Chapter 104: Stalked and Silenced-The Murder of Shana Grice

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Every story has a beginning, but not everyone has an ending.
In the shadows of headlines and buried police reports lay
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is the Book of the Dead, a true crime podcast

(00:22):
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(00:44):
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Speaker 2 (01:10):
Have you ever wondered how in the hell did I
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You are not alone.

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My podcast is called True Crime Connections with an advocacy
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(02:07):
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Speaker 1 (02:09):
See you there, Hello, Hello, Welcome to the next chapter
in the Book of the Dead. Before we jump in,
just as a quick little note, stick around to the
end for an update on Lisa and how she's been doing.
She's fine, I promise, but there is an update at
the end for those wondering. The case I have for

(02:30):
you today involves a young woman who repeatedly cried out
for help to the police over a period of eight months.
Every single cry was ignored. In twenty sixteen, a nineteen
year old woman was killed in her home in Brighton,
England by a man she had tried again and again

(02:52):
to keep away. He stalked her, he harassed her, and
despite her repeated report to police, her concerns were dismissed,
sometimes even punished. This is a case of obsession, failure
and the tragic cost of a system that didn't believe her.

(03:16):
This is the murder of Shauna Grice. This case begins
in twenty fifteen when Shauna Grice was eighteen years old
and living in Portslade, East Sussex, England, where she had
just started a job as a receptionist at Brighton Fire Alarms.
The company installs and maintains fire alarms, emergency lighting indoors,

(03:38):
as well as conducting fire risk assessments. Shauna was excited
to be starting a job at this big company and
to be making her own money, as Shauna, according to
the huff Post, was saving money for a future wedding.
Shauna was dating a young man named Ashley Cook and
they had been together for two years. While I don't

(04:01):
know if the two were engaged, the relationship was serious
enough that marriage seemed to be in their near future.
Ashley himself was working as a carpenter, so things were
going very well for them. It seems that Shauna got
along really well with her coworkers and they all liked her,

(04:21):
especially a twenty six year old mechanic named Michael Lane.
Michael found Shawna to be incredibly attractive, and Shauna was
flattered by the attention that Michael was giving her. I'm
sure it was a huge confidence boost to have this
older guy flirting with her and going out of his

(04:42):
way to talk to her while she was at work,
and because of all of this attention, Shawna and Michael
started seeing each other in secret. I will say that
a few reports do state that Shawna and Ashley had
been on a break at this point, but others suggest
this was an affair either way. The relationship didn't last long,

(05:04):
and Shawna and Michael broke up around Christmas of twenty fifteen.
Now this is allegedly because Michael had a volatile temper
and Shawna was tired of walking on eggshells around him.
As Michael is in his mid twenties, one would think
that he took the ending of their very brief relationship

(05:24):
in stride as a grown adult. However, he didn't. Michael
could not accept the fact that their relationship was over,
especially when Shawna actually cook got back together. Very quickly
after their breakup, flowers were delivered to Brighten fire Alarms

(05:45):
for Shawna's nineteenth birthday, and according to the huff Post,
Shauna complained about this to her boss, citing that the flowers,
which were from Michael, was a very inappropriate gesture. A
few days later, where the tires on Shawna's car were slashed,
and Michael was miraculously right there in the vicinity to

(06:07):
offer Shauna help in changing the tires. According to an
article for The Cut, after this incident, things quickly escalated
even further and Shawna's irritation started evolving into fear. On
February eighth, twenty sixteen, Shawna called the Sussex Police and
claimed that Michael was following her. Michael always seemed to

(06:31):
appear out of nowhere, and he had called and texted
so many times that she blocked his number. He was
able to tell where she was going and who she
would be with, freaking out not only Shauna but her
friends as well. Additionally, after Shawna Ashley had gotten back together,
Ashley's car was keyed with a note placed on the

(06:53):
windshield stating quote, dear ash Shawna always has and will
cheat on you New Year, according to BBC dot Com. Now,
even though Shauna brought the Sussex Police a myriad of concerns,
they did nothing except tell Michael that he needed to
leave Shawna and her friends alone. Now, all of these

