Little Girl Lost

Summary

Cold Case Files: "Little Girl Lost" – Detailed Summary

Release Date: May 13, 2025
Host: Paula Barros

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1. Introduction

In the gripping episode titled "Little Girl Lost," Paula Barros delves into the heart-wrenching cold case of twelve-year-old Shawna Howe, whose disappearance and tragic murder in 1990 left the Oil City, Pennsylvania community in despair. This episode meticulously chronicles the investigation, the passage of time, and the eventual breakthrough that brought justice to Shawna's family after thirteen long years.

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2. The Disappearance of Shawna Howe

October 27, 1990, two days before Halloween, marked a night that would forever change the lives of the Howe family. Shawna Howe was last seen leaving a Girl Scout party, opting to walk the extra block home alone instead of being picked up by her stepfather, John Brown.

• Shawna's Mother, Lucy Howe, reminisces:
  “I used to love Halloween. I used to love to dress the kids up. Shawna loved Halloween too. She loved trick or treating.”
  (02:44)

On that fateful evening, Shawna donned her gymnast costume, expressing excitement for the night's activities. However, her departure from the Girl Scouts went unnoticed, and by 8:30 PM, Lucy began to suspect something was terribly wrong.

• Lucy Howe describes her growing worry:
  “I started getting worried. I mean, even the latest party for the Girl Scouts wouldn't last that late.”
  (04:03)

She promptly contacted the police, initiating a frantic search for her missing daughter.

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3. The Initial Investigation

Detective Brian O'Toole recalls the early hours of the investigation:
“This is before the cell phones. So then he now, at 8 o'clock at night, has to knock on doors to have somebody call the police station.”
(05:27)

The community rallied together, with over twenty to thirty law enforcement officers and hundreds of volunteers scouring every street and alley in Oil City. Despite the extensive search, no immediate leads emerged, and Shawna's absence weighed heavily on the community.

• Officer Winter emphasizes the emotional toll:
  “There's a little girl missing. How could this happen? It was almost unbelievable.”
  (05:35)

As days turned into weeks with no progress, hope began to fade, and Shawna's case eventually became classified as a cold case.

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4. Years of Searching and Dead Ends

Over the subsequent years, the investigation hit numerous roadblocks. Despite testing over 100 DNA samples and scrutinizing various suspects, no breakthroughs occurred.

• John Brown, Shawna's stepfather, expresses his frustration:
  “All the DNA tests came back negative. It was negative with all of them.”
  (18:37)

In 1995, a disturbing incident emerged when another girl, Shanae Freeman, was abducted, echoing the horrors of Shawna's case and reigniting fear within the community.

• Lucy Howe reflects on the lasting trauma:
  “He said, it's basically a cold case. It's basically dead. I said, yeah, so is my daughter.”
  (24:29)

The investigation, burdened by dead ends and misinformation, seemed to stall indefinitely, leaving the Howe family and the community desperate for answers.

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5. The Breakthrough After Thirteen Years

After thirteen years, a breakthrough emerged that would finally shed light on Shawna Howe's tragic fate. Detective Rich Graham, a dedicated state police detective, took a renewed interest in the case, meticulously re-examining old evidence and uncovering overlooked details.

• Detective Rich Graham shares his dedication:
  “Every night he was reading the Shawna Howe case.”
  (25:22)

Through persistent investigation, DNA advancements led to the identification of Jim O'Brien, one of the central figures in the case. Additionally, Ted Walker, who had previously been a person of interest, was arrested as an accessory to Shawna's murder.

• Detective Charles Daley explains the linkage:
  “When the DNA is discovered, Ted Walker's name comes in as the one who mentions the O'Brien's. It just adds up.”
  (32:52)

The involvement of the O'Brien brothers, previously thought to be incarcerated during Shawna's disappearance, was confirmed, revealing inconsistencies in earlier reports and opening new avenues in the investigation.

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6. The Arrests and Legal Proceedings

The culmination of years of relentless investigation led to the convictions of Ted Walker and the O'Brien brothers:

• Ted Walker was convicted of kidnapping and third-degree murder, receiving a 40-year prison sentence.

• Jim and Tim O'Brien faced charges of kidnapping, second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, resulting in life sentences without the possibility of parole.

