Twisted spouse killed and buried Disney employee husband earlier than blaming younger daughter
A woman has been sentenced to life in prison after she murdered her husband, used his phone to pretended he was still alive and then blamed the murder on her seven-year-old daughter
A woman has been sentenced to life in prison after she pretended to be her husband who she murdered and buried beneath the firepit in their garden.
Michael and Laurie Shaver, Clermont Florida, had been together since they were teens; the couple had a son and a daughter together. Michael Shaver, aged 36 at the age of his disappearance was described as a laid-back easy going family man.
Michael went missing in 2015 but his disappearance was only alerted to authorities three years later when his worried mate asked police to do a welfare check on him.
When friends and family attempted to contact Michael texts from his phone such as “Leave me alone” and “Don’t bother me” were sent from his phone.
The last time anyone had seen the couple together was in 2015 and witnesses stated that the Shaver’s relationship wasn’t in a good place. The couple had separated several times and had dated other people.
Michael worked as a monorail technician at Walt Disney World, however one day Michael messaged his job and disappeared out of the blue.
The couple’s neighbours noted after Michael’s disappearance that a new man, Travis Filmer, had moved into the family home.
Travis would later testify that Laurie had told him: “It’s not that he’s missing, it’s that he’s no longer walking the earth.”
Michael’s body was eventually found underneath in the back-garden under a newly concentrated fire pit area. An autopsy revealed that Michael had been killed from a single shot to the head in 2018.
After an investigation delayed by Covid-19, Shaver claimed her and Michael’s daughter had shot and killed the father – according to her story the child wanted to protect their mother from abuse during an argument. Michael and Laurie’s daughter would have only been seven at the time of this alleged incident.
Shaver’s daughter, 15 at the time, claimed a married man her mum had an affair with, had shot Michael a second time. However, autopsy evidence disputed the daughter’s story and Shaver’s lover testified that he had never met Michael.
Police deduced that Shaver had been sending messages from Michael’s phone at the time of his alleged disappearance because the IP address of the messages matched those of their home IP address, pretending to be her murder husband.
The jury found Shaver guilty of the murder of her husband after she shot him dead, deceived and manipulated his loved ones and attempted to have her daughter take the blame for the murder of her father. In November last year, Shaver was sentenced to life in prison.
