- 2 weeks ago
A shooter guns down a soldier at home, but behind the tragedy lies a family torn apart by sex, manipulation, and secrecy. Investigators uncover a hidden world of sex parties, swinging, and betrayal that culminates in a deadly act by a young killer.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00At Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the casualties are rising.
00:03A soldier was killed, and there were several homicides involving military families.
00:09There's blood all over the bed, there's blood all over the wall.
00:12Then, we realized something shocking.
00:15He is a member of the Fayetteville Gangbangers, a swinging group.
00:21They're having sex at her house, they're having sex in her van.
00:25There was sex parties, there was getting together with groups.
00:30You're just like, what?
00:33That opens up Pandora's box of potential suspects.
00:38It was scary, it was terrifying.
00:41I couldn't have picked a presser anymore.
00:43It's manipulation at its finest.
00:46That's trained killer type stuff.
00:48Six deaths have stunned one of this country's best-known military bases.
00:58The toll now stands at 7.
01:01How has this happened?
01:02This is 911, we just received a call from there, is everything okay?
01:18No, I need, I need to handle it.
01:22What?
01:22I need to handle it, I need to let her go.
01:25Okay, we need a police station call.
01:28I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
01:29I need to handle it.
01:31Somebody where?
01:32Somebody's in your house.
01:34I don't know if they can come back now.
01:36Okay, down ahead.
01:38I can't keep you in the house, I can't.
01:43The call came in as a home invasion, where shots were fired by someone who entered this home in the middle of the night.
01:52That part of town was known for being a military community where a lot of military families lived.
01:57They're gonna hear.
01:58I notice a female walking out crying.
02:05She identifies herself as the caller.
02:09Joan Shannon.
02:14Joan tells us that she was home that night with her husband, David Shannon.
02:19She was awakened by a gunshot.
02:25And then there was another gunshot.
02:28She sees this figure standing over David.
02:30And then hears them running down the hallway.
02:38She tells us that in the home were four children, all under the age of 15.
02:43She believes that there's an intruder in the house.
02:54We have our weapons drawn.
02:56It's very unnerving.
03:04There's a room to the left.
03:06We find two young boys asleep.
03:19And we escorted them out of the house to their mother.
03:22There are still two more children in the house, as well as a possible shooter hiding in the shadows.
03:31The door to the right is locked.
03:37And there's loud music coming from that room.
03:48You don't know what to expect.
03:49A young girl standing there.
03:57She tells me she's Elizabeth Shannon.
04:01And she's with her friend Vera.
04:03The two girls are in the room with music playing.
04:08Didn't hear or see anything.
04:13I escort them out of the house.
04:17But we still haven't found David Shannon.
04:23His wife, Joan, says that he was shot in their bed.
04:33We get to the master bedroom.
04:38Where we locate David.
04:45It was a bloody scene.
04:47David Shannon had been shot twice at very close range.
04:52Once to his forehead and once to his chest.
04:58There's blood all over the bed.
04:59There's blood all over the wall.
05:01It's just, it's just awful.
05:08There was no signs of any intruders.
05:11There was no forcible entry.
05:13It's weird.
05:14It's weird.
05:18At the house, we photographed everything.
05:22We're looking for anything that could help tell this story.
05:26Near David's body on the floor, we find two rounds for nine millimeter handgun.
05:32We discovered a couple of weapons.
05:36The murder weapon was not one of those weapons.
05:39When we see David Shannon, we see both of those injuries will contact wounds.
05:49The weapon is placed in contact with his body.
05:52It appeared to be very targeted.
05:58It definitely looked execution style.
06:01That's trained killer type stuff.
06:03It's not something the average person can do.
06:06David Shannon had been in the military for some period of time.
06:17He had achieved the rank of major and was having a very successful military career.
06:22When I met Liz Shannon in high school, I was there almost every day I got out of school.
06:35It was a real family vibe.
06:39David was very, very, very kind.
06:43He seemed like he had no care in the world of me.
06:45David had met Joan in Rochester, New York.
06:53Joan has a child from her previous relationship.
06:56Her daughter, Elizabeth.
