Episode 254

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is not intended for all
audiences. Listener discretion is advised. He told me he needs my help to
make her smaller. They tell you how she died, No, but it
was pretty obvious. Would you see her head was keiped? Hello and welcome
to season ten, episode two hundred and fifty four of Sword and Scale,
a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. Before you say any
thing, we do realize that the Android app is completely broken, but we're
working on a new one. We've been working on a new one for a
while now. It will be out next year as soon as we can.
And yeah, a lot of stuff's broken. We're working on fixing it,
and I promise you we will have it all fixed with a shiny, brand
new app. We've got so much cool stuff planned, but there's only so
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.
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you to all of the current stuff that will be going away very very soon,
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I don't forget to log in and use your discount if you're a Plus member.
All right, try to imagine this. It's midday. You're at home,
sitting or lying on your couch watching some TV. Maybe you're catching up
on a new Netflix show or finding out what the hell to be is.
You're kicking back with the TV on, flipping through your phone, searching through
social media, looking for something or someone to judge. When suddenly you feel
something. It's not some sort of spiritual awakening or realization about who you are
and you're placing universe. You're just hungry. There's a rumbling in your stomach
and it's creeping up on you. Maybe you're not quite ready to eat just
then and there, but you know that pretty soon it will be. So
you start to think what should I make for dinner? Then all of a
sudden it hits you. You're in the mood for pasta that sounds pretty good,
spaghetti sounds pretty good right about now. Yeah, So you'll walk over
to your kitchen and you'll find the things you need. You got your pot,
your strainer, your sauce, your pasta, and you've even found some
salad and bread to go along with your meal. Lucky you. But then
you think you know what would make this even better. Meat. Meat makes
everything better. Nothing beats it. Good meats on your spaghetti, right,
So you go check the fridge and damn nothing there, not even an old
gray packet of ground beef at the back of the freezer that you forgot about
it. You're just out there's nothing in there. But hold on a second.
There may be some frozen ground beef down in the freezer that you can
thaw. Yeah, that's it, the freezer. So you go downstairs and
open the freezer. But something is weird. There's a strange bag in there.
You don't recognize it. It looks like a like a black trash bag.
So you touch it, but it's frozen solid. You peel it open
as best you can, and then over whelming and awful smell smacks you in
the face. You see what's inside the bag and you can't make sense of
it. But you know what you're looking at, and then suddenly, just
like that, your appetite is gone right away. Not a good bod that
male a female. I think It's just across the western border of Pennsylvania and
sitting direct in the middle of Pittsburgh and Cleveland is the moderately sized city of
Youngstown, Ohio. Traditionally, Youngstown is known for being a major player in
US steel manufacturing, but when the steel industry saw a steep decline in the
nineteen seventies, Youngstown and its people were left without a major industry. Since
then, the city has struggled to redefine itself and has earned a bad reputation.
At one point, it was considered the murder capital of the United States.
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 agree that Youngstown isn't all that different from any
other mid sized city in America. In Youngstown, there are safe, crime
free areas and there are dangerous areas where crime is known to happen, just
like everywhere else. Back in twenty seventeen, 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 local police department and reported Shannon missing. The
lead investigator that was eventually assigned to this case was Detective Sergeant Michael Lambert.
Shannon Graves was a young girl in her twenties. We'd been living on Youngstown's
West side. Shannon Graves was a struggling hair dresser. She was going through
school, close to graduation. She had supplemented her income to pay for her
education by working as a dancer. She had a sister and a brother,
and a father who was an ex Youngstown 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
with that. Shannon was an attractive young 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 too early. According to her sister, Shannon
started stripping at a very young age. How long is she stripped? Maybe
twelve years ago that I know, maybe before that I didn't really since she's
fifteen sixteen. Shannon Graves was born in November of nineteen eighty eight after her
father cheated on his wife with another woman. Shannon's dad and her half sister
didn't even know about Shannon's existence until Shannon was six years old, when Shannon's
mom revealed to her dad that he was the father. So after, Shannon's
mom tragically died of cancer while Shannon was still very young. Subsequently, Shannon
dropped out of high school and started supporting herself by dancing at a local strip
club. Such a sad story we keep hearing in America, repeat it over
and over again. Despite the struggles that 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
twenty eight, she started looking for ways to support herself that didn't involve taking
her clothes off for money. So you see your Christmas time and when you
start to think, you know, hey, we haven't heard from Shannon in
a while. Your birthday, when did you write? March? And then
it was Easter right after she wasn't in that ant's house, which you know,
she didn't show up. It really wasn't a big deal because sometimes she
wouldn't, but most of the time she was there. So I made that
excuse in my mind. And then I 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 holiday get togethers in a row. That's when
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 time it ring, nobody answered. So
I says, this is your dead call me? Did she call me?
Beck? She goes, who is this that said this is your dead?
Jack asked, did that that was it? So I told my son test
your sister. I thought her to call me. Did he tish that number?
Did she titched? Beck? I had no brothers. When I said
something's up, that's where toils a nigger miss it versus report. After this
bizarre phone call in text exchange, Shannon's family realized that one of two things
had to be true. Either Shannon was cutting all ties with her family and
she was going about it in a very strange way, or a different woman
was using Shannon's cell phone for police. The latter seemed like the likely scenario.
When Shannon was reported missing, detectives at the Youngstown Police Department began focusing
their attention on the people that Shannon was close to, and that meant her
boyfriend and ex boyfriend. They learned that before her disappearance, Shannon was engaged
to a guy named John Scirada. John was forty one years old. He
owned and operated a small home improvement business that Shannon helped him run. She
acted as his bookkeeper and helped John with 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 make that happen, Shannon produced a commercial for
John's company that aired locally in Youngstown, and, being the performer that she
was, Shannon appeared in her own commercial room for years. Unfortunately, John's
business never really got off its feet because not long after he and Shannon got
engaged, John got arrested. He was also on the side a small time
drug trafficker, and as a result of that, had been sent to prison.
