Rotten Mango - #88: The Girl Under The Mattress (Kidnapping of Shannon Matthews)

Episode Date: August 15, 2021

The police had been searching for Shannon for 24 days - a search that would cost taxpayers over $3.2 million.  The police were doing yet another routine search of a house they heard a tiny voice call out “stop it you’re scaring me.” Shivers went down their spine. Where is that coming from? Inside the bed? They looked closer and realized the 9-year-old was underneath the mattress…  They asked her “well where is the man that took you?” She pointed at the bed… Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Butterbeam Butterboo Welcome to this week's mini-sode. I feel like I haven't said that it's so long. Hi, I'm with you on Sundays now. Okay, let's just drop you off in the middle of the crime. It was the 24th day of the hunt for the missing girl. Five police officers were in the middle of the crime. It was the 24th day of the hunt for the missing girl. Five police officers were in the process of searching a house. They had already searched about 1,800 homes in the area. I mean, what are the odds that she's going to be in this one? It wasn't looking good. They're looking for this nine-year-old girl by the name of Shannon. I mean, 24 days, statistically, and at this point, they were assuming that they're

looking for a body. So they follow this tip, they get to the next place, they ram down that door to Michael's house. It's silent, it feels empty, but they had to clear the whole place, room to room to room. They cleared the unlocked rooms, but there was this door that was just locked, so they decided, okay, well, let's just ram it down,

and it looked like it belonged to the owner's bedroom, right? It's silent, it looks empty, I mean, but what's that smell? Smells like cigarettes, it smells recent, it smells like someone that just recently smoked a cigarette. I mean, these are season detectives that we're talking about. It's not that old-style smell. This is fresh. One of the detectives walks over touches the bed, realizes that it's warm. Someone had to have been here very recently. So as he's leaving the room, a shiver goes down his whole spine and he freezes. He hears this tiny little voice say, stop it, you're frightening me. He turns around, sounds like

it's coming from inside of the mattress. So he goes over, lifts one part of it, like the very front part. And in the small hole of the bed frame, there is this little girl crying. And he immediately knew it was. It was nine year old Shannon, the girl that they had spent the past 24 days looking for. They scooped her up and she said, I'm Shannon. But what did the girl say? Does they stop it? You're scaring me to who? To the police or maybe someone else? So as they're carrying her out, the rest of the police are finishing up their search inside this house

and they ask her, where is Michael, the owner of the house? Where is Michael? He's under the bed. So they freeze again, the same bed that we just pulled you out of? Yes. So they go back and they look for Michael. Now this is an insane case.

This happened in the UK. The government had paid over 3.2 million pounds looking for this girl in 24 days. 300 police officers, the whole community. This was the biggest manhunt in the area since the Yorkshire Ripper serial killer case. I mean, it's insane, but what's even crazier is that this is not a stereotypical kidnapping.

Evidence by the fact that Shannon was still alive. This was a calculated ring of people who decided that they needed to kidnap Shannon. But for what? Why would at the end of it, six different people be arrested, three people put on trial, and what could nine-year-old Shannon have that they needed? As always, full source notes are available at rottmangapodcast.com but there is a book on this case. I mean this is like a highly just a viral case. I feel like most people have heard of it. This is the case of Shannon Matthews but there's a book called Shannon by Rose Martin and it's really good. There's also a lot of really good documentaries on this so I'm going to leave that all in the source notes

but let me tell you about a man by the name of Michael Donovan. Now he was one of nine children, and the rest of his siblings, they all report that they had a relatively nice childhood growing up. I mean, they weren't really necessarily middle class, they were more so working class, but they had food, they had money, they were okay. But ever since Michael was young, he started showing these really strong signs of a low IQ. He's just always in his own little world. He always had these fantasies about being other people,

made up these crazy, crazy stories, and just never stopped as he got older. Then he started- You said being other people? Yeah. But you know, I feel like as a kid that's completely normal, but as he got older, you know, he's in his 20s, he's still kind of talking about these fantasies.

Then he starts getting into trouble. He starts dabbling in arson. You know what you do on the weekends as a teenager? Shoplifting ran away from home at 16, couldn't hold down a job. I mean, it was just intense. He had to take over 100 lessons just to get his driver's license.

Oh my, okay. So for example, there was a problem at work, right? And this just kind of goes to show where he was at in his life. His boss gave him a note. It was like $20 right so 20 pounds. Hey go fill up gas on the work car. He starts driving back and forth in front of the store just like back and forth. The boss is like what are you doing? I told you to fill up gas not waste my gas. Oh yeah well there was only enough room in the tank for about 1840

so I'm driving around so I can fill up the rest of the 160. Okay. Okay. So this guy is, you know, an interesting fellow, right? He meets his first wife by the name of Susan Bird. They have these two beautiful daughters together but Susan just could not do it anymore. This guy has a temper. He's just all over the place, he drives around just to fill up on gas. They get divorced, it's messy. Both sides are just hurling accusations of abuse at each other. Susan was violent, no, well Michael was doing this. For whatever reason, Michael was given custody of the two daughters. And immediately things start going downhill. So these two girls, they start looking neglected, they always look dirty, they're close like nasty I mean they they look like they're covered and filth what's going on

Why are they never allowed to play outside the house? The neighbors would walk by and these girls would just be sticking their heads out the windows Watching the neighborhood kids play they weren't allowed out So at school they have trouble maintaining eye contact with people the teachers are like whoa Okay, this is you're not socially developing at the pace that you should be. And then a teacher finds a love letter from Michael to his daughter in a lunch box. Are you kidding? Now I couldn't find specifications of what this love letter entailed. What if it was just

like, I freaking love you, love dad. I don't know, okay? What is a love letter? What is a love letter? So this teacher I don't know, okay? Yeah, what is a love letter? What is a love letter? So this teacher said enough is enough, called social services, and the state took away the girls, and that's when they realized, okay, this house is weird. They go into Michael Donovan's place, and the entire house is just sticky notes, like post it notes all over the place,

at all over the doors, all over each room, on the fridge it says, don't open. They weren't allowed to open the fridge unless Michael was home. They weren't even allowed in the kitchen. It said do not enter. The phone had a little post-it note that said don't answer the phone. There was just one post-it note on the wall that said don't talk. OK, he's laughing because of how ridiculous this is.

Like this is incredibly abusive. Yeah, but then everything's enforced by sticky notes. Yes, but the sad thing is they really, I mean, Michael really enforced it because these girls, when people would come over, they'd say, oh, I'm sorry, we can't talk to you. Okay. Yeah, so it wasn't like a,

because I think we're thinking of it as like a cute parenting. No, no, this guy was creepy. This guy was terrifying. So the state takes away the kids and that's one a little bit stranger allegations come for it. Now, these are no, this guy was creepy. This guy was terrifying. So the state takes away the kids and that's when a little bit stranger allegations come forward. Now, these are allegations, right? A neighbor said that, listen, I fed the girls and I replaced ones.

I invited them over. I felt bad, the girls looked so hungry. I said, you know what? Why don't you just spend the night tonight? I'll clear it with your dad. So the two girls, they're just grabbing food out of the plates with their bare hands So she's like, okay, that's a little weird. So at night, you know, she puts them on the sofa

Why don't I get you a blanket? Oh no, no, no, it's okay. We use our coats What do you mean like at home? Why don't you have blankets at home? Oh, no, we like it like this, but they would only cover their heads Yeah, so the neighbors like okay something something's going on here. I don't understand what's going on, but something's going on. There were allegations that he would force his daughters to watch him have intercourse with sex workers. Again, these are just allegations. So thankfully, the kids were taken away.

They were put into foster care. And in 2006, Michael was gonna go pick up his daughter from school for a nice supervised visit, you know? So take her from school through the foster care and just like have a good time But instead of bringing her back to her foster parents, he kidnapped her Checks into a motel for three days. Only one goes on the run. Yeah, his eldest daughter Now the police eventually do catch him, but the case is dropped. They're like, okay, well that's fine. At this point, he's not doing any better.

