July 3, 2024 • 37 mins
On August 11th, 2021, 48 year-old Shannon Collins from Pottsville Arkansas arrived home from work to his wife, his son, and his step-daughter. The next day, Shannon’s family claims he simply walked away from home, never to be seen or heard from again. Eighth months later, Shannon is reported missing by his brother after receiving multiple conflicting stories and uncovering a web of deceit from Shannon’s family. If you have any information about the disappearance of Shannon Collins, please contact the Pope County Sheriff’s Office at (479) 968-2558.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Mysteries and Mimosa's I'm Max and with us today is the Mysteries and Mimosa's
(00:16):
trivia champion, Aria.
Hi everyone.
Hi Aria, how are you feeling about this week's episode now that you are no longer in the
hot seat?
Oh, I feel really good.
I think you should be scared.
Is it a little...
I'm scared.
You should be.
Yeah.
Is it a little bit of a relief?
Oh yeah, for sure.
Well today's case is from 2021 and as always we like to kick things off with our trivia
(00:39):
segment from the year of the episode case.
The idea is to mentally bring our listeners back in time by asking a few trivia questions.
Most recently, Aria was removed from the trivia hot seat by getting 100% of all the answers
correct in last week's episode and to reward her for her amazing trivia skills, I have
(01:01):
passed the trivia torch to her and I have taken the hot seat.
Let's just see how badly Aria can embarrass me week after week until I'm able to get 100%.
Now you're going to know how I feel every week.
Maybe.
What if I got 100%?
I mean, I'm not too confident that I will, but what if I got 100% right now?
I would be annoyed.
As you should.
Are you feeling confident with your questions today?
(01:22):
Yeah, I'm feeling pretty confident.
I don't think you're going to get, you might get some of these, but I don't think you're
going to get them all.
Okay, but before you get started, I want to remind everyone to please visit us at mysteriesandmimosas.net.
You can follow us on Instagram at mysteriesandmimosaspodcast.
We're also on Facebook, TikTok and YouTube.
If you want to help us out, please take a minute to rate us five stars, leave us a review
(01:45):
and share our show.
All right.
Are you ready?
I am ready.
Okay.
The questions we've mentioned today's trivia questions are from the year 2021.
Here we go.
How many Grammys did Beyonce win in 2021?
Three.
Wrong.
What?
How many?
(02:05):
It's eight?
Eight.
Beyonce?
Yes.
Wow.
That's impressive.
Considering I've never won one Grammy.
Right.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And she won eight in one year?
Just in one year.
Yeah.
Wow.
I mean, my hat's off to Beyonce.
I can't even think of a song she sings.
(02:26):
I'm not a big fan, but that's why I only guessed three.
Yeah.
Okay.
What's the next one?
All right.
Which movie won best picture at the Oscars?
Ooh, in 2021, best picture.
I can't even think of, and the whole goal, I guess, is to try to think what movies were
coming out in 2021.
Right.
Can you give me a hint?
(02:48):
I've never seen it.
You've never seen it?
Oh, well, I don't really feel confident that I'm going to get it then.
But I mean, I've heard of it, and I know it was a big movie.
I've just never watched it.
Okay.
So it won the Oscar.
It won the best picture at the Oscars.
Is it Dune?
No.
(03:08):
Okay.
You want me to tell you?
Are you going to guess again?
No, go ahead.
Nomadland.
Again, never heard of it.
You never heard of it?
Sounds boring.
I do remember hearing about it.
Man, 0 for 2.
Yeah.
All right.
Continuing on.
Olivia Rodrigo is the youngest person to top the Billboard Top 100 with which song in 2021?
(03:31):
Oh, give me a break.
I'm going to know Olivia Rodrigo.
I don't even know who that is.
Yeah.
You remember our daughter listened to this song all the time.
She listens to a lot of music that I don't like.
I don't know.
It's very famous.
Can you give me like a, is there like an option A, B, C, D?
No, because this is the only song that I know by her.
(03:53):
Okay.
That's why I can't give you options.
Well, if that's the only song you know, how am I ever going to know?
I have no idea.
Driver's license.
Again, never heard of it.
Yes, you have.
Yes, you have.
Is that it?
Did I just lose or is there another opportunity?
Oh no, there's more.
Oh.
Unless you're scared and you just want to give up.
I'm trembling in my podcast seat.
(04:15):
Which music ensemble disbanded in 2021?
Oh, what's the genre?
Oh, I don't even know.
You don't know.
Do you even know who the band is?
I've heard of them.
You've heard of them, but you don't know who they are?
Well, like, yeah, I know who they are.
Like I've heard of them, but like I don't know what they...
(04:37):
I'm going to come in with a solid minuto.
What?
Minuto.
Ricky Martin was in it.
Oh my gosh.
Was in Minuto.
I did not know that.
You didn't know that?
Wasn't Ricky... Yeah, it was Ricky Martin.
Pretty sure.
No.
Well, who was it?
Daft Punk.
Okay.
You literally made these questions completely impossible.
(04:59):
I asked you how much eggs were.
You're like, hey, let's just see if you can guess some stuff that you've never heard of
ever in your life.
You've never heard of Daft Punk?
Never.
All right.
Nope.
Okay.
A couple more.
Do you want them or you not?
I do.
I want them.
I want redemption.
(05:20):
Who was Time's Person of the Year for 2021?
Oh my goodness.
Time's Person of the Year in 2021.
Let's see.
We're coming off the heels of COVID.
I'm going to guess, is it somebody really rich?
Yes.
Is it one of the richest people in the world?
(05:40):
Yes.
Is it either Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos?
Yeah, Elon Musk.
Good job.
I was thinking Elon.
It was.
Okay.
I'm feeling pretty good.
Hey, that's good.
All right.
Last one.
All right.
No pressure, right?
Right.
Now, this one, I remember this.
This was a big deal.
Which stock made headlines in 2021 after an army of Redditors went up against hedge funds?
(06:06):
Oh, I do remember that.
It was something crazy.
Game stop.
Yeah.
Nice game stop.
Good job.
Thanks.
Yeah.
So you asked me stuff that I've heard of.
I do pretty good.
You're asking me impossible things.
I mean, I don't know how much eggs were in whatever year.
(06:27):
No, that was a wild guess.
I'm still very proud of you for that.
Exactly.
I don't want to hear your complaints.
But I mean, at least you-
How many was that?
I don't remember how many I asked.
I don't know how many you asked.
You got two.
Was it like five, I asked?
Yeah, that was a complete and utter failure.
It was a failure.
So I'll see you here again next week.
Okay.
And maybe I'll be nicer, maybe not.
(06:49):
Yeah, you did that.
It really depends on this week, how this week goes.
Okay.
Well, you did that specifically to hurt my feelings and embarrass me.
No, I did it specifically to just give you the same treatment you give me every week.
(07:13):
Okay.
Let's see.
Where were we?
Okay.
Well, I appreciate your effort on stumping me with trivia.
You did a great job.
Actually, I like being in the hot seat trying to answer these questions.
It's kind of fun.
Okay.
Good.
I haven't been there for a little while.
I'm not even embarrassed.
No, because it's the first time.
When you lose week after week after week, then-
(07:35):
Does it start to wear on you?
Yes.
The embarrassment starts to come out.
Okay.
Well, I'm glad that you can have some relief.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
As things go, we are going to get into the mimosa recipe.
What do you have for us today?
Yeah.
Today's mimosa comes to us from wickedspatula.com and it's a Mexican pomegranate mimosa.
(07:55):
You combine one ounce of orange juice, one ounce of pomegranate juice, a half an ounce
of lime, three and a half ounces of champagne, and half a teaspoon of agave nectar.
It's delicious.
Yes.
I like it.
Yeah.
This one's really delicious.
I love any type of Mexican drink.
(08:16):
If it has tequila in it, it's good, right?
I mean, that's what they're known for.
That's true.