(07:16):
incidents that occurred leading up to this first report are
textbook examples of stalking behavior that police were already not
taking seriously. According to George Washington University. For those that
don't know, stalking is engaging in a course of conduct
directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable

(07:39):
person to fear for their or other safety or lead
them to suffer a substantial amount of emotional stress. These
behaviors can include repeated calls or messages via phone or
the internet, following or lying in wait at the person's home, job,
or places they frequent, repeat sending unwanted messages or gifts,

(08:03):
making threats directly or indirectly to the victim or their
friends and family, Harassment, and the damaging of the victims
or their friends or family's property. Now, stalking doesn't even
have to be threatening. It could just be repeated on
wanted contact. However, when the victim of stalking starts to

(08:24):
fear the behavior, the issue is that many law enforcement
officers don't act. And this is because fear is subjective.
What might be frightening to me may not be frightening
to you, and many people will dismiss the victim's fears
because they believe that it's quote not a big deal.
It's also difficult to prove that someone is being stopped

(08:47):
because many times what they're doing is not a crime.
It's not illegal to blow up someone's phone or show
up in public places at the same time. So what
typically happens is that the victims will be told that
there is not much that can be done unless a
crime is committed or our harm has been done in

(09:08):
some way. Now, this is not the case with every
police department, but it happens way too often for comfort,
and it's what happened to Shauna. On March twenty fourth,
a month and a half or so after the first report,
Shawna called the police for a second time. Police were

(09:28):
summoned to Shawna's home, where Michael had chased her. When
Shawna said she would call the police be he didn't leave.
Michael had grabbed her by the hair and attempted to
take her phone from her. When police arrived, Shauna complained
of the assaults, but when they spoke to Michael, he
claimed this was just a standard couple's argument, and even

(09:49):
showed police old messages from Shawna to prove that they
were dating. The police believed Michael, and instead of charging
him with assault, find Shawna ninety pounds or one hundred
and sixteen dollars for quote wasting the police's time. According
to BBC dot Com, the officers told Shawna that she

(10:12):
would have to get evidence to prove that Michael was
stalking her or there was nothing they could or would
do to help her. Out of fear, according to the
huff Post, Shauna came up with a system for her
friends and family so that if it had been more
than a couple of hours that they had heard from her,
they would immediately start calling around to track Shawna down

(10:35):
and make sure she was okay. Can you imagine how
terrifying that situation must have been to be so terrified
of what someone is capable of that you have to
tell people to keep tabs on you to verify that
you're safe because the police said that they wouldn't help you.

(10:55):
Due to everything going on, Shawna decides to quit her
job at Brighton Firearms. As much as she enjoyed being there,
the position wasn't worth the risk of prolonged contact with Michael,
especially considering they were still communicating via phone at least occasionally,
And the main reason for this is that Shawna, at

(11:17):
only nineteen years old, really didn't know how to handle
the situation with Michael, especially when he was constantly threatening
to hurt himself if she cut off contact with him.
Michael was emotionally manipulating Shauna as well as stocking her,
and she didn't know what to do to get him
to leave her alone once and for all. By July eighth,

(11:43):
twenty sixteen, Shauna was preparing to move in with Ashley.
She contacted Michael, telling him that he needed to come
get some things he had left at her home. When
he came by to get his belongings, Michael stole the
key to the back door and then used it very
early the next morning to sneak into Shawna's bedroom and

(12:06):
stand over her as she slept. Now Shauna was awake
and knew he was there. She pretended to be asleep,
secretly recording what was going on until Michael eventually left,
and according to the cut, Michael could be heard in
the recordings saying quote, I wanted to see you and

(12:26):
I knew you wouldn't let me in. Shauna then set
up a call with him that she recorded in order
to get evidence to give to the police. She demanded
he admit to taking the key, and he apologized after
she got angry with him for sneaking into her home.
According to the huff Post, the end of the phone

(12:47):
call went like this. Michael said, quote, I'm just not
right in the head. If I was, I wouldn't do it.
Shawna said, quote, well, maybe you need to get help.
Then maybe you need to do something about it and
stop crying and getting all upset about it. So Michael says, quote, yeah,

(13:08):
I know, I just don't know what to do. Though
I know I've got a problem and that I just
don't want to be told that I'm mad. Shawna replies, quote, well,
don't do mad things. Then you can't steal someone's property
and expect just for us to be all right with it.
The last response is Michael saying, quote, obviously something's not

(13:30):
right in my head and I don't know what it is,
but I know I need to find out or be
locked up or something. Can you just not tell anyone please?

