217: Diabolical Mistress Sets Up Her Husband For Murder?! | The Disturbing Case of Shawna Nelson

Summary

Serialesously with Annie Elise - Episode 217 Summary

Episode Title:

Diabolical Mistress Sets Up Her Husband For Murder?! | The Disturbing Case of Shawna Nelson

Release Date:

November 25, 2024

Host:

Annie Elise (10 to LIFE & Audioboom Studios)

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Introduction

In Episode 217 of Serialesously with Annie Elise, host Annie Elise delves into the chilling true-crime case of Shawna Nelson, a diabolical mistress whose actions led to the murder of her husband’s wife, Heather Guerrero. This episode unpacks the intricate web of deceit, obsession, and betrayal that culminated in a heinous act of violence, providing listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the motivations and consequences surrounding this disturbing case.

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Case Overview

The episode begins with the tragic events of January 23, 2007, when 37-year-old Heather Guerrero was brutally shot in the parking lot of the Colorado State Employees Credit Union in Greeley, Colorado. Heather, a well-respected supervisor at the credit union and an active member of her local Catholic church, was admired by her co-workers and loved by her family.

Notable Quote:

Annie Elise [00:00]: "This case that we're talking about today is definitely gonna jolt you."

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Key Individuals

• Heather Guerrero: The victim, known for her beauty, responsibility, and dedication to her work and community.
• Ignacio "IG" Guerrero: Heather's husband, a police officer involved in a clandestine affair.
• Shawna Nelson: IG’s mistress, a 911 dispatcher whose obsession with IG led to devastating consequences.
• Ken Nelson: Shawna's husband, also a police officer, who becomes a suspect in the investigation.
• Michelle Moore: Shawna’s best friend and a crime scene investigator who becomes embroiled in the conspiracy.

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The Affair and Motives

The episode explores the complex relationship between IG Guerrero and Shawna Nelson. Initially friends and coworkers, their relationship evolved into a passionate affair lasting over three years. Both marriages were strained, and their mutual dissatisfaction with their spouses fueled their bond.

Notable Quote:

Annie Elise [18:40]: "Almost the very first thing out of IG's mouth was, we need to take care of this."

Shawna's obsession with IG intensified, especially after she became pregnant with his child. Her inability to accept the end of their affair, despite IG's commitment to his marriage, set the stage for the tragic events that followed.

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The Murder of Heather Guerrero

On the evening of January 23, 2007, Heather Guerrero was confronted by a stranger dressed in all black, resembling the Grim Reaper, who demanded she "get on her knees." Despite the terror, Heather complied, and the assailant fired two shots to her head, leaving her mortally wounded.

Notable Quote:

Annie Elise [05:08]: "Somebody has just tried to murder our coworker."

The immediate aftermath saw frantic 911 calls from shocked co-workers, attempting to save Heather’s life amidst chaotic and traumatic circumstances.

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Investigation and Evidence

The investigation initially focused on IG Guerrero due to his affair with Shawna Nelson. However, mounting evidence suggested that the true culprit was Shawna herself:

• Clues Against Ken Nelson:

  • The assailant wore Ken’s socks, underwear, a baseball cap, and men’s shoes.
  • The truck used in the murder was jointly owned by Ken and Shawna.

• Clues Against Shawna Nelson:

  • DNA found on bullet casings indicated the shooter was female, exonerating Ken.
  • Shawna’s unhinged behavior, threatening messages, and obsession with IG.
  • Shawna’s best friend, Michelle Moore, provided critical testimony linking her to the crime.

Notable Quote:

Annie Elise [28:01]: "It was a jog walk. Heavyset woman, hasn't ran in a while. Tell by the feminine run."

Despite her attempts to frame Ken, including wearing his clothing and disposing of his gun, the accumulation of evidence, particularly DNA traces and witness testimonies, pointed conclusively to Shawna as the perpetrator.

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The Trial and Conviction

Shawna Nelson faced severe legal consequences for her actions. During her trial, her defense attempted to paint her as a victim of circumstances, claiming she had no intention of committing murder and that any violence was unintended.

Notable Quote:

Shawna Nelson [53:30]: "We had joked that Heather called IG every 12 minutes. And at that point, I pretty much knew that I didn't care if she found out."

However, the jury was unmoved by her defenses. The overwhelming evidence and Michelle Moore’s incriminating testimony led to her conviction for first-degree murder. Shawna was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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Aftermath and Impact

The ripple effects of Shawna Nelson’s actions devastated multiple families:

• Heather Guerrero: Tragically lost her life, leaving behind a daughter, Victoria.
• Ignacio "IG" Guerrero: Struggled with guilt and loss, raising both his biological daughter and Shawna’s adopted son.
• Ken Nelson: Faced wrongful suspicion and had to navigate the complexities of his marriage aftermath, eventually being arrested for evidence tampering but not formally charged due to insufficient proof.
• Michelle Moore: Shawna’s best friend, who aided in the conspiracy, received a nine-year prison sentence after cooperating with authorities.

Notable Quote:

Annie Elise [57:52]: "Michelle absolutely denied. And according to Shawna, when she decided to break up with Michelle, Michelle, in turn, got angry and spiteful and decided to get revenge."

The episode concludes by highlighting the senseless loss and the intricate interplay of personal failures and criminal intent that led to a cascade of tragedies for everyone involved.

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Final Reflections

Annie Elise poignantly underscores the importance of healthy relationship practices and the dire consequences of deceit and obsession:

Notable Quote:

Annie Elise [64:xx]: "If you are not happy in your marriage, just get a divorce. Don't go sneaking around. Definitely don't kill anyone. It is never worth it."

She encourages listeners to reflect on the moral lessons from this case, emphasizing the value of honesty and the prevention of destructive behaviors before they escalate into irreversible tragedies.

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Conclusion

Episode 217 of Serialesously with Annie Elise offers a gripping narrative that meticulously dissects the complexities of the Shawna Nelson case. Through detailed storytelling, insightful analysis, and the inclusion of compelling quotes, Annie Elise provides listeners with a thorough understanding of how personal turmoil and unchecked obsession can culminate in devastating outcomes. This episode serves as a stark reminder of the importance of integrity and the potential dangers of allowing personal conflicts to spiral out of control.

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Stay Tuned:
For more detailed analyses and exclusive content, consider subscribing to Annie Elise’s Patreon or accessing ad-free bonus episodes available on Apple Podcasts.

