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Missing Dad Found Murdered in Backyard 3 Years After Disappearance · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I want you to imagine just for a second that
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: you're sitting at your desk at work.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Okay. Setting the scene.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So you're a teacher, let's say. It's a totally
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: normal Tuesday morning. The bell is, you know, about to ring.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: And suddenly the front office pages you.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Oh, always a little nerve wracking. Right.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: But they say a delivery has arrived.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: So you walk down and there's this beautiful bouquet of
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: flowers waiting for you.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Sounds nice so far.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: It does. Right. You pulled a little card out of
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the envelope. And you're fully expecting this sweet note from
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: your husband, right?
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Naturally, yeah.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: But instead, you read this rhyming, taunting poem.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: And it's calling you out, it's insulting your marriage, and
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: it tells you to go check your Facebook messages.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Just incredibly aggressive.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Completely. And here's the kicker. It is signed by a
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: man named Michael.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Oh, boy.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, receiving a cruel message at work is awful
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: all on its own. But here is the detail that just, like,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: completely shatters reality.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Lay it on me.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: The man who supposedly sent those flowers, the man whose
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: name is literally signed on that card, has been lying dead,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: buried underneath a concrete fire pit in his own backyard
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: for the last six months.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: It's just a profound, terrifying contradiction. I mean, how exactly
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: does a dead man order roses?
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Exactly. And that is exactly what today's deep dive is
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: going to answer.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: We have an enormous stack of source material for this
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: one provided by the Law and Crime Network. We are talking...
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: hundreds of pages of trial transcripts, investigative notes, forensic reports,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: legal motions, all surrounding the disappearance and murder of Michael Shaver.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: It is a massive file.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Huge. And our mission today is not just to walk
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: through some basic timeline. We're going to forensically untangle this
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: decade-long web of deception, psychological manipulation, and honestly, one of
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: the most audacious attempts at digital impersonation in modern criminal history.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: And we're also going to examine a trial defense. That
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: is so incredibly reckless. It genuinely sounds like a script
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: that a Hollywood studio would reject for being just too unbelievable.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Oh, without a doubt.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack this. Because to understand how we get
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: to a point where a family is literally roasting marshmallows
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: over a hidden grave, we can't just look at the
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: crime scene.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: No, you have to look at a genesis of the tragedy.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Right. And I think, for you listening, this is going
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: to be a masterclass in the terrifying reality of the
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: modern digital ghost. It's this stark reminder that the truth
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: doesn't just naturally float to the surface. Sometimes investigators have
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: to drag it out from under a ton of cord concrete.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: And they have to drag it through a labyrinth of
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: false narratives, too. What's fascinating here is the sheer endurance
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: of the illusion.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: The length of time she kept it up is wild.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Exactly. We're going to explore exactly how a person's digital
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: footprint can be hijacked, weaponized, and utilized to convince an
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: entire community that a dead man is still walking around,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: holding grudges, and interfering in people's lives.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: It's like something out of a thriller.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: It really is. But to comprehend the mechanics of Michael
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Shaver's end, we have to examine his beginning. We need
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: to look at the psychological bedrock of his relationship with
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: his wife, Lori, and how it devolved from this idealized
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: fairy tale into a deeply toxic battleground.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: So let's start with that bedrock. According to the background files,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Michael and Lori met in kindergarten.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: That is so rare these days.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: I know, right? They grew up in Lawrence, New York,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: which is this tiny, tight-knit town. They went through the
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: entire K-12 system together. And by eighth grade, Michael decides
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: he wants to officially date Lori.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Ah, middle school romance.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and get this. He goes to his best friend,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Scott Amatuccio, and they literally set the mood in Scott's
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: bedroom by putting on a boys-to-second-men cassette tape before Michael
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: asks her out.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Oh, wow, a cassette tape. That is the quintessential innocent
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: mid-' 90s middle school romance right there.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Boys to second men in the background. You can't get
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: more 90s than that.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: You really can't. But, you know, we have to look
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: at the psychological implications of that kind of origin story.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: What do you mean?
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Well, when you have known your partner since kindergarten and
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: when your first real romantic milestone is in the eighth grade,
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: your entire adult identity becomes inextricably fused with theirs.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Oh, that makes sense. Like you literally don't know who
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: you are without them.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Exactly. You don't know who you are without this other person.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: It creates a narrative of permanence. And on paper, as
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: they transition into adulthood, they maintain that narrative of success.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Right. They really look like they had it together.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: They did. Michael leaves New York. He becomes a commercial
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: pilot for a while.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Which is pretty impressive on its own.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Highly impressive. And then he transitions into this highly technical,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: stable role as a monorail mechanic at Walt Disney World
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: down in Florida.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: I didn't even know that was a job, but it
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: sounds incredibly stable.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: It is. The records show he was well-regarded, highly competent,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: and actively in line for a promotion there. And Lori, meanwhile,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: she secures a solid remote position working for MetLife Disability.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Two solid incomes.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and by March 2014, they purchased this beautiful five-acre
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: ranch-style home in Claremont, Florida. Two kids, a horse barn,
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: wide-open pastures. The facade is absolutely flawless.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: But the structure of the relationship was completely compromised. I mean,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: it's like buying a beautifully painted house that's built on
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: a sinkhole.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: That's a great analogy.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because you can remodel the kitchen, you can put
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: a fresh coat of paint on the drywall, you can
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: buy all the acreage you want, but the structural joists
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: are quietly snapping underneath you.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: And the court documents back that up. They show that
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Lori had actually filed for protective injunctions against Michael twice
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: before they even bought that house.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Wait, twice? Before the dream house?
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Yes, before the acreage and the horse barn. And then
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: the documentation points us to September 2014, which is a
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: massive rupture. Police are called to the house for a
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: violent physical altercation.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: And I want to dig into this because the police
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: reports show two entirely contradictory realities.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Very common in these types of calls, unfortunately.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Right. So when the deputies arrive, the scene is just
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: highly chaotic. Lori provides this very specific narrative. She alleges
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: that during a heated argument, Michael physically pinned her against
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: a wall, retrieved a firearm, and pointed it at her.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: A very severe allegation.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Extremely. She claims a struggle ensued over the weapon, forcing
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: her to flee the residence with her two young children.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: And law enforcement documents note that Lori had visible bruising
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: on her arms.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Okay, so there is physical evidence of a struggle.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: There is. But Michael's statement to the police completely inverts
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: the scenario. He admits to the physical altercation, sure, but
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: he insists that Lori was the one who retrieved the firearm.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Wow, a complete 180. Yeah.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: His statement claims that she grabbed the gun and explicitly stated, quote,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: I'm going to end this now.
