They ultimately made a deal with him, stating that if he testified against the OâBrien brothers, he could plead guilty to third-degree murder and kidnapping and receive a sentence of 40 years in prison. “I still have a hole in my heart but I needed it to be solved. James E. O’Brien and Timothy M. O’Brien were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. For two days, FBI agents, police officers, and volunteers searched for the missing Oil City girl. Following Howe's murder, the Oil City Council voted to prohibit night-time trick-or-treating. Just a few hours earlier, an Oil City resident, Dan Paden, called 911 and reported seeing a tall, disheveled man snatching a little girl at the corner of West First Street and Reed Street and forcing her into a rust-colored car, according to Explore Venango.Â. In a statement, they stated that “our boys did not do this crime.”, After the verdict was read, Shauna Howeâs mother told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that âthis is justice.
In October, as the trial ended, the brothers were found guilty of kidnapping, conspiracy and second and third-degree murder, but were acquitted on charges of first degree murder and rape. O'Brien were convicted Wednesday of killing Shauna Howe. The DNA revelation intensified the investigation, with increased presence in the area by the FBI and the Pennsylvania State Police, with the latter searching the home of Eldred "Ted" Walker, who said he may have opened his home to some "really bad" people once who may have done "a disgusting thing.
Afterward, she went to a Halloween party nearby at Free Methodist Church on Wilson Avenue. In 2001, Ryan Heath shared a cell with Timothy O’Brien at the county jail for eight months. She didn't go into perfect detail, but it was enough to scare the wits out of me. She wore it again later that day when she went with her Girl Scout Troop to sing for senior citizens in the area.Â. At first, they wanted to abduct an 8-year-old boy who was friends with Walkerâs son, but they changed their minds and opted to kidnap a girl as they deemed it would lead to more attention. Howe's abductors had thrown her alive from a railroad trestle bridge into a dry, rocky creek bed near Coulter's Hole in Rockland, and she had died of blunt force trauma to the head and chest caused by the fall. Howe's kidnapping and killing by being thrown from a bridge became a cause célèbre in Pennsylvania, receiving widespread media attention for over a decade. Pic credit: Oil City Police Dept. He also admitted knowing the brothers were upstairs in his house with the girl as he heard her crying. After nearly 17 hours of deliberations, an Indiana County jury found both Oil City brothers guilty of second-degree murder, ... Shauna's family sat nervously, awaiting the jury's decision.
“I still have a hole in my heart but I needed it to be solved.
Shauna Melinda Howe was 11 years old when she was murdered in 1992 by two brothers, James E. O’Brien and Timothy M. O’Brien. The ban remained in place for 15 years, before being lifted in time for Halloween 2008.
She was a student at Seventh Street Elementary School at the time her body was found below a 30-foot drop train trestle, just several miles from her home in Oil City, Pennsylvania.Â, On October 27, 1992, Shauna went to school dressed in a gymnast costume â a turquoise and black leotard. The pathologist determined that Shauna Howe died from blunt force trauma to her head and chest.Â, She sustained fractured ribs, multiple lacerations, and contusions, as well as hemorrhaging after she was thrown from the bridge. When he left the house and returned, they were gone. [4] He, however, denied any involvement in her death. Shauna Howe disappeared on Oct. 27, 1992, and her body was found three days later in a riverbed under a railroad trestle. Her kidnappers would finally be convicted in 2006, Timothy and James O’Brien. when he protested the idea.
Frank Spencer murder: Would you marry into a family with mob connections?
Shaunaâs relatives later joined in on the search, and when they did, her uncle â Keith Sybil â discovered a piece of her green costume on a hiking trail near a highway, about 8 miles from the town. He said he placed his hands over her mouth to prevent her from screaming, then shoved her into a vehicle with the O’Brien brothers. The mother of the OâBrien brothers â Linda O’Brien â and their sister, Nancy Deeter, were present in court, but they did not have a reaction. He also stated that they taunted him and called him âchickenâ for not wanting to follow through with his own plan.
