- 2 days ago
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00And there were several homicides involving military families.
00:04There's blood all over the bed, there's blood all over the wall.
00:08Then we realized something shocking.
00:10He is a member of the Fayetteville Gangbangers, a swinging group.
00:16They're having sex at her house, they're having sex in her van.
00:20There was sex parties, there was getting together with groups.
00:25You're just like, what?
00:27That opens up Pandora's box of the potential suspects.
00:33It was scary, it was terrifying.
00:36I couldn't have picked the presser anymore.
00:38It's manipulation at its finest.
00:41That's train killer type stuff.
00:49Six deaths have stunned one of this country's best known military bases.
00:53The toll now stands at seven.
00:56How has this happened?
00:57This is 911, we just received a call from there, is everything okay?
01:14I need, I need Emily.
01:17What?
01:17I need Emily to hide.
01:19Please turn out.
01:20Okay, we need a police officer to call.
01:23I'm sorry, I'll be running out of my way.
01:26Somebody were up?
01:27Somebody shot him.
01:29I don't know if they could be able to come see us now.
01:31Okay.
01:32They're on their head.
01:33I can't see us in the house.
01:34Okay.
01:34I can't see us in the house.
01:34Okay.
01:35The call came in as a home invasion.
01:40Where shots were fired by someone who entered this home in the middle of the night.
01:47That part of town was known for being a military community where a lot of military families lived.
01:52I notice a female walking out crying.
02:01She identifies herself as the caller.
02:04Joan Shannon.
02:09Joan tells us that she was home that night with her husband, David Shannon.
02:14She was awakened by a gunshot.
02:20And then there was another gunshot.
02:23She sees this figure standing over David.
02:27And then hears them running down the hallway.
02:33She tells us that in the home were four children, all under the age of 15.
02:41She believes there's an intruder in the house.
02:44We have our weapons drawn.
02:52It's very unnerving.
02:59There's a room to the left.
03:02We find two young boys asleep.
03:15And we escorted them out of the house to their mother.
03:21There are still two more children in the house, as well as a possible shooter hiding in the shadows.
03:26The door to the right is locked.
03:34And there's loud music coming from that room.
03:36You don't know what to expect.
03:49A young girl standing there.
03:53She tells me she's Elizabeth Shannon.
03:55And she's with her friend, Vera.
03:58The two girls are in the room with music playing.
04:03Didn't hear or see anything.
04:06I escort them out of the house.
04:12But we still haven't found David Shannon.
04:18His wife, Joan, says that he was shot in their bed.
04:21We get to the master bedroom where we locate David.
04:35It was a bloody scene.
04:42David Shannon had been shot twice at very close range.
04:47Once to his forehead and once to his chest.
04:53There's blood all over the bed.
04:54There's blood all over the wall.
04:56It's just, it's just awful.
04:58There was no signs of any intruders.
05:06There was no forcible entry.
05:09It's weird.
05:13At the house, we photographed everything.
05:17We're looking for anything that could help tell this story.
05:21Near David's body on the floor, we find two rounds for a nine-millimeter handgun.
05:27We discovered a couple of weapons.
05:32The murder weapon was not one of those weapons.
05:37When we see David Shannon, we see both of those injuries were contact wounds.
05:44The weapon is placed in contact with his body.
05:51It appeared to be very targeted.
05:53It definitely looked execution style.
05:56And that's trained killer type stuff.
05:58It's not something the average person can do.
06:07David Shannon had been in the military for some period of time.
06:12He had achieved the rank of major and was having a very successful military career.
06:17When I met Liz Shannon in high school, I was there almost every day I got out of school.
06:30It was a real family vibe.
06:35David was very, very, very kind.
06:38He seemed like he had no care in the world of me.
06:40David had met Joan in Rochester, New York.
06:48Joan has a child from her previous relationship.
06:51Her daughter, Elizabeth.
06:54And then two sons with David.
07:00David was stationed in Minnesota.
07:02And then they left Minnesota and were stationed at Fort Bragg,
07:05which is one of the largest military bases in the world.
07:12Now, Ms. Shannon, she seemed like she was ready to party.
07:15She was the firecracker.
07:16But she also was welcoming.
07:19She was motherly.
07:21That's how she was.
07:23The Shannons were well thought of in the community.
