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Hell and Gone Murder Line: Shannon Lee Collins Update · Hell and Gone: Murder Line

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: School of Humans.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Earlier this year, we covered the case of Shannon Lee Collins,
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: a forty eight year old veteran who vanished without a
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: trace from his family home in Pottsville, Arkansas. Shannon had
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: been married to his wife, Teresa for over twenty years.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: They had a son named Josh together, who also lived
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: in the home. Teresa also had a daughter named Brittany
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: from a previous relationship. Shannon had helped raise Brittany since
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: she was a little girl. I am thrilled to report
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: we have a major update in this case because federal
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: fraud charges have been filed against Shannon's wife, Teresa and
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: her daughter Brittany. We talked to Shannon's brother, Blake, who
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: has been working tirelessly ever since his brother disappeared and
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: trying to do anything he can to get justice and
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: get answers. They also have a younger sister named Holly.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: After Shannon disappeared, Blake claimed that Shannon's wife, Teresa misled
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: their fan and told them that she had been talking
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: to Shannon when she hadn't. He claimed Teresa had conflicting
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: stories about when and how Shannon supposedly left his home
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: wearing just the clothes on his back. And not only that,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: Blake claimed that Teresa stole Shannon's VA money over thirty
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: two thousand dollars that had been deposited into their joint
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: account since Shannon went missing. We talked to Blake about
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: what's going on now with those fraud charges, the explosive
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: claims that had been made in that lawsuit, and also
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: what could happen with potential other charges now that the
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Feds have followed the money and uncovered the fraud, could
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: murder charges come next. I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: five years of making my true crime podcast, Telling Gone,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: I've learned that there is no such thing as a
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: small town where murder never happens. I've received hundreds of
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: messages from people all around the country asking for help
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families, and
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: their communities. If you have case you'd like me and
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: my team to look into, you can reach out to
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: eight seven four four six one four five. That's six
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: seven eight seven four four six one four five. This
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: is Helen Gone Murder Line. I'm just gonna give you
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: a brief recap of the case. If you want to
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: hear all the details of the work we did on
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Shannon's disappearance, you can go back and check out the
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: past episodes. Shannon had been in the military for twenty
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: four years. He was in the Army National Guard, and
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: then due to an injury, he was eligible to receive
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: VA disability benefits. Blake told us that Shannon was in
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: constant contact with his family, and he specifically mentioned his
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: brother was a talker, not really a texter. He liked
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: to call his family. He said there had been a
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: recent minor disagreement between Shannon and Shannon's parents because remember
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: this was during COVID when everything was in lockdown. They
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: are older and not in great health. Blake said Shannon
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: was upset when his parents said they could not attend
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Shannon's stepdaughter's wedding they didn't feel comfortable traveling. But a
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: few weeks later things were pretty much back to normal.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Blake and Holly were still talking to and texting their brother.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: The last time they heard from him was at the
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: end of February twenty twenty one. So then came that
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: night in March, when Shannon was away on a work
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: trip in Tennessee, came home, and since then no one
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: ever heard from him again. When they didn't hear from
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: him for months, Shannon's parents and the rest of his
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: family started getting worried. There was an additional complication we mentioned.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Shannon had told his family that he was ending his
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: marriage with Teresa and that he had a girlfriend.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Shannon said Teresa.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Knew about his girlfriend and about his plans to end
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: the marriage. So at first, when Shannon disappeared, his family
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: told themselves maybe he was just taking a breather. They
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: knew he was planning on ending his marriage. When Shannon's
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: family couldn't get a hold of him, of course, they
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: called Teresa, and when they would ask Teresa about Shannon,
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: she would tell them that he just wasn't around then,
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: he couldn't talk. Then. At first they believed her, but
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: after a while they started to ask a lot more
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: questions about exactly what happened. On March eleventh, twenty twenty one,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: after all this went down, police talk to Blake, He's
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: been able to piece together from what he learned from
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: police and what he's done on his own his own
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: investigating some facts. Electronic daya verified Shannon did return from
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: that work trip to Tennessee. He flew into the Little
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Rock Airport, drove home, and entered his house at around
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: ten pm. Shannon, his son, and his wife, Teresa were
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: all in the home when he got back. Shannon's stepdaughter
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Brittany came to the residence the next morning. On that morning,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Shannon was scheduled to go out for another job, but
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: he never showed up. Eventually, after a few weeks of
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: them asking what was going on with Shannon, Teresa told
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Blake that Shannon had left her.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: She said he just walked out.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: She told Shannon's sister Holly something similar, saying that Shannon
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: had walked away from the family. She told them that
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Shannon had literally left on foot, didn't even take his