This one doesn't have... This one... Well, it actually has a little
... Actually, there is an option where you can add tequila to this one.
I didn't because I don't like tequila, but you can.
Thank you for giving us that mimosa recipe.
As we move on, today's case is about 48-year-old Shannon Collins, who disappeared from Pottsville,
(08:41):
Arkansas on March 12th of 2021.
Married to his wife for 20 years, Shannon is the father to their son and his stepdaughter,
who is his current wife's daughter.
Shannon retired from the Army National Guard as a Sergeant Major and was honorably discharged
after 24 years of service.
Thank you to Shannon.
(09:02):
Out of respect for Shannon's... Well, thank you to Shannon for not only serving our country
for 24 years, but for being in a marriage for 20 years.
Yeah, that's a long time.
That's impressive for anybody.
If you're out there and you're listening and you've been married more than 15 years, my
hat's off to you.
Out of respect for Shannon's family, we've been asked to keep everyone's names out of
(09:25):
this episode, and we feel as though it's extremely important to honor the wishes of the family
by respecting their privacy.
As we go through this case, we're only going to reference Shannon's family by their relationship
to Shannon and not by their names.
That is, however, with the exception of Shannon's younger brother, Blake, who we had the privilege
(09:45):
of talking to to bring you this episode.
In fact, Blake was gracious enough to do an interview with us, which will be available
in next week's episode.
All of our source material that we have here comes directly from Blake.
Yeah, he did a really great job in that interview.
You'll definitely want to make sure you tune in next week to listen to it.
(10:07):
Blake is just fighting for answers to where his brother is, and he's just out there every
day, yeah, just pushing for justice and for answers.
Not to mention, Blake is literally one of the nicest men that I've ever met in my life.
I know.
(10:28):
He's well-spoken, very respectful, very kind.
I can't wait to play next week's episode for you so you can hear the interviews, so you
can really see what kind of impact this has on Shannon's family.
I just have to say, the disappearance of Shannon Collins is such a crazy story.
As we get further into this case, it definitely makes you want to follow and hopefully share
(10:49):
Shannon's story.
I would encourage each and every one of you to get on Facebook, find the Facebook page
called Share Shannon's Story.
Follow that, share it, give it as much love and attention as you possibly can because
that would help Shannon's story get shared and noticed immensely.
They're up over 3,000 followers now, which is phenomenal.
(11:12):
As I mentioned before, Shannon was retired from the Army National Guard after 24 years
of service.
At the time of his disappearance, Shannon was working as a delivery driver, which would
often take him on lengthy road trips.
On March 11th of 2021, Shannon returned home to his address in Pottsville, Arkansas around
10, 10.30 p.m. from an out-of-town work trip.
(11:34):
The next day, March 12th, Shannon was scheduled to take a delivery out of state for the delivery
company he worked for.
But Shannon never showed up for work and he has never been seen or heard from again.
Before we get into the day Shannon disappeared, it's important to understand the kind of
person Shannon is.
Shannon's a talker.
He was always in constant communication with his family, particularly with his parents.
(11:57):
Because Shannon was working on the road, he spent most of his time talking on the phone.
I think it's important to kind of take things back to 2020.
If you remember, 2020 was the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
And most people, particularly our elder population, were they were practicing social distancing.
(12:18):
During this time, Shannon's parents were elderly and considered high risk because of some health
issues they were both experiencing.
Shannon's mom had an issue with her immune system, which made her particularly vulnerable.
And Shannon's dad was and still is battling cancer.
So late in 2020, Shannon's stepdaughter was engaged to be married and was planning their
(12:39):
wedding.
Shannon called his mom to talk about the wedding day and learned neither of Shannon's parents
were planning on attending at the advice of their doctor.
This upset Shannon so much he told his mom that if she didn't attend the wedding, she
might as well forget about talking to him ever again.
Obviously, this was an overreaction by Shannon and his family thought he would eventually
(12:59):
calm down and everything would go back to normal.
You see, Shannon regularly talked to his parents multiple times a week, sometimes for several
hours while he was on the road.
He doesn't really have anything else to do when he's driving these deliveries across
the country and through the states, but to talk on the phone, right?
So that was his normal behavior.
(13:22):
The unfortunate part of this detail is that the conversation happened at the end of 2020
and Shannon became missing in early 2021.
And this was, in fact, the last time Shannon's mom ever talked to him again.
I don't think that he intended that to actually be the last time he talked to her.
No, of course not.
However, in the beginning of 2021, Shannon seemed to calm down a bit and started texting
(13:46):
and calling his sister and his brother Blake.
In fact, in February of 2021, Shannon reached out to Blake, who lived 600 miles away from
Shannon in Texas.
And he asked Blake if he wanted to get together since Shannon was making a delivery in the
area where Blake lived.
Unfortunately, Blake wasn't home at the time and he didn't get the opportunity to see
(14:06):
his brother.
I'm sure that weighs a lot on Blake, knowing that that was the last time that he was going
to be able to get together with his brother.
And it just so happened he wasn't in the area, so he couldn't get together.
It's obviously not something that was purposeful, but I'm sure it weighs heavy on him now, just
(14:27):
knowing that.
Oh, absolutely.
It's just a good lesson for all of us to...
This isn't Blake's fault.
He wasn't in the area and he wasn't able to see his brother.
If he was there, he would have seen him.
Exactly.
But it is a really good lesson that we should never take life for granted.
And I'm sure that Blake feels that every day.
(14:49):
And if he was there, he absolutely would have made time to see Shannon.
Things can happen to any of us.
We're never promised tomorrow.
Oh, you're right.
And yeah, no, that's well said.
I think it's important to mention Shannon's pattern of life didn't include much communication
over text messaging.
Shannon preferred to talk on the phone and he was very active on social media.
(15:13):
The reason this is so important is because it's what we call a pattern of life.
Oftentimes when detectives conduct investigations, specifically when they are trying to find
people or learn someone's location at a very specific time, we often study that person's
pattern of life.
So for example, if you're investigating a suspect of a crime and their crime occurred,
(15:34):
say between the hours of 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., you might want to look at their cell phone
data to see where they were during that time, right?
To see if you can either prove or disprove what was going on.
If the suspect's device is off during those hours when the crime occurred, but they normally
engage in heavy cell phone usage during those same hours every other day, you essentially
(15:57):
establish a pattern of life and then you look for anomalies in that pattern.
And it's really important when you're trying to get search warrants to, you know, expand
your timelines of what you're asking for, because you can say, hey, every day, you know,
for the past several months, whatever, the typical pattern of life is that they're home,
(16:20):
texting, whatever, during these hours, and it just so happens on the date of the crime,
the cell phone was turned off.
So you can kind of articulate those anomalies.
Well, that's what investigators have done here, and we'll talk about that here soon
enough.
So in this case, Shannon's typical pattern of life included regular extended phone calls
with his family.
I remember Shannon was last seen by his wife, son and stepdaughter on March 12th of 2021,
(16:46):
but Shannon wasn't reported missing until eight months later.
Okay, so he's last seen in March, but he's not reported missing until November eight
months later.
Why wasn't that report made sooner?
Well, according to Shannon's wife, son and stepdaughter, it's their belief Shannon just
walked away, leaving his family behind, and when Shannon went missing, his family, meaning
(17:11):
his parents, his sister and Blake, had no idea that Shannon was missing.
The only thing Blake's family knew was that Shannon wasn't returning their text messages
or phone calls.
So if you fast forward from March to April of 2021, Shannon's wife and stepdaughter
visited Shannon's sister, at which point she confronted Shannon's wife and asked what was
(17:34):
going on with Shannon.
They claimed that Shannon was taking pain medication and wasn't thinking straight, so
he left the family.
They also told her Shannon must have lost his phone because he has a new phone number.
Not only that, according to Shannon's sister, his wife told her, we've been telling people
he's traveling for work, so please just tell his mom the same thing.
