh is how he described it. Again, I don't believe that for a second. I think that George was with him when this happened. Because of the distance and everything, I don't think he would have seen the woosh from where he was parked. All right, this is part of being an educated guess. But this is why I watched trials. I want to form my own opinion, so LaMarcus, you know, he's been in the front bedroom with Shannon the whole time. And when the two return, Eric Boyd tells him it's taken care of. Before everyone talking about Chris. Before everyone just goes about their night.

1:08:42 Eric Boyd left and the rest of them just smoked weed and hung out and drank and did what they do while Shannon's hog tied in this bedroom and Chris is on fire. Now. The entire night, something was happening that I think you need to know. LaMarcus, La Talvas, and Vanessa were all in and out of that front bedroom where Shannon was throughout the night. That's according to George. They all were in and out of that bedroom. So while they thought that they had everything controlled and hidden and they were going to get away with this, there was another variable that none of them had counted on, and that was a waste management worker who was working that night. His name was Xavier Jenkins, and the very night that all of this was taking place, he happened to have arrived at work at twelve thirty, like a little after midnight, because he was waiting for a trainer to come to learn to be a commercial pickup driver.

1:09:43 So he was there, and he noticed, because he worked there and he was there all the time next door to this Chippin Street house, that there was a lot more commotion than normal, a lot more movement. And he also noticed while he was waiting for his trainer to show up, that there was a silver Toyota four Runner there and the lights were on. It was parked directly in front of the house, and there was a white car parked behind it, and it just seemed super sketch because again of how much activity there was, and that the Forerunner kind of seemed too nice to be in that area of town. So he was there thirty to forty five minutes when his trainer didn't show up, so he decided to drive down to the store, grab a snack, and call his trainer, and then he returned back and waited for his trainer to arrive. Well, at that point, the Forerunner comes driving towards him, and it starts making him nervous because this is a bad area and there's a lot of high vegetation, and he was like, what is going on here? And as the Forerunner comes past him, it slows down and he can see very clearly that there are four black males in the suv, and he said that they were like mean mugging him. Like he was like, what are they doing. They're like mugging him, you know, trying to let him know that they see him.

1:11:00 He got so nervous, in fact, that he called his own dad and was like, Dad, dude, this is sketchy. I don't know what is going on. And his dad was like, okay, son, be careful, you know, keep your head on a swivel. Whatever. But he saw this car so well, and he saw the white car so well that when police actually spoke to him, he was able to pick out those cars from a lineup, specifically down to the pinstripe on the white vehicle. He saw what he saw, and he in fact verified that there were four males running around in that suv and that it was right there in front of that Chippen Street. The next day, which was Sunday, is when Chris's body was discovered by the train conductor. The following day after that, which was Monday, is when Shannon's brother found her car, and that's when Lamarcus's print was identified. So LaMarcus was obviously aware of all the police activity. Now that was around his home, and he knew that Shannon was inside of that trash can because he had been raping her and he had shoved her in there, so he couldn't go back home. So that's whenever all of the using people really starts happening, because LaMarcus calls Daphne and feeds her this lie that he can't get into his house because his brother has his house key, blah blah blah blah blah. Would she come get him and she says yes, So she noticed whenever she picked him up that he was wearing these nice Nike tennis shoes that were way too small for him and that his toes looked crammed into the end of them. By the way, these are Chris's Nikes that he's wearing and they don't even fit him.

1:12:29 And then LaMarcus asks her if he can spend the night with her, and she agreed. Obviously had no clue yet to anything that was going on. The search warrant went down the following Tuesday, and that's whenever they found Shannon's body, so LaMarcus knew that he had to run. Well at that exact time that all of this has kind of come into fruition. Daphne's mama called her and said, uh, are you okay. She's like, yeah, I just saw your house on TV and there was a dead body inside. What's going on? Well, LaMarcus overheard this. His eyes got real big and he starts saying something about oh, his brother, you know, his brother must have done something. And they're like, you gotta go. I don't know what's going on here, but you got to go. You're not staying with us.

1:13:11 So they dropped him off at a park next door to where Eric Boyd's mother lived. This apartment complex. Well, Eric Boyd happened to be there. Why because he knew he was going to meet up with his best friend. Well, there was another woman in that apartment complex who was partying for her birthday. So they go up in that house acting like they're there to party, hang out, and they're like, you know, man, can we just spend the night, you know, cause whatever? And she's like sure, right is they're partying again. They use that woman to try to find a place to lay low that night, but in the following early morning hours, that woman's watching TV. Remember they're all still there at the house party in and on the news pops up the picture of LaMarcus and a body's been found in his house and she's like, oh, hell no, you got to get out of my house and you got to go now. She kicks them out, so they go and they hide off in the woods for a while, and that's whenever they have to come up with a plan. How are they going to get LaMarcus out of town? Because the cops are everywhere and he's on the news. And this is again where you see how a user thinks. So they can't get a ride anywhere. No one wants to give him a ride.