So when John went to prison, Shannon began dating Arturo while John was
away. How did she get involved with 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's life, the police quickly realized that Shannon
hung out with a pretty strange cast of characters, almost all of whom used
bizarre nicknames or aliases that had nothing to do with their actual names. Even
Shannon was known to sometimes go by her stripper name, which was Star in
any case, after her fiance went to prison, Shannon began dating someone else,
thirty one year old Arturo Novoa, who often used the alias Anthony Gonzalez.
Going forward, you'll notice that some people refer to Arturo as Anthony and
some people call him Arturo, So just remember it's the same guy. Arturo
Levo was a young man from the East side of Youngstown. He was a
self proclaimed rapper trying to break into the music world, hadn't really had a
lot of success, had a history of small part time jobs that he had
a trouble holding, and at that time he was unemployed. Unemployed Arturo lived
with Shannon in her apartment and largely depended on her for income as he perused
his music industry aspirations. As far as his musical talent, well, Arturo
wasn't necessarily a bad rap artist. I mean, I'm not a rap expert,
but it's not like it's a particularly difficult thing to do to find words
that rhyme together. In any case, to the casual, untrained ear,
it sounds like a lot of his tunes are pretty generic. Let's put it
that way. I gotta say that REPI dat is truly got worse. You
know, sick of radio stations out here 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 breaking up and then reuniting. Naturally,
when Shannon's family realized that they hadn't heard from Shannon in a while, the
first person they reached out to was our Turo. He was, after all,
still living in her apartment. That says, you guys, get an
argument or sudden we bote guppies. She came some guy picked her up as
a hold on. You're telling me that Shannon just left, left her clothes,
left her dog, and left her car. 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
relationship with her dog. What was that like? People said it was like
her. She took her everywhere and did everything, look at anything for her,
and how she of her. Shannon treated Molly like a daughter for her.
Nothing was too good for that dog. If Shannon did ditch ur Turro
and her apartment, there was simply no chance that she wouldn't take her baby
with her, making matter is even more suspicious. The police eventually spoke to
one of Arturo's closest friends, who had helped our Turo burn some of Shannon's
belongings. Not looking good, during the investigation, we learned that Arturo Novalla
had a friend named Andrew Herman who assisted him in burning Shannon's belongings. Several
witnesses actually saw this, and when we were able to catch up with Andrew
Herman, he did agree to come in and give us a statement. Basically,
what he wanted me to do is, you know, he wanted me
to help him get rid of the last of her crap that she left there.
Okay, both documents, clothes, stupid shit like that. I figured
he was being spiteful. I kind of 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
elaborate on that. That's really all he really told him. Should she left
him for some other dude? And that was it. According to Andrew,
he was just trying to be helpful and trying to console a friend that seemed
heartbroken over the fact that his girlfriend left him for another man. But now
that Shannon was missing, Andrew had some concerns. Even so, he seemed
on the fence about the idea that Arturo was capable of hurting Shannon, let
alone capable of killing her. I started thinking about that fire. I said,
you know what, I've seen too many Prime shows. This does not
look good. That and from one year he still has a dog. Yeah,
that's what I heard it. And from when I lived with her,
that dog was treated better than a freaking toddler. That was her baby.
I don't see why he has her dog. I don't see why she would
lead it. Yeah, and I think everybody thinks he killed, which is
a logical jump, I guess. But yeah, if that was the case,
I really highly doubt that. He doesn't seem like the type to do
that. I mean, eventually. The police also learned that Arturo wasn't living
in Shannon's apartment by himself. He had some roommates. Also sharing the apartment
was a young woman that Arturo had dated before he met Shannon. Her name
was Katrina Layton, and when Katrina moved into the apartment with Arturo, she
brought along her two young children. Katrina and Arturo had dated each other for
several years on and off prior to Shannon's disappearance. All accounts of the relationship
between Arturo and Katrina were that the two fought off and it was a tumultuous
relationship. In a few instances, Katrina and Shannon actually had physical confrontations because
of the love triangle situation. Naturally, after learning about this love triangle,
the police wanted to speak with both Arturo and Katrina. Unfortunately, none of
them seemed to be very cooperative, surprise, surprise, and every time the
cops went to Shannon's apartment, nobody would answer the door. And it wasn't
until we towed a vehicle belonging to Katrina 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've been knocking on doors down there, okay,
just because we're looking for Shannon. Oh yeah, I've heard something about
that. I haven't really been following it all too closely all like that,
just because, I mean, for the 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 started talking and we got back together. According
to Katrina, she didn't know much about 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, I feel like she just didn't care about other
people. She was the type that wanted to be with somebody who had a
lot of money, who could take care of her where she could just kind
of live that life and she could just kind of do what she wanted,
and just the type of person she portrayed herself as, I don't hang around
with people like that. I tried to be a nice to her because she
did live in Clown's house, and then she turned aroundself. To the Anthony,
Katrina explained that her understanding was that Shannon left her Turo for another man,
and before she did, ur Turo and 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, you know, I cannot use the car just
till I get around, So I could get around, try to get some
work, this and that. So they had some sort of mutual agreement over
the car and the dog. For months, 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 as her own. I don't think it's any
longer in service. That was like one of those minute phones, like those
a bomb of phones. But I mean I got my phone out, so
it's like I don't know, but I was using it late, temporarily type
thing. This girl disappears, Yeah, she loves behind her dog, which
everybody says as a baby. She los his phone and Anthony's I'm sorry,
not a new girlfriend, but own girlfriend who is not back because not using
the phone, was using Yeah, and so it looks weird. Yeah,
it all looked very weird. And things were only getting weirder. Not only
did Katrina use Shannon's car and her cell phone, but someone was also using
Shannon's directional card, which is sometimes referred to as a welfare card or a
food stamp cardsh Shannon left. Do you think she would leave behind her directional
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 use her card. I've never seen muse it.
