February 19, 2025 • 43 mins
A small Pennsylvania town was forever changed on Halloween night in 1992 when 11-year-old Shauna Howe vanished while walking home from a Girl Scout event. Days later, her body was found beneath a railroad bridge, sending shockwaves through the tight-knit community of Oil City. The investigation spanned more than a decade, filled with dead ends, false leads, and unanswered questions—until the truth finally came to light.In this early release episode, available exclusively to our Apple and Patreon subscribers, we unravel the haunting details of Shauna Howe's murder, the community’s decades-long search for justice, and the dark secrets that were hiding in plain sight.🎧 Listen now—before the episode drops for the public.Content Warning: This episode discusses child abduction, violence, and murder. Listener discretion is advised.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
This episode may contained content of a graphic nature, including
descriptions of physical and sexual violence against adults, children, and animals.
Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hi I'm Shannon. Hi I'm Tanya, and we are Crimes
and Consequences, a hardcore true crime podcast. Ay Shannon A, Tanya,
how are you doing? I'm doing great. It's a Friday.
I mean, what is the going to complain about? Nothing?
Thank god, it's Friday. I don't want to complain about
(00:55):
the weather. There is nothing to complain about. All is good, exactly.
It's February fourteenth. Actually it is so happy Valentine's Day. Hey,
Valentine's Day, Valentine. When aren't you and how you going
to do anything tonight? Dinner plans? No, we're having nachos
for dinner. I did not make a fancy meal. I
don't think we're not going anywhere. I did get a
(01:18):
gift this morning. It was in the waiting for me
when I woke up. So that's what we usually do,
is just exchange like a card and a gift. And yeah,
which is anything? After how long you've been married? Twenty
plus years? Yep, this year will be thirty. Oh my gosh,
that means we've known each other for thirty years. I
know thirty. I want you just before I know, right, Yes,
(01:43):
thirty blissful years of marriage. All right, well, no, and
that is good because it takes some stamina to make it. Girl.
If I don't survive this, I can survive anything I'm cooking.
It's been a wild ride. Oh please, anyone who I
(02:05):
would imagine, anybody who has as much time as you
know exactly how powerful those simple words are. We've been
through some stuff. Yeah yeah, marriage isn't easy, but we
have weathered many things. But that's awesome. Well, and it's
Valentine's weekend. That'll be good. It'll be great. So anyway, well,
(02:26):
I know you have an episode for us, so before
we get into it, I would just like to remind
everyone to hit the subscribe or follow button on what
app you're listening to because it really helps us out.
And Shannon, what do you got for us today? Well, today, Tanya,
I do have any crime against children? Of course, all
terrible children. It's the worst. This is the story the
(02:49):
murder of Shauna how Shawna Melinda Howe. She was born
on July eleventh, nineteen eighty one. Cancer, sweet girl to
her parents, Lucy and Robert Howe, who were from Oil City, Pennsylvania,
and at the time of her abduction, she lived with
her mother Lucy and her stepfather, John, and John was
(03:11):
a really good father figure in Shawna's life. Now, Shawna
seemed to have lived an ordinary life for a girl
who grew up in the eighties and nineties. She loved
playing outside and hanging with her friends, but she was
a really shy child. Shawna was part of the Girl
Scouts and she loved Halloween. Oh Yes. Sadly, Halloween was
(03:35):
the holiday that was being celebrated at the time of
her murder, and it would be the last holiday that
she ever shared with anyone. Although the initial crime against
Shawna was labeled by the perpetrators as a prank, her
murder completely shook the entire community of Oil City, and
(03:56):
due to the murder of Shauna, other hapless circumstances, and
the murder of another little girl, the longtime citizens of
the oil town will never feel the same way about
Halloween again. Oh It's terrible. In nineteen ninety two, Shanna
was eleven years old who just wanted to celebrate Halloween
(04:19):
at an annual party with her fellow Girl Scouts. Were
you in Girl Scouts? I was in Girl Scouts for
a short period of time. The only reason I wanted
to join was so that I could get the outfit. Yes,
the sash. Yeah, I wanted the little blouse. I wanted
the beret. I wanted the whole kitten kaboodle. The catalog
(04:41):
was just filled with great wag oh yeah. And then
I was all excited because you got your little book
of how to get all your patches and stuff. Right. Yeah,
I love getting catches. I was Brownies Girl Scouts. So
here's Sean. But the field and the where I can
wear a sash, I'm there. And Shawna was there for
(05:04):
her Girl Scouts troop in nineteen ninety two, but after
the annual party, she never returned home to enjoy all
the candy that she had collected for Halloween. At the time,
she was a student at Seventh Street Elementary School, and
on October twenty seventh, she went to school that day
dressed as a gymnast, sporting a black and turquoise leotard.
(05:28):
I love that. All that's cute. I'm a gym I
do later That same day, still wearing the same leotard,
Shawna was heading out with her fellow Girl Scouts to
sing for the community's senior citizens. I love the Girl
Scouts and I know the Boy Scouts to too. They
help elderly. Oh that's just adorable. Absolutely. After the troop
(05:51):
was done performing, Shauna, along with her friends, went to
the annual Halloween party at the close by Free Methodist
Church on Wilson Abaue. When the party was over around
eight pm, her ride fell through and Shauna was forced
to start walking home, but she never made it home.
The party was only half a mile from where Shauna lived,
(06:14):
but nobody in her family was able to pick her
up from the party that night. Now, even though Shauna
could have easily walked home, she was afraid of the dark,
and her parents did not want her walking home alone anyway.
Even though nobody could pick her up from the party, Lucy,
her mom told her daughter not to worry and that
(06:35):
she would set up a ride to take her home
when the party was over. Shauna dreaded the thought of
having to walk home alone in the dark, so when
her mother guaranteed that a ride would be there to
take her home, safely and soundly. She felt nothing short
of relief. She was able to enjoy the party without
having to worry about a thing, and by the time
(06:56):
eight pm rolled around, Shawna's mom called home to make
sure that everyone was all right since she was still
at work. John, Shawna's stepdad, said that everything was okay,
but he informed Lucy that Shawna had not come home
from the party yet. As it turned out, with the
cast with work, Lucy her mom completely forgot to set
(07:20):
up a ride to get her daughter home, so by
this time she knew that Shauna had to be walking
home now. John waited at the house for Shauna to
arrive home, and at a thirty she still had not
come through the door. So John did what he thought
was best. He got in his car to search for
Shauna because something in his brain told him that something
(07:43):
just wasn't right. That Girl Scout party would be the
last time that anyone saw Shauna alive, and this story
of her case is gruesome as well as frustrating. The
facts show what happens when the police in charge of
the case failed to follow up on leads the way
(08:03):
that they should have. Killers rapists and crucial details slipped
through the cracks that forced a case to stay open
for way longer than it should. So, worried out of
her mind, Lucy called Shanna's close friend in her troop, Joey,
and asked her if she knew where Shauna was or
might have been. Joey explained that Shawna was at the
(08:23):
party having a great time, but when the party ended
and she realized that nobody was coming to pick her
up to take her home, she and Joey began to
walk home together. Somewhere along the way to their individual homes,
they needed to part ways, but before then, Shawna told
Joey that she was really scared to walk home alone,
(08:44):
and Joey, like a good friend, then suggested that the
two girls walk to Joey's house and then Joey's dad
would drive Shauna to her house, but Shauna refused and
the girls parted ways. Now after hearing all of this
from Joey, Lucy knew what needed to be done next
and contacted the Oil City Police Department so that she
(09:08):
could report set a missing. Her daughter was supposed to
be home two hours ago at the time she had
made the call. This phone call was the beginning of
the now retired FBI agent Tom Carter's long career, and
this case was one that Carter would not soon forget.
Carter was moved to a different division before the case
(09:30):
was eventually solved. While on the phone, Lucy gave a
timeline of what her daughter's plans were. But before Lucy
even made this call, another concerned citizen phoned the police department.