Transcript

[Annie Elise]

This episode of Seriously is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are all things that people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it. So your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance, Progressive Casualty Insurance company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. Hey true crime besties. Welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly. Hey everybody. Welcome back to an all new episode of the true crime podcast Serial with me, your host, Annie Elise. I hope you guys all had a good weekend and you are ready to be jolted into reality. Not only because it's a Monday, but because this case that we're talking about today is definitely gonna jolt you. So I don't know whether you are driving or you're cleaning or you're working out whatever it is you're doing. Let's just take a pause, get into a Zen place mentally before we get into it, because it is definitely a doozy of a case, but one that I think is incredibly important that we talk about. So I'm going to shut up now. Okay? And we're just going to jump right in. So on January 23, 2007, 37 year old Heather Guerrero was in the parking lot just outside of the Colorado State Employees Credit Union where she worked. She had just finished up her shift for the day and she was ready to head home. Now let me talk to you about Heather because Heather was absolutely beautiful. She had this long, wavy dark hair, these full round cheeks, and whenever she smiled, she had little dimples in them. She also liked to wear big statement earrings. Which girl after my own heart. I live for my earrings. But she was also very responsible. She wasn't just a teller or some other entry level worker at this credit union. She was a supervisor. One of the rare people who kind of had a knack for getting along with the people she managed. Which doesn't really happen in a lot of situations, right? I mean, everybody at the office really liked Heather. She was also involved with a local Catholic church called St. Mary's and it sounds like she took her faith very seriously because Heather always put everybody else before herself. If you ever needed help with something, Heather was there to chip in. She cared about making sure that everyone around her was taken care of and just really in a good place. She lived and worked in Greeley, Colorado, which was a small city northeast of Denver. And it was big enough to have its own public transit and different local festivals and things, including the annual oktoberfest. But it also could be more small town vibes here and there. It was kind of the sort of place where everybody knew everyone. Gossip had a way of, you know, spreading like wildfire, which will be very important in this story later. But it was kind of a mix between the two. So that evening, Heather hung around the parking lot after work, talking with her co workers, just starting to unwind from the long day, trying to decompress. But then all of a sudden, this stranger just walked up out of nowhere. And right away, everyone could tell that something just wasn't right here. For one thing, the stranger was wearing this black mesh mask, Kind of like something that would come with a Halloween cost costume. They also had on, you know, a black hood or like this robe type thing. So they literally looked like the grim reaper. And when this person approached, they pulled out a gun and they walked right up to Heather. Now, of course, everyone was pretty freaked out by this, so they didn't know what to do. And when the grim reaper person went up to Heather, they told her, you know, get on your knees. She was terrified. So she did what she was told. She dropped to her knees. I mean, she didn't want to get shot. Then once Heather was down, kneeling on the ground on her knees, the grim reaper said something to her like, you ruined my life. Then they pulled the trigger twice. Both bullets hit Heather in the head. And right upon that, she just kind of slumped over. Then this grim reaper person just ran away. So Heather's co workers, who were terrified, shocked, just freaking out, they called 911 right away. They said somebody had just tried to murder our coworker. You need to get here fast. And the good news in all of this was that she was still alive, but she definitely was not in good condition.

[911 Operator]

911, what's the address of the emergency?

[Witness]

2505 11th Avenue.

[911 Operator]

2505 11th Avenue? Yeah, somebody's been shot.

[Witness]

Yeah, right off the system.

[911 Operator]

Are you with the distance?

[Witness]

Yeah, she's on the ground right now. Somebody yelled at her, have you ruined my life in the map? And just shot her around?

[911 Operator]

Where did they go? Are they on foot?

[Witness]

They're on foot and they're hitting. Hitting east or hitting south. They're wearing all black, kind of like a trench coat. They have like a mask on. I don't want to follow them.

[911 Operator]

No, no, definitely don't sir, are you with the female? How old is she?

[Witness]

I am. She is like 30 foot six.

[911 Operator]

36?

[Witness]

Yeah. She's not moving at all.

[911 Operator]

She's not moving.

[Witness]

She's not moving.

[911 Operator]

She's breathing.

[Witness]

There's a bunch of people. She works here.

[911 Operator]

Is she conscious?

[Witness]

She is not conscious, no.

[911 Operator]

Is she breathing at all?

[Witness]

I. I don't think so, no.

[911 Operator]

Okay. Sir, do you know how to do CPR at all?

[Witness]

No, I do not.

[911 Operator]

Okay, I wanted. Is anybody else there that can?

[Witness]

No, there's no one out there that can. She's on her. She's on her stomach.

[911 Operator]

She's on her stomach?

[Witness]

Yeah.

[911 Operator]

Where was she shot?

[Witness]

Yeah, she was shocked.

[911 Operator]

Where was she shot?

[Witness]

I see blood coming out of the stage area, maybe in the. Okay, I'm not sure. I can't see. I can't tell.

[911 Operator]

Okay. All right. Somebody else is getting them on the way. Sir, I'm going to try and help you if we can to get CPR started on her, if it's possible.

[Another Witness]

All right?

[Witness]

Okay. Let me get my. Okay, what do you want me to do?

[911 Operator]

Okay, so is she on her stomach, sir?

[Witness]

Yes, she's on her stomach.

[911 Operator]

Okay, I need you to roll her over if you can and make sure her airway is open. Okay.

[Witness]

Okay, I'll try to get the phone down.

[911 Operator]

Yeah. Are you getting suspect info on this?

[Witness]

There's too much blood. There's someone else here helping.

[Annie Elise]

What do you mean?

[Witness]

There's blood everywhere.

[911 Operator]

Okay, and you're sure she's not breathing at all?

[Witness]

Is she breathing?

[Another Witness]

Because we'll check the.

[911 Operator]

I want you to get down by her and see if you can feel any air coming from her mouth or see her chest rise and fall.

[Another Witness]

I don't know.

[Witness]

I don't know. I don't see anything.

[911 Operator]

Okay.

[Witness]

I see nothing.

[911 Operator]

Okay.

[Witness]

I don't see her chest moving. I don't see any air coming from her.

[911 Operator]

Okay, well, I'm gonna tell you how to give her mouth to mouth. Do you think you can do that? Can you help her with. Can you do mouth to mouth? Do you wanna try that?

[Witness]

I don't know.

[911 Operator]

Can you see your.

[Witness]

Oh, no one here.

[911 Operator]

Nobody wants to do mouth to mouth. I can help anybody that would be willing to try and help her. If you need.

[Witness]

To have a mask if she doesn't want to do it all over her face.

[911 Operator]

Okay, so nobody there is willing to do mouth to mouth. And you said she was. She was shot twice?

[Witness]

Yeah, I heard two shots and it's.

[911 Operator]

Coming from her face.

[Witness]

Oh, yeah.

[911 Operator]

Okay. Sir, it's okay. I've got people on the way. Okay. All right.

[Annie Elise]

All right.

[911 Operator]

I'm gonna go ahead and let you go. Okay, sir?

[Witness]

All right, great.

[911 Operator]

Thank you.

[Annie Elise]

Now, after listening to this clip, I do want to say it would be really easy to hate on Heather's co workers for not even being willing to try to do mouth to mouth. Right. That 911 operator was practically begging them to try and save her and give it a shot, and they just wouldn't. But again, as tempting as it would be to, you know, trash them. Now, in hindsight, I do think that everybody who witnessed the shooting was freaked out and wanted to help Heather. And I don't think that they were refusing to do CPR because they wanted her to die. Guy. But more so because they were just in shock and truly just freaking out. I mean, you can tell from the guy's tone of voice on that call. They were distraught. And people don't always respond perfectly in stressful situations. We know that. So as much as I wish that somebody would have stepped up and been the hero in that situation, you know, somebody who happened to also have perfect medical training and could save her life, I don't even know if that would have been possible. But again, everyone who was on the scene was trying to help Heather. There was even another 911 call that was placed the same time as that first one.