He loses all of his teeth. His eyes are beaty, they're crazy looking. I mean, he's got this really waxy pale skin, and at this point, he's only eating microwave meals filled with fries and fried eggs and beer, and it was during this time that he decided that he was going to kidnap Shannon, a nine-year-old girl from the neighborhood. But people were going to help him. It wasn't just Michael Donovan that was going to do it. So February of 2008 rolls around, and little Shannon, nine-year-old Shannon wakes up,

and just to give you some context of that day, right, she had gotten into this huge fight with her stuffed out the night before. Just like really bad, she swore at him, which, you know, you're going to get into a lot of trouble for doing that. She runs out of the house, runs to her uncle's place last night. Please, can I stay here tonight? I can't go home. Like, I'm in so much trouble. I'm gonna be grounded. And Uncle Martin is like, I don't want to get involved. I'm gonna walk you back to your house. She cried the whole way, but it's gonna be okay, Shannon. You know, this is all part of life.

Your parents still love you. So she'd go back into the house. Now it's the next morning. She's trying to lay low. Usually she would go to her grandma's for breakfast, but this time she's like, nah, I should just go to school so I can just get out of the way. You know when you get into a fight with your parents,

you're like, I just shouldn't even be in their side of vision, like I should just leave the house. That's exactly what she does. You know, she's crying on the way to school, but she is a little bit excited because the whole grade was gonna take a bus to the local community center and then we're gonna get free swimming lessons.

I mean, she was freaking stoked. She had our swimsuit in her backpack. That's all she could really think about. This is gonna be the highlight of her week. Now, the whole day during class, yes, Shannon is a bit quieter than usual. Only her close friends and one of her bestest friends Megan realized that. And once they were at the community center for swim lessons, I mean, she's kind of flipped a switch. She was excited.

She was joking around. She was splashing Megan. Afterwards, they walk out into the lobby. This is all caught on CCTV. And that would be aired for the whole world to see later. They walk out of the lobby, back onto the bus. Now it's time to go back home. I mean, this seems like very standard procedure, right? Shannon's feeling a bit down again because she's got to go back home, but she gets off at her normal bus stop and nobody saw which direction she went in. I mean, this was super cold.

This is February in the UK, right? So everyone's freezing. They're just running all the kids that get off at that stop. They're running to their house. I mean, this was super cold. This is February in the UK, right? So everyone's freezing. They're just running all the kids that get off at that stop. They're running to their house. I mean, it's freezing. So nobody even bothered to look which way Shannon went. But what in Shannon just run, go towards the home? That's what you assume. We just know that she got off at her normal bus stop and then vanished into thin air.

Shannon just kind of literally evaporated. I mean, the way that people describe her is quiet, timid, shy. She keeps to herself. She was funny and loving to those who got really close, but she's just like a lot of other kids. She's scared of the dark, loved computers, brats stalls, and according to the book, like a lot of people describe her as,

she's the type of kid that can easily get lost in the crowd. And that's not necessarily a negative thing. It's just to say she wasn't the personality to demand attention. Like she's not like, look at me, I'm gonna do something crazy. What's also strange, and the book takes note of this, is that it's a strange missing child's case because nobody bothered to get to know Shannon beyond surface level. You didn't have a lot of neighbors come forward. You didn't have a lot of teachers come forward. You didn't have a lot of teachers come forward say, Oh, I had this incident with Shannon where she was in the classroom and ABC and D happened. So the reporter or the book is saying there's not a lot of these stories. Yeah. So it seems like, you know, not a lot of people really took that much interest in Shannon, which is a sad thing to say, but it seems like that's what was going on.

So when Shannon doesn't come home from school, her mom Karen calls 999, which is 911 in the UK and says, hi, I'd like to report my daughter missing. Right? Well, how old is she? She's nine. When's the last time you saw her? When she went to school this morning. Did you guys have any arguments and any reason for her to not come home?

No, none at all. Have you ever, you know, have you been in touch with her friends yet? I've been everywhere I can think of, friends, family, and just everywhere I can't find her. I mean, this mom Karen, she was attentive. She started breaking down at the end of the call. This was a very heartbreaking call,

and it's important because it gets aired to the public later. And this kind of rallies everyone to be like, we gotta find Shannon. Immediately, Shannon's case is top priority for the police. She was only 9, had never run away before. The temperatures were falling just above freezing tonight. So they had to find her ASAP, if she's out there somewhere. Hurt herself in the woods, hiding in the woods.

Maybe she's like trying to run away, make a statement. She could die just from exposure. Let alone all of the predators that could be like, oh my there's a child alone let me just snatch her up side note the police also took a lot of interest in this case because you guys know the infamous Madeline McCann case this happened less than a year before Shannon's disappearance nine months before a British couple went to Portugal on vacation and the McCann family they decided let's grab dinner. The kids are asleep in our ground floor apartment in Portugal, we're like a vacation home in Portugal. Let's just grab dinner. The

restaurant is only 180 feet away. So they do. In the middle of it they come to check up on the kids and just Madeline was missing and to this day she has not been found. This was just nine months before. So the book suspects that, you know, the McCann case had to do with how the police reacted so swiftly in all of this. Shannon went missing in a not so great area. She could have easily been considered a runaway because that's what police do and, you know, under privileged areas, they're like, oh, this kid's definitely not up to good. But the Portuguese police got so much heat from the McCann case that maybe the police were perhaps

a little bit scared that this heat was gonna turn on them if they didn't do anything for Shannon. Or maybe the police were just doing their job, okay? We don't really know. So where is Shannon? I'm gonna tell you straight up, she was promised a trip to the fair, that's where she went. Right when she gets off the bus, there was this man parked,

she gets into the car and he's like, I'm gonna take you to the fair and she gets so freaking excited. She had never been on Mary Goe rounds. I mean, there's gonna be burgers, popcorn. Oh my god, this is an absolute dream, right? So she rushes in and Michael Donovan is there. It's Michael Donovan's car. You're taking me to the fair, right? Yeah, yeah Shannon, get in, get in. He later makes an excuse that it's too foggy so the fair is canceled. So he looks at her and says, well, why don't we just go back to my place? And they do.

That's where she will be held captive for the next 24 days. So that night Michael has Shannon watch TV, he's pacing the room, he's thinking to himself damn it. His partner in crime is supposed to recall him, but they didn't call him. What happened? Now what? It's not going according to the plan. His partner in crime is supposed to be calling him, but they didn't call him what what happened now what It's not going according to the plan So then the next day the call finally comes in Is everything all right is she settled down?

Yes, but but we need more clothes or something. Okay. She's wearing the same stuff that I picked her up in Well, you've got money Michael go buy buy them, stick to the plan, and they hang up. For the next few days Shannon watched cartoons, ate pizza, and she was just really confused. Now the police go to investigate, and they ask, are you sure there's no reason that Shannon would want to run away? And Karen is really honest. She says, well her brother got a computer recently, and she was really jealous of that. So maybe, maybe that, but she's never done this before. God, you have to do something, please. So the whole town, they start rallying together, you know? And there was the sense of camaraderie because the press were heavily involved from the get-go.

Like the local press, they just hounded it in on this place, hounded it in on the Matthews family because they called it just like, you know how TLC watched those hoarder shows? This was kind of the same feeling of, wow, let's watch this family that lives in really deplorable conditions, just be heartbroken. Does that make sense?

It almost seemed like there would be less attention if this was a middle class family. But they were like, wow, let's go see this show. Essentially, that was the vibe that the press was giving. They had some mattresses and just trash out on the front lawns in this neighborhood. A lot of the houses had bars on the windows. So it was almost fascinating for the middle class

to sit at home and they're cushy little sofas and watch this quote unquote, fit show unfold. So the press is calling this place like overrun. Everyone here is just living off of, you know, government assistance. And so this community, they rallied together. They were like, oh, well, that's what the press thinks about us.