06:59And then two sons with David.
07:05David was stationed in Minnesota, and then they left Minnesota and were stationed at Fort Bragg,
07:10which is one of the largest military bases in the world.
07:15Now, Ms. Shannon, she seemed like she was ready to party.
07:20She was the firecracker.
07:21But she also was welcoming.
07:24She was motherly.
07:26That's how she was.
07:28The Shannons were well thought of in the community.
07:33Who would want to come in and do this?
07:43Joan was quiet.
07:44She was consoling with the boys.
07:49We conduct gunshot residue tests on Joan, Elizabeth, and Vera.
07:55What this test will show us is who potentially fired a weapon or was close to a weapon being fired.
08:03Both Elizabeth and Vera's test comes back as negative.
08:08Joan's came back more inconclusive.
08:10It did show that she had some gunshot powder on her.
08:16That's not unusual if someone was close to a gun when it was fired.
08:20Then I take Joan so I can check her for any blood splatter.
08:25No blood can be seen anywhere on her.
08:29Not in that situation.
08:31I would not necessarily expect her to get blood on her.
08:35Gunshot could sprays out.
08:38The blood on the head wound would have spattered back into the pillow.
08:42It wouldn't necessarily blow to the side.
08:44And Joan tells us that slid down to the end of the bed, didn't go over to where David was.
08:51At this point, there's no suspect.
08:57There's no evidence that a suspect was ever there.
09:01I've covered a lot of crime over 35 years.
09:06And that kind of incident just doesn't really make sense.
09:10Fanville police dusted for prints and spent the morning inside the Galloway Drive home of Major David Shannon.
09:22There was a lot of attention to this case because a soldier was killed.
09:26And that was the summer where there were several homicides involving military families.
09:32They were trying to figure out what is going on here.
09:40It was a challenge to search the residents with the clutter and the disarray.
09:46There was rotting stuff in the sink.
09:50There was piles of dirty clothes.
09:54We collected some electronics.
09:58There was paperwork with email addresses and what looked like usernames for chat rooms.
10:04And they went back into the master bedroom.
10:10We locate some pornographic material, videos, photos, which, no big deal, until we take a closer look.
10:25The material was extremely explicit.
10:30We realized something shocking.
10:32Guess who was starring in the video?
10:35Joan and David.
10:36We see that they're involved in sexual activity with other partners.
10:45We're like, oh, okay, wow, this is, this is, all right, I didn't expect that.
10:51These folks are into some unusual things.
10:55And then you're just like, what?
10:57With this pornographic material of David and Joan, it starts painting a different picture of this typical military family.
11:11It became obvious that there were other people involved in these people's sex life.
11:17That opens up Pandora's box of potential suspects.
11:24It was one of them seeing somebody that might have a motivation to kill David.
11:37We asked Joan Shannon, Elizabeth Shannon, and Vera Thompson,
11:41would you come to the police department so we can get an official statement from you?
11:47We're dealing with family members, and we want to talk to these girls and this woman in a different kind of environment.
11:59Elizabeth and Vera tell us that they did not witness anything.
12:03They were in the bedroom, sleeping.
12:05Music was playing.
12:06And they wake up, and the police were there.
12:08Joan Shannon said that she awoke to gunfire and then noticed someone next to the bed who fled down the hallway.
12:22We asked her questions about the relationship between her and David.
12:26She indicated, hey, we have a great relationship.
12:28We're doing fine.
12:29We very rarely argue.
12:33She's, you know, asked about the pornographic materials that were found.
12:37And at that point, she admits that they were swingers and that there were other parties involved sexually.
12:46There was sex parties.
12:49There was getting together with groups.
12:52This creates environments for jealousy and rage.
12:57The 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.
13:10You can't fall in love.
13:11So, Joan is asked, you know, have you developed feelings for anyone?
13:18And very openly, very matter of fact, she says yes.
13:24She's actually in love with a man named Jeffrey Wilson.
13:29Jeff Wilson is in the military and lives in the Fayetteville area.
13:32And now we have a suspect.
13:35We have to find Jeffrey Wilson.
13:41They more violence again at Fort Bragg.
