Killer Spirits Podcast
Killer Spirits Podcast
Episode 8- Disappearance and Murder of Shannon Siders - Cold Case
Join us as we discuss the disappearance and murder of Shannon Siders in Newaygo, Michigan. Her case went cold for 22 years before it was solved in 2015.
This episode is paired with a riff on the Last Word cocktail; Delayed Justice. Recipe below:
DELAYED JUSTICE
1 oz. gin
1 oz. Aperol
1 oz. Grand Marnier
1 oz. lemon juice
Faygo Red Pop
Combine all ingredients in shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into tall glass with fresh ice and top with Red Pop. Garnish with cherries.
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Transcript:
https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/4348133/people-of-michigan-v-paul-michael-jones/
MLive.com News
Cold Case file Season 1 episode 9 Bill Freaking Kurtis
Paula Zahn On the case
Shannon Marie Siders was born on 31 Mar 1971 in Michigan and was the only child of Robert and Mary Siders. When she was 5 years old, her parents divorced and she was raised by her father. Bob Siders. Shannon and her father lived in Newaygo, Michigan, a small town about 200 miles west of Detroit. The muskegon river runs through the north side of town and it is surrounded by the Manistee National Forest. This was and is a small town. In 2018 there were just over 2000 people, so you can imagine in the 80s it was even smaller. Shannon was described by friends as sweet, loving, and fun to be around. Someone you could tell anything too w/o judgement. And if you look at photos of her she looks so beautiful and full of joy. Just a normal teenager looking forward to her life and enjoying time with her friends.
On July 17th 1989, at about 10:30 pm, Bob Siders kissed Shannon on the forehead, and left to work the night shift at the local Pepsi bottling plant. When Bob came home after his shift at about 8:30 the next morning, Shannon wasn’t there -he checked her room- and it looked like her bed hadn’t been slept in. he wasn’t immediately alarmed because he thought maybe she was with one of her friends. He went to bed and later that evening when he woke up she still wasn’t home. Which was unlike her. So he did start calling some of her friends to try and find her. He even went outside and hollered for her around the neighborhood because she would sometimes hang out in friends houses that lived nearby. After speaking with some of her friends, who said they had no idea where she was, he started to get really worried. So he went to the police and reported her missing. The immediate reaction to Bob’s report was that Shannon was 18, and basically an adult. It was the belief that she had left on her own. Shannon;s boyfriend, Brian, had just taken a job in Ohio- and the belief was that she could have just left to go be with her bf. But when they checked into this it was obvious that she never did go to Ohio. When police spoke with Brian he was emotional and genuinely concerned. ALso it would have been physically impossible for him to make it to Newaygo in the timeframe that Shannon went missing and make it back to work in ohio the next morning. And by all accounts they loved each other very much and had been talking about marriage.
1989 Investigation:
At that point police told Bob Siders there wasn;t much else they could do. There was no evidence of any wrongdoing and the only things missing were Shannon and her purse. Michigan State Police Detective Sergeant Richard Miller was the detective assigned to her missing person’s case, and by his own admission he was not overly concerned about Shannon at all. He firmly believed that she left on her own, and soon received new info to justify this line of thought. During the course of the missing person investigation, he had contact with the narcotics group, who had an undercover officer working in the area. They said they knew of a girl named Shannon who was hiding from her father in a drug house in a nearby town. It was during this time when a lot of stories were coming out about her father: he ruled with an iron fist, expected dinner on the table when he got home, and that he may have possibly even been violent with her. Also this was a small community: the thought was, how many Shannnon’s could be missing and hiding from their father’s? Police go out to the dope house and it isn’t Shannon Siders. Miller even stated later that he made the mistake of not asking for a better description and because of that, it put the investigation behind.
At one point, just after Shannon disappeared, a man called the police station, and said “i just killed shannon siders,” and then hung up. The police looked into the phone call but nothing came of it. On labor day weekend, 1989, 2 people walking in the woods found 2 ID cards with the name Shannon Siders. A state trooper was called and went to investigate and found a pair of jeans near where the cards were found. At that point Bob Siders went out himself and looked in the area where the cards and jeans were found. He didn’t find anything else.