Let me show them. So they come together and they try to help find Shannon. Now Karen, the whole time, just constantly in tears the whole night, telling the story to anyone who would listen, listen, I came home, she's supposed to be here, I don't know what's going on! Right? I don't know what's freaking happening. They searched the parks, the streets, locals put on their parka, start going through the woods. They set up headquarters at Dusebury Moore Community House.

Police citizens, they search Sheds, garbage trash, you know, dumpsters, gardens, lofts, garages, everything. The sun comes up, still no word of Shannon. They're like, what's going on? We should have found her by now. If she did run away, no kid, no matter how stubborn, how much they wanted to, you know, make their parents feel really poopy, could stay out in this freezing cold. There's just no way. Something has to have happened.

So that next day, they have more than 200 officers working this case. They were scared that at one point she could have been kidnapped. Now they're considering it an abduction case. They get helicopters in the air, heat-seeking radars to search the wooded areas. They even sent a team of underwater divers into a frozen lake. They drilled a hole and went into the frozen lake to look for sure. It happened the second day. Yeah. Well, it was like a couple days after. Wow. But they were just, you know, they were pulling out all the cards. They had a family liaison. I always can't say that word. Officer there to help Karen and Craig during this time,

you know, try to figure out, do you know someone that might be involved? Because a lot of the times for nine year old's abductions, it's someone close to the family. Maybe it's a coach, maybe it's a creepy uncle, a shady grandma even. Let us know. Karen's just sitting on the couch, her eyes are all puffy.

She looks like she's just in a state of shock. Meanwhile, Craig, the stepdad, just over there thumping around on his Xbox Just he's playing games. Yeah, I mean like technically he's young, you know, he's in his 20s Bastille he's playing this isn't his biological daughter So I think that the police were just like wow this guy is a really crappy dude But they didn't think oh well he definitely did something you, there's like what a crap dude. It's beyond crap I agree so the detective sits down and her phone goes off now her daughter had just a like I guess saved a Pop song as a ringtone. Why do I sound like a 65 the detective's phone goes off and the detective's daughter had

I'll change the ringtone. Yes to, to like a hit song, right? And Karen, all of a sudden from on the couch, she jumps up and says, oh my god, I love this song and starts dancing. And the detective's like, okay, I gotta remind myself that people are strange. Like, people handle shock and grief differently. And this might be one of those reasons. So Karen goes on to TV and she begs people, please, bring my daughter home. And this was a heartbreaking experience. I mean, her eyes were red.

You know, she just kept saying, Shannon, you're not in trouble. One thing that Shannon doesn't like is the dark and the cold. And this just struck a nerve with the public. I mean, what can we do to bring this poor girl home? Look at the pain on her mother's face. No mother should have to feel what she's feeling. The only thing that was getting Karen through was her two-year-old daughter. You know, this is Shannon's little sister who would constantly kiss Shannon's picture in

the newspaper and kept asking Karen. When is she coming back from holiday? So Karen had told the rest of her kids, you know, Shannon's on vacation for now. The public starts getting more and more riled up. They had t-shirts donated. I earned on the saying, have you seen Shannon? They had hundreds of flyers just put across the county that said, have you seen this girl with a picture of Shannon on it? Some of these posters were even printed in different languages to make sure people could read them. The community rallied to spend their hard-earned money

because, like I said, this is a working-class area, so they didn't have a lot. These families, these volunteers, there's actually stories of some of these neighborhood community people who got fired from their jobs because they spent so much time looking for Shannon. I mean, they really pulled through. This particular town has high unemployment rates,

high crime rates compared to the national average. They lived off benefits, but they did what they could. And the press still dragged them. What do you think it is? Like you think these people came together also in despite of the press? I think it's also in spite of the press, but I think that when you look at the crime that's in this town, it was like our cinch, not our cinch, shoplifting, you know, burglary, but I think that this town, you know, they did have a sense of community in some strange way. Yeah. Maybe more so than even middle class neighborhoods, because they really came together.

They really showed the country like, no, we're not just these weird, you know, mooching off the government people that you keep trying to make us out to be. That's not what's happening here. They were a bit mad though, the community, because in the case of the McCann family, the nation came together to raise money. So within weeks, millions of pounds were raised for the search for Madeline McCann. But the news of Shannon is just going around in her local town and police department. It's not going national yet yet. So McCann family spokesperson reaches out to share their best of luck to Shannon's family

and send their condolences. And that kind of thrust the case into a little bit bigger of a spotlight, right? Karen told the press, I'm so touched. It's so nice to have someone who is experiencing what I am Experiencing and reach out to us and I can't even be more thankful. Now oddly around this time There were some emails being sent From Craig's computer

This was you know Shannon stepped out that she lives with Craig's computer to the McCann family Demanding that the McCann family share money from Madeline McCann's fund with the Shannon Matthews family. It was really direct, it was really aggressive, I mean it was almost shocking to the McCann family because it wasn't nice, it would say things like, well you guys have loads of money, we want some for Shannon. Someone even knocked on the McCann family parents house knocking on the door demanding money for Shannon. Who knocked?

It was just a strange dude. So the family decided, okay, well let's donate 25,000 pounds. And the police were like, we'll wait, hold off on it because again, we don't know who's involved. Maybe Craig is involved, you know, you just never know. So Shannon Matthews' fund was only getting thousands compared to the millions that Madeline was getting. So the police are trying really, really hard. I will say that the police really somewhat pulled through in this in the sense of they did not treat this as, will it support a kid who's going to care? They really cared.

Then a newspaper comes forward and offers a 20,000-pound reward for anyone who can find Shannon. And slowly, because there were no leads, Shannon starts fading from the news. And the political class commentary on Shannon's disappearance only started getting bigger. Even the McCann family pleaded with the press to get Shannon more airtime. The police start doing what they can, which is building a family tree for Karen and Craig, because like I said, they believe that, you know, a lot of the times with nine-year-old deductions, it's got to be someone that knows someone. I mean the chances of you just snatching up a strange kid is very very rare in this Situation, so they said, okay, let's dry it out. Let's map it out see if you've got any weird people

We're gonna investigate every single person mainly on Karen's side and inside are later said that it was more like a map of London's Underground system rather than a family tree later said that it was more like a map of London's underground system rather than a family tree. It was just a lot. Karen had like, I believe she had six different fathers of her children, me trying not to say baby daddy. Okay. Yeah, okay.

So let me give you the background on Karen Matthews, right? This is Shannon's mom. She was born into a huge family. She was one of seven children herself, right? Her parents, Gordon and June, they were a strong couple. They just had a lot of love for their family. Yes, they were financially struggling, but I mean who wouldn't with that many people to feed? The family only had two daughters, five sons. So Karen immediately from the get-go, she's got this strong, loud personality, not necessarily outgoing and excited to be around people, but just like really loud.

She didn't do that well in school. She would skip class. Her IQ was 74. Could barely read. It is said that she does have a learning disability, which might contribute to what I'm about to talk about next, which is the fact that she's been most of her time looking for a new boyfriend. Just always.

I mean, it seems like a part of Karen felt like sex and love from men were like the only ways to build a connection, the only way to have some self-worth, which honestly, I can sympathize with that. Like, that's really sad. So she would always complain to people, men just keep leaving me. I just don't know why.

Why are there not any good guys out there? Now while I kind of agree with some of this feeling, she would conveniently leave out the part. She would fail to tell her friends and family the part where she was like a nightmare of a girlfriend. I mean, she would just nitpick the smallest things, throw crazy accusations at her broy friends, and then would eventually throw pots and pans at them.