13:47Wives of soldiers from the same base have been killed allegedly by their own husbands, most of whom had just served in Afghanistan.
13:54More information started coming in about the other military murders in the area.
14:00Stress and the military culture, those were cited as the overriding factors in these murders.
14:06We had four homicides involving military families.
14:10The difference we had with the Shannon case is that the victim was the soldier, was the husband, instead of the wife.
14:17Any connection between these homicides, Sergeant?
14:21Not that the Fayetteville Police Department has found.
14:23Certainly the last that we've had, Major David Shannon, was an isolated instance.
14:28This doesn't appear to have any connection to these murders.
14:40At this point, we find Jeffrey Wilson.
14:43Jeffrey's married.
14:47Jeffrey has four children.
14:51He is at home with his wife and kids.
14:54And it becomes immediately apparent that his wife has no idea what he's about.
15:04We bring him in for questioning.
15:08He's not very happy to be there and not very happy to talk with us.
15:11But he does say that he is a member of the Fayetteville Gangbangers.
15:17A swinging group.
15:22David would go on to online chat groups and he had encountered BLK stuntman, black stuntman, Jeffrey Wilson.
15:32Turns out, David Shannon is promoting his wife's services to Jeffrey Wilson.
15:39Detectives discover that initially, Jeffrey has sexual relations with Joan at these swinger parties.
15:47But very soon after, they start seeing each other individually.
15:51They were seeing each other three or four times a week.
15:55They're having sex at her house.
15:58They're having sex in her van.
16:00And we find out that Joan is enamored with him.
16:07Jeffrey Wilson tells us that at this point, David was not aware that Joan was meeting up with Jeff.
16:14But five days prior to the murder, Jeff gets a call from Joan.
16:21And she tells him that David found out about their relationship.
16:26And he has barred her from seeing Jeff anymore.
16:31Joan makes it clear that she wants to continue to see Jeffrey behind David's back.
16:36She was in love with Jeffrey, thought that he was in love with her, and that the two of them wanted to be together.
16:47A couple of hours before the homicide occurs, Jeffrey is talking to David online.
16:53Jeffrey asks about Joan, and David says she won't be coming out for a while.
16:57Within a few hours, he'll be found dead of two gunshot wounds in his bed.
17:05This is really, really harsh and cold-blooded.
17:09What amounted to an actual execution at point blank range?
17:13We started thinking, is this a motive?
17:16Does Jeffrey want David out of their lives so that they could be together?
17:27Joan had a difficult life.
17:32She ended up in foster care at a pretty young age.
17:36Before she married David, she was in a previous marriage.
17:41And she had a child who was Elizabeth.
17:45So Joan Shannon was a single mom.
17:48She didn't have a lot of income.
17:50And during this period of her life is when she met David Shannon.
17:54He married Joan, and he adopted her daughter.
17:58He offered her stability.
18:00He offered her a family unit.
18:04But when a person grows up in chaos, after a while, that stability gets a bit stifling.
18:11And I think Joan fell in love with Jeff because she's used to chasing affection.
18:16And I think she was attracted to that repeat trauma from her life.
18:20As we interview Jeffrey, we're looking at this love triangle.
18:29He's telling us that he and Joan had developed a close relationship.
18:32He was very honest about that.
18:34But he was also very direct with us that he was not planning to run off and create this new life with Joan at all.
18:41He says, I'm just saying what I have to say to her to get sex on a regular basis.
18:50Jeff is still our only suspect at this point.
18:53But then he tells us he has an alibi.
18:55So Jeff says he was working night shift.
18:58So we contact Womack Army Medical Hospital, and they confirmed that he was working the night shift.
19:05So Jeff could not have shot David.
19:06We really did not have a whole lot of leads at that point, and we're back to square one in our investigation.
19:16Joan is very cooperative with us, but a couple of days later, that changes.
19:25She becomes more uncooperative.
19:27She did not allow us access to the computers.
19:30And she says that she's no longer willing to talk with us without her own attorney, and she's gone cold from there.
19:40This became suspicious behavior.
19:42It left a lot of unanswered questions as to what was her motive for not cooperating with us.