Speaker 3 (13:41):
Now.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
Shauna does report Michael to the police once again, and
when Michael came by to return the key he had stolen,
the police were waiting for him. However, despite the evidence
that Shawna had proving that Michael had not only stolen
from her, but entered her home and watched her sleep,

(14:01):
The police did not arrest Michael. In fact, all the
police did was warn Michael to not do it again,
which is mind boggling. He stole the key to gain
entry into her home and watched a nineteen year old
sleep and the police just said, don't do that. I

(14:23):
don't understand. Since the police proved yet again that they
were useless in this situation, Michael immediately started her asking Shauna.
The very next day, she received countless phone calls with
someone breathing heavily into the phone that she knew was Michael,
and she started noticing him following her around. While she

(14:47):
was driving, she would see him in her rear view mirror,
and onbeknownst to Shawna, it's because Michael had installed a
tracking device on her car so that he could follow
her movements. Allegedly came by to change the batteries every
ten days to make sure the feed was uninterrupted. As

(15:07):
Shauna reported the behavior on July twelfth, fearing that Michael's
behavior was escalating, but the police decided that the entire
situation was low risk. In fact, according to BBC, they
sent a letter to Shawna informing her that they would
not be taking any further action regarding her claims. They

(15:31):
left Shawna vulnerable to deal with what was a clearly
escalating situation all by herself. On August twenty third, twenty sixteen,
Shauna and Michael met at a hotel in Hove, where
Shauna told Michael that their relationship was over and he
needed to leave her alone. Two days later, on August

(15:54):
twenty fifth, Shawna was supposed to be at her job
at Palmer and Harvey, where she worked in the account's department,
but she never showed up. How her coworkers were immediately
concerned and called Ashley, who I assume was in emergency contact,
and informed him that Shawna had not been to work

(16:14):
and they couldn't reach her. Ashley called his sister to
check on Shauna, and when she arrived, she found a
bloody footprint on the doorstep. She called the police and
her father, Ian. And Ian arrived at the home Shauna
shared with Ashley and two other roommates and immediately attempted
to gain entry into the house. Upon entering the house

(16:38):
with a couple of neighbors, They immediately smelt smoke. Ian
was able to enter Shauna's bedroom and in her room,
which was filled with so much smoke, with Shawna's body
yeing on her bed. Her throat had been cut, and
there were burn marks on the carpet and on her
bed where fires had been started but never act actually caught.

(17:01):
Police when they arrived also found a box of matches
and a piece of cardboard that had been used as
a wedge under the door to keep it closed. Due
to Shawna having made multiple reports about being stalked and
harassed in the eight months prior to her death, police
very quickly zeroed in on Michael Lane as a suspect

(17:22):
in Shawna's murder. They also reviewed various CCTV footage in
the area that showed Michael purchasing Kansas gasoline right before
the murder. He was seen on camera walking to the
home that Shauna was living in, and he was caught
on camera using Shawna's debit card at an ATM to
withdraw sixty pounds from her account. Police theorized based on

(17:46):
the video footage and a pair of bloody sneakers that
was confirmed to belong to Michael. That he had snuck
over to the house she was sharing with Ashley and
waited for them to leave. Knowing that Shawna would still
be asleep in side, he snuck into her room at
seven thirty in the morning and killed her while she
was asleep in her bed based on the lack of

(18:09):
defensive wounds on her arms and hands. He then set
fire to the bed and the rug to try and
hide what he had done before running. When police spoke
to Michael, he initially denied being anywhere near Shawna's home
on the day of her murder. After repeated questioning, and