So she would just like leave that part out. Everyone described her as having a vicious temper. So she would just like leave that part out. Everyone described her as having a vicious temper. So she starts looking for work really young, could never really hold down a job, gets into drinking, smoking cigarettes. She's got these expensive habits. So then she meets a kitchen assistant named John. She's 19. They don't really go on dates, they would just sleep together, and within months she's pregnant with her first kid. Now John, who happened to be only 16? Yeah, problematic right there, okay?

So he decided, I'm gonna be a good dad. I'm gonna do whatever I can. I know I'm only 16, but this is my first child. I'm gonna make it work. I'm gonna work hard and this baby's gonna be loved, but Karen would not let him. Any money that they had would be spent on cigarettes before the baby.

They would even resort to selling all of their stuff and Karen would demand, give me the cash that. They would even resort to selling all of their stuff and Karen would demand, give me the cash that we made. Give it to me. And she would just scream and scream and scream until he gave in. Sometimes she would just disappear and wouldn't be around for two days,

like just leave him with the baby. The 16 year old dad with this baby, their house was a mess. They had dirty dishes in the sink, they counted her, eventually all over the carpeted rooms, they had dirty dishes. Just like, in the bathrooms, they were dirty dishes in the sink, they counter, eventually all over the carpeted rooms. They had dirty dishes Just like in the bathrooms there were dirty dishes. Everything had a film of dirt on it I mean they lived in government housing so yes, we can sympathize, but this was not a good environment for babies like it's unsanitary

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She is. On the couch. So the stress, the age, their personalities, I mean they would fight more and more until it got so violent that she would start throwing furniture at him. Just full on chairs, full on desks, neighbors were shocked. Cause they said for someone who smokes that much. Karen, she smokes 60 cigarettes a day. She has the lungs of a track star when she's screaming at her boyfriend's at the highest

volume for hours never lose a single ounce of passion or decibel. That was it! So one day John comes home from work and there's a strange man over at the house. Well who is this? And Karen just tells him, it's over between us. I've got someone new. Get lost. And shut the door at his face.

So now that Karen is a single mom to this kid, she starts looking for more guys, and she meets this guy who's only 20. His name is Leon Rose. They immediately hit it off. She gives birth to her second child, a son. And when he's only six months, she gets pregnant again with her third child. So these are both by Leon Rose. This is a dad, right? During her pregnancy, she never stopped drinking or smoking. Her close friends reported that, so I don't know if that's alleged. Karen was only 23

years old when she gave birth to Shannon, her third child. Now Shannon's older brother, who was by the same dad, he actually went to live with the dad when they split. So now Shannon is just left with Karen, and within months Karen is pregnant again with her fourth child. And then again and then again and then eventually she would get a new boyfriend, 18 year old Craig Mehan, which is now Shannon's stepdad. She was only 28 when they met. They were 10 years apart.

So this guy's young. This guy's not ready to be the, you know, stepped out of seven children. Well, six children. So they end up having a child together, but later we find out that it wasn't his child. And the father is unknown to this day. And now, they're living together.

They're living conditions really, really bad. Hazardous even. I mean, the place was infested with rats, beetles. There were pizza boxes that mice would just run in and out of. And it seemed like just Karen just didn't care. As these details start to emerge to the press, because you can't really hide anything from the press. I mean, it's gnarly, right? A lot of people are thinking, well, these are really strange things to happen in the house.

How is that possible? Maybe Karen has a little bit more blank. Maybe Shannon was kidnapped because Karen is a neglectful mother. So there was just a lot of fighting in the public and the press, right? There were people saying, no, why does this even matter? Are we saying because the parents aren't the best people in the world that kids can go missing and we shouldn't care? The kid is still missing, it's still a nine year old kid. We're not saying, oh, let's love Karen, we're saying we gotta find Shannon. Why is the mom's life on trial?

You know, this is the story about a mom missing her beautiful nine year old daughter, not her entire dating history. Why does any of this matter? So there was just a lot of public discourse. Now, day three of the search rules around. More than 300 police officers are looking for Shannon. Some of them are on horseback.

They collect over hundreds and hundreds of items, like clothing from the woods. None of them were I did by caring to be Shannon. So they're like, how is this making sense? They had a whole fleet of some of the best K-9 dogs in the UK. Handlers for these dogs were working 14 hour shifts and nothing. I mean, she literally fell off the face of the earth. So then that's when they decided to release the tapes of Shannon coming out of that recreation center, the CCTV footage after the swim lessons.

And this got the public even more distressed. We got to find this girl. Look at her. She looks like she's just any other, it could have been your daughter, it could have been me as a kid, it could have been your daughter. It could have been me as a kid. It could have been anyone. So around this time, the police sit carrying down and they tell her the news. We haven't found Shannon yet, which means part of our search could be pivoting to looking for a body. So it's a different strategy now, right? Yeah, there's gonna be some officers who are, you know, gonna be looking for a body.

And she just sat there and nodded. And then she asked them to take her to the post office so she could cash her benefits. Cash her benefits? Yes. So they come back and an hour later, she starts crying. And right when she does, she rushes out the front door, straight into the waiting cameras of the press.

And she does an interview. I just know my baby will come back to me. I know it. And the press get riled up. The public gets riled up. But people were feeling more doubtful and depressed, you know? A local man in this town around this time had been crucified in the woods. Like not crucified by the press, literally crucified

male to a cross. Like a murder? Well, he didn't die. So I guess attempted murder. Right. So people are thinking, maybe he knew something, maybe did he do it? And this is some sort of sick revenge, you know, vigilante justice, is that what's going on? But he left the town, never identified the police, they said that he had no relation to the case. But there was just this air of like what's going on in this tiny town, I don't even understand. So meanwhile, Karen and Craig, they move in with their good friends for support, and the friends were a little bit shocked by Karen and Craig, because of how normal Karen seemed

to be. I mean, she would still joke around, she would play games, she would have completely normal conversations, and then she would see Shannon on the news. The local news would be like, we're still looking for this nine year old girl, and Karen would turn to her two year old little daughter and say, oh my god, look, look, look, look!

That's your sister! Shannon's on TV. She's famous! No way, she's putting on her show. And they're like, what? That's on TV. She's famous! No way. She's putting on her show. And they're like, what? That's so bizarre. And then it got even more bizarre. The police were talking to Karen one day. And her eldest son, who's a teenager, by the way, runs to the door screaming Shannon's home. And the police, they jump up. Their hearts are bouncing out of their chest like, what?

Where is she? Karen doesn't even look shocked. She doesn't even look in that general direction of the door. She just says, no, she's bloody not. And the sun starts giggling. And so I'm just joking. What is going on? But when Karen wasn't in front of the camera,

she would be red, she'd be shaking. She'd say, if anyone's got my daughter, my beautiful princess daughter, bring her home, please. Shannon, you're my princess in every way. Come home, we miss you so much. She'd be holding, you know, Shannon's love teddy, a little teddy bear that was Shannon's favorite. She'd always say, the kids keep asking me where Shannon is. Sometimes the news would turn on and the press would be like, well kids keep asking me where Shannon is. Sometimes the news would turn on and the press would be like, well, they're investigating

Karen's five high spins and she'd scream at the camera or the TV. That's a frickin' lie, I never married any of them. The friends were like, that's what you care about? Your daughter's missing. So I think that there's this kind of nobody saying that Karen's guilty of anything It's just like what a kind of crappy mom. It seems like she's using this to her advantage She doesn't really care that her daughter is missing. She's like, well, let me just get some TV time then You know one of those moms people start staring at her when they go grocery shopping and she would turn her friends and say you think they

Recognize me or something? Again, Karen, don't be a Karen. A cop comes by to help in the search and all the girls, you know, these researchers, they're giggling like, oh, the cop's kind of cute. And Karen looks at them straight up says, yeah, I wouldn't mind taking him upstairs. We're looking for your daughter, Karen. What do you, what do you mean?