1:14:19 And that's when Boyd remembers that there's a neighbor back at the apartment complex where his mom lives, and he knew she had a vehicle. Now that happened to be that African woman that I mentioned to you about. So he knocked on the door and he pretended that he was just visiting, and whenever he found out that they were going to the doctor, he offered to drive for her because she didn't have a license and she was scared to drive. She didn't know how I'll drive you fall on. Knowing that he had no plans of staying there, he was going to drop that mom and that daughter off and steal that car. I feel that in my soul give it to LaMarcus so that he could leave town. But it didn't work out that way. Police had been surveilling him and they pulled him over and got him before he could ever get that vehicle to LaMarcus. So the arrests were made of LaMarcus, Latalvas, George, and Eric.

1:15:12 But when the results from the rape test kit from Shannon came back, it painted an even more vivid picture. Here. In Shannon's rape kit, the vaginal swabs found sperm from LaMarcus, the anal swabs found sperm from LaMarcus. The oral swabs found sperm from Latalvas. This means that not only was LaMarcus raping Shannon, but Latalvas was going in there and raping her as well. On her tank top they found two stains, both of them sperm, and both of them Latalvas's sperm. The striped shirt that she had on over that tank top also had two stains. One was sperm from Lttalvas. The other one was inconclusive because of degradation, I think from the bleach that was poured on her on that floral fabric they removed from her, there were eight stains, but they got three DNA profiles from that.

1:16:16 It was the sperm of Latalvis, the sperm of someone else which was inconclusive because of the bleach, but also Vanessa Coleman. This means that Vanessa helped, She helped tie her up. She may have helped rape, I don't know. And then on the blue jeans that were taken off of Shannon, there were five sperm stains there and they all turned out to be that of LaMarcus and Latalvas combined with blood from Shannon. So Vanessa was involved. Obviously, her DNA was there. She too was arrested and she was charged. While the murder weapon used to kill Chris was never recovered, police had recovered a holster from inside the vehicle and when they tested that, the DNA from the holster returned positive for Eric Boyd. And guess what else.

1:17:15 Remember that shirt I mentioned that Eric was wearing and how it was kind of ridiculous the alphabet boys, Well, they took that shirt off of him as possible evidence and they tested it for DNA. Eric's shirt was covered in Eric's own sperm all over it, as well as the gray sweatshirt that had been tested at the Medical Examiner's office. The belt that was tested also showed DNA from Eric Boyd. There's no doubt in my mind that Eric Boyd is the one that raped Christopher. So while burning Chris did destroy a lot of evidence, particularly DNA, I'm gonna just tell you I know what I believe, and then I believe that the rapist and murderer of Chris Newsome was Eric Boyd. Like I just told you, so, how did the others make it back to Kentucky whenever they were on the run. I'm glad you asked, because I wanted to tell you this because remember, none of them had a car. How did they get back to Kentucky. Well, they did what thugs do, and they offered this woman named Jody. They said, we'll give you some morphine pills, some crack, and some cash if you'll give us a ride to Kentucky. And she agreed. I've never met people like this, but she agreed and drove them four hours home.

1:18:36 But when she got back, she saw the news again and she realized, oh shit, I just gave a ride to rapist murderers, and she herself was on probation for some other charges. She started freaking out and she was willing to give up the information. These are just a lot a group of really good people, as you can tell, involved in this story. Now, when it came to prosecute, no one would testify against the other, which posed obvious issues here. But we can thank excellent crime scene processing and photography because it did its job. So in the house, they found Shannon's purse in trash bags. They found her Britney spears, perfume that Chris had bought her some lotion and perfume for Christmas. They found They found her iPod with her name inscribed on the back Shannon Love Mom and Dad. They found her car, keys, clothes. They also found six shell casings, the gas canned. They found Chris's burned license. They found everything they needed to tie these people to this horrendous crime. So there's no doubt that what happened in that home on Chipman Street was nothing short of evil. They had her for days. They raped Shannon over and over and over the group of them, and they thought that that was just one after the other, and I couldn't help, but notice either. And I want to tell you this, I could not help but notice

1:20:09 throughout all of the testimony, all of the interviews, everything stated to police, not one time did anyone ever mention giving Shannon food or water, the basic decent thing to sustain her life. At least they didn't even offer that to her. These animals live and they act without an ounce of humanity. And listen, we all think that this could never happen to us. We do it. I do it too sometimes. But what if I told you this? Do you know that George had worked for Amazon at one point? Yeah, so he could have been on your doorstep, smiling and possibly delivering a package to you, and you would have been none the wiser. These animals are everywhere.

