Rob: 0:11

Hey everyone, just a quick reminder this is part two of our coverage of Susan Savakis. In the last episode, hannah walked us through the twisted and tragic story of Tanya Hughes, later revealed to be Sharon Marshall, and the horrific truth behind her relationship with Floyd. We ended with Floyd's shocking abduction of young Michael in the heartbreaking mystery of what happened next. And now the conclusion we pick up right where we left off last week.

Hannah: 0:40

Okay, Hi, I'm Hannah and I'm Courtney. Join us as we delve into true crime, paranormal encounters and all things spooky.

Courtney: 0:59

Grab your flashlight and get ready to wander into the darkness with us.

Hannah: 1:21

This is Wicked Wanderings why do they always want to do that, I'm sorry. So he wanted a hybrid model which reminds me of several other cases and I'm gonna say it oh man, reminds me of fucking bundy. We've talked about other cases where these motherfuckers are so narcissistic that they think they can defend. They think they can defend themselves, they think they can question people in their defense. It just wow I don't know.

Courtney: 1:46

People always want to defend themselves and it doesn't make any sense to me unless they want to get put away for it. Do you think at a certain point point that I'm going to control this by literally controlling the entire thing?

Hannah: 1:59

I think so, but it's a narcissistic way of thinking, I feel.

Courtney: 2:04

I'm always torn because I think if I was a narcissist, wouldn't I want to keep going out and being able to live my life the way that benefits me, and wouldn't that mean giving a professional the chance? I think it's because we're not narcissists, true? Plus, it sounds like he's been behind bars several times, so maybe he's had bad experiences with public defenders and things like that, because obviously he was going to get a public defender later on in the story he really thinks that there's no evidence against him at all oh okay, so partially like delusions so currently they cannot get him on michael's murder because they don't have a body right.

Courtney: 2:36

Yeah, for all they know, he really did just like drop him off with a rich person, like right, so they really only got him on the kidnapping, on the handling of the gun, on imprisonment of the principal and because they also don't know that he hurt sharon right, because they're just assuming or cheryl right and they haven't connected those dots yet, I'm sure correct he ended up getting 52 years in prison.

Hannah: 3:01

No parole for the kidnapping kidnapping of michael because they could not find the body, so that's the best they could do. But honestly, 52 years, 52 years with no parole that and with the past history too.

Hannah: 3:14

I'm sure that helped get the whole time so they ended up finding the principal's truck which apparently they couldn't find in the beginning, and they found taped underneath was a package like a regular, like manila envelope type package right of child pornography pictures, including pictures of a young Sharon and her friend Cheryl. But the pictures of Cheryl was like she was so beaten. The FBI agent was like there's no way she lived through this. So the FBI said something happened with Cheryl. We know it did Like she hasn't been seen.

Courtney: 3:47

But they weren't found in his truck. They were found in the principal's truck.

Hannah: 3:51

Yes, so it's like was he trying to plant?

Courtney: 3:53

the evidence on the principal oh, I'm sure he was. I mean stupidly, because they knew that you took his truck, but that's also like a weird place to hide it and it also makes me think like so, unless you intended to do exactly what you did, you went into the school, you kidnapped the principal, you made him help you kidnap michael at gunpoint. You got in the principal's truck, I'm assuming you left your truck at the school or you walked, yeah, and then you carried a manila envelope with you to do all that, right filled with no. You had to stop someplace because if you had gotten caught and apprehended at the school, you would have child pornography linking you to two dead women and multiple more there was multiple children on those.

Hannah: 4:31

They didn't even know who they were. That's so sad. The fbi said obviously there's no way this woman lived through this beating. So through some meandering ways, through the system, through collaboration, they ended up finding a body buried on the side of a highway with just skeleton remains. Two bullet holes were found in the head. Come to to find out it was Cheryl. She had been threatened by him outside the strip club because one of the girls witnessed it, saying I'll kill you. Remember this? Blah, blah, blah. And he ended up getting a sentence of lethal injection for this murder. But they still never knew about where Michael was.

Hannah: 5:11

They still don't know about Michael and they still don't know about Cheryl, because right now it's a hit and run, right, or Sharon? Yeah, right, I'm sorry, sharon, sorry, there's so many names, there's so many names, sorry, guys. So do you remember the trailer park where they lived? Yes, okay, so we're going to go back to that trailer park in Florida, the one with the in florida 15 year old girl who babysat sometimes, yes, where cheryl would go and visit them.