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  Speaker 2: Chilling.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: And the physical evidence supporting Michael. The police note a
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: visible laceration on his forehead.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Okay, so both parties have injuries. Right.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: I am looking at the arrest record here, and Michael
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: is the one who gets arrested for domestic battery based
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: on the physical fight. But no one, neither Michael nor Lori,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: is charged with aggravated assault with a firearm.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Which is always so frustrating to see on paper.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: I have to push back on this, though. If you're listening,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: you might be wondering the same thing. If the police arrive...
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: A deadly weapon has clearly been introduced into a volatile
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: domestic fight, and both parties have physical injuries. How does
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: the system just shrug its shoulders on the gun charge?
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  Speaker 2: It's baffling from the outside.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Why doesn't the primary aggressor face a massive felony charge
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: right then and there?
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: It is a fantastic question, and it strikes at the
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: absolute heart of why domestic violence cases are so incredibly
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: difficult to prosecute. And honestly, it's why they so frequently
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: escalate to tragedy.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Because their hands are tied.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Essentially, yes. Law enforcement officers are not judges, and the
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: scene of a domestic dispute is not a courtroom. To
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: make an arrest for a severe felony like aggravated assault
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: with a deadly weapon, police need probable cause that points
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: clearly to one specific individual.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: And here they just have two people pointing fingers at
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: each other.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Exactly. It's a pure he said, she said scenario. Both
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: parties claim the other introduced the firearm, and both parties
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: have physical marks corroborating a struggle. So the evidentiary water
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: is entirely muddied.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: What about the kids? Could they say what happened?
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: The only other people in the house were the two
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: very young children, and legally and developmentally, They are incapable
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: of providing reliable, cross-examined testimony about the mechanics of a
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: fast moving physical struggle.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: So the legal system is essentially paralyzed by the conflicting narratives.
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  Speaker 2: Completely paralyzed. And the psychological fallout of that paralysis is devastating.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: I mean, think about the environment this creates in that home.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Must be terrifying.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Violence has been normalized. A firearm has been weaponized in
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: an argument. But because the legal system can't untangle the
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: truth to make a definitive charge regarding that gun, Neither
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: party faces a consequence for the lethal threat.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Nobody goes to jail for the gun.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Right. It creates a psychological environment where the participants feel
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: both completely isolated and entirely unaccountable. The boundaries of acceptable
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: behavior are just obliterated. This isn't just a red flag.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: It is the blueprint for a future fatality.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: And their timeline after this arrest is just chaotic. By
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: November of 2014, they officially separate. They both start dating
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: other people.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Trying to move on, supposedly.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but they can't seem to break that childhood bond
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: because by May of 2015, they attempt a reconciliation. They
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: move back in together.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: Back to the house with the broken foundation.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Exactly. But the foundation is still shattered. According to the
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: court records, the definitive end arrives on November 7, 2015.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Lori claims she permanently kicked Michael out of the house
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: on that date.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: November 7th.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I want you listening to Circle November 7, 2015,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: in your mind, take a mental note. Because after that day,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: the physical flesh and blood Michael Shaver vanishes from the
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: face of the earth.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: Vanishes physically? yes, but not digitally. And this is where
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: the narrative defies all behavioral logic.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: It really does.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: After November 7, Michael's lifelong best friend, Scott Amatuccio, the
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: guy from the middle school bedroom, he realizes he hasn't
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: heard Michael's voice in weeks.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Which is weird for best friends.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: Really unusual. So Scott starts doing his own informal investigation.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: He reaches out to family in New York. He reaches
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: out to Michael's co-workers at the Disney monorail shop.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: And what's he find?
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: He uncovers a terrifying consensus. Not a single human being
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: other than Lori Shaver has physically seen Michael or heard
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: his actual voice over the phone since early November.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: But there are text messages, right? And there are Facebook messages.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: There are.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: The problem is the behavior attached to these messages makes
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: absolutely zero sense. We have this guy who is highly
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: regarded at Disney, a guy who loves his job and
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: is on the verge of a promotion. And he supposedly
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: quits this lucrative career via a terse text message.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: Just sends a text and walks away from a pension
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: and a union job. Right.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: And if you are listening to this and you are
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: trying to piece together the mindset of someone abandoning their
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: family to start a new life, Just look at the
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: inventory of what he left behind.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: The inventory is the glaring anomaly here.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Go through it because it's crazy.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Well, if an individual makes the conscious decision to flee
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: a toxic marriage and vanish into a new life, their
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: primary requirement is resources, right? Mobility and capital.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: You need cash and a way to go.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Yet the investigative notes show Michael supposedly left behind
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: his highly expensive specialized set of professional mechanic tools. He
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: left behind his recreational ATV. He left behind his firearms.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: All things you could easily sell.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Highly liquid assets, yes. And crucially, he left behind his vehicle,
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: a black car that, according to witnesses, had a severely
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: bent rim and a tire that refused to hold air.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Okay, stop right there. You were telling me a guy
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: decides to vanish into thin air, and he leaves behind
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the thousands of dollars worth of tools and toys he
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: could easily sell for untraceable cash, and he leaves behind
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: his car.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: That's the official story Lori was pushing.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: If he is driving away into a new life, how
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: is he traveling? Is he walking down the Florida highway
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: with a bindle stick over his shoulder?
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: It defies basic survival logic. The physical evidence strongly suggests
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: he never left the property. But digitally, his Facebook account
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: is active.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Doing what?
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: Well, Scott Amatuccio's frantic sending messages... begging to know if
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: his best friend of 30 years is okay, and the
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Facebook account replies with cold, hostile messages, saying things like,
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: leave me alone or don't bother me.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Just totally out of character.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: A complete departure from Michael's known personality. When Scott presses
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Lori for answers, she delivers a clean, simple narrative. Michael
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: couldn't handle the pressure, and he abandoned the family.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: But she doesn't stick to that simple narrative. I mean,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: she realizes that Michael's friends and family... aren't just going
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: to accept that he walked away with zero resources.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Right. She feels the pressure.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: So she tries to manufacture an alibi for his physical movement.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: She approaches one of Michael's co-workers at Disney, a man
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: named Robert Mercado, and she asks Robert this incredibly loaded,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: specific question.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: This part is wild.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: She says, Robert, didn't you pick Michael up in a
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: black vehicle and drive him to Georgia?