[911 Operator]

One.

[Another Witness]

Oh, my God. I can't understand you. Where are you? Is there somebody hurt? Yes. He runs. Husband's a cop. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Where is the person that's hurt?

[Witness]

I'm sorry, what?

[Another Witness]

Where is the person that's hurt? Black. They went down the back one. Oh, my God. Were they nailed? We don't know. They had it complete, like Halloween love on and something. Oh, my God. They're coming back. Get out of here. Oh, my God. Okay, they went behind the alley. I need you to tell me what's going on. The person just ran down the alley, fell down behind the businesses here on 11th Avenue. There's no way to tell who it was. They were in a black. Okay, are you with the person that was sh. I need to be with the person that was shot. Calm down. And I need you to tell me what is going on. We just came out of work. Okay. Where is the person? Ma'am, I need you to tell me what is going on. Where is the person that was shot on the ground? Is it male or female? Heather Carouse. Her husband's a cop. She don't know the ground. It's a stupid bitch. Okay, we have someone talking to the patient. Okay, do you know who it was? Ma'am, ma'am, what is your name? What is your name? Nicole N I C L E Cordova. Okay, Nicole, what is the phone number that you're calling me from? 324. Okay, we do have everybody on their way to help you. Nicole? Yeah. Nicole, are you with the patient now? I'm sorry? Are you with the patient now? Yeah, Brad, Nicole is one of the.

[Witness]

People that works with us.

[Another Witness]

He's with us. There's somebody else on the phone talking to people. There's people. Oh, God. There's people trying to help her, I think. Brad, are you on the phone? Okay, he's d with her.

[Annie Elise]

Okay, so it definitely seemed like it was a very high urgency situation. Multiple 911 calls were being made. People were trying to frantically figure out what to do to help Heather, although they were not doing cpr. But even with everybody calling for ambulances right away and trying to get Heather that help, she ended up dying within the next half hour. And even though this happened right in front of that credit union where she worked, the cops were pretty confident right off the bat that this was not at all about money. It wasn't some sort of bank robbery gone wrong. Nothing like this. Because remember, this grim reaper person told Heather, you ruined my life. This was targeted. This wasn't some get rich quick, rob a bank, shoot the casualties, nothing like that. It seemed pretty obvious that the murderer, whoever they were, had targeted Heather specifically and intentionally. So now the question became whether Heather had any enemies or not, Anybody who might want to hurt her. So the police started by taking a look at her home life. Heather had a nine year old daughter named Victoria, and she was also married to a police officer named Ignacio Guerrero. He went by IG for short. Now, of course, anytime a woman gets murdered, I mean, say it with me, guys, you know where I'm going with this. You always look at the husband. You also look at the boyfriend, whoever the partner is first. If there's an affair, you always look to those people first. So it obviously made sense to treat her husband, IG as a suspect in this case because he might have had a motive to want to kill his wife or hurt her. And in fact, he did. See, from the outside, he seemed like a loving husband and father. He was really involved in his daughter Victoria's life. But the problem was, and this is key, he was having an affair. It began a little more than three years earlier, in 2004. Now, the other woman named Shawna Nelson was working as a 911 dispatcher. Now, since she was always sending police officers to respond to different emergency calls, she naturally had to get to know all of these different officers, including IG. Now, Shawna was in her early 30s. She was curvy. She had long blonde hair. But at first, IG wasn't attracted to Shawna. The two of them just kind of got along as work friends in that kind of vibe. They also, though, had a lot in common. They liked to go to the same kinds of places, whether that was shopping at the same stores, relaxing at the same kind of places, you name it. And then once they knew each other through work, IG started noticing that he had started seeing Shawna all the time. So he would always go up to her and say, hey, how are you doing? That kind of thing. It just happened very naturally. They were always in the same place at the same time. Then they had this work relationship and just this connection started to form. So the more time that went on, the more they kept seeing each other. And after that, Egg and Shawna started opening up more about what things were going on in their lives. As it turned out, Ig's marriage was going through somewhat of a rocky patch. He and Heather were struggling a little bit. So IG told Shawna about how hard everything was with his wife, and she admitted, you know, hey, I know exactly what you're going through, because me and my husband, we're having a very difficult time as well. Shawna had been married to a man named ken Nelson for eight years. They had been married since 1996. He was also a police officer. But their relationship had not exactly been glamorous when they got married. Their wedding ceremony was in the backyard of a friend's house, which is great, it's personal, it's cozy, and I'm not sure about the dates, but given that Ken and Shawna had an 8 year old and a 9 year old by their 8th anniversary, it does sound like Shawna was either pregnant when she got married or she got pregnant right afterward. So it sounds entirely possible that Shawna maybe got married way too young and under circumstances that could have been less than ideal. And now, eight years later, the pressure was getting to both her and Ken. Their foundation was cracking. Things weren't good. So after they continued seeing each other and opening up to one another and developing this relationship, she got into the habit where every time she saw ig, she would talk about how bad things were with her husband, and then in return, he would Talk about how bad things were between he and Heather, his wife. They were just venting back and forth and also kind of getting to feeling like they understood each other in a way that nobody else did. And after some time, those feelings of friendship turned more romantic, and before long, they were sleeping together. Now, IG and Shawna also did a terrible job of hiding what they were up to, okay? I mean, at least from their co workers, because pretty much everyone knew that there was something going on between the two of them. However, they did do a better job of stopping their spouses from finding out about the affair. They were able to hide it from them. And one of the ways they did this was by disguising who they were talking to. For example, Shawna had IG saved in her phone under the name Omar. That was because she had a co worker named Omar, but she never really talked to him outside of work. So the idea was that if her husband ever saw her getting, you know, all of these phone calls, all these text messages from somebody named Omar, she could just explain it away as something from work. And as for IG, he would go out and he would buy flowers for his wife, Heather, just because then he would show up at her place of work at the credit union just unannounced and give her the flowers. Almost like. It's like, oh, my gosh, your husband, he's so thoughtful. It's just because flowers. He's popping into your work, just kind of seemingly making it seem. I don't know if that makes sense. Seemingly making it seem as though he is like the gold star husband. Now, in the moment, it probably seemed like this really sweet, romantic thing to do. But I also have to imagine that part of his motivation for doing all of this would be to help himself feel less guilty for having the affair. Because as bad as things were between IG and Heather and between Shawna and Ken, as much as Shawna and IG were whining and complaining about how their marriages were just falling apart, none of them actually wanted to get a divorce. They were kind of trying to make it work. And I say kind of because I think if you really want to have a good marriage, one big key is to not go sneaking around behind your partner's back and lying about it, Right? But again, what do I know? So anyway, IG and Shawna were having sex and having this affair for literal years, and the whole time, he was just lying to his wife about it, and Shawna was lying to her husband. They were just hiding everything. And then get this at one point. Shawna got pregnant with Ig's baby.

[Shawna Nelson]

Almost the very first thing out of Ig's mouth was, we need to take care of this.