(17:57):
So obviously Blake's family was starting to get really suspicious, but at this point,
nobody thought anything bad happened to Shannon.
In May of 2021, Shannon's wife and stepdaughter said that Shannon was struggling and had since
checked himself into the hospital in order to work through some issues.
They even asked Blake's family to refrain from saying anything public about Shannon leaving
(18:17):
because they didn't want to make it awkward for him when he returned home, which by the
way still has not happened.
In addition, Shannon's wife claimed that he was only communicating with his immediate
family through text messages and he wasn't calling them anymore.
Okay, so Shannon's wife is saying she's communicating with him via text message.
(18:39):
Of course, at this point, Blake's family would believe her.
They've been married for 20 years.
It's not like this is a new marriage or a new person in Shannon's life.
His wife's been there for at least 20 years at this point, so they have no reason not
to believe what she's telling them.
Well, to believe all of them, right?
(19:00):
His nephew, he's known his nephew all his life.
Blake, he's known his nephew and he's known mostly, I don't know how old Shannon's stepdaughter
is, but he's known her for a really long time.
When you have close family who puts on a facade of being worried about their loved one and
(19:23):
you've known them for 20 years, why would you not believe them?
Not only that, but Shannon's wife claimed that she was only communicating through text
messages.
Remember, that's not Shannon's normal pattern of life.
He was always talking on the phone.
I'm just going to put this out there.
If Shannon had indeed checked himself into a hospital, assuming based on what the family
(19:45):
is saying that he's in a mental hospital, I don't really know a whole lot of mental
hospitals that allow you to have your cell phone to text.
Yeah, that's true.
If you think about it, anybody who's been locked in a hospital to get mental health,
they'll probably have at some stage during their treatment, access to the facility phones
(20:08):
to make calls to their family, write them letters, things like that.
They're not going to give most, I mean, I can't speak for all facilities, but most facilities
I'm familiar with, they don't give you your cell phone and you don't just keep it with
you and you text whenever you want.
It's structured.
Right.
Well, none of this is making any sense at this point.
(20:29):
In July of 2021, Shannon's sister sent a text message to his stepdaughter and asked, is
Shannon texting from a new phone number or his old phone number?
Because remember, the wife said that it was from a new number.
The stepdaughter responded by saying Shannon was texting from his original phone number,
the only phone number that Shannon had ever used for years.
(20:51):
So now there's inconsistencies in their stories.
Obviously, as time went on, Blake's family became more and more worried, which prompted
Blake to reach out to Shannon's church.
So Blake thought that if he submitted an anonymous prayer request to the church, he might generate
some people inside that church to start asking questions about Shannon, maybe stir up some
(21:12):
commotion.
And it seemed to work, but it didn't lead to any answers about Shannon's disappearance.
So at this point, Shannon's family, meaning the wife, the stepdaughter, his son, stopped
responding to the sister.
So on November 30th, Blake reported Shannon missing.
Wow.
How crazy is it that in all that time, Shannon's immediate family never made any reports to
(21:39):
anyone, right?
They never, I mean, they claim that they've been talking to Shannon this whole time, but
they've never reported any issues to the police, like, hey, you know, he's having mental health
issues.
He's been taking himself into the hospital.
They've never made any of these reports.
So had Blake not taken it upon himself to go to the police in November, he probably
(22:03):
still wouldn't be reported missing.
I agree with you.
I don't think that he would be reported missing.
And when Blake made the missing person report, police decided to conduct a welfare check.
So essentially that's kind of how it works, right?
With an adult.
And I think Blake mentions, at least he's mentioned on the phone to me, that at some
point police kind of say, well, you know, he's an adult.
He could be missing if he wants.
(22:24):
Well, that's true.
But under strange circumstances, a little more investigation needs to happen.
And so when they went to conduct a welfare check, they're basically just going to see
if maybe Shannon's there.
Maybe he just doesn't want to have that communication.
They're just really essentially checking the welfare.
And when they met with Shannon's wife at her house, she talked with police in a recorded
(22:46):
interview, and when they called Blake back, they actually told Blake, hey, we need to
do some more investigating here.
I mean, something's not right.
So even on their first interaction there, the police are suspicious that, yeah, something's
a miss.
Correct.
Yeah.
And so suspicious, in fact, that in December of 2021, police executed a search warrant
(23:08):
at Shannon's house.
So this is only a month later, because remember, he was reported missing by Blake in November.
So then in December, the next month, they came back with a search warrant.
It's unclear exactly what police were looking for.
But according to Blake, the only thing he knows that was possibly seized from the house
were electronic devices.
So during the investigation, police learned the text messages that Shannon's wife was
(23:33):
receiving from her husband were being sent by her from the new phone in an attempt to
make it look as though Shannon was still communicating with her.
OK.
Now the police have to know for sure something is up.
Who would do that?
I mean, why would you do that?
Shannon's wife?
Right.
(23:54):
But what I'm saying is why would you do that if Shannon was OK and he was able to text
and communicate himself?
Why are you going to the effort to send text messages from another phone to yourself, making
it look like you're communicating with him?
That doesn't even make sense.
No, I mean, obviously it does make sense to us.
(24:16):
There's only one reason why you would do that.
Oh, of course.
Is to conceal something.
Right.
Right.
It's a deceptive act.
And she's essentially lying.
I mean, she's caught in different stories by the family.
Every time they try to talk to her, there's some other new piece of information or some
variance of the story.
And so now police know that she's texting herself posing as her husband, who's never
(24:42):
been reported missing by her.
And not only that, police learned that Shannon's wife actually purchased the phone at a local
store and paid for the phone using cash.
I just think that there is so much circumstantial evidence right here that leads me to believe
something really bad happened.
Don't you agree?
Oh, absolutely.
(25:03):
Like I said, who's going to go out and buy a phone and then send yourself text messages
from it in order to make it look like your husband's still communicating with you?
I mean, I would say that's going to pretty great lengths to cover something up.
Yes.
And I don't think that the family is going through these lengths to cover up some sort
(25:28):
of hospital stay.
Right.
Yeah.
And so with that, police learned that Shannon's wife and son also tried to access Shannon's
cell phone, the one he supposedly disappeared with, by calling the cell phone provider shortly
after his disappearance in March.
They were trying to get in for what reason?
I don't know.
(25:48):
Maybe to send those text messages to themselves in an attempt to make it look.
But the thing about it is every time you send a text message or make a phone call, it registers
on certain towers and networks and you're able to see a general location of where that
phone is.
So it seems as though they didn't really think that part through.
(26:09):
Yeah.
I don't think they thought a lot of things through.
It doesn't sound like.
So police also learned Shannon's stepdaughter wasn't at the house on the night of March
11th, but her cell phone data showed that she was at the house on the morning of March
12th.
And when police questioned the stepdaughter, she claims to have seen Shannon get into a
car with a friend and drive away.
So now we have a completely different variation of what happened.
(26:35):
Shannon's wife and his son claim that he walked away from the house.
And now the stepdaughter is saying, Oh no, he got in a car with a friend.
Yeah.
So, you know, which was it?
Right.
You have to, yeah.
It's completely contradictory.
Yeah.
You have different people saying, yeah, we actually saw him leave, but one says, Oh yeah,
(26:55):
I saw him get into a car and the other says, Oh no, he just walked away.
Right.
Not only that, but the stepdaughter also told police that she had been texting and video
calling with him after he went missing, but police were able to debunk that assertion
after reviewing her cell phone data.
I mean, I just don't understand why they go through these lengths to make up these stories
(27:19):
when they ought to know that this is an easy thing to prove one way or the other.
Yeah.
And if they don't think that police are going to do their due diligence and look into cell
phone data to verify, you know, their story, because when we look at these things in an
investigative standpoint, I'm not necessarily, and detectives are not necessarily looking
(27:40):
to disprove a story.
We're trying to verify it to maybe even provide some evidence to support their assertion.