• Lucy Howe recounts the emotional aftermath:
  “I think about her every day. I miss her every day. But I can say, I love you, Shawna...”
  (36:25)

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7. Conclusion and Reflections

The resolution of Shawna Howe's case brought a semblance of peace to her grieving family and the community of Oil City. Detective Rich Graham reflects on the profound impact of the case:

• “I feel sad that this happened to her, that she didn't get to grow up and live a normal life.”
  (35:59)

For the Howe family, the closure of the case after thirteen years symbolizes a journey from unimaginable loss to the hard-earned justice that finally acknowledges Shawna's suffering.

• Marissa Pinson summarizes the culmination:
  “The detectives of Oil City deliver justice as the O'Brien's and Ted Walker are imprisoned for the murder of Shawna Howe. And after 13 years, the Howe family finally has the truth and hopefully some kind of peace.”
  (36:11)

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8. Final Thoughts

"Little Girl Lost" serves as a poignant reminder of the enduring pain of unresolved cases and the relentless pursuit of justice. Through meticulous storytelling and insightful interviews, Paula Barros honors Shawna Howe's memory and the unwavering determination of those who refused to let her case go cold.

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Notable Quotes:

• “She was alive probably for five, 10 minutes, something or other before she died. You know, I'll never forget what happened to her.”
  — Detective Rich Graham (10:15)

• “The likelihood of those shoes being found on the bridge... It was placed there. And that denotes a sophistication that is not common among criminals.”
  — Officer Winter (09:00)

• “Once you hear what's done with the child, it's just evil.”
  — Officer Winter (22:18)

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Theme Music and Ads:

(All advertisements, intros, outros, and non-content sections have been excluded from this summary to focus solely on the episode's narrative.)

Transcript

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[Marissa Pinson]

I'm Marissa Pinson. And if you're enjoying this show, I just want to remind you that episodes of Cold Case Files as well as the A and E classic podcast, I Survived, American justice and City Confidential are all available ad free on the new A and E Crime and Investigation channel on Apple Podcasts and Apple plus for just $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year. And now onto the show. This episode contains stories involving violence against children. Listener discretion is advised.

[Lucy Howe]

They seen the girl being taken. That's how I found out that Shawna was kidnapped.

[John Brown]

I just walked out on the bridge and I looked on and there she was.

[Detective Rich Graham]

You get a sick feeling in your gut. You know, I'll never forget what happened to her.

[Officer Winter]

Darkness conceals a lot of evil, he said.

[Lucy Howe]

It's basically a cold case. It's basically dead. I said, yeah, so is my daughter.

[Marissa Pinson]

When an investigation runs out of leads, it becomes a cold case. Years pass and hope fades. But for the families of the victims, these cases are never cold. Truth takes time. It's October 27, 1990. Two days before Halloween in the Rust Belt community of Oil City, Pennsylvania. 12 year old Shawna Howe is leaving a Girl Scout party. Her best friend offers to walk her the extra block home. Shawna goes it alone. She would never be seen alive again. And Halloween would change forever. Lucy Howe and John Brown are Shawna's mother and stepfather.

[Lucy Howe]

I used to love Halloween. I used to love to dress the kids up. Shawna loved Halloween too. She loved trick or treating. She loved just anything to do with it. That year she wanted to be a gymnast. I remember that morning. Shawna come over and she says, mom, I've got the Girl Scouts tonight. We've got the Halloween thing. We're going up to the nursing home.

[Detective Brian O'Toole]

She got dressed in her outfit. She had tights on and a body suit and she had gloves on her arms, I believe.

[Lucy Howe]

She gave me a kiss and a hug and told me she loved me. And then she was gone. And that was it. They got out of girl scouts between 7:30 and 8:00 clock. Shawna and Joey L. Had left together. Nobody was there to pick up Shawna because I forgot. They come out of the alley where the Girl Scout meeting was and at the corner there, Joey L. Went straight down and Shauna made the left and was coming up the street.

[Marissa Pinson]

By 8:30pm Shawna should have been home.

[Detective Brian O'Toole]

I was looking for her as it was getting dark. I believe the time changed just that week or so. Lucy calls and I said, you know, Shawna ain't home yet. What time's that girl? Stout stuff? She says, that should have been over.