That not that I know of. No. Suspiciously, after Shannon went
missing, every time our directional card was used, our turo and Katrina's directional
cards were also used at the same location within seconds of Shannon's card being used.
Huh. Now, I'm not a detective, but see where I'm going
with this. Basically, everything about this situation looked bad. But even so,
Katrina maintained that Arturo didn't have anything to do with shannon disappearance. And
I'll tell you why, because I've known him a very long time and I've
never once seen a violence side to him. Because so you don't believe you
dead, and you don't believe if she 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 that Anthony is something to her. What Katrina
didn't realize, or maybe she did and was simply playing dumb, was that
the detectives weren't only considering the possibility that Arturo killed Shannon. Maybe, just
maybe, if Shannon had been murdered, the killer was sitting in the interview
room. Maybe So do you see how tiny I am? Really? I
hope honestly, guys, honestly, guys, and all in all honesty,
I really would's Anthony, I don't think you have anything word about I just
don't. I mean, I can't see how everything's pointing. Well, yeah,
I mean I think she's a last voyt for not obviously you know what
I mean. Well, not only that, but did you get the car,
the dog, the directional card. I mean, I just feel that
she probably not some guy out doing her 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, the cops didn't have a body or any direct
evidence of voul play. If they were going to pursue this investigation further,
they were going to have to interview or 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 purposely what of you guys, It's just with
his work schedule. What time does he work? It varies like the weekends,
dishwashing. You heard that right, With a straight face. Katrina explained
that our Turo was too busy to meet with police to discuss his missing ex
girlfriend. Because our turro's dishwashing job at Outback Steakhouse was too demanding to sum
up. Katrina was clearly stonewalling the detectives, 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
there right away, my wife and your son A good boy. You know
that, male and female? I think it's In late July of twenty seventeen,
a married couple in Youngstown's neighboring town of Campbell found dismembered body parts in
their basement freezer, a pair of legs, a pair of arms, and
part of a human head. Tragically, but perhaps unsurprisingly, police were eventually
able to confirm that these body parts belonged to twenty eight year old Shannon Graves.
The next few things that they needed to figure out were who put Shannon's
body parts in there, why had they done so, and where was the
rest of Shannon. In February of twenty seventeen, twenty eight year old Shannon
Graves went missing, but her family didn't take note of Shannon's absence until she
missed three holiday get togethers in a row. Four months after Shannon was last
seen in June of twenty seventeen, Shannon's sister filed a missing persons report with
Youngstown Police Department in Ohio. About a month later, in Youngstown's neighboring town
of Campbell, a young wife was at home when she started thinking about what
to make for dinner. She decided that she wanted to make some spaghetti,
but she didn't have any ground beef to put in the spaghetti sauce. The
Camel Police Department in Ohio got a phone call from a couple who explained that
a friend of theirs had asked if they would keep a freezer for him because
his power went out and he was afraid he was going to lose his meat.
The young wife remembered that one of her husband's friends had recently stored a
small chest freezer along with some meat in their basement. Or thinking was that
she could borrow some of the ground beef 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,
Maybe there maybe some in there so I 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 unscrewed it and then I opened it up.
I saw the black trash bag. It's now horrible. I thought it was
spoiled me. At first, I was hoping that it was just spoiled me.
After finding a black trash bag in the freezer, this young wife told
her husband what she found, and he 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 that just what this is how you storyed me?
Got your scissors and it smells really bad. I'm like, why would
it? That's when I knew. I sad, Why would you? You
wouldn't put rotten meat in a freezer and 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 her head and I grabbed my ead.
It was a body, and I said, Dana, turnass to call the
police. We responded. During the initial response, we knew that we had
the remains of a white female, and at that point, because her remains
were frozen, we were not sure how 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. The body parts found in the freezer were eventually
identified as belonging to missing twenty eight year old Shannon Graves, but before detectives
confirmed that they sought to identify the person that put the freezer in the basement,
and in our subsequent interviews, the Eschenbas identified Arturo Novella as the man
who brought the freezer to their house. Why don't you start with how you
met Anthony. I met Anthony. I went over to my neighbor's house,
however, decided to be I'm guessing I'm ready bout his sound, sorry,
And I'll say between four and four and a half years. And then she
lived right up the street from me, actually not through first street, and
you started hanging around, and you know, we throw my xbox together to
typical friendships of you know. On the day after Katrina Layton was questioned by
Youngstown detectives, Arturo called a friend and explained that his power was out and
that he wanted to store a freezer in his friend's basement to preserve his meat.
A few hours later, he dropped off the freezer, put it in
the friend's basement, plugged it in, and left. Four days later,
his friend's wife decided that she wanted some spaghetti, which led to the discovery
of Shannon's arms, legs, and part of her head. After this discovery,
both Arturo and Katrina were picked up by police and brought in for questioning.
Without prompting you in any way, can you tell me everything you know
about Shannon and her disappearance and where she is that. The problem is,
like I said before, I don't know much about her. Like as a
person, I'm not really worried about personal information. I'm worried about where is
she right now? That I don't know. I mean, I just I
don't know. I so, Katrina, I honestly don't know. Since Shannon's
disappearance, Okay, you've been driving her car. No no, no,
since she disappeared, you're using the phone that she used when she was with
him. And then since she's been gone, her dog's been at your apartment.
Okay, since she's been gone, her car has been used to Egypt.