Right.
So we want to, we want to prove it one way or the other.
So they should know that this is going to happen.
You would think so.
I mean, I wonder if they thought, I mean, cause they had kind of just gotten away with
this for at least eight months with this story of, Oh, well he, he left.
(28:05):
Oh, he's in a hospital now.
Oh, he's still texting us and you know, communicating with us.
You know, they had gotten away with that story for so long that maybe they just thought it
would go away.
I don't know.
Well, if this wasn't strange enough soon after police showed up to conduct the welfare check,
Shannon's wife asked a friend who was an administrative assistant at Shannon's church to hold $16,000
(28:32):
in the church safe.
Now I'm just going to put it out there.
You know, Shannon goes missing in March.
The family starts to grow suspicious over eight months.
He gets reported missing in November.
They do a welfare check in December.
And then almost immediately after the wife shows up to the church and is like, Hey, can
(28:53):
you hold this $16,000?
What is she trying to hide?
Why is that important?
Right?
What?
Where is that money from?
What is that?
Yeah.
Well, it's funny that you mentioned that money.
Cause even stranger, Shannon was receiving about $4,000 a month in his military pension,
which was never stopped by Shannon's wife when he went missing.
(29:13):
In fact, one of the text messages that she sent to herself when she was posing as Shannon
directed her to continue to use his pension money.
And so all of this stuff is really strange behavior, right?
Is it enough to bring forward a case for prosecution?
I don't know.
Cause I don't know what all the police have.
(29:33):
Right.
Despite the mountain of circumstantial evidence, this case is not an impossible case to prosecute.
I think when you combine the significant pattern of life interruption, the length of time that
Shannon's been out of contact and the fact that he has never once used any part of his
pension, you can easily prove Shannon is no longer living.
And if he's no longer living, everything else becomes much clearer.
(29:56):
They were the last to see him alive.
They went through significant efforts to make it appear as though he's still alive and
their statements and actions are full of deception.
It might be a tough case to try, but it's certainly not impossible.
Yeah, you just need a very determined prosecutor.
Yeah.
Somebody who's very aggressive, who's willing to try to take this case on.
(30:16):
Yeah.
One of the other things police would have to consider in order to have a successful
prosecution in a homicide investigation without a body is to establish a motive.
It's important to understand she did have a motive because Shannon apparently was involved
with another woman at this time.
(30:37):
And it wasn't anything that was hidden.
It wasn't a secret.
According to Blake and his family, Shannon's wife understood that their marriage was essentially
over, that they were no longer together and he wasn't hiding this relationship with this
other woman.
So let's just kind of rehash everything.
So the family never reported Shannon missing.
(30:57):
They were the last people to see him alive.
So not only when they showed up to do the search warrant in December, not only did they
have to have a search warrant to go into the house, which you would want police to have
a search warrant before you allow them to search your house, right?
But the important thing behind that is when they got there and they met with Shannon's
(31:17):
wife, she immediately said, I'm not talking to you without a lawyer.
So I think that it's important to mention my advice for anybody is never give a statement
to police without first consulting with a lawyer.
It's your constitutional right.
You're advised of your rights when you're in custody and you should understand that
that is probably the best idea when you're questioned by police.
(31:42):
But I just think it's really suspicious that she was initially very cooperative with police
and then the second time they show up, she's like, nope, I don't want anything to do with
you.
I need to have a lawyer.
Well, it's a good thing that they had that search warrant though, because if they were
banking on being able to go in and just look through devices thinking that, you know, it's
just a misunderstanding, she can clear this up.
(32:03):
Well, they may have lost some critical evidence if they weren't prepared.
So not only that, the family never called police for any updates on the case as far
as Blake's family knows.
Shannon's wife tells police that he walked away from the house with no car, no money,
no belongings.
He's never made any purchases with any of his known bank accounts.
(32:24):
He never made any large withdrawals of cash to sustain life.
He has not been active on social media.
The only people that's ever quote unquote received text messages from him are the people
who were last to see him alive.
Right.
And but we know those text messages weren't even sent from him.
They're fraudulent.
Right.
They also never contacted the VA to stop his pension payments.
(32:49):
They continued to spend the money of the pension payments knowing full well, Shannon's not
coming home.
They refused to help police with the investigation, immediately got the lawyer.
They cut off all ties with the family as soon as police began investigating the disappearance.
I mean, I don't know how else to say if you're not guilty of doing something to Shannon,
(33:11):
you're doing a really good job making yourself look guilty.
Their behavior is just not the typical behavior you would see from someone whose family member
went missing.
Right.
Right.
And there's a there's a lot of information that is just deceptive that that we're not
even covering in this show because you know, one, we don't want to interfere with the police
(33:32):
investigation.
You know, obviously Shannon's wife is probably going to hear this podcast.
And when she hears it, obviously she knows, man, if this stuff is true, you're making
yourself look guilty.
If there if you've not done anything wrong, then why don't you just come in and give your
statement?
If Shannon checked himself into a hospital, how easy is it for you to just come in and
(33:54):
tell police, hey, I don't want to talk to you about my lawyer because it seems as though
you suspect me.
But here's the contact information.
Feel free to reach out and talk to him yourself.
Right.
I mean, nobody verify this.
Nobody's saying she can't come to the police department and make a statement with her lawyer.
Exactly.
And so for those reasons, this case is just so mysterious, so crazy.
(34:19):
And there's so many moving parts, specifically with the church.
It just makes you wonder why are they hiding money for her in a safe at the church?
Yeah, that that whole part of it is so I'm so confused by that.
Well, and not only that, but you'll hear Shannon's brother Blake talk about it.
When he submitted an anonymous prayer request trying to ramp things up, you know, post to
(34:42):
their social media, he's been blocked and deleted.
They don't want anything to do with them.
They don't want him contacting the church.
It's almost like the church just wants to distance themselves for some reason.
And I can't figure out why they don't want anything to do with this.
How do you turn somebody away from a relationship with God if you are a church?
(35:03):
Right.
How do you do that?
Yeah.
Why are you blocking them from all access to, you know, social media accounts or, you
know, online prayer requests?
It doesn't make sense.
So this is the crux of the disappearance of Shannon Collins.
And we, you know, we are obviously left with more questions than answers as you listening
(35:27):
to this probably feel the same way.
I just I'm just asking you to do your part and visit the share Shannon story Facebook
page like it, follow it, share everything that Blake is doing and his sister is doing
to get Shannon story out there.
Because the I think really the only way that this is going to be solved is if police are
(35:49):
able to locate Shannon, whether he's, you know, deceased or alive there, you know, if
they find him deceased, there's some potential evidence that could be, you know, recovered
so that they can maybe solve this case.
Obviously if he's alive, that would be much more preferred.
And then all this is, you know, for nothing, for nothing.
But that's okay.
It's okay to be for nothing because that would mean that nothing happened and he's okay.
(36:13):
Right.
Which is the outcome that everyone wants.
And the only other way that this case can be solved is if somebody knows something and
can see the amount of pain and anguish that Shannon's family is experiencing not having
those answers and does the right thing, makes a statement and helps police just with, you
(36:34):
know, it could be anything.
It could be that one little thing, one little piece of information to just help the police
get this thing solved.
Yeah.
And, you know, on top of that, I would, I would encourage everyone to of course tune
in next week for the second part of this episode where you'll actually hear from Shannon's
brother Blake.
And so the last thing that we would just ask you to do is please share Shannon's story
(36:57):
and link the share Shannon's story Facebook page with everyone in your friends list and
anywhere you're on social media, just share that as much as you can.
You can follow that page.
Just, you know, go to the search menu and Facebook and type in share Shannon's story
and they'll update you with all the developments on the case there.
If you have any information that you'd like to share that you think would be helpful,
(37:20):
you can email share Shannon's story at gmail.com.
You can also email us at mysteries and mimosas at gmail.com.
