She Killed Her Husband and Impersonated Him on Facebook. It Was How She Hid the Body That Led to Arrest
Laurie Leigh Shaver, 41, of Fla., was found guilty of second-degree murder with a firearm for killing her husband, Michael Douglas Shaver, 36, in 2015, authorities said
Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office/Facebook; WESH 2 News/Youtube
Laurie Shaver found guilty in death of husband Michael ShaverA Florida woman who was accused of killing her husband, burying his body under a fire pit in their yard and then impersonating him on social media, has been convicted of murdering him.
On Friday, jurors found Laurie Leigh Shaver, 41, guilty of second-degree murder with a firearm for killing her husband, Michael Douglas Shaver, 36, the Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office said in a release on Friday, Sept. 13.
The jury found her not guilty of accessory after the fact to a life felony.
Jurors reached the verdict in four hours in a trial that began on Monday, Sept. 9, local station WESH reports.
In February 2018, a friend of Michael’s asked the Lake County Sheriff’s Office to check on him, since he hadn’t seen seen since Nov. 2015, authorities said at the time, PEOPLE previously reported.
Michael, a monorail technician at Disney World Resort in Orlando, would never leave his family, the friend said, according to authorities.
Deputies responded to the Shavers' house on Sandy Pines Road in Clermont, and met with Laurie, who said she hadn't seen her husband since 2015, police said in a release.
She told them her husband had abandoned his family, according to an affidavit from the Lake County Sheriff's Office obtained by PEOPLE.
Related: A Fla. Father Tried to Keep His Troubled Marriage Together for His Kids — Then, He Disappeared
She let them inside the house to look around. But when deputies asked if they could bring in dogs to search the property, Laurie allegedly told them to come back with a warrant, according to the affidavit.
Lake County Sheriff’s Office Corporal Cory Anderson testified during the trial that when he went to the Shavers' house for the wellbeing check, he noticed that the concrete underneath their fire pit seemed strangely sunken in, local station Fox 35 Orlando reports.
"Six [feet] by eight [feet] and eight inches depressed," he testified. "Had the shape of a body.”
On March 9, 2018, police returned with a warrant, cadaver dogs and ground-penetrating radar. By the end of the day, they had found Michael's body buried three feet under a concrete fire pit in the backyard, wrapped in a fitted sheet that was wrapped in a tarp and secured with straps.
Authorities found Michael’s remains “almost directly under the fire pit,” CSI technician Jessica Holcomb testified during the trial.
An autopsy showed he had been shot once in the back of the head with a .38 caliber handgun "several months to several years" before.
Laurie’s attorneys argued that even though Michael’s body was found in their yard, that didn’t prove that she killed him, Fox 35 Orlando reports.
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In Sept. 2020, Laurie was charged with second-degree murder, domestic violence and accessory after the fact in connection with the 2015 disappearance and death of her husband.
After Michael disappeared, Laurie allegedly posed as her husband on Facebook Messenger to make his family and friends think he was alive, court records allege.
The mother of four began dating another man, who is the father of her two youngest children, after Michael vanished, Fox 35 Orlando reported.
She married her boyfriend in 2016.
In 2023, her lawyer filed a motion in court claiming that Laurie’s then-7-year-old daughter pulled the trigger, WESH reported.
During the trial, her daughter, who is now 15, testified, “I grabbed her gun, and I went back out, and I went to the door. The door was already open, and he had my mom on the ground still. So I am to the ground still, kicking her … and I shot him,” the daughter testified through tears, WOFL reported.
Laurie will be sentenced on Nov. 25.
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