Episode 254

In February of 2017, 28-year-old aspiring cosmetologist Shannon Graves went missing. Five months later, a young married couple in Campbell, Ohio had plans to cook dinner at home. When they opened their freezer, they unexpectedly found something that horrified them. They found frozen pieces of Shannon.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Sword and Scale contains adult themes andviolence, and is not intended for all
audiences. Listener discretion is advised.He told me he needs my help to
make her smaller. They tell youhow she died, No, but it

(00:21):
was pretty obvious. Would you seeher head was keiped? Hello and welcome
to season ten, episode two hundredand fifty four of Sword and Scale,
a show that reveals that the worstmonsters are real. Before you say any

(01:00):
thing, we do realize that theAndroid app is completely broken, but we're
working on a new one. We'vebeen working on a new one for a
while now. It will be outnext year as soon as we can.
And yeah, a lot of stuff'sbroken. We're working on fixing it,
and I promise you we will haveit all fixed with a shiny, brand
new app. We've got so muchcool stuff planned, but there's only so

(01:23):
much we can do at once,and it's been a bit of a rough
year because of that. But listen, twenty twenty four is looking bright.
But before we get there, wedo have a holiday season to get through.
And that reminds me. The bestplace to shop for this asshole in
your life that you love for somereason is our store just god swordinscale dot

(01:46):
com and hit the store link onthe top of the page. That'll take
you to all of the current stuffthat will be going away very very soon,
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I don't forget to log in anduse your discount if you're a Plus member.

(02:23):
All right, try to imagine this. It's midday. You're at home,
sitting or lying on your couch watchingsome TV. Maybe you're catching up
on a new Netflix show or findingout what the hell to be is.
You're kicking back with the TV on, flipping through your phone, searching through

(02:44):
social media, looking for something orsomeone to judge. When suddenly you feel
something. It's not some sort ofspiritual awakening or realization about who you are
and you're placing universe. You're justhungry. There's a rumbling in your stomach

(03:05):
and it's creeping up on you.Maybe you're not quite ready to eat just
then and there, but you knowthat pretty soon it will be. So
you start to think what should Imake for dinner? Then all of a
sudden it hits you. You're inthe mood for pasta that sounds pretty good,

(03:27):
spaghetti sounds pretty good right about now. Yeah, So you'll walk over
to your kitchen and you'll find thethings you need. You got your pot,
your strainer, your sauce, yourpasta, and you've even found some
salad and bread to go along withyour meal. Lucky you. But then

(03:50):
you think you know what would makethis even better. Meat. Meat makes
everything better. Nothing beats it.Good meats on your spaghetti, right,
So you go check the fridge anddamn nothing there, not even an old

(04:12):
gray packet of ground beef at theback of the freezer that you forgot about
it. You're just out there's nothingin there. But hold on a second.
There may be some frozen ground beefdown in the freezer that you can
thaw. Yeah, that's it,the freezer. So you go downstairs and

(04:34):
open the freezer. But something isweird. There's a strange bag in there.
You don't recognize it. It lookslike a like a black trash bag.
So you touch it, but it'sfrozen solid. You peel it open

(04:56):
as best you can, and thenover whelming and awful smell smacks you in
the face. You see what's insidethe bag and you can't make sense of
it. But you know what you'relooking at, and then suddenly, just
like that, your appetite is goneright away. Not a good bod that

(05:50):
male a female. I think It'sjust across the western border of Pennsylvania and
sitting direct in the middle of Pittsburghand Cleveland is the moderately sized city of
Youngstown, Ohio. Traditionally, Youngstownis known for being a major player in

(06:11):
US steel manufacturing, but when thesteel industry saw a steep decline in the
nineteen seventies, Youngstown and its peoplewere left without a major industry. Since
then, the city has struggled toredefine itself and has earned a bad reputation.
At one point, it was consideredthe murder capital of the United States.

(06:32):
Today that title belongs to New Orleans. Of course. In any case,
a few peru's message boards about Youngstown, like we did, you'll find
that the people living there mostly agreethat Youngstown isn't all that different from any
other mid sized city in America.In Youngstown, there are safe, crime

(06:55):
free areas and there are dangerous areaswhere crime is known to happen, just
like everywhere else. Back in twentyseventeen, a twenty eight year old woman
named Shannon Graves was living in Youngstown, but in June of that year,
Shannon's older sister went to her localpolice department and reported Shannon missing. The

(07:19):
lead investigator that was eventually assigned tothis case was Detective Sergeant Michael Lambert.
Shannon Graves was a young girl inher twenties. We'd been living on Youngstown's
West side. Shannon Graves was astruggling hair dresser. She was going through
school, close to graduation. Shehad supplemented her income to pay for her

(07:43):
education by working as a dancer.She had a sister and a brother,
and a father who was an exYoungstown police detective. Detective Lambert kindly refers
to Shannon's chosen profession as dancer.But if we're going to be real about
it, she worked as a stripper, which, hey, there's nothing wrong

(08:05):
with that. Shannon was an attractiveyoung woman and she took advantage of her
good looks to make a living.The problem is that Shannon fell into that
line of work just a bit tooearly. According to her sister, Shannon
started stripping at a very young age. How long is she stripped? Maybe

(08:28):
twelve years ago that I know,maybe before that I didn't really since she's
fifteen sixteen. Shannon Graves was bornin November of nineteen eighty eight after her
father cheated on his wife with anotherwoman. Shannon's dad and her half sister

(08:48):
didn't even know about Shannon's existence untilShannon was six years old, when Shannon's
mom revealed to her dad that hewas the father. So after, Shannon's
mom tragically died of cancer while Shannonwas still very young. Subsequently, Shannon
dropped out of high school and startedsupporting herself by dancing at a local strip

(09:11):
club. Such a sad story wekeep hearing in America, repeat it over
and over again. Despite the strugglesthat Shannon had to face and the career
that she eventually found herself in,Shannon was a pretty smart and responsible young
woman. She didn't abuse drugs,She earned her ged, and by age

(09:35):
twenty eight, she started looking forways to support herself that didn't involve taking
her clothes off for money. Soyou see your Christmas time and when you
start to think, you know,hey, we haven't heard from Shannon in
a while. Your birthday, whendid you write? March? And then
it was Easter right after she wasn'tin that ant's house, which you know,

(09:58):
she didn't show up. It reallywasn't a big deal because sometimes she
wouldn't, but most of the timeshe was there. So I made that
excuse in my mind. And thenI think it was Father's Day after that,
and I'm like, okay, now, then something's wrong. In twenty
seventeen, Shannon missed three family holidayget togethers in a row. That's when

(10:20):
the red flags went up. Strangely, when attempts were made to reach Shannon
by phone, she did respond,at least that's what her dad originally thought.
So I kept trying to one timeit ring, nobody answered. So
I says, this is your deadcall me? Did she call me?
Beck? She goes, who isthis that said this is your dead?

(10:45):
Jack asked, did that that wasit? So I told my son test
your sister. I thought her tocall me. Did he tish that number?
Did she titched? Beck? Ihad no brothers. When I said
something's up, that's where toils anigger miss it versus report. After this

(11:05):
bizarre phone call in text exchange,Shannon's family realized that one of two things
had to be true. Either Shannonwas cutting all ties with her family and
she was going about it in avery strange way, or a different woman
was using Shannon's cell phone for police. The latter seemed like the likely scenario.