And of course you are encouraged to contact the Pope County Sheriff's office in Russellville,
Arkansas at 479-968-2558.
All right well thank you for joining us for this week's mysteries and mimosas episode.
(37:43):
Please join us as we raise our glasses to Shannon Collins.
Cheers.
Here's.
Welcome to Mysteries and Mimosa's I'm Max and with us today is the Mysteries and Mimosa's
(00:16):
trivia champion, Aria.
Hi everyone.
Hi Aria, how are you feeling about this week's episode now that you are no longer in the
hot seat?
Oh, I feel really good.
I think you should be scared.
Is it a little...
I'm scared.
You should be.
Yeah.
Is it a little bit of a relief?
Oh yeah, for sure.
Well today's case is from 2021 and as always we like to kick things off with our trivia
(00:39):
segment from the year of the episode case.
The idea is to mentally bring our listeners back in time by asking a few trivia questions.
Most recently, Aria was removed from the trivia hot seat by getting 100% of all the answers
correct in last week's episode and to reward her for her amazing trivia skills, I have
(01:01):
passed the trivia torch to her and I have taken the hot seat.
Let's just see how badly Aria can embarrass me week after week until I'm able to get 100%.
Now you're going to know how I feel every week.
Maybe.
What if I got 100%?
I mean, I'm not too confident that I will, but what if I got 100% right now?
I would be annoyed.
As you should.
Are you feeling confident with your questions today?
(01:22):
Yeah, I'm feeling pretty confident.
I don't think you're going to get, you might get some of these, but I don't think you're
going to get them all.
Okay, but before you get started, I want to remind everyone to please visit us at mysteriesandmimosas.net.
You can follow us on Instagram at mysteriesandmimosaspodcast.
We're also on Facebook, TikTok and YouTube.
If you want to help us out, please take a minute to rate us five stars, leave us a review
(01:45):
and share our show.
All right.
Are you ready?
I am ready.
Okay.
The questions we've mentioned today's trivia questions are from the year 2021.
Here we go.
How many Grammys did Beyonce win in 2021?
Three.
Wrong.
What?
How many?
(02:05):
It's eight?
Eight.
Beyonce?
Yes.
Wow.
That's impressive.
Considering I've never won one Grammy.
Right.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And she won eight in one year?
Just in one year.
Yeah.
Wow.
I mean, my hat's off to Beyonce.
I can't even think of a song she sings.
(02:26):
I'm not a big fan, but that's why I only guessed three.
Yeah.
Okay.
What's the next one?
All right.
Which movie won best picture at the Oscars?
Ooh, in 2021, best picture.
I can't even think of, and the whole goal, I guess, is to try to think what movies were
coming out in 2021.
Right.
Can you give me a hint?
(02:48):
I've never seen it.
You've never seen it?
Oh, well, I don't really feel confident that I'm going to get it then.
But I mean, I've heard of it, and I know it was a big movie.
I've just never watched it.
Okay.
So it won the Oscar.
It won the best picture at the Oscars.
Is it Dune?
No.
(03:08):
Okay.
You want me to tell you?
Are you going to guess again?
No, go ahead.
Nomadland.
Again, never heard of it.
You never heard of it?
Sounds boring.
I do remember hearing about it.
Man, 0 for 2.
Yeah.
All right.
Continuing on.
Olivia Rodrigo is the youngest person to top the Billboard Top 100 with which song in 2021?
(03:31):
Oh, give me a break.
I'm going to know Olivia Rodrigo.
I don't even know who that is.
Yeah.
You remember our daughter listened to this song all the time.
She listens to a lot of music that I don't like.
I don't know.
It's very famous.
Can you give me like a, is there like an option A, B, C, D?
No, because this is the only song that I know by her.
(03:53):
Okay.
That's why I can't give you options.
Well, if that's the only song you know, how am I ever going to know?
I have no idea.
Driver's license.
Again, never heard of it.
Yes, you have.
Yes, you have.
Is that it?
Did I just lose or is there another opportunity?
Oh no, there's more.
Oh.
Unless you're scared and you just want to give up.
I'm trembling in my podcast seat.
(04:15):
Which music ensemble disbanded in 2021?
Oh, what's the genre?
Oh, I don't even know.
You don't know.
Do you even know who the band is?
I've heard of them.
You've heard of them, but you don't know who they are?
Well, like, yeah, I know who they are.
Like I've heard of them, but like I don't know what they...
(04:37):
I'm going to come in with a solid minuto.
What?
Minuto.
Ricky Martin was in it.
Oh my gosh.
Was in Minuto.
I did not know that.
You didn't know that?
Wasn't Ricky... Yeah, it was Ricky Martin.
Pretty sure.
No.
Well, who was it?
Daft Punk.
Okay.
You literally made these questions completely impossible.
(04:59):
I asked you how much eggs were.
You're like, hey, let's just see if you can guess some stuff that you've never heard of
ever in your life.
You've never heard of Daft Punk?
Never.
All right.
Nope.
Okay.
A couple more.
Do you want them or you not?
I do.
I want them.
I want redemption.
(05:20):
Who was Time's Person of the Year for 2021?
Oh my goodness.
Time's Person of the Year in 2021.
Let's see.
We're coming off the heels of COVID.
I'm going to guess, is it somebody really rich?
Yes.
Is it one of the richest people in the world?
(05:40):
Yes.
Is it either Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos?
Yeah, Elon Musk.
Good job.
I was thinking Elon.
It was.
Okay.
I'm feeling pretty good.
Hey, that's good.
All right.
Last one.
All right.
No pressure, right?
Right.
Now, this one, I remember this.
This was a big deal.
Which stock made headlines in 2021 after an army of Redditors went up against hedge funds?
(06:06):
Oh, I do remember that.
It was something crazy.
Game stop.
Yeah.
Nice game stop.
Good job.
Thanks.
Yeah.
So you asked me stuff that I've heard of.
I do pretty good.
You're asking me impossible things.
I mean, I don't know how much eggs were in whatever year.
(06:27):
No, that was a wild guess.
I'm still very proud of you for that.
Exactly.
I don't want to hear your complaints.
But I mean, at least you-
How many was that?
I don't remember how many I asked.
I don't know how many you asked.
You got two.
Was it like five, I asked?
Yeah, that was a complete and utter failure.
It was a failure.
So I'll see you here again next week.
Okay.
And maybe I'll be nicer, maybe not.
(06:49):
Yeah, you did that.
It really depends on this week, how this week goes.
Okay.
Well, you did that specifically to hurt my feelings and embarrass me.
No, I did it specifically to just give you the same treatment you give me every week.
(07:13):
Okay.
Let's see.
Where were we?
Okay.
Well, I appreciate your effort on stumping me with trivia.
You did a great job.
Actually, I like being in the hot seat trying to answer these questions.
It's kind of fun.
Okay.
Good.
I haven't been there for a little while.
I'm not even embarrassed.
No, because it's the first time.
When you lose week after week after week, then-
(07:35):
Does it start to wear on you?
Yes.
The embarrassment starts to come out.
Okay.
Well, I'm glad that you can have some relief.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
As things go, we are going to get into the mimosa recipe.
What do you have for us today?
Yeah.
Today's mimosa comes to us from wickedspatula.com and it's a Mexican pomegranate mimosa.
(07:55):
You combine one ounce of orange juice, one ounce of pomegranate juice, a half an ounce
of lime, three and a half ounces of champagne, and half a teaspoon of agave nectar.
It's delicious.
Yes.
I like it.
Yeah.
This one's really delicious.
I love any type of Mexican drink.
(08:16):
If it has tequila in it, it's good, right?
I mean, that's what they're known for.
That's true.
This one doesn't have... This one... Well, it actually has a little
... Actually, there is an option where you can add tequila to this one.
I didn't because I don't like tequila, but you can.
Thank you for giving us that mimosa recipe.