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: own car. By now, Blake said, Teresa was telling everyone
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: what seemed to be a different story. One day, she
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: would say Shannon was on pain medications and may have
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: checked himself into a hospital, while another story that came
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: out later had Teresa saying that he was going to
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: work on an overseas contract. None of it made any sense,
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: and during all this time no one reported Shannon Collins missing.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: Blake finally reported him missing on November thirtieth, twenty twenty one,
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: and by now he's publicly calling out Teresa. He's asking
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: why it took nine months to report someone missing. Shannon's wife,
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: Teresa told police and Blake that Shannon had gotten a
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: new cell phone number. This was a different phone from
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: the one that he'd had for the past twenty years.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: We talked about how police discovered that the person who
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: bought the new cell phone, the one that Shannon was
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: supposedly texting from, was Teresa. Blake's theory was that it
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: was Teresa sending messages from that phone posing as Shannon.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Blake told us that police knew Teresa had bought the phone,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: She had shown the police text messages from the phone,
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: and that it had to be someone in the house
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: who was sending those text messages. Police had a lot
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: of those messages, and by the way, police knew where.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: The phone was.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: They knew that that phone that was supposedly Shannon texting
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: was in the Pottsville area from March of twenty twenty
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: one through November of twenty twenty one. Then, once Shannon
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: was reported missing by his family, the phone suddenly goes dead, silent,
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: No one gets text from that phone ever again. Meanwhile,
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: Teresa seemed to be sticking to her story. She told
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: the police that she and Shannon went to bed that night.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: On the night he came home, everything was normal, and
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: at some point he left home and did not come back.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: Blake and the rest of Shannon's family insisted he would
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: have never left everything that he had behind. And by
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: the way, one of the biggest pieces of evidence in
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: this case was the money, because, in addition to Shannon
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: not being the type of person who would leave his
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: entire family in his entire life, Teresa was asking everyone
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: to believe that he would walk away from his VA
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: disability payments more than three thousand dollars a month. Blake
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: said that he wanted to see Teresa brought to court
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: and charge with his brother's death, but in the meantime,
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: his plan was to follow the money. We said we
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: would do everything that we could to help him get answers.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: The new case is called US versus Teresa Collins and
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Britney Collins, Shannon's wife and stepdaughter, and according to the lawsuit,
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: Shannon started receiving the disability compensation via payments on May
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: twenty seventh, twenty fifteen, then honor, about March eleventh, twenty
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: twenty one, Shannon Collins traveled from Tennessee to his residence
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: in Pottsville, Arkansas, and from that day quote, Shannon Collins
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: has had no contact with his immediate family, has not
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: attended any physicians appointments, and has not opened or used
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: any financial account end quote. The lawsuit also states during
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: that same time period, from March of twenty twenty one
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: through December twenty twenty one, a total of thirty two thousand,
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: four hundred and four dollars and forty nine cents and
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: VA disability payments were deposited into a joint bank account
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: that was in Shannon and Teresa's names, So this was
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: one that Teresa had access to. And further, if the
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: VA had known that Shannon Collins was deceased, it would
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: not have paid that money. Blake mentioned the last time
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: we talked to him that even if Shannon wanted to
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: walk away from his marriage, it would be insanity to
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: walk away from that money and leave it in an
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: account where his strange wife could access all of it.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: All Shannon would have had to do to access his
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: money is walk into a financial institution produce his ID
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: and he could have accessed his money, but he didn't.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: The lawsuit alleges that Teresa and Britney quote voluntarily and
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: intentionally conspired with each other to commit wirefraud end quote.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: And so now we have a definite timeline for that phone.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: It alleges that on March twelfth, twenty twenty one, Teresa
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: called AT and T she wanted to unlock the cell
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: phone that Shannon used. Now we're talking about his regular
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: old cell phone number, the one he used for the
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: past twenty years, but apparently Teresa couldn't unlock it. Then
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: the very next day, on March thirteenth, she withdrew two
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: hundred dollars in cash and purchased a cell phone with
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: that cash from a Walmart in Dardanell, Arkansas. Now, remember
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Blake walked us through all this. He told us Teresa
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: bought a new phone and then tried to tell everybody
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Shannon had changed his number. So the lawsuit goes into that.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: It says from that day, from March thirteenth through November
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: of twenty twenty one, when Shannon was reported.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Missing, Teresa used that new cell phone.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: She used it to send text messages, that she claimed
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: were coming from Shannon, including one stating, thank you for
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: talking with me today. I picked up a cheap phone
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: till I get mine back. This is my temporary number.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: On April seventh, Teresa falsely told Shannon's sister that Shannon
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: was working on building his business so he was traveling. Then,
