Tuesday, March 24, 2020

The Murder of Shannon Stafford


29-year-old Shannon Stafford was a loving mother in the midst of a difficult custody battle when she was shot and killed by her estranged father-in-law, 54-year-old Larry Mitchell, on April 21st, 2012. That morning, Shannon drove to a Wal-Mart located in Morgantown, West Virginia around 9:45 AM. Larry, who was already in the parking lot when Shannon arrived, approached her car with a 9mm handgun and began to shoot at her. 

Shannon exited the car to try and escape, but Larry continued to fire shots at her until she collapsed. A large group of witnesses to the brutal event surrounded and held Larry until the authorities arrived on the scene. When they finally arrived, Larry was arrested, and Shannon was pronounced dead.

Image result for shannon stafford murder scene
The scene shortly after Shannon was shot. (source: WPXI)

On the day Shannon was killed, she was supposed to have her first unsupervised visit with her daughter Faith. Investigators have cited this as the main motive for Shannon’s murder: The Mitchell’s had declared Shannon as an unfit mother and did not want her to have access to Faith. Shannon’s estranged husband, Nathan Mitchell, had primary custody of Faith and was living with her at his parent’s home. 

Before Shannon filed for divorce, she lived in the Mitchell’s home as well. In fact, Shannon moved into their home early into her relationship with Nathan. Shannon was incredibly happy with this arrangement at first; Nathan treated her well and the Mitchell’s warmly welcomed her into their home. 

According to family and friends, Shannon had always longed for a “normal and stable” family after growing up in the foster system. When she met Nathan, Shannon felt she had finally found the family she always wanted with him and his parents. The couple got engaged shortly after she moved in.

Unfortunately, the happiness did not last for Shannon. Overtime, Shannon grew frustrated with Nathan’s mother, Sandra Mitchell. Sandra apparently made Shannon do all of their housework and would belittle her when it was not completed to her satisfaction. Rather than defend his fiancé, Nathan would agree his mother and belittle Shannon as well. 
Additionally, Sandra and Larry monitored Shannon’s every move and isolated her from her siblings and foster parents. They didn’t even allow Shannon to invite them to her wedding—they said they wanted their son to have a small wedding and asked her not to invite any guests. Although this upset Shannon, she complied because she did not want to jeopardize her relationship with her in-laws. 
When Shannon got pregnant, Sandra grew irate and claimed that it was too early into the marriage. She blamed Shannon, calling her irresponsible, and kicked her out of the house. Shannon moved back in with her foster family who welcomed her with open arms.
Shortly thereafter, though, Nathan begged for Shannon to come home. He promised they would find their own place and eventually move out of his parents’ home. Shannon moved back in under that condition: that they would find their own place before the baby was born.
Things did not improve for Shannon in the Mitchell household. Despite Nathan’s promises, he eventually told Shannon that he had no intentions of moving out of his parent’s home. Shannon ended up giving birth to her daughter Faith three months early. The Mitchell’s blamed Shannon for the baby’s premature status and heavily controlled Shannon’s interactions with her own daughter. 
When Shannon decided to visit her foster family for a weekend, she was forced to leave Faith behind. During that time, the Mitchell’s decided to not let Shannon back into their home when she returned. After that, Shannon filed for divorce and custody. 
The Mitchell’s accused Shannon of being an unfit mother to Faith and it was decided that Shannon would get supervised visitations with her daughter while an investigation ensued. As the family court officials in Harrison County did not see any reason why Shannon would be an unfit mother, she was granted unsupervised overnight visitations with Faith. Reeling from this news, Larry conducted a plan to get rid of Shannon for good.

Image result for larry mitchell shannon stafford mugshot
In December 2012, Larry plead guilty to first degree murder in Shannon’s case. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. That same year, Shannon's foster brother Barry Adkins filed a civil suit against the Mitchell's. The suit alleged that "Sandra Mitchell and Nathan Mitchell 'encouraged, assisted, aided, abetted, provoked and incited' Larry Mitchell in the shooting and killing of Stafford by 'providing him with information which they knew or reasonably should have known would incite him to take action to seriously injure or kill' her."

Barry won the suit, and in 2018, a judge ordered that 
$32,614,860 be provided to Adkins.

-
Sources:
Baybold Reports
CBS News
WBOY

22 comments:

  1. What a sad case.... That poor Mother should have left that family from the get go and never looked back.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes I was getting so irritated watching her accept all of that negative hateful behavior towards her. It was SO MANY SIGNS.. He would have NEVER been given the chance to leave me and flip everything around to where he or his pathetic parents had the upper hand. The fact he and his parents LITERALLY showed who they really were YEARS AGO it’s bs she STILL thought they cared ENOUGH about her child they wouldn’t harm her. When someone shows you who they really are BELIEVE THEM!

      Delete
  2. It is her husband's fault, he is refusing to grow up and take no responsibility for his wife and child. It is sad Shannon lost her life because she loves her child. I hope he is rotten inside a jail cell.

    ReplyDelete
  3. There is no way in the world you can convince me that the mother in law had nothing to do with it. That poor man didnt make a move without her say so and Im pretty sure she convinced him to do it. The real justice will be when that child is taken from her and her mamas boy son.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is Shannon's little sister. Thank y'all for the support. He show is on evil in laws on ID channel. Plz watch it. It was really touchy to read these messages. Shannon would be thankful for these. Thank u so much. It really means a lot to me. Thank u all and God bless

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I adored Shannon, I worked with her and she set up my baby shower when I was pregnant with my little girl in 2009. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of her and the entire Mitchell family should be in prison. I hope Faith is doing ok

      Delete
    2. Thank you for your comment, I'm so sorry for your loss.

      Delete
    3. Who has baby Faith now ? I hope not the father & mother in law.

      Delete
    4. Unfortunately they do. Bc since mammal and poppall our foster parents passed there is no grandparents to get rights and nor do we I guess.

      Delete
  5. Who ended up with little Faith... I hope they were able to get custody from the Mitchells!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Looking for this answer too I really hope it’s not the deranged Mitchell family .

      Delete
  6. She can’t blame anyone but herself. She stayed there while they treated her like shit. She should have been gone

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We don't victim blame on this page. They treated her poorly; I doubt she ever thought they would kill her. She is no longer here to suffer for this, but her family still is. Please think about them before making such comments.

      Delete
    2. Shame on you!!!

      Delete
    3. I bet you are friends of the dirtbag

      Delete
  7. You obviously have never been in a domestic violence situation. Your abuser brings you down through various manipulations that you don’t even realize are happening till it’s too late. And just so you know it’s way more dangerous to leave them cause then they lose their control on you. I hope to God you never live through this but my stance is you have no right to judge if you’ve never been there. Bless your ignorant heart

    ReplyDelete
  8. The best part is that the dirtbag estranged husband, Nathan, planned the funeral with an open casket. She had multiple shots to her face and he made sure anyone who cared about saw that as their final goodbye. Evil

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How could the funeral home be so disrespectful to Shannon and her family and allow an open casket?? That's morbid!!

      Delete
    2. that is absolutely not true. Nathan and his family didn’t even show up to Shannon’s funeral. And it was open casket bc that’s is what her parents wanted. She looked good. No bullet holes in her face. I don’t know where people get their information.

      Delete
  9. thats brutal, disgusting

    ReplyDelete
  10. I watched this episode on evil in law. She should have never went back to him. I hope Shannon family gets to be apart of Faith life now. RIP to Shannon Stafford

    ReplyDelete