As we move on, today's case is about 48-year-old Shannon Collins, who disappeared from Pottsville,
(08:41):
Arkansas on March 12th of 2021.
Married to his wife for 20 years, Shannon is the father to their son and his stepdaughter,
who is his current wife's daughter.
Shannon retired from the Army National Guard as a Sergeant Major and was honorably discharged
after 24 years of service.
Thank you to Shannon.
(09:02):
Out of respect for Shannon's... Well, thank you to Shannon for not only serving our country
for 24 years, but for being in a marriage for 20 years.
Yeah, that's a long time.
That's impressive for anybody.
If you're out there and you're listening and you've been married more than 15 years, my
hat's off to you.
Out of respect for Shannon's family, we've been asked to keep everyone's names out of
(09:25):
this episode, and we feel as though it's extremely important to honor the wishes of the family
by respecting their privacy.
As we go through this case, we're only going to reference Shannon's family by their relationship
to Shannon and not by their names.
That is, however, with the exception of Shannon's younger brother, Blake, who we had the privilege
(09:45):
of talking to to bring you this episode.
In fact, Blake was gracious enough to do an interview with us, which will be available
in next week's episode.
All of our source material that we have here comes directly from Blake.
Yeah, he did a really great job in that interview.
You'll definitely want to make sure you tune in next week to listen to it.
(10:07):
Blake is just fighting for answers to where his brother is, and he's just out there every
day, yeah, just pushing for justice and for answers.
Not to mention, Blake is literally one of the nicest men that I've ever met in my life.
I know.
(10:28):
He's well-spoken, very respectful, very kind.
I can't wait to play next week's episode for you so you can hear the interviews, so you
can really see what kind of impact this has on Shannon's family.
I just have to say, the disappearance of Shannon Collins is such a crazy story.
As we get further into this case, it definitely makes you want to follow and hopefully share
(10:49):
Shannon's story.
I would encourage each and every one of you to get on Facebook, find the Facebook page
called Share Shannon's Story.
Follow that, share it, give it as much love and attention as you possibly can because
that would help Shannon's story get shared and noticed immensely.
They're up over 3,000 followers now, which is phenomenal.
(11:12):
As I mentioned before, Shannon was retired from the Army National Guard after 24 years
of service.
At the time of his disappearance, Shannon was working as a delivery driver, which would
often take him on lengthy road trips.
On March 11th of 2021, Shannon returned home to his address in Pottsville, Arkansas around
10, 10.30 p.m. from an out-of-town work trip.
(11:34):
The next day, March 12th, Shannon was scheduled to take a delivery out of state for the delivery
company he worked for.
But Shannon never showed up for work and he has never been seen or heard from again.
Before we get into the day Shannon disappeared, it's important to understand the kind of
person Shannon is.
Shannon's a talker.
He was always in constant communication with his family, particularly with his parents.
(11:57):
Because Shannon was working on the road, he spent most of his time talking on the phone.
I think it's important to kind of take things back to 2020.
If you remember, 2020 was the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
And most people, particularly our elder population, were they were practicing social distancing.
(12:18):
During this time, Shannon's parents were elderly and considered high risk because of some health
issues they were both experiencing.
Shannon's mom had an issue with her immune system, which made her particularly vulnerable.
And Shannon's dad was and still is battling cancer.
So late in 2020, Shannon's stepdaughter was engaged to be married and was planning their
(12:39):
wedding.
Shannon called his mom to talk about the wedding day and learned neither of Shannon's parents
were planning on attending at the advice of their doctor.
This upset Shannon so much he told his mom that if she didn't attend the wedding, she
might as well forget about talking to him ever again.
Obviously, this was an overreaction by Shannon and his family thought he would eventually
(12:59):
calm down and everything would go back to normal.
You see, Shannon regularly talked to his parents multiple times a week, sometimes for several
hours while he was on the road.
He doesn't really have anything else to do when he's driving these deliveries across
the country and through the states, but to talk on the phone, right?
So that was his normal behavior.
(13:22):
The unfortunate part of this detail is that the conversation happened at the end of 2020
and Shannon became missing in early 2021.
And this was, in fact, the last time Shannon's mom ever talked to him again.
I don't think that he intended that to actually be the last time he talked to her.
No, of course not.
However, in the beginning of 2021, Shannon seemed to calm down a bit and started texting
(13:46):
and calling his sister and his brother Blake.
In fact, in February of 2021, Shannon reached out to Blake, who lived 600 miles away from
Shannon in Texas.
And he asked Blake if he wanted to get together since Shannon was making a delivery in the
area where Blake lived.
Unfortunately, Blake wasn't home at the time and he didn't get the opportunity to see
(14:06):
his brother.
I'm sure that weighs a lot on Blake, knowing that that was the last time that he was going
to be able to get together with his brother.
And it just so happened he wasn't in the area, so he couldn't get together.
It's obviously not something that was purposeful, but I'm sure it weighs heavy on him now, just
(14:27):
knowing that.
Oh, absolutely.
It's just a good lesson for all of us to...
This isn't Blake's fault.
He wasn't in the area and he wasn't able to see his brother.
If he was there, he would have seen him.
Exactly.
But it is a really good lesson that we should never take life for granted.
And I'm sure that Blake feels that every day.
(14:49):
And if he was there, he absolutely would have made time to see Shannon.
Things can happen to any of us.
We're never promised tomorrow.
Oh, you're right.
And yeah, no, that's well said.
I think it's important to mention Shannon's pattern of life didn't include much communication
over text messaging.
Shannon preferred to talk on the phone and he was very active on social media.
(15:13):
The reason this is so important is because it's what we call a pattern of life.
Oftentimes when detectives conduct investigations, specifically when they are trying to find
people or learn someone's location at a very specific time, we often study that person's
pattern of life.
So for example, if you're investigating a suspect of a crime and their crime occurred,
(15:34):
say between the hours of 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., you might want to look at their cell phone
data to see where they were during that time, right?
To see if you can either prove or disprove what was going on.
If the suspect's device is off during those hours when the crime occurred, but they normally
engage in heavy cell phone usage during those same hours every other day, you essentially
(15:57):
establish a pattern of life and then you look for anomalies in that pattern.
And it's really important when you're trying to get search warrants to, you know, expand
your timelines of what you're asking for, because you can say, hey, every day, you know,
for the past several months, whatever, the typical pattern of life is that they're home,
(16:20):
texting, whatever, during these hours, and it just so happens on the date of the crime,
the cell phone was turned off.
So you can kind of articulate those anomalies.
Well, that's what investigators have done here, and we'll talk about that here soon
enough.
So in this case, Shannon's typical pattern of life included regular extended phone calls
with his family.
I remember Shannon was last seen by his wife, son and stepdaughter on March 12th of 2021,
(16:46):
but Shannon wasn't reported missing until eight months later.
Okay, so he's last seen in March, but he's not reported missing until November eight
months later.
Why wasn't that report made sooner?
Well, according to Shannon's wife, son and stepdaughter, it's their belief Shannon just
walked away, leaving his family behind, and when Shannon went missing, his family, meaning
(17:11):
his parents, his sister and Blake, had no idea that Shannon was missing.
The only thing Blake's family knew was that Shannon wasn't returning their text messages
or phone calls.
So if you fast forward from March to April of 2021, Shannon's wife and stepdaughter
visited Shannon's sister, at which point she confronted Shannon's wife and asked what was
(17:34):
going on with Shannon.
They claimed that Shannon was taking pain medication and wasn't thinking straight, so
he left the family.
They also told her Shannon must have lost his phone because he has a new phone number.
Not only that, according to Shannon's sister, his wife told her, we've been telling people
he's traveling for work, so please just tell his mom the same thing.
(17:57):
So obviously Blake's family was starting to get really suspicious, but at this point,
nobody thought anything bad happened to Shannon.
In May of 2021, Shannon's wife and stepdaughter said that Shannon was struggling and had since
checked himself into the hospital in order to work through some issues.