Do you understand what I'm running down here? This list of things?
We've already went over these I have now imagine we're telling this to a room
full of twelve readonable people. What do they think you did? I didn't
do anything. When Katrina was interviewed for a second time, she gave the
same oblivious responses that she'd given the first time, but now the police had
body parts in a whole lot more information. During a search warrant at Shannon's
apartment, we recovered a rent receipt for another apartment on Youngstown's south side.
It appeared to us that the couple were now renting a new apartment. However,
they were not living in it. Arturo and Katrina were living in Shannon's
apartment, but they were also paying rent for another apartment that was only a
few miles away. When detectives visited this second apartment, they found noticeable drag
marks on the floor that perfectly matched the bottom of the freezer that contained Shannon's
body parts. Clearly, someone had dragged the freezer into and then out of
this apartment, and clearly this apartment really only had one purpose the hide Shannon's
dismembered body parts. The detectives eventually concluded that their first interview with Katrina must
have spooked her and Arturo, prompting them to move the freezer into a friend's
house. Anthony just says something about buying 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 you don't live it. We were, at
least at the suppertment. It's not yet. Well, it's not like you're
living a life of luxury that you bought a freezer all the ship that you
don't have. You bought a freezer you 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 to Walmart. At this point in her interview,
Katrina did admit that she and Arturo had purchased a small chest freezer,
but the cops had not revealed that they found that freezer or Shannon's body parts
inside. When they did. Katrina's response was interesting. And when I found
the bugs, I wasn't sure if they came from the new place or the
place where. Now, what about it? If it came because of your
freezer, All of the bugs came from Brandon freezer. Because when you put
a body in a freezer, it brings bucks. The bugs came, bugs
came. Do you know what I just said? When you put a body
in the freezer? I was wondering if you I mean, I understand you're
trying to get your story out, but do you hear what I just said?
Yes, I don't even understand where you're kidding them. Okay, did
it occurred to you that the bugs let me from the bunny and the freezer?
I know because the landlord car the street from where we're right now had
a bug guy in his driveway the other 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
the freezer? That's not what brought the bugs. Why do you keep saying
because there was a body in a freezer? What do you mean there's a
body in a freezer? And what freezer? The freezer that you guys bought.
Let me show you. This is a freezer. This is the body
body in freezer. Katrina denied having any knowledge of a dead body being left
in the freezer that she paid for, and she continued to deny that she
had any knowledge of Shannon Graves being dead. Unfortunately for her, during these
emotional denials, she let a few things slip. I gain, I told
you about ten times that the missing girl is dead in your freezer. I'm
looking for some kind of reaction. I'm because he looks shocked at all.
Yeah, forget all this. Do you 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
you are in possession of all her earthly goods, So it kind of looks
like you guilty. Oh guy, it looks like I killed her. He
sure does. Okay, I have to interject here for a moment because I'm
a true crime fan and I know that 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 seventies TV show I think it was seventies.
Anyway, if you ever watched Matt Locke, there's that got you a
moment where he just pulls out of nowhere, this aha moment that comes from
the criminal just talking and talking themselves into a trap. It really doesn't happen
very often. It's kind of like a movie or TV show thing, so
it's pretty fascinating to hear it in real life. Check it out. You
guys are sitting here telling me that there'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 I mean. I'm as saying, well,
okay, Well, here's the thing, how did I know that? It's
common knowledge? I know what Henny's house looks like. Obviously the cops weren't
buying what Katrina was selling, but even after several hours of interrogation, she
simply wouldn't admit to anything. Eventually, detectives decided to just arrest her.
I'm afraid to say anything about because I don't know what you're going to try
to use against me. Now tell me 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
that? What? Wow? What the fuck? Man? Mom? They're
trying to get me for something. I need th me do it? What's
wrong? Oh yeah? I forgot to mention that while Katrina was being interrogated,
her mom was sitting outside the interview room babysitting Katrina's two children. Could
you hold your foot out straight like this? 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,
mom me love? Fuck man? What the fuck? Ma? No
fuck there? Tell me there's a body of freeze on there. Katrina sat
in her interview room with her ankle cuffed to a table as she mindlessly screamed
at her mom. Meanwhile, detectives went to another interview room and questioned her
boyfriend Martua. The last time you saw sen was when enough, like the
end of February. You have no idea what we came over. I did
not. I've said this to everybody. People who know you said this,
that you burned things up. Now I have people that know you saying you
brought a freezer to your house. When they opened it up, kiss,
what they found? What did they find? Why do you think you're here?
The charges abusive a corpse? Excuse me, abusive a corpse? Are
you mean serious right now? On that man? Yeah? Absolutely the fuck
not. Unlike Katrina or Truro denied having any knowledge of Shannon's whereabouts, but
he also took things a step further and denied ever bringing a freezer to his
friend's house. This is so long job. You're gonna lose your job.
Did you hear what I said the same about your out back dishwasher job anymore?
Dude, there's a body in a freezer. I think I said you
brought house. Yeah, your dishwasher job at I'm back is fucked Okay,
that's that's a weird thing for you to say my jobs fucked up. If
you're trying to tell me all the supposedly went to this house and supposedly put
this thing in this guy's house. This is fucking insanity to me. It
really is so I'm trying to figure out 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 ship up, and now two people who know
you said you brought a freezer with a body in into the house, and
you're talking to me about your dishwasher job. It's impossible because I didn't do
no such thing. Okay, I don't do nothing but work and sleep.
Did you, at any point take a freezer into a house in camel did
not? You did not. Marturo's interview only lasted for about twenty minutes before
he asked for a lawyer, but the takeaway was that Arturo denied everything.