The caller said that they had seen a little girl
get grabbed off the corners of West First in Reed Streets,
(09:52):
and the person who took the girl was tall and
shaggy looking. At around eight po six pm, a man
named Dan pay Eaton was walking down the street mining
his own business when he saw a young girl dressed
in a Halloween costume walking all alone. Dan then noticed
a man walking on the opposite side of the street
(10:12):
from where he and Shawna were. The man crossed the
street and began chatting with Shawna. According to Dan, this
man was very tall in stature, skinny, and was wearing
a jacket. The next thing that Dan saw was the
man pick up Shawna, picking her up taking her away quickly.
(10:32):
She was literally abducted right in front of him. Dan
was noticed by the tall, lanky kidnapper, but who would
think it was smart to kidnap a kid with a
witness right there? Shawna let out a yelp loud enough
for Dan to hear it. Dan had no clue what
to do, but he had a feeling that Shawna was
in trouble, so he ran towards the screen. But by
(10:55):
the time he got there, the only thing he saw
was a little red car driving away. So he did
what anybody else should do in that situation. He called
nine one one. Thankfully, he saw the man's face and
gave the police an accurate description in his report. The
police took these two calls very seriously, knowing that Lucy
(11:17):
and Dan's calls were related due to how Shawna was dressed,
and recruited volunteers, FBI agents, and police officers to look
for Shawna. Roadblocks were set within a one hundred mile radius,
and police departments within the radius were on the lookout
for that little red car. While the search continued for Shawna,
(11:40):
Oil City canceled Halloween for the unforseeable future. The city
thought that it was wise to cancel since someone else
could use this holiday as an opportunity to abduct someone else,
and they were not about to risk that. There were
still a few more days until the thirty first, so
they needed to make sure that that they covered all
(12:01):
of their bases. Shawna's uncle formed a huge group of
volunteers to search for his niece. On day two of
the search, something of Shawna's was found. While a lot
of Shawna's family members joined in on the search, it
was her uncle who found evidence that his eleven year
old niece was once where they were standing, and this
(12:22):
location was so far from home. Shawnas leotard was found
near an abandoned railroad track bed near a hiking trail
located in a heavily wooded area in Rockland, Pennsylvania. Her
costume was found eight miles from town, and her family
knew that there was no way Shawna got there on
(12:42):
her own. Police extensively searched the area where her costume
was found. They were unable to locate her or anything
else of hers in that same area. The leotard was
sent to the crime lab and the analysts were able
to find evidence left behind on the crotch area of
the costume. Shauna had been sexually assaulted, and now the
(13:05):
police had the DNA of the person who took her.
Two days later, the case would go from an abduction
case to a full fledged homicide investigation. The following morning,
on October thirtieth, Shawna's dead body was located two hundred
miles from where her costume was recovered. Her body was
(13:26):
found under a railroad bridge in East Sandy Creek. Shawna
was found face down and jammed in between a log
and a rock, with her feet slightly submerged in the
shallow creek. A man who had been out camping in
the woods noticed that something was in the water, and
he was shocked that it turned out to be the
(13:47):
remains of a person who has just so happened to
be the missing little girl from Oil City. When Shawna's
body was found, she was wearing shorts, an inside out
T shirt, and socks that didn't belong to her. This
was the same area that was searched by the police
the day before, so this means that the killer came
(14:09):
back to dump Shawna, leaving her there to die. At
the time, the investigators automatically assumed that Shauna was thrown
over the bridge into the shallow creek. From the bridge
to the creek is a thirty foot drop, so it
made sense to them based on how her body was wedged.
An autopsy was done on her lifeless body and it
(14:31):
showed that she was raped and that she was severely
abused before she was murdered. Shawna's face had a shoeprint
on it the killer stepped on her face. Her cause
of death was blunt forced trauma to her head and
chest from the fall, and she was either pushed or
thrown off the bridge, falling over thirty feet to her death.
(14:54):
This fall also caused multiple rib fractures along with lacerations,
bone bruising, and hemorrhaging. The medical examiner concluded that Shawna
was definitely alive when she was falling due to the
severe damage to her hand, wrist, and shoulder. These injuries
indicated that she tried to break the fall. Forensic evidence
(15:17):
was taken from her body since more DNA was discovered
on her mouth and was sent to the Pennsylvania State
Police Crime Laboratory and to the FBI laboratory. The DNA
analysis unit collected two hairs from her body One hair
was located on Shawna's girl scout sash and the other
(15:38):
was found on her sock. The DNA found on her
mouth and leotard are critical to this case and a
lot of abduction cases. The person who kidnaps is usually
someone who knows the victim, usually a family member. The
police obtain warrants to take DNA samples from every member
in Shawna's family, which included her her own brother. The
(16:01):
forensic analysts got a foreign DNA sample from Shawna and
they needed to compare it to whoever had access to
Shawna within the days leading up to her killing. None
of the DNA taken from her family members matched. The
FBI began to get involved in the case and they
were able to come up with a psychological profile of
(16:21):
the person persons who killed Shawna. Profile determined that the
killer was a white Caucasian male in their twenties, and
the killer likely had a prominent shift in their behavior
after the murder. For example, after Shawna was thrown a
push to her death, the killer would have began to
drink more or had a rapid life change, such as
(16:44):
leaving his home or quitting his job. This information was
published to the community and the police asked if anyone
in the town could think of anyone who fit this
profile description or knew of anyone who had suddenly experienced
an intense life modification. With the release of information like
this comes a lot of leads, and one of the
(17:07):
people who called told the investigators to look into a
man named Ted Walker. He fit the description to a tea. Coincidentally,
Ted Walker actually knew Shawna because she and her friends
would always go into the pizza shop where Ted worked
to hang out and grab a bite to eat. He
also owned a little red car. Ted was known as
(17:29):
the town creep because anytime that younger girls would come
into the shop for something to eat, he would always
try to hug them. Oh gross right. Although he did
fit the profile for the killer, the DNA found on
Shawna's clothes did not match his. To law enforcement, this
(17:50):
detail was big. In nineteen ninety five, another investigator was
brought in and added to the case, and once the
investigator took a look at the case, he immediately concluded
that the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Shawna had been
done by more than one person. To everyone else this
(18:11):
made complete sense. Shauna had been held by her kidnappers
for a few days, but she had no ligature marks
from being restrained. Once these facts were taken into consideration,
two more suspects were added to the mix, brothers Tim
and James O'Brien. The O'Brien boys had been looked at
(18:32):
within the investigation from the jump. Tim and James grew
up in town and they both had records that were
not limited to sex crimes against adults and children. Although
the brothers were seasoned criminals, neither of them matched the
FBI profile or description at all. In addition, investigators said
(18:54):
that they were both in jail around the time Shawna's
life was taken and because of this, their DNA was
not tested and because of that they were not considered suspects.
The case would be at a standstill for almost a decade,
and a fifteen thousand dollars reward was offered to anyone
who had information about Shawna's murder. In the early two thousands,
(19:18):
eight years had passed since Shawna had been murdered, and
Tim O'Brien was arrested again for another crime, and while
he was being interrogated for the crime he committed. The
detectives thought to ask Tim about Shawna. Up to this point,
Shawna's case was incredibly high profile, and due to this,
(19:38):
any man that was taken into custody in town was
asked about Shawna. While still being interrogated, an investigator asked
Tim if they could take a DNA sample, since they
had not done so many years prior now. Tim anxiously
agreed and seemed very nervous about the results, but the
DNA did not match. The detectives knew that they still
(20:01):
had to test against James's DNA his brother. Since any
man that was taken into custody was asked about Shawna's case,
detectives began carrying cotton swabs on them at all times,
just in case they caught and break in the case.
I think that's so smart too. I know I got
swabs right now. Up to this point in the investigation,
(20:26):
eight whole years have gone by since eleven year old
Shauna was brutally killed, and come to find out, the
O'Brien brothers were not in jail at the time. During
the time frame of all this taking place, with Shawna
they were in custody for some reason, but they were
quickly released. Someone didn't have their facts straight and that
(20:50):
really fucked this whole big time. So because someone said, oh,
I think they were locked up at the time Shawna
went in disappearance, just hearsay. That is so fucking lazy, right,
It's yeah, definitely disgusting. Yeah, So the investigators took the
DNA samples from James and it came back to be
(21:10):
an exact match for the foreign DNA found on Shawna's
mouth and leotard. At the time the DNA sample was
taken from James, he was already locked up and was
serving a prison sentence for attempting to kidnap another woman
in Oil City. It was now obvious to everyone involved
in the investigation into Shawna's murder that Tim and James
(21:34):
O'Brien were both involved, but everyone was stumped on why
they didn't match the initial profile, But they forgot that
someone did match Ted Walker. At the time of the murder,
Tim and James actually were living with Ted and when
the police initially went to Ted's home, he did tell
(21:54):
them that he had a red car, but the car
wasn't working and the police took Ted at his word.
