The Lake Erie Murders

Narrator: As Halloween night draws near on the shores of lake erie...

Children: Trick or treat!

Brown: Halloween was her favorite.

She says, "mom, I'm leaving." and she gave me a kiss.

And I said, "well, I love you. I'll see it tonight."

And that was the last time I seen her.

Narrator: A community is torn apart by the search for a missing girl.

Will you put this on your truck?

You go everywhere. - Sure will.

Thank you.

All I wanted to do was scream.

Narrator: And when a body turns up..

O'toole: A crime like this I don't think can be equaled.

Narrator:...The hunt for a killer is on...

The community, I think, was shocked and outraged.

Narrator: ...Before they strike again.

Makes you realize that there is no safe place anymore.

Narrator: Oil city, pennsylvania, just inland from lake erie.

It's a close-knit, working-class town

On the banks of the allegheny river.

Sibble: It's absolutely beautiful.

I mean, if you ride down the four lanes

Going between franklin and oil city,

You've got the river on your right side, there.

Oil city was a place that you could let your kids play outside

Until the street light came on.

And they knew, the street light come on,

It's time to get your butt home.

Narrator: And at the heart of the community

Is 11-year-old shauna.

Brown: My first husband wanted the name her mellicus --

Franciscus -- something how.

It's like, "you're not sticking my child with that name."

He says, "well, then, what are you gonna name it?"

And I thought, like, "if it's a boy, it's sean.

And if it's a girl, it's shauna."

Narrator: And as shauna grows up,

She becomes proud big sister

To jennifer, who idolizes her older sibling.

Makin: Shauna was a couple of years older than I was.

She was tall, skinny, very pretty.

She's my angel.

She's everybody's angel.

Narrator: Following their mom and dad's divorce,

Shauna and her siblings split their time

Between their parents.

Their dad lives nearby,

And enjoys a close relationship with his kids.

As the years pass, a special bond develops

Between shauna and her two uncles.

Sibble: She was just this amazing, cute little kid.

I mean, she had a lot of friends.

You know, she she was very outgoing.

Shauna I loved Halloween. She thought that was great.

She loved to dress up, you know, and do things like that.

And Halloween, I think, was her favorite,

Except for christmas, of course, because christmas

She got presents

Narrator: For days before Halloween, shauna and her fellow

Girl scouts have a special activity planned.

Brown: The Halloween party that they were having

Was up at the nursing home on hassard heights.

And they went in, and they entertained the elderly.

Girl scouts was kind of trying to promote a thing

Where each girl scout adopted a grandparent,

And spent time with them, and things like that.

Narrator: And this year, shauna's put together her own costume.

Oh, honey, look at you.

Spin. Spin. Spin.

Shauna came in, you know, dancing,

And she says, "look, mom, I'm a gymnast."

Shauna went in, and made her own costume.

So, she went in, and she got the leotard outfit,

And a pair of shorts.

And I said, "that works perfect."

Honey.

I mean, she looked cute, actually.

Narrator: At 4:30, shauna is ready to walk the half mile

To her friend's house,

Where she'll catch a ride to the nursing home.

She says, "mom, I'm leaving." and she gave me a kiss.

And I said, "well, I love you. I'll see it tonight."

And out the door she went,

And that was the last time I seen her.

Narrator: At 6 p.M., lucy heads out to her job

At a local pizza parlor.

But just two hours into her shift,

She gets a disturbing phone call.

Brown: My boyfriend, john, who, at the time,

Was living with us, he called me

Because shauna wasn't home. And it was like 8:30, 8:45.

And he's like, "hey, where's shauna at?"

And I said, "well, he had a girl scout thing

She was supposed to go to tonight."

And I said, "she should be home by now."

Narrator: Usually, shauna is picked up by her friend,

Jennifer's, mother, after a girl scout activities.

I said, "call jen." and just as I said that,

That's when I remembered...

That jen was in hawaii.

She wasn't there to pick up shauna.

Their whole family.

Her grandfather had sold his business,

And he took everybody in the family to hawaii.

So, I forgot that linda wasn't gonna be there

To pick shauna and jennifer up,

'cause jennifer wasn't gonna be there.

I called my boss, and I said, "look, there's something wrong.

I need to go home, and I need to go home now."

Narrator: By the time lucy gets home from work,

It's nearly 10:00 p.M., and there's still no sign of shauna.

Shauna!

Shauna!

I've walked around the block, went up and down the street

A couple of times.

I walked up and down first street,

Went down a couple side streets,

You know, calling.

And that's when I called the cops.

Narrator: And when the police arrive,

They already seem aware of the unfolding situation.

Brown: Just up the street from where I was at,

There was somebody that had called,

And said they'd seen a little girl being kidnapped.

They thought they heard a little girl scream.

When they said there was a possible kidnapping,

You know, I hadn't heard of that in oil city.

I mean, it just didn't happen.

Narrator: The eyewitness, 28-year-old dan paden,

Has been in police custody

Since the incident at approximately 8:00 p.M.,

30 minutes after the end of the event at the nursing home.

Paden sees a young girl matching the description given by lucy.

He saw shauna on the opposite the road, ahead of him,

Walking towards him.

He saw her enough that he could describe

What she was wearing -- shorts, and shoes,

And a t-shirt.

He kind of said, it was a little bit chillier out,

So that struck a chord with him, and made him remember.

Also, what he saw was a gentleman.

But he was able to describe that gentleman,

And he said that it was a taller, thinner man.

He was wearing a ball cap.

He had glasses.

And he sees that gentleman walking

Basically towards shauna.

Mr. Paden says that he sort of turns his attention away...

...And he thinks he hears what is a short scream.

He also heard a car pull away, and go into gear.

And all of a sudden, everybody that he had just seen --

The walker and the little girl, shauna -- were now gone.

Narrator: Dan paden also described seeing a red car park nearby

That was gone moments after the abduction.

Obviously, mr. Paden needed to be investigated fully.

Narrator: Paden is free to go home.

But since he was the only person known

To come into contact with shauna that evening,

He remains a person of interest.

Detective o'toole revisits the site

Of the potential abduction.

That is about where mr. Paden was walking,

And shauna would have been about right here.

They would have seen each other.

And right here is where the abduction took place.

The house...Right beside the brick house, here,

Is where -- is all the father she had to make it.

It was two small blocks was all she needed to go.

Narrator: With the threat of shauna being kidnapped,

Lucy wants to continue searching for her daughter,

But police tell her to stay home.

Brown: They said I had to stay at the house

In case somebody called.

And I'm like, "well, who's gonna call?"

And they said, "well, what if it's a kidnapping,

And they want ransom?"

I said, "you've got to be kidding.

I live from paycheck to paycheck.

Everybody knows that in oil city."

And that's when I called my brother keith

And my brother clair.

It's shauna.

She's missing, and nobody's seen her.

Narrator: Lucy's brothers, keith and clair,

Immediately start searching for their missing niece.

- Shauna! - Shauna!

October 17th...

We just started looking anywhere and everywhere

We could think of,

Like, trying to backtrack everything

Where she would have went,

Or where she would have been.

Narrator: Soon, the brothers have rounded up a group,

Who spread out around the town

In search of the missing 11-year-old.

They continue until sunrise, but there's no sign of shauna.

We didn't quit until basically everybody was exhausted,

And had to just go back to the house,

And regroup, and figure out what we were gonna do next.

Narrator: The next morning, lucy heads out into the community