Hannah: 5:36

Yes, okay a guy was seen going into their trailer park and he came out, he left and the whole trailer goes kaboom. So they think that he hired someone to go blow up the spot.

Courtney: 5:49

So there was no fingerprints or dna because, come to, find out.

Hannah: 5:55

The mattress that cheryl was found on was the mattress from that trailer. Wow, yep, this is why, huh right, they left tulsa because he had just murdered cheryl. So he took michael, he took sharon and then blew the trailer. And blew the trailer up. They knew that the police would be looking for a man with his description, with a daughter and a grandchild. What does he do? He goes to New Orleans, he marries Sharon and claims Michael as his son. Wow, because? No one's looking for a man and wife and a child.

Courtney: 6:30

And we still don't know what his relation to Sharon actually is, because he's not the biological father, right, right and there's no DNA. Right.

Hannah: 6:43

Here we go. Like we said, there's two questions who is Sharon Right and where is Michael?

Courtney: 6:49

And who is Frank Floyd to?

Hannah: 6:53

all of these people? All these people? How is Frank put in all this? A journalist ends up getting kind of a hint to all this and he's told to go on the exploited child website, right. And he ends up finding a picture of Sharon when she was very young, probably about five years old, with Floyd. The psychologist said the face that she has is a child that's been abused. Just the way that she looks okay, which just I still see it in my head, which brings my heart. So, since floyd's in jail, the journalist decides to go see if floyd will talk to him while he's in prison.

Courtney: 7:29

what does he have to love to lose? Because they did sentence him to lethal injection, so he's just waiting at that point and like a psychopath he likes to talk.

Hannah: 7:37

They always love to talk. So what does Floyd do? What does a psychopath like to do? More than anything else.

Courtney: 7:44

Point you in the wrong direction, to then make you come back. And then they giggle at you and say, oh, maybe it was this. I don't remember and Tell you. If you let me out of jail I can show you Talk about themselves. That's true.

Hannah: 7:55

What does he do? He talks about himself. Great, tell us who the fuck you are. This journalist ended up writing a book which I ended up putting on my TBR. The thing is with this book, the end story is not in it, because it was written in the early 2000s and there's a lot of information Like. The way it finished is not how the story finished, if that makes sense it does.

Courtney: 8:16

I feel like a lot of the I don't want to say this one's newer because it's not, but a lot of the newer ones like we. We've talked about the karen reed trial.

Hannah: 8:24

Well, very hard to present the book is called a beautiful child a true story of hope, horror and an enduring human spirit, by Burbeck, and he was on some talk shows and everything talking about this story.

Courtney: 8:39

I'm adding it to the TBR right now.

Hannah: 8:41

It looks really good. I do want to read it because I think it would give some good insight. So Floyd ended up talking about himself and he said you know, I was born in 1943. My father had died, my mom had several children and decided she couldn't take care of him. He ended up getting sent to the Georgia Children's Baptist Home, which I looked up and apparently it's still running, oh God, right outside of Atlanta. So I was surprised by that. That's interesting.

Hannah: 9:08

Based off of what he said, he was abused there. It sounded like he was sexually abused, physically abused. It sounded like he had a really rough childhood, which doesn't excuse his behavior, but it kind of shows you why he is the way that he is Abandoned, abused. He said he was smaller than the other guys. He actually talked about physical abuse that happened and sexual abuse that happened in the prisons. I always want to believe someone that is privy to having these things happen to them, but you never know too. But it sounded like he had a pretty rough life. Of course, floyd denied everything he did. He, yeah, denied ever kidnapping. He denied all the murders.

Courtney: 9:56

He did, even though there were witnesses right being, obviously, when he went into the school and did what he did right saw him but because of the book, you know.

Hannah: 10:06

word got out and sharon's daughter was found. She had been adopted. So remember when she was pregnant in high school? Yes, she had a daughter that ended up being adopted.

Courtney: 10:19

So there were two children, then Three. Oh my gosh.

Hannah: 10:23

She had three children and I was really surprised by that Between 18 and 20. Yeah, she had three babies. I was really surprised by that. Between 18 and 20. Yeah, so, New Orleans, 1989, Tanya and Clarence their names. Then they go to an adoption agency and they say we can't afford another child. And this was. They had Michael at the time. This was the third child. I don't know what happened to the first, but they were saying that she had three.

