On February 16, 2018 Scott Amatuccio called police & requested a well-being check for his friend Michael Shaver since no one had seen him since November 15, 2015, more than two years earlier. Michael was a former commercial pilot who had been working as a mechanic, maintaining the monorail system at Disney World & in November of 2015, had suddenly messaged his boss & quit his job. In the time that Michael had been missing, his wife, Laurie Shaver, told family & friends that Michael had abandoned her & their children to start a new life with a new woman. Scott felt that the situation was very suspicious; Laurie claimed that Michael left their house in a black SUV but all of his belongings had been left behind in the home he owned with Laurie. Scott also felt that Laurie was using Michael’s Facebook account, posing as Michael. He also let police know that right after Michael had gone missing, a concrete fire pit suddenly appeared on the home’s property & Laurie also was quickly remarried. It was Scott’s opinion as well as Michael’s family that Michael would never have left his children to start a new family.
Mike’s older sister, Stacie Shaver said, “He is a wonderful, caring man who would give the shirt off his back to anyone who needed it. His two children were his absolute world. He loved his family & we love him so very, very much. We miss him terribly. We are looking for answers.”
When police arrived to the Shaver home situated on five acres at 9850 Sandy Pines Road in Clermont, Florida, Laurie told police that Michael had left them & gone to Georgia & the last time he was at their house was when he picked up his belongings after his arrest for domestic violence in September 2014 & she hadn’t seen him since a DCF custody trial in 2015. Laurie was cooperative with police & allowed Deputies to search the property until they began to focus on the concrete slab fire pit. When they asked if they could bring in a cadaver dog to sniff the slab, Laurie told Deputies to leave her property & come back with a warrant.
Police then learned that Michael had no current cell phone & his Florida driver’s license, US Passport & FAA pilot’s medical certificate had all expired. He had no driver’s license in any other state, his car had been repossessed in February 2016 & court paperwork for a civil lawsuit for nonpayment of a credit card had gone unserved since he was unable to be located. Every friend or family member of Michael indicated that they had not seen him since the end of 2015. Michael was entered into the National Crime Information Center & an official investigation for his disappearance began.
During the investigation, Travis Filmer, who Laurie began dating in approximately January-April 2016, told deputies that Laurie had made the statement about Michael that “It’s not that he’s missing, he’s no longer walking this Earth.” She’d also said that something bad had happened to him & there was a body on the property.
November 7, 2015 was the last time Mike was seen in public with Laurie & their two children by co-worker Frank Merritt when they were attending a tractor show. Frank noted that Michael & Laurie hadn’t seemed to be getting along that day & left the show early to go home Frank texted Michael the next day & never received a response. The following day, November 9, Michael responded & wrote that he was quitting work to save his marriage. Michael’s next scheduled work shift was November 10 & he never reported in or called & was never seen again. Michael’s boss, John Borglum indicated that Michael was a very reliable employee who never missed work without calling in.
On November 11, Laurie sent a private message via a work server to her sister, telling her that “Mike left yesterday. Packed his stuff & went to the airport.” On November 12, John Borglum texted Michael & received a response, “I’m having issues at home, in GA right now. Just fire me or I’ll quit. I will not be returning anytime soon.” Co-worker Frank went to the Shaver home on November 13 to check on Michael & Laurie told him that after they got into a fight about her finding another woman’s number in his phone, Michael left & went to Georgia. Frank asked Laurie how Michael went to Georgia since his car was at the house & Laurie claimed that a friend, Robert Mercado picked him up & drove him there. When Robert Mercado was interviewed, he denied ever driving Michael to Georgia. Over the years, her story changed telling some people that Michael had gone to New York & even California. She told a boyfriend’s mother that Michael was a pilot who traveled a lot & told her work supervisor that Michael was in jail for not paying child support.
On Monday, November 16, Laurie sent another message to her sister Alicia & told her that over the weekend, which would have been November 14-15, she did “tons of yard work” & “cleaned up outside.”