19:51But then information came in that completely changed the investigation.
19:56We received a phone call from the mother of Vera Thompson.
20:03Vera Thompson was the friend of Elizabeth Shannon that was in the bedroom when police came into the home the night of the murder.
20:13Vera's mother gave some information.
20:18She had heard that Joan wanted her husband, David, dead.
20:23It was a shocking turn.
20:30We're able to locate Vera.
20:32And during the interview, Vera is asked about these claims that she had made to her mother.
20:37And she admits, yeah, that, you know, that these are the statements that Joan had made.
20:45But then we get another surprise.
20:48Vera states that she does know who killed David, but it wasn't Joan.
20:53During the interview, Vera states that it wasn't Joan who killed David.
21:06But she does know who killed David, and we couldn't believe what she told us.
21:12She tells us it was Elizabeth.
21:19Vera states that a couple of days prior to the shooting, Elizabeth actually showed her the weapon.
21:24And they went to a construction site and practiced shooting together.
21:29Vera added that while they were practicing shooting, they even wore latex gloves, you know, showing that this was premeditated.
21:37At this point, we realized that our murderer could be a 15-year-old girl.
21:44It was a shocking turn.
21:50Elizabeth becomes our number one suspect, and we need to find her.
21:54But when we go to bring her in, she's disappeared.
22:06When I first met Liz, she would laugh at me because she had a swag to her.
22:11She was always laughing, smiling, joking.
22:14I don't remember her ever having a problem with nobody.
22:16But over time past, Liz started getting a lot more aggressive, a lot more fights.
22:24You know, she was doing all these drugs, supposedly having sex with all these people.
22:28It threw me for a loop.
22:30I think, personally, a lot of her acting out was she wasn't getting the mother attention that she wanted.
22:44I think Elizabeth definitely felt like an outsider within her own family.
22:49Joan and David had two biological children of their own.
22:52So, really, she didn't have a sense of belonging.
22:55But I think, secondly, Joan's experiences from growing up and feeling expendable by her parents that she didn't matter,
23:04I think Elizabeth would feel that way, too.
23:06She was an afterthought in many ways for Joan.
23:09So, it's just easier for her to say, hey, Elizabeth, do whatever you want.
23:14When David, on occasion, would try to enforce discipline and structure on Elizabeth,
23:18it's something she's never experienced.
23:21And once David took over, she was like, man, I hate him.
23:25You know what I'm saying?
23:26He's sitting here trying to act like he's my daddy, trying to tell me what to do.
23:30She started rebelling an awful lot.
23:32And I would think, like, what is going on when I'm not around?
23:35You know, what else is happening behind closed doors?
23:38At the Fayetteville Police Department, this board often displays the names and pictures of people officers are looking for.
23:51Missing from the board this week was a 15-year-old accused of killing Fort Bragg officer David Shannon in his home.
23:58She's on the run, and she's a minor.
24:02We can't put her name out, so she could be anywhere at this point.
24:07We had been searching for Elizabeth for days, and we couldn't find her anywhere.
24:18It was known on the street we were looking for, we had been to the normal places where she would normally hang out.
24:23But then we receive a tip, and the caller stated that they believed they had seen Elizabeth at this trailer.
24:32We searched the trailer.
24:50We didn't find Elizabeth.
24:55But then we heard a noise coming from behind a futon.
25:02We pull it from the wall, and we find Elizabeth hiding.
25:15So we bring Elizabeth in, and we couldn't believe what she told us.
25:25You have a prepaid call.
25:27You will not be charged for this call.
25:28This call is from an inmate at North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women.
25:36My name is Elizabeth Shannon.
25:41When I was first arrested by the police, they took me to interrogation, and they were asking me, you know, did she do it?
25:50Once Elizabeth began to tell the story of what happened that night...
25:54I told them, me and my best friend, we were going to sleep at my house.
26:03I took the gun.
26:06I went to my parents' bedroom.
26:11They were both in the bed.
26:14It was scary.
26:15I wasn't...
26:16My heart was beating fast.
26:17It was just a horrible feeling.
26:23I shot my stepfather.