[Interrogator]

Did you discuss an abortion?

[Shawna Nelson]

Yes, we did.

[Interrogator]

Did you wish to have an abortion?

[Shawna Nelson]

No, not at first. I didn't.

[Interrogator]

What was the nature of the discussion? How would you characterize the discussion without indicating? What Mr. Garris said was, I kind.

[Shawna Nelson]

Of always told myself that that would not ever be an option for me.

[Interrogator]

Did you decide to have an abortion?

[Shawna Nelson]

Egg talked me into having an abortion.

[Annie Elise]

But then in 2005, she got pregnant again. You know how the holidays can be, right? Between office potlucks, family feasts, holiday treats. It's so easy to feel bloated and just like weighed down. I've been there, feeling sluggish and not quite myself after eating. It's like your body's trying to tell you something, but you're too busy to really listen. But that's where seeds DS01 daily symbiotic comes in. Because it's a game changer. And this isn't just your average probiotic. It's a probiotic plus prebiotic combo designed with 24 clinically and scientifically studied strains to support your gut health and so much more. We're talking benefits for your skin, your heart, your immune system and even your digestion. Just two capsules a day and no fridge space needed. Since I started taking DS01, I have noticed a huge difference. I feel lighter, I feel less bloated and honestly, just more comfortable in my day to day life. It's so easy to stick to too, whether I'm home or traveling. And the best part is it fits seamlessly into my routine. Just a quick step in the morning and I'm set. So why not give your body the gift of feeling good this season? Head to seed.com ae and use the code 25AE to get 25% off your first month. That's seed.com ae code 25AE. You won't regret it. This episode of Serial is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are all things that people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it. So your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations.

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I don't know whether that's birth control, vasectomy, condoms, whatever it is, but like, maybe it's time to be a little bit more responsible. But whatever the issue was this time around, Shauna put her foot down. She said that she wanted to keep the baby and she wasn't going to be able to try and pass it off as Ken's or anything else. Because you see, it was now getting to a point where Shauna and IG could not keep things a secret for a whole lot longer. Both of their spouses were getting suspicious. Heather kept asking IG why he was working late so often. Why did he keep slipping out of the house in the middle of the night? She knew that it wasn't for work, so she was trusting her intuition. She was asking him what's really going on. And at some point, Ken found Shawna's diary just laying out in the open. So he went into it and he flipped through it, which I gotta say is not a good move. Ken snooping just isn't right. But right or wrong, Ken saw all of these things that she had written about about how when she was with IG So he knew at least some details and about their relationship to some degree. I don't know if it was clear to him exactly how long the affair had been going on or how far things had gone, but he definitely knew something. So basically, Ken and Heather were now asking questions to their spouses, but they weren't liking the answers that Shawna and IG were giving them. So that's when Shauna and IG decided to just come clean. Not entirely out of the goodness of their hearts, though, obviously. Right. But more so because they didn't really have a whole lot of choice anymore. Now, of course, Heather and Ken were both very, very upset. And it probably didn't help that when Shawna's son Christian was born, she put Ig's name down on the birth certificate, not her husband's. She was identifying. This is Ig's baby. So there was a whole legal mess where IG had to go to court and say that the baby was his, but that he didn't have any intention of being a father to him. He didn't expect or want custody. Then Ken had to go and file to adopt his own wife's son. I mean, it was a disaster. But somehow, some way, they worked everything out. Both married couples decided to stay together. And to all appearances, everyone was handling everything like truly a very mature adult. Way more mature than I would ever be in a situation like that. So that should have been the end of it. Right? But obviously it wasn't, because here everyone was now, a few months later, and Heather was dead. So you might be hearing this and thinking, okay, IG definitely had a motive to want Heather out of the way. He didn't want a divorce for whatever reason, but he might have still wanted to be done with her. And we also know he wasn't happy in his marriage, given all of the cheating. He also had the means to carry this out. He was a police officer, after all. So he'd definitely had access to guns and knew how to shoot them. And it wouldn't have been that hard for him to pull up to the credit union when Heather got off work. But IG wasn't the only person who had a motive to want Heather dead. Not at all. Shauna's husband Ken also knew about the affair, and he wouldn't be the first person to find out that their wife was cheating on him and decide that murder was the only solution. I don't know why Ken would want to take his anger out on Heather, though, the other innocent person in this situation, you know, rather than Take his anger out on Shawna or ig, who were the actual cheaters. But it's not like these kinds of crimes are always driven by logic either. Plus, there was a decent amount of evidence that pointed at Ken as the likely murderer. First, he was a bit of a gun nut. He loved going to ranges for fun. He owned a bunch of personal guns in addition to the one that had been issued to him, of course, when he became a cop as a police officer. But also, and probably the most damning piece of evidence pointing directly at Ken was that the person in that Grim reaper getup who drove up to the credit union in a truck that belonged to both Ken and Shawna. Technically, it was both of theirs, But Shawna didn't really like driving it because it wasn't a very smooth ride. There was another car that she basically treated, you know, as her car. And she and Ken both considered the truck to be Ken's truck. And Heather's co workers had no way of knowing these other details I'm about to share at the time, because they obviously didn't know what Ken's closet looked like or what kind of clothing he owned. But if they did, they would have known that that black outfit that the Grim Reaper was wearing wasn't just something that they had picked up at a Halloween store or something like that. The shooter also had on Ken's socks, his underwear, a baseball cap that was his, and a pair of men's shoes, which the killer actually left not too far from the scene, which the police later found. So, basically, even though they went to all of this trouble covering up their face and everything else, it was just screaming, Ken did this. He was wearing his clothes, driving his truck. This was Ken, and it did not look good for him at all. But when the police officer started interviewing his friends, his co workers, and basically everyone who knew him, they all said something odd. None of them even seemed to be considering the possibility that he might have done something to Heather. In fact, the witnesses all said that when the shooter said that Heather needed to get on her knees and then said, you ruined my life, it sounded like it was a woman speaking. One of the witnesses also said that he could tell that the shooter was a woman based on the way that she moved. You've indicated when the person left that they left in a. In a particular manner.

[911 Operator]

Were they running or walking or.

[Annie Elise]

It was a jog walk. Okay.

[Witness]

Heavyset woman, hasn't ran in a while. Tell by the feminine run.

[Shawna Nelson]

Okay.

[Witness]

Like waddling almost.

[Annie Elise]

And you hear the same thing from that other co worker who called 91 1, the woman who was so freaked out that the dispatcher could barely understand her. Once she calmed down enough to say what had happened, she also said that she thought that this shooter was a woman.

[Another Witness]

I need to tell me how many people were involved. There was one person, and she came out from nowhere. Okay. And an email that did the shooting. Huh? Was it a female that did. Was it male or female? We don't know. They. They said it was a female. That's her. Here's a. There's a witness here that saw her run. Stay there. Okay, okay, okay. She's not going anywhere. She's going to stay here. She was. Must have been down the alley where the person ran. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. You know what she did with the gun? I don't know. I think she took it with her. And it was a female with long, dark hair. Well, no, no, no. I don't know what she looks like. All I know is she was in a completely black robe and, like, a Halloween robe, and she had, like, black over her face. But I don't know if this woman that's over here. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Was she running south down. Down the alley? Yes. Was she alone? Yes, she was alone. She was what? She was alone. She was alone. There was somebody else, was there. Did she leave on foot or in a vehicle? Huh? Did she leave on foot or in a vehicle? On foot? She came on foot and left on foot. Okay, thank you so much.