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: It's a fascinating tactic. It's known in investigative circles as
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: Crowdsourcing an alibi.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Crowdsourcing an alibi.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she is attempting to plant a false memory or
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: a false narrative directly into the social ecosystem of the victim.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: She wants Robert to say, oh, yeah, maybe I did,
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: or at least spread a rumor.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: But it was a massive miscalculation.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. Because Robert Mercado later takes the witness stand
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: in a court of law under oath and vehemently denies this.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: He wasn't having any of it.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: None of it. He testifies that while he did own
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: a Gray Explorer, he absolutely never picked Michael up, and
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: he certainly never drove him across state lines to Georgia.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: So she was just making it up.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: Lori was trying to weave a physical escape route out
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: of thin air to match the digital ghost she was operating.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Which brings us to the core mechanism of this whole deception.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: If you have someone's phone, if you know their passcodes,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: it seems incredibly easy to just become them, you know.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: It does seem easy on the surface.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Right. You can send a text saying, I'm moving to Georgia,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: leave me alone. And ostensibly, you've solved your murder problem.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Why doesn't that work? What actually breaks the illusion?
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: Well, in the short term, it does work, which is
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: exactly why perpetrators attempt it. Digital impersonation is a highly
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: effective immediate shield. Right.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: It buys you time.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: Exactly. You can mimic syntax. You can cancel dentist appointments.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: You can actively push inquisitive family members away. Yeah. But
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: here is the fatal flaw, the mechanism that always inevitably
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: traps the impersonator.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: What is it?
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: They forget about the bureaucratic footprint.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: The bureaucratic footprint exists. Explain exactly what that means in
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: a criminal investigation.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: Think about it. Modern human existence is not just social.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: It is intensely transactional and administrative. You cannot exist in
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: the 21st century without generating data. Sure.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: We leave trails everywhere.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: To live, you must consume. To consume, you must interact
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: with financial institutions and government agencies. A perpetrator can fake
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: a text message. But they cannot fake a credit card
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: swipe at a gas station in Georgia. They cannot fake
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: an ATM withdrawal. Over the months and years following November 2015,
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: investigators noted the deafening silence of Michael's bureaucratic footprint.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Just zero activity.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: None. His driver's license expired without renewal. His passport expired.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: His mandatory FAA pilot's medical certificate lapsed.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Which he would absolutely need if he was still working.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And most damning of all, there was zero personal
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: bank account activity and zero credit card activity under his
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: social security number. You can tell your friends you are
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: alive on Facebook all you want, but a dormant bank
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: account for three years proves to the government that you
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: are dead.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: And it was that exact silence that finally pushed Scott
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Amatuchio past his breaking point. The text messages saying, leave
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: me alone, weren't enough anymore.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: He knew something was fundamentally wrong.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So in February of 2018, over two years after
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Michael was last seen, Scott officially contacts the Lake County
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Sheriff's Office and files a missing persons report. And this
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: is the catalyst. This is the moment a piece of
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: landscaping turns into a crime scene.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: Because when a citizen files a credible missing persons report,
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: law enforcement is legally obligated to conduct a welfare check. Right.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: They have to go look.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: So Lake County deputies arrive at the sprawling Claremont property.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: And initially, Lori's performance is flawless.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: She plays the part.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: She really does. She is calm. She is polite. She
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: is fully cooperative. She repeats the crowdsourced alibi, telling deputies
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: that Michael simply left in 2015 and is residing somewhere
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: in Georgia.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: She's sticking to the script.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: She is so cooperative, in fact, that she even allows
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: the deputies to walk through the house answering their preliminary
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: questions without a hint of anxiety.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: Right. She's the picture of the aggrieved, abandoned wife.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: A filth.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: Until the deputies step out into the backyard. They're just
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: looking around the property and they notice a feature that
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: wasn't there before. A massive, newly poured concrete slab with
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: a fire pit built directly into the center of it.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: Right in the open.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: And one of the deputies just casually asks about it. Hey,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: nice fire pit. When did you put that in? And
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: the moment, the millisecond that concrete slab is mentioned, Lori's
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: entire psychological profile shifts.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: A total change in baseline behavior.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: The polite cooperation vanishes. She instantly invokes her right to
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: remain silent, demands an attorney, and orders the deputies offer property.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: From a behavioral analysis standpoint, that sudden erection of a
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: rigid boundary is a massive indicator of localized concealment.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: Localized concealment, meaning she's hiding something right there.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: Exactly. By dramatically changing her baseline behavior solely in response
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: to a specific piece of terrain, she inadvertently handed the
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: deputies a map with a giant red X on it.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: She basically pointed right at it.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: She did. So the deputies respectfully leave the property, but
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: they are armed with two critical pieces of information. One,
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: Lori's extreme defensive reaction to the concrete, and two, Michael's
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: total lack of a bureaucratic and financial footprint.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: And that's enough for a judge.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: Oh, definitely. This combination provides the legal threshold of probable
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: cause necessary to secure a search warrant.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: So three weeks later, the deputies come back. And they
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: aren't there to ask polite questions anymore. They bring the
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: heavy machinery.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: The real deal.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the long crime notes detail that they brought ground-penetrating radar,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: a backhoe, and a team of specialized cadaver dogs.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: Standard procedure for an excavation like this.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Now, I want to stop here because we see this
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: on TV all the time, but how does this actually work?
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, if a body is buried under feet of
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: dirt and thick concrete, how on earth does a dog
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: smell it? And what is the radar actually seeing? Does
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: it see a skeleton?
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: It is a fascinating intersection of biology and physics, actually.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Let's start with ground-penetrating radar, or GPR. The radar does
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: not see a body like an X-ray.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Oh, it doesn't?
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: No, it doesn't show a little glowing skeleton on a screen. Instead,
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: it emits high-frequency radio waves into the ground. When those
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: waves hit a boundary between different materials, like the boundary
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: between undisturbed, highly compacted natural soil and the looser, mixed-up
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: soil of a dug grave, the radio waves bounce back
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: to the surface antenna.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: So it's looking for disturbed dirt.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The machine reads those reflections and creates a profile
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: showing anomalies, essentially pointing out exactly where the Earth has
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: been excavated and refilled.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, that makes sense for the radar. But the dogs?