26:27After the first shot, he did die.
26:30And I was like, oh my God.
26:32And it was like a reaction just to shoot again.
26:34This 15-year-old girl went in there like an assassin and shot him point-blank contact wound to the head and chest.
26:46Somebody she called her dad.
26:49After the shooting, I picked the clothes I was wearing, the gun, the box of bullets.
26:55I threw it all in a bag.
26:56There was a guy waiting on like the next street over.
27:03She said, a guy, who they didn't previously know, called out to them.
27:10Elizabeth said she had a gun, a dirty gun to get rid of.
27:14And the guy said, how much do you want for it?
27:15She says, you can just have it.
27:17Yeah, but I was going to die.
27:20She took it.
27:21And I went back to my house.
27:25Me and my best friend didn't talk at all.
27:28We were just quiet until the police came.
27:36This was a shocking turn.
27:39We had a 15-year-old girl confessing to cold-blooded murder.
27:44And so the question became, why?
27:49They were like, why did you do it?
27:53So I told them, this is why I did it.
28:02So after we located Elizabeth and we got her downtown, she gave a statement that detailed the truth about why this incident occurred.
28:11We were so shocked.
28:25It was her own mother who had her kill David.
28:28It 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.
28:58Once I agreed to it, it got more intense because she started to pressure me to go through with the actual crime.
29:09She was like, even if something happens, you won't go to prison.
29:13You're a juvenile.
29:14I'll protect you.
29:15To go and say, it's better if you get caught than me.
29:24And nothing will really happen to you if you get caught.
29:28It'll be all right.
29:30That's a special kind of twisted.
29:31Joan would start to lavish attention on Elizabeth.
29:48And this is not something that is common between the two of them.
29:51And so I think Elizabeth started to crave that feeling.
29:54Joan would allow Elizabeth to sneak out with friends.
29:58She was doting on Elizabeth.
30:00So there certainly was a significant change.
30:02I was like, oh, my mom lets me know.
30:05She sees me now.
30:08She started acknowledging me and, like, saying I love you all the time, which she had never really done before.
30:14Joan 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.
30:26It 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.
30:39She 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.
30:50She put it in a drawer in my bedroom.
30:54Every day for, like, a week prior to the crime, she was pressuring me any time she could get me alone that it needed to be done as soon as possible.
31:05I didn't have anybody to turn to.
31:07The time passed, the whole atmosphere in the house ended up changing.
31:14You ever walk into a room and you could tell something just isn't right?
31:21That's how that felt.
31:25I couldn't take the presser anymore.
31:28I didn't feel like I had a choice.
31:30She told me that evening that it needed to be done today and that I needed to do it.
31:40That night, my mother knew I was coming.
31:43She had the blanket wrapped around her because she didn't want any blood or anything to get on her.
31:48This explained why we didn't find any blood on Joan after the shooting.
31:55We just couldn't believe it.
31:57After I did it and went back into the house, she was on the phone crying with the 911 operator, acting like somebody broke in.
32:09Yeah, she was not like that when I got there.
32:21She was crying, but there were no tears.
32:24Apparently, she could switch that order off.
32:25When Elizabeth signed her statement, she put a little heart over the eye.
32:49And I think that it's interesting because it shows that really, at the core, her mental state is still that of a child.
33:00But she's also a murderer.
33:02And unfortunately, she is the one who chose to follow through with her mother's pleas.
33:08Joan was staying at the Fisher House, which is like a bed and breakfast kind of thing on Fort Bragg.
33:22And everyone was quite shocked when I came in with the military police.
33:28That was how she was arrested.
33:31And Joan had a very stoic look on her face.
33:36Elizabeth had confessed.
33:42She had admitted to the murder.
33:44But Joan took the complete opposite approach.
33:46She had nothing to do with this.
33:49Joan tried to invoke emotion within herself and kind of play the grieving widow.
33:54She was trying to avoid responsibility herself by putting all the blame on Elizabeth.
34:06It was scary.
34:12It was terrifying.
34:13But whatever was going to happen, I expected it because I knew I deserved it.
34:21Because I was a juvenile, I wasn't granted a bond.