They even asked Blake's family to refrain from saying anything public about Shannon leaving
(18:17):
because they didn't want to make it awkward for him when he returned home, which by the
way still has not happened.
In addition, Shannon's wife claimed that he was only communicating with his immediate
family through text messages and he wasn't calling them anymore.
Okay, so Shannon's wife is saying she's communicating with him via text message.
(18:39):
Of course, at this point, Blake's family would believe her.
They've been married for 20 years.
It's not like this is a new marriage or a new person in Shannon's life.
His wife's been there for at least 20 years at this point, so they have no reason not
to believe what she's telling them.
Well, to believe all of them, right?
(19:00):
His nephew, he's known his nephew all his life.
Blake, he's known his nephew and he's known mostly, I don't know how old Shannon's stepdaughter
is, but he's known her for a really long time.
When you have close family who puts on a facade of being worried about their loved one and
(19:23):
you've known them for 20 years, why would you not believe them?
Not only that, but Shannon's wife claimed that she was only communicating through text
messages.
Remember, that's not Shannon's normal pattern of life.
He was always talking on the phone.
I'm just going to put this out there.
If Shannon had indeed checked himself into a hospital, assuming based on what the family
(19:45):
is saying that he's in a mental hospital, I don't really know a whole lot of mental
hospitals that allow you to have your cell phone to text.
Yeah, that's true.
If you think about it, anybody who's been locked in a hospital to get mental health,
they'll probably have at some stage during their treatment, access to the facility phones
(20:08):
to make calls to their family, write them letters, things like that.
They're not going to give most, I mean, I can't speak for all facilities, but most facilities
I'm familiar with, they don't give you your cell phone and you don't just keep it with
you and you text whenever you want.
It's structured.
Right.
Well, none of this is making any sense at this point.
(20:29):
In July of 2021, Shannon's sister sent a text message to his stepdaughter and asked, is
Shannon texting from a new phone number or his old phone number?
Because remember, the wife said that it was from a new number.
The stepdaughter responded by saying Shannon was texting from his original phone number,
the only phone number that Shannon had ever used for years.
(20:51):
So now there's inconsistencies in their stories.
Obviously, as time went on, Blake's family became more and more worried, which prompted
Blake to reach out to Shannon's church.
So Blake thought that if he submitted an anonymous prayer request to the church, he might generate
some people inside that church to start asking questions about Shannon, maybe stir up some
(21:12):
commotion.
And it seemed to work, but it didn't lead to any answers about Shannon's disappearance.
So at this point, Shannon's family, meaning the wife, the stepdaughter, his son, stopped
responding to the sister.
So on November 30th, Blake reported Shannon missing.
Wow.
How crazy is it that in all that time, Shannon's immediate family never made any reports to
(21:39):
anyone, right?
They never, I mean, they claim that they've been talking to Shannon this whole time, but
they've never reported any issues to the police, like, hey, you know, he's having mental health
issues.
He's been taking himself into the hospital.
They've never made any of these reports.
So had Blake not taken it upon himself to go to the police in November, he probably
(22:03):
still wouldn't be reported missing.
I agree with you.
I don't think that he would be reported missing.
And when Blake made the missing person report, police decided to conduct a welfare check.
So essentially that's kind of how it works, right?
With an adult.
And I think Blake mentions, at least he's mentioned on the phone to me, that at some
point police kind of say, well, you know, he's an adult.
He could be missing if he wants.
(22:24):
Well, that's true.
But under strange circumstances, a little more investigation needs to happen.
And so when they went to conduct a welfare check, they're basically just going to see
if maybe Shannon's there.
Maybe he just doesn't want to have that communication.
They're just really essentially checking the welfare.
And when they met with Shannon's wife at her house, she talked with police in a recorded
(22:46):
interview, and when they called Blake back, they actually told Blake, hey, we need to
do some more investigating here.
I mean, something's not right.
So even on their first interaction there, the police are suspicious that, yeah, something's
a miss.
Correct.
Yeah.
And so suspicious, in fact, that in December of 2021, police executed a search warrant
(23:08):
at Shannon's house.
So this is only a month later, because remember, he was reported missing by Blake in November.
So then in December, the next month, they came back with a search warrant.
It's unclear exactly what police were looking for.
But according to Blake, the only thing he knows that was possibly seized from the house
were electronic devices.
So during the investigation, police learned the text messages that Shannon's wife was
(23:33):
receiving from her husband were being sent by her from the new phone in an attempt to
make it look as though Shannon was still communicating with her.
OK.
Now the police have to know for sure something is up.
Who would do that?
I mean, why would you do that?
Shannon's wife?
Right.
(23:54):
But what I'm saying is why would you do that if Shannon was OK and he was able to text
and communicate himself?
Why are you going to the effort to send text messages from another phone to yourself, making
it look like you're communicating with him?
That doesn't even make sense.
No, I mean, obviously it does make sense to us.
(24:16):
There's only one reason why you would do that.
Oh, of course.
Is to conceal something.
Right.
Right.
It's a deceptive act.
And she's essentially lying.
I mean, she's caught in different stories by the family.
Every time they try to talk to her, there's some other new piece of information or some
variance of the story.
And so now police know that she's texting herself posing as her husband, who's never
(24:42):
been reported missing by her.
And not only that, police learned that Shannon's wife actually purchased the phone at a local
store and paid for the phone using cash.
I just think that there is so much circumstantial evidence right here that leads me to believe
something really bad happened.
Don't you agree?
Oh, absolutely.
(25:03):
Like I said, who's going to go out and buy a phone and then send yourself text messages
from it in order to make it look like your husband's still communicating with you?
I mean, I would say that's going to pretty great lengths to cover something up.
Yes.
And I don't think that the family is going through these lengths to cover up some sort
(25:28):
of hospital stay.
Right.
Yeah.
And so with that, police learned that Shannon's wife and son also tried to access Shannon's
cell phone, the one he supposedly disappeared with, by calling the cell phone provider shortly
after his disappearance in March.
They were trying to get in for what reason?
I don't know.
(25:48):
Maybe to send those text messages to themselves in an attempt to make it look.
But the thing about it is every time you send a text message or make a phone call, it registers
on certain towers and networks and you're able to see a general location of where that
phone is.
So it seems as though they didn't really think that part through.
(26:09):
Yeah.
I don't think they thought a lot of things through.
It doesn't sound like.
So police also learned Shannon's stepdaughter wasn't at the house on the night of March
11th, but her cell phone data showed that she was at the house on the morning of March
12th.
And when police questioned the stepdaughter, she claims to have seen Shannon get into a
car with a friend and drive away.
So now we have a completely different variation of what happened.
(26:35):
Shannon's wife and his son claim that he walked away from the house.
And now the stepdaughter is saying, Oh no, he got in a car with a friend.
Yeah.
So, you know, which was it?
Right.
You have to, yeah.
It's completely contradictory.
Yeah.
You have different people saying, yeah, we actually saw him leave, but one says, Oh yeah,
(26:55):
I saw him get into a car and the other says, Oh no, he just walked away.
Right.
Not only that, but the stepdaughter also told police that she had been texting and video
calling with him after he went missing, but police were able to debunk that assertion
after reviewing her cell phone data.
I mean, I just don't understand why they go through these lengths to make up these stories
(27:19):
when they ought to know that this is an easy thing to prove one way or the other.
Yeah.
And if they don't think that police are going to do their due diligence and look into cell
phone data to verify, you know, their story, because when we look at these things in an
investigative standpoint, I'm not necessarily, and detectives are not necessarily looking
(27:40):
to disprove a story.
We're trying to verify it to maybe even provide some evidence to support their assertion.
Right.
So we want to, we want to prove it one way or the other.
So they should know that this is going to happen.
You would think so.
I mean, I wonder if they thought, I mean, cause they had kind of just gotten away with
this for at least eight months with this story of, Oh, well he, he left.