[Annie Elise]

Plus, the police found some DNA on the bullet casings that they found out by the credit union where Heather was shot. Now, the bad news was these bullet casings got really hot when the gun fired. The heat was bad enough that it damaged the DNA a little bit. It didn't destroy it entirely, but the police couldn't match it to any one specific person. It wasn't in good enough condition. They could tell some things, though, about whoever had held those bullets and loaded them into the gun, namely that the person was, in fact, female. So again, it. Now, it couldn't be Ken. It couldn't be IG and on top of all of that, before Heather was killed, Heather actually told a bunch of her friends, including her family members, that she was afraid of her husband's mistress, AKA Shawna. As it turns out, Shawna was extremely suspicious in a lot of other ways, too. Now, I want to go back a little bit and talk more about Shawna's affair with IG because as it turns out, there was way More to it than what I covered already. And to put it very, very simply, from the beginning, Shawna was completely obsessed with ig. Okay, so Shawna's obsession with IG was, like, completely unhinged. It was to a degree that Shawna actually couldn't accept it when he decided to break things off. So, yeah, it was IG who made the call that they were going to end things. Shawna came clean to Ken when she got pregnant with Ig's baby, But from the sounds of it, she was actually hoping to break up with Ken and to get together with IG and that they would raise the baby together. She was hoping they would start the divorce proceedings and everything else. IG was the one who came back to Shawna, though, and said that actually he was going to stay with his wife. Now, Shawn and Ken had already started their own divorce proceedings, and they only got back together once she realized that, you know, marrying IG or even dating him was completely off the table. But even then, Shawna wasn't done with ig, not by a long shot. And it started getting downright scary. So Shawn is becoming unhinged, just truly obsessed with ig. She's pissed off that he's not leaving his wife for her, despite the fact that she's pregnant. And he tells her, look, I'm not divorcing my wife. I'm remaining married, and I don't want anything to do with the son you and Ken can raise it. So she freaks out and starts to become undone. And she started sending him text after text, just begging him to take her back and love her and be with her. And then when he kept refusing, she started threatening him. She would send him messages like, my loyalty is gone. I loved and trusted you, and you fucked me. Be prepared. Just a few hours later, she sent another text message which read, you have no heart. She even tracked down Heather's numbers and started sending unhinged text messages to her as well. For example, Shawna would taunt Heather by sending her photos of their baby. Baby Christian, the baby that Shawna had with ig. And she would put the caption on the picture. Ig's flesh and blood, just trying to incite rage on Heather's behalf. Shauna even left voicemails for IG and Heather. And those voicemails, they weren't as threatening and disturbing as the texts. But her tone, I mean, this clip that I'm going to play for you is pretty unsettling. Not because of what Shawna said, but because of how angry she sounded when she said it. Take a listen. You have one old message.

[Advertiser]

Monday, 8:10pm Just so you know, I'm.

[Shawna Nelson]

Getting an attorney tomorrow, and I will.

[Annie Elise]

Get a DNA test and you will pay me monthly. Do you think that you guys have no money now? You're really gonna have no money later? And dog, yes, it is. Now, again, I know that the specific things that Shawna said in that voicemail weren't quite as bad as the text messages, but it's safe to say that I'm not the only one who thinks that. It sounded off. Egg and Heather even had their numbers changed so that they could make it more difficult for Shawna to reach them, but it actually did not discourage her. Shawna was one of those people who apparently could just could not take the loss and move on and let it go. Not at all. She kept finding ways to contact IG and Heather. One time, IG found a note that somebody had even left in Heather's car. The note just said, you will die. Now, IG didn't have any way of proving that Shawna had written that note, but given everything else that she was texting to him and to Heather, it wasn't too hard for him to, you know, make an educated guess. Shawna was just acting incredibly possessive and unhinged. And it really does sound like to some degree, she thought that she and IG were meant to be together, like they were soulmates or something. And maybe in her mind, that justified her behavior a little bit.

[Interrogator]

During your relationship with Mr. Garris, did you have a tattoo placed on your ankle?

[Shawna Nelson]

I did.

[Interrogator]

And does that refer to Mr. Garris?

[Shawna Nelson]

It does.

[Interrogator]

And what is the word that is tattooed on your ankle?

[Shawna Nelson]

It says inyaki.

[Interrogator]

Okay, and what did you understand that to mean?

[Shawna Nelson]

He had told me that it was Basque for Ignacio.

[Interrogator]

Okay, why did you do that? Why did you have that tattoo put on?

[Shawna Nelson]

I have several tattoos. With my first husband, I had a tribal tattoo put on my back. It's just kind of my belief of tattoos is that's the kind of way that I show my life story. So I had that put on my back for my first husband, Ken. And I had matching tattoos. Mine was of a flower. His was of a symbol on his arm. And. And then both of them said KSDJ for Ken, Shawna, Dylan, and Jordan. And then after this abortion happened to me, it kind of was symbolizing a time in my life, so I put that on my ankle.

[Annie Elise]

So in light of what these tattoos represented to Shawna, you know, all the significance that they had Did Ken not once think that it was weird that she was getting another man's name put on her ankle? Did she have some sort of way of explaining it? I don't know. I do know, though, that once IG realized what Shawna had done, he was super freaked out. He was like, wow, you're clearly a lot more committed to this affair than I am. Did you ever ask her to get this tattoo?

[H]

No.

[Annie Elise]

What was your reaction when she showed it to you?

[H]

Disturbed me.

[Annie Elise]

Why?

[H]

She altered her body with my name on. What? I guess it's hard. Why would someone alter their body? We had not that type of relationship. Why the heck would she put her my name on her body?

[Annie Elise]