Starting on November 9, 2015, two days after Michael was last seen, friends & family of Michael began to receive Facebook messages from “Michael” that did not sound like him, including the message to his boss that told him to go ahead & fire him as well as telling his boss & Frank to keep his personal tools since he wouldn’t be picking them up from work. He also told his friend Robert to “Leave me alone, don’t bother me” when Robert planned to spend Thanksgiving at the Shaver home. In January 2016 Michael’s sister, Christine reached out to Michael via Facebook & received a reply that said, “Everyone just needs to leave me alone just like they did my entire life.” In September 2016, ten months after he was last seen, Michael’s niece Desiree also sent a Facebook message to Michael & received a reply, “Who are you? I don’t have family anymore, I have no clue who you are now, stop messaging me.” Michael’s family pointed out that Laurie wouldn’t have recognized Desiree’s maiden name, but obviously had it been Michael reading her message, he would have. As late as January 2, 2018, Michael’s Facebook page continued to be updated.
After November 9, 2015, Michael’s debit card was never used again for any in-store purchases, but on November 19 & November 23, 2015, two separate online purchases were made at wish.com using his debit card. These purchases included female lingerie & clothing items that were shipped to Laurie at her home. On November 30, 2015, a check for $2,539 was mailed from Mariner Finance in Leesburg, Florida to Michael to his home address. On December 11, 2015, the back of the check was endorsed but the signature wasn’t legible but included Michael’s social security number & cell phone number & three days later, the money was deposited into Michael’s Chase account via an ATM in Clermont. Between December 14-30, multiple ATM withdrawals & purchases were made with the shipping address labeled to Laurie. The person making the withdrawals & deposits would need to have the ability to intercept Michael’s mail from his secure community mailbox, have access to his social security number, his ATM card for two weeks, his PIN number & the knowledge that Michael wouldn’t be around to notice the fraudulent deposit & multiple withdrawals & packages being shipped to his home. The account was eventually overdrawn & never used again. No purchases were ever sent to Georgia where Laurie claimed Michael had gone.
Over the course of three years, Mariner Finance tried to contact Michael to collect on the loan with no success. By the beginning of December 2015, Laurie began attempting to sell Michael’s guns, tools & car. When one man, a potential buyer, came to the Shaver home on December 6 or 7, Laurie was home alone & told the man that the items belonged to her husband who had left & since she didn’t know where he was, she now considered them hers. While he was there to purchase the guns, Laurie offered to sell him Michael’s car without the title as well as his tractor & the house & property for $150,000. The man found it odd that Michael would have left without any of his belongings. A friend of the family asked to borrow one of Michael’s tools & as Laurie led him to the shed where they were kept, the man asked if Michael would mind & Laurie replied, “Oh no, he’s not going to care again. He’s never going to be back.” Another friend of the family was at the Shaver house after Michael disappeared & remembers seeing what she believed was Michael’s cell phone. After November 3, 2015, Laurie never tried to call his cell phone despite the fact that on a normal basis, she would call him multiple times a week.
In February of 2016, Laurie allowed Michael’s car to be repossessed. It’s believed that the fire pit was constructed in March 2016 & the concrete slab was poured in September 2016 by Laurie & her boyfriend Travis Filmore & they marked their initials into the concrete. Travis later indicated that before the concrete was poured, the hole was only 3-4” deep but he found it odd that the dirt pile at the edge of the property that Laurie said came from the hole was far too large for a hole that small. The fire pit was seen in the background in a photo Laurie posted on Facebook on February 27, 2017 & was also seen on Google Earth in March 2017. During this time, Laurie continued to claim that she was in contact with Michael.
After Laurie told family & friends that Michael had left, she would indicate that she had seen & spoken with him & that he was stalking her but never reported the allegations. Laurie told Travis that she was divorced & the two married on December 31, 2016 in a backyard ceremony despite the fact that her marriage to Michael was still valid. When her sister-in-law asked, Laurie told her that she & Michael had gone to the courthouse to finalize their divorce but they were kept in separate rooms. On Laurie & Travis’ wedding night, Laurie locked herself in her bedroom after getting upset & pulled out a gun until she was talked down by a family member.
Records indicated that Laurie never tried to collect child support payments from Michael for their two children & she never reported him missing & there are no records that either Michael or Laurie filed for divorce. After November 7, 2015, no one had ever spoken with Michael & there is no indication that he existed anywhere after this point.