Body Discovery:
On Oct. 15, 1989, 3 months after Shannon went missing, in the Manistee National Forest off M-82 and Thornapple Road in Newaygo County's Brooks Township, a 31 year old bow hunter by the name of Andy Verburg,found a badly decomposed body. It was found in an area called the Hole in the Woods, a local party spot deep in the Forest. This was the same area where the ID cards had been found a month earlier. The hunter immediately contacted the Michigan State Police of his discovery. The body was situated behind some pine trees, almost completely hidden from sight. Dental records had to be used to identify the body because of decomposition. It was determined that the body was that of Shannon Siders. Shannon was wearing a garment that had “characteristics” of either a sweater or a dress. Her right hand was “clasping a beaded necklace,” Her eyes had been blackened before she died, her hands were bruised,and one of her shoulder blades was fractured, as were one of her “nasal bones,” two ribs, and one of her lumbar vertebrae. Shannon’s skull was detached from her neck and found 14 feet from her body. A portion of the back of her skull was missing. Several pieces of the missing portion of the skull were found, but others were never located. An expert forensic anthropologist would later testify that the fractures on the skull were indicative of multiple blunt force injuries to the back and sides of her head.
Because of the passage of time and decay, ordinary signs of sexual assault, such as the presence of semen, could not be relied upon. But Shannon’s sweater and bra were hiked up “around her shoulder or neck area,” revealing her upper torso and breasts, and her panties were pulled down such that they had been removed from her right leg entirely and were secured only to her lower left leg. Also, she was in a “supine position,” meaning she was lying on her back, and her legs were spread apart. Her left breast was also severely bruised and it was determined that her body was bruised from injuries that occurred while she was alive, Some amount of tissue from her pubic region had been removed after her death. After she died, incisions had been made around her genitals with a very sharp knife. Because of the advanced decay, the medical examiner was unable to determine “how far down the cuts went.” But it appeared that the area had been “incised and pulled away and cut off” a “lock blade pocket knife” was discovered near Shannon’s remains, as was a pair of table legs. Just based on the position of her body, it looked as if she had been sexually assaulted. Investigators concluded that Shannon died on the night that she disappeared, and the medical examiner determined that she was probably alive for about five minutes while she was being beaten. Her cause of death was ruled a homicide. She was brutally beaten, and the cause of death was ultimately blunt force trauma to her head. Theinvestigation then went from a missing persons case, to a homicide case.
Now Detective Miller had to tell her father that Shannon’s body had been found. And Bob realized that when he had been searching the woods, he was most likely 50 yards from her at point. Bob was convinced that she was killed by someone who knew her. He said in one of the documentaries I watched “how do you pick pall bearers if you don;t know who killed her?” He didn;s ask any of her friends because of he couldn;t be sure. Nearly the entire high school showed up for her funeral, and left notes and letters for her on her coffin. Shannon would also always wear her class ring- every day on her right hand- it was missing from her body and her father was never able to find the ring at home, so it was believed that possibly her killer or killers took it as a souvenir. And this was something the police never released to the public.
The investigators asked the Michigan State Police behavioral analysis team to build a profile to find any potential killers. The lansing profiling unit concluded pretty quickly that her killer was someone from her peer group, in her age group, by more than one perpetrator, and there was a good chance that alcohol and drugs were a factor. They felt this was most likely a sexually motivated homicide and that she was likely killed by someone that she knew. Now remember this is a tiny community and people were freaked out. There were so many rumors flying around the high school about who could be responsible for her death. Investigators looks at her father closely when his ex-wife, shannon;s mother, made some low key allegations that he could be responsible. There was speculation that he could have even staged it to look sexually motivated to throw suspicion of him. But the more they investigated the more it seemed far fetched and he passed a lie detector test so they ruled him out. But a cloud of suspicion hung over hum for years.