I mean like yeah, I guess we started the conversation that that cop is cute, but like what? What is happening? Anytime that the police would arrive though, Karen would again go back to being very quiet. She would be still, she would just say yes or no. I mean, it was the strangest thing ever. Even at search meetings, community members would be studying maps, jotting down notes. Karen would drink tea, drink some coffee, smoke some cigarettes. She looked like she was at a homeowner's association meeting. Not really looking for her daughter. So one week after her disappearance,

there's a walk for Sharon. Over 300 locals gathered to raise more awareness. They all chanted Shannon, Shannon, Shannon, through the streets. I mean, it was really impactful. It was beautiful how these people came together. Over 8,000 people joined the find Shannon Facebook group. And then Leon and Lewis came forward. The singer. You know the song Bleeding Love? No. I can't bleeding. Oh okay yeah. I know that. Should I be a singer? No I can't. I'm so kidding okay. So they said that that was Shannon's favorite song. Okay. The singer gets word of this. I mean she adjusts one the X factor. This was like her prime time.

Uh-huh. And she sent a personal message to the family. Now, there was more publicity on the case. People started sending cash and envelops to Karen's house. Now, Craig's sister stated that whenever the mail came in, Karen would snatch it from her like an animal and just tear it open. The whole thing was just odd. There was a reporter who was also super close with Karen at this point, which for the local Yorkshire evening post was trying to talk to Karen, but her front door was wide open.

So he knocked and walked in, and he stepped inside. Karen! And she jumped out behind him, tickled his sides and said, BOO! The reporter is confused, huh? Yeah, just so confused. So I mean, people were really divided on this case. But nobody's suspicious of her of any doing it.

No, I mean, like the police cleared her, well, they didn't necessarily like clear her officially, but you know, they were working with her. It didn't seem like she was guilty. It just really seemed like she's just a really bad mom. So, you know, the whole public, they were just divided on this. If you were to kind of critique Karen, some people might say, you're classist. If someone in the middle class, you know, had five different children by six different people, you would just say, well, that person is getting a lot of alimony. You would say these things. You wouldn't necessarily call them like whatever names you were calling them.

Maybe you're being clouded by your judgment on the working class that you think that Karen is guilty when she's not. Maybe it's because Karen is not as eloquent and as intellectual as you would want her to be. And you were just, you know, so there was just a lot of back and forth of like, what's really going on here?

Now Karen's friends suggested that they go see a psychic. They went and saw three. All three psychics stated that Shannon was still alive. I have voiced this multiple times before. Psychics, they do their own thing, love it. But when it comes to true crime, don't love it. Don't love it at all because you're really working with a lot of victims' families' emotions telling them, oh your kid might still be alive, right? It's wild. So then one of them, steer straight at Karen and says, she's taken by someone you and crack both know. She's alive. And you know where Shannon is. And she starts breaking down.

Where could it be? It's, that's even more frustrating. It's somewhere that I've been before. Tell me more. And so Karen calls the police, that's even more frustrating. It's somewhere that I've been before? Tell me more! And so Karen calls the police, tells them all of this. But again, I mean, there's really no leads. Then there was another false lead. Karen calls the police, there's this man. He's following me all day today.

I went to the store, he followed me there, I came home, he's parked outside my house. What if he's watching us? So the police, they go on this wild goose hunt, turns out it was a lone shark. He came to collect his money. Karen was behind on payments. Okay, so there was just a lot. Eventually, the public does what they do.

They're not getting any new information. No suspects were apprehended. So what they do is when they don't have an answer, they make one up. I think to a degree, it's definitely part of human nature to kind of want to put our minds at ease, but it's a little dangerous. So they all start pointing the fingers at the stepfather.

It's gotta be Craig. I mean, look at this guy, he's just playing Xbox. He doesn't even look. He doesn't even look like a good stepdad. He's too young to be a stepdad. Are you kidding? What's going on? It's got to be. So then more news comes out. Shannon had scribbled on her wall like you know in her room. So in

Shannon's room they looked at the walls and there was a tiny little childish scribble that says, I want to live with my dad. So the press took this and ran with it. She doesn't want to live with Craig. Maybe Craig is weird. Maybe Craig is creepy, maybe Craig is doing stuff to her. Now Karen, on the other hand, defended him to the death. And that is when people start coming out of the woodwork, entering June and Gordon Matthews, the grandparents. They started giving interviews to the press, and they blamed Karen's lifestyle for Shannon's vanishing. What a mess. And even said, I now consider them to be completely disowned.

I want nothing more to do with them. If my daughter is going to turn a blind eye to what Craig is like, then that goes for her too. So they're saying, I don't even want to know my daughter Karen if she is going to stand by Craig during this time. So finally, after much public outrage, the sun, the newspaper, doubled its reward to $50,000. Suddenly, Karen got even busier. She went on all these talk shows and more people were getting involved and this was really

amping up, like the nation was hearing about it. And guess who else heard about it? A relative of Michaels. A relative of Michaels Relative of Michaels Michael Donovan the guy who took Shannon Uh-huh and said hey, uh have you been keeping up with the local news that Shannon Matthews that nine-year-old girl She's disappeared. They think someone can have her wait by the way aren't you Craig's uncle? Michael is Craig's uncle And he says, yeah, I am.

Well, have you talked to Craig? Have you, you know, have you checked up on him, see how they're holding up during this time? I mean, I'm sure it's horrendous. I heard that the police are trying to talk to anyone that's like part of the family tree. Have they interviewed yet? You yet?

Michael's like, no. Well, you should talk to Chris. No, I don't think that's a good idea. And just leaves. So this relative is so suspicious of this. Nope, I don't like that one bit. Immediately calls a cops and it's like, listen, I've got this freaking relative.

He's always been weird. I'm telling you, he tried to kidnap his daughter once. Anyways, I'm not very proud of this side of my family, but I think you should be looking into him. I'm telling you, you gotta look into him. So the police did think it was strange because you know, they're making this family tree for the Matthews. They had over 350 names, but nobody mentioned Uncle Mike. Why did they not mention Uncle Mike? Neither Craig nor Karen.

So the police go to Michael's, they start knocking on the doors. Nobody's answering, but his car's outside. So they knock on a neighbor's door. Oh yeah, Michael! Well, he doesn't go anywhere without his car, that's his baby. He doesn't walk anywhere. No, he always takes his car. Okay, thank you. So they knock on another neighbor's door.

This was the neighbor that lives below him. Mm-hmm. Just said, oh yeah, he must have been home earlier because I was hearing his footsteps. And I think his girlfriend's kid is over too. Oh boy. What do you mean girlfriend's kid? Oh, I don't know, I've just been hearing some like little footsteps I guess,

but I think they were over today, so he was probably home with her. Um, what? They freak out, the police call for backup. They ram down that door to Michael's place. Silent, feels empty, and that is when they rescue Shannon and find Michael. He was hiding underneath the bed on the other side. How did they hide under the bed? They had made a little hiding area. That's crazy. Yeah. So this was not like a,

wasn't like Ikea just makes little bunkers in the bed. Uh-huh. Yeah, he made it. And what's even weirder is that when the police lift up the mattress, they're literally looking at Michael Donovan hiding under the bed and they say, okay, we'll come out now and he just pretends that he can't hear them. Just like laying really still, just motionless. So finally they start pulling him out, like physically removing him. And right next to him was that Sun magazine,

with Shannon's reward money listed on the front page. So let's start, he starts kicking the officers, biting them, pulled out, saw you'd forced into a cop car, and the neighbors are out there yelling at him, like fork you, you disgusting peto, like your little predator, beets, like I hope, bobo bobo boon. He just looks at them and says, don't hate me.

I'm a poor, Lee man. I don't know what that means, okay? A poor Lee man. Yeah, like feel bad for me. So they bring Shannon into the police station and everyone, every single police officer that had been working over time just starts bawling. Like it was it been 24 days.