[Marissa Pinson]

At 9:30pm Shawna's mother starts to feel that something isn't right.

[Lucy Howe]

I started getting worried. I mean, even the latest party for the Girl Scouts wouldn't last that late. I told John to call like the hospitals to see if there had been any type of accidents or anything because I didn't have a cell phone. By the time I got home, it was 10 o' clock. There's no way she'd have been out there that long. And that's when I started panicking. I just called the police. The police showed up. They come to the house.

[Marissa Pinson]

Robert Wenner is the Oil City Chief of Police.

[Officer Winter]

Maybe she was lost. Maybe she stayed at a friend's. I think that was the hope. And then other reports started coming in.

[Lucy Howe]

You know, they have the little walkie talkie things and there was a squeaky thing on there. They had this guy Peyton at the police barracks and he's saying that they seen the girl being taken. And that's how I found out that Shawna was kidnapped.

[Marissa Pinson]

Detective Brian o' Toole recalls events from two hours earlier that evening.

[Detective Charles Daley]

Dan Peyton was walking on West first street in Oil City. He saw a little girl walking on the other side of the street. He then sees a tall, skinny guy wearing a ball cap. He hears a short scream.

[Marissa Pinson]

Detective Charles Daley was the original investigator on the case.

[John Brown]

She was grabbed and taken into a car that left immediately. Dan thought it was a small red car.

[Detective Charles Daley]

This is before the cell phones. So then He now, at 8 o' clock at night, has to knock on doors to have somebody call the police station.

[Officer Winter]

I was a patrol officer on the night shift. 11 at night till 7 in the morning. We got called in to help look for Shauna Howe. There's a lot of emotion involved. There's a little girl missing. How could this happen? It was almost unbelievable. One of our children were missing.

[John Brown]

Right away, we set up a roadblock. You stop people, you talk to them, you ask them if they'd seen anything suspicious.

[Officer Winter]

Everybody's looking. Early on, at least 20 to 30 law enforcement officers looking for Shawna. We're looking everywhere. We're talking to people on the street, going back over again to the intersections, the area. We start to look for the vehicle driving the streets, just literally doing grid patterns up and down every street, every alley. There was that urgency and that concern. After 24 hours, the likelihood of finding them alive decreases almost by the minute.

[Lucy Howe]

We knew nothing, Just wandered the house all night long. I don't remember sitting down. I remember when the light broke the next morning, word got out everywhere, and I remember looking out the window. There's all these people in my front yard. A lot of them were friends, family. There were some people I didn't even know.

[John Brown]

Local people started gathering to go out and do their own searches.

[Officer Winter]

That's how this community responds. There were hundreds of people out, volunteers, just walking and looking. The general consensus was fear. And the pressure to bring that child home for the community and the parents was unbelievable.

[Lucy Howe]

I wanted to go out and search. You know, the cops are like, no, stay here in case somebody calls. What if it's a kidnapping, you know, and they want a ransom or something? So they wouldn't let me out of the house. You ever see, like, a cage lion just walking back and forth and back and forth. That's what that living room feels like. It's like walking around in circles because there's no place else to go. You just want to scream at the top of your lungs, just let me out. But nobody would.

[Marissa Pinson]

It's been two days since Shawna's abduction.

[Officer Winter]

Coulter's Hole, It's a hunting area, some swimming. It's secluded, it's private. People go out there to drink, maybe alcohol, underage use drugs.

[John Brown]

Those Type of things in that area. There are some camps. And one fellow was driving away from his camp to go home, and he noticed something under a bridge.

[Detective Brian O'Toole]

We got a call that they found something, and they specifically wanted me to identify it. I walked up to it and took a close look at it. There in the bush was her body suit. It had been there, like, overnight. The moisture was, like, on it.

[Marissa Pinson]

Rich Graham is a state police detective.

[Detective Rich Graham]

I was on patrol duty at the time. I was called down to the scene. When I arrived, I learned what had been discovered. It now had become very serious. They tested the gymnastics suit. There were several seminal deposits on the suit.

[Detective Brian O'Toole]

I'd known with the gym clothes being there that way, that she'd been raped or molested somehow.