Now investigators had to go back and build on the timeline they started based on the missing person’s report. A a forensic entomologist was brought in, and using insects found under the body, Dr. Richard Merritt, made an estimate that Shannon’s body was left in a wooded area east of Newaygo sometime in the last few weeks of July, up to August 1.They discovered that there were 8 people who last saw Shannon alive. And side note NONE of these people came forward and told police they saw Shannon that night the police had to find them. Which was pretty odd. These were all local kids who liked to hang out and party and they had gone out that night in 3 separate cars. They were able to glean some information, but no one was that forthcoming. The teenagers eventually ended up at the Hole in the Woods and started drinking, and smoking, and driving around the trails in the woods. It was reported by the kids in this circle that Shannon had been in the car with two guys: Levi Pierson and Brandon Seevers. Brandon Seevers was known kind of as a creep who was in trouble a lot- and had a tendency to call women sluts and whores and that kind of thing. Shannon;s friends told police that shannon didn;t like to be around brandon so it was odd she was in his car. Then police learned that he left town right after shannon went missing, which made him look suspicious. SO they found him and brought him in for questioning. He told police that she was in the car with him at one point but wanted to go home. And then she ended up leaving and going into another car, and he didn’t see her after that. But they wanted to know why he left town and he said that he just left to go pick up a cousin and bring him back. And they determined that was true. Brnadon also told them that the car Shannon got into that night belonged to brothers, Paul and Matthew Jones. The group all separated at that point and all 3 cars went their separate ways, with Shannon in the car with Paul and Matthew JOnes. Some time later, Matt and Paul Jones show back up to this little soiree and they are alone- no shannon.
During an interview with Paul and Matthew Jones, Mathew told officer Paul J. Dewispelaere that he took Shannon to the Sportsman's Bar- to an apartment above the Sportsman's Bar- to get some cassette tapes. Then they drove around and they dropped Shannon off around two in the morning to her house. Both Paul and Matthew told investigators that their memory of their night with Siders wasn't clear and was fuzzy because they were taking alcohol and speed that night. BUT they provided a detailed description of the house, they said her porch line was on, there was a TV on inside, and they even saw her dog jumping up in the window. Investigators recreated this route back to Shannon;s house at this time of night and there was a porch light, you could see the TV on and it looked as if the Jones bros were being truthful. The Jones bros at this time had no criminal history -Plus, They each took a polygraph and they passed it. There was no physical evidence to link them to the murder either.
So Time passed, and leads went cold, and no one was offering any additional information. Police followed up on hundreds of tips about Shannon’s murder over the course of 22 years, and generated nearly 2,000 pages of police reports-Detective Miller knocked on countless doors, conducted hundreds of interviews and took statements from dozens of people. Still, no one was willing to tell him then just what happened that night in July 1989 when Shannon was raped and killed. Over the years her father would would pay for countless billboards and signs that said WHO KILLED SHANNON SIDERS?- they would be on the freeways, in front of stores, all over town. HE never wanted people to forget. And her case haunted the town for 22 years
Re-open the case
In 2011, a “cold case team” was formed to investigate. It was a joint effort between the Michigan State Police, the City of Newaygo Police, the Newaygo County Sheriff's Office, and the Attorney General's Office.
.The cold case team started interviewing everyone involved in the case. Over 500 people. Police set up a facebook page hoping to get any information they could about the case. ANd they get a message from a woman by the name of Aimee Bonnar. Aimee bonnar worked at the police station back in 1989 when she was only 15 years old. She was the clerk who took the phone call from the person who said they had killed shannon siders, and she never forgot it. She was a civilian, who was passionate about finding answers to Shannon’s murder. SO she starts working with the cold case team. And she receives a FB message by someone named Stephanie who tells her that there is a possibility that her family is somehow involved in Shannon’s murder. So her family is the Hammond family- and they have a bad reputation around town- there are stories that there was incest and abuse and a bunch of crazy shit. Stephanie tells Aimee there is a house by the lake , with a creek that rund underneath the house- and where Shannon was raped by several people after being drugged. She said they kept her there a couple of days then took her to the woods where they ran her over. Aimee asked Stephanie to take her to this house and it was exactly like she had described. Several of the family members living in that house were convicted of serious assaults and attempted murder. Police look inside the house and there is literally no basement. The house has never had a basement. And after an investigation they concluded the Hammond family had nothing to do with her murder.