(11:31):
When Shannon was reported missing, detectivesat the Youngstown Police Department began focusing
their attention on the people that Shannonwas close to, and that meant her
boyfriend and ex boyfriend. They learnedthat before her disappearance, Shannon was engaged
to a guy named John Scirada.John was forty one years old. He

(11:56):
owned and operated a small home improvementbusiness that Shannon helped him run. She
acted as his bookkeeper and helped Johnwith marketing and keeping with her goal to
get out of the stripper business,Shannon was hopeful that John's business would take
off. In an effort to makethat happen, Shannon produced a commercial for

(12:18):
John's company that aired locally in Youngstown, and, being the performer that she
was, Shannon appeared in her owncommercial room for years. Unfortunately, John's
business never really got off its feetbecause not long after he and Shannon got

(12:39):
engaged, John got arrested. Hewas also on the side a small time
drug trafficker, and as a resultof that, had been sent to prison.
So when John went to prison,Shannon began dating Arturo while John was

(13:00):
away. How did she get involvedwith Arturo? From what I've learned,
like this group she was with,they're a weird group, but it's an
understatement. Yeah. In researching Shannon'slife, the police quickly realized that Shannon
hung out with a pretty strange castof characters, almost all of whom used

(13:22):
bizarre nicknames or aliases that had nothingto do with their actual names. Even
Shannon was known to sometimes go byher stripper name, which was Star in
any case, after her fiance wentto prison, Shannon began dating someone else,
thirty one year old Arturo Novoa,who often used the alias Anthony Gonzalez.

(13:48):
Going forward, you'll notice that somepeople refer to Arturo as Anthony and
some people call him Arturo, Sojust remember it's the same guy. Arturo
Levo was a young man from theEast side of Youngstown. He was a
self proclaimed rapper trying to break intothe music world, hadn't really had a

(14:11):
lot of success, had a historyof small part time jobs that he had
a trouble holding, and at thattime he was unemployed. Unemployed Arturo lived
with Shannon in her apartment and largelydepended on her for income as he perused
his music industry aspirations. As faras his musical talent, well, Arturo

(14:37):
wasn't necessarily a bad rap artist.I mean, I'm not a rap expert,
but it's not like it's a particularlydifficult thing to do to find words
that rhyme together. In any case, to the casual, untrained ear,
it sounds like a lot of histunes are pretty generic. Let's put it

(15:03):
that way. I gotta say thatREPI dat is truly got worse. You
know, sick of radio stations outhere promote and dirt. Perhaps unsurprisingly,
Shannon's in Arturo's relationship was pretty rocky. They were known to argue a lot,
and there were many instances of breakingup and then reuniting. Naturally,
when Shannon's family realized that they hadn'theard from Shannon in a while, the

(15:28):
first person they reached out to wasour Turo. He was, after all,
still living in her apartment. Thatsays, you guys, get an
argument or sudden we bote guppies.She came some guy picked her up as
a hold on. You're telling methat Shannon just left, left her clothes,

(15:50):
left her dog, and left hercar. That don't sound right to
me. According to our Turo,Shannon just up and left them, which,
given their history, made sense.What didn't make sense is that Shannon
seemingly left all of her belongings behind, including her pit bull Mollie. Her

(16:11):
relationship with her dog. What wasthat like? People said it was like
her. She took her everywhere anddid everything, look at anything for her,
and how she of her. Shannontreated Molly like a daughter for her.
Nothing was too good for that dog. If Shannon did ditch ur Turro

(16:33):
and her apartment, there was simplyno chance that she wouldn't take her baby
with her, making matter is evenmore suspicious. The police eventually spoke to
one of Arturo's closest friends, whohad helped our Turo burn some of Shannon's
belongings. Not looking good, duringthe investigation, we learned that Arturo Novalla

(16:56):
had a friend named Andrew Herman whoassisted him in burning Shannon's belongings. Several
witnesses actually saw this, and whenwe were able to catch up with Andrew
Herman, he did agree to comein and give us a statement. Basically,
what he wanted me to do is, you know, he wanted me
to help him get rid of thelast of her crap that she left there.

(17:17):
Okay, both documents, clothes,stupid shit like that. I figured
he was being spiteful. I kindof helped him burn it. But now
over the months and everything's going on, she seems to be missing. He
told me that she left him,she doesn't staying with him anymore. They

(17:37):
elaborate on that. That's really allhe really told him. Should she left
him for some other dude? Andthat was it. According to Andrew,
he was just trying to be helpfuland trying to console a friend that seemed
heartbroken over the fact that his girlfriendleft him for another man. But now
that Shannon was missing, Andrew hadsome concerns. Even so, he seemed

(18:02):
on the fence about the idea thatArturo was capable of hurting Shannon, let
alone capable of killing her. Istarted thinking about that fire. I said,
you know what, I've seen toomany Prime shows. This does not
look good. That and from oneyear he still has a dog. Yeah,
that's what I heard it. Andfrom when I lived with her,

(18:25):
that dog was treated better than afreaking toddler. That was her baby.
I don't see why he has herdog. I don't see why she would
lead it. Yeah, and Ithink everybody thinks he killed, which is
a logical jump, I guess.But yeah, if that was the case,
I really highly doubt that. Hedoesn't seem like the type to do
that. I mean, eventually.The police also learned that Arturo wasn't living

(18:49):
in Shannon's apartment by himself. Hehad some roommates. Also sharing the apartment
was a young woman that Arturo haddated before he met Shannon. Her name
was Katrina Layton, and when Katrinamoved into the apartment with Arturo, she
brought along her two young children.Katrina and Arturo had dated each other for

(19:12):
several years on and off prior toShannon's disappearance. All accounts of the relationship
between Arturo and Katrina were that thetwo fought off and it was a tumultuous
relationship. In a few instances,Katrina and Shannon actually had physical confrontations because

(19:33):
of the love triangle situation. Naturally, after learning about this love triangle,
the police wanted to speak with bothArturo and Katrina. Unfortunately, none of
them seemed to be very cooperative,surprise, surprise, and every time the
cops went to Shannon's apartment, nobodywould answer the door. And it wasn't

(19:56):
until we towed a vehicle belonging toKatrina that was unlicensed and abandoned on the
street in front that Katrina contacted us. So we used that opportunity to interview
Katrina. One of the reasons we'vebeen knocking on doors down there, okay,
just because we're looking for Shannon.Oh yeah, I've heard something about

(20:18):
that. I haven't really been followingit all too closely all like that,
just because, I mean, forthe simple fact that me and Anthony were
together for seven years and then,you know, we just needed a break.
We slid out for a little bit. They were together for a very
short period of time. We startedtalking and we got back together. According

(20:40):
to Katrina, she didn't know muchabout Shannon's disappearance, and she freely admitted
that Shannon wasn't her favorite person.What was she like? Hmm, she
was trouble in my opinion, Ifeel like she just didn't care about other
people. She was the type thatwanted to be with somebody who had a

(21:03):
lot of money, who could takecare of her where she could just kind
of live that life and she couldjust kind of do what she wanted,
and just the type of person sheportrayed herself as, I don't hang around
with people like that. I triedto be a nice to her because she
did live in Clown's house, andthen she turned aroundself. To the Anthony,
Katrina explained that her understanding was thatShannon left her Turo for another man,

(21:29):
and before she did, ur Turoand Shannon came to an agreement about
the car that Shannon left behind,as well as her dog, Molly.
She basically told him, you know, can you hold the dog for me?
And he said yeah. He said, you know, but since you're
kind of un and leaving, youknow, I cannot use the car just
till I get around, So Icould get around, try to get some

(21:52):
work, this and that. Sothey had some sort of mutual agreement over
the car and the dog. Formonths, both Katrina and our Touro used
Shannon's car to get around. Now, if that wasn't suspicious enough, Katrina
had also used Shannon's cell phone asher own. I don't think it's any
longer in service. That was likeone of those minute phones, like those

(22:15):
a bomb of phones. But Imean I got my phone out, so
it's like I don't know, butI was using it late, temporarily type
thing. This girl disappears, Yeah, she loves behind her dog, which
everybody says as a baby. Shelos his phone and Anthony's I'm sorry,
not a new girlfriend, but owngirlfriend who is not back because not using
the phone, was using Yeah,and so it looks weird. Yeah,

(22:38):
it all looked very weird. Andthings were only getting weirder. Not only
did Katrina use Shannon's car and hercell phone, but someone was also using
Shannon's directional card, which is sometimesreferred to as a welfare card or a
food stamp cardsh Shannon left. Doyou think she would leave behind her directional

(23:04):
card? Honestly, I don't know. That's one thing I can If you
leave your somewhere at your lifeline,that's just something really like your No,
I've never you've never seen Anthony useher card. I've never seen muse it.