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Because concrete seems impenetrable.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: To the human eye, concrete is solid. It feels like
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: a rock. But at a microscopic level, concrete is highly porous.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. It is full of capillary networks and tiny voids.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: As a human body decomposes, it produces specific volatile organic
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: compounds gases like putrescine and cadaverine.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: So these gases are trapped.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: Not entirely. These gases rise through the soil, they enter
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: the microscopic pores of the concrete, and eventually they vent
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: into the atmosphere above the slab.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Wow, so the scent actually seeps through the cement.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: It does. And a trained human remains detection dog possesses
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: an olfactory system tens of thousands of times more sensitive
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: than ours. They can detect parts per trillion of these
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: specific gases escaping from the microfissures in the slab.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: That is incredible.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: And in this case, the dogs were deployed and they indicated,
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: meaning they sat down and signaled to their handlers, on
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: the exact same spot on the concrete slab twice.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: So they have the radar anomaly and they have the
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: biological hit from the dogs. They bring in the backhoe
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: and start tearing up the concrete. And this is where
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: we get a detail that is so macabre, so brazen,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: that it honestly feels like a gothic horror novel.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: It really is unbelievable.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: As investigators are examining the surface of this concrete slab,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: before they even break it, they notice something etched into
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: the cement. While the concrete was still wet, someone had
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: carved the initials LF and TF into it.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: LF and TF.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: LF for Lori Filmer, which was her new married name,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: and TF for Travis Filmer, her new husband. They literally
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: signed their names into the wet cement directly above a
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: buried human being.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: The audacity is just staggering.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: I keep thinking of Edgar Allan Poe. It's like the
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: telltale heart. But instead of a heart beating under the
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: floorboards to drive the killer mad, they built a patio
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: over the corpse and invited friends over to roast marshmallows.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: It is an incomprehensible level of psychological detachment.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: It points to profound dissociation, incredible hubris, or perhaps a
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: toxic mixture of both. I mean, to sit out there
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: with your friends.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: On top of your dead husband.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: Yes. Well, once the backhoe breaks through that sign concrete
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: and excavates the disturbed soil, they uncover what they were
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: looking for. A fully skeletonized human body wrapped in a tarp.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: And it had been there a long time.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: Over two and a half years. Due to the advanced
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: state of decomposition, visual identification is impossible. So they utilize
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: dental records and familial DNA testing to confirm the identity.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: It is Michael Shaver.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: And they can tell how he died, too, right?
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: Yes. A forensic anthropologist and the medical examiner analyzed the
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: remains and determined the precise cause of death. Michael was
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: not the victim of a random domestic accident. He was
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: executed with a single. 38 caliber gunshot wound directly to
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: the back of the head.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Okay, so put yourself in the shoes of the public
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: watching this unfold on the local news. The police find
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: a murdered man buried under a concrete slab in his
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: own backyard, and the property owner's initials are literally carved
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: into the roof of the grave. You would assume she
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: is leaving that house in handcuffs that very afternoon.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: That is the logical assumption.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: But that is not what happens. They find the body
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: in early 2018, but Lori Shaver is not arrested until
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: September of 2020. That is a two and a half
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: year delay.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: Why?
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: How does a legal system allow someone to walk free
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: for years when the victim is found under her patio?
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: I completely understand the frustration, but this delay is actually
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: a hallmark of meticulous, high stakes prosecution. Finding the body
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: is only the first step.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: Really? It feels like the biggest step.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: It's big, but look at it from a legal standpoint.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: The state knew where Michael was, and the medical examiner
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: proved how he died. But securing a murder conviction requires
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: proving beyond a reasonable doubt who pulled the trigger. And
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: at that moment, they had zero direct evidence. There were
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: no eyewitnesses to the shooting. There was no security camera footage.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: The murder weapon was not recovered at the scene. Right.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: So it's a purely circumstantial case.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: Entirely circumstantial. And prosecutors face a massive legal hurdle called
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: double jeopardy. The Fifth Amendment dictates that you cannot be
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: tried twice for the same crime.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: You only get one shot.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: Exactly. If the state rushes in, arrests Lori based solely
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: on the fact that the body is in her yard,
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: she goes to trial. Her defense attorney introduces enough reasonable doubt,
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: perhaps suggesting someone else buried him there without her knowledge.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: And the jury acquits her. She walks free forever.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Wow. Even if they find proof later.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: Even if they find a 4K videotape of her committing
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: the murder the very next day, they cannot retry her.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: So the state took those two and a half years
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: to build an airtight, inescapable web of circumstantial evidence.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: What were they doing for all that time?
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: They audited years of financial records. They subpoenaed massive amounts
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: of digital data from Internet service providers. They conducted dozens
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: of interviews to lock down timelines. They spent 30 months
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: drafting a dense 12-page probable cause affidavit so that when
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: they finally made the arrest, they knew they could secure
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: a conviction.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: And building that timeline meant investigators had to look backward.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: They had to ask a very disturbing question. If Michael
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Shaver was murdered in November 2015, what exactly was Lori
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: doing during the months and years while he was decomposing
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: under the yard?
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: And the answer is complex.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Very. The law and crime documents reveal that she wasn't
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: just sitting in the house trembling in fear. She was
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: actively managing an incredibly complex, chaotic web of romantic affairs.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Her romantic entanglements are crucial to the case because they
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: establish a pattern of manipulation, a timeline of events, and
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: ultimately a powerful motive.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Let's get into the first one.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: Right. The investigation uncovers an affair that actually predates Michael's murder.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: Enter Jimmy Ballew.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Jimmy the car salesman.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Jimmy was a local car salesman. He met Lori
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: in the summer of 2014 when she and Michael were
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: at the dealership purchasing a Chevy Silverado.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Together. They were there together.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Yes. Jimmy's testimony revealed that Lori returned to the dealership
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: alone shortly after, dressed provocatively in short shorts and cowboy boots,
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: and initiated a brief physical affair that took place at
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: the Shaver residence.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: But what is really revealing about this affair is Michael's
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: reaction when he inevitably finds out. He doesn't go to
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: the dealership to beat up the car salesman.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: No, his reaction is much more telling.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: According to Jimmy's testimony, Michael actually called him on the phone.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: And Michael was frantic, but not with rage. He called
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: to warn Jimmy.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: Warn him about what?
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Michael told him that Lori was incredibly unstable and was
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: actively threatening to harm herself. So even before the separation,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: we have documented evidence of extreme emotional volatility, infidelity, and
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: manipulative threats of self-harm.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: It paints a very clear psychological portrait.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: It does. But the car salesman is just a footnote
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: compared to the chaos of the next relationship.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: Correct. The situation escalates dramatically with a man named Jeremy Townsend.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Who's Jeremy?