Exhumation: https://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/2012/07/body_of_newaygo_countys_shanno.html
On July 26th , 2012 Shannon Siders body was exhumed from the city of Newaygo Cemetery. The cold-case task force hoped that evolving technology would shed some light on the case. It’s uncommon for investigators to exhume a body for examination in a cold case like this, but Michigan State Police Detective Lt. Cam Henke, commander of the Sixth District Special Investigation section, said it’s necessary in this case. “Based upon the investigation and the months of work that the cold case team has done, we feel we are at a point where we need to exhume her body and have the forensic pathologists look at the evidence again, utilizing the technology that is available now that wasn’t available back in 1989,” Henke said. “This is something that investigators have spoken about extensively. We have consulted with the family and believe it’s the critical next step in this investigation.” It was the first time ever a body has been exhumed from the Newaygo cemetery as part of a criminal investigation, Her father and her former boyfriend, Brian Aishe were both there during the exhumation.
Speak about the Fall Line here: Dr. Amy Michael was a student of forensic anthropology and talked about how it was very clear that Shannon’s body had signs of blunt force trauma. And what they really wanted to know was if the trauma to her remains matched up with the information the detectives were getting when they reopened the case.
Bob Siders said of the exhumation: “I didn’t care to see them lower her in, but now I can see her come out. Her burial was a crummy day too. It was a nasty day in February,” I figured if it rained today, it was just the angels crying a little bit. “I’ve got confidence in this team,” he said. “There is years of good police work going on. They’re here for a reason. Shannon is going to take a little trip, and while I feel once you’re laid to rest, you’re supposed to be laid to rest, we still got unanswered questions.” There was a tip that one of those letters placed in her coffin may be a confession letter. Police looked through the letters and determined none of the letters were incriminating. Just goodbye I’ll miss you letters. During this second examination ,they discovered that Shannon had hair clutched in her hand. But when they tested the hair it belonged to shannon.
The cold case team interviewed over 400 people and in the process of those interviews, new information started coming out. Her friend Julia Littich was interviewed in 1989, but the information she provided to police was not in the original file, She stated that she went over to seee shannon at 11pm to tell her about a job opportunity. She said that she went every half hour thereafter, until 3 am, and at one point even went into the house and went up to her room. Shannon was not there. AT this point someone is lying- either its her friend Julia, or its Paul and Matthew Jones who swore up and down they dropped her off around 2 am.
Linsdey Bradley was a friend of Shannon;s and she also dated Paul Jones at one point She came forward and told police that right after Shannon;s disappearance she saw a female’s class ring in Paul’s ashtray. She got pissed and said youre asking me on a date when you have another girls class ring. And his response was: Let’s face it shes probably dead.
During the investigation Aimee interviewed a shit ton of people and a few people told her to talk to Jenny Corroigan. Jenny corrigan was actually a friend of Aimees so she showed up to her place and was like whats up? What is going on. And Jenny pretty much broke down and told Aimee she needed to talk to a man named Dean Robinson. . Dean Robinson was in prison serving up to 40 years in prison on a number of felony convictions when police spoke with him. At first he did not want to talk because you know: Snitches get stitches. But he finally did start talking about that night in 1989: in 1989 Jenny Corrigan was only 14 years old- he was 19. She was riding in a car with Dean Robinson- they were not part of the 8 friend group we talked about originally. As they were driving they saw a car on the side of the road, so Dean stops to see if they need help and Jenny stays in the car. one of the men identified themselves as Paul and Matt Jones and said their car was fine, they were just looking for a girl. About an hour later, Dean and Jenny drive back through and see the same men standing outside the car- and this time they see a lifeless girl lying on the gound. He thought they had been in an accident because Paul Jones looked frantic and stressed out. SO Dean got out and started running up to see if he could help and while was running he tripped. While he was lying on the ground he was able to see the girl lying on the ground and recognized her as shannon siders. He didn’t know who it was at the time= she has blood on her face and to him, she looked dead or very hurt, Paul jones kicks him in the face and matthew jones walks around the car and Dean sees he is holding a hammer. So he gets up and books it bACK TO THE CAR AND SCREECHES AWAY. AT that point he swore jenny to secrecy because she was underage and they were out drinking and smoking. So they both kept this secret for years and years.
NOw, investigators really started looking hard at Paul and Matthew Jones.