So clearly, after he and Shauna broke up, there was a mismatch there, a huge miscommunication. Shawna thought that she and IG were going to be together forever, yet IG was signaling that he wanted nothing to do with her anymore. He wanted to make things work with his wife, Heather. And then you have this killer who sounds like she has a woman's voice. She apparently runs like a heavyset woman. She's singling Heather out, saying she ruined her life, and saying, get on your knees, and then shooting her. All signs point to Shawna, right? The only problem with that theory was all of the evidence against Ken that I talked about before, how the shooter was wearing his clothes, driving his truck. However, the police then started doing a little bit of digging, and they came up with a new theory that explained all of that away. So the thinking was that Shawna may have framed her own husband Ken for killing Heather. That way, Ken would go away to prison, and Heather would be dead, and Shawna and IG would be free to be together. In this scenario, Shawna took Ken's truck and drove it to the credit union to commit this murder, which, to remind you, was actually Ken and Shawna's truck together. They both shared it. They owned it together. And even though Shawna didn't like driving it, it's not like it would have been difficult for her to get access to it or like she didn't know how to drive it at all. She also wouldn't have a hard time getting her hands on one of Ken's guns, which he kept in their home. I don't know for sure if she used one of his guns or not, because the murder weapon was never recovered. But if she did, it might have been because she was thinking that it would be okay if the police did the ballistics tests, that all of the results would then lead Them once again, back to Ken, not to her. And the theory goes that she wore Ken's clothing, too, all in hopes that somebody would recognize the items and think that he did it. I don't know why this framing plan was so detailed that she felt like she had to wear Ken's socks and underwear, because I don't think men's socks tend to be super distinctive and somebody's going to recognize them. But maybe she thought that the gun residue would get on some of them. Maybe she thought that some of Heather's DNA and that if they came and did a search warrant of the house, they would find the blood or DNA or gunshot residue on Ken's clothing. Who really knows? But, I mean, it was meticulous. Right? Now, I don't want to make it sound like the police were just going off of hunches or theories either. So far, the witnesses all said that they thought that the shooter sounded like a woman. But we know, of course, that that's not enough on its own to prove that Shawna did it. Not at all. However, it was enough for the police to put out a notice that all of the officers who were on duty should all watch out for Shawna and for Shawna's truck. Now, like I mentioned before, Shawna's husband Ken was a police officer, just like ignorant IG was off duty, relaxing at home with his daughter Victoria, when he got a phone call from one of Heather's co workers. She told him everything that she had witnessed, and IG could not even believe it.

[H]

I needed to know what was going on with Heather.

[Annie Elise]

Did you take Victoria with you?

[H]

Yes. I couldn't leave her home alone.

[Interrogator]

And when you got to the credit union, was your wife there?

[H]

Excuse me?

[Annie Elise]

Was your wife at the credit union when you arrived on that scene?

[H]

I'm under the assumption she was okay.

[Annie Elise]

Did you see her at that time?

[H]

No. I was stopped at some point in time.

[Annie Elise]

Did you go to the hospital?

[H]

Yes.

[Interrogator]

Did you drive there yourself, or is somebody driving?

[H]

No, I left my vehicle out at the credit union. They had Mike Zeller, a sergeant with the police department.

[Annie Elise]

Department?

[H]

A friend of mine loaded Victoria and I up and took us to Northern Colorado Medical Center.

[Interrogator]

How did you find out about the.

[Annie Elise]

Status of your wife.

[H]

Being a police officer? I knew the back door code to the er. I knew where the trauma room was, and I went directly to trauma room. And a doctor, that's a friend of mine, was treating Heather, and he blocked my entrance into Peter Maxwell blocked my entrance into the trauma room. Did you find out he told me Heather was dead.

[Annie Elise]