(28:05):
Oh, he's in a hospital now.
Oh, he's still texting us and you know, communicating with us.
You know, they had gotten away with that story for so long that maybe they just thought it
would go away.
I don't know.
Well, if this wasn't strange enough soon after police showed up to conduct the welfare check,
Shannon's wife asked a friend who was an administrative assistant at Shannon's church to hold $16,000
(28:32):
in the church safe.
Now I'm just going to put it out there.
You know, Shannon goes missing in March.
The family starts to grow suspicious over eight months.
He gets reported missing in November.
They do a welfare check in December.
And then almost immediately after the wife shows up to the church and is like, Hey, can
(28:53):
you hold this $16,000?
What is she trying to hide?
Why is that important?
Right?
What?
Where is that money from?
What is that?
Yeah.
Well, it's funny that you mentioned that money.
Cause even stranger, Shannon was receiving about $4,000 a month in his military pension,
which was never stopped by Shannon's wife when he went missing.
(29:13):
In fact, one of the text messages that she sent to herself when she was posing as Shannon
directed her to continue to use his pension money.
And so all of this stuff is really strange behavior, right?
Is it enough to bring forward a case for prosecution?
I don't know.
Cause I don't know what all the police have.
(29:33):
Right.
Despite the mountain of circumstantial evidence, this case is not an impossible case to prosecute.
I think when you combine the significant pattern of life interruption, the length of time that
Shannon's been out of contact and the fact that he has never once used any part of his
pension, you can easily prove Shannon is no longer living.
And if he's no longer living, everything else becomes much clearer.
(29:56):
They were the last to see him alive.
They went through significant efforts to make it appear as though he's still alive and
their statements and actions are full of deception.
It might be a tough case to try, but it's certainly not impossible.
Yeah, you just need a very determined prosecutor.
Yeah.
Somebody who's very aggressive, who's willing to try to take this case on.
(30:16):
Yeah.
One of the other things police would have to consider in order to have a successful
prosecution in a homicide investigation without a body is to establish a motive.
It's important to understand she did have a motive because Shannon apparently was involved
with another woman at this time.
(30:37):
And it wasn't anything that was hidden.
It wasn't a secret.
According to Blake and his family, Shannon's wife understood that their marriage was essentially
over, that they were no longer together and he wasn't hiding this relationship with this
other woman.
So let's just kind of rehash everything.
So the family never reported Shannon missing.
(30:57):
They were the last people to see him alive.
So not only when they showed up to do the search warrant in December, not only did they
have to have a search warrant to go into the house, which you would want police to have
a search warrant before you allow them to search your house, right?
But the important thing behind that is when they got there and they met with Shannon's
(31:17):
wife, she immediately said, I'm not talking to you without a lawyer.
So I think that it's important to mention my advice for anybody is never give a statement
to police without first consulting with a lawyer.
It's your constitutional right.
You're advised of your rights when you're in custody and you should understand that
that is probably the best idea when you're questioned by police.
(31:42):
But I just think it's really suspicious that she was initially very cooperative with police
and then the second time they show up, she's like, nope, I don't want anything to do with
you.
I need to have a lawyer.
Well, it's a good thing that they had that search warrant though, because if they were
banking on being able to go in and just look through devices thinking that, you know, it's
just a misunderstanding, she can clear this up.
(32:03):
Well, they may have lost some critical evidence if they weren't prepared.
So not only that, the family never called police for any updates on the case as far
as Blake's family knows.
Shannon's wife tells police that he walked away from the house with no car, no money,
no belongings.
He's never made any purchases with any of his known bank accounts.
(32:24):
He never made any large withdrawals of cash to sustain life.
He has not been active on social media.
The only people that's ever quote unquote received text messages from him are the people
who were last to see him alive.
Right.
And but we know those text messages weren't even sent from him.
They're fraudulent.
Right.
They also never contacted the VA to stop his pension payments.
(32:49):
They continued to spend the money of the pension payments knowing full well, Shannon's not
coming home.
They refused to help police with the investigation, immediately got the lawyer.
They cut off all ties with the family as soon as police began investigating the disappearance.
I mean, I don't know how else to say if you're not guilty of doing something to Shannon,
(33:11):
you're doing a really good job making yourself look guilty.
Their behavior is just not the typical behavior you would see from someone whose family member
went missing.
Right.
Right.
And there's a there's a lot of information that is just deceptive that that we're not
even covering in this show because you know, one, we don't want to interfere with the police
(33:32):
investigation.
You know, obviously Shannon's wife is probably going to hear this podcast.
And when she hears it, obviously she knows, man, if this stuff is true, you're making
yourself look guilty.
If there if you've not done anything wrong, then why don't you just come in and give your
statement?
If Shannon checked himself into a hospital, how easy is it for you to just come in and
(33:54):
tell police, hey, I don't want to talk to you about my lawyer because it seems as though
you suspect me.
But here's the contact information.
Feel free to reach out and talk to him yourself.
Right.
I mean, nobody verify this.
Nobody's saying she can't come to the police department and make a statement with her lawyer.
Exactly.
And so for those reasons, this case is just so mysterious, so crazy.
(34:19):
And there's so many moving parts, specifically with the church.
It just makes you wonder why are they hiding money for her in a safe at the church?
Yeah, that that whole part of it is so I'm so confused by that.
Well, and not only that, but you'll hear Shannon's brother Blake talk about it.
When he submitted an anonymous prayer request trying to ramp things up, you know, post to
(34:42):
their social media, he's been blocked and deleted.
They don't want anything to do with them.
They don't want him contacting the church.
It's almost like the church just wants to distance themselves for some reason.
And I can't figure out why they don't want anything to do with this.
How do you turn somebody away from a relationship with God if you are a church?
(35:03):
Right.
How do you do that?
Yeah.
Why are you blocking them from all access to, you know, social media accounts or, you
know, online prayer requests?
It doesn't make sense.
So this is the crux of the disappearance of Shannon Collins.
And we, you know, we are obviously left with more questions than answers as you listening
(35:27):
to this probably feel the same way.
I just I'm just asking you to do your part and visit the share Shannon story Facebook
page like it, follow it, share everything that Blake is doing and his sister is doing
to get Shannon story out there.
Because the I think really the only way that this is going to be solved is if police are
(35:49):
able to locate Shannon, whether he's, you know, deceased or alive there, you know, if
they find him deceased, there's some potential evidence that could be, you know, recovered
so that they can maybe solve this case.
Obviously if he's alive, that would be much more preferred.
And then all this is, you know, for nothing, for nothing.
But that's okay.
It's okay to be for nothing because that would mean that nothing happened and he's okay.
(36:13):
Right.
Which is the outcome that everyone wants.
And the only other way that this case can be solved is if somebody knows something and
can see the amount of pain and anguish that Shannon's family is experiencing not having
those answers and does the right thing, makes a statement and helps police just with, you
(36:34):
know, it could be anything.
It could be that one little thing, one little piece of information to just help the police
get this thing solved.
Yeah.
And, you know, on top of that, I would, I would encourage everyone to of course tune
in next week for the second part of this episode where you'll actually hear from Shannon's
brother Blake.
And so the last thing that we would just ask you to do is please share Shannon's story
(36:57):
and link the share Shannon's story Facebook page with everyone in your friends list and
anywhere you're on social media, just share that as much as you can.
You can follow that page.
Just, you know, go to the search menu and Facebook and type in share Shannon's story
and they'll update you with all the developments on the case there.
If you have any information that you'd like to share that you think would be helpful,
(37:20):
you can email share Shannon's story at gmail.com.
You can also email us at mysteries and mimosas at gmail.com.
And of course you are encouraged to contact the Pope County Sheriff's office in Russellville,
Arkansas at 479-968-2558.
All right well thank you for joining us for this week's mysteries and mimosas episode.
(37:43):
Please join us as we raise our glasses to Shannon Collins.
Cheers.
Here's.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.