[John Brown]

The lab in Erie knew that. They had a semen, stainless steel, and there was enough on there to get DNA. As long as Shawna's missing and we don't know where she's at, there's a chance that we might be able to find her.

[Officer Winter]

You always want him to come back alive. And until you prove to me that she's not, we're looking for her like she is.

[John Brown]

The day after the body suit was found, we were at the station and a call came in. This guy had gone to a nearby cottage down by Coulter's hole, and he said, I just walked out on the bridge, and I looked on, and there she was. She wasn't there the day before because we were out there.

[Officer Winter]

Her shoes were found on the bridge, and there was a candy wrapper in close proximity. The area was combed by law enforcement the day before, and then she's found there at daylight, clearly indicating that the kidnapper had went back in during the dark, which with the child, and then killed Shawna and disposed of her body there. To have the veracity to go into that area with the victim on the opportunity of getting caught, it was a taunt, just like the shoes on the bridge. The likelihood of those shoes being found on the bridge, one facing one direction, one facing the other and not falling off the bridge. It was placed there. And that denotes a sophistication that is not common among criminals. So who killed Shona Howe? Somebody was toying with us. Look what I did. Can you catch me?

[Detective Rich Graham]

The body's found on a Friday. It was dark, and from where the body was, there's nothing from there until the next roadway. It was a little girl. She was thrown from the trestle, which was over 33ft high, down to the creek bed. There was, of course, physical evidence of Injuries that she sustained. Her knees were scuffed and scraped. We believed that she was alive when she was thrown from the trestle. She was alive probably for five, 10 minutes, something or other before she died. You know, I'll never forget what happened to her.

[Lucy Howe]

So I'm sitting there, and all of a sudden I hear clump, clomp, clomp coming up the steps. My brother Keith literally falls in my lap and says, sis, it's Shawna. I'm like, no, it can't be. It just can't. And Claire wraps his arms around me and he says, it is, Sis. I seen her. And I said, no, and I lost it.

[Detective Brian O'Toole]

Lucy started crying and let out a wail that I'll never forget. It's one of those whales that goes to your soul. You know what it is? It speaks to something very primal in you, and it's a whale of a mother losing a child.

[Marissa Pinson]

The day after Shawna's body is discovered is Halloween.

[John Brown]

They canceled Halloween. People were keeping a real close eye on their kids. They weren't letting them out. When you have a body of that little girl, it's hard not to get a little bit emotional. But you have to look at it objectively, too. We had DNA. That was the start.

[Detective Rich Graham]

It was a blood hunt.

[Detective Charles Daley]

If this case was going to be solved, you had to find a match for that DNA.

[Officer Winter]

A stranger abduction is more rare than an abduction from someone that knows a victim. So you have to look first at the family.

[John Brown]

We DNA tested her stepdad, John Bryan. We DNA tested the uncles. We looked at him hard, okay?

[Lucy Howe]

They even wanted a DNA test for my son. And I looked at him and I said, you want what? And of course, they're saying it's to eliminate him. Finally, John got me calmed down enough. And Carrie. John's like, mom, just let me do it.

[John Brown]

Yeah. We took a DNA sample from the boy. He was probably old enough to ejaculate. You have to start getting into everybody that she was involved with. We got into her school looking for admirers. Anything like that. Went through all of the Girl Scouts and their parents.

[Officer Winter]

It was an intense search. There was nobody not looked at.

[John Brown]

But we never got a hit.

[Marissa Pinson]

After more than a year of investigation, the police still have no leads.

[John Brown]

I felt like I was leaving a stone unturned, you know what I mean? That night, we knew that she was grabbed and probably taken into a car. There was a description of a tall, thin guy in a small red car. One of the people we were looking at was Bill Crabtree, the guy who found the body. What was he doing out there? Is he trying to throw everybody off? He was driving a small red car.

[Detective Charles Daley]

They went through the vehicle, they looked for evidence. Obviously they got his DNA. None of that matched.

[John Brown]

But then somebody called in and said that the description fit the guy named Ted Walker.

[Lucy Howe]

Ted Walker met Shauna at the pizza shop. If Walker was working for some reason, he'd always want to give the girls a hug and the girls would run from Walker so that he couldn't touch them.

