Michael and Laurie Shaver were middle school sweethearts, both from upstate New York. After the couple married, they moved to Clermont, Florida, raising their two children in the countryside. Michael Shaver worked as a monorail technician at Walt Disney World, and Laurie Shaver worked from home for an insurance company.
In his spare time, Michael Shaver flew around the country with a local flying group called Precious Metal.
“He was so happy,” Michael Shaver’s sister Stacie Turner recalled in a “20/20” interview. “When he was working on his plane he was in a different area.”
Michael and Laurie Shaver, sweethearts from upstate New York, moved to Clermont, Florida, where Michael worked as a technician and Laurie raised their children in the countryside.
Courtesy of Stacie Turner
On November 7, 2015, Michael Shaver, 33, attended a tractor show with his family and co-worker Frank Merritt. Merritt noticed the palpable tension between the couple. Merritt told “20/20” that she thought little of the couple’s behavior until the following week: Michael Shaver didn’t show up for work three days in a row.
In a text message, Merritt said she learned her colleague was quitting her job “to save her marriage.”
Worried, Merritt visited the family home to see her colleague, where she said Laurie Shaver revealed that her husband had left her, and she didn’t know where he had gone.
Stacie Turner, Michael Shaver’s sister, recalled her memories with her brother and recalled his passion for working with his aircraft.
ABC News
“One moment he was here, the next he was gone, that kind of thing,” Merritt described. “No goodbye…he just left.”
That text message was the first of many disturbing messages friends and family would receive from Michael Shaver over the next two and a half years. The common theme of the messages is “leave me alone” and “I have no family”.
An all-new episode of “20/20” airing Jan. 10 at 9 p.m., which airs the following day on Hulu, explores the mysterious disappearance and murder of Michael Shaver and shocking revelations in Laurie Shaver’s murder trial, exclusive interviews with law enforcement including the public prosecutor, the victim’s family members and those who witnessed the investigation spread it directly.
Laurie Shaver said she began dating a married veteran, Jereme Townsend, after she and Michael separated. The relationship ended abruptly when Vanessa Townsend, Townsend’s wife, received a strange delivery of flowers accompanied by a note informing her of the affair.
The message read: “Roses are red. Violets are blue. My wife is a whore. Your husband is (sic). Sorry about this. Check your Facebook message. We need to talk. Mike.” Investigators would later learn that the flowers were paid for through Laurie Shaver’s bank account.
Laurie Shaver took the stand on September 12, 2024 in a murder trial in Lake County, Florida.
Pool video via WFTV
By February 2018, Michael’s longtime friend, Scott Amatuccio, was concerned that no one had physically seen or spoken to Michael Shaver in over two years. Amatuccio asked law enforcement to conduct a welfare check.
When investigators arrived at Laurie Shaver’s home and searched the yard, they noticed a depression the size of a human body in a cement slab near the fireplace. They later returned with a search warrant, excavation equipment and cadaver dogs.
Authorities found Michael Shaver’s skeletal remains buried in the backyard, wrapped in a sheet. He had a single gunshot wound to the back of the head.
The backyard was the same area where Laurie married her current husband, Travis Filmer, just over a year earlier. The couple also engraved their initials on a cement slab next to the fire. In the first televised interview, Filmer told “20/20” that he could not come to terms with his arrest and that Laurie never told him there was a body on the property.
“Yeah, they’re saying they found a body on the property. Yeah, they’re saying that Laurie had a lot of involvement in that. There’s always two sides to a story,” Filmer said. “There’s no doubt in my mind … he didn’t kill Michael.”
When investigators arrived at Laurie Shaver’s home and searched the yard, they noticed a depression the size of a human body in a cement slab near the fireplace.
Lake County Sheriff’s Office
On September 12, 2024, Michael and Laurie Shaver’s 15-year-old daughter Isabelle took the stand before a quiet courtroom in Tavares, Florida. His mother, who was on trial for murder, watched from the defense table.
– Do you know anything about your father’s death? Laurie Shaver’s defense attorney, Jeffrey Wiggs, asked Isabelle.
“I do,” he answered plainly.
Isabelle Shaver described the violent confrontation she witnessed as a 7-year-old between her father and mother on the family’s 5-acre back porch.
“I heard my mom screaming for help,” Isabelle Shaver said, “and so I went to my mom’s room and went to her desk … I grabbed the gun … and I shot her.”
In his spare time, Michael Shaver flew around the country with a local flying group called Precious Metal.
Courtesy of Stacie Turner
During the trial, Wiggs told the jury that after Isabelle Shaver shot her father, Jereme Townsend happened to take the gun from Isabelle’s hands and fired a second shot at Michael Shaver. Wiggs said Townsend dumped Michael Shaver’s body.
“(Jereme Townsend) tells me to take the kids, get out of the house, and he’s going to take care of them,” Laurie Shaver said in court. “He said if we said nothing…he wouldn’t take the blame for this.”
During his testimony, Townsend denied shooting Michael Shaver or having any part in disposing of his remains. He said Shaver was not at the home after the shooting or after it. She testified that Laurie told her she was going through a divorce and left Michael “in a vehicle with a friend.”
Prosecutors Nick Camuccio and Rich Buxman argued that Townsend and Isabelle were not involved in Michael’s murder. Prosecutors alleged that Laurie Shaver acted alone, saying she assumed Michael Shaver’s identity for two years after his murder, sending messages to friends and family, posting to Michael Shaver’s personal Facebook account and sending flowers to Vanessa Townsend. sending
“We buried the defendant’s husband in his backyard,” District Attorney Rich Buxman told “20/20.” “That’s right up there with Laurie Shaver.”
On September 13, 2024, a jury convicted Laurie Shaver of second-degree murder and sentenced her to life in prison.
After the trial, Michael Shaver’s family expressed relief at the verdict.
“Michael was a really great person,” Turner said. “He loved everyone with everything he had, and I hope his spirit can finally rest in peace.”