Michael & Laurie, who were high school sweethearts had a very tumultuous relationship. On September 4, 2014, Laurie called police to their house after she & Michael got into a fight over a home repair project. When police arrived at the home, Michael was on the back porch & told police that their argument turned violent very quickly & he wasn’t sure who touched who first. When they spoke with Laurie, she told police that Michael grabbed her & pushed her into a wall & then went to their bedroom to get his gun which they struggled over. Michael was struck in the head by the gun during the struggle. Laurie grabbed her car keys out of Michael’s pocket & left the house with her two kids. Officers did note bruising to Laurie’s arms & back & when police questioned Michael about this, he said that he probably grabbed Laurie by the arms “to calm her down.” He said that during their argument, Laurie threw a vase of flowers through the sliding glass door. A co-worker of Michael’s, Michele Rippy, said about Laurie, “She’s an evil woman. She was always very jealous & she had attacked him more than once.”
Michael was arrested & charged with battery because it’s believed he pulled out the weapon though he & Laurie’s statements were conflicting. Afterwards, he agreed to a plea deal that allowed him to enter a 12-month pre-trial intervention program that he completed in only six months.
After this incident, Michael & Laurie separated & he began living in an airplane hangar at work. In November 2014, Michael began dating a co-worker named Kendall while Laurie also began dating someone else. Kendall indicated that according to Laurie, she was allowed to date but Michael was not & during one conversation, Laurie threatened that he would never see their kids again & she would use them as a pawn to get what she wanted. During their brief relationship, Laurie frequently harassed Kendall through Facebook messenger & told her to leave Michael or she would expose her to her family as a “homewrecker.” Another time, Laurie called Kendall’s mom who lived in another state at 3 am, asking for Kendall. In April 2015, Laurie called Disney HR & filed a complaint on Kendall using photos from Facebook. Laurie also created two Facebook pages & sent friend requests to her. When Michael stayed the night at Kendall’s, he would stop at the hangar first just to be sure that Laurie wasn’t following him & another time, Michael called Kendall & told her to park in a different location at Disney since Laurie was on her way & she had a gun. In May 2015, Kendall ended her relationship with Michael because she was tired of the harassment. After the relationship ended, Michael returned home to live with Laurie & their two children.
A witness & friend of the Shaver’s, Mary Lueneburg said that she received a message from Michael in either 2014 or 2015 before he disappeared that indicated that Laurie wanted his life insurance. Mary wrote back, “She’s gotta kill ya first.” Michael wrote, “She tried to yesterday, I’m sure.” Michael also told her that Laurie would take over his Facebook account & his cell phone & pretend to be him if anything did happen to him. Michael’s co-worker indicated that 3-4 months before he went missing, he noticed several bruises on Mike’s face, chest & arms. When they talked about it, he explained that Laurie had become irate about something & began to punch him with closed fists. He asked Michael why he hadn’t fought back & he told him that it wasn’t worth it.
Police spoke with a married man named Jereme Townsend, who began dating Laurie In September of 2015, two months before Michael disappeared. He told police that Laurie told him that she had left her husband. The first time he came to the Shaver home was December of 2015 & noticed dark spots on Laurie’s jeans that he believed to be blood stains. When he asked her if it was blood, she changed & never wore those pants again despite the fact that according to Jereme, she would normally wear them three times a week.
Starting in February of 2016, Jereme’s wife Vanessa began receiving Facebook messages from Michael’s account that she didn’t read at that time as well as text messages from someone claiming to be Michael. In April she received a flower delivery at work with the message, “Roses are red, violets are blue, my wife is a whore, your husband is too. Sorry about this. Check your Facebook messages, we need to talk! -Mike Shaver.” According to messages via Facebook messenger & text messages, “Mike” told Vanessa that he had installed a spy app on Laurie’s phone that captured explicit messages & photos shared between Laurie & Jereme. The purpose of these messages were to notify Vanessa of the affair to encourage her to leave Jereme. When Vanessa wrote back & spoke about staying with Jereme, “Mike” insinuated that “he” believed that Laurie was pregnant with Jereme’s baby. “Mike” also shared the contact information of a good divorce attorney. Vanessa ended up confronting Jereme about the affair which he admitted & in April 2016, Jereme broke off his relationship with Laurie.