[Detective Rich Graham]

We know he's familiar with the family and that he had a small red car.

[John Brown]

But eventually the DNA cleared him too.

[Officer Winter]

So many dead ends. Looking at family, friends, other possible motives, it just came up blank.

[Detective Rich Graham]

One of the main things I did was to interview folks around the neighborhoods where Shawna lived who had not been thoroughly investigated. Now, Michael Pruitt came under suspicion because he lived just a couple of doors down from the location of the abduction. Very suspicious guy. The day after her corpse was found, he got on a bus and left town. He became top of the list as far as potential suspect.

[Officer Winter]

Michael Pruitt's house was searched.

[Detective Rich Graham]

There was a cubbyhole that had been described to us, Shawna at autopsy. She had injuries to her knees that were scuffed and scraped. She was kept somewhere. This cubby hole would have been a good place where a child could have been contained.

[Marissa Pinson]

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[Officer Winter]

Somebody would have had to keep Shawna alive for three days. Michael Pruitt's house was searched.

[John Brown]

We looked at him very, very hard.

[Detective Rich Graham]

The primary focus was on this cubby hole that he had beneath the stairway. When his DNA didn't match. Believe me that everybody was upset.

[Detective Charles Daley]

There were at least 100 DNA samples taken in this investigation.

[John Brown]

Back then, you couldn't get a DNA sample with a swab. I had to take them in for blood tests. Anybody that I looked at hard, I got DNA samples from them.

[Detective Charles Daley]

There's a reason they took 100 DNA samples. That was somebody that somebody was looking at and saying to themselves, here's our suspect. The list was going on and on and on.

[John Brown]

If you didn't do anything wrong, let's get you, you know, let's get Your name out of it. I couldn't tell you how many of those we did over that couple of years, period. All the DNA tests came back negative. It was negative with all of them. It was negative with all of them.

[Marissa Pinson]

It's now July 30, 1995, three years after Shawna's murder.

[Officer Winter]

I'm on my night off. I get a call from Officer Tom McClellan. He said, Winter, we need you down here. Somebody just tried to abduct a girl. I said, what? They tried to kidnap her. They beat her up pretty bad. She's down here. I need you down here. She was walking down the street. He stalked her. He followed her out and tried to bushwhack her. It's a violent attack, and they're trying to put somebody in the trunk of a car who's capable of doing something like this. Jimmy o' Brien is. Tim and Jim o' Brien were brothers. Timmy, older than Jim. There wasn't a cop here that didn't know the o' Briens. They're sexually violent offenders. Jimmy in particular. The guy's evil. The victim said, I just know if I'd have gotten a trunk, I'd be dead. So I fought with everything I had. I arrested Jimmy for attempted kidnapping. This crime, it was on the same route that Shawna had walked home. It was on East 2nd street, the same area she had left and went through. We were still having her meetings about Shauna Howe. And I said, have you looked at the o' Briens?

[John Brown]

We knew who the o' Briens were. I arrested both of them many times, but they couldn't have done Shawna's kidnapping because they had been in jail when that occurred.

[Marissa Pinson]

It's now September 30, 1996, four years after Shawna's murder.

[Lucy Howe]

There still were no answers. I bought a computer and got the Internet, and they had that thing on there where you could go and see where all the pedophiles were around you and stuff. And when I pulled that up, I got the shock of my life of how many pedophiles lived around me. The person that took my daughter and killed her could be walking up and down the street in front of my house, and I wouldn't know it.

[Marissa Pinson]

It's now October 29, 1997, exactly five years after Shawna's murder.

[Officer Winter]

Around Halloween, we always had extra patrols, because when you don't know who did it, you don't know when they'll do it again. That killer's still out there. There's always dread every Time a child came up missing for 30 minutes. And you found him at the neighbors. Oh my gosh, did this happen again? It was the five year anniversary of the day they found Shawna Howe. That Shanae Freeman came up missing out of her backyard. Five year old little girl gone, disappeared. The family looks for a period of time before they call us. So it is going from dusk to dark. Darkness conceals a lot of evil and.

[Lucy Howe]

A lot of things that's five years later. There's still no arrest, there's still no suspects. So the fear kicked back in again. Are they at it again?