Courtney: 10:50

He did according to her best friend's story. She was told you're going to what happened to the first, but they were saying that she had three. Well, he did. He did according to her best friend's story. She was told you're going to give this baby up, yeah, and then you're going to come take care of me, right? So we now understand all too well right.

Hannah: 11:00

We don't know about the first, but we do know they had michael at this point and they wanted to give up this. Third. The adoptive parents went to go pick up megan that they called her at the time at the hospital because she had just given birth. It ended up being the two moms together and she's like do you want to see her? Do you want to see what she looks like? And she's like I just I can't, I can't do. And she just like rolled over and the mom, the adoptive mom even said she's like I wish I knew. I wish she said like I need help, like you know it, because it's she's like.

Hannah: 11:33

I wish I knew, I wish she said like I need help, right you know? Because it's she seemed like a mother that wanted to keep her children.

Courtney: 11:38

Like. This is a woman that was abused in so many different ways and it seems like it was evident yes, from what a lot of people are saying. Yes, it was evident physically that she was being abused.

Hannah: 11:44

So again, she had the three pregnancies. The first one adopted she had Michael, which I don't know why he let her keep.

Courtney: 11:50

Michael Were the other two girls, I'm wondering.

Hannah: 11:55

And did he not want to touch someone else? Wait, you're saying he ended up being a good person.

Courtney: 11:59

I'm just wondering if maybe he knew that if they were girls and that they kept them, if he worried that he would do something, maybe he did want to not do that, because if the other two were girls, why would he have kept a boy?

Hannah: 12:11

There's nothing known about the first one. I would love to hear more about your theory because it could be one. But you know, the third one again I said was Megan and she was given up to adoption. So yeah, I mean it's an interesting theory. Maybe in the book they'll know. Maybe, right, I mean Wanderers. We may come back for this.

Courtney: 12:30

And if you know, text us.

Hannah: 12:33

So Sharon's case got sent to missing and exploited children because they wanted to figure out, like, who was Sharon Right, because obviously she wasn't Floyd's daughter, right, right, yeah, they got interested and they ended up contacting the FBI. The FBI ended up going to see Floyd again and apparently they go to have an interview with Floyd, and Floyd ends up contacting the fbi. The fbi ended up going to see floyd again and apparently they go to have an interview with floyd, and floyd ends up ranting like ranting and raving before they even say anything and they're like, dude, we are not your lawyers, and they're like he's like what?

Courtney: 13:01

like this guy's on death row, right, right. I mean nothing that they say is gonna do anything worse to him. He said what, what you're not.

Hannah: 13:07

Who are you? And they're like we're fbi agents viewing his guts to fbi. Oh my god. He's like what do you want? They're like well, we want to know where michael is and who the hell you are. Also, he's like you need to shut that case. And they're like well, we're just we would need a buddy first.

Hannah: 13:22

Thank you, so we ended up confessing that he had shot him two times in the back of the head. To make it quick, he claimed that he was buried on the oklahoma texas border and they searched for two days. Yeah, and they claimed we did 110 percent like we tried finding him and they never found his body, a lewis lent, who does that constantly exactly all the time exactly he's alive in jail doing that still.

Hannah: 13:48

Yep, they ended up finding out that he had a different alias. So this guy had so many aliases. He had another alias called brandon. Cleo williams never did like a. Brandon sharon was suzanne savakis and she was born in livonia, michigan. What ended up happening was that he ended up marrying her mom. So Suzanne's mother and father. They were childhood sweethearts. The father ended up going to Vietnam. She was pregnant. He ended up coming back from Vietnam, so I guess he got like a week leave to visit his new daughter, suzanne, right? He came back after the Vietnam War and he was just different, which a lot of men were at that time.

Courtney: 14:30

Yeah, understandable.

Hannah: 14:31

But come to find out he was changed and she was dating a different man. Oh man, yeah. So she married that guy, had two more daughters, oh boy, got divorced, okay. And then moved to a trailer park with all three kids, with all three kids herself, okay. And apparently a tornado hit. The mom claimed she had PTSD, she didn't know how to take care of her children. She was like just really traumatized. So she was always told if you need help, go to social services. So she said to them, like I need help. And the woman's like go to church, go to church, oh man. And to church, oh man. And she's like, okay. And also come to find out. Suzanne's father was approached by social services and said listen, I know only one of them is biologically your child, but would you take all three girls because they're all connected? He said I was in such a bad place after vietnam I was drinking.