Nobody thought that she'd be alive. This is like, you know, what they work so hard for I guess, right? It's to have a case like this that brings you some hope in humanity again. Yeah. Or hope in the job of, you know, what you're doing is impactful to the world, right? And so the police start crying and they said it was one of the most emotional experiences of their life. They thought for sure that she'd be dead. They run a lot of medical exams on Shannon and it turns out that she was given a mixture of sedatives,

pain killers, antidepressants, antinagia, like a motion sickness medicine during the past 24 days. This made her incredibly sleepy. When she was awake, she was probably really foggy and confused and scared and just like that frustrating feeling of like, why do I have brain fog? But worse, because she's nine. So during her captivity, he only let her watch cartoons. If she had switched over to the news, she would realize that the whole town, if not nation,

was looking for her. She would play Super Mario games, listen to CD players, she had a list of rules to follow, and it went like this. Number one, don't go near the windows. Two, don't make any noise and bang your feet. Three, don't do anything without me being there. Four, keep the TV volume low up to volume eight. at the very bottom it says I P you What does amie? So we don't really know who this was written by but I P used it for I promise you Which is what Karen would say to her kids when she was pissed at them is like a threat Now Michael probably would have known this because he's close to the family

So whenever Michael did leave the house he had a white strap hanging from the beams of his ceiling Now, Michael probably would have known this because he's close to the family. So whenever Michael did leave the house, he had a white strap hanging from the beams of his ceiling, like a new son of a sleigh, and he would tie Shannon to it, so that she could only use the bathroom and watch TV and cut an escape. To make matters worse, when they found Michael, it seemed like he was planning to take Shannon to a place called Blackpool, the same place that he took his daughter when he kidnapped her. It seemed maybe he was stressed from the regional search. Probably was like, well, I gotta get out of here before I get caught.

So we don't know what his plans were if he made it to Blackpool with Shannon. Would she be alive? Now at this point, nobody really knows what else happened. I'm sure her doctors do. I'm sure that there's sealed government papers that do, but at that point, there were medical examinations. No physical or intense sexual abuse was found. They did find a drawing that Shannon had done with a penis with a hand around it. And the title of it was Mummy and Mike.

Mummy? Like, Mummy and Mike? Yeah, so maybe Karen and Michael were having an affair and Michael kidnapped Shannon? Just bizarre stuff, right? Crazy Michael even took Shannon out on a few trips. He would have her wait in the car while he would run inside and grab groceries. Meanwhile, the whole town is looking for him. He's buying groceries in the same town, okay? She was in the backseat with her hoodie on on and the CCTV footage of him in these stores while the most wanted

Nine-year-old girl is in the back of his car in the parking lot. He looked so chill He looked like he was just casually walking around looking for. Oh, let me try to find a new snacks today Something different As Michael is being escorted to the police station. He looks at the cop and says Well, why don't you get Karen down here? Because we had a plan. We were gonna share the money. The reward money is 50,000 pounds, right?

Do I get that? When you are the kidnapper? And what did he just say? Karen, right? Karen! Yeah. So he's like, the police are like, okay, maybe this guy's just trying to throw blame

at anyone right now because there's no proof that Karen was involved. There's just no way that she was involved. Or was she? Let's talk about Shannon's life. So since the minute that Shannon was born, she had honestly been neglected. Much like most of her siblings, I mean, she was really close with her grandparents June and Gordon. But Karen was really picky about when her grandparents were allowed to be around the kids, even though she wasn't taking care of the kids. Sometimes the grandparents would find Shannon in the

corner completely dirty, covered in dirt. And they would just say, Karen, please just give that poor girl a shower. She'd say, no, it's fine. She's fine. Karen would have all of her friends over. They were eating fresh food, fresh takeout steak, kidney pies, French fries, and Shannon, this little kid would be on the grounds, eating stale bread off the floor, no plate. The grandparents would say, Karen, this is disgusting. Like, you need to, you have food.

You have food right in front of you. She's old enough to eat these foods. Give her fresh fresh food give her a vegetable once in a while for freaking sake Can't just say what she likes what she's got Sometimes the kids would be sitting there with plastic bags taped around their butts because they didn't have diapers It was common to see the Matthews children with towels taped to their butts And the problem is you know we're not judging this part because, like I said, I mean, if you don't have the money, you're trying to make, you know, you're trying to make do, you're trying to get what you can, do with what you can, but Karen would ask her parents for money,

diaper money, but she would come back with cigarettes and beer instead. Even when the babies were just freshly born, she chose not to breastfeed no judgement, but even with bottle feeding, she would just lean them up against a sofa and just hope the bottle doesn't fall out of their mouths. If the kids would start crying, Karen would pick them up and literally toss them onto the sofa. The kids were always dirty, their clothes were stinky, it caused them to get bullied in school, they barely got nutrition in their system, and Karen refused to get a job.

If she needed money, she would take all of her kids to the local charity shop and start stealing items into her strollers and walk out in front of her kids, and then she would sell those items for money, cigarettes, and beer. Everyone that knew Karen was under the belief that Karen had kids for social security benefits. Maybe it was also her dependence on men and felt like, well, if I have a child with this guy, like he's not gonna leave me, but a lot of it was social security benefits.

She would even call it my wage. Call what, the kids my wage? Yeah, like the benefits that she's getting. So these benefits are usually for moms who, you know, have a job, but they're not making enough income. They have all these mouths to feed so they get extra assistance from the government. But because Karen had seven children and the lifestyle that she was living, she just never really got a job. She didn't want to. So instead, she called the benefits that

she was receiving her wage, like, you know, her money, her paycheck. They would spend 30 pounds a day on cigarettes. That's where most of their quote-unquote wage went. They would spend 30 pounds a day on cigarettes. Geez. That's where most of their quote unquote wage went. They only ate takeout, take out pizza, and they wouldn't even really share with the kids. What's even crazier is that in original statements, Karen stated that she was a mom of six,

because she forgot one of her kids. And the police were like, are you sure it's not seven because it says it's seven. She's like, oh yeah, I forgot. Where's my mind? I forgot about that one. She had social services called on her multiple times. Karen's own sister called social services on the Matthews family. They would arrange a time. So social services would arrange a time to go out that would let Karen know in advance. So what would she do?

She would clean up the place. She would stalk the shelves with food. Yeah, she never had food for the kids, unless social services were coming. And then, you know, she'd say, oh yeah, well they're fine. Look, they're fine. Tell them you're fine kids. The kids would be like, we're fine. And then the neighbors would start calling.

The neighbors would like, listen, I can literally hear children sobbing hysterically through the walls. You need to do something. No, no, this mom, this Karen woman, she is throwing these crazy parties all night, blasting music 24-7 and I can still hear the kids sobbing over the music. Can you guys do something about that? So then social security would go over. Our social services, I keep saying social security, I'm so sorry.

Social services would go over and say, well, we checked on them, they're completely fine. They did briefly put Karen under their watch. According to the case notes, they said, and I quote, Karen's ability to protect her children is compromised by her own inability to successfully place the children's needs above her own. A.K.A. she's selfish, you know? And they said, I believe that Karen will require constant monitoring and support throughout the lives of her children. One year later, the case was closed.

She was no longer on their watch, but they had no idea that Karen was giving her kids, especially Shannon, tranquilizers for adults, so that they would be easier to watch because it makes your head fuzzy, it makes you confused and sleepy and quiet. And ultimately, that seems like that's what Karen wanted. If social services even bothered to really check Shannon's room, they would have found it's really hazardous

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Everyone at first thought first glance, you think that Karen's the one wearing the pants. She's a decade older. She's got, she's a little bit more loud. She's a little bit more boisterous. According to the book, it's also said that Craig had this very strange resting face where his mouth was just open and he constantly looked confused. He would just stare at his ex-boxers computer for hours with his mouth open, looking confused all day.