Really yep, and they never lies to the police. Shannon, nobody, Yeah, nobody,
So yeah, tell me that it doesn't work. Yeah, and
we'll note it down. The car drove just fine. In
two thousand and two, Ted was brought back in for
(22:17):
questioning and he admitted to the police that he had
originally kidnapped Shauna as a joke, as a joke, just
a joke. This was all going to be really funny
in the end, hilarious. Before he told the truth about
the brothers. He changed his story many times, police said
at least fifteen and back on the night of Shawna's disappearance,
(22:40):
Ted teamed up with Tim and James O'Brien to initially
plan to kidnap a friend of his son's as a prank.
But according to Ted, that was all it was meant
to be. They were supposed to pick up a child
and then later drop them off at home. Apparently that
plan fell through and one serious thing led to another,
(23:02):
and the sick joke finished with a child being raped
and killed. Ted was the tall, lanky dude who Dan
saw picked Shawna up after he crossed the street and
started talking to her, and after he picked her up,
he handed her over to Tim and James, who drove
off with her in the car. Tim told the detectives
(23:24):
that he did hear a meek female voice begging get
off me, let me up, let me go from Tim
and James's bedroom later that night. Although Ted did not
turn his friends into police, he claimed that he allegedly
did not approve of what was going on in that bedroom.
He did not approve of that, and he did not
(23:45):
approve of the murder. So Ted is some you know,
in his head, some hero sounds like okay, yeah, exactly,
He's gonna let it go on. He's gonna hear the
girl struggling in the room, and he's not. He just
gonna stand and not approve it or nothing. Tim O'Brien
apparently liked to run his mouth while he was locked up,
(24:07):
and he actually admitted the murder to his cellmate Ryan
Heath in two thousand and one. He told Heath that
he and his brother drove out to Cultur's hole while
Shawna was in the trunk of the car. Tim never
revealed if Shauna was alive before she was tossed over
the bridge, but he did disclose that he was the
(24:28):
one who threw her body over the bridge. The preface
for the joke had to start somewhere, right, Yeah, Apparently,
in the days leading up to what happened to Shawna, Tim,
Ted and James had been talking about how shitty the
Oil City Police Department was, and to these three dickwads,
(24:49):
the force was a complete joke and they were going
to prove it. The three hatched a plan to abduct
someone as a joke, and they needed it to happen
in front of a witness. After the person who was
taken in front of the witness, the person would then
be released to prove that the cops would still not
be able to find or identify the abductors. So from
(25:10):
men who are pedophiles, this is their joke. Yeah, we're
to play a joke that involves a child. Yeah, abducting
a child? Okay ugh. Originally the prank was supposed to
be them kidnapping a little boy who happened to be
friends with Ted's son, but they quickly changed their minds
(25:31):
and decided to kidnap a little girl since that would
get a lot more attention. So when Ted spotted Shawna.
He knew that in order to grab her, he had
to stop her in her tracks and make her feel
comfortable enough not to run away screaming. He saw that
she was wearing a girl Scout sash and took advantage
of that by asking her about girl Scout cookies. This
(25:55):
made shawn A comfortable enough to chat. He then placed
his hand over her mouth to her from screaming while
he forced her into the little red car where the
O'Brien brothers were waiting. Tim O'Brien then forced her in
the backseat of the car before they took off, and
Ted drove home separately. Ted added that he didn't want
(26:15):
to kidnap her, but when he went against the brothers,
they threatened to kill his son, so he did what
he had to do to keep his own son safe. Allegedly,
Tim and James made fun of him by calling him
a chicken when he said that he didn't want to
follow through with this twisted plan. Well, don't call me names.
(26:36):
I'm just gonna stop because that's mad. I am. I'm
a man. Ted said that he eventually left his house
while James and Tim took Shawna to the upstairs bedroom.
And his reasoning for leaving was because she was begging
them to stop assaulting her while he was trying to
cook spaghetti, So I gotta get out of here. When
(26:58):
he came back to the house, the brothers and Shawna
were gone. After Ted finally said what happened, his house
was investigated and his disgusting face was all over the news.
Once the public became aware of the person who was
responsible for Shawna's kidnapping and murder, Dan the original witness,
(27:19):
called the police and told them that Ted was in
fact the man who he saw take young Shawna. He
could not forget that face. The police had acient ton
of information now after almost a decade later, but they
were still struggling to get their ducks in a row.
They had all of this proof that James was the
(27:40):
one who raped her, but they had no physical proof
that James, Tim or Ted killed her. But they weren't
giving up. They were still fighting to find any proof
that Ted, Tim and James had something to do with
Shawna's murder. During this time, Tim O'Brien was racking up
more prison time, convicted of two more crimes. This time
(28:02):
he sexually assaulted an eleven year old boy and a
six year old girl. The police eventually made a deal
with Ted in exchange for his testimony against the brothers,
he would need to plead guilty to third degree kidnapping
and murder charges to get a reduced sentence of forty
years in person. All, yeah, that's the reduced yeah right,
(28:26):
and he agreed. Ted did agree, So in two thousand
and four, James and Tim were arrested in charge with kidnapping,
sexual assault, and murder. In October of two thousand and five,
the child began. Images of the murder scene were shown
to the jury via movie screen. The screen was similar
to ones that are used in elementary schools for presentations.
(28:49):
On the screen, many crime sceen photos were shown of
Shawna's battered body and face. The scrapesenter, knees, and face,
along with her broken test were extremely visible to the
court and it was obvious that this girl suffered before
she died. A smaller version of the images were passed
(29:09):
from juror to juror, and this photo was the one
used to convey the sexual assault. According to a forensic pathologist,
the wound presented in the smaller photo would only happen
if the victim resisted, and it was clear she gave
it her all to fight back. But two men can
obviously overpower an eleven year old little girl. The prosecution
(29:33):
did present a lot of physical evidence that Shawna was
murdered by the O'Brien brothers, her body, fibers from her
clothes found on the pier, evidence left on her body,
and clothes from the sexual assault. All of this is
known to be enough when tied to testimony from witnesses.
After so much time, the prosecution needed this to be
(29:56):
able to convict James then aged thirty three, and Tim
then aged thirty nine, of kidnapping, raping, and throwing Shauna
to her death. And this is exactly what District Attorney
Marie Bian told the jurors. She also said in her
opening statement, it may have taken thirteen years for law
(30:17):
enforcement and the prosecution to hear what Shauna was telling
us through the circumstantial evidence she had for us, but
we finally listened and heard. The defense did not dispute
the condition of Shauna, but the defense did try to
get the blame away from Tim and James and tried
to have it all thrown on Ted Walker since he
(30:38):
had already played guilty to third degree charges. According to
the defense attorney, all of the evidence had to do
with whoever pleaded guilty. The O'Brien's lawyer, Wayne hunder Mark,
said that Shawuna did not die from being thrown over
the railroad bridge because she was murdered by Ted. While
(30:59):
making this state hunter Mark pointed to the physical evidence,
the statements that Ted made to others, and even the
smell of flesh rotting that one person smelled in Ted's car.
The opening statements by the defense ended with the statement
about the prosecution They've made a deal with the devil
(31:20):
and now they've got to live with it. And this
is meant as an insult to the prosecution for cutting
a deal with Ted Walker. Please, I know, so whah
shut the fuck up, honestly right. The first person to
take the stand was a forensic pathologist who went through
(31:41):
Shawna's autopsy report. Tim and James were being charged with
first and second degree murder, rape, kidnapping, involuntary deviot sexual intercourse,
and criminal conspiracy of abduction and connection with Shawna's death.