[Officer Winter]

When I came down to the station, there's hundreds of people waiting outside wanting to hear something. It was fear. There was nothing but fear that gripped the community. How could this happen again? I was thinking about Shawna Howe. I asked God, give me on my best game, man. Give me help. Cause that same fear was still there, getting dark. The boogeyman's out there. He's back.

[Marissa Pinson]

It's October 29, 1997, five years after Shawna's murder and four hours after Shanae Freeman is reported missing.

[Detective Brian O'Toole]

We heard that another girl had went missing. That brought up the idea of could it be connected because it was around Halloween time too. And we decided to go and help that family because their daughter was missing, their child was missing.

[Officer Winter]

There was a tremendous amount of pressure put on those persons investigating this case. But we had a whole different game. We were ready here. Search was immediately put underway. We had no eyewitnesses that observed her abduction. So we wanted to talk to anyone that was in the search party or around the scene at the time of the incident. There was a young man that didn't look right. His name was Nicholas Bowen. I saw him hugging Shanae's mother. And he said, we're going to help. We're going to find your daughter and bring her home. When I talked to him, his body language, it just didn't seem right. When you get in close to someone like this, they'll start to lean into you. And if you can just casually, physically touch them, they'll collapse on you. If you got it right, I said, I'm asking for your help because I think something bad happened. He laid his head in my chest and started to cry. And he, he's like, she's hurt bad, she's bleeding bad. And I said, I've seen a lot of people bleed bad and live. You gotta get me to her. We discovered Shanae buried in a shallow grave. When you see what's done with the child, it's just evil.

[Detective Brian O'Toole]

I heard that mother let out that scream and I knew what it was. Once you hear it, you would understand it because it's the most soul touching scream that a woman will ever let out.

[Officer Winter]

Most people knew that he'd been arrested. There's a couple hundred people across the street, easy. He was 6 foot 2, 200 and some pounds, you know, a man by every other standard. But his age, he was only 17 and a half. That would have put him at 12. At the time, Nicholas Bowen was too young to have been involved in Shawna Howe's murder.

[Lucy Howe]

When they said that they had found the guy and that he wouldn't have been old enough when Shawna was murdered, I was mad. I mean, I've been waiting five years and there's still nothing. You don't have any more information to give me in 97 than you did in 92. From the outside looking in, what have you done?

[John Brown]

The leads slowed. Sometimes you wouldn't. Nobody would call anything in for weeks. After a while, it got to a point where I was pretty much on my own. Somewhere around that time, retired and it went cold.

[Lucy Howe]

He said, it's basically a cold case. It's basically dead. I said, yeah, so is my daughter.

[Marissa Pinson]

The investigation grinds to a halt and time moves on. But the Howe family still needs answers. Six years after Shawna's murder. No longer a patrolman, Rich Graham now works as a detective to close the Howe case.

[Detective Rich Graham]

You're trained not to become personally involved in any case, but how do you not particularly a child who's murdered this way.

[Lucy Howe]

He came to the house one day and he introduced himself. He looked me right directly in the eyes and he says, I'm gonna solve this, you know. There was no hesitation. After years waiting for somebody to do anything felt good.

[Detective Rich Graham]

I continued to carry a normal caseload.

[Marissa Pinson]

Betsy Ross is detective Rich Graham's wife.

[Officer Winter]

He had, I believe, 72 cases. But every night he was reading the Shawna Howe case.

[Detective Rich Graham]

I'm slow, he's dyslexic. When I read something, I read it several times to make sure it sinks in and I've got it right. Sometimes the second or third look, you'll see maybe a word or a phrase that you didn't pick up on the first time.

[Officer Winter]

He looked at the autopsy photos and he looked at the coroner's report and he said, this doesn't make sense.

[Detective Rich Graham]

One of the things was a mark we saw on her cheek. It appeared to be a partial shoe print and there was not even any mention of that. In the autopsy, Betsy and I went to see Helbert Fillinger, a renowned medical examiner. We reviewed photos of Shauna's corpse. Helbert agreed that that appeared to be a shoe print we saw on her cheek. He said this was a violent rape. Pretty sick. He said somehow they held her in captivity for a couple of days, but there's no evidence of any restraints that suggested to him that it was quite possible that more than one person was involved. For many years, I always believed that it probably was just one person. This was an oh, shit moment.

