- Black widow Laurie Shaver was charged for the murder of her husband Michael in 2018
- Michael had not been seen for three years when police discovered his remains were buried in the backyard of their family home
- But instead of owning her twisted actions, wicked Laurie pointed the finger at the couple’s daughter.
Michael Shaver was a well-liked man.
Aged 33, he was working in his dream job as a monorail technician at Disney World and never missed a day.
In his spare time he raced small planes.
But more than anything, he adored his family.
A proud dad to two children, his kids meant the world to him.
Michael and his wife Laurie Shaver, 32, lived on a five-acre property where their kids had lots of space to run and play.
Laurie was Michael’s high-school sweetheart and, although they sometimes argued, they stuck together.
In November 2015, Michael and Laurie took the kids to a local tractor show with Michael’s workmate Frank Merritt.
But when Michael sent text messages to his workmates a few days later explaining he was quitting his job to save his marriage, everyone – especially Frank – was confused.
To add to the confusion, Michael said they could keep his beloved tools.
Concerned, Frank visited Michael’s house where Laurie explained sadly that Michael had left her for another woman.
When Michael contacted family members on Facebook, it seemed he just needed space to sort things out.
But as weeks turned into months, his messages became increasingly strange.
Don’t bother me, he wrote. I don’t have family.
It was so out of character for the once reliable family man.
Stranger still, as time went on, his driver’s licence, passport and pilot’s certification all expired.
His car was also repossessed in 2016 from his driveway, and his credit card bills were unpaid.
All were signs that he’d indeed moved on.
To console herself, Laurie began dating again.
And in December 2016, she had a commitment ceremony with Travis Filmer in their backyard.
Still, the family were mystified.
Where was Michael? And why hadn’t he got in touch? It was like he’d vanished into thin air.
Michael’s good friend Scott Amatuccio was convinced Michael would never have left his children.
For him to just up and leave didn’t make sense.
Then in 2018, Scott noticed that Michael’s Facebook profile photo had been updated, but that Michael wasn’t in the photo.
It’d been taken from another website and showed a group at a bar.
Was someone trying to pass themselves off as Michael?
Scott had grown so concerned about Michael’s wellbeing that he went to police to report his mate as officially missing – something Laurie had never done.
When police arrived at Laurie’s house, she let them in, but refused their request to bring dogs without a warrant.
Undeterred, police returned with cadaver dogs and a ground-penetrating radar in March and searched every inch of the property.
They had their sights set on concrete under a firepit that had strangely sunken in.
Digging down, police made a grisly discovery – articles of clothing and skeletal remains buried almost a metre deep.
They’d been wrapped in a fitted sheet and tarp.
The slab of concrete was marked with Laurie and Travis’ initials.
It had been installed not long after Michael went missing.
And his body had been just inches from where Laurie and Travis had devoted themselves to one another less than two years before.
An autopsy confirmed the remains were indeed Michael’s.
It showed he had been shot once in the back of the head with a handgun ‘several months to several years’ before he was found in a shallow grave in his own backyard.
Michael’s shocked family grappled with the devastating reality that he had been murdered.
In September 2020, Laurie Shaver was charged with second-degree murder, domestic violence, and accessory after the fact, in connection with the 2015 disappearance.
‘I would never cause any harm to the father of my children,’ she explained in a YouTube video as she asked for donations for her court case.
As police investigated further, it appeared Laurie Shaver was so convinced Michael would not be returning she’d used his debit card for online shopping.
She’d also given away his tools, claiming to friends that Michael was never coming back.
Even more damningly, police traced the Facebook logins on Michael’s account back to an IP address at Laurie Shaver’s home.
When the case was heard in September 2024, Laurie Shaver pleaded not guilty to the charges.
It was revealed to the Lake County court that the couple had a tumultuous relationship.
Back in September 2014 police had been called when Laurie hit Michael over the head with a gun, but police arrested him, believing he’d pulled out the weapon.
Soon afterwards Michael went to live in an airplane hangar at work, and began dating a co-worker.
After Laurie reported the couple to the HR department at Disney World, Michael returned to the family home.
But the biggest shock of all came when the couple’s 15-year-old daughter, Isabelle, who was seven at the time of her father’s death, testified she’d been the one who killed him.
She claimed that after a violent confrontation between her parents, she had shot her father in the head when he was attacking her mother.
‘I heard my mum screaming for help,’ Isabelle testified, ‘and so I went to my mum’s room and went to her end table… I grabbed her gun… and I shot him.’
In yet another bizarre plot twist, Laurie Shaver’s defence team tried to blame her former boyfriend Jereme Townsend.
They suggested Isabelle missed, and when Jereme arrived he took the gun, shot Michael, and told the others to leave so he could ‘take care of it’.
He also purportedly said he’d kill anyone who said anything.
Laurie Shaver claimed she had no idea what he’d done with Michael’s body.
It was revealed their relationship had ended when Jereme’s wife, Vanessa, was sent flowers and a note telling her about the affair.
It read, Roses are red. Violets are blue. My wife is a w***e. Your husband is to [sic]. Sorry about this. Check your Facebook message. We need to talk. Mike.
But police discovered the flowers had been bought from Laurie Shaver’s bank account, not Michael’s.
The jury didn’t fall for her despicable lies.
They took four hours to find Laurie Shaver guilty of second-degree murder of Michael Shaver.
In November 2024 black widow Laurie Shaver, then 41, was sentenced to life in prison.
Michael’s brother Brian said, ‘While justice may offer some solace, it will not restore the wounds.’
Poor Michael had never left his family.
He’d been slain in cold blood by his childhood sweetheart, who spent years deceiving his family into thinking he was still alive.
Even worse she tried to blame his murder on her own daughter.
How could she be so wicked?
‘Michael was such a great, great person,’ his sister Stacie said. ‘He loved everybody with all that he had, and I think his spirit will finally be able to be at peace.’