The courtroom was packed since everyone in the Unity had
been stunned by the horror that took place. Shawna's family
(32:04):
was there and filled the first two rows of the courtroom,
but they struggled to hear all of the gruesome details
surrounding their young loved ones murder. Shawna's great aunt, Alice
noted that listening to what happened made her feel half sick,
but she felt relief in the fact that this was
all coming to an end. Parents of fellow Girl Scouts
(32:27):
also were an attendant, which was so thoughtful. One mother
said that if her daughter was the one who was murdered,
she would want someone there showing how much they cared.
As the trial went on, Ted Walker's testimony was brought
into question. He was questioned by police from nineteen ninety
two and two thousand and four, and he originally denied
(32:49):
even knowing of Shauna, and then he admitted the plan
between himself and the O'Brien brothers. Ted also heard the
brothers sexually assaulting the victim while in the other room
as she bagged for them to stop. The inmate who
Tim O'Brien confessed to while incarcerated at the Venango County Prison,
(33:09):
Ryan Heath, he took the stand to testify. He came
forward on his own in favor of Ted to corroborate
his story. Heath testified that Tim O'Brien admitted that he
was the one who threw Shawna over the railway bridge,
and directly under that bridge was where her lifeless body
(33:29):
was found. The jury hung onto every word that was said,
regardless of who was on the stand, testifying their town
was not the same safe place as it once was. Next,
the prosecution turned the court's attention to the seminole body
fluid that was found on Shawna's leotard and her mouth,
(33:52):
and the district attorney reminded the court that James O'Brien's
DNA profile matched with it. Went on to compare this
case and circumstantial evidence to a jigsaw puzzle with a
few missing pieces and said, if you have the right pieces,
you can still recognize the picture. She went even further
(34:14):
to say that just because they didn't have all the
pieces to the puzzle, they aren't needed to know that
the O'Brien brothers were guilty of murder, sexual assault, and abduction.
The district attorney was known for speaking to the jurors
in a calm, low and even tone, but the defense
attorney spoke in quite the opposite. Hunter Mark immediately went
(34:37):
back to point the finger at Ted Walker by saying
that he is a murderer and a child molester. He
spoke louder and said that Ted was evil and cruel sadistic,
while he noted to the jurors how the prosecution had
already made a deal with someone of his caliber. The
defense was certain that the evidence would point to the
(34:57):
fact that Ted acted alone and he only turned on
the O'Briens when the police pressed him. The fact that
Ted had seen Shawna and her friends in the pizza
shop many times where he worked was brought up again,
and according to defense, the evidence would show that he
stopped her and waited for her on her last walk
home alone. He was the town creepy after all. Even
(35:21):
though Ted said that the O'Briens sexually assaulted her in
the other room while he was cooking dinner. There was
apparently a call that Ted made to his ex wife
that was brought into question. On that call, Ted told
her that there was a kidnapping in Oil City and
that there would likely be a body found that Colter's Hole,
(35:42):
which is exactly where Shawna's body was found. The first
witness to take the stand was a forensic pathologist. He
was hired to review the autopsy and said that Shawna
fell from the bridge, hit a concrete pier on the
way down, which scraped side of her face. Then she
put her arm out in front of herself to break
(36:04):
her fall before hitting the creek bed below. Her shoulder
was dislocated due to the impact that her arm took,
and this left Shawna with fatal injuries both to her
chest and her head. He ended his testimony by saying
that the victim had to have been conscious as she
fell because she clearly stuck her arm out to brace
(36:26):
her fall. After seventeen hours of deliberation, the jury found
both Tim and James O'Brien guilty of second degree murder,
third degree murder, involuntary deviot sexual intercourse, kidnapping, and criminal
conspiracy to commit kidnapping. The two were sentenced to life
(36:47):
in prison without the possibility of parole, since second degree
murder felony murder carries the same weight. They were acquitted
of first degree murder along with rape and to find
a defect and guilty of first degree murder. The jury
needs to be absolutely sure that the killing was premeditated
and deliberate, so apparently they couldn't find that, but the
(37:11):
second degree they yeah. Yeah. This verdict ensued the day
before the thirteen year anniversary of Shawna's disappearance. Annoyingly yeah,
the Jew defendants showed zero remorse in court and they
were seen laughing among one another as they waited for
their verdict. This trial took two weeks and the verdict
(37:32):
was read by the jury foreman. The how families celebrated
quietly to themselves and hugged one another, letting tears stream
from their eyes. Lucy Howe was very pleased Shawna's mom
with the sentencing and said, this is justice. They knew
that the O'Briens would never have another chance to hurt
(37:53):
anyone again. Even though this justice took almost thirteen years
to come to fruition, even though the people responsible for
Shawna's death were behind bars, Oil City waited a few
more years to allow trick or treating to happen again
in their community. And for good reason. The town was
(38:13):
and still is known as the Town that outlawed Halloween,
but in two thousand and eight, all of the kids
trussed as ghost, goblins, ballerinias, gymnasts, and even characters from
their favorite show or movie. They were finally allowed to
dance their ways down the streets of the town, yelling
trick or treat. It was something that the town had
(38:33):
forgotten for sixteen years. No more, real life monsters were
roaming the streets, haunting the community of eleven thousand people. Now,
Shadaw was not the only victim whose life was taken
around Halloween. In nineteen ninety seven, another Halloween tragedy struck
the community. Shane Freeman, who was four years old at
(38:55):
the time of her disappearance, went to play outside, but
she never came home, and her remains were later found
after a long search. The person responsible for Shanet's brutal
murder was seventeen year old Nicholas Bowen. He was one
of the one hundred volunteers who assisted in the search
for the little girl. He was later arrested for rape
(39:18):
and murder. He pleaded guilty and received the same sentence
as the O'Brien brothers, life in prison without the possibility
of parole. Needless to say, the town of Oil City
truly felt that Halloween haunted this town, so they did
what they thought was right and banned the holiday altogether
because this shit could not keep happening. The authorities didn't
(39:42):
know what else to do. With everyone behind bars and
no more children being raped and murdered, the community finally
felt somewhat safe again, and in two thousand and eight,
the holiday was reinstated, and this brought some normalcy back
to Oil City, Pennsylvania. So that is one hell of
(40:03):
a story. Yeah, family, this girl, I'm telling you. In
the eighties, seventies, I remember it just seemed everyone's, Oh,
these are the good old days. Yeah, Like I don't
always I think we were being gaslighted. Yeah, I do
too a little bit because I don't remember it being
(40:26):
a great time. So, I mean, I don't know, but
not where kids can just be you know, swept. Oh,
it's just frustrating, but I'm glad that it finally got justice.
That was a long time coming. Oh my god, I
know that was so long her poor family. I just
can't even imagine, like losing a child. I just I
(40:47):
can't imagine the heartbreaking. No, it's unnatural you're not supposed to.
And these guys are fucking pediphile, like you know, I'm saying,
I can't even believe like their attorneys trying to put
in their face probably is too. Yeah, however, your guys
have already been fucking convicted of sexual devians and offense
(41:07):
of eleven year old and a six year old. Yeah
right now, and you have nothing to do with Shauna. Yeah, yeah,
you think anybody's gonna believe that? Okay, how dare you?
How dare you waste our time? So that is my
story this week, Sweet Shanna. How we of course good
energy to our family and the stories we share. Yeah,
(41:30):
they're heavy, they are all heavy. They're they're all heavy
in their own way, you know, absolutely, yes, for sure,
some stick with you and some are like incredibly disturbing,
and they're all horrible stories. So anyway, well, thank you
Shannon for this week's pleasure. And before we go, we
would just like to remind everyone to hit the subscribe
(41:51):
or follow button on your favorite app and if you
would like to, if you love Shannon and I and
you want to hear more than you want, to join
our patreon and it's found at Patreon dot com slash
t NT Crimes. It's p A t R e o
N dot com slash TNT crimes, or you can also
(42:11):
join through the Apple podcast app. And they're the same episodes,
just different avenues of achieving the same thing. We release
one extra episode a week, so check it out if
you're interested. It's pretty cheap, so I think it's worth it. Yeah,
some fun, affordable entertainment. Some fun affordable entertainment. And you
can go to our website Crimes Andconsequences dot com. And
(42:34):
I think that's about it. So you have a fabulous weekend, Shannon,
and I will say that's my Valentine. You have a
wonderful weekends to you. Yes you well, I know you
have a good one, and I will talk to you soon.