[Officer Winter]

This is not one person. This is most likely two and probably more. There was only DNA from one suspect on Shawna's body, and that may be the basis for thinking there was only one person involved, but that's not necessarily true. Just because you don't have a DNA match does not mean that the person wasn't involved or had knowledge of the crime or assisted in some way.

[Detective Charles Daley]

We decided to do a big sweep again. We go back to all the local departments. One of the places we went was the fire department. 1992 fire department got called to a fire. A red car. That car belonged to Ted Walker. Ted Walker's name had been brought up numerous times. He had met Shawna at a pizza place. Walker opened his house to young kids in the area. It was like a little bit of a flop house. And Ted fit the description perfect. If Walker's car was the Chevy Chevette the witness saw and he fit the description, throw that together with a car being set on fire. Did Ted have her in the backseat? Did something take place back there? I think that that was done to destroy evidence.

[Lucy Howe]

Mr. Walker, are you aware that this.

[Detective Charles Daley]

Conversation is being recorded?

[John Brown]

Yep.

[Lucy Howe]

And no problems.

[Detective Rich Graham]

You do not have a problem that's being recorded.

[Lucy Howe]

Nothing to hide.

[Officer Winter]

Mr. Walker was interviewed here by the state police on more than one occasion.

[Lucy Howe]

How is it did you first learn of Shauna Howe's abduction? Tim and Jim o' Brien came into lunch.

[Detective Charles Daley]

He hears about the case from Jim and Tim o' Brien who come into his house. He could have made up any name. Nobody would have been able to question him on that.

[Officer Winter]

They just came running in telling me.

[Lucy Howe]

That there little girl was kidnapped downtown.

[Detective Rich Graham]

Ted Walker says the o' Briens told him about Shawna's abduction. So I asked Chuck Daly, hey, Chuck, do you ever look at the o' Briens? And Chuck said, yeah, they were in jail. They couldn't have done it. That's when I realized I had never seen a report documenting that they had been in jail on the night of the abduction. So that's when I get ahold of Trooper John McClain, who was a friend of mine. I told him, I'd like for you to get on and check if the o' Briens were in jail when Shawn was abducted. And then he came back to me and said, rick, they weren't there. They had bonded up. Now, I'm believing that these guys are good for this, and we've spent all these years and all these resources, all the while believing that they were incarcerated. I'm high on the o' Briens, and I went down to interview Tim o' Brien at the county jail. Tim o' Brien was in jail for sexually assaulting a girl, and his brother Jim o' Brien had been arrested by the Oil city police for trying to abduct the woman, trying to stuff her into a trunk. It was really a brief conversation. I said, oh, Tim, would you mind giving us a DNA sample for the Shauna Howe case? And he hesitated just for a couple of seconds. And just the way he responded, he said, well, I'll have to check with my attorney. And as I went to leave, I saw this candy wrapper. Chill went down my spine. Chill that starts up at your neck and runs down to your tailbone and kind of a little shiver. I want to get the DNA, because I think these o' Briens are good for this. After all these years, I think we may have found and ain't fond of the killers.

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[Lucy Howe]

One thing I would like you to do.

[Shopify Representative]

My mother's last request that my sister.

[Marissa Pinson]

And I finish writing the memoir she'd.

[Shopify Representative]

Started about her German childhood when her father designed a secret superweapon for Adolf Hitler. My grandfather, Robert Lesser, headed the Nazi project to build the world's first cruise missile, which terrorized millions and left a legacy that dogged my mother like a curse.

[Officer Winter]

She had some secrets.

[Detective Rich Graham]

Mom had some secrets.

[Shopify Representative]

I'm Suzanne Rico. Join my sister and me as we search for the truth behind our grandfather's work and for the first time, face the ghosts of our past.

[Detective Rich Graham]

Jeez, my.

[Officer Winter]

Who is he?

[Marissa Pinson]

Listen to the man who calculated death.

[Shopify Representative]

Available now wherever you get your podcasts.

[Marissa Pinson]

It's now February 2002, 20 years after Shawna's murder.