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Jeremy's background is significant. He is a combat wounded army veteran.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: During his testimony, he stated he was shot three times
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: during a deployment in Afghanistan and was medically retired.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: So a guy who has been through a lot of
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: intense situations.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: Very much so. He meets Lori purely by chance at
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: a local public park in September of 2015. At this point,
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: Michael is still alive and still living in the house.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: But by December of 2015, which is just weeks after
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: Michael was murdered and supposedly moved to Georgia, Lori and
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: Jeremy initiate a highly physical friends with benefits relationship.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: But there is a massive complication here. Jeremy is married.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Yes, he is.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: His marriage was going through a very rocky period, which
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: is why he was open to the affair. But he
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: was still legally married and living with his wife, Vanessa.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: And the timeline shows that Lori becomes incredibly possessive of
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Jeremy very quickly.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: She wanted him all to herself.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Exactly. By February of 2016, Jeremy and his wife start
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: attending counseling. They start reconciling, and Jeremy puts his wedding
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: ring back on.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: A clear signal to Lori. Right.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: He posts a photo on Facebook of him and his wife,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: and he is clearly wearing the ring. Lori sees this
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: digital update, and her reaction is furious. She sends him
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: a sarcastic, seething text message saying, Nice wedding ring. Thought
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: you didn't wear that anymore.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: This is a critical psychological pivot point. When Jeremy begins
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: to pull away and recommit to his marriage, Lori realizes
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: she is losing control of the narrative. And for someone
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: with her psychological profile, loss of control is intolerable.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: So what does she do?
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: When Jeremy refuses to leave his wife, Lori decides to
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: force the issue. She takes proactive... highly aggressive action to
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: destroy Jeremy's marriage. And this is the moment where she
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: resurrects the digital ghost of Michael Shaver in the most
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: audacious way imaginable.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: I want to walk through this specific event slowly because
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: it is the most mind-blowing piece of evidence in the
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: entire trial. It is April 11, 2016. Jeremy's wife, Vanessa,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: is an elementary school teacher.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: Working her normal job.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Right. She is at work in her classroom managing young children.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: The front office calls her down because a delivery has arrived.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: It is a bouquet of flowers. Vanessa assumes, naturally, that
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: her husband, who she is reconciling with, has sent them.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: Makes perfect sense.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: She opens the card, and instead of a romantic note,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: she reads pure venom. The card says, Is this a
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: difficult day for you? Roses are red, violets are blue.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: My wife is a bitch, your husband is too. Sorry
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: about this, just check your Facebook message, we need to talk. Mike.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: Mike. She is signing the card as Michael Shaver, a
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: man who has been dead for five months.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Vanessa immediately checks her Facebook account and sitting in her
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: inbox is a message from the account of Michael Shaver.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: And this digital Michael proceeds to lay out the details
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: of the affair between his wife, Lori, and Vanessa's husband, Jeremy.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: Just burning it all down.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Completely. Michael actively encourages Vanessa to file for divorce, tells
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: her she deserves better, and even goes so far as
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: to recommend specific local divorce attorneys she should hire.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: The level of calculation is stunning.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: I just have to pause and ask, what kind of
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: psychological compartmentalization does it take to execute this? You have
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: a decaying corpse buried in your backyard. You log into
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: his social media account. You use his name to order
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: a floral delivery to a schoolteacher. solely to detonate your
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: current boyfriend's marriage.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: It's hard to fathom.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: She is literally using a dead man as a puppet
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: to clear her romantic path.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: It is a breathtaking display of manipulation, and it serves
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: a dual purpose.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: What's the second purpose?
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: Well, on the surface, yes, it is a targeted emotional
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: strike designed to humiliate Vanessa, expose Jeremy, and force him
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: into a divorce. But beneath that, from a criminal defense perspective,
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: it is a highly calculated attempt to manufacture an alibi.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Oh, to prove he's alive.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: Exactly. By forcing Michael's digital ghost to interact with the
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: real world in such a spectacular documented fashion, she is
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: generating a robust paper trail. She is creating hard evidence
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: that says, look, Michael is alive, Michael is angry, Michael
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: knows about my affairs, and Michael is actively interfering in
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: my life.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: So she's creating a suspect other than herself.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: She believes she is outsmarting the system by generating proof
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: of life.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: But she vastly underestimated the system because she thought the
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: police would just look at the name Michael Shaver on
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: the Facebook message. and take it at face value. She
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: didn't understand the mechanics of digital forensics.
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: Very few criminals actually do.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: How did the police dismantle this illusion? Because this is fascinating.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: This is where the long delay in arresting her pays off.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: Investigators don't look at names on a screen. They look
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: at data packets. When a message is sent over Facebook,
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: it travels through the internet accompanied by an IP address.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: an internet protocol address.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: Like a digital fingerprint.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: Or a digital license plate assigned to a specific router
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: by an internet service provider like Comcast or Spectrum. Law
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: enforcement served a subpoena to Facebook's parent company, Meta, demanding
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: the metadata from Michael Shaver's account on April 11, 2016.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: And Meta hands it over.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: With a warrant, yes. Facebook provided the IP address that
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: logged into the account and sent those specific messages to Vanessa.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: The investigators then took that IP address, served a secondary
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: subpoena to the local internet service provider and asked which
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: physical street address was assigned this IP on this specific
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: date and time.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: And the ISP comes back and says the IP address
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: belongs to the router plugged into the wall at the
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Claremont Ranch home.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: The calls are literally coming from inside the house.
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: Precisely. While the name on the screen said Michael Shaver,
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: the data proved the message originated from Lori's living room.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: That is just brilliant police work.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: It is undeniable evidence. But You know, the chaos of
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: Laurie's romantic life didn't pause while she was sending fake messages.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Oh, of course not.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: The affair with Jeremy Townsend ultimately collapsed under the weight
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: of this manipulation. But Laurie abhorred a vacuum. She didn't
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: stay single. Enter the final major player in this saga,
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: a man named Travis Filmer.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: Right. Travis is a fascinating and baffling addition to this story.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: He has a criminal record, a convicted felon with three
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: prior charges. He is introduced to Lori in January of
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: 2016 through a family member, but they don't seriously start
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: dating until late May of 2016.
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: Moving very quickly.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: Lightning speed. By July, Travis has packed his bags and
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: moved into the Claremont property. Now, obviously, Travis asks about
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: her marital status. Lori tells him that she is divorced,
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: that Michael was abusive, and that he completely abandoned the children.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: The standard script.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: But when the topic of them getting married comes up,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: Lori feeds Travis a very specific, carefully constructed excuse for
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: why she refuses to sign a legal marriage document.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: She weaponizes her fabricated trauma. She tells Travis that because
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: of the extreme abuse she suffered at the hands of Michael,
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: the very idea of signing a legal contract binding her
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: to a man makes her feel like property.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: Oh wow.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: She claims a legal marriage would trigger her PTSD. Now
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: it is important to note that in a separate civil
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: deposition later on, Travis claimed they didn't legally marry for
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: financial reasons involving taxes and benefits.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: So the story kind of shifted.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: The excuse morphed depending on who was asking. But regardless
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: of the reason, they agree not to get a legal
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: marriage license. However, they still want the public validation of
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: a wedding.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: So on December 31st, 2016, they throw what they term
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: a commitment ceremony right there on the Claremont property. And
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: let's not mince words here. It was a wedding.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: By all appearances, yes.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Lori purchased and wore a traditional white wedding gown. Her
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: grandfather walked her down an aisle and formally gave her away.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: They hired an officiant to read vows. They served a
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: multi-tiered wedding cake to dozens of guests. Travis's own family attended,
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: fully believing they were witnessing a legitimate, legally binding marriage.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: But Lori knew it wasn't legal, because to get a
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: marriage license, you have to prove you're divorced. And she
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: couldn't divorce a man who was secretly buried 50 feet
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: away from where they were cutting the cake.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: The sheer audacity of hosting a joyous public celebration on
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: top of a crime scene is staggering. But the timeline
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: of Travis's involvement in the physical property is what truly
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: strains credulity.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: This is the part that blows my mind.