And everyone have a great luck and I will see
you soon. Bye bye,
This episode may contained content of a graphic nature, including
descriptions of physical and sexual violence against adults, children, and animals.
Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hi I'm Shannon. Hi I'm Tanya, and we are Crimes
and Consequences, a hardcore true crime podcast. Ay Shannon A, Tanya,
how are you doing? I'm doing great. It's a Friday.
I mean, what is the going to complain about? Nothing?
Thank god, it's Friday. I don't want to complain about
(00:55):
the weather. There is nothing to complain about. All is good, exactly.
It's February fourteenth. Actually it is so happy Valentine's Day. Hey,
Valentine's Day, Valentine. When aren't you and how you going
to do anything tonight? Dinner plans? No, we're having nachos
for dinner. I did not make a fancy meal. I
don't think we're not going anywhere. I did get a
(01:18):
gift this morning. It was in the waiting for me
when I woke up. So that's what we usually do,
is just exchange like a card and a gift. And yeah,
which is anything? After how long you've been married? Twenty
plus years? Yep, this year will be thirty. Oh my gosh,
that means we've known each other for thirty years. I
know thirty. I want you just before I know, right, Yes,
(01:43):
thirty blissful years of marriage. All right, well, no, and
that is good because it takes some stamina to make it. Girl.
If I don't survive this, I can survive anything I'm cooking.
It's been a wild ride. Oh please, anyone who I
(02:05):
would imagine, anybody who has as much time as you
know exactly how powerful those simple words are. We've been
through some stuff. Yeah yeah, marriage isn't easy, but we
have weathered many things. But that's awesome. Well, and it's
Valentine's weekend. That'll be good. It'll be great. So anyway, well,
(02:26):
I know you have an episode for us, so before
we get into it, I would just like to remind
everyone to hit the subscribe or follow button on what
app you're listening to because it really helps us out.
And Shannon, what do you got for us today? Well, today, Tanya,
I do have any crime against children? Of course, all
terrible children. It's the worst. This is the story the
(02:49):
murder of Shauna how Shawna Melinda Howe. She was born
on July eleventh, nineteen eighty one. Cancer, sweet girl to
her parents, Lucy and Robert Howe, who were from Oil City, Pennsylvania,
and at the time of her abduction, she lived with
her mother Lucy and her stepfather, John, and John was
(03:11):
a really good father figure in Shawna's life. Now, Shawna
seemed to have lived an ordinary life for a girl
who grew up in the eighties and nineties. She loved
playing outside and hanging with her friends, but she was
a really shy child. Shawna was part of the Girl
Scouts and she loved Halloween. Oh Yes. Sadly, Halloween was
(03:35):
the holiday that was being celebrated at the time of
her murder, and it would be the last holiday that
she ever shared with anyone. Although the initial crime against
Shawna was labeled by the perpetrators as a prank, her
murder completely shook the entire community of Oil City, and
(03:56):
due to the murder of Shauna, other hapless circumstances, and
the murder of another little girl, the longtime citizens of
the oil town will never feel the same way about
Halloween again. Oh It's terrible. In nineteen ninety two, Shanna
was eleven years old who just wanted to celebrate Halloween
(04:19):
at an annual party with her fellow Girl Scouts. Were
you in Girl Scouts? I was in Girl Scouts for
a short period of time. The only reason I wanted
to join was so that I could get the outfit. Yes,
the sash. Yeah, I wanted the little blouse. I wanted
the beret. I wanted the whole kitten kaboodle. The catalog
(04:41):
was just filled with great wag oh yeah. And then
I was all excited because you got your little book
of how to get all your patches and stuff. Right. Yeah,
I love getting catches. I was Brownies Girl Scouts. So
here's Sean. But the field and the where I can
wear a sash, I'm there. And Shawna was there for
(05:04):
her Girl Scouts troop in nineteen ninety two, but after
the annual party, she never returned home to enjoy all
the candy that she had collected for Halloween. At the time,
she was a student at Seventh Street Elementary School, and
on October twenty seventh, she went to school that day
dressed as a gymnast, sporting a black and turquoise leotard.
(05:28):
I love that. All that's cute. I'm a gym I
do later That same day, still wearing the same leotard,
Shawna was heading out with her fellow Girl Scouts to
sing for the community's senior citizens. I love the Girl
Scouts and I know the Boy Scouts to too. They
help elderly. Oh that's just adorable. Absolutely. After the troop
(05:51):
was done performing, Shauna, along with her friends, went to
the annual Halloween party at the close by Free Methodist
Church on Wilson Abaue. When the party was over around
eight pm, her ride fell through and Shauna was forced
to start walking home, but she never made it home.
The party was only half a mile from where Shauna lived,
(06:14):
but nobody in her family was able to pick her
up from the party that night. Now, even though Shauna
could have easily walked home, she was afraid of the dark,
and her parents did not want her walking home alone anyway.
Even though nobody could pick her up from the party, Lucy,
her mom told her daughter not to worry and that
(06:35):
she would set up a ride to take her home
when the party was over. Shauna dreaded the thought of
having to walk home alone in the dark, so when
her mother guaranteed that a ride would be there to
take her home, safely and soundly. She felt nothing short
of relief. She was able to enjoy the party without
having to worry about a thing, and by the time
(06:56):
eight pm rolled around, Shawna's mom called home to make
sure that everyone was all right since she was still
at work. John, Shawna's stepdad, said that everything was okay,
but he informed Lucy that Shawna had not come home
from the party yet. As it turned out, with the
cast with work, Lucy her mom completely forgot to set
(07:20):
up a ride to get her daughter home, so by
this time she knew that Shauna had to be walking
home now. John waited at the house for Shauna to
arrive home, and at a thirty she still had not
come through the door. So John did what he thought
was best. He got in his car to search for
Shauna because something in his brain told him that something
(07:43):
just wasn't right. That Girl Scout party would be the
last time that anyone saw Shauna alive, and this story
of her case is gruesome as well as frustrating. The
facts show what happens when the police in charge of
the case failed to follow up on leads the way
(08:03):
that they should have. Killers rapists and crucial details slipped
through the cracks that forced a case to stay open
for way longer than it should. So, worried out of
her mind, Lucy called Shanna's close friend in her troop, Joey,
and asked her if she knew where Shauna was or
might have been. Joey explained that Shawna was at the
(08:23):
party having a great time, but when the party ended
and she realized that nobody was coming to pick her
up to take her home, she and Joey began to
walk home together. Somewhere along the way to their individual homes,
they needed to part ways, but before then, Shawna told
Joey that she was really scared to walk home alone,
(08:44):
and Joey, like a good friend, then suggested that the
two girls walk to Joey's house and then Joey's dad
would drive Shauna to her house, but Shauna refused and
the girls parted ways. Now after hearing all of this
from Joey, Lucy knew what needed to be done next
and contacted the Oil City Police Department so that she
(09:08):
could report set a missing. Her daughter was supposed to
be home two hours ago at the time she had
made the call. This phone call was the beginning of
the now retired FBI agent Tom Carter's long career, and
this case was one that Carter would not soon forget.
Carter was moved to a different division before the case
(09:30):
was eventually solved. While on the phone, Lucy gave a
timeline of what her daughter's plans were. But before Lucy
even made this call, another concerned citizen phoned the police department.
The caller said that they had seen a little girl
get grabbed off the corners of West First in Reed Streets,
(09:52):
and the person who took the girl was tall and
shaggy looking. At around eight po six pm, a man
named Dan pay Eaton was walking down the street mining
his own business when he saw a young girl dressed
in a Halloween costume walking all alone. Dan then noticed
a man walking on the opposite side of the street
(10:12):
from where he and Shawna were. The man crossed the
street and began chatting with Shawna. According to Dan, this
man was very tall in stature, skinny, and was wearing
a jacket. The next thing that Dan saw was the
man pick up Shawna, picking her up taking her away quickly.