(23:25):
That not that I know of.No. Suspiciously, after Shannon went
missing, every time our directional cardwas used, our turo and Katrina's directional
cards were also used at the samelocation within seconds of Shannon's card being used.
Huh. Now, I'm not adetective, but see where I'm going

(23:48):
with this. Basically, everything aboutthis situation looked bad. But even so,
Katrina maintained that Arturo didn't have anythingto do with shannon disappearance. And
I'll tell you why, because I'veknown him a very long time and I've
never once seen a violence side tohim. Because so you don't believe you

(24:12):
dead, and you don't believe ifshe is, I don't think you got
anything to do with it. Well, well, I'm connecting ants. What
do you think I'm afraid of her? From what you're saying and from what
you're telling me, you're afraid thatAnthony is something to her. What Katrina
didn't realize, or maybe she didand was simply playing dumb, was that

(24:34):
the detectives weren't only considering the possibilitythat Arturo killed Shannon. Maybe, just
maybe, if Shannon had been murdered, the killer was sitting in the interview
room. Maybe So do you seehow tiny I am? Really? I

(24:59):
hope honestly, guys, honestly,guys, and all in all honesty,
I really would's Anthony, I don'tthink you have anything word about I just
don't. I mean, I can'tsee how everything's pointing. Well, yeah,
I mean I think she's a lastvoyt for not obviously you know what
I mean. Well, not onlythat, but did you get the car,
the dog, the directional card.I mean, I just feel that

(25:23):
she probably not some guy out doingher own thing. Katrina did her best
to put the detective's suspicions to bed, but there were too many strange things
to ignore. Even so, thecops didn't have a body or any direct
evidence of voul play. If theywere going to pursue this investigation further,

(25:48):
they were going to have to interviewor Turo. Those are the things we
would like to talk to Ancy about. Well, I wouldn't talk about it,
and I'll be honest with you.The weirdest things here is that that
you gotta understand. He's not purposelywhat of you guys, It's just with

(26:10):
his work schedule. What time doeshe work? It varies like the weekends,
dishwashing. You heard that right,With a straight face. Katrina explained
that our Turo was too busy tomeet with police to discuss his missing ex
girlfriend. Because our turro's dishwashing jobat Outback Steakhouse was too demanding to sum

(26:38):
up. Katrina was clearly stonewalling thedetectives, and I'll tell you something,
detectives don't like to be stonewalled.But it didn't matter, because five days
after this interview, something unexpected happened. My name was can Camill. Police

(27:02):
there right away, my wife andyour son A good boy. You know
that, male and female? Ithink it's In late July of twenty seventeen,
a married couple in Youngstown's neighboring townof Campbell found dismembered body parts in

(27:23):
their basement freezer, a pair oflegs, a pair of arms, and
part of a human head. Tragically, but perhaps unsurprisingly, police were eventually
able to confirm that these body partsbelonged to twenty eight year old Shannon Graves.

(27:45):
The next few things that they neededto figure out were who put Shannon's
body parts in there, why hadthey done so, and where was the
rest of Shannon. In February oftwenty seventeen, twenty eight year old Shannon

(28:22):
Graves went missing, but her familydidn't take note of Shannon's absence until she
missed three holiday get togethers in arow. Four months after Shannon was last
seen in June of twenty seventeen,Shannon's sister filed a missing persons report with

(28:42):
Youngstown Police Department in Ohio. Abouta month later, in Youngstown's neighboring town
of Campbell, a young wife wasat home when she started thinking about what
to make for dinner. She decidedthat she wanted to make some spaghetti,
but she didn't have any ground beefto put in the spaghetti sauce. The

(29:03):
Camel Police Department in Ohio got aphone call from a couple who explained that
a friend of theirs had asked ifthey would keep a freezer for him because
his power went out and he wasafraid he was going to lose his meat.
The young wife remembered that one ofher husband's friends had recently stored a

(29:25):
small chest freezer along with some meatin their basement. Or thinking was that
she could borrow some of the groundbeef from the freezer and replace it later,
But when she went to her basement, she noticed something strange. The
freezer had a padlock on it.I was thinking about what and her freezer,

(29:59):
Maybe there maybe some in there soI went down and I knew that
the padlock was on that freezer,and as I took a little screw drive
around with me and I just unscrewedit and then I opened it up.
I saw the black trash bag.It's now horrible. I thought it was
spoiled me. At first, Iwas hoping that it was just spoiled me.

(30:22):
After finding a black trash bag inthe freezer, this young wife told
her husband what she found, andhe immediately went to go take a look
for himself. I went down,I did it and I opened my flipped
and then I just like what thatjust what this is how you storyed me?
Got your scissors and it smells reallybad. I'm like, why would

(30:45):
it? That's when I knew.I sad, Why would you? You
wouldn't put rotten meat in a freezerand freeze it and did a lot in
a freezer because it was refrozen.And I recognized the foot and the thing,
and I just my wife grabbed herhead and I grabbed my ead.
It was a body, and Isaid, Dana, turnass to call the
police. We responded. During theinitial response, we knew that we had

(31:07):
the remains of a white female,and at that point, because her remains
were frozen, we were not surehow much of her body we've actually had,
and later during the autopsic process,we realized we were menacing at Torso
and part of her head. Thebody parts found in the freezer were eventually

(31:30):
identified as belonging to missing twenty eightyear old Shannon Graves, but before detectives
confirmed that they sought to identify theperson that put the freezer in the basement,
and in our subsequent interviews, theEschenbas identified Arturo Novella as the man
who brought the freezer to their house. Why don't you start with how you

(31:52):
met Anthony. I met Anthony.I went over to my neighbor's house,
however, decided to be I'm guessingI'm ready bout his sound, sorry,
And I'll say between four and fourand a half years. And then she
lived right up the street from me, actually not through first street, and
you started hanging around, and youknow, we throw my xbox together to

(32:15):
typical friendships of you know. Onthe day after Katrina Layton was questioned by
Youngstown detectives, Arturo called a friendand explained that his power was out and
that he wanted to store a freezerin his friend's basement to preserve his meat.
A few hours later, he droppedoff the freezer, put it in

(32:37):
the friend's basement, plugged it in, and left. Four days later,
his friend's wife decided that she wantedsome spaghetti, which led to the discovery
of Shannon's arms, legs, andpart of her head. After this discovery,
both Arturo and Katrina were picked upby police and brought in for questioning.

(33:00):
Without prompting you in any way,can you tell me everything you know
about Shannon and her disappearance and whereshe is that. The problem is,
like I said before, I don'tknow much about her. Like as a
person, I'm not really worried aboutpersonal information. I'm worried about where is
she right now? That I don'tknow. I mean, I just I

(33:21):
don't know. I so, Katrina, I honestly don't know. Since Shannon's
disappearance, Okay, you've been drivingher car. No no, no,
since she disappeared, you're using thephone that she used when she was with
him. And then since she's beengone, her dog's been at your apartment.
Okay, since she's been gone,her car has been used to Egypt.