Then Ken was on duty when he heard this voice come over the walkie talkie saying that Shawna was wanted in relation to a violent crime. And at first, it just didn't make any sense to him. He's like, what are you talking about? Why am I hearing that my wife is wanted for a violent crime crime? What's going on? He couldn't think of why anyone would be putting a police bulletin out for his wife, Shauna. But then his second thought was that even though he didn't understand what was going on, whatever it was was bad and it could affect his family. So he was worried that his children might be in danger somehow. It's not clear why exactly he thought that, but I guess he was just going off impulse, almost thinking, like, if she's in a bad enough situation and desperate, anything could happen. She could be capable of anything. So he decided to drive home to check on his three children. Dylan, Jordan, and, of course, little baby Christian, who Ken, at this point, had adopted. But before he could get into his house, he actually drove by his own truck that was out on the street. He, of course, recognized it, and he knew that his wife, Shawna, had to be inside, which. What a wild coincidence, right? All of these police officers were out searching for Shawna in this. Exactly. Truck. And then the person who found her and found the truck was the one officer who wasn't looking for her at all. It was her husband who was just trying to drive home and find his kids. But anyway, keep in mind, Ken and his partner were still in their squad car at this point. So when they saw the truck, they put on their lights, put on their sirens, and they pulled Shauna over. And Ken ran up to the driver's seat, and he just screamed at her, what have you done? Just freaking out. And he was so angry, in fact, that his partner was worried that he might hurt Shawna. He actually ran over to the car himself to protect her from Ken. And then Ken and his partner arrested Shawna. The partner drove her back to the station in his squad car, and Ken took the truck and drove off. And I know it's super weird that they left him alone with a truck. That's evidence in a murder case where the wife is the suspect. But Ken was still acting really worried about his kids, and he sounded like he just wanted to get home right away. His partner felt really bad for him. He had empathy for him, so he just let him go. Then when some police officers searched the truck later on, they found that grim reaper mask and the black cape inside of it. This all perfectly matched everything that the witnesses saw the shooter wearing. But one thing that they never found was the murder weapon. And I've gotta say, the whole story behind this is shady af. Let's be real guys. Can you name every subscription that you're paying for? Because I know that I can't. And I also just learned that most people spend nearly $300 a month on subscriptions even though they think it's closer to like $60. 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Most children's vitamins are loaded with sugar and unnecessary junk which is not exactly what I want fueling my little babies growing bodies. And that is why I am so glad that I found Haya Hyatt is a pediatrician approved super powered chewable vitamin made with zero sugar, yet it tastes amazing even for the pickiest eaters, which my kids are seriously picky eaters and they love them. It's packed with 15 essential vitamins and minerals like vitamin D, B12, zinc and folate. And it fills in the gaps that so many kids diets just naturally miss. And what I love most is the experience because with the first order you get this awesome reusable bottle which my kids had absolute blast decorating with stickers. My son Theo's was yellow, he put all sorts of cute stickers on it. My daughter got a little Barbie pink one and she was putting all her girly stickers on it that it made it so much fun for them. Then after that hi Ascends eco friendly refills every single month so I don't ever even have to think about it, it just shows up at my door. So if you want to give your kids the full body nourishment that they need to thrive, we've worked out a special deal with HIA. Get 50% off your first order by going to hyah health.comAE that's H I Y a, H E a l t h.com/ae. This deal isn't on their regular site though, so don't wait. Make sure to go to hyahealth.comae to get 50% off your first order. So when Ken was supposed to be driving home to go check on his kids, he actually pulled over at the side of the road somewhere out of the way. There were a bunch of high school students in the area, and they saw Ken get out of the truck. Then they saw him reach back inside the truck and grab something. Those high school students didn't have the best view, so they couldn't say for sure what he took or what he did with the thing that he grabbed afterward. But given how the murder weapon was so conveniently never recovered and went missing, it definitely was not a good look for Ken. And it's wild to me to think that he might have helped his wife cover up a murder, especially right after she basically tried to frame him for the murder. Now, I guess in his defense, at this point in time, if he did throw the gun, he didn't know that she was trying to frame him yet. But it was still just a very bizarre move on his part. Whatever happened. I mean, I get that he loved Shawna, but for this woman to basically stab him in the back over and over and over again, first with the affair, then with this frame up, and for him to keep just standing by her after all of this, it's pretty mind blowing, right? But it's also entirely possible that Ken was just panicking and that he wasn't trying to help her at all. Maybe he really was trying to draw drive back home. And then he saw the gun in the truck and realized it was one of his, so he needed to get rid of it. And maybe he had some sort of, you know, knee jerk reaction, like, I don't know, I just gotta toss this, I gotta dump it. Who can really say? It was a huge mess. And Ken actually did eventually get arrested for evidence tampering. But nobody ended up pressing charges because they didn't have any proof that he really did take the gun. He also ended up quitting the police force entirely. But it's not clear to me if this was in entirely voluntary Resignation. Or if this was one of those, you know, hey, you gotta resign, you gotta quit, and we'll give you your pension, or we're gonna fire you. I don't know what kind of situation it was, but either way, the missing gun was less than helpful for the murder investigation. However, the mask and the clothing in the car, it did help a little bit. Plus, let's talk more about those black men's shoes, because remember how I said the shooter was wearing a Halloween mask and a cloak over some of Ken's clothing and underwear? Well, the killer was also wearing men's shoes, but these men's shoes were not Ken's. Now, I'm guessing this was just more stupid, nonsensical decision making on her part, but Shawna probably has different sized feet from Ken. I don't know for sure. Nobody was reporting on her shoe size when she got arrested, but very generally, men tend to have bigger feet than women, so it does seem safe to assume. And if you've ever put on a pair of shoes that are a size or two, you know, too big, you know, it's basically impossible to walk around. You can't shoot someone, then run away from the scene of a crime in shoes that don't really fit you. So my assumption here, keeping in mind that this is all speculation, is that Shawna bought a pair of men's shoes in her own size so that she could still move around and walk and, you know, be. What is that word I'm looking for? Like agile. As she's committing this crime, then if anybody happened to glance down and look at her feet, they would see that there are men's shoes, not women's shoes. So it would help her keep up appearances that Ken was the real killer. But instead, they were basically just one more piece of evidence for the police to use against her. And that's because they found the shoes on the road midway between the place where Heather got shot and where Shawna was pulled over, right there on the side of the road on her escape route. The shoes had Shawna's DNA all over them, and they also had gunshot residue on them. So even though you were trying to be really smart there, Shawna, not so much. Now, on top of all of that, the investigators eventually found a witness who was an absolute gold mine. It was Shawna's best friend, Michelle Moore. Now, Michelle was a police officer, and Shawna knew her through work. And honestly, that sounds like that was the only way that Shawna really met anybody. It's how she and IG first Got introduced. I don't know if that's how she met her husband, Ken, but since he was a cop too, it's possible. But anyway, Michelle and Shawna had known each other for years, actually for even longer than Shawna had known ig. And even though Michelle knew Shawna was having an affair and trying to keep everything covered up, she stood by her best friend through all of it. And as a crime scene investigator, Michelle knew all about what the police look for when they're trying to solve a crime. This meant that she knew how to cover up a crime, at least in theory. Now, given what a shitty job Shawna did framing her husband, I've got to think that neither one of them really knew what they were doing if Michelle was in fact helping her. I do know though, that before Shawna shot Heather, Shawna went to Michelle and she asked her all sorts of questions, all these questions about what was the best way to kill somebody and not get caught, how can you set somebody else up to take the fall, things like that. So Michelle gave Shawna all those tips, but again, it didn't work out too well for her. So once the police figured out that Michelle was involved, they pulled her into an interrogation and there she confessed to everything. She laid out how the whole murder was premeditated, how it was Shawna's idea from the very beginning, how she knew about it, everything. Now, for basically helping Shawna plan everything, Michelle, of course, got arrested and she was charged with conspiracy to commit first degree murder and criminal attempt to commit first degree murder. She agreed, though, to keep cooperating with the police, probably in exchange as part of a plea deal. But basically, Shawna did not have a leg to stand on. By the time that her trial started on February 21, 2008, she was facing charges of first degree murder, which could have ended up with her being sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole whatsoever. So because of that, I get that she was willing to basically say whatever she had to in order to be found not guilty, but she'd have to come up with a pretty out there story to explain, explain away all of the evidence. You know, the mask in the car, the threatening calls, the text messages, planning everything in advance with Michelle, her DNA, all that. It would have to be a very elaborate story to even get a droplet of a reasonable doubt. But let's just say she did not disappoint. Shawna said that she had nothing to do with the murder at all. She just happened to be at home that day. And then she got in the truck and left her kids, you know, completely unattended because she got some sort of sudden craving for wine, and she was driving down to the store to pick up a bottle. So when her husband pulled her over for the arrest, she says she had no idea what was going on or that Heather was even dead, let alone that she was a suspect in the murder. Yes, Shawna did admit that she had an affair with IG and that she handled the breakup really badly. For sure. I mean, she didn't deny that she had sent some really inappropriate text messages and left some very disturbing voicemails as well.

[Shawna Nelson]

We had joked that Heather called IG every 12 minutes. And at that point, I pretty much knew that I didn't care if she found out. So I sent that message, actually to IG's phone. Heather, if you're reading this, you're a psycho bitch. I did send that.

[Interrogator]

Any time, anywhere, bitch. Did you send this text message?

[Shawna Nelson]

I did in the. And that one I sent to Heather's phone, not to IG's.

[Interrogator]

Why did you send that text message?

[Shawna Nelson]

Because I thought if she knew that I knew her cell phone number, that she would then leave me alone. Sheather's sister. Quite a few times in conversation. And so I knew what her name was. The day before, I had received call after call after call of anonymous phone calls, and I didn't answer them. And finally it just. It got to the point where I had to answer it, and it was a woman. And she said, your cell phone number is on my caller id. And I said, no, I haven't called anybody today. She said, so could it have been. She said, who is this? And I said, who is this? And she said, well, it doesn't matter. Could it have been a wrong number? And I said, apparently, because I haven't made any phone calls. And then I started thinking about everything that was going on, and I thought, that could have been Heather's sister. So what I did was I just called in to see if there was a number for her, and I was going to just call and listen to her voice and see if that's in fact who had called me.

[Interrogator]

Did you talk to Wendy Jones?

[Shawna Nelson]

No, I didn't. The number, I blocked my call to the residents, and then that specific number said that it didn't take blocked calls. And I thought, this is stupid. I'm not going to go any farther with it. So I just. I didn't try again.

[Annie Elise]

So the way Shawna put it is it was all just her lashing out. She totally got why Heather was afraid of her and why all of Heather's friends immediately assumed that she did it. I mean, the woman was calling Heather's sister from a block number. But even though she tried to explain it away on the stand and make it sound like it was perfectly logical and, you know, a perfectly logical way of dealing with things, it was unhinged. But according to Shawna, she never actually planned to hurt Heather. It was all just bad luck that the woman that she had been harassing happened to get killed by somebody else. And as for the black robe in the back of her car and the mask, she said, easy. It was just an old Halloween costume. And Michelle, the best friend's testimony? Well, to hear Shawna tell it, Michelle was just pissed off at her because Shawna had dumped her. Which. Yes, let's just let that sink in. According to Shawna, not only did she cheat on her husband with IG she also was sleeping with her co workers and kind of sleeping her way through her whole friend group with all of.

[Interrogator]

Her co workers, approximately. When did your friendship with Michelle Moore develop?