(18:29):
they questioned him seven different times, according to BBC dot Com,
Michael finally admitted to being at the home, but said
that Shauna was already dead when he got there. He said, quote,
you ain't going to believe me. In the morning, I
did go to Shauna's. According to Michael, he found Shauna

(18:50):
in her room, the front door had been opened, and
she was lying on the floor. He claims he left
in a panic. Now Michael was trying charged with Shawna's murder,
to which he plaid not guilty, and he went to
trial in March of twenty seventeen. When Michael took the stand,
his lawyer, Simon Russell Flint asked if Michael had murdered

(19:13):
Shawna directly, and he said no. According to The Guardian,
Michael said after finding Shawna's body, he had gone to
a local convenience store so that he could have a
lottery ticket checked because he quote didn't want what he
saw to be true. He said when he found her, quote,
I saw her slumped against the bed. She wasn't moving.

(19:36):
I saw blood on the bed and blood on the floor.
She was in her dressing gown. I thought she was dead.
I didn't know what to do now, he said. He
didn't call an ambulance because he was in shock and
there was no fire in the home while he was there.
As for the gasoline he purchased, Michael claimed he was

(19:56):
going to use it to commit suicide because he was dead,
stated over the death of his grandfather. Also during the trial,
it was learned that while Sussex police believed Michael was
not a threat, this was not the case. Michael, according
to a domestic homicide review that was conducted, had harassed

(20:17):
and stalked twelve different women between two thousand and six
and twenty sixteen, and had been arrested in twenty ten
for allegedly grooming a fourteen year old girl. At this time,
Michael would have been twenty years old, and this incident
occurred when Michael was a volunteer Scout leader, but this

(20:39):
arrest was apparently not noted by police when Shawna reported him,
even though the arrest was on his record, and this
review can be found in the source notes, although I
will preface it by saying that the names have been
changed in the review.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
Now.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
Michael had resigned from the Scouts after the arrest and
was told that the allegations would prevent him from being
able to volunteer again, but in twenty fifteen he had
no problem re signing due to a computer error. These
victims reported after Shawna's murdered that they had been harassed, stocked,

(21:20):
and sent explicit messages. Some even claim that Michael was
very controlling during their relationships, and at least one had
been sexually assaulted by Michael. None of the women felt
like they would be taken seriously if they reported the
harassment prior to Shawna's death Divina. James Handman, chair of

(21:43):
the Domestic Homicide Reviews, said, in response to this quote,
prevailing culture among young people in which teenage girl's face
an endless bombardment of messages that inform them that they
are valued for how they look leads to harassment being minimized, normalized,
or even rationalized as romance. Women's discomfort and fear is

(22:05):
routinely dismissed as being unable to take a joke. At
the end of the two week trial, Michael was found
guilty of murder and sentenced to a minimum of twenty
five years in prison. Trial Judge Sir Nicholas Greene said
it sentencing quote, you robbed Shawna of her life and

(22:25):
you have caused grief untold to her family and friends.
This was a cold hearted murder. I have not detected
you any appreciation of the devastation you have caused, nor
have I detected remorse. In so far as I have
detected emotion in you, it has been a determination to
do all you can to protect yourself, and you have

(22:47):
been the one person you have felt sorry for. Judge
green also had some choice words for the Sussex Police, saying,
according to the huff Post quote, there was seemingly no
appreciation on the part of those investigating that a young
woman in a sexual relationship with a man could at
one and the same time be vulnerable and at risk

(23:09):
of serious harm. The police jumped to conclusions and Shauna
was stereotyped. When further incidents of stalking occurred, Shawna did
not complain to the police because she felt her complaints
would not be taken seriously. Michael Lane felt that if
he continued with his obsessive stalking behavior, it was most

(23:29):
unlikely that the police would do anything to stop him,
and he did continue even though he had been warned
by the police to keep away from Shauna. Now an
investigation into the conduct of the Sussex Police was conducted
by the IOPC, which is the Police Complaints Commission or
Internal Affairs due to how poorly they handled the reports

(23:54):
made by Shawna, and the investigation concluded that there were
concerns that quote Sussex Police's response to victims of stalking
or harassment is not always as effective and consistent as
it could be. This is because not all officers have
received enhanced stoking training, so because of this, a training

