- Shawna Scott’s family welcomed old friend Frances Zaayer into their home, but their relationship gradually soured
- After months of escalating tensions and police complaints, Zaayer entered the Scotts’ home in May 2018 and shot Shawna and her husband, David, killing him
- Shawna survived with devastating injuries, while Zaayer later pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 35 years in prison
Despite not being related, Frances Zaayer was someone Shawna Scott’s family loved. She had been part of their world for years.
As a teen, Frances had a difficult home life. So after befriending Shawna’s older cousin, Frances was invited to live with their grandmother. There, she finally felt part of a family, and it was a relationship that spanned decades.
Many years later, after Frances went through a divorce, she returned to the town where she’d once been taken in.
The family was still there, and the Scotts welcomed her back with open arms.
At the time, Shawna and her husband, David, lived close to many of their extended family. They held shared family dinners, and relatives would gather in the pool in Shawna’s yard in warmer weather.
For a while, Frances’ return to the tight-knit clan seemed almost like a homecoming. She even purchased a property across the street from Shawna. But before she could move in, the existing house had to be demolished and renovations completed.
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So Shawna suggested she live with them. Her intention was simple – give Frances a place to stay and treat her like family.
For a time, that was exactly what happened.
Then, slowly things began to feel different. Shawna’s family said Frances wanted things done a certain way. She became increasingly involved in how the household was run and, according to Shawna, even began telling her how to care for her own home.
In January 2017, when Shawna believed Frances had reprimanded her grandson, she’d had enough.
Feeling like Frances had overstepped the line, Shawna asked her to leave.
Within a few months, her home was finished, and Frances moved into her property across the street.
However, this didn’t bring the peace Shawna might have hoped for.
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Instead, the women began clashing. One time involved Frances’ driveway. Shawna’s family believed it had been built partly on property belonging to Shawna’s father.
In another accusation, Frances claimed Shawna, who was on a disability payment, was working at a friend’s tanning studio.
But Shawna insisted she was only visiting.
Eventually, the two women got into a physical fight. David came home from work and pulled Shawna away. But it was Shawna who ended up under arrest, charged with assault.
A restraining order prevented Shawna from contacting Frances while the assault case moved through the courts.
For Frances, the legal battle appeared to become an obsession. Shawna’s daughter, Haley, thought Frances believed David’s job at the local jail somehow meant
Shawna was being protected from facing consequences.
Over the following year, police were repeatedly called out by Frances. The complaints were minor – a missing bird feeder, fireworks being let off.
The constant calls placed a burden on police. But for the Scotts, the woman who had once been welcomed into their family was now a constant unsettling presence in their lives. Shawna said Frances followed her around town. And Frances was accused of mowing her lawn naked and appearing topless when Shawna’s grandchildren were visiting.
The dispute was becoming a battle.
David encouraged Shawna not to respond.
‘Ignore it,’ he told her.
But while David tried to keep the peace, the legal case was approaching its own turning point.
Prosecuting lawyer Andrew Reinhardt began questioning whether Frances would make a sympathetic witness if the assault case went to trial.
Rather than pursue the case in court, prosecutors offered Shawna a plea deal that included anger management and a year of probation. To Shawna, it was a chance to finally put the dispute behind her.
To Frances, it was apparently unacceptable.
Then came one final call to emergency services.
‘I can’t take any more of this,’ Frances told the operator. ‘Today is when it stops.’
Soon afterwards, in May 2018, she went to the Scotts’ home carrying a gun. Entering through the front door, she shot Shawna in the face.
She then went to the back of the house, where David was working outside. He was shot as well. David didn’t survive. He was just 47.
Shawna suffered devastating injuries and eventually underwent multiple facial surgeries. She lost vision in one eye and hearing in one ear. But it was nothing compared to the pain of losing her husband.
‘I remember this awful bang and I was down,’ Shawna recounted to Netflix’s Worst Neighbor Ever documentary.
‘I can recall being able to look out the sliding glass door and see Dave lying there,’ she said.
Frances Zaayer was taken into custody after a standoff with police.
In January 2022, she pleaded guilty to murder, second-degree assault and wanton endangerment. In Montgomery Circuit Court, Kentucky, Frances Zaayer, then 55, was sentenced to 35 years in prison, and won’t be eligible for parole until 2038.
For Shawna, the prison sentence could never restore the life she’d had.
‘Dave liked everybody. He was a good person. He was a good friend and he just had a smile that could light up a room, and he didn’t deserve this,’ she said in the doco.
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