Around 8pm on October 27, Howe was walking home from a Girl Scouts Halloween party in Oil City, Pennsylvania, when she was abducted at the corner of West First Street and Reed Street, two blocks from home. The brothers eventually drove Shauna to Eldred Walkerâs house and took her to an upstairs bedroom. State Trooper Kirt Snyder told The Titusville Herald in 1992 that âher feet were partially submerged in a shallow stream.â, Her body was transported to the Allegheny County Medical Examinerâs Office for an autopsy to determine the cause of death. In 2002, a DNA sample taken from Oil City resident James O'Brien, who was serving a prison sentence for attempting to kidnap an Oil City woman in 1995, matched a sample of seminal DNA found on Howe's body in tests run by the FBI lab in Washington, D.C. O’Brien had not been a suspect earlier as investigators mistakenly believed he was in jail at the time of the attack, and neither of the brothers fit the eyewitness description.
Walker added that he didnât want to kidnap Shauna Howe, but he said he âwas scaredâ and âdidnât know what to doâ as Timothy and James threatened his son when he protested the idea. [5], "The True Story of "The Town That Banned Halloween, "Brothers guilty in killing of 11-year-old girl", "Real Halloween Back for Long Traumatized Pennsylvania Town", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Murder_of_Shauna_Howe&oldid=959693902, Articles with dead external links from October 2010, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 30 May 2020, at 03:38. She was laying facedown, pinned between a rock and a log.
My daughter would have been 24, but what does she have?
He also stated that they taunted him and called him âchickenâ for not wanting to follow through with his own plan. Just a few hours earlier, an Oil City resident, Dan Paden, called 911 and reported seeing a tall, disheveled man snatching a little girl at the corner of West First Street and Reed Street and forcing her into a rust-colored car, according to, in 1992 that âher feet were partially submerged in a shallow stream.â. All images are used with permission or licensed. True Crime Halloween story of the abduction and murder of Shauna Howe in Oil City, Pennsylvania.
However, Oil City police officers said he changed his story at least 15 times.Â. Despite a search of the area the day before, Howe's body was found about 200 yards from where the clothing was found the next morning. For nearly a decade, Shauna Howeâs murder remained unsolved. I was never out of her sight again.
He told investigators that it was initially supposed to be a âHalloween prank of a staged kidnapping to make the Oil City Police Department look foolish.â. The autopsy report also indicated that Shauna had been sexually assaulted.Â. Walker said it was the last time he saw Shauna Howe alive. My daughter would have been 24, but what does she have?
When DNA evidence linked the OâBrien brothers to Shauna Howeâs murder, they were arrested in 2014. Timothy forced her into the backseat before they drove away, and Walker said he left in a separate vehicle.Â. They were found not guilty of first-degree murder and rape. Around 8pm on October 27, Howe was walking home from a Girl Scouts Halloween party in Oil City, Pennsylvania, when she was abducted at the corner of West First Street and Reed Street, two blocks from home. Shauna Howe’s murder remained unsolved for 12 years. [1][2] A local resident, Dan Paden, however, witnessed the kidnapping, thereby providing investigators with details of the circumstances, the abductor and the getaway vehicle used.[3]. Timothy purportedly told Heath that he and his brother drove to Coulter’s Hole with Shauna in the trunk of their car. In court, he admitted grabbing Howe and passing her to the O’Briens who were waiting in a parked car. It was during that time that Heath claimed Timothy explained what they had done to Shauna Howe.Â. They took a little girl’s life. Murder of Janean Brown: Andrew Gustafson slit her throat and evaded justice for 30 years, Murder of Jeannie Allen by her sister Georgia Weaver investigated on Twisted Sisters, Actor Eddie Hassell dead: The Kids Are All Right star killed in shooting, Good movies on Netflix that you really need to watch.
Once they arrived at a bridge, they threw her over, the, After the verdict was read, Shauna Howeâs mother told the, that âthis is justice. Shauna Melinda Howe (July 11, 1981 – October 27, 1992) was an 11-year-old girl from Oil City, Pennsylvania, who was murdered in October 1992.