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: Because this New Year's Eve wedding required some landscaping preparation.
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: The investigative documents include a receipt from Home Depot dated
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: September 12, 2016.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: A few months before the wedding.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: Right. Travis went to the store and rented a heavy-duty
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: cement mixer. He brought it back to the house. And
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: he physically helped Lori pour that massive concrete slab in
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: the backyard.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: He rented the mixer himself.
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: He did. He helped mix the cement. He helped pour it.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: And he helped carve their initials, LF and TF, into
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: the wet surface. The very surface that was sealing Michael
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: Shaver's tomb.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, I have to stop and address the listener right
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: now because I know exactly what you are thinking. You
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: are screaming at your steering wheel or your headphones saying,
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: There is absolutely no way this guy didn't know what
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: he was paving over. He rented the mixer.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: It is the most natural reaction.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, if your new girlfriend asks you to randomly
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: pour a massive slab of concrete over a patch of
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: freshly disturbed dirt in the backyard, and two years later,
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: the cops roll up with a backhoe and pull a
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: skeleton out from under it, how do you not immediately
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: grab your partner by the shoulders and scream, did you
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: make me pave over your husband?
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: It is the most natural question to ask. But to
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: understand Travis's reaction, or lack thereof, we have to dive
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: deep into the psychology of cognitive dissonance.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: Explain that, because I am struggling to understand him.
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: Cognitive dissonance is the extreme mental discomfort a person feels
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: when their reality fundamentally contradicts their deeply held beliefs. By
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: the time the body was discovered in 2018, Travis had
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: spent two years building an entire life with this woman.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: He was all in.
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: They lived together, they were raising her children together, and
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: they eventually had a child of their own. To acknowledge
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: the glaring neon red flag, to admit to himself that
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: the woman he loved shot her husband, buried him in
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: the yard, and then manipulated him into building the tomb,
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: would require him to utterly destroy his own reality.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: So the brain literally builds a psychological firewall to protect
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: itself from the horror. Exactly.
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: The human mind will perform astonishing, irrational gymnastics to preserve
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: the safety of the family unit. Travis compartmentalized the bizarre,
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: concrete request. He compartmentalized the arrival of the cadaver dogs.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: He compartmentalized the discovery of the skeleton.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: Just boxed it all away.
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: We have proof of how powerful this cognitive dissonance was, actually.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: Even after the body was unearthed, even after Lori was
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: formally arrested and charged with second-degree murder, Travis Filmer doubled down.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: He didn't leave.
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: In 2020, he legally, officially married her.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: It is a loyalty that crosses the border into absolute delusion.
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: Truly.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: So, let us move forward to 2020. Lori is finally
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: in handcuffs. She's charged with second-degree murder and accessory after
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: the fact. She hires a defense attorney named Jeffrey Wiggs.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: And Wiggs is staring down the barrel of an impossible case.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: A defense attorney's nightmare.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: As we establish, he cannot claim Michael is living in
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: Georgia anymore. The familial DNA is a 100% match. The
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: body is real, the bullet hole is real, and the
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: concrete is real. So when the physical evidence is this concrete,
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: pun intended... How does a defense attorney operate?
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: They have to get creative.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: Very creative.
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: They introduce a plot twist so unhinged the prosecution called
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: it patently false in open court.
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: When a defense attorney cannot dispute the physical evidence of
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: a crime, their only strategic option is to construct an
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: alternative narrative explaining how that evidence was created without their
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: client being the primary culprit.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: They just need to muddy the waters.
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: Exactly. They don't have to prove their story is true.
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: They only have to introduce enough confusion to create reasonable doubt.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: So in May of 2023, the defense files a pretrial
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: motion revealing their theory. They boldly claim that Lori Shaver
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: never touched the gun that killed Michael.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: Then who did?
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: They allege that the person who pulled the trigger was
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: Lori's daughter, Isabel.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: Now, wait a minute. Let's look at the math here.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: The defense introduces this theory in 2023 when Isabel is
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: 14 years old. But the murder occurred in November of 2015.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: That's right. That means at the time of the shooting,
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: They're alleging the killer was a seven-year-old child, a second grader.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: The narrative the defense constructs is highly cinematic, almost desperately so.
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: According to their filed motions, they claim that Michael Shaver
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: arrived at the Claremont home completely unaccounted and in a
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: psychotic rage. Okay. They allege a violent physical struggle ensued
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: during which Michael battered Lori, knocked her to the floor,
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: placed his boot on her head, and repeatedly threatened to
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: end her life.
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: Which mirrors the earlier domestic violence claims.
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: Right. And according to this narrative, the seven-year-old Isabel, witnessing
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: her mother being brutalized and fearing for her life, retrieved
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: a hidden firearm, aimed it at her father, and shot
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: him to neutralize the threat.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: Which is an incredibly heavy traumatizing theory to present. Blaming
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: a little kid.
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: It is, but it doesn't end there. They add a
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: secondary twist that pushes the narrative into the realm of
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: the absurd.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: Because the seven-year-old couldn't pour the concrete.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: Right, because a seven-year-old child does not have the physical
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: capacity or the logistical know-how to wrap a grown man's
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: body in a tarp, dig a deep grave, and conceal
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: a crime scene. So the defense introduces a secondary actor.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: Let me guess.
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: They claim that at the exact moment the seven-year-old fires
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: the weapon, Jeremy Towns and the Army Veteran Affair Partner
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: coincidentally walks through the front door.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: Just right on cue.
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: According to the defense, Jeremy assesses the chaotic, bloody scene,
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: calmly takes the firearm from the little girl, aims it
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: at Michael's head, and fires a second shot to finish
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: him off. Wow. The defense then alleges that Jeremy disposed
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: of the body and violently threatened Lori and the children,
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: promising to kill them if they ever spoke to the police.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: I look at this defense strategy, and I imagine building
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: a massive tower of Of Jenga blocks. The prosecution has
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: built this solid tower of circumstantial evidence. The defense knows
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: they can't knock the tower over with facts.