34:24My mother, because she was an adult, got a bond set.
34:30And she actually made bail and was out and free leading up to trial.
34:41David's family was so convinced that Joan was factually innocent that they came to Fayetteville,
34:47they paid her bail, and they took her back home while they were waiting for her trial.
34:51She couldn't plan to murder a fly, let alone a human being.
34:57This is the only time I've had this happen, in almost 25 years of prosecuting cases.
35:03Joan Shannon could face the death penalty if she's convicted for the murder of her husband.
35:08It 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.
35:30We had two people that were charged.
35:34Elizabeth had absolutely pulled the trigger, committed the murder, and she needed to be held accountable for that.
35:42But Joan Shannon was the puppet master.
35:45We made the decision that we would secure Elizabeth's testimony,
35:51and that she would testify against her mother at trial.
35:55Having a child testify against their own parents in a case of this magnitude was very unusual.
36:00I remember seeing the man in court.
36:02Would she be able to do that? Would she stand up to it?
36:2016-year-old Elizabeth Shannon didn't say much in court, but what she said caught everyone's attention.
36:26Are you, in fact, guilty of each of those separate offenses?
36:29Yes.
36:30Yes.
36:30Yes.
36:30Yes.
36:31Shannon admitted killing her stepfather.
36:33In doing so, she avoided a possible life sentence.
36:37Elizabeth pled guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, as well as second-degree murder.
36:44She was sentenced to no less than 25 years, and no more than 31 and a half years.
36:51She was going to serve more time in prison than she had lived at that point, maybe twice as much, almost.
36:58Elizabeth Shannon said she was sorry, that she made devastating choices, that she'll live with shame forever.
37:05I 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.
37:15Elizabeth was going to testify in her mother's trial.
37:29And I was waiting for her to say something and see or acknowledge me, and she never did.
37:39And I was trying to talk to her.
37:41And her lawyer actually told her, don't talk to me.
37:44Joan had been kind of looking down and avoiding looking at witnesses and avoiding looking at the evidence, but then her daughter came in.
37:56Elizabeth took the stand, and Joan kind of perked up and paid attention and was looking at Elizabeth.
38:05Their defense was to paint Elizabeth in the worst possible light.
38:08She 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.
38:20She hated him for that.
38:22She wanted him dead for that.
38:25When Elizabeth was on the stand and testifying, Joan would whisper things to her defense attorney, sort of ask her this or ask her that.
38:33It was really tragic.
38:34Once Elizabeth began to tell the story of what happened that night, she was consistent.
38:43This is what I did, and I did it at the request, the persuasion, and for my mother.
38:51When the jury came back in, you know, you're nervous and are holding your breath.
38:55Joan Shannon stared into space when the verdict was read.
38:59That the defendant is guilty of first-degree murder.
39:02The judge gave the mandatory sentence, life without parole.
39:08Total shock.
39:10Couldn't believe.
39:11Disbelief.
39:11Couldn't believe that this is the kind of verdict that was reached.
39:17I'm just glad that Elizabeth didn't take that ride by herself.
39:23She's not no monster.
39:42She was just misguided by a person she trusted.
39:46It's just plain and simple.
39:47She was used and manipulated by her own mother.
39:52Sad, man.
39:53This is just sad.
39:55It's just sad.
39:56It's heartbreaking to me.
39:57I 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.
40:10Because at the end of the day, we all want to know that we matter.
40:15And I think that that's ultimately why Elizabeth pulled the trigger.
40:19The case was one of my first, but it really has stuck with me through the years.
40:33It's just so tragic.
40:35David Shannon's life, an Army major, a father, a husband, was taken because of Joan's manipulation.
40:44When I think back about my stepfather, we didn't get along, but he was just being a parent.
40:54All 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.
41:02And it's something I have to carry with me for the rest of my life.
41:06She was a servant to her mother's every wish.
41:16The first thought that came to mind is, what the ?
41:19That woman is accused of going to kill her boyfriend.
41:22You're almost in disbelief.
41:24She's the monster you read about.
41:27You go shoot him, and then mommy will be right here.
Be the first to comment