[Detective Rich Graham]

Early February is when I got the call from the crime lab. Jim o' Brien's a match.

[Detective Charles Daley]

When the DNA is discovered, Ted Walker's name comes in as the one who mentions the o' Brien's. It just adds up. It is three people. Jim and Tim o' Brien and Ted Walker.

[Officer Winter]

Ted Walker was arrested as an accessory to the to the homicide of Shauna Howe. We're going to take this back to 1992. We know that a witness saw somebody walk up to Shauna Howe, isn't that right? Right. And who was that person the witness saw? Right. So you walk up to her and as you're approaching her, you said you asked her what she'll sound girls up. Okay. And why do you ask her that?

[Lucy Howe]

Because I like ordering girls come.

[Officer Winter]

Right, I know that, but just make.

[Lucy Howe]

Her feel at ease.

[Officer Winter]

Make her feel at ease. Then what do you do?

[Lucy Howe]

Well, I grab a hold of her and take her back.

[Officer Winter]

How did you grab her? Put her around the shoulder.

[Lucy Howe]

You grab her, carry it out, hand her to Tim.

[Officer Winter]

You hand her to Tim.

[Detective Charles Daley]

So there's Walker hand in her off to somebody. Then there's somebody driving the car. And they're all three involved in that.

[Officer Winter]

You get back to your house. What's the Next thing that happens, they.

[Lucy Howe]

Come in carrying Shawna and going up the steps.

[Detective Charles Daley]

The o' Briens, those guys have a little girl that to them, that's a playground.

[John Brown]

Once they got upstairs, I heard her.

[Lucy Howe]

Screaming, struggling, leave me go. Get off me.

[Detective Charles Daley]

He actually, I think, tells us at one time, he yells it down to keep her quiet. And they want to know then how do we keep her quiet? And he says, well, you know, get her some candy.

[Lucy Howe]

We picked Halloween night. It was only supposed to be a prank.

[John Brown]

And other than Walker, these guys have never talked. These guys have never admitted what they did. But what happened, I think, is they assaulted her upstairs, then they left, and that's when they went out to Coter's Hole. But this bodysuit, I think they took her and they assaulted her again out there. Now, this child doesn't have clothes, so they kept her in that car overnight in the trunk. She had these brush burns on her knees, and I think that was from the carpeting in the car.

[Officer Winter]

We know we had an alpha male and j. Jimmy, and he was a true sociopath. We know we have Timmy, who was the follower. Then we have Ted Walker, who plays the dummy, but he's not the dummy at all. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, Ted could have been the mastermind right behind Jimmy.

[Detective Rich Graham]

At some point, they decide that they've had their. Their way with her, their pleasure or whatever. Perhaps the. The heat is on now because there are all these investigators in town. So they decide she can identify us. We got to get rid of her. They take her out and throw her off that trestle.

[Marissa Pinson]

Ted Walker was convicted of kidnapping and third degree murder. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison. Jim and Tim O' Brien were found guilty of kidnapping, second degree murder, third degree murder, and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

[Detective Rich Graham]

I'm glad for Shawna, but the other thing is, I just feel sad. I feel sad that this happened to her, that she didn't get to grow up and live a normal life.

[Marissa Pinson]

The detectives of Oil City deliver justice as the o' Briens and Ted Walker are imprisoned for the murder of Shawna Howe. And after 13 years, the Howe family finally has the truth and hopefully some kind of peace.

[Lucy Howe]

I think about her every day. I miss her every day. But I can say, I love you, Shawna, and go on with my day. I'm not frozen in that time anymore. I love my daughter. I miss her with everything that's in me. But she's not in pain. What they did to her can't hurt her anymore. And I know I still love her till this day. And that's not gonna go away. No matter what.

[Detective Rich Graham]

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[Detective Charles Daley]

Very cool.

[Detective Rich Graham]

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[John Brown]

All for free. You can't outrun this.

[Detective Rich Graham]

Someone is gonna pay for all this crime. But it's not gonna be you. Take care of business, fellas. Watch all the cases. All for free from all your favorite devices.

[Lucy Howe]

We got you.

[Detective Rich Graham]

Feel the free Pluto TV stream.

[John Brown]

Now pay Never.

[Marissa Pinson]

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