But in reality, Craig was actually the smart of the two. Karen depended on him for money, he did work. But on top of that, because Craig was so much younger, Karen just felt so insecure. Just would constantly yell at him, are you cheating on me? No you're cheating on you did it at work like I know they would Khan still yell at him. Are you cheating on me? No, you're cheating on you. Did it at work like I know? They would fight about it all night long. While Craig is playing his Xbox, watching his things on his computer, Karen would be on the TV watching the Jeremy Kyle show. This is like the Jerry Springer show, the Mari show, one of those like reality,

confrontational, honestly trash TV, that's like guilty pleasure for a lot of people. She loved browsing eBay for bargains. She didn't even really care what she was buying as long as she felt like it was a bargain, you know. People who were around her at the time said that, you know, they were kind of split. Whenever she was away from the reporters in TV, she was relaxed, she was smoking cigarettes. So some people thought her as just this brave woman, putting on this brave front for her kids, just trying to give some stability to those around her. I mean, how selfless is that? She's being torn apart by the media who's judging her for her relationship habits when her reality or her baby is missing.

And then you have the other group of people that's like, I don't know, that's a little weird. Right? Just... But then how can you say that out loud? How can you accuse the mom of being weird? So it's just a very interesting little energy going on. Now according to Michael, he confessed to the police. And he said, this is where it all started. Let me tell you. Karen called me one day. And she said, this is where it all started. Let me tell you. Karen called me one day, and she said,

let's meet at the local cafe. Okay, it seems like they were either already having an affair or maybe trying to start one, or maybe only one of them was interested in the other. The truth is really unknown. And it's alleged that at family gathering, sometimes Karen would sit on Michael's knees, just all over each other.

Like, why would she sit on his knees? Ron is little on his lap but that's not what they came to talk about that day they were on official business on how to make money recently all over the news Karen had seen the story of Madeline McKin the case or the British family went to vacation in Portugal you know and and even better was the fact that the fine Madeline campaign raised millions of dollars within weeks So they were gonna fake a kidnapping with one of Shannon's kids And once the reward money got to 50,000 dollars Michael would release Shannon into a local supermarket and pretend to find her

I found her in the parking lot. I found her in the parking lot supermarket and pretend to find her. I found her in the parking lot. I found her in the parking lot. They would cash in the reward money and split it. Karen would obviously get more. She had the harder job. You know, she had to go in front of the press and you know, try to get publicity for this case. Michael would keep her safe till the reward money breached $50,000. These suspected maybe it'll couple days, you know, because Madeleine McCann's case case we're gonna just blew up so within a couple days they'll get a little fun they'll get some money they'll get 50k yeah it'll be great they did not even think about how to keep Shannon from telling the police what happened during her captivity because like why would you you know all they could think about was 50

thousand dollars staring them in the face because that was both like more than both had ever made in their entire lives So they're excited At first they contemplated kidnapping one of Shannon's sons But they realized that According to Michael Shannon was younger sweeter more photogenic Which is why the public would care more which means more reward money? Can you imagine being a mom and comparing your kids

like this? Who's worth more in the public's eyes? I mean, it's crazy. Side note, now that we're on this topic, make sure you guys have a nice smiling, pleasant photo of you. I always say that to people, because the worst is like when people go missing, and this is like directly impacts publicity of cases

when they don't have good, non-snapchat dog filter photos. So if you're a parent, this is something I told my sister, I was like, it's just the way the world works, I guess. It's sick and nasty, but that's kind of the way the world works right now. So this is where the truth starts splitting up, okay? Michael claimed that he rejected. He was like, I'll go't do this, I got morals, I got standards.

Yes, so what I can at my own daughter, I'm not gonna kidnap yours, but then Karen threatened him. I know some people. I know some people who have killed people, and they're gonna kill you. So he's like, oh my God, I'm so scared. So then he did it. Karen said that it was all Michael's fault, you know? She had just asked Michael to just kind of watch Shannon for a day.

Like baby sit, you know how uncles do, but then he just decided to keep her for 24 days. That's so dumb. And she said, I'm never thought of doing it. And tell you guys about this. Yeah. So then the police tell Karen that her daughter has been found. They omit the part that Michael had said, oh well Karen's involved because they want to be on Karen's nice side They want the family lines on officer to still be with Karen to kind of try to get a confession because at this point They still have no proof. There's no proof at all. So Karen and Craig when they get this news they just sit there shocked Didn't even ask any questions

Didn't say, where? What happened? Is she okay? When did I see her? Is she okay? Was she abused? Was she fed? What happened? Does she miss me? They're just like, oh my god. And they cried. But they were just, they didn't even, you would think, right?

They're cried of sadness. Yeah. They're about to go to jail. Exactly. So then they drive Karen to the station to see Shannon Well, she could only see Shannon through the one-way glass window. She couldn't talk to Shannon She couldn't see and Shannon couldn't see her. Uh-huh, but during the ride she wasn't even interested Karen was just like, oh is that your phone? Is that your ringtone? Well, you've got to text it to me. I like it Please officer's like what the fuck is going on? She Is that your ringtone? Well, you've got to text it to me. I like it.

Please officer's like, what the fuck is going on? She's obsessed with ringtones. I don't know what to even do. She's, okay, she gets to the window looking at Shannon, no crying, no motions, just casually says, oh, she's gotten a close on. And then leaves. I mean, there were a lot of moms and parents that were police officers and they're like, I would have tried to break down the glass to get to my,

I would have begged the officers. Just one hug. Just, I wouldn't even say anything. Just let me, let me just see her face to it. Let me just poke my head and say, Hey, baby, it's going to be okay, mommy's here. Nothing. She was just like, okay, well, let's go back home.

So the police again, they keep working with Karen, they take her grocery shopping. She gets all of her favorite things. There were a lot of grocery stores who were giving free food to Karen. She would fill up a cart with regular food, another cart with beer. So the police officer was like, boo, why don't we just get something for Shannon for when she comes home? Uh-huh. Yeah. Um, okay. And just like grabs a random Bradstall.

I guess just getting a random Bradstall. The police were slowly starting to question Shannon. They had to be really fragile with her not only because of her age, you know, but because she had been drugged so much that she was actually hallucinating during her captivity. But one question they did ask, they got a solid answer. Do you want to see your mom? No. So instead she gets sent to a nice foster family for the time being

and Karen starts feeling the heat. She starts telling the officers her theories. You know one time, Uncle Mike tried to be with me. Oh yeah, he wanted to do me real bad. I've rejected. I said no. I'm dating your nephew, Craig. That's why you did this. So sad. I could have protected Shannon from him. Well Karen, did you know that she was with Uncle Mike all along? I swear I did not. If I knew where she was, I would have grabbed her myself. I would have grabbed her myself.

So the police, they look for more proof. They start searching the family computers. They already taken the computers at the beginning of Shannon's disappearance, right? And they were just looking for, maybe she met an online predator, maybe she was going to meet someone that's trace it. They didn't find any of that, but they thought, okay, well maybe we got to look at different files, like at different avenues. And that is when they find on Craig's computer a plethora of child pornography. He had searched for the term Lolita 653 times, which yes is a term for a fashion style, but in this case a lot of pedophiles use it to look up

images of young girls. He also typed in these search on porn sites, rape, incest, daughter. What? Wait, but is he looking at CP or these are just, he's searching these? Yeah, he did have CP, over 100 images of CP, downloaded. Some of them were as young as four years old, performing sexual acts. There were 14 pictures depicted full on rape with adults assaulting children under the age of 11. And this is correct, the stepdad. Yeah, the stepdad.