(33:45):
Do you understand what I'm running downhere? This list of things?
We've already went over these I havenow imagine we're telling this to a room
full of twelve readonable people. Whatdo they think you did? I didn't
do anything. When Katrina was interviewedfor a second time, she gave the
same oblivious responses that she'd given thefirst time, but now the police had

(34:08):
body parts in a whole lot moreinformation. During a search warrant at Shannon's
apartment, we recovered a rent receiptfor another apartment on Youngstown's south side.
It appeared to us that the couplewere now renting a new apartment. However,
they were not living in it.Arturo and Katrina were living in Shannon's

(34:32):
apartment, but they were also payingrent for another apartment that was only a
few miles away. When detectives visitedthis second apartment, they found noticeable drag
marks on the floor that perfectly matchedthe bottom of the freezer that contained Shannon's
body parts. Clearly, someone haddragged the freezer into and then out of

(34:59):
this apartment, and clearly this apartmentreally only had one purpose the hide Shannon's
dismembered body parts. The detectives eventuallyconcluded that their first interview with Katrina must
have spooked her and Arturo, promptingthem to move the freezer into a friend's

(35:20):
house. Anthony just says something aboutbuying him a freezer until we got referred
to soave to hold the food.So a month ago, you bought a
freezer to put an ouse that youdon't live it. We were, at
least at the suppertment. It's notyet. Well, it's not like you're
living a life of luxury that youbought a freezer all the ship that you

(35:42):
don't have. You bought a freezeryou don't have furniture. How did he
pay for it? I gave him. I'm pretty sure I even cash.
I think he got it out.Om ah. Yes, a murder plot
is never complete without a visit toWalmart. At this point in her interview,

(36:04):
Katrina did admit that she and Arturohad purchased a small chest freezer,
but the cops had not revealed thatthey found that freezer or Shannon's body parts
inside. When they did. Katrina'sresponse was interesting. And when I found
the bugs, I wasn't sure ifthey came from the new place or the

(36:30):
place where. Now, what aboutit? If it came because of your
freezer, All of the bugs camefrom Brandon freezer. Because when you put
a body in a freezer, itbrings bucks. The bugs came, bugs
came. Do you know what Ijust said? When you put a body
in the freezer? I was wonderingif you I mean, I understand you're
trying to get your story out,but do you hear what I just said?

(36:50):
Yes, I don't even understand whereyou're kidding them. Okay, did
it occurred to you that the bugslet me from the bunny and the freezer?
I know because the landlord car thestreet from where we're right now had
a bug guy in his driveway theother day. Okay, and that's where
I was like, all right,well, the new person, what do
you mean body in the freezer?What are you talking of? Body in

(37:12):
the freezer? That's not what broughtthe bugs. Why do you keep saying
because there was a body in afreezer? What do you mean there's a
body in a freezer? And whatfreezer? The freezer that you guys bought.
Let me show you. This isa freezer. This is the body
body in freezer. Katrina denied havingany knowledge of a dead body being left

(37:34):
in the freezer that she paid for, and she continued to deny that she
had any knowledge of Shannon Graves beingdead. Unfortunately for her, during these
emotional denials, she let a fewthings slip. I gain, I told
you about ten times that the missinggirl is dead in your freezer. I'm

(37:57):
looking for some kind of reaction.I'm because he looks shocked at all.
Yeah, forget all this. Doyou kill her? Hell? No,
were you there when she was killed? No? What? Well? Sure
looks like you did. No,what do you mean it looks like I
did. She's in your freezer,the one you paid for, so it
kind of looks like you killed her. She was banging your band, and

(38:19):
you are in possession of all herearthly goods, So it kind of looks
like you guilty. Oh guy,it looks like I killed her. He
sure does. Okay, I haveto interject here for a moment because I'm
a true crime fan and I knowthat you are. This moment you're about
to hear this doesn't happen very often. I call it a Matt Locke moment.
If you ever watched the old seventiesTV show I think it was seventies.

(38:40):
Anyway, if you ever watched MattLocke, there's that got you a
moment where he just pulls out ofnowhere, this aha moment that comes from
the criminal just talking and talking themselvesinto a trap. It really doesn't happen
very often. It's kind of likea movie or TV show thing, so

(39:02):
it's pretty fascinating to hear it inreal life. Check it out. You
guys are sitting here telling me thatthere's anybody in this freezer that I did
not bring to Kenny's house house.You just told me it was in King's
basement, in King's house whatever Imean. I'm as saying, well,

(39:30):
okay, Well, here's the thing, how did I know that? It's
common knowledge? I know what Henny'shouse looks like. Obviously the cops weren't
buying what Katrina was selling, buteven after several hours of interrogation, she
simply wouldn't admit to anything. Eventually, detectives decided to just arrest her.

(39:54):
I'm afraid to say anything about becauseI don't know what you're going to try
to use against me. Now tellme that you don't know nothing about that.
I don't know anything about that.Take your chances. I'm telling you
totally understand you right, good enough, Have a seat there, We'll be
right back. Hold on, no, no, hold on? No fuck

(40:20):
that? What? Wow? Whatthe fuck? Man? Mom? They're
trying to get me for something.I need th me do it? What's
wrong? Oh yeah? I forgotto mention that while Katrina was being interrogated,
her mom was sitting outside the interviewroom babysitting Katrina's two children. Could

(40:42):
you hold your foot out straight likethis? Please? My foot? Why
you're not a recipe for what?I'm not? Just anywhere? Can I?
Can? I speak too? Permanent? What the fuck, dude?
Are you serious for you? Ma? Hell? No? Man, Ma,

(41:10):
mom me love? Fuck man?What the fuck? Ma? No
fuck there? Tell me there's abody of freeze on there. Katrina sat

(41:30):
in her interview room with her anklecuffed to a table as she mindlessly screamed
at her mom. Meanwhile, detectiveswent to another interview room and questioned her
boyfriend Martua. The last time yousaw sen was when enough, like the

(41:52):
end of February. You have noidea what we came over. I did
not. I've said this to everybody. People who know you said this,
that you burned things up. NowI have people that know you saying you
brought a freezer to your house.When they opened it up, kiss,
what they found? What did theyfind? Why do you think you're here?

(42:15):
The charges abusive a corpse? Excuseme, abusive a corpse? Are
you mean serious right now? Onthat man? Yeah? Absolutely the fuck
not. Unlike Katrina or Truro deniedhaving any knowledge of Shannon's whereabouts, but

(42:39):
he also took things a step furtherand denied ever bringing a freezer to his
friend's house. This is so longjob. You're gonna lose your job.
Did you hear what I said thesame about your out back dishwasher job anymore?
Dude, there's a body in afreezer. I think I said you

(42:59):
brought house. Yeah, your dishwasherjob at I'm back is fucked Okay,
that's that's a weird thing for youto say my jobs fucked up. If
you're trying to tell me all thesupposedly went to this house and supposedly put
this thing in this guy's house.This is fucking insanity to me. It

(43:22):
really is so I'm trying to figureout where something might have, like I'm
telling you, might have went wrong. I'm telling you that four people who
know you said you burned your shipup, and now two people who know
you said you brought a freezer witha body in into the house, and
you're talking to me about your dishwasherjob. It's impossible because I didn't do

(43:43):
no such thing. Okay, Idon't do nothing but work and sleep.
Did you, at any point takea freezer into a house in camel did
not? You did not. Marturo'sinterview only lasted for about twenty minutes before
he asked for a lawyer, butthe takeaway was that Arturo denied everything.

