- When Shannon Graves didn’t turn up at family events, her half-sister reported her missing
- Police drew a blank until a shocking call – a corpse without a head had been found
- The scorpion tattoo on the body and other forensics identified Shannon, known as Starr
- Now police had a lead on finding her murderer and whoever helped them
Running around the lounge, her puppy nipping at her heels, Shannon Graves’ smile lit up the room. Her pitbull, Molly, was her little shadow and constant source of joy.
Shannon was known among her friends as ‘Starr’ because of her radiant personality. Starr was a free spirit.
In 2016, she finished a course and was excited to start a new career in the beauty industry.
She’d recently split with her fiancé when she met Arturo Novoa that year. Romance blossomed and Shannon, 28, and her 31-year-old beau moved in together.
Yet all too soon the relationship turned toxic and violent. After a brief separation in December 2016, just a week later the couple had reconciled and friends and family assumed all was going well for their beloved Starr.
Then on June 22, 2017, Shannon’s half-sister Debbie reported Shannon missing to the police.
While it was not unusual for Shannon to go without contacting her family for extended periods, missing significant events like Easter and her birthday made alarm bells ring.
(Youngstown Police Department)
after Shannon (Facebook)
When Shannon’s father quizzed Arturo on his daughter’s whereabouts, he said she’d moved to another city to be with another man.
Suspicions grew when family repeatedly tried to contact Shannon on her phone to no avail.
Arturo – who had a new girlfriend, Katrina Layton – quickly became suspect number one, but cops had nothing else to go on until July 30, 2017, when the investigation took a twisted turn. A terrifying emergency call was made by a man called Ken Eshenbaugh.
‘Me and my wife just found a dead body in our freezer,’ his voice trembled. ‘I think it’s a female.’
Ken said a friend had asked if he could move the freezer down to their basement because his power was out. ‘He didn’t want his freezer full of meat to spoil,’ the police report said.
When Ken’s wife Jill went down into the basement to borrow some mince to make meatballs, she was shocked to find the freezer was padlocked. Picking the lock and opening the freezer, they made a chilling discovery – inside a bin bag was a dismembered body with the head missing.
When police asked who had dropped off the freezer, Ken told them it was a man named Anthony Gonzalez.
Examining the body, police saw a scorpion tattoo on one of the feet. It was exactly like the one Shannon had. Forensics tests confirmed the remains were Shannon’s.
Opening the freezer, they made a chilling discovery – inside a bin bag was a dismembered body with the head missing
Police investigators began to look into Anthony Gonzalez, and quickly learned the name was an alias of someone who’d already been ‘assisting’ police with their enquiries… Arturo Novoa, Shannon’s ex.
They searched his apartment, where he was now living with Katrina. A mum of two, she’d moved in with Arturo two weeks after the last time Shannon was seen alive. She’d been driving Shannon’s car, using her phone, even caring for her beloved pup Molly.
Katrina was besotted with Arturo – they’d dated on and off over the years. It was a doomed love triangle fuelled by jealously, and authorities were convinced Katrina had something to do with the murder too.
They hauled the couple in for questioning and searched their apartment. Cops found blood on the wall and the owner’s manual to the freezer where Shannon’s remains were found.
Arturo Novoa, then 31, and Katrina Layton, 34, were arrested and charged with abuse of a corpse. Layton was also charged with obstructing justice.
‘No-one was charged with a murder because we have no idea what the cause of death was,’ Youngstown Police Lt. Doug Bobovnik told WKBN.
Meanwhile, Shannon’s ex John turned detective. Speaking to people who’d known Shannon, he discovered Novoa had contacted his friend Steve, asking to have a bonfire at his home so he and his mate Andrew Herrmann could burn some of Shannon’s things.
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Novoa told Steve that Shannon had been cheating on him and he was upset. In the fire pit, cops found valuable evidence, including Shannon’s bracelet.
On September 17, 2017, Novoa was charged with murder, along with a raft of other charges.
Herrmann was arrested for tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse. He said Novoa had invited him over, and to his shock had shown him Shannon’s body. Novoa had bludgeoned her to death with a hammer.
He and Novoa then tried to dissolve the body with sulphuric acid, but ran out after dissolving the head, and put the rest of her remains in the freezer.
Layton rented another apartment where they’d stored the freezer. But when the landlord asked why no-one had moved in and the only item in the flat was a freezer, Novoa asked unsuspecting Ken if he’d store it.
Then all hell broke loose.
In May 2019, after pleading guilty to 47 charges related to the murder of Shannon Graves, Arturo Novoa, then 33, was sentenced to 48 years to life in prison.
The following January, Katrina Layton pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence, obstruction of justice and abuse of a corpse. She was sentenced to 18 years in jail.
Andrew Herrmann, 28, pleaded guilty to abuse of a corpse, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and an unrelated drug trafficking charge, receiving a 12-year sentence.
Debbie told WKBN she regularly visits the spot where her sister Shannon is buried. She said she mows the grass then spray paints on a pink heart because ‘pink was her favourite colour’.