Unfortunately for him, he was going to have a hard time maintaining his denials
because the cops found something very interesting when 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 in possession of the key that unlocked the padlock
that was on the freezer. Arturo was arrested and at that point his only
charge was abuse of a corpse, with eyewitnessed statements and some pretty solid physical
evidence detectives could prove that Arturo had burned Shannon's belongings and transported some of her
body parts from one location to another, but there were still a lot of
questions like how did Shannon die, who killed her? And why? Also,
Arturo and Katrina didn't buy the chest freezer until July, which was five
months after Shannon went missing. Where had Katrina and Arturo been storing her body
this entire time? The cops were not going to be able to get any
answers from Arturo because he lawyered up immediately. Katrina, however, was still
willing to try and talk her way out of the situation. The problem,
the problem, what's wrong with you? Why can't you just stop all this
bullshit? And because I'm trying to tell you that I tell us what Anthony
did. I tell us what he did, and you didn't because right now,
no, I I didn't do anything. Do you know what this looked
like? Yeah? I know what it looks such obviously let me let me
put it this way. Okay, here's Anthony. He's got you over here,
and what do you have that that she'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 think ship to that girls a dead girl.
Okay. Detectives knew, or at least strongly suspected, that Arturo and Katrina
had murdered Shannon, and whoever didn't commit the crime, helped the other clean
up the mess. Detective Lambert had a hunch that Katrina was the killer because
Arturo didn't really seem to have a motive, But again, there were still
a lot of questions. Where were you guys keeping this body? I didn't
keep about anywhere. Well, it's been 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're obviously gonna have to ask him because I
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 interviews with Katrina and Arturo gave the cops almost
nothing to work with. You understand, this looks like you did it,
and he helped you. I know, that's what it looks like. On
top of any other dand things she did to you. She was fucking your
boyfriend. It's not complicated, it's real simple. She took what was yours,
She screwed your boyfriend. Then she disappeared, and now you got all
her shit and she's in your freezer that he says you don't know nothing about.
Just tell me what happened. It's got to be better than what it
looks. It can't be as bad as it looks. I mean, I
didn't. You cannot be as bad as it looks. Kennon, I don't
know anymore. On top of the obvious questions of who killed Shannon Graves,
there was also something else that was bothering detectives. The freezer that our Turo
had moved into his friend's basement only contained Shannon's arms, legs, and a
small piece of her head. So where was the rest of her What had
our Turo and Katrina done with Shannon's torso and the remainder of her head.
When Detective Michael Lambert learned the answers to these questions, he realized that he
was right about something. Things weren't as bad as they seemed, they were
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today. In July of twenty seventeen, thirty one year old self proclaimed rap
artist Arturo Novoa was arrested after his ex girlfriend's dismembered body parts were found inside
a freezer that Arturo had moved into a friend's basement. Also arrested was thirty
four year old Katrina Leyton, who ur Turo had dated on and off for
about nine years. At the time of their arrest, they were back together.
The body parts that were discovered belonged to twenty eight year old Shannon Graves,
who went missing in Youngstown, Ohio, five months before pieces of her
were found inside this freezer. Shannon dated Arturo for less than a year,
and at the time of her disappearance, they were both living in Shannon's apartment.
After Shannon went missing, Katrina Layton moved in to that same apartment.
Homicide detectives in Youngstown believed that Arturo and or Katrina murdered Shannon, but during
their respective interrogations, neither of them confessed or pointed the finger at the other.
At this point, the evidence that the 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 abuse of a corpse here, So we've got
to find out. Yeah, we've better find out where she was killed,
how she was killed, Where was the 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 allegation yet, you right, And as far
as a motive was concerned, Katrina Layton 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 was because Katrina suspected that our Turo was being
unfaithful, and to be fair, he often was. Then after they broke
up and our Turo began dating Shannon Graves, Katrina became enraged. And there's
nothing worse than someone named Katrina being enraged, take my word for it.
And then other than actually only came over in there and they were fighting,
and it was bad. It was real that, I mean, I have
a man. She always thought he was cheating on her somebody, And there
were times I just couldn't listen to Trina anymore about Arturo, could not do
it. Like no, she was obsessed with him, dude, I mean
mad and like I mean her disdain for Shannon's. In short, if Katrina
murdered Shannon, her motive was likely jealousy. As for Arturo, Detective Michael
Lambert wasn't sure if he had a motive. One of the things that was
in my mind during the entire case was the fact that Arturo had both of
these women. He had Shannon providing money, a place to live, a
car, pretty much everything he wanted, and he also had Katrina providing whatever
Shannon wasn't giving him. On top of 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 motive between him and Katrina. Even though Katrina
had a motive and she and Arturo were clearly responsible for or involved with Shannon's
murder and dismemberment, prosecutors in Ohio did what prosecutors normally do. They offered
a plea deal to the woman so that they could have a stronger case against
the man, because you know equality. After the arrest of Arturo Nova and
Katrina Layton, the prosecutor's office entered into a deal with Katrina Layton, thinking
that she had the least amount of culpability in the case and could provide damaging
testimony against Arturo. As a result of Katrina's deal, she would received no
jail time for cooperation, which includes testimony against Arturo in the case. Shannon's
family did not react well to this deal, and they immediately began raising alarms
that it was their belief that Katrina had as much to do with Shannon's death
as Arturo did. I cannot explain why the deal was made because I wasn't
part of it. My assumption would be that after the prosecutor assessed what we
gave them, the actual murder case was still very circumstantial, and without the
push of a cooperating witness, all we really had was a tampering with evidence
case. Katrina's defense attorney worked out a pretty incredible deal on her behalf.
She was given complete immunity from prosecution. Yeah, complete immunity. The only
requirements were that she testified against our Turo and that she be completely honest.