Jereme told police that Laurie got a tattoo with his nickname “Jay” in a heart over her vagina which made him think she was more serious about the relationship than he had been & admitted that he viewed it as purely sexual. Both Jereme & Vanessa shared their information with police that included over 600 pages of text messages, Facebook messages & photos between “Mike Shaver” & Vanessa which all began 3 months after Michael was last seen. In February of 2016, Laurie texted Jereme, demanding to know why he was wearing his wedding ring again. Police discovered that the text messages sent to Vanessa from “Mike” came from a number that had only been registered to Laurie & hadn’t been active during the time before Mike disappeared. The flower arrangement had been purchased on Laurie’s checking account.
On March 9, 2018, Deputies served a search warrant for a cadaver dog & ground penetrating radar to the Shaver property. During the search, they found the skeletal remains of Michael Shaver 3 feet beneath the concrete slab fire pit only feet away from where Laurie married Travis.
Michael was wearing socks, shorts & underwear & had been wrapped in a tarp & a fitted sheet that had been secured with ratchet straps. The sheet was Queen size & had been purchased at Kohl’s which was a store that Laurie frequented as proven by her bank records. DNA analysis confirmed that the remains belonged to Michael & his cause of death was from a single gunshot wound to the back of the head. A .38 caliber bullet was recovered from Michael’s skull & time of death was determined to be several months to several years prior to the discovery. Laurie was known to keep a pink .38 caliber gun on her nightstand table. It’s believed that Mike was killed between November 7, 2015 & November 10, 2015.
A second search warrant for the Shaver home utilized Bluestar which allows for the detection of bloodstains that are invisible to the naked eye & indicated a positive reaction to the track of the sliding door that leads from the dining room to the porch. It showed a drip-like pattern down the outside of the trailer between the house & the porch. This substance as well as hairs were found in this area but failed to demonstrate a sufficient amount of DNA for STR (short tandem repeat) DNA analysis. Swabs from the interior lower door track of the sliding door showed a mixture of DNA from Laurie Shaver & two unrelated individuals, with at least one being male. Michael Shaver couldn’t be either excluded or included as a contributor.
In March 2020, Laurie made a YouTube video seeking donations for her defense & claimed that she would never cause any harm to the father of her children. She said that people are trying to paint a certain picture of her but she says that she is “loving, caring & has a servitude heart.” She says that she doesn’t judge people, accepts all & tries to see the good in everybody.
On September 17, 2020, Laurie Shaver was arrested & charged with second-degree murder, domestic violence & accessory after the fact. She entered a not-guilty plea & posted $50,000 bail in December 2020 & returned home to her two children to await trial. The case has experienced multiple delays, partially because of the pandemic. On May 8, 2023, Laurie’s lawyer informed the court of having testimony from a minor child that confessed to committing Mike’s murder. At the time of Mike’s disappearance, the child would have been 7-years-old & is now 14. A motion was filed by Laurie’s attorney that indicated that Laurie & Mike’s daughter got a hold of a gun & shot her father to protect her mother who was being abused by him; the child is now wanting to testify because she doesn’t want to see her mom go to jail for a crime she didn’t do. Laurie is claiming that she did not kill Mike but her child as well as her now ex-boyfriend shot at Mike. Reports indicate that the child acted out because of repeated violence within the home by Michael Shaver. The defense wants the child to undergo psychological or sociological evaluation to prepare for testimony.
It’s unclear what charges the child might face. In the US, there is no federally mandated minimum age of court jurisdiction & many states, Florida included, do not have a minimum age of criminal culpability. Florida did pass a law prohibiting the arrest or criminal charging of children under age 7, except in cases of forcible felony, a category that includes murder & manslaughter.
Laurie is still awaiting trial.
References:
- State of Florida vs. Laurie Shaver
- Inside Edition: Disney murder trial: Mom who says child , 7, shot husband now alleges incident with armed kid & new husband
- Michael Shaver Domestic Battery Incident
- WESH 2: Central Florida woman accused of killing husband claims a child pulled the trigger
- Click Orlando: More remains, clothing found behind missing Clermont man’s home, deputies say
- People: A Fla. father tried to keep his troubled marriage together for his kids – then he disappeared
- Click Orlando: New claims emerge in murder case of Lake County woman accused of burying husband in yard
- Daily Mail: Woman charged with murdering husband in 2015 & burying him under firepit now claims her daughter committed the crime aged seven & wants to confess
