In February 2018, a man asked the police to do a welfare check on his friend, Michael Shaver. They explained that they hadn’t physically seen Michael in person since 2015 – and neither had any of his family. Michael, 36, had been living in Clermont, Florida, with his wife Laurie Shaver and their two children, a son and a daughter, who was then seven. The couple had been together since they were teens. Michael worked as a monorail technician at Walt Disney World, and was a laid-back easy-going family man, but in November 2015, he’d seemingly walked away from his life.
Out of the blue, Michael messaged his employer and quit his job. He said they could keep his tools, which they found odd, as he was passionate about his tools and had never missed a day of work. Shaver then told friends that her husband had left her, and the children, to start a new life with another woman. Strangely, his vehicle was still at the family home.
To many, it felt out of character for the devoted dad, but when people messaged Michael, he would text back from his number with “leave me alone” or “don’t bother me”. He would reply with the same type of messages on Facebook messenger, and they had to respect his decision to cut himself off from everyone.
The last time anyone had seen him, aside from Shaver, was at a tractor show on 7 November 2015. A colleague saw him with his wife and kids, although they didn’t appear to be getting along. But Michael was messaging, so initially, there wasn’t concern. His family lived in New York, so it wasn’t unusual not to get together often.
Neighbours noted that after Michael had gone, another man, Travis Filmer, had moved into the family home. Travis would later testify that Shaver had told him, “It’s not that he’s missing, it’s that he’s no longer walking this Earth.”
Less than a year later, they had a “marriage ceremony” in the backyard, close to where a new large concrete fire pit had been built. She hadn’t sought a divorce from Michael, so it wasn’t legal. Why hadn’t she? She didn’t go to him for child support payments, and she had sold off some of his possessions.
As over two years passed, Michael was missed, and he wasn’t in contact with his children. And it appeared that Shaver’s story had changed over the years. She’d told some people that Michael had moved to Georgia, while others were told he was in New York and California. She’d told her new partner’s mum that Michael was a pilot who travelled a lot. She told her supervisor at work that he was in jail because he hadn’t paid child support.
Michael had vanished
Then in February 2018, one of his friends decided to go to the police and find out why Michael had vanished from his life.
Officers found no trace of Michael after November 2015. He hadn’t used any bank cards or got another job. His driving license and passport had both expired. Police went to his former house and spoke to Shaver. She said that she hadn’t seen her husband since 2015 either. She told them that he’d left her, and she hadn’t seen him again.
Investigators went inside the house and initially, Shaver appeared to be helpful but as they walked around the property outside and requested that they could bring police cadaver-seeking dogs to the scene, she stopped co-operating and requested they return with a warrant.
Straight away that raised suspicions. Shaver was quickly named a person of interest in Michael’s disappearance. Two weeks after he was reported missing, the property was searched. Police dogs were brought in and alerted officers that there were human remains in the back garden, near the newly concreted fire pit area.
Digging equipment arrived and articles of clothing and what appeared to be a human arm bone were found underneath a concrete slab in the backyard. As they dug further, skeletal remains were found buried 3ft from the surface. They were wrapped in a fitted sheet and a tarpaulin, secured with straps.
After testing, the human remains were identified as Michael and in September 2020, Shaver was arrested and charged with second degree murder. It appeared that Michael had died as the result of a single bullet to the back of the head, fired by a handgun. Shaver had a pink handgun in her bedside table that was the same calibre.
Police believed that Michael had been killed sometime between 7 November and 10 November 2015. And it was Shaver who had been sending the messages, pretending to be him, from his phone. The Facebook account messages that he’d supposedly sent, could be traced back to an IP address at the home.
Shaver was released on bail as the investigations continued. By May 2023, Michael’s family were still waiting for answers as the investigation continued, delayed by the pandemic, but Shaver changed her story again. Her legal team said that someone else had confessed to killing Michael – their daughter. They said the girl, now a teen but aged seven at the time of the killing, claimed that she’d shot her father to protect her mum from alleged abuse during an argument.
Affair with married man
But the daughter and Shaver had also claimed that while married to Michael, Shaver had an affair with a married man, who had been there too and had shot Michael a second time. An autopsy disputed that story, as he’d only been shot once, and cast doubt on the validity of any of the claims. Shaver’s lover would testify that he’d never even met Michael.
In September 2024, Shaver’s trial began. During the trial, she took the stand in court and claimed that Michael had been abusive during their marriage. She denied shooting him but admitted that she had tried to cover up for her daughter, who was the one who had pulled the trigger. Michael and Shaver’s daughter, now 15, testified in court saying that she’d pulled the trigger after finding her dad kicking her mum. She said her parents argued but during cross-examination, she struggled to explain details.
Witnesses were called and they said that the Shavers’ relationship wasn’t in a good place in 2015. They’d separated several times and had even dated other people. The prosecution said that Shaver had killed her husband with a gunshot to the back of his head then had buried him in the back garden, under the fire pit. They said she had pretended to be him by sending messages and was now making her daughter take the blame.
The jury took just a few hours to find Shaver guilty of second-degree murder. In November 2024, Shaver, 41, was sentenced to life in prison. She showed no emotion while Michael’s family members cried with relief. It had been a long road to justice.
Michael hadn’t walked away from his life like Shaver had claimed. She’d shot him dead, buried him and had pretended to be him to deceive his loved ones – before allowing her daughter to take the blame. Shaver was a cold-blooded killer without remorse.