(24:16):
program was introduced, as well as sixteen different recommendations on
how to improve the police's response to reports of stocking
and harassment. Additionally, two officers were accused of gross misconduct,
one of which was Police Constable Mills, who resigned after
Shawna's murder for failing to properly investigate Shawna's complaint about

(24:38):
Michael Leane stealing her key and entering her home. Incidentally,
Mills was also investigated in twenty nineteen for misconduct after
sending messages to a victim of a crime on a
dating app, in which he was accused of taking advantage
of his position. Police Constable Trevor Godfrey was also in

(25:00):
mistigated for claiming that Shawna's complaints were lies and she
was wasting police time. As a result of this investigation,
the Sussex Police was ordered to make changes, and they
claimed that they did. However, according to the CUT, as
of twenty twenty one, Sussex had the second highest number
of stocking reports in the country, and rape convictions in

(25:22):
England and Wales were at an all time low for
victims of intimate partner violence from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty.
As of twenty twenty four. According to the Office of
National Statistics, the police recorded eight hundred and fifty one
thousand and sixty two domestic abuse related crimes in England
and Wales in the year ending March twenty twenty four,

(25:46):
which was a decrease compared to twenty twenty three at
nine hundred and eleven thousand, two hundred and forty eight.
And for stalking, the police recorded only one hundred and
twenty nine thousand, seventy six stocking related crimes in your
ending March twenty twenty four. As to put those numbers
even more into perspective, the estimate for victims of domestic

(26:08):
abuse in England and Wales is somewhere around two point
three million, and victims of stalking is estimated at one
point four million. So based on these numbers, it looks
like the police still aren't taking reports seriously at all.
Shanna Grice's death was one hundred percent preventable, but she

(26:31):
was failed by the very people whose job it was
to protect their community. Michael Lane was allowed to habitually
harass and stalk women for years with zero consequences until
he took a life, and very little has been done
to prevent something like this from happening again. If you

(26:52):
think you were being stalked, keep a record of every
single incident and report it relentless. It could save your life,
especially if the police do not want to listen the
first time. As always, thank you so much for listening

(27:12):
to this chapter of the Book of the Dead again.
If you liked the podcast so much you're hearing, please rate, review,
share with your friends. It really helps me a lot.
And for those wondering. Speaking of reviews, I got a
review asking where Lisa was, and Lisa's here. Lisa's okay.

(27:35):
Lisa is having her shoulder replaced on Friday, so by
the time you hear this, she will be having her
shoulder replaced on Friday, May sixteenth, and that is because
of the car accident she had last year. So she's
been okay. She just hasn't felt up to recording. I'm

(27:56):
not going to force her. She's definitely not gonna feel
up to recording. After her shoulder is replaced, She's going
to be out of commission for at least another month,
if not longer, especially because she's going to have to
do Pete and all of that. So she's okay. Please
don't hate me because she's not here. There is quite
literally nothing I can do about it. But she's here,

(28:21):
and she's sorry that she hasn't been around, but it's
truly just due to her not feeling up to it
and the chronic pain she's been dealing with. So hopefully
after the surgery she will be ready and raring to go.
So I appreciate you guys asking about her. I think
it's very kind. She will be back when she feels better.

(28:47):
But as always, I hope you have a wonderful week
and I will see you in the next chapter of
the Book of the Dead. Bye, guys. Another page closed,
But the story isn't over for the families left behind.
The pain doesn't end when the headline's fade. And for

(29:08):
the victims, we owe them more than silence for our
on solved cases. If you have any information, please reach
out to local authorities or visit our show notes for
links and resources. Someone out there knows something, maybe it's you.
Thank you for listening to the Book of the Dead.

(29:28):
If this story moved or spoke to you in some way,
talk about it, share it, keep their names alive. Until
next time. I'm Courtney Liso. Stay safe, stay curious, and
stay vigilant. And remember the dead may be gone, but
their stories will not be forgotten.

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Chapter 104: Stalked and Silenced-The Murder of Shana Grice

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