So in the latter half of twenty eighteen, Katrina and her defense attorney met
with prosecutors several times to discuss the murder of Shannon Graves. According to Katrina,
on an evening in late February twenty seventeen, she was at home with
her two children when she unexpectedly received a phone call from Arturo. Again,
it's important to remember that Arturo is sometimes referred to as Anthony. So Anthony
calls you hysterical on the phone, Tommy, Shannon's dead, right, yeap?
And but an hour later, who's at your house? Well, I'm
kinished? So what he said when he 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
house, he had Shannon's dead body in the trunk of Shannon's car, and
the two of them decided to move Shannon into Katrina's garage. So who got
it out of the trunk? He got 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
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, she called Andrew and told him to come over
when he got there or Turo led Andrew into the garage while Katrina went into
her house. Katrina claimed that she didn'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.
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 bed together. After Katrina named Andrew Herman,
investigators began looking into the kind of person that Andrew was. What they found
seemed to substantiate what Katrina had told them. Like our Turoll, Andrew was
an amateur want to be rap artist and had made a bunch of disturbing recordings
that were obsessed with death and the occult and all things weird. Really,
like I make his music, it's all dark, weird shit, you know.
Like I used to make his music. I used to make Andrew's music
for him, like I would record it, do all that. It was
just always like real dark stuff, you know what I mean. Like even
even the rap name he goes by a strange it's dead Necrophiliac Assassin. I
made him go by DNA because that was weird. Like he's always been a
weird dude. But I always just thought it was just a gimmick for the
music thing, you know what I mean. It turned out that Andrew's interest
in dead bodies wasn't a gimmick. Apparently Andrew had a thing for cold and
dismembered corpses. Tho he has videos of people having sex with dead bodies on
his phone. One body is famous? Oh him have sex? Are people?
Okay? Andrew was eventually confronted with the accusation that he assisted in the
disposal of Shannon's corpse, and he denied it. We believe Anthony and Katrina
and possibly you were involved in killing Shannon. Andrew, what else do you
know about this? Because right now I don't think there's anybody on the planet
who thinks you don't know more about this. I don't know anything else.
I told you what happened. Despite Andrew's denial, Katrina maintained her story and
insisted that Andrew assisted Arturo in some way, though she wasn't sure how and
she didn't know what happened to Shannon's body. After Andrew's intervention. A few
days later, Katrina moved into Shannon's apartment with our Turo and eventually discovered that
Shannon's dismembered body was in the apartment. When I saw it, it was
on the floor next to the toilet. One day. Now there was two,
but you never looked in the bad Yeah. That was after we asked
if you didn't catch that, Katrina just said after we poured the acid.
At some point, Katrina and our Turo 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 one of the best shows ever made. In
any case, the main characters on that show often use acid filled barrels to
dissolve and hide dead bodies. So whose ideas that we really acid has come
up? And would say, hey, anthem, that's some acid up.
What was that discussion about? It wasn't really discussion. I just I don't
remember what. I realized that she was in the back room and that there
was still a pop. It should be noted that Katrina did not come forward
and admit that she and Arturo made plans to dissolve Shannon's body an acid before
Katrina agreed to cooperate. The cops figured this out on their own. During
the resulting media coverage from the arrest of Our Tureau and Katrina, we received
a call from a local Walmart from a cleric who recognized the pair because they
had purchased online a large amount of sulfuric acid drain opener. Anyway, Yes,
sir, he made some kind of internet 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 both They give me a word. I type
it in and it comes up, and I instantly knew, like, I
can't give this to you. So I explained to him. I said,
I apologize, but I know your name is not chicken Man. For obvious
reasons. When Katrina and Arturo placed their walmarked order for sulfuric acid, they
didn't want to use their real names, so in their infinite wisdom, they
decided to use an alias. It was 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
to pick up the acid, the sales clerk gave them a hard time about
the name that they used, but eventually they got it all worked out.
And Katrina and ur Turro walked out of the store with their twelve gallons of
sulfuric acid. What is it with Walmart and murder? Don't you know what?
They got cameras there? Okay, so the day you do the assid
there's a plastic toad. Yes, and we're putting punts into the top.
Yeah, it was her head and like the two like arm, his whole
middle part, no legs, now head, whole head. Yes, Now
you got this tube plastic container full of sham. Yeah. Uh, what
happens next? I don't remember hacking like 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 the sludgy bunch of shit there my own Katrina
explained that they let Shannon's torso and a good chunk of her head dissolve in
acid for about a week. Then our Turro incrementally disposed of the resulting human
sludge. So he told you he took 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 the legs are somewhere and as we now know
because you saw the picture. They're still in one piece, so there's no
way they make it. So there's somewhere 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 were on the other frazon. According to Katrina,
she and our Turo didn't have enough acid to this all of Shannon's entire
body, and they were still stuck with her arms, her legs, and
a piece of her head. Katrina claimed that Arturo stored these body parts somewhere,
but she didn't know where until they ended up in the chest freezer that
the couple purchased months later. There were a lot of gaps in Katrina's story,
and prosecutors were hoping that Arturo's friend Andrew Herman could fill them in,
so, based on Katrina's statements, Andrew was arrested. Andrew was eventually indicted
for his role in the case when Katrina revealed to us that Andrew had a
lot to do with the dismemberment. Once he was arrested and charged, he
immediately became a cooperator and gave us as much information as he had. Drew
agreed to cooperate. He gave the prosecutors and investigators his version of the events.