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: No, the facts are too solid.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: So they are trying to pull out the most bizarre,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: unstable block, blaming a child and a lover, and they
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: are just praying that the jury is so confused by
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: the chaos that the entire case collapses. It feels incredibly reckless.
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: It is the definition of a Hail Mary defense. Hmm.
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: But you have to view it through the lens of
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: legal desperation. The state has an avalanche of circumstantial evidence.
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: They really do.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: They have the IP addresses proving Lori sent the fake messages.
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: They have the timeline of the bank accounts draining. They
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: have the Home Depot receipt for the cement mixer. They
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: have the motive of the affairs. The defense knows that
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: if they just stand there and say she didn't do it,
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: she goes to prison for life. By pointing the finger
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: at a seven-year-old who the state cannot realistically prosecute for murder...
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: and an affair partner who had military training, they are
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: attempting to manufacture a sliver of doubt.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: Just hoping for one juror.
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: Exactly. They only need one single juror out of 12
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: to think, well, maybe Jeremy did walk in to secure
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: a hung jury.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: But the state doesn't just let this narrative sit there.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: They actively dismantle it before the jury can even process it.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: They shut it down quickly.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: They bring in Jeremy Townsend, who takes a stand, looks
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: at the jury, and flatly denies ever being present for
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: a shooting. He points out he didn't even start sleeping
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: with Lori until December, weeks after Michael vanished.
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: His timeline clears him.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: But the most devastating counterattack from the state involves the daughter, Isabel.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: Yes. The state calls the lead investigator, Detective Tamara Dale,
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: to the stand. Detective Dale testifies that years prior, in 2020,
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: as part of the initial investigation, she had officially interviewed Isabel.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: And this wasn't just a casual chat in a police car.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: No, this wasn't an interrogation in a cold police precinct.
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: This interview was conducted at a specialized child advocacy center.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: What's that like?
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: These centers are meticulously designed environments staffed by highly trained
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: forensic interviewers, psychologists, and social workers. They use specific, non-leading
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: questioning techniques in comfortable rooms filled with toys, ensuring a
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: child can speak truthfully without being traumatized or coached.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: So it's very rigorous but gentle.
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: Very. And Detective Dale testified that during this extensive, specialized interview,
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: Isabel never once mentioned a violent attack, never mentioned shooting
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: her father, and never mentioned Jeremy Townsend. The child as
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: baseline memory completely contradicted the defense's Hollywood script.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: So the defense attorney, Jeffrey Wiggs, realizes that the Jenga
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: block isn't pulling the tower down. The state has countered
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: his wild theory with solid documented reality.
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: He's running out of options.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: Which forces the defense into making the absolute ultimate gamble
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: in any criminal proceeding. Lori Shaver decides to waive her
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: Fifth Amendment right and take the witness stand in her
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: own defense.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: In the legal community, allowing a defendant to testify in
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: a murder trial is universally viewed as a catastrophic risk,
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: and Lori Shaver's performance perfectly illustrates why.
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: It's like putting a target on your own back.
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: A defendant on the stand is a prime target. When
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: Lori takes the oath, she sticks rigidly to the script
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: her defense has prepared. She repeats the narrative of the
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: violent attack, the seven-year-old shooting, and Jeremy finishing the job.
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: Just sticks to the story.
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: Her attorney, Wiggs, conducts a very brief, highly constrained direct examination.
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: He intentionally avoids asking her about any specific dates, times,
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: or logistical mechanics of the cover-up.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: Why keep it so brief?
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: Because he knows that the more granular details she provides,
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: the more surface areas she gives the prosecution to expose
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: a lie.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: But direct examination is only half the battle. Then the
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: prosecutor stands up for cross-examination. And they don't attack the
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: whole story at once. They just start pulling at one
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: tiny thread.
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: And it unravels fast.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: Almost immediately, Lori makes an unforced error that destroys her
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: entire case.
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: The prosecutor begins asking about the timeline of this alleged
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: violent attack by Michael. And Lori, perhaps nervous, perhaps confused
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: by her own web of lies, slips up. She testifies
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: under oath that this attack, the day Michael died, occurred
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: in May of 2016.
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: Which is a catastrophic date to say out loud.
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: It is the end of her defense because the prosecution
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: has spent days laying out a mountain of evidence proving
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: that Michael Shaver ceased to exist in November of 2015.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: The bank accounts, the phone records, everything.
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: The bureaucratic footprint died in November. So the prosecutor immediately
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: pounces on this contradiction. He essentially asks her, Mrs. Shaver, you...
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: you are testifying that Michael burst into your home in
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: May of 2016. But the records show he stopped going
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: to work, stopped calling his children, and stopped spending money
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: six months prior. Where exactly was your husband for half
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: a year before he magically showed up on your porch
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: to attack you?
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: And her explanation is laughable. She looks to the jury
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: and claims that it was just typical of Michael to
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: vanish into thin air for months at a time.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: Just completely illogical.
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: She says he just strolled up to the house that
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: day in May wearing khaki shorts and sneakers. He didn't
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: drive a car there. No one dropped him off. He
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: just popped into existence solely to get shot by a
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: second grader. It is insulting to the intelligence of the jury.
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: But the prosecution doesn't stop there. They begin trapping her
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: in physical, verifiable impossibilities.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: Right, the height and weight thing.
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: On the stand, Laurie attempts to describe Michael's physical stature,
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: likely trying to emphasize how large and terrifying he was
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: during this alleged assault. She confidently states that Michael was
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: 5 foot 3 inches tall and weighed 130 pounds.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: Which makes no sense because 5 foot 3 and 130
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: pounds is tiny for an adult male.
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And the state instantly pulls up official medical and
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: police records proving that Michael was actually 5 foot 8
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: inches and weighed roughly 160 pounds.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: Not a giant, but definitely not 5 foot 3.
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: But the brilliance of the prosecutor's trap is what he
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: reveals next. He produces a prior police report filed by
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: Lori herself, and highlights her physical description. Lori Shaver was
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: exactly 5 foot 3 inches and 130 pounds.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: She gave her own measurements.
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: Under the pressure of cross-examination, her brain panicked, and she
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: instinctively regurgitated her own physical stats when asked about her husband.
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: It vividly demonstrated to the jury that she was fabricating
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: the narrative in real time.
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: But the absolute climax of the cross-examination, the moment where
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: she seals her own fate, revolves around the concrete slab.
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: The impossible coincidence. Yes.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: The prosecutor walks her through her new sworn timeline. He says, OK,
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: you claim Michael died in May of 2016. The Home
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: Depot receipt proves you and Travis poured the concrete slab
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: in September of 2016, four months later.