Looking back on Paul and Matthew, its pretty clear that they were not living crime free lies all these years. Paul Jones served prison terms for home invasions in 2004 and 2006. When police caught him he had what could only be described as rape kit with him ... which included duct tape, condoms, and vaseline, and a stun gun." In 2006, when officers transported him to jail for the home invasion cases, they gave him a message from Richard Miller (the original detective in Shannon;s case). He wanted to make sure Paul Jones knew he hadn't lost sight of him, because he suspected him all those years Miller told the officers 'You just tell him that I said hi, and that I have not forgotten Shannon Siders,'" "He was like a kid on the hot seat. He confessed to the break-ins. It was likely to deflect off of Shannon." Matt Jones was a suspect in unreported sexual assaults in 1989.
Capture and Trial
In June 2014, homicide warrants were obtained and the suspects were arrested. The trial began April 20, 2015. The brothers were tried together before two separate juries. Defense attorneys told jurors there was plenty of reasonable doubt, especially after so much time. At the time of Siders’ death, the Jones brothers were in their late teens
Defense attorney Paul Stablien argued that the prosecution had failed to prove his clients' guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and had no physical evidence tying them to the crime scene. He also accused two key witnesses of lying about seeing Paul and Matthew Jones walking with Shannon Siders in the forest and later dragging her lifeless body.Stablien claimed that Dean Robinson, who is currently serving time for home invasion and assault with intent to murder, has agreed to testify against Paul and Matthew in exchange for having his sentence reduced by five years. The defense also said the prosecution’s case was weak.
So many eye witnesses saw things that were never revealed:
As time went on, Springstead told jurors, Paul and Matthew started bragging about getting away with murder.
‘She should have given us what we wanted, we shouldn't have hit her so hard, we are in the clear," Springstead said, quoting some of the remarks allegedly uttered by the accused killers in conversations with friends and family.
And the brothers allegedly told other people over the years that they struck Siders with a mirror, beat and raped her, and that Paul Jones allegedly ran her over with his vehicle – although they also told people conflicting stories.
Todd Bull grew up with defendant Matthew. While smoking marijuana at a bachelor
party several years after the victim’s murder, Bull saw Matthew grab a woman by the throat and
threaten to “put her in the ground like the . . . fucking cunt up north.”
Judith Decan, whose home at the time was surrounded by the Manistee National Forest, heard a girl's screams and male voices at about 2:30am. She didn't call the police because she didn't have a phone. And this eyewitness testimony would not come to light until 2015.
In July 1989, A friend of Paul Jones, Elizabeth Books, talked to Paul about Shannon only a couple of days after she was reported missing. While chatting and sitting in his car "He had said to her, 'Just face it, she is dead.'" She also noticed front end damage and drivers' side damage to his car. Paul told her a boy with a baseball bat caused the damage. But when she looked at the car it def did not look like baseball bat damage, which she told him. So then he stated that he hit a deer. Or maybe it was a tree. So she told him she thought he was lying and he said “maybe I ran down Shannon with it.” No one knew about this conversation until 2015 because she thought he was joking. At a party the year after the victim’s remains were found, Brooks saw defendant Paul
and “some others . . . running around chanting” lyrics to the “Guns N Roses” song “Used toLove Her.” Paul and the others changed the lyrics of the song to “should have buried her six feet under and he never would have found her.”
Newaygo County 27th Circuit Judge Anthony A. Monton, after hearing statements from both sides, recited the sentences as:
- Matthew Jones: Life in prison without chance of parole, as "prescribed by Michigan Law."
- Paul Jones: 30 to 75 years in prison, with 392 days of jail credit, which went above state guidelines.
. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette“ This conviction and sentencing is proof that no case is too cold for a successful prosecution of someone who robbed a young woman of her life,” said Schuette. "Justice was delayed for Shannon Siders and her family, but Matthew Jones will never have the chance to harm another young woman and Paul Jones will spend the next 30 to 75 years behind bars.”
Matthew and Paul Jones continue to maintain their innocence and hey filed an appeal citing all kinds of bs and were denied.
Bob Siders had always described waiting for answers as standing at a railroad crossing waiting for a never ending train to pass. After they were convicted Bob Siders put a thank you on the local paper and at the bottom he wrote: The trains gone by, the caboose has passed, The road ahead is clear at last.
And that is the story of the disappearance and Murder of Shannon Siders.