(44:04):
Unfortunately for him, he was goingto have a hard time maintaining his denials
because the cops found something very interestingwhen they emptied his pockets. Arturo completely
denied any knowledge of any of this, even though at the time of his
arrest we found it to be inpossession of the key that unlocked the padlock
that was on the freezer. Arturowas arrested and at that point his only

(44:30):
charge was abuse of a corpse,with eyewitnessed statements and some pretty solid physical
evidence detectives could prove that Arturo hadburned Shannon's belongings and transported some of her
body parts from one location to another, but there were still a lot of

(44:53):
questions like how did Shannon die,who killed her? And why? Also,
Arturo and Katrina didn't buy the chestfreezer until July, which was five
months after Shannon went missing. Wherehad Katrina and Arturo been storing her body

(45:15):
this entire time? The cops werenot going to be able to get any
answers from Arturo because he lawyered upimmediately. Katrina, however, was still
willing to try and talk her wayout of the situation. The problem,
the problem, what's wrong with you? Why can't you just stop all this

(45:37):
bullshit? And because I'm trying totell you that I tell us what Anthony
did. I tell us what hedid, and you didn't because right now,
no, I I didn't do anything. Do you know what this looked
like? Yeah? I know whatit looks such obviously let me let me
put it this way. Okay,here's Anthony. He's got you over here,

(45:59):
and what do you have that thatshe's got? What she got?
Piece of asked? He's getting everything? He wants why would he kill anybody?
He didn't buy a freezer you did. He didn't rent an apartment over
there you did. I didn't thinkship to that girls a dead girl.

(46:22):
Okay. Detectives knew, or atleast strongly suspected, that Arturo and Katrina
had murdered Shannon, and whoever didn'tcommit the crime, helped the other clean
up the mess. Detective Lambert hada hunch that Katrina was the killer because

(46:43):
Arturo didn't really seem to have amotive, But again, there were still
a lot of questions. Where wereyou guys keeping this body? I didn't
keep about anywhere. Well, it'sbeen there a while, and you didn't
buy a freezer un till July,so I had to be where the hell
are you giving this bania? You'reobviously gonna have to ask him because I

(47:06):
didn't know about. During her interviews, Katrina never admitted to anything. She
maintained that she didn't murder Shannon,and she also never pointed the finger at
our Turo. Unfortunately, these interviewswith Katrina and Arturo gave the cops almost
nothing to work with. You understand, this looks like you did it,

(47:29):
and he helped you. I know, that's what it looks like. On
top of any other dand things shedid to you. She was fucking your
boyfriend. It's not complicated, it'sreal simple. She took what was yours,
She screwed your boyfriend. Then shedisappeared, and now you got all
her shit and she's in your freezerthat he says you don't know nothing about.

(47:53):
Just tell me what happened. It'sgot to be better than what it
looks. It can't be as badas it looks. I mean, I
didn't. You cannot be as badas it looks. Kennon, I don't
know anymore. On top of theobvious questions of who killed Shannon Graves,
there was also something else that wasbothering detectives. The freezer that our Turo

(48:19):
had moved into his friend's basement onlycontained Shannon's arms, legs, and a
small piece of her head. Sowhere was the rest of her What had
our Turo and Katrina done with Shannon'storso and the remainder of her head.

(48:39):
When Detective Michael Lambert learned the answersto these questions, he realized that he
was right about something. Things weren'tas bad as they seemed, they were
much worse. If you've listened toeven just a little bit of this program,

(49:10):
you know how important mental health is, and sleep is the foundation of
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(49:34):
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today. In July of twenty seventeen, thirty one year old self proclaimed rap

(51:22):
artist Arturo Novoa was arrested after hisex girlfriend's dismembered body parts were found inside
a freezer that Arturo had moved intoa friend's basement. Also arrested was thirty
four year old Katrina Leyton, whour Turo had dated on and off for

(51:42):
about nine years. At the timeof their arrest, they were back together.
The body parts that were discovered belongedto twenty eight year old Shannon Graves,
who went missing in Youngstown, Ohio, five months before pieces of her
were found inside this freezer. Shannondated Arturo for less than a year,

(52:07):
and at the time of her disappearance, they were both living in Shannon's apartment.
After Shannon went missing, Katrina Laytonmoved in to that same apartment.
Homicide detectives in Youngstown believed that Arturoand or Katrina murdered Shannon, but during

(52:28):
their respective interrogations, neither of themconfessed or pointed the finger at the other.
At this point, the evidence thatthe cops had only proved Katrina purchased
the freezer and Arturo moved it.At best, this couple could only be
charged with tampering with evidence and abuseof a corpse here, So we've got

(52:52):
to find out. Yeah, we'vebetter find out where she was killed,
how she was killed, Where wasthe body dismembered? Right, it has
to be somewhere. Where was it? Story for foremost? Yeah, do
you and I know, Hey,they probably killed the week. We don't
have enough to even make that allegationyet, you right, And as far

(53:15):
as a motive was concerned, KatrinaLayton had a good one and it was
pretty simple. According to our friends, Katrina and Our Turo argued constantly when
they were dating. Usually it wasbecause Katrina suspected that our Turo was being
unfaithful, and to be fair,he often was. Then after they broke

(53:40):
up and our Turo began dating ShannonGraves, Katrina became enraged. And there's
nothing worse than someone named Katrina beingenraged, take my word for it.
And then other than actually only cameover in there and they were fighting,
and it was bad. It wasreal that, I mean, I have

(54:00):
a man. She always thought hewas cheating on her somebody, And there
were times I just couldn't listen toTrina anymore about Arturo, could not do
it. Like no, she wasobsessed with him, dude, I mean
mad and like I mean her disdainfor Shannon's. In short, if Katrina

(54:30):
murdered Shannon, her motive was likelyjealousy. As for Arturo, Detective Michael
Lambert wasn't sure if he had amotive. One of the things that was
in my mind during the entire casewas the fact that Arturo had both of
these women. He had Shannon providingmoney, a place to live, a

(54:57):
car, pretty much everything he wanted, and he also had Katrina providing whatever
Shannon wasn't giving him. On topof that, both women knew about each
other, so this wasn't a secret. So at no point did I really
believe that Arturo had the better motivebetween him and Katrina. Even though Katrina

(55:22):
had a motive and she and Arturowere clearly responsible for or involved with Shannon's
murder and dismemberment, prosecutors in Ohiodid what prosecutors normally do. They offered
a plea deal to the woman sothat they could have a stronger case against
the man, because you know equality. After the arrest of Arturo Nova and

(55:46):
Katrina Layton, the prosecutor's office enteredinto a deal with Katrina Layton, thinking
that she had the least amount ofculpability in the case and could provide damaging
testimony against Arturo. As a resultof Katrina's deal, she would received no

(56:08):
jail time for cooperation, which includestestimony against Arturo in the case. Shannon's
family did not react well to thisdeal, and they immediately began raising alarms
that it was their belief that Katrinahad as much to do with Shannon's death

(56:29):
as Arturo did. I cannot explainwhy the deal was made because I wasn't
part of it. My assumption wouldbe that after the prosecutor assessed what we
gave them, the actual murder casewas still very circumstantial, and without the

(56:49):
push of a cooperating witness, allwe really had was a tampering with evidence
case. Katrina's defense attorney worked outa pretty incredible deal on her behalf.
She was given complete immunity from prosecution. Yeah, complete immunity. The only

(57:10):
requirements were that she testified against ourTuro and that she be completely honest.
So in the latter half of twentyeighteen, Katrina and her defense attorney met
with prosecutors several times to discuss themurder of Shannon Graves. According to Katrina,

(57:30):
on an evening in late February twentyseventeen, she was at home with
her two children when she unexpectedly receiveda phone call from Arturo. Again,
it's important to remember that Arturo issometimes referred to as Anthony. So Anthony
calls you hysterical on the phone,Tommy, Shannon's dead, right, yeap?