According to Andrew, on a cold night in late February of twenty seventeen,
Marturo contacted him and told him to come 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 problem that he really needed help with. He
told me to pick up a para garter'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 make her smaller. He tell you how she
does? No, but it was pretty 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
though arms because it was easy. Tried it on the legs, didn't work
out so good, so switched to the blade side, switched side sauside,
and yeah, how much of this blade is saft? The hold back,
it's the whole so so basically you've got bigger hands off, yes, yeah,
so does it go right through it? No problem pretty much? Yeah,
how about the neck, No, it was rather easy saw or just
chopped. Now that the authorities had Andrew's cooperation, they didn't need Katrina's anymore,
and frankly, she didn't really give them anything useful anyway. She claimed
she didn't witness Shannon's and that Arturo never told Katrina how Shannon died, which
was pretty unlikely and also completely unbelievable. So here's what you want these police
and prosecutors to believe. You had this nine year relationship where you always seem
to get back together, and he's telling me everybody else on the planet how
he killed Sharon. But you, yeah, that I do wonder because really,
no, he shows up with an audience and you don't see what the
fun happens. I've never had a client 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 would deny, deny, deny, and then
oh yeah and smart and say, well, I didn't want to get in
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 and not concerned you're going to hang yourself.
In the end, Katrina did hang herself, and prosecutors were able to convince
a judge that Katrina Layton was still lying. In this case, Katrina absolutely
had to get out of the jail free card. She could have said anything
up to an including that she actually killed Shannon, and nothing could have happened
to her as a result. The only way she could have blown this is
the way she did by telling provable lies to us. As a result of
that, she faced the full brunt of the case, just like Arturo did.
Eventually, Arturo made the decision to plead guilty in this case, and
during his plea, he had the opportunity, as did Katrina early on,
to just tell the truth. Because his few sure was sealed, Arturo knew
that one way or another he was going 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's apartment, which was also his apartment
because Shannon let him live there. That night, he got into an argument
with Shannon shortly before she left for work. In order to calm himself down,
Arturo decided to walk to a local bar and have some drinks. While
there, he also decided to call Katrina, and, thinking that Shannon would
be working all night, and being the degenerate scumbag that he is, he
invited Katrina to Shannon's apartment. It was basically just Channa, a few dreams,
chill out. I called Shane for a little nightcap and I told her,
you know, a lacture she would like to come by. She agreed,
she came over. I left the back 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 agreed to meet Katrina at Shannon's apartment, but
when he got there, he saw that Shannon's car was parked outside, presumably
Shannon had come home early. Something to note here is that Arturo refers to
Shannon by her nickname Star. I scared the shit out of me because I
knew either Chrina was there or she was about to be there. I went
to the house. As soon as I got to the door, I already
heard her commotion. The dog was barking on crazy, a bunch of yelling
and screaming and shit and noise. I walked in the house. I was
swinging, grabbing hair. Shannon goes over. She's in the living room.
There's a part of the room where I keep all my tools. She grabbed
the hammer and she hits started with the hammer. I think, just an
ing of moment, you know what I mean. She she grabbed a hammer.
She grabbed the hammer that was sitting next to hers. According to Arturo,
he witnessed Katrina murder Shannon by hitting her in the head several times with
a claw hammer, after which he and Katrina started the very, very long
process of trying to cover up this murder. We dragged it all the way
to the path. And how'd you clean the blood up? Which? How
much blood was it? She's eating pretty bad. She dragged her the bathroom
and put her in the bathtub, clothes on, clothes off. He shaved
her head. Why'd you shave her head? It? I don't know what
to do at the time, so I 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 drove to Katrina's house. When I don't get
over there it was really cold out and suggests that I should call and who's
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
our Turo, Katrina was committed to dissolving Shannon's body and acid while she was
googling the best kind of barrels and bins to do this with, because that's
what you do when you're a dumb murderer. Arturo called his friend Andrew Herman,
who eventually arrived at the garage with his machete. Then Andrew dismembered Shannon,
while Arturo assisted tell us about how she's dismembered. He was just grabbing
you would hit her with the with the the machete. Machete was like half
a saw. Also they had like teeth on the back of machet, so
like every time it got caught, you would and she got put in at
who put in the toe? Katrina and Arturo transported Shannon back to Shannon's apartment.
A few days later. They poured acid on her torso and the portion
of her head that revealed the cause of death. Upolated the body, ras
and legs out of there and put them in bags, and we lade her
out with the bigger soap, and wefore to ask that part of the body,
the head. As for the remaining body parts, Martro explained that they
folded up Shannon's arms and legs and kept them in Shannon's apartment freezer. She
was in the freezer at the fridge your house March, April, May and
June for four months. That's kind to be a big freezer. She sh
just folded up. It was just haunts and legs. It was just folded
up. What do you guys thinking you're living there? Right? He got
arms and legs and a freezer in your freezer and you got the rest of
her in a toe soak it guys talking about it what do you lock?
Arturo, Katrina, and Katrina's two children lived in Shannon's apartment for five months.
Presumably Arturo and Katrina were sleeping together on Shannon's bed. During this time.
They were using her car, using her cell phone, and using her
welfare card, all the while some of Shannon was crammed into the refrigerator freezer
while the rest of her was dissolving in acid. Truly a horror house.
You just dissolved, Uh, the google that used to be here by right
foot in buckets and who drove we on our way to pick up her kids
or whatever whenever our kid would get off 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
back from picking up the kids, we need to drop off some of the
human sludge that we've been hiding in the back room. Let's let's not forget
that. It's kind of piling up back there, and you know, we
should probably get rid of some of that, clean that out, do a
little spring cleaning. You know, maybe we can repurpose that space, you
know, put some boxes back there, go down to the container store.
Still got We ran a little money follow after a while, especially when we
had two apartments. So once once we got full, we moved into the
second apartment. We had plenty on getting more last okay, so you were
happy with how they asked for from the part you did. Arturo and Katrina
planned to dissolve the rest of Shannon in acid, but they never got the
chance after police came knocking on their door and asking questions. Shannon was moved
into a chest freezer and eventually found herself in the basement of Arturo's friend's house.