(10:32):
She was literally abducted right in front of him. Dan
was noticed by the tall, lanky kidnapper, but who would
think it was smart to kidnap a kid with a
witness right there? Shawna let out a yelp loud enough
for Dan to hear it. Dan had no clue what
to do, but he had a feeling that Shawna was
in trouble, so he ran towards the screen. But by
(10:55):
the time he got there, the only thing he saw
was a little red car driving away. So he did
what anybody else should do in that situation. He called
nine one one. Thankfully, he saw the man's face and
gave the police an accurate description in his report. The
police took these two calls very seriously, knowing that Lucy
(11:17):
and Dan's calls were related due to how Shawna was dressed,
and recruited volunteers, FBI agents, and police officers to look
for Shawna. Roadblocks were set within a one hundred mile radius,
and police departments within the radius were on the lookout
for that little red car. While the search continued for Shawna,
(11:40):
Oil City canceled Halloween for the unforseeable future. The city
thought that it was wise to cancel since someone else
could use this holiday as an opportunity to abduct someone else,
and they were not about to risk that. There were
still a few more days until the thirty first, so
they needed to make sure that that they covered all
(12:01):
of their bases. Shawna's uncle formed a huge group of
volunteers to search for his niece. On day two of
the search, something of Shawna's was found. While a lot
of Shawna's family members joined in on the search, it
was her uncle who found evidence that his eleven year
old niece was once where they were standing, and this
(12:22):
location was so far from home. Shawnas leotard was found
near an abandoned railroad track bed near a hiking trail
located in a heavily wooded area in Rockland, Pennsylvania. Her
costume was found eight miles from town, and her family
knew that there was no way Shawna got there on
(12:42):
her own. Police extensively searched the area where her costume
was found. They were unable to locate her or anything
else of hers in that same area. The leotard was
sent to the crime lab and the analysts were able
to find evidence left behind on the crotch area of
the costume. Shauna had been sexually assaulted, and now the
(13:05):
police had the DNA of the person who took her.
Two days later, the case would go from an abduction
case to a full fledged homicide investigation. The following morning,
on October thirtieth, Shawna's dead body was located two hundred
miles from where her costume was recovered. Her body was
(13:26):
found under a railroad bridge in East Sandy Creek. Shawna
was found face down and jammed in between a log
and a rock, with her feet slightly submerged in the
shallow creek. A man who had been out camping in
the woods noticed that something was in the water, and
he was shocked that it turned out to be the
(13:47):
remains of a person who has just so happened to
be the missing little girl from Oil City. When Shawna's
body was found, she was wearing shorts, an inside out
T shirt, and socks that didn't belong to her. This
was the same area that was searched by the police
the day before, so this means that the killer came
(14:09):
back to dump Shawna, leaving her there to die. At
the time, the investigators automatically assumed that Shauna was thrown
over the bridge into the shallow creek. From the bridge
to the creek is a thirty foot drop, so it
made sense to them based on how her body was wedged.
An autopsy was done on her lifeless body and it
(14:31):
showed that she was raped and that she was severely
abused before she was murdered. Shawna's face had a shoeprint
on it the killer stepped on her face. Her cause
of death was blunt forced trauma to her head and
chest from the fall, and she was either pushed or
thrown off the bridge, falling over thirty feet to her death.
(14:54):
This fall also caused multiple rib fractures along with lacerations,
bone bruising, and hemorrhaging. The medical examiner concluded that Shawna
was definitely alive when she was falling due to the
severe damage to her hand, wrist, and shoulder. These injuries
indicated that she tried to break the fall. Forensic evidence
(15:17):
was taken from her body since more DNA was discovered
on her mouth and was sent to the Pennsylvania State
Police Crime Laboratory and to the FBI laboratory. The DNA
analysis unit collected two hairs from her body One hair
was located on Shawna's girl scout sash and the other
(15:38):
was found on her sock. The DNA found on her
mouth and leotard are critical to this case and a
lot of abduction cases. The person who kidnaps is usually
someone who knows the victim, usually a family member. The
police obtain warrants to take DNA samples from every member
in Shawna's family, which included her her own brother. The
(16:01):
forensic analysts got a foreign DNA sample from Shawna and
they needed to compare it to whoever had access to
Shawna within the days leading up to her killing. None
of the DNA taken from her family members matched. The
FBI began to get involved in the case and they
were able to come up with a psychological profile of
(16:21):
the person persons who killed Shawna. Profile determined that the
killer was a white Caucasian male in their twenties, and
the killer likely had a prominent shift in their behavior
after the murder. For example, after Shawna was thrown a
push to her death, the killer would have began to
drink more or had a rapid life change, such as
(16:44):
leaving his home or quitting his job. This information was
published to the community and the police asked if anyone
in the town could think of anyone who fit this
profile description or knew of anyone who had suddenly experienced
an intense life modification. With the release of information like
this comes a lot of leads, and one of the
(17:07):
people who called told the investigators to look into a
man named Ted Walker. He fit the description to a tea. Coincidentally,
Ted Walker actually knew Shawna because she and her friends
would always go into the pizza shop where Ted worked
to hang out and grab a bite to eat. He
also owned a little red car. Ted was known as
(17:29):
the town creep because anytime that younger girls would come
into the shop for something to eat, he would always
try to hug them. Oh gross right. Although he did
fit the profile for the killer, the DNA found on
Shawna's clothes did not match his. To law enforcement, this
(17:50):
detail was big. In nineteen ninety five, another investigator was
brought in and added to the case, and once the
investigator took a look at the case, he immediately concluded
that the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Shawna had been
done by more than one person. To everyone else this
(18:11):
made complete sense. Shauna had been held by her kidnappers
for a few days, but she had no ligature marks
from being restrained. Once these facts were taken into consideration,
two more suspects were added to the mix, brothers Tim
and James O'Brien. The O'Brien boys had been looked at
(18:32):
within the investigation from the jump. Tim and James grew
up in town and they both had records that were
not limited to sex crimes against adults and children. Although
the brothers were seasoned criminals, neither of them matched the
FBI profile or description at all. In addition, investigators said
(18:54):
that they were both in jail around the time Shawna's
life was taken and because of this, their DNA was
not tested and because of that they were not considered suspects.
The case would be at a standstill for almost a decade,
and a fifteen thousand dollars reward was offered to anyone
who had information about Shawna's murder. In the early two thousands,
(19:18):
eight years had passed since Shawna had been murdered, and
Tim O'Brien was arrested again for another crime, and while
he was being interrogated for the crime he committed. The
detectives thought to ask Tim about Shawna. Up to this point,
Shawna's case was incredibly high profile, and due to this,
(19:38):
any man that was taken into custody in town was
asked about Shawna. While still being interrogated, an investigator asked
Tim if they could take a DNA sample, since they
had not done so many years prior now. Tim anxiously
agreed and seemed very nervous about the results, but the
DNA did not match. The detectives knew that they still
(20:01):
had to test against James's DNA his brother. Since any
man that was taken into custody was asked about Shawna's case,
detectives began carrying cotton swabs on them at all times,
just in case they caught and break in the case.
I think that's so smart too. I know I got
swabs right now. Up to this point in the investigation,
(20:26):
eight whole years have gone by since eleven year old
Shauna was brutally killed, and come to find out, the
O'Brien brothers were not in jail at the time. During
the time frame of all this taking place, with Shawna
they were in custody for some reason, but they were
quickly released. Someone didn't have their facts straight and that
(20:50):
really fucked this whole big time. So because someone said, oh,
I think they were locked up at the time Shawna
went in disappearance, just hearsay. That is so fucking lazy, right,
It's yeah, definitely disgusting. Yeah, So the investigators took the
DNA samples from James and it came back to be
(21:10):
an exact match for the foreign DNA found on Shawna's
mouth and leotard. At the time the DNA sample was
taken from James, he was already locked up and was
serving a prison sentence for attempting to kidnap another woman
in Oil City. It was now obvious to everyone involved
in the investigation into Shawna's murder that Tim and James
(21:34):
O'Brien were both involved, but everyone was stumped on why
they didn't match the initial profile, But they forgot that
someone did match Ted Walker. At the time of the murder,
Tim and James actually were living with Ted and when
the police initially went to Ted's home, he did tell
(21:54):
them that he had a red car, but the car
wasn't working and the police took Ted at his word.