(57:52):
And but an hour later, who'sat your house? Well, I'm
kinished? So what he said whenhe gets in the house. I don't
remember exactly like how the conversation went, but I found out that she was
in the shrunk of the call.Katrina explained that when Arturo arrived at her

(58:13):
house, he had Shannon's dead bodyin the trunk of Shannon's car, and
the two of them decided to moveShannon into Katrina's garage. So who got
it out of the trunk? Hegot out, okay, and what happened
after that? Now she's out.At that point I realized, you know,
I couldn't I can't lift her.I was already freaking out. You

(58:38):
know. That's when I called Andrew. Remember Andrew Herman, the guy that
helped Arturo burn Shannon's belongings. Well, according to Katrina, Andrew did a
lot more than just burn some property. Katrina explained that after Shannon's corpse was
laid out in her garage, shecalled Andrew and told him to come over

(59:00):
when he got there or Turo ledAndrew into the garage while Katrina went into
her house. Katrina claimed that shedidn't know what went on inside the garage,
but she did eventually see Andrew leave. Nothing. Really, I don't
even think Andrew was there that long. After they came back in the house.

(59:21):
I think he left, okay,but I know he didn't stay all
night. I know that he left. And what happens me he laid down
who was upset so laying in bedtogether. After Katrina named Andrew Herman,
investigators began looking into the kind ofperson that Andrew was. What they found

(59:46):
seemed to substantiate what Katrina had toldthem. Like our Turoll, Andrew was
an amateur want to be rap artistand had made a bunch of disturbing recordings
that were obsessed with death and theoccult and all things weird. Really,

(01:00:10):
like I make his music, it'sall dark, weird shit, you know.
Like I used to make his music. I used to make Andrew's music
for him, like I would recordit, do all that. It was
just always like real dark stuff,you know what I mean. Like even
even the rap name he goes bya strange it's dead Necrophiliac Assassin. I

(01:00:36):
made him go by DNA because thatwas weird. Like he's always been a
weird dude. But I always justthought it was just a gimmick for the
music thing, you know what Imean. It turned out that Andrew's interest
in dead bodies wasn't a gimmick.Apparently Andrew had a thing for cold and

(01:00:57):
dismembered corpses. Tho he has videosof people having sex with dead bodies on
his phone. One body is famous? Oh him have sex? Are people?
Okay? Andrew was eventually confronted withthe accusation that he assisted in the
disposal of Shannon's corpse, and hedenied it. We believe Anthony and Katrina

(01:01:24):
and possibly you were involved in killingShannon. Andrew, what else do you
know about this? Because right nowI don't think there's anybody on the planet
who thinks you don't know more aboutthis. I don't know anything else.
I told you what happened. DespiteAndrew's denial, Katrina maintained her story and

(01:01:45):
insisted that Andrew assisted Arturo in someway, though she wasn't sure how and
she didn't know what happened to Shannon'sbody. After Andrew's intervention. A few
days later, Katrina moved into Shannon'sapartment with our Turo and eventually discovered that
Shannon's dismembered body was in the apartment. When I saw it, it was

(01:02:10):
on the floor next to the toilet. One day. Now there was two,
but you never looked in the badYeah. That was after we asked
if you didn't catch that, Katrinajust said after we poured the acid.

(01:02:32):
At some point, Katrina and ourTuro decided to go full breaking bad with
Shannon's body. If you're not familiar, which by the way, by now
you should be, it's probably oneof the best shows ever made. In
any case, the main characters onthat show often use acid filled barrels to

(01:02:52):
dissolve and hide dead bodies. Sowhose ideas that we really acid has come
up? And would say, hey, anthem, that's some acid up.
What was that discussion about? Itwasn't really discussion. I just I don't

(01:03:15):
remember what. I realized that shewas in the back room and that there
was still a pop. It shouldbe noted that Katrina did not come forward
and admit that she and Arturo madeplans to dissolve Shannon's body an acid before
Katrina agreed to cooperate. The copsfigured this out on their own. During

(01:03:37):
the resulting media coverage from the arrestof Our Tureau and Katrina, we received
a call from a local Walmart froma cleric who recognized the pair because they
had purchased online a large amount ofsulfuric acid drain opener. Anyway, Yes,

(01:03:58):
sir, he made some kind ofinternet order. Yes, all of
the items that he or were in. What were those items? They were
bottles of sephuric acid. No,you said, They came in on a
tenth both of them and her bothThey give me a word. I type
it in and it comes up,and I instantly knew, like, I

(01:04:19):
can't give this to you. SoI explained to him. I said,
I apologize, but I know yourname is not chicken Man. For obvious
reasons. When Katrina and Arturo placedtheir walmarked order for sulfuric acid, they
didn't want to use their real names, so in their infinite wisdom, they

(01:04:39):
decided to use an alias. Itwas just addressed to Chicken Man. So
a guy walks in the Walmart says, Hey, I'm chicken Man. He
got the package for me, kid, I can't make it. That's the
correct response. By the way,When Katrina and our Turo went to Walmart

(01:05:02):
to pick up the acid, thesales clerk gave them a hard time about
the name that they used, buteventually they got it all worked out.
And Katrina and ur Turro walked outof the store with their twelve gallons of
sulfuric acid. What is it withWalmart and murder? Don't you know what?
They got cameras there? Okay,so the day you do the assid

(01:05:27):
there's a plastic toad. Yes,and we're putting punts into the top.
Yeah, it was her head andlike the two like arm, his whole
middle part, no legs, nowhead, whole head. Yes, Now
you got this tube plastic container fullof sham. Yeah. Uh, what

(01:05:50):
happens next? I don't remember hackinglike right away, Like it wasn't proof
like in the curtains, right.I think it took a little bit.
Maybe in the end of of thesludgy bunch of shit there my own Katrina
explained that they let Shannon's torso anda good chunk of her head dissolve in

(01:06:14):
acid for about a week. Thenour Turro incrementally disposed of the resulting human
sludge. So he told you hetook it and dumped it off on somewhere
off lung with habit. Yeah,and how far did you live in a
far right? And the under thelegs are somewhere and as we now know

(01:06:39):
because you saw the picture. They'restill in one piece, so there's no
way they make it. So there'ssomewhere in there somewhere frows. Yeah,
that's what. I can't help you, guys, because I know that they
were back there and then there wereon the other frazon. According to Katrina,
she and our Turo didn't have enoughacid to this all of Shannon's entire

(01:07:00):
body, and they were still stuckwith her arms, her legs, and
a piece of her head. Katrinaclaimed that Arturo stored these body parts somewhere,
but she didn't know where until theyended up in the chest freezer that
the couple purchased months later. Therewere a lot of gaps in Katrina's story,

(01:07:23):
and prosecutors were hoping that Arturo's friendAndrew Herman could fill them in,
so, based on Katrina's statements,Andrew was arrested. Andrew was eventually indicted
for his role in the case whenKatrina revealed to us that Andrew had a

(01:07:45):
lot to do with the dismemberment.Once he was arrested and charged, he
immediately became a cooperator and gave usas much information as he had. Drew
agreed to cooperate. He gave theprosecutors and investigators his version of the events.