Courtney: 15:23

I was living with my parents, like there was no way I could take care of three girls by myself and it sounds like he was also trying to make a choice too, that maybe he didn't consider what the other options were. He was just knowing that if he had had those girls come with him, that he wouldn't have been able to do the job right so she goes to church like the social service like she doesn't want her to go for an event, or did they just be like find jesus?

Hannah: 15:46

jesus will save you.

Courtney: 15:47

Oh, basically, and this is where she met floyd- oh, of course he's preying on women at the church and he says I promise you I'll help you with your three girls, we'll get married.

Hannah: 15:59

Life will be dandy, white picket fence, blah, blah, blah. Right, of course they end up being this jolly family, right, him and her and the three girls, sure. But he starts showing his true colors, right, like you're never gonna fucking leave me all this controlling crap, right all I'm hearing in all of this is that we have suzanne accounted for and three missing women.

Courtney: 16:24

That's all I'm hearing in this.

Hannah: 16:26

The mom ended up writing a bad check at the 7-Eleven because she needed diapers for her child. This is according to her. She ends up getting 30 days in jail for it. Holy crap, how expensive were those diapers, I know, I know. And so he ends up taking the girls Like just out, like taking them and running. She gets out of jail. Her three daughters and her husband aren't there, so she goes to the police department and they're like well, are you married?

Hannah: 16:50

And they said yeah, like well, that's an issue you guys need to figure out between yourselves.

Courtney: 16:54

So she ends up finding the two.

Hannah: 16:56

Because she was in jail there was probably some kind of stigma against Right, so she ends up finding the two younger daughters at an orphanage because he dropped them off and she it makes me wonder do we know how much older Suzanne was than the other girls?

Courtney: 17:13

I'm trying to think like probably, at least like four years, I would think Maybe he just felt more of a connection, or because he was like, well, this one's not a baby anymore, so I can keep this one alive by myself. Maybe it's just weird, knowing what he does to young women, that he was like had three at his disposal, yeah.

Hannah: 17:35

And he was like well'm gonna take this one.

Courtney: 17:35

But like he had already taken a four-year-old girl and raped her like and then they didn't. Did they ever find that?

Hannah: 17:40

girl. I mean I think they did based off of him being in jail for it and she must not have died, because then it would have been murder right, right okay with this really hefty story. I'm glad they've actually found her name and who she was. She was a woman that seemed to be smart, beautiful and kind on many levels. I mean, I'm thinking about the time that she was raped in front of her friend and she. She consoled her friend, like she's the one that went through that terrible thing and she's still like everything's gonna be okay like and still was smart.

Hannah: 18:13

She was still accomplishing things in high school and then trying to take care of a son by her rapist, like it just. And then even the foster family was talking about how behavioral michael was, where he would just like smash his head on the floor and have these huge tantrums and the work that we're in it.

Courtney: 18:32

Just, I'm thinking about it, I'm like it's strange, but back then it was also a very different, because michael was only I think two years older than what I am right now, so he's not even 40, if he was alive, right?

Hannah: 18:46

I mean, they still haven't found a body.

Courtney: 18:49

I do think he's passed, but there's still no body and that's hard too, because with people like that and this is kind of where, like that love-hate relationship of, for a lot of people the death penalty is tough because it's like, on one hand, did you get justice, I mean I, I guess I have a hard time feeling like that but, at the same time, if you take that person's life, there's no chance that you're going to get that information.

Rob: 19:19

And we know firsthand.

Courtney: 19:19

When somebody has nothing else to lose, their behavior is erratic. They do whatever they want, there's nothing left for them to possibly earn, and I just feel like, as a behaviorist who's so reinforcement driven and not punishment, I'm failing to see how this is helpful to get closure for Michael, and in so many cases it's the same thing.

Hannah: 19:36

So some good things, which I know it's hard to find. The good in this is that with so Megan, her third daughter, you know, was found with her adoptive parents and the journalist ended up finding her. That made the book and they decided to change her headstone from Tanya to actually her full birth name and a little inscription and a picture and they were able to have like a commemoration ceremony, which was beautiful. Her daughter Megan ended up calling her first son, michael, for her brother, just to kind of honor him and his life and, even though his body wasn't found, she's like just to commemorate him as my brother, something I just didn't find justice in, because I know we've had conversations about the death penalty and everything, yeah, but floyd ended up dying from natural causes in january 23rd 2023 why does that always happen?