Really yep, and they never lies to the police. Shannon, nobody, Yeah, nobody,
So yeah, tell me that it doesn't work. Yeah, and
we'll note it down. The car drove just fine. In
two thousand and two, Ted was brought back in for
(22:17):
questioning and he admitted to the police that he had
originally kidnapped Shauna as a joke, as a joke, just
a joke. This was all going to be really funny
in the end, hilarious. Before he told the truth about
the brothers. He changed his story many times, police said
at least fifteen and back on the night of Shawna's disappearance,
(22:40):
Ted teamed up with Tim and James O'Brien to initially
plan to kidnap a friend of his son's as a prank.
But according to Ted, that was all it was meant
to be. They were supposed to pick up a child
and then later drop them off at home. Apparently that
plan fell through and one serious thing led to another,
(23:02):
and the sick joke finished with a child being raped
and killed. Ted was the tall, lanky dude who Dan
saw picked Shawna up after he crossed the street and
started talking to her, and after he picked her up,
he handed her over to Tim and James, who drove
off with her in the car. Tim told the detectives
(23:24):
that he did hear a meek female voice begging get
off me, let me up, let me go from Tim
and James's bedroom later that night. Although Ted did not
turn his friends into police, he claimed that he allegedly
did not approve of what was going on in that bedroom.
He did not approve of that, and he did not
(23:45):
approve of the murder. So Ted is some you know,
in his head, some hero sounds like okay, yeah, exactly,
He's gonna let it go on. He's gonna hear the
girl struggling in the room, and he's not. He just
gonna stand and not approve it or nothing. Tim O'Brien
apparently liked to run his mouth while he was locked up,
(24:07):
and he actually admitted the murder to his cellmate Ryan
Heath in two thousand and one. He told Heath that
he and his brother drove out to Cultur's hole while
Shawna was in the trunk of the car. Tim never
revealed if Shauna was alive before she was tossed over
the bridge, but he did disclose that he was the
(24:28):
one who threw her body over the bridge. The preface
for the joke had to start somewhere, right, Yeah, Apparently,
in the days leading up to what happened to Shawna, Tim,
Ted and James had been talking about how shitty the
Oil City Police Department was, and to these three dickwads,
(24:49):
the force was a complete joke and they were going
to prove it. The three hatched a plan to abduct
someone as a joke, and they needed it to happen
in front of a witness. After the person who was
taken in front of the witness, the person would then
be released to prove that the cops would still not
be able to find or identify the abductors. So from
(25:10):
men who are pedophiles, this is their joke. Yeah, we're
to play a joke that involves a child. Yeah, abducting
a child? Okay ugh. Originally the prank was supposed to
be them kidnapping a little boy who happened to be
friends with Ted's son, but they quickly changed their minds
(25:31):
and decided to kidnap a little girl since that would
get a lot more attention. So when Ted spotted Shawna.
He knew that in order to grab her, he had
to stop her in her tracks and make her feel
comfortable enough not to run away screaming. He saw that
she was wearing a girl Scout sash and took advantage
of that by asking her about girl Scout cookies. This
(25:55):
made shawn A comfortable enough to chat. He then placed
his hand over her mouth to her from screaming while
he forced her into the little red car where the
O'Brien brothers were waiting. Tim O'Brien then forced her in
the backseat of the car before they took off, and
Ted drove home separately. Ted added that he didn't want
(26:15):
to kidnap her, but when he went against the brothers,
they threatened to kill his son, so he did what
he had to do to keep his own son safe. Allegedly,
Tim and James made fun of him by calling him
a chicken when he said that he didn't want to
follow through with this twisted plan. Well, don't call me names.
(26:36):
I'm just gonna stop because that's mad. I am. I'm
a man. Ted said that he eventually left his house
while James and Tim took Shawna to the upstairs bedroom.
And his reasoning for leaving was because she was begging
them to stop assaulting her while he was trying to
cook spaghetti, So I gotta get out of here. When
(26:58):
he came back to the house, the brothers and Shawna
were gone. After Ted finally said what happened, his house
was investigated and his disgusting face was all over the news.
Once the public became aware of the person who was
responsible for Shawna's kidnapping and murder, Dan the original witness,
(27:19):
called the police and told them that Ted was in
fact the man who he saw take young Shawna. He
could not forget that face. The police had acient ton
of information now after almost a decade later, but they
were still struggling to get their ducks in a row.
They had all of this proof that James was the
(27:40):
one who raped her, but they had no physical proof
that James, Tim or Ted killed her. But they weren't
giving up. They were still fighting to find any proof
that Ted, Tim and James had something to do with
Shawna's murder. During this time, Tim O'Brien was racking up
more prison time, convicted of two more crimes. This time
(28:02):
he sexually assaulted an eleven year old boy and a
six year old girl. The police eventually made a deal
with Ted in exchange for his testimony against the brothers,
he would need to plead guilty to third degree kidnapping
and murder charges to get a reduced sentence of forty
years in person. All, yeah, that's the reduced yeah right,
(28:26):
and he agreed. Ted did agree, So in two thousand
and four, James and Tim were arrested in charge with kidnapping,
sexual assault, and murder. In October of two thousand and five,
the child began. Images of the murder scene were shown
to the jury via movie screen. The screen was similar
to ones that are used in elementary schools for presentations.
(28:49):
On the screen, many crime sceen photos were shown of
Shawna's battered body and face. The scrapesenter, knees, and face,
along with her broken test were extremely visible to the
court and it was obvious that this girl suffered before
she died. A smaller version of the images were passed
(29:09):
from juror to juror, and this photo was the one
used to convey the sexual assault. According to a forensic pathologist,
the wound presented in the smaller photo would only happen
if the victim resisted, and it was clear she gave
it her all to fight back. But two men can
obviously overpower an eleven year old little girl. The prosecution
(29:33):
did present a lot of physical evidence that Shawna was
murdered by the O'Brien brothers, her body, fibers from her
clothes found on the pier, evidence left on her body,
and clothes from the sexual assault. All of this is
known to be enough when tied to testimony from witnesses.
After so much time, the prosecution needed this to be
(29:56):
able to convict James then aged thirty three, and Tim
then aged thirty nine, of kidnapping, raping, and throwing Shauna
to her death. And this is exactly what District Attorney
Marie Bian told the jurors. She also said in her
opening statement, it may have taken thirteen years for law
(30:17):
enforcement and the prosecution to hear what Shauna was telling
us through the circumstantial evidence she had for us, but
we finally listened and heard. The defense did not dispute
the condition of Shauna, but the defense did try to
get the blame away from Tim and James and tried
to have it all thrown on Ted Walker since he
(30:38):
had already played guilty to third degree charges. According to
the defense attorney, all of the evidence had to do
with whoever pleaded guilty. The O'Brien's lawyer, Wayne hunder Mark,
said that Shawuna did not die from being thrown over
the railroad bridge because she was murdered by Ted. While
(30:59):
making this state hunter Mark pointed to the physical evidence,
the statements that Ted made to others, and even the
smell of flesh rotting that one person smelled in Ted's car.
The opening statements by the defense ended with the statement
about the prosecution They've made a deal with the devil
(31:20):
and now they've got to live with it. And this
is meant as an insult to the prosecution for cutting
a deal with Ted Walker. Please, I know, so whah
shut the fuck up, honestly right. The first person to
take the stand was a forensic pathologist who went through
(31:41):
Shawna's autopsy report. Tim and James were being charged with
first and second degree murder, rape, kidnapping, involuntary deviot sexual intercourse,
and criminal conspiracy of abduction and connection with Shawna's death.
The courtroom was packed since everyone in the Unity had
been stunned by the horror that took place. Shawna's family
(32:04):
was there and filled the first two rows of the courtroom,
but they struggled to hear all of the gruesome details
surrounding their young loved ones murder. Shawna's great aunt, Alice
noted that listening to what happened made her feel half sick,
but she felt relief in the fact that this was
all coming to an end. Parents of fellow Girl Scouts
(32:27):
also were an attendant, which was so thoughtful. One mother
said that if her daughter was the one who was murdered,
she would want someone there showing how much they cared.