(01:08:08):
According to Andrew, on a coldnight in late February of twenty seventeen,
Marturo contacted him and told him tocome to Katrina's house. Once there,
Marturo led Andrew into Katrina's garage.What happened to garage? He explained
to me that he had a problemthat he really needed help with. He

(01:08:33):
told me to pick up a paragarter's back and opened them up. I
did. Happened to be Vody inside. Who was inside sham? He told
me he needs my help to makeher smaller. He tell you how she

(01:08:55):
does? No, but it waspretty obvious. What'd you see? Her
head was cute? That's what happened. After that, we just remembered,
how'd you dismember anything? Machete?So you used machete to chop the land

(01:09:16):
though arms because it was easy.Tried it on the legs, didn't work
out so good, so switched tothe blade side, switched side sauside,
and yeah, how much of thisblade is saft? The hold back,
it's the whole so so basically you'vegot bigger hands off, yes, yeah,
so does it go right through it? No problem pretty much? Yeah,

(01:09:39):
how about the neck, No,it was rather easy saw or just
chopped. Now that the authorities hadAndrew's cooperation, they didn't need Katrina's anymore,
and frankly, she didn't really givethem anything useful anyway. She claimed
she didn't witness Shannon's and that Arturonever told Katrina how Shannon died, which

(01:10:04):
was pretty unlikely and also completely unbelievable. So here's what you want these police
and prosecutors to believe. You hadthis nine year relationship where you always seem
to get back together, and he'stelling me everybody else on the planet how
he killed Sharon. But you,yeah, that I do wonder because really,

(01:10:27):
no, he shows up with anaudience and you don't see what the
fun happens. I've never had aclient take a deal where I've had to
work this hard to get them.I mean, this is ridigulously. I've
never been in trouble like this year. I've never had another client be so
stupid that for five meetings they woulddeny, deny, deny, and then
oh yeah and smart and say,well, I didn't want to get in

(01:10:49):
trouble have to repeat a meeting,told there's nothing you could say that you're
going to get in trouble about,okay, So the only thing that jeopardizes
your deal is you not yourself andnot concerned you're going to hang yourself.
In the end, Katrina did hangherself, and prosecutors were able to convince

(01:11:12):
a judge that Katrina Layton was stilllying. In this case, Katrina absolutely
had to get out of the jailfree card. She could have said anything
up to an including that she actuallykilled Shannon, and nothing could have happened
to her as a result. Theonly way she could have blown this is
the way she did by telling provablelies to us. As a result of

(01:11:38):
that, she faced the full bruntof the case, just like Arturo did.
Eventually, Arturo made the decision toplead guilty in this case, and
during his plea, he had theopportunity, as did Katrina early on,
to just tell the truth. Becausehis few sure was sealed, Arturo knew

(01:12:01):
that one way or another he wasgoing down for Shannon's murder, so he
decided to also accept a plea.When Arturo sat down with prosecutors, he
explained his side of the story.According to him. On February twenty fifth,
twenty seventeen, he was at Shannon'sapartment, which was also his apartment

(01:12:25):
because Shannon let him live there.That night, he got into an argument
with Shannon shortly before she left forwork. In order to calm himself down,
Arturo decided to walk to a localbar and have some drinks. While
there, he also decided to callKatrina, and, thinking that Shannon would

(01:12:45):
be working all night, and beingthe degenerate scumbag that he is, he
invited Katrina to Shannon's apartment. Itwas basically just Channa, a few dreams,
chill out. I called Shane fora little nightcap and I told her,
you know, a lacture she wouldlike to come by. She agreed,

(01:13:08):
she came over. I left theback door over her so when she
gets here she can just go in. Because I was still at the bar,
I told her, you know,just going and make yourself at home
and to get there. Arturo agreedto meet Katrina at Shannon's apartment, but
when he got there, he sawthat Shannon's car was parked outside, presumably

(01:13:30):
Shannon had come home early. Somethingto note here is that Arturo refers to
Shannon by her nickname Star. Iscared the shit out of me because I
knew either Chrina was there or shewas about to be there. I went
to the house. As soon asI got to the door, I already
heard her commotion. The dog wasbarking on crazy, a bunch of yelling

(01:13:53):
and screaming and shit and noise.I walked in the house. I was
swinging, grabbing hair. Shannon goesover. She's in the living room.
There's a part of the room whereI keep all my tools. She grabbed
the hammer and she hits started withthe hammer. I think, just an

(01:14:13):
ing of moment, you know whatI mean. She she grabbed a hammer.
She grabbed the hammer that was sittingnext to hers. According to Arturo,
he witnessed Katrina murder Shannon by hittingher in the head several times with
a claw hammer, after which heand Katrina started the very, very long
process of trying to cover up thismurder. We dragged it all the way

(01:14:39):
to the path. And how'd youclean the blood up? Which? How
much blood was it? She's eatingpretty bad. She dragged her the bathroom
and put her in the bathtub,clothes on, clothes off. He shaved
her head. Why'd you shave herhead? It? I don't know what

(01:15:01):
to do at the time, soI was just trying to figure out a
way to cover it up. Eventually, our Turo and Katrina moved Shannon into
the trunk of Shannon's car and droveto Katrina's house. When I don't get
over there it was really cold outand suggests that I should call and who's

(01:15:25):
who's searching for on Trina's phone?For fifty five gallon tots and bings and
why is she searching for that?She had this crazy idea that if we
got rid of the body completely,boord some acid on that. According to

(01:15:49):
our Turo, Katrina was committed todissolving Shannon's body and acid while she was
googling the best kind of barrels andbins to do this with, because that's
what you do when you're a dumbmurderer. Arturo called his friend Andrew Herman,
who eventually arrived at the garage withhis machete. Then Andrew dismembered Shannon,

(01:16:16):
while Arturo assisted tell us about howshe's dismembered. He was just grabbing
you would hit her with the withthe the machete. Machete was like half
a saw. Also they had liketeeth on the back of machet, so
like every time it got caught,you would and she got put in at

(01:16:41):
who put in the toe? Katrinaand Arturo transported Shannon back to Shannon's apartment.
A few days later. They pouredacid on her torso and the portion
of her head that revealed the causeof death. Upolated the body, ras

(01:17:02):
and legs out of there and putthem in bags, and we lade her
out with the bigger soap, andwefore to ask that part of the body,
the head. As for the remainingbody parts, Martro explained that they
folded up Shannon's arms and legs andkept them in Shannon's apartment freezer. She

(01:17:28):
was in the freezer at the fridgeyour house March, April, May and
June for four months. That's kindto be a big freezer. She sh
just folded up. It was justhaunts and legs. It was just folded
up. What do you guys thinkingyou're living there? Right? He got

(01:17:49):
arms and legs and a freezer inyour freezer and you got the rest of
her in a toe soak it guystalking about it what do you lock?
Arturo, Katrina, and Katrina's twochildren lived in Shannon's apartment for five months.

(01:18:10):
Presumably Arturo and Katrina were sleeping togetheron Shannon's bed. During this time.
They were using her car, usingher cell phone, and using her
welfare card, all the while someof Shannon was crammed into the refrigerator freezer

(01:18:32):
while the rest of her was dissolvingin acid. Truly a horror house.
You just dissolved, Uh, thegoogle that used to be here by right

(01:18:57):
foot in buckets and who drove weon our way to pick up her kids
or whatever whenever our kid would getoff the school. I can't remember her
son and we were dumb. Well, the remains on the shoot called La
Marstet. Imagine that conversation. Hey, honey, don't forget on our way

(01:19:20):
back from picking up the kids,we need to drop off some of the
human sludge that we've been hiding inthe back room. Let's let's not forget
that. It's kind of piling upback there, and you know, we
should probably get rid of some ofthat, clean that out, do a
little spring cleaning. You know,maybe we can repurpose that space, you

(01:19:40):
know, put some boxes back there, go down to the container store.
Still got We ran a little moneyfollow after a while, especially when we
had two apartments. So once oncewe got full, we moved into the
second apartment. We had plenty ongetting more last okay, so you were
happy with how they asked for fromthe part you did. Arturo and Katrina

(01:20:03):
planned to dissolve the rest of Shannonin acid, but they never got the
chance after police came knocking on theirdoor and asking questions. Shannon was moved
into a chest freezer and eventually foundherself in the basement of Arturo's friend's house.