07:26Who would want to come in and do this?
07:38Joan was quiet.
07:39She was consoling with the boys.
07:44We conduct gunshot residue tests on Joan, Elizabeth, and Vera.
07:49What this test will show us is who potentially fired a weapon
07:55or was close to a weapon being fired.
07:58Both Elizabeth and Vera's test comes back as negative.
08:03Joan's came back more inconclusive.
08:05It did show that she had some gunshot powder on her.
08:11That's not unusual if someone was close to a gun when it was fired.
08:15Then I take Joan so I can check her for any blood splatter.
08:21No blood can be seen anywhere on her.
08:25Not in that situation.
08:26I would not necessarily expect her to get blood on her.
08:30Gunshot could spray out.
08:33The blood from the head wound would have spattered back into the pillow.
08:37It wouldn't necessarily blow to the side.
08:39And then Joan tells us that slid down to the end of the bed,
08:44didn't go over to where David was.
08:49At this point, there's no suspect.
08:52There's no evidence that a suspect was ever there.
08:57I've covered a lot of crime over 35 years.
09:01And that kind of incident just doesn't really make sense.
09:05Fayetteville police dusted for prints and spent the morning inside the Galloway Drive home of Major David Shannon.
09:17There was a lot of attention to this case because a soldier was killed.
09:21And that was the summer where there were several homicides involving military families.
09:27They were trying to figure out what is going on here.
09:35It was a challenge to search the residents with the clutter and the disarray.
09:41There was rotting stuff in the sink.
09:45There was piles of dirty clothes.
09:49We collected some electronics.
09:53There was paperwork with email addresses and what looked like usernames for chat rooms.
09:59And they went back into the master bedroom.
10:01We locate some pornographic material, videos, photos.
10:12Which, no big deal.
10:15Until we take a closer look.
10:21The material was extremely explicit.
10:25We realized something shocking.
10:27Guess who was starring in the video?
10:29Joan and David.
10:34We see that they're involved in sexual activity with other partners.
10:40We're like, oh, okay, wow, this is, this is, all right, I didn't expect that.
10:46These folks are into some unusual things.
10:50And then you're just like, what?
10:52With this pornographic material of David and Joan, it starts painting a different picture of this typical military family.
11:06It became obvious that there were other people involved in these people's sex life.
11:12That opens up Pandora's box of potential suspects.
11:19It was one of them seeing somebody that might have a motivation to kill Dave.
11:24We asked Joan Shannon, Elizabeth Shannon, and Vera Thompson, would you come to the police department so we can get an official statement from you?
11:40We're dealing with family members, and we want to talk to these girls and this woman in a different kind of environment.
11:54Elizabeth and Vera tell us that they did not witness anything.
11:57They were in the bedroom sleeping, music was playing, and they wake up, and the police were there.
12:06Joan Shannon said that she awoke to gunfire and then noticed someone next to the bed who fled down the hallway.
12:17We asked her questions about the relationship between her and David.
12:21She indicated, hey, we have a great relationship, we're doing fine, we very rarely argue.
12:27She's, you know, asked about the pornographic materials that were found, and at that point, she admits that they were swingers, and that there were other parties involved sexually.
12:41There was sex parties, there was getting together with groups.
12:48This creates environments for jealousy and rage.
12:52The rules of an open marriage, at least for these folks, was have all the sexual activity with other people that you like, but you can't develop a relationship, you can't fall in love.
13:09So Joan is asked, you know, have you developed feelings for anyone?
13:13And very openly, very matter-of-fact, she says yes.
13:19She's actually in love with a man named Jeffrey Wilson.
13:22Jeff Wilson is in the military and lives in the Fayetteville area.
13:28And now we have a suspect.
13:30We have to find Jeffrey Wilson.
13:36They more violence again at Fort Bragg.
13:40Wives of soldiers from the same base have been killed allegedly by their own husbands, most of whom had just served in Afghanistan.
13:50More information started coming in about the other military murders in the area.
13:56Stress and the military culture, those were cited as the overriding factors in these murders.
14:01We had four homicides involving military families.
14:05The difference we had with the Shannon case is that the victim was the soldier, was the husband, instead of the wife.
14:13Any connection between these homicides, Sergeant?
14:16Not that the Fayetteville Police Department has found.