As the trial went on, Ted Walker's testimony was brought
into question. He was questioned by police from nineteen ninety
two and two thousand and four, and he originally denied
(32:49):
even knowing of Shauna, and then he admitted the plan
between himself and the O'Brien brothers. Ted also heard the
brothers sexually assaulting the victim while in the other room
as she bagged for them to stop. The inmate who
Tim O'Brien confessed to while incarcerated at the Venango County Prison,
(33:09):
Ryan Heath, he took the stand to testify. He came
forward on his own in favor of Ted to corroborate
his story. Heath testified that Tim O'Brien admitted that he
was the one who threw Shawna over the railway bridge,
and directly under that bridge was where her lifeless body
(33:29):
was found. The jury hung onto every word that was said,
regardless of who was on the stand, testifying their town
was not the same safe place as it once was. Next,
the prosecution turned the court's attention to the seminole body
fluid that was found on Shawna's leotard and her mouth,
(33:52):
and the district attorney reminded the court that James O'Brien's
DNA profile matched with it. Went on to compare this
case and circumstantial evidence to a jigsaw puzzle with a
few missing pieces and said, if you have the right pieces,
you can still recognize the picture. She went even further
(34:14):
to say that just because they didn't have all the
pieces to the puzzle, they aren't needed to know that
the O'Brien brothers were guilty of murder, sexual assault, and abduction.
The district attorney was known for speaking to the jurors
in a calm, low and even tone, but the defense
attorney spoke in quite the opposite. Hunter Mark immediately went
(34:37):
back to point the finger at Ted Walker by saying
that he is a murderer and a child molester. He
spoke louder and said that Ted was evil and cruel sadistic,
while he noted to the jurors how the prosecution had
already made a deal with someone of his caliber. The
defense was certain that the evidence would point to the
(34:57):
fact that Ted acted alone and he only turned on
the O'Briens when the police pressed him. The fact that
Ted had seen Shawna and her friends in the pizza
shop many times where he worked was brought up again,
and according to defense, the evidence would show that he
stopped her and waited for her on her last walk
home alone. He was the town creepy after all. Even
(35:21):
though Ted said that the O'Briens sexually assaulted her in
the other room while he was cooking dinner. There was
apparently a call that Ted made to his ex wife
that was brought into question. On that call, Ted told
her that there was a kidnapping in Oil City and
that there would likely be a body found that Colter's Hole,
(35:42):
which is exactly where Shawna's body was found. The first
witness to take the stand was a forensic pathologist. He
was hired to review the autopsy and said that Shawna
fell from the bridge, hit a concrete pier on the
way down, which scraped side of her face. Then she
put her arm out in front of herself to break
(36:04):
her fall before hitting the creek bed below. Her shoulder
was dislocated due to the impact that her arm took,
and this left Shawna with fatal injuries both to her
chest and her head. He ended his testimony by saying
that the victim had to have been conscious as she
fell because she clearly stuck her arm out to brace
(36:26):
her fall. After seventeen hours of deliberation, the jury found
both Tim and James O'Brien guilty of second degree murder,
third degree murder, involuntary deviot sexual intercourse, kidnapping, and criminal
conspiracy to commit kidnapping. The two were sentenced to life
(36:47):
in prison without the possibility of parole, since second degree
murder felony murder carries the same weight. They were acquitted
of first degree murder along with rape and to find
a defect and guilty of first degree murder. The jury
needs to be absolutely sure that the killing was premeditated
and deliberate, so apparently they couldn't find that, but the
(37:11):
second degree they yeah. Yeah. This verdict ensued the day
before the thirteen year anniversary of Shawna's disappearance. Annoyingly yeah,
the Jew defendants showed zero remorse in court and they
were seen laughing among one another as they waited for
their verdict. This trial took two weeks and the verdict
(37:32):
was read by the jury foreman. The how families celebrated
quietly to themselves and hugged one another, letting tears stream
from their eyes. Lucy Howe was very pleased Shawna's mom
with the sentencing and said, this is justice. They knew
that the O'Briens would never have another chance to hurt
(37:53):
anyone again. Even though this justice took almost thirteen years
to come to fruition, even though the people responsible for
Shawna's death were behind bars, Oil City waited a few
more years to allow trick or treating to happen again
in their community. And for good reason. The town was
(38:13):
and still is known as the Town that outlawed Halloween,
but in two thousand and eight, all of the kids
trussed as ghost, goblins, ballerinias, gymnasts, and even characters from
their favorite show or movie. They were finally allowed to
dance their ways down the streets of the town, yelling
trick or treat. It was something that the town had
(38:33):
forgotten for sixteen years. No more, real life monsters were
roaming the streets, haunting the community of eleven thousand people. Now,
Shadaw was not the only victim whose life was taken
around Halloween. In nineteen ninety seven, another Halloween tragedy struck
the community. Shane Freeman, who was four years old at
(38:55):
the time of her disappearance, went to play outside, but
she never came home, and her remains were later found
after a long search. The person responsible for Shanet's brutal
murder was seventeen year old Nicholas Bowen. He was one
of the one hundred volunteers who assisted in the search
for the little girl. He was later arrested for rape
(39:18):
and murder. He pleaded guilty and received the same sentence
as the O'Brien brothers, life in prison without the possibility
of parole. Needless to say, the town of Oil City
truly felt that Halloween haunted this town, so they did
what they thought was right and banned the holiday altogether
because this shit could not keep happening. The authorities didn't
(39:42):
know what else to do. With everyone behind bars and
no more children being raped and murdered, the community finally
felt somewhat safe again, and in two thousand and eight,
the holiday was reinstated, and this brought some normalcy back
to Oil City, Pennsylvania. So that is one hell of
(40:03):
a story. Yeah, family, this girl, I'm telling you. In
the eighties, seventies, I remember it just seemed everyone's, Oh,
these are the good old days. Yeah, Like I don't
always I think we were being gaslighted. Yeah, I do
too a little bit because I don't remember it being
(40:26):
a great time. So, I mean, I don't know, but
not where kids can just be you know, swept. Oh,
it's just frustrating, but I'm glad that it finally got justice.
That was a long time coming. Oh my god, I
know that was so long her poor family. I just
can't even imagine, like losing a child. I just I
(40:47):
can't imagine the heartbreaking. No, it's unnatural you're not supposed to.
And these guys are fucking pediphile, like you know, I'm saying,
I can't even believe like their attorneys trying to put
in their face probably is too. Yeah, however, your guys
have already been fucking convicted of sexual devians and offense
(41:07):
of eleven year old and a six year old. Yeah
right now, and you have nothing to do with Shauna. Yeah, yeah,
you think anybody's gonna believe that? Okay, how dare you?
How dare you waste our time? So that is my
story this week, Sweet Shanna. How we of course good
energy to our family and the stories we share. Yeah,
(41:30):
they're heavy, they are all heavy. They're they're all heavy
in their own way, you know, absolutely, yes, for sure,
some stick with you and some are like incredibly disturbing,
and they're all horrible stories. So anyway, well, thank you
Shannon for this week's pleasure. And before we go, we
would just like to remind everyone to hit the subscribe
(41:51):
or follow button on your favorite app and if you
would like to, if you love Shannon and I and
you want to hear more than you want, to join
our patreon and it's found at Patreon dot com slash
t NT Crimes. It's p A t R e o
N dot com slash TNT crimes, or you can also
(42:11):
join through the Apple podcast app. And they're the same episodes,
just different avenues of achieving the same thing. We release
one extra episode a week, so check it out if
you're interested. It's pretty cheap, so I think it's worth it. Yeah,
some fun, affordable entertainment. Some fun affordable entertainment. And you
can go to our website Crimes Andconsequences dot com. And
(42:34):
I think that's about it. So you have a fabulous weekend, Shannon,
and I will say that's my Valentine. You have a
wonderful weekends to you. Yes you well, I know you
have a good one, and I will talk to you soon.
And everyone have a great luck and I will see
you soon. Bye bye,
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