(01:20:24):
After that friend named Arturo, someof the truth came out, but
even to this day, nobody butKatrina and our Turo no for sure who
killed Shannon Graves. At this point, there is no proof positive one answered

(01:20:45):
to who killed from Shannon Graves inthis case, though interestingly enough, it
was Arturo who identified Katrina as thekiller, but Katrina never identified either of
them as the killer, just claimto not know Katrina killed Channon. Her
motive was a simple love triangle motivewhere she wanted Arturo ato himself. For

(01:21:11):
the majority of the investigation, DetectiveLambert only saw a motive for Katrina,
but as time went on, hebegan to see that Arturo may have had
a motive as well. You know, I felt about it. I never
told you any different. You hadall the motive. I didn't see what
his motive is. But now I'mseeing a motive for him, and I'm

(01:21:34):
seeing a motive that's actually getting alittle more twofold. It's not just about
you and Shannon, It's about otherthings too. What did Anthony do for
money? Apparently Arturo had this mowhere he would use women to support himself.

(01:21:54):
Judging by a current peripheral look atsociety, he doesn't appear to be
the only one. He did itwith Shannon and countless women before her,
including Katrina. Katrina liked him.She was I think she was just cool.
She's just so hungry for love.You know that she wanted some Mary

(01:22:15):
to love her. She him atthe fucking bus station downtown. Okay,
but you know he was homeless orsomeone just got a jail or something.
I don't even know. But heend up moving at her house on Tremble
because they were dating and not dating, dating and not dating to me,
when he wanted something that they weredating. Then when he did want something,
they want dating whenever there was incomepastime, He's up her ass.

(01:22:40):
She's a single mom, she's alreadystruggling, she's working two jobs, and
you come in and you have noproblems, take money, taking the money,
taking it from her mouse. Arturowas a taker and a user,
oh and also a liar. Duringthe time he was dating Shannon, he

(01:23:00):
was still sleeping with Katrina. Whencops looked over his phone records and emails,
they also discovered that he was carryingon sexual relationships with at least three
other women. Where do these peopleeven find the time to do this shit?
I guess it must be a loteasier when you don't have a job.
In any case, it didn't takeShannon long to recognize the kind of

(01:23:25):
guy that Arturo was, so duringthe investigation it became a parent that Shannon
was on kind of a last chanceagreement with Arturo, and given the history
of their relationship and Katrina's, eventuallythis was going to end. So the
best motive I could come up withwas that Arturo's use of Shannon to help

(01:23:50):
himself was eventually going to run out, and this was his last chance to
get what he could from her.As mentioned before, Shannon Gray Waves worked
as a stripper, but this wasa line of work that she wanted to
get out of While dating Arturo,Shannon attended and eventually graduated from cosmetology school,

(01:24:14):
and she planned to transition from stripperto cosmatologist. Arturo wasn't overly thrilled
with this idea because it would temporarilyput a stop to the money that Shannon
was making as a stripper, whichdirectly benefited him. Did she ever cause
me calling license? Would she cuthair at She didn't. She got her

(01:24:36):
license, and that's when she waswith him, And I think he was
just I didn't really want her tobetter herself. I was just pushing hers
to keep dancing. According to Shannon'scoworkers, who knew her by her nickname
Star, Shannon was committed to hergoals and she felt that if she was
going to achieve them, she wasgoing to have to kick her worthless,

(01:25:00):
unemployed boyfriend out of her apartment.Smart girl, so she remembers working with
her, said they were fighting,and who was fighting? Anthony Starr,
Yeah, says she was talking abouthow she needed to get away from him.
It was no good. The girlsaid she just started working there and
didn't think nothing of it, thatit was just another girl talking about their

(01:25:21):
loser boyfriend. If Katrina killed ShannonGraves, her motive was jealousy. If
Arturo killed Shannon, his motive wasa desperation to hold on to the things
that Shannon was providing for him,maybe in anger that they might be taken
away again. Arturo was a userand a taker, and apparently old habits

(01:25:47):
die hard. While sitting in jailawaiting trial, Arturo was still playing his
game with yet another woman. I'vebeen with a lot of other girls,
one of the main girls have alwaysfun with you know what I mean,
Do anything for your type, sameway around. Now your kid, make

(01:26:14):
sure your kids are good. Well, you know, if you needs somewhere
to say, I know it's outsideof the set city and all that.
Maybe you need to get away fromall that ship. Here's a guy sitting
in jail awaiting trial for dismembering hisgirlfriend and dissolving her body parts in acid,

(01:26:40):
and this other woman is offering tolet him come live with her and
her children. I mean, Idon't even I don't even have words for
this. How desperate. Can yoube? Not a good look? In
any event, our bu Roh wasnever able to go live with this other

(01:27:03):
woman. After accepting a plea agreement, he was sentenced to forty eight years
to life and currently resides in anOhio state prison. Thank god. His
friend, Andrew Hermann was sentenced totwelve years in prison for his role in
dismembering Shannon's body. Then there wasKatrina Layton. After continuing to lie to

(01:27:30):
prosecutors repeatedly, her plea agreement wasrevoked and she pled guilty to eight felonies,
including abuse of a corpse and tamperingwith evidence. Katrina, and by
the way, this was only becauseshe was too stupid to actually go through
with the plea deal, was sentencedto eighteen years in prison. Also,

(01:27:58):
if anyone's curious, shannon dog Mollywas adopted by Shannon's sister, so she's
currently living a very happy life.Good for Molly. I know a lot
of you worry about the animals,and so do I, but Molly's fine.
Just so you know. She probablymisses her mom though very much.
I don't know that there is amoral to this story, but what stands

(01:28:20):
out to me is that what thesethree people were going to prior to Shannon's
death didn't amount to any reason whyShannon ever had to die. This wasn't
a marital situation where anybody was goingto lose anything of any real value.

(01:28:41):
It wasn't a situation where somebody wasgoing to discover that somebody had been doing
anything that everybody didn't already know about. So Shannon's death was just pointless.
It didn't serve the further anything otherthan keeping things as cool and looking at
what that status quote was. Itwasn't anything worth fighting for, but certainly

(01:29:06):
not killing for her. Shannon Graveswas a young, hardworking woman that had
a difficult upbringing. The death ofher mother at a young age led Shannon
to drop out of high school andbecome a stripper when she was only a
teenager. But as Shannon got older, she realized she was capable of more.

(01:29:30):
She earned her ged, graduated fromcosmetology school, and was working toward
the modest goal of becoming a cosmetologist. Tragically, she never got to see
that goal to the end. Instead, Katrina Layton and or Arturo Novoa carved

(01:29:53):
her head in with a claw hammer, then in a drawn out and gruesome
plot to hide the evidence the twoof them did unspeakable things to Shannon's body.
In the end, all they gotfor their troubles was years behind bars
and a lot to think about ifthey have the brain cells to do so

(01:30:19):
in a world that is saturated withhorrific true crime stories. Believe me,
it has become cliche to use thisphrase, but Shannon's murder can really only
be described one way. Completely senseless. All right, that's gonna do it.

(01:30:58):
Excuse me while I go kick somesoft for engineers around for a bit.
It's my wife now until next time, stay safe. Yeah yeah,

(01:31:30):
hey, Mike, I just joinedPatreon or whatever your swords galp is So
my entire life has been you.I'm that soccer practice like listening to horrific
murder, but it's something to saythat. Hearing any negative feedback you get
in for you just being like fuckywith my podcast whatever gives me a warm

(01:31:55):
buddy feeling inside because fuck yeah,you are completely right your podcast. You're
amazing. We love you, andthank you for making my two hours soccer
podcasts like podcasts soccer games twice aweek bearable because people you Thanks