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: Tracking perfectly.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: Then he asks, why out of all the acres of
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: land you own, did you happen to select the exact
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: precise patch of dirt where your husband was secretly buried
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: to build a fire pit?
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: And her response?
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: Her response on the stand is it was simply a coincidence.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: that they were doing some routine landscaping, looking for a
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: place to put chairs, and they just randomly picked that spot.
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: Unbelievable.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: So what does this all mean? When you watch this testimony,
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: when you read these transcripts, you are witnessing an incomprehensible
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: level of hubris. The sheer arrogance it takes to sit
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: on a witness stand, look 12 citizens in the eye,
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: and expect them to believe that pouring concrete over your
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: murdered husband was a landscaping coincidence. It is staggering.
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: This sequence is precisely why seasoned veteran prosecutors eagerly anticipate
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: a defendant taking the stand. A skilled prosecutor doesn't need
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: to yell or browbeat the witness.
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: They just let them talk.
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: They simply find the logical contradiction, like the May versus
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: November timeline, and methodically expose it until the entire fabrication
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: collapses under its own weight.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion.
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: Lori's defensive, evasive answers about the IP addresses, her bizarre
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: lies about his height, and her absurd claims of coincidence
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: systematically eradicated any micro-ounce of reasonable doubt the defense might
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: have established. By attempting to outsmart the prosecution on the stand,
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: she hand-delivered the final nails for her own coffin.
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: And after that disastrous testimony, this incredibly dense trial, filled
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: with affairs, digital ghosts, fake Facebook messages, floral deliveries— And
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: a mother blaming her young child finally goes to the jury.
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: The closing arguments must have been intense.
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: They brilliantly encapsulate the two realities presented in the courtroom.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: The state's closing argument didn't rely on theatrics. It relied
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: on foundational common sense.
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: Always a strong story.
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: They told the jury to look at the mechanics of
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: the crime. Lori had the physical means to do it.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: She had a clear motive to remove him from her
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: life and secure her freedom. She had the opportunity, as
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: she was the last person, to see him alive in
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: their shared home.
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: And the beneficiary.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: Crucially, she was the single, solitary human being who benefited
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: from Michael Shaver's disappearance.
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: The defense's closing argument, conversely, was forced to lean entirely
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: on the absence of direct forensic evidence. Attorney Wiggs stood
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: before the jury and hammered on the lack of a
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: smoking gun.
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: He had to play the cards he was dealt.
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: He reminded them that the state had produced zero DNA
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: evidence on any firearm linking it directly to Lori's hands.
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: There was no ballistics match proving a specific gun she
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: owned fired the fatal shot. He leaned on the chaotic
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: alternate theory involving Isabel and Jeremy, begging the jury to
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: recognize that the lack of direct forensics equaled reasonable doubt.
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: But the jury didn't buy the chaos. They took this
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: massive 10-year timeline, the complex IP data, the Home Depot receipts,
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: the shifting dates, and they retreated to the deliberation room.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: And they only stayed there for four hours.
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: Four hours is incredibly fast for a murder trial of
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: this complexity.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: Four hours to untangle a decade of lies. On September 13, 2024,
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: they returned to the courtroom and read the verdict. Guilty
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: of second-degree murder with a firearm.
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: Justice, finally.
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: Lori Shaver was remanded to custody immediately, with her sentencing
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: scheduled for November 25.
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: A four-hour deliberation following a multi-week, highly complex murder trial
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: sends a clear, unambiguous message. The jury found the defense's
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: narrative not just unconvincing, but insulting. They rejected the daughter-shooter
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: theory entirely.
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: And I think this case demands that you, the listener,
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: re-evaluate how you think about evidence. We are so deeply
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: conditioned by decades of television shows like CSI or Law
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: & Order to believe that a conviction requires a dramatic confession,
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: a crystal clear fingerprint on a shell casing, or 4K
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: security footage of the crime occurring.
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: It's the CSI effect. Exactly.
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: But this case proves you do not always need a
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: smoking gun. Sometimes, a $ 50 receipt for a rented cement mixer...
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: and a malicious Facebook message traced back to a home
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: router are more than enough to lock a killer away
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: for life.
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: It is the ultimate validation of the prosecutor's opening thesis.
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: The truth eventually finds its way to the surface. We
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: exist in an era where it is mathematically impossible to
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: escape your digital footprint.
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: You can't hide it.
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: Michael's total lack of a bureaucratic footprint after November 2015,
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: juxtaposed against Lori's frantic, technically flawed attempts to manipulate IP
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: addresses and create a fake digital life for him, was
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: the exact mechanism that destroyed her. The silent digital data
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: spoke far louder than any confession ever could.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: This deep dive has been a heavy, intense journey. We've
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: traced the timeline from a sweet middle school romance all
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: the way down to a concrete slab in a Florida backyard.
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: It is a sobering reminder that the darkest, most dangerous
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: secrets aren't always hiding in dark alleyways. They're often buried
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: right beneath our feet in our own backyards. Thank you
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: for walking through this massive stack of investigative sources with us.
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: But before we conclude, there is one final profound reality
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: that we must acknowledge, a reality the trial barely touched upon.
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: What's that?
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: Consider the psychological devastation inflicted upon Isabel, the daughter. She
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: was only seven years old when she lost her father
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: to extreme violence. And then, years later, as a teenager,
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: she was dragged into a courtroom.
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: That's tragic.
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: It is highly probable she was relentlessly gaslit, manipulated and
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: coached by her only remaining parent to internalize and confess
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: to a gruesome murder she did not commit simply to
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: serve as a human shield for her mother.
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: That is just sickening to think about.
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: Now, as Lori Shaver sits in a concrete cell, Isabel's
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: left out in the free world. She faces a lifetime
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: of untacking profound trauma. attempting to untangle her own memories
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: from the horrific lies her mother forced upon her. It
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: forces us to ask a chilling question. What happens to
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: the minds of the children who survive being used as
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: literal pawns in their parents' deadly games?
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: It is a heartbreaking, haunting question to leave on. And
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: it brings us right back to that initial image of
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: the American dream in Claremont. The beautiful ranch home, the
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: wide pastures. the childhood sweethearts.
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: Total illusion.
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: Just remember, the next time you are presented with a flawless,
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: picture-perfect facade, you have to ask yourself what structural rot
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: might be hiding behind the drywall and what nightmares might
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: be buried under the concrete. Keep questioning the narratives presented
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: to you. Always trust your instincts when reality shifts. And
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: please submit your own sources and topics for our next
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: deep dive. We will see you next time.