14:18Certainly the last that we've had, Major David Shannon, was an isolated instance.
14:22This doesn't appear to have any connection to these murders.
14:27At this point, we find Jeffrey Wilson.
14:40Jeffrey's married.
14:42Jeffrey has four children.
14:43He is at home with his wife and kids, and it becomes immediately apparent that his wife has no idea what he's about.
14:59We bring him in for questioning.
15:03He's not very happy to be there and not very happy to talk with us.
15:07But he does say that he is a member of the Fayetteville Gangbangers.
15:11A swinging group.
15:17David would go on to online chat groups, and he had encountered BLK stuntman, black stuntman, Jeffrey Wilson.
15:27Turns out, David Shannon is promoting his wife's services to Jeffrey Wilson.
15:36Detectives discover that initially, Jeffrey has sexual relations with Joan at the swinger.
15:41They're having sex at parties, but very soon after, they start seeing each other individually.
15:46They were seeing each other three or four times a week.
15:51They're having sex at her house.
15:53They're having sex in her van.
15:56And we find out that Joan is enamored with him.
15:59Jeffrey Wilson tells us that, at this point, David was not aware that Joan was meeting up with Jeff.
16:09But five days prior to the murder, Jeff gets a call from Joan, and she tells him that David found out about their relationship.
16:21And he has barred her from seeing Jeff anymore.
16:26Joan makes it clear that she wants to continue to see Jeffrey behind David's back.
16:31She was in love with Jeffrey, thought that he was in love with her, and that the two of them wanted to be together.
16:42A couple of hours before the homicide occurs, Jeffrey is talking to David online.
16:48Jeffrey asks about Joan, and David says she won't be coming out for a while.
16:52Within a few hours, he'll be found dead of two gunshot wounds in his bed.
17:00This is really, really harsh and cold-blooded.
17:04What amounted to an actual execution at point-blank range?
17:08We started thinking, is this a motive?
17:11Does Jeffrey want David out of their lives so that they can be together?
17:22Joan had a difficult life.
17:27She ended up in foster care at a pretty young age.
17:32Before she married David, she was in a previous marriage, and she had a child who was Elizabeth.
17:40So Joan Shannon was a single mom.
17:43She didn't have a lot of income, and during this period of her life is when she met David Shannon.
17:49He married Joan, and he adopted her daughter.
17:53He offered her stability.
17:56He offered her a family unit.
17:59But when a person grows up in chaos, after a while, that stability gets a bit stifling.
18:06And I think Joan fell in love with Jeff because she's used to chasing affection,
18:11and I think she was attracted to that repeat trauma from her life.
18:15As we interview Jeffrey, we're looking at this love triangle.
18:24He's telling us that he and Joan had developed a close relationship.
18:27He was very honest about that.
18:29But he was also very direct with us that he was not planning to run off and create this new life with Joan at all.
18:36He says, I'm just saying what I have to say to her to get sex on a regular basis.
18:45Jeff is still our only suspect at this point.
18:48But then he tells us he has an alibi.
18:50So Jeff says he was working night shift.
18:53So we contact Womack Army Medical Hospital, and they confirmed that he was working the night shift.
19:00So Jeff could not have shot David.
19:01We really did not have a whole lot of leads at that point, and we're back to square one in our investigation.
19:11Joan is very cooperative with us, but a couple of days later, that changes.
19:20She becomes more uncooperative.
19:22She did not allow us access to the computers.
19:25And she says that she's no longer willing to talk with us without her an attorney, and she's gone cold from there.
19:35This became suspicious behavior.
19:37It left a lot of unanswered questions as to what was her motive for not cooperating with us.
19:46But then information came in that completely changed the investigation.
19:51We received a phone call from the mother of Vera Thompson.
19:58Vera Thompson was the friend of Elizabeth Shannon that was in the bedroom when police came into the home the night of the murder.
20:08Vera's mother gave some information.
20:13She had heard that Joan wanted her husband, David, dead.
20:18It was a shocking turn.
20:25We're able to locate Vera.
20:27And during the interview, Vera is asked about these claims that she had made to her mother.
20:32And she admits, yeah, that, you know, that these are the statements that Joan had made.
20:40But then we get another surprise.
20:43Vera states that she does know who killed David, but it wasn't Joan.
20:48During the interview, Vera states that it wasn't Joan who killed David.