After that friend named Arturo, some of the truth came out, but
even to this day, nobody but Katrina and our Turo no for sure who
killed Shannon Graves. At this point, there is no proof positive one answered
to who killed from Shannon Graves in this case, though interestingly enough, it
was Arturo who identified Katrina as the killer, but Katrina never identified either of
them as the killer, just claim to not know Katrina killed Channon. Her
motive was a simple love triangle motive where she wanted Arturo ato himself. For
the majority of the investigation, Detective Lambert only saw a motive for Katrina,
but as time went on, he began to see that Arturo may have had
a motive as well. You know, I felt about it. I never
told you any different. You had all the motive. I didn't see what
his motive is. But now I'm seeing a motive for him, and I'm
seeing a motive that's actually getting a little more twofold. It's not just about
you and Shannon, It's about other things too. What did Anthony do for
money? Apparently Arturo had this mo where he would use women to support himself.
Judging by a current peripheral look at society, he doesn't appear to be
the only one. He did it with 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
to love her. She him at the fucking bus station downtown. Okay,
but you know he was homeless or someone just got a jail or something.
I don't even know. But he end 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 were dating. Then when he did want something,
they want dating whenever there was income pastime, He's up her ass.
She's a single mom, she's already struggling, she's working two jobs, and
you come in and you have no problems, take money, taking the money,
taking it from her mouse. Arturo was a taker and a user,
oh and also a liar. During the time he was dating Shannon, he
was still sleeping with Katrina. When cops looked over his phone records and emails,
they also discovered that he was carrying on sexual relationships with at least three
other women. Where do these people even find the time to do this shit?
I guess it must be a lot easier when you don't have a job.
In any case, it didn't take Shannon long to recognize the kind of
guy that Arturo was, so during the investigation it became a parent that Shannon
was on kind of a last chance agreement with Arturo, and given the history
of their relationship and Katrina's, eventually this was going to end. So the
best motive I could come up with was that Arturo's use of Shannon to help
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 was a line of work that she wanted to
get out of While dating Arturo, Shannon attended and eventually graduated from cosmetology school,
and she planned to transition from stripper to cosmatologist. Arturo wasn't overly thrilled
with this idea because it would temporarily put a stop to the money that Shannon
was making as a stripper, which directly benefited him. Did she ever cause
me calling license? Would she cut hair at She didn't. She got her
license, and that's when she was with him, And I think he was
just I didn't really want her to better herself. I was just pushing hers
to keep dancing. According to Shannon's coworkers, who knew her by her nickname
Star, Shannon was committed to her goals and she felt that if she was
going to achieve them, she was going to have to kick her worthless,
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 about how she needed to get away from him.
It was no good. The girl said she just started working there and
didn't think nothing of it, that it was just another girl talking about their
loser boyfriend. If Katrina killed Shannon Graves, her motive was jealousy. If
Arturo killed Shannon, his motive was a 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 user and a taker, and apparently old habits
die hard. While sitting in jail awaiting trial, Arturo was still playing his
game with yet another woman. I've been with a lot of other girls,
one of the main girls have always fun with you know what I mean,
Do anything for your type, same way around. Now your kid, make
sure your kids are good. Well, you know, if you needs somewhere
to say, I know it's outside of the set city and all that.
Maybe you need to get away from all that ship. Here's a guy sitting
in jail awaiting trial for dismembering his girlfriend and dissolving her body parts in acid,
and this other woman is offering to let him come live with her and
her children. I mean, I don't even I don't even have words for
this. How desperate. Can you be? Not a good look? In
any event, our bu Roh was never able to go live with this other
woman. After accepting a plea agreement, he was sentenced to forty eight years
to life and currently resides in an Ohio state prison. Thank god. His
friend, Andrew Hermann was sentenced to twelve years in prison for his role in
dismembering Shannon's body. Then there was Katrina Layton. After continuing to lie to
prosecutors repeatedly, her plea agreement was revoked and she pled guilty to eight felonies,
including abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. Katrina, and by
the way, this was only because she was too stupid to actually go through
with the plea deal, was sentenced to eighteen years in prison. Also,
if anyone's curious, shannon dog Molly was 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 probably misses her mom though very much.
I don't know that there is a moral to this story, but what stands
out to me is that what these three people were going to prior to Shannon's
death didn't amount to any reason why Shannon ever had to die. This wasn't
a marital situation where anybody was going to lose anything of any real value.
It wasn't a situation where somebody was going 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 other than keeping things as cool and looking at
what that status quote was. It wasn't anything worth fighting for, but certainly
not killing for her. Shannon Graves was a young, hardworking woman that had
a difficult upbringing. The death of her mother at a young age led Shannon
to drop out of high school and become a stripper when she was only a
teenager. But as Shannon got older, she realized she was capable of more.
She earned her ged, graduated from cosmetology 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
her head in with a claw hammer, then in a drawn out and gruesome
plot to hide the evidence the two of them did unspeakable things to Shannon's body.
In the end, all they got for their troubles was years behind bars
and a lot to think about if they have the brain cells to do so
in a world that is saturated with horrific true crime stories. Believe me,
it has become cliche to use this phrase, but Shannon's murder can really only
be described one way. Completely senseless. All right, that's gonna do it.
Excuse me while I go kick some soft for engineers around for a bit.
It's my wife now until next time, stay safe. Yeah yeah,
hey, Mike, I just joined Patreon 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 say that. Hearing any negative feedback you get
in for you just being like fucky with my podcast whatever gives me a warm
buddy feeling inside because fuck yeah, you are completely right your podcast. You're
amazing. We love you, and thank you for making my two hours soccer
podcasts like podcasts soccer games twice a week bearable because people you Thanks