Hannah: 20:28

okay. So I'm gonna tell everybody like, please go and watch the documentary that this is based off of. It's called Girl in the Picture. It's actually on Netflix and it can give you a lot more information. But this thing took me for a ride. I watched it twice and actually people that I saw online watching it, they had to watch it twice because it is just an extreme amount of information. It's mind-boggling. As I'm even reading it, you know from my notes, I'm like wait, this is from here and here to there and all the aliases and everything. But this guy was a complete douche canoe and it just sounded like he just took a woman that I think could have done brilliant things in her career if she went to georgia tech and just it just breaks my heart.

Courtney: 21:12

so I'm going to say that that was the story of suzanne savakis, because that's what it was I feel like that's just such a a wild ride and there's so much, and this is why we we do what we do here. I guess the psychological component of so many of those people and how everything turned out the way that it did. Like you know, why did frank do the things that he did? Well, and I know you drew the conclusion that you know he I did look up that place the baptist place.

Courtney: 21:42

It's still near atlanta they proudly put on their website 150 years of housing children, yes, which is horrifying, and I just feel like it's.

Courtney: 21:52

We always come down to this too, no matter what story we tell, monsters are monsters and they do horrific things. But what made them that way? What was the thing? And the things that they did are not justifiable. They're not okay. They're not being condoned by anybody here on this podcast, surely? But we are so interested in the inner workings and why, yeah, and I I do feel like I don't know my theory about the kids.

Hannah: 22:17

I really want to know what the gender of that first baby was for some reason it just wasn't no and, like you said, maybe it's in the book maybe I mean it's definitely going on my tbr.

Courtney: 22:27

it already did, because my tbr not that my tbr isn't 600 million trillion billion books long. But yeah, that's a real stumper. So we're going to do Pick a Card, any Card. I'm going to shuffle these bad boys up because I feel like it's been a while since we've. It's been a while, all right, and I'll pick a card, any card. She's making heat everybody, just one cheater pants am I reading or are you reading?

Hannah: 23:02

you're reading? Okay, I have the three of clubs, are you sure? Yes, vincent wadlington. On february 17, 2011, the victim was found stabbed in the railroad tracks in the area of Danford Street near the intersection of Durfee Street and Odd Street in Fall River. The victim was last seen 10 pm on the night before near President Avenue and North Main Street. If you have any info about the case, please call 1-855-MASOLVE. Again, this is Vincent Wadlington.

Courtney: 23:34

I don't know much about anything from Fall River except for the Lizzie.

Hannah: 23:37

Borden house, I know.

Courtney: 23:38

It's so sad because I feel like some areas, especially for wicked or crime-related things, they have one thing that just kind of like takes over, because I can't even think off the top of my head what Fall River's socioeconomic status is. Mostly I really it's I would say city-ish.

Hannah: 23:59

It's city-ish. Yeah, I would say it's city-ish. It's very different than from what Luzbeth lived in.

Courtney: 24:05

I would think so. Hannah's blonde statement for the day. I would happen to think so. I know the cards are always so sad. I do think it's almost time we can say that we don't have. We probably have less than half the deck left and our producer would tell us we need to remember to do the cards more. But if you have a different states, also do the cards. So when we wrap up Massachusetts, if anybody has a state that they would like to request for us to do we were thinking Connecticut, but we could leave it up to the Wanderers, and if you have a different state or a different type of activity we could do at the end that you would rather hear. Let us know, Text us.

Hannah: 24:45

Thank you, Wanderers. Thank you, Wanderers. Bye Till next time. Thanks for listening today.

Rob: 24:53

Wicked Wanderings is hosted by me, Hannah and co-hosted by me, courtney, and it's produced by Rob Fitzpatrick.

Hannah: 24:57

Music by Sasha N. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to leave a rating and review and be sure to follow on all socials. You can find the links down in the show notes. If you're looking for some really cozy t-shirts or hoodies, head over to the merch store. Thank you for being a part of the Wicked Wanderings community. We appreciate every one of you. Stay curious, keep exploring and always remember to keep on wandering. Thank you.