21:01But she does know who killed David, and we couldn't believe what she told us.
21:07She tells us it was Elizabeth.
21:14Vera states that a couple of days prior to the shooting, Elizabeth actually showed her the weapon.
21:19And they went to a construction site and practiced shooting together.
21:24Vera added that while they were practicing shooting, they even wore latex gloves, you know, showing that this was premeditated.
21:32At this point, we realized that our murderer could be a 15-year-old girl.
21:39It was a shocking turn.
21:45Elizabeth becomes our number one suspect, and we need to find her.
21:50But when we go to bring her in, she's disappeared.
21:52When I first met Liz, she would laugh at me because she had a swag to her.
22:06She was always laughing, smiling, joking.
22:09I don't remember her ever having a problem with nobody.
22:11But over time passed, Liz started getting a lot more aggressive, a lot more fights.
22:19You know, she was doing all these drugs, supposed to have sex with all these people.
22:23It threw me for a loop.
22:26I think, personally, a lot of her acting out was she wasn't getting the mother attention that she wanted.
22:36I think Elizabeth definitely felt like an outsider within her own family.
22:44Joan and David had two biological children of their own.
22:48So, really, she didn't have a sense of belonging.
22:51But I think, secondly, Joan's experiences from growing up and feeling expendable by her parents that she didn't matter,
22:59I think Elizabeth would feel that way, too.
23:01She was an afterthought in many ways for Joan.
23:04So, it's just easier for her to say, hey, Elizabeth, do whatever you want.
23:09When David, on occasion, would try to enforce discipline and structure on Elizabeth, it's something she's never experienced.
23:17And once David took over, she was like, man, I hate him.
23:20You know what I'm saying?
23:21He's sitting here trying to act like he's my daddy, trying to tell me what to do.
23:25She started rebelling an awful lot.
23:27And I would think, like, what is going on when I'm not around?
23:30You know, what else is happening behind closed doors?
23:39At the Fayetteville Police Department, this board often displays the names and pictures of people officers are looking for.
23:46Missing from the board this week was a 15-year-old accused of killing Fort Bragg officer David Shannon in his home.
23:52She's on the run, and she's a minor.
23:57We can't put her name out, so she could be anywhere at this point.
24:06We had been searching for Elizabeth for days, and we couldn't find her anywhere.
24:11It was known on the street we were looking for, we had been to the normal places where she would normally hang out.
24:19But then we receive a tip, and the caller stated that they believe they had seen Elizabeth at this trailer.
24:27We searched the trailer.
24:45We didn't find Elizabeth.
24:50But then we heard a noise coming from behind a futon.
24:57We pull it from the wall, and we find Elizabeth hiding.
25:10So we bring Elizabeth in, and we couldn't believe what she told us.
25:15You have a prepaid call.
25:22You will not be charged for this call.
25:24This call is from an inmate at North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women.
25:30My name is Elizabeth Shannon.
25:33When I was first arrested by the police, they took me to interrogation, and they were asking me, you know, did she do it?
25:45Once Elizabeth began to tell the story of what happened that night...
25:50I told them, me and my best friend, we were more asleep at my house.
25:59I took the gun.
26:01I went to my parents' bedroom.
26:06They were both in the bed.
26:09It was scary.
26:10I wasn't...
26:11My heart was beating fast.
26:12It was a horrible feeling.
26:14I shot my stepfather.
26:22After the first shot, he did die, and I was like, oh, my God.
26:27And it was like a reaction just to shoot again.
26:33This 15-year-old girl went in there like an assassin and shot him point-blank contact wound to the head and chest.
26:41It was somebody she called her dad.
26:44After the shooting, I picked the clothes I was wearing, the gun, the box of bullets.
26:50I threw it all in the bed.
26:53It was a guy waiting on, like, the next street over.
26:58She said a guy, who they didn't previously know, called out to them.
27:05Elizabeth said she had a gun, a dirty gun to get rid of.
27:09And the guy said, how much do you want for it?
27:10And she says, you can just have it.
27:13Yeah, but I was a guy.
27:15He took it.
27:16And I went back to my house.
27:20Me and my best friend didn't talk at all.
27:23We were just quiet until the police came.
27:25This was a shocking turn.
27:34We had a 15-year-old girl confessing to cold-blooded murder.