[Shawna Nelson]

It was sometime in August of 2004.

[Interrogator]

Okay. Did your relationship with Michelle Moore become more than friendship?

[Shawna Nelson]

Yes, it did.

[Interrogator]

And did it develop into an intimate relationship?

[Shawna Nelson]

Yes, it did.

[Interrogator]

When did that occur?

[Shawna Nelson]

Not too long after meeting her in August of 2004. I would say probably just the next month.

[Interrogator]

Have you kept that relationship a secret?

[Shawna Nelson]

Very much so.

[Interrogator]

And why?

[Shawna Nelson]

None of this is stuff that I'm very proud of. It's kind of embarrassing, and I didn't. Both of us made the decision that we weren't going to tell anybody.

[Annie Elise]

So Shauna said on the stand that she and Michelle were lovers, an allegation that I'll note right now, Michelle absolutely denied. And according to Shauna, when she decided to break up with Michelle, Michelle, in turn, got angry and spiteful and decided to get revenge. So that's why Michelle made up this elaborate testimony.

[Shawna Nelson]

I was driving Michelle home and told her that I no longer could have a sexual relationship with her, that I had been thinking about it all through our drinks, and that since I was trying to actually maybe finally be loyal to Ken, that I needed to completely fast up, and that I was going to go home and tell Ken also about my relationship with Michelle. And I told her I loved her and that I still wanted to remain friends with her, but I couldn't keep lying to Ken. It was just. It was too much.

[Interrogator]

What was Michelle Moore's reaction to that?

[Shawna Nelson]

She was very upset.

[Annie Elise]

According to Shawna, Michelle went to the police with this made up story about them planning the murder together. And this was specifically done to get Shawna in trouble. I mean, she was trying to throw anything she could to stick to the wall and get out of these charges or create reasonable doubt. The problem was the jury was not buying anything she was selling. And after just one day in deliberation, they found Shaun guilty of first degree murder. Her sentence was the maximum that was allowed, which is life in prison with no parole. Now, I think Shawna was a real piece of work. I mean, the stalking, the obsession, the picking, the fights with Heather, and that was all before she even got around to actually committing the murder. But her friend Michelle, whether you think they were lovers or just toxic friends or whatever, obviously also had something weird going on with her too. Because you don't just teach your friend, best friend or not, how to kill people, you know, as you're just sipping mimosas at brunch and giving them all the tips and tricks of the trade. What she did was very dangerous, very reckless, and extremely unethical. However, by the time that she had to face the music for her conspiracy and murder charges, Michelle was completely playing the victim. She agreed to a plea bargain. So there ended up being no actual trial, just the sentencing hearing. But during the hearing, Michelle's father actually tried to make it sound like the reason Michelle helped Shawna commit this murder was because she was just a nice, friendly person. He actually said that she had such strong instincts to help people who were in trouble that when Shawna came to her with a problem, Michelle just had this knee jerk reaction to want to help her solve the problem, even if that problem that she needed help with was literally murdering someone. And it's pretty hard to imagine that Michelle really was such a great, thoughtful person. Murder aside, because less than 48 hours before the sentencing hearing even began, Michelle got arrested for completely unrelated charges. She was drunk driving. Now, thank God, Michelle didn't actually hurt or kill anyone before she got pulled over. But the fact that she decided to get behind the wheel of a car after she had been drinking really didn't do much to make her seem like she cared about other human lives, Right? It just seemed reckless, and it seems like she just didn't care. So with that, it's probably no surprise that the judge decided to give her the maximum penalty because of the deal that she negotiated. It was still only nine years in prison, but at least Michelle didn't walk off scot free. And nobody bought her whole, you know, woe is me. I'm only a murderer because I'm so nice kind of act. Not at all. It was like, let's lock you up for as long as we can and throw away the key. Now, since she got that sentence in 2008, that means that Michelle is free again. I haven't been able to find any information about what she's been up to since her release, but I do hope that she's keeping her head down and she's staying out of trouble. Now, as for Heather, my heart absolutely shatters for Heather because she died just because she was unlucky enough to be married to the man that Shauna was obsessed with. And all the kids, Heather's kids, Shawna's kids, everybody's kids. None of them have moms anymore. That is so incredibly devastating. Ken ended up raising all three of Shawna's children, including Christian, who was biologically IG's baby. But remember, he had agreed to step up and adopt him, but he ended up raising all of them as his own. And I think that that's pretty remarkable because he didn't have to. And even though Christian wasn't his biological child, he didn't do anything wrong in any of this. He didn't force his mom to have an affair, and Ken loved him anyway, and Ken was able to give him a healthy home. But this story is also so incredibly sad for Heather and Ig's only child, Victoria. IG raised her for a while, but when Victoria was 15 years old, she went to go live with some family friends instead. I'm not sure why, but I do know that she was taking classes at some sort of fancy art arts high school, and she wanted to go to college to learn how to design video games when she graduated. But unfortunately, that didn't work out because on Friday, March 13, 2015, she was driving when she swerved to avoid a pothole in the road. When she did, she lost control of her car and she ended up crashing into a tree. Victoria was only 17 years old and she died in this car accident. So my heart also breaks for ig, even though he's a cheating dirtbag who this whole thing, in my opinion, could have been avoided if he didn't have an affair. Not to put the blame solely on him. I mean, also, Shawna was like an unhinged lunatic. But my heart breaks for him because he lost his only daughter so suddenly. And just a couple of years after his wife was murdered, kind of in a roundabout way, you could say, because of his actions, both of those deaths were just so completely senseless and by chance. And that is an awful thing to have to deal with. Now, I've said this before and I will say it again. If you are not happy in your marriage, just get a divorce. Don't go sneaking around. Definitely don't kill anyone. It is never worth it. And I think that needs to be my new tagline, like, just get a divorce. But I do want to know from you guys, okay? What do you guys think? Because I want to know, did you buy any part of Shawna's story? Do you think that she and Michelle really were sleeping together? I personally think planning a murder with somebody goes well beyond the boundaries of a normal friendship. But that doesn't automatically mean that they were having sex. But I also don't think that they were just casual friends either. But also, what about those reports that Ken maybe removed and tossed the gun from Shawna's car when he arrested her? What's the truth there? What's the deal with all of that? So let me know what you guys think, either in the Q and A section on Spotify or in the review section over on Apple Podcasts. Thank you guys so much for tuning into another episode with me today. I will be back on the mic with you first thing on Thursday morning with headline highlights where we are breaking down everything going on in the true crime world this week. And we also, of course have our ad free bonus episodes that you can get access to through Patreon or through Apple Podcast. Sorry, it was taking me a minute to think about that. We do every single Friday, an exclusive ad free case that gets loaded on Apple Podcasts and Patreon. Right now if you sign up for that, which you can do so through Apple or through Patreon. But right now if you sign up for that, you can unlock like I think it's like 65 bonus episodes. So if you feel like you still need content to binge, there is plenty for you. All right, guys, thank you guys so much for tuning in. Until the next one, stay safe, be nice, don't kill people and just get a divorce. All right, guys, thanks so much. Bye.

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