1:21:00 Five people were charged and convicted for the two thousand and seven carjacking, kidnapping, rape, and murders of Shannon Christian and Christopher Newsom. LaMarcus Davidson he was the ringleader and he was sent to death row let Talvis Cobbins he was also you know, murder and raping all of that. He ended up with life in prison without parole. Eric Boyd received two consecutive life sentences plus ninety years and George Thomas got fifty years, while Vanessa Coleman ended up with thirty five years. Now, if you're familiar with this case, you're going wait a minute, that's not quite right yet it is stand by. As time passed, there would be some complications in some of their convictions. And what I'm going to do for my Patreon members is I'm gonna do a bonus episode on this and it's going to interest you so much because there is some foul play that you'll want to know. So I'm going to give you that so you'll know what ends up happening. But this much I can tell you everyone has experienced loss or will at some point experience it in their life, but God willing nothing like this. The families of both Chris and Shannon had to not only endure this tragedy up close and personal. But while we feel sick to our stomachs at what this couple went through, I can

1:22:32 tell you are hurt in no way compares to these families. And there were some positive changes that did come out of this. In the years of waste connections, they the trash place that was next door to the Chipman house, they bought the property, and they tore the house down so that it no longer even remains, and in October of two thousand and eight, a memorial was placed there. There's memorial scholarships given each year after a golf tournament that's done in Shannon's memory, and Chris's memory is honored through this Life League baseball tournament each year that's in his name. Good things have happened in response to this hope, and something to make it worthwhile has happened in their name.

1:23:14 But that doesn't overcome this tragedy because between the Newsome and the Christian families, the parents of both of these victims have spent nearly two decades attending over three hundred and fifty court hearings to ensure that all five of the people that did this to their kids were held accountable. And I watched Shannon's daddy. I watched him as he rocked back and forth in the pews of the courtroom. I'm telling you, anger bursting at his seams as he had to listen over and over and over again to what happened to his daughter, and then just complete strangers getting to see his daughter in that light. You know the photographs that were taken and had to be displayed, and you know, Shannon and Chris at this point really just seem like evidence. You know, I know that's not true, but it just seemed like that, and that all their dignity and their privacy just stripped away. But it had to be done in the name of accountability. It's just a double edged sword. And how these parents remained seated through all of these you know, processes and all of these hearings and everything with their children's killers right there and they didn't attack them, I cannot tell you. The only thing I can say is that God must have had his hand because I don't know how they did it.

1:24:40 It's not right for mama and a daddy to see any of this in relation to their child. And as for these killers, I think it's safe to say that their parents didn't instill much in them as far as integrity goes. But that's where the story ends at this ugly intersection of cruelty and cowardice. And what was taken from Shannon and Chris wasn't just their lives. It was dignity, it was safety, and it was also any illusion we all hold that evil is always distant or that it's rare, and in this case, evil ran in packs. A group of vile individuals so devoid of purpose or decency that the only way they could gain anything in life was by stealing, terrorizing, and destroying other people. And let's not for one second dress this up as these animals being victims of social disparity. You know, they were forced into this behavior by poverty, or they had no education, or they didn't know their dad. That's bullshit. They were all active participants in remaining leeches on society. This wasn't desperation

1:26:11 and it certainly wasn't done for survival. This was rot humans with nothing inside of them worth having, and nothing inside of them that should even have them remaining amongst us. To be quite honest, and the most pathetic part is that they targeted people who would have never given them a second glance. And I do not mean this out of cruelty. I mean because they offered nothing worth noticing. It's easy to be a loser, and I guess that's why there were so many of them running together that night, and at the end of the day, when the cell bars slam shut, no one even noticed that they were gone.

1:27:02 And why because their existence never added anything to the world that people would miss. They were nothing. And there's a value to the word human, and that value lies in the implied humanity that a human at its very basic function should recognize. But at the end of the day, these animals didn't just fail at being human beings, but they proved that they never deserved the title in the first place.