27:39And so the question became, why?
27:42So after we located Elizabeth and we got her downtown, she gave a statement that detailed the truth about why this incident occurred.
28:06We were so shocked.
28:20It was her own mother who had her kill, David.
28:23My mother wanted him killed because she fell in love with another man and wanted to be with him.
28:31And I think she wanted the life insurance policy.
28:34It was so much more important that she does her mother's bidding than really understanding the full consequences of what it means to take a human life.
28:53Once I agreed to it, it got more intense because she started to pressure me to go through with the actual crime.
29:04She was like, even if something happens, you won't go to prison.
29:08You won't give them out.
29:09I'll protect you.
29:10To go and say, it's better if you get caught than me, and nothing will really happen to you if you get caught.
29:23It'll be all right.
29:24That's a special kind of twisted.
29:28I told her, how do you say?
29:30While asking me to commit the crime, she started showing me attention.
29:35She started showing me affection.
29:36She would come get me and be like, let's go shopping.
29:39Joan would start to lavish attention on Elizabeth, and this is not something that is common between the two of them.
29:46And so I think Elizabeth started to crave that feeling.
29:49Joan would allow Elizabeth to sneak out with friends.
29:53She was doting on Elizabeth, so there certainly was a significant change.
29:59I was like, oh, my mom loves me now.
30:00She sees me now.
30:03She started acknowledging me and saying, I love you all the time, which she had never really done.
30:09Joan knew that no matter how poor their relationship got, that the minute she would say, but I love you and I adore you, that that would have such a powerful effect.
30:20It really is a sickening element of this case between Joan and Elizabeth, because the reason Joan is doing this is so she can manipulate her into killing David Shannon.
30:34She actually, one day after school, brought me a loaded gun and a box of bullets and was like, you need to learn how to shoot.
30:45She put it in a drawer in my bedroom.
30:49Every day for like a week prior to the crime, she was pressuring me anytime she could get me alone, that it needed to be done as soon as possible.
30:58The time passed, the whole atmosphere in the house ended up changing.
31:10You ever walk into a room and you could tell something just isn't right?
31:16That's how that felt.
31:17She told me that evening that it needed to be done today and that I needed to do it.
31:35That night, my mother knew I was coming.
31:38She had the blanket wrapped around her because she didn't want any blood or anything to get on her.
31:43This explained why we didn't find any blood on Joan after the shooting.
31:50We just couldn't believe it.
31:52After I did it and went back into the house, she was on the phone crying with the 9-1-1 operator, acting like somebody broke in.
32:13Yeah, she was not like that when I got there.
32:16She was crying, but there were no tears.
32:19Apparently, she could switch that on and off.
32:20Acting is really what was going on.
32:25I was kind of in a way to stop the shock afterwards, and I knew pretty much at that point that I had messed up my own life.
32:33When Elizabeth signed her statement, she put a little heart over the eye, and I think that it's interesting because it shows that, really, at the core, her mental state is still that of a child.
32:52But she's also a murderer, and, unfortunately, she is the one who chose to follow through with her mother's pleas.
33:03Joan was staying at the Fisher House, which is like a bed and breakfast kind of thing on Fort Bragg.
33:17And everyone was quite shocked when I came in with the military police.
33:24That was how she was arrested.
33:26And Joan had a very stoic look on her face.
33:31Elizabeth had confessed.
33:36She had admitted to the murder, but Joan took the complete opposite approach.
33:41She had nothing to do with this.
33:44Joan tried to invoke emotion within herself and kind of play the grieving widow.
33:49She was trying to avoid responsibility herself by putting all the blame on Elizabeth.
33:54It was scary, it was terrifying, but whatever was going to happen, I expected it because I knew I deserved it.
34:16Because I was a juvenile, I wasn't granted a bond.
34:19My mother, because she was an adult, got a bond set, and she actually made bail and was out and free leading up to trial.
34:36David's family was so convinced that Joan was factually innocent that they came to Fayetteville, they paid her bail, and they took her back home while they were waiting for her trial.
34:46She couldn't plan to murder a fly, let alone a human being.
34:52This is the only time I've had this happen, in almost 25 years of prosecuting cases.
34:58Joan Shannon could face the death penalty if she's convicted for the murder of her husband.