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: on April sixteenth, Teresa sent another text message from the
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: new phone, again pretending to be Shannon. She sent that
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: message to her son. The message falsely said that Shannon
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: was quote in a VA program. She also sent a
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: text message from that fake phone the new phone to
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: her phone, stating, quote, I have not needed to pull
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: anything out of our joint accounts. I know you will
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: spend wisely so you'll be able to keep the bills paid.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: I trust you and know you want to keep the
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: house for our son at least until he leaves next year.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: We will talk more about that later end quote. So
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: this completely backs up what Blake told us in our
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: previous episodes.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: It seems as.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: Though Teresa was trying to cover her tracks, trying to
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: make it seem like there was reason why Shannon would
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: not access his own money, and making it appear as
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: though Shannon left voluntarily. In May, Teresa told Shannon's sister
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: that the kids were talking to Shannon regularly, that he
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: was texting them, which of course was also not true.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: Of course, everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and we'll
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: have to see what happens with these charges.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: But if Teresa's story.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: Was true, if Shannon left voluntarily, why would she buy
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: a new phone and pretend to be her own missing husband.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Then on May.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Twenty fifth, twenty twenty one, Teresa sent another text message
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: to her own phone from the new phone which she
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: had bought, pretending that it was Shannon's new number. It
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: read quote, I'm thinking of signing up for a two
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: year contract to work overseas as a contractor. I would
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: be gone the entire two years and maybe longer. I
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: plan on leaving the center that I am at in July.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: I would leave in August. If I'm approved to go,
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: I will leave the money coming to the bank like
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: it is now, but I will keep all the contract
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: money so that way we will both be okay.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Again.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: This completely points to this pattern of deception, her inventing
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: reasons why Shannon would not be accessing his own money,
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: trying to keep the family placated so she can keep
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: that money train rolling. She continued throughout the summer to
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: lie to Shannon's family to tell them that she was
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: communicating with him, that he had this new phone, which,
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: of course she knew that she had bought herself at Walmart.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: On November thirtieth, twenty twenty one, after Shannon's family reported
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: him missing, police interviewed Teresa Collins, and during that interview,
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: she told them she had been communicating with Shannon through
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: this new phone number, that Shannon had told her he
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: hitched a ride and accidentally left his cell phone in
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: a truck, that he had gotten this new phone, and
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: that he told her in a phone call that he
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: was working in Mexico. Now, of course, this is the
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: complete opposite of what he had allegedly texted her, which
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: was that he was at some point kind of va
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: center or in a hospital. She just kept coming up
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: with all these different stories and none of them were true. Now,
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Britney comes into this a little later, because remember Blake
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: said Teresa told Shannon's family that he walked away from
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: the house. But then on December twenty eighth, twenty twenty one,
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: police talked to Brittany and Brittany apparently had an entirely
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: different story.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: According to the lawsuit.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: Britney told police that he had left their home with
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: a friend on March twelfth, which was completely different from
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: what her mother had said. She said that she had
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: talked to Shannon since then, that she had facetimed him
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: in October of twenty twenty one. Of course, this was
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: later proven to be completely false. So the bottom line
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: is from March twelfth, twenty twenty one, through January of
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty two. This suit alleges that Teresa took out
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: the VA money that had been deposited in that joint
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: account for Shannon and used it. Teresa and Brittany are
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: facing a total of twenty one counts of fraud if convicted.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: According to the federal sentencing.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Guidelines, each one of these charges could carry a maximum
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: penalty of thirty years in prison, so she could be
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: facing life in prison. There's still a lot of unanswered
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: questions in this case. Even though Shannon's family faced an
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: uphill battle and had a lot of frustrations along the way,
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: the work that Blake and his family have done in
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: keeping Shannon's story out there has been amazing, and while
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: it's great that the fraud charges have been filed, Blake
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: and the rest of Shannon's family, of course, ultimately want
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: to know what happened to Shannon and for those responsible
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: to face justice in criminal court. Blake says he will
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: continue to share updates on the Facebook page share Shannon's story.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: On that page, he states that Brittany has retained counsel.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Teresa's trial date has been set for Monday, November eighteenth,
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: at nine thirty am. Helen Gone Murder Line is a
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: Special thanks for the research assistance provided by Amy Tubbs.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: Music contributed by Ben Sale.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: Executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and LC Crowley.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: seven four four sixty one four five. That's six seven
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: eight seven four four six ' one four five.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: School of Humans