35:05I found out she was pretty much covering it with me and had nothing to do with it.
35:09I was scared, I was angry, because I felt like my mom had set me up.
35:14It was just, my daughter did this, and if she has to spend many, many years, or the rest of her life in prison, so be it.
35:25Joan, are you still here, husband?
35:27We had two people that were charged.
35:30Elizabeth had absolutely pulled the trigger, committed the murder, and she needed to be held accountable for that.
35:35But Joan Shannon was the puppet master.
35:40We made the decision that we would secure Elizabeth's testimony, and that she would testify against her mother at trial.
35:50Having a child testify against their own parents in a case of this magnitude was very unusual.
35:56I remember seeing my mom in court, walking into the courtroom, and she would look at me.
36:01Would she be able to do that?
36:03Would she stand up to it?
36:0416-year-old Elizabeth Shannon didn't say much in court, but what she said caught everyone's attention.
36:21Are you, in fact, guilty of each of those separate offenses?
36:25Shannon admitted killing her stepfather.
36:28In doing so, she avoided a possible life sentence.
36:31Elizabeth pled guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, as well as second-degree murder.
36:39She was sentenced to no less than 25 years, and no more than 31 and a half years.
36:47She was going to serve more time in prison than she had lived at that point, maybe twice as much almost.
36:53Elizabeth Shannon said she was sorry, that she made devastating choices, that she'll live with shame forever.
37:00I just remember being kind of like in a state of shock, because I couldn't believe what I did and how fast everything happened after that.
37:10Elizabeth was going to testify in her mother's trial.
37:24And I was waiting for her to say something and see or acknowledge me, and she never did.
37:33I was trying to talk to her, and her lawyer actually told her, don't talk to me.
37:40Joan had been kind of looking down and avoiding looking at witnesses and avoiding looking at the evidence, but then her daughter came in.
37:51Elizabeth took the stand, and Joan kind of perked up and paid attention and was looking at Elizabeth.
37:58Their defense was to paint Elizabeth in the worst possible light.
38:04She was involved with smoking and drinking and underage sexual activity, and that David Shannon was trying to be the disciplinarian, and that she resented him for that.
38:16She hated him for that.
38:17She wanted him dead for that.
38:18When Elizabeth was on the stand and testifying, Joan would whisper things to her defense attorney, sort of ask her this or ask her that.
38:28It was really tragic.
38:29Once Elizabeth began to tell the story of what happened that night, she was consistent.
38:38This is what I did, and I did it at the request, the persuasion, and for my mother.
38:46When the jury came back in, you know, you're nervous and are holding your breath.
38:50Joan Shannon stared into space when the verdict was read.
38:54That the defendant is guilty of first-degree murder.
38:57The judge gave the mandatory sentence, life without parole.
39:03Total shock.
39:05Couldn't believe.
39:06Couldn't believe that this is the kind of verdict that was reached.
39:12I'm just glad that Elizabeth didn't take that ride by herself.
39:20I wasn't happy, but I did feel justified.
39:25I felt at peace.
39:27I was shocked that I had to do so much time.
39:35She's not no monster.
39:37She was just misguided by a person she trusted.
39:41It's just plain and simple.
39:42She was used and manipulated by her own mother.
39:47It's sad, man.
39:48This is just sad.
39:50It's just sad.
39:51It's heartbreaking to me.
39:52I think the fact that Joan was able to manipulate Elizabeth in such a way just shows you how much power a parent has over their children.
40:05Because at the end of the day, we all want to know that we matter.
40:11And I think that that's ultimately why Elizabeth pulled the trigger.
40:14The case was one of my first, but it really has stuck with me through the years.
40:28It's just so tragic.
40:30David Shannon's life, an Army major, a father, a husband, was taken because of Joan's manipulation.
40:39When I think back about my stepfather, we didn't get along, but he was just being a parent.
40:49All these years later, I feel ashamed and I feel guilty, and I wish I could undo what I did because he didn't deserve what happened to him.
40:57And it's something I have to carry with me for the rest of my life.
41:08She was a servant to her mother's every wish.
41:11The first thought that came to mind is, what the ?
41:14That woman is accused of going to kill her boyfriend.
41:17You're almost in disbelief.
41:19She's the monster you read about.
41:22You go shoot him, and then mommy will be right here.
Be the first to comment