So is he part of this? See, that's what we still don't know to this day. A lot of people suspect that he is because Michael and Karen are both not the smartest But some people argue no, they are smart because look at how long they were away from the police and look at how well Karen Manipulated the press so it's kind of up in the air. Craig was arrested for 11 charges of child pornography and it caused such a stir in the local town

that he told the judge he didn't want bail because he'd probably be killed. Yeah, they were ready to kill him. Meanwhile, finally after 20 days, Karen would finally see Shannon in a supervised visit. Before the meeting, Karen asked the police, hey, can we make a couple of pit stops on the way? A couple of pit stops from before you see the kid that you have been missing for the past 44 days that

you told the press that you are dying and you just need your baby back in your arms no matter what and you are you would do anything to just kiss her one more time holder one more time and you want to run some errands first What is it that you want to do maybe you want to buy a guess you know Maybe you want to buy another random brats doll. What do you want to do Karen? Well, I gotta go to the post office. I'm gonna cash my benefits So they take her to the post office. She cashes her benefits. Then she says I'm kind of hungry Can we go to a local sandwich shop? So she goes and eats a frickin' sandwich.

Meanwhile, Shannon is waiting to see her mom. Karen walks in, Shannon goes to hug Karen, and she just kind of like brushes her off. Since they're the whole time, they were silent, Shannon's painting, Karen won't even talk to her. And after 10 minutes, was like, all right, well, starts putting on her coat, rubbing her hands on her thighs. Why is that the sign to leave?

Why does everyone do that? Do you know I'm talking about? You start rubbing your palms on your thighs. You're like, all right, then. That's like the universal sign. She starts doing that. And the cops are like, what the fork is going on? Afterwards, they get out of the room,

and the officer is driving her back to her motel and she says, well, that went well. Did it? Did it though? What? At that point, Craig's sister and Craig's mom were arrested for a suspicion of assisting an offender and suspicion of perverting the course of justice.

The public went nuts. I mean, the whole family's in on it. They said, what a sick bunch of people discussing, disgusting, the slums. They're all living off benefits and they're all disgusting, but they were officially released without charge. But the public didn't really care. I mean, they had already made up their minds that this family, every single member of this family, they're sick. The working classes, not staring. In this case, I think it was incredibly classes. You know, I think that there's a lot of it in this case and it's crazy because if this was an unsolved case, I probably would be fighting for Karen right

now. I'd be like, you classes, mother forkers. But it's so finally, Karen gets confronted by her friends in front of a police officer her friend Natalie says Karen I don't believe you. I feel like you're hiding something from me I think here's what I think okay Karen and you can tell me anything. I would never judge you You know that we're best friends. I think that you wanted to leave Craig So you told Michael to take care of Shannon that day, but then you chickened out. You didn't want to leave Craig, but then Craig is like, Oh my God, where Shannon. So he's like, we got to call the cop she's missing and you just, you just went away. You just went with it. Instead of, you know, owning it up,

instead of saying Craig, you know what? She's at Michael's. Maybe you're having a fair with Michael, but for whatever reason reason I don't think that you meant it to get this far. And Karen sighed and she said, yeah that's right. And she started crying. Is that a strategy from the friend? Yes. So the friend, so they all knew that she is a lot more evil than this is, but this is like a little step to make her confess to something.

It's like when the cops are like looking at serial killers and like, we get it, you just snapped, you were just mad, we're all mad. So she says, Karen says, I wanted to leave Craig and take the kids. I packed my bags, I didn't have enough air with Michael, but he said that he would watch Shannon and keep her safe while I left Craig,

because who knows, you guys know Craig's violent. And then Craig just didn't go to work that day. I couldn't leave. I was going to leave when he's not home. And he kept saying, well, Shannon's supposed to be home by now. We've got to call the cops. She's missing. She was placed under arrest.

And Karen said, and I quote, people will hate me for what I've done. I've disgraced the kids. What's gonna happen to me now? I can't stand being in this cell. After she's arrested, Michael Donovan tried to kill himself in prison. Meanwhile, police were confused with Karen. She kept changing her answers.

She said that she reported Shannon missing because Craig was scaring her, saying the whole thing happened because she tried to break up with Craig. I mean it was just weird. Why didn't you just tell an officer like a day into the search? You guys were all getting close. You were alone with these officers. You were away from Craig. You could have been safe and she just said, I wish I did now. I just wanted to be strong for the children. It's just weird. Nobody could care. You know, Karen's feelings didn't matter because she abandoned her daughter.

She let Shannon live 24 days with this strange creepy man with a criminal past who was drugging her and let the public spend millions of pounds searching for her daughter. People lost jobs. People in the working class who barely had money to put food on the table donated more money than they had to help find Shannon. Because it was this intense feeling of, Shannon is one of us. And if the public, if the nation aren't gonna find her,

we have to find her. Because we have to protect our own. The middle class, the upper class, they don't care about the working class. Only we can. So they came together, they did so much. And she was just so kind at it, she was loving it. So really, I mean, it's a little too late for your little tier works, Karen. She was officially charged with perverting the course of justice and child neglect. They re-arrested Craig's sister and mom and another sister of Craig's was also arrested but eventually the charges were dropped. And in prison, you know, Karen had

all these death threats against her. People said that they were going to poison her food with bleach, glass, rat killer. Just about anything. The bounty on her head. If you were to kill Karen in prison, you'd get 10 cigarettes. Yeah. So not a lot though. Not a lot. I don't know if that's a good thing because maybe people are like, well that's not a lot. I'm not going to do it. Or maybe it's a really bad thing. I don't know what that means. Right? Trial rules around. Creg's child pornography trial. He was sentenced to 20. I mean, it's crazy. The judge went on this whole spiel about how child pornography affects just traumatizes, obliterates, destroys the life of all the children that are depicted in the images,

just a whole shbil, and then sentenced him to 20 weeks. 20 days, weeks and prison. Wow. And a seven year sex offender ban. He couldn't have any photos of anyone under the age of 16 without permission from the parents, which like I don't know what kind of role that is because you think CPU get permission from anyone like what's going on? But since waiting the trial he had spent 166 days in prison, so that day he was freed. I don't know how you're gonna take this, but he was beaten up by a gang of teenagers in the street though,

and he tried to commit suicide. He left town, tried to, you know, live his life out in anonymity, but it's said that he's getting married. I don't know, but weird. Now, the trial for Karen and Michael, the depth of the search at the end was 3.2 million pounds, 300 officers, 75% of Britain's specialist search dogs searched 1,800 properties analyzed over 800 CCTV tapes, and that's not including the community.

Not only was she drugged during captivity, but for the last 20 months, that's what her hair drug test showed, so Karen had been drugging her as well. Before the kidnapping. Karen, her entire defense during the trial was Craig's family did it. That's what happened. They were all whispering recently and they hatched this plan to get revenge. Craig is abusive. He hates me. He wanted to see me suffer. So he kidnapped my daughter. It's not been proven that Craig was involved, but a lot of people believe that, you know, Karen and Michael were just too dumb to do it.

Which, like, that's a really... Like, a really harsh thing to say, but, like, I don't know. Where do you guys stand on this? And they were both sentenced to eight years in prison. Now, Michael and Jail, he became someone's little... Miss Baby. Started washing this... ...person's feet, carrying his food, essentially holding the inside of his pocket, but both were released early after serving only a couple of years.

Karen only served four years and was released in 2012. What's insane is that she had an interview in jail. She never showed remorse. She said in a quote, I always get the blame for everything. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I'm here serving time for something I didn't do, but I have to decide how I always go for the wrong man They asked her what do you miss? You know while you're in jail sex shopping and coffee at her neighbor's house She never mentioned her kids Thankfully all of them had been taken away and they are either with their biological dads or in foster care.

And that is the crazy kidnapping of Shannon Matthews. Do we know how Shannon is doing? It's not that she's traumatized, but she is hopefully adjusting well in foster care. She's got a new identity, you know. Hopefully living her best life. Getting the love and care that she deserves, that every child deserves, but it's just a craziest thing. And it sounds like there probably a lot more in depth, like, conversation after this. Oh, my God, yeah. I just, I mean, I feel like, anyway that you want to

run with it, there are so many weird things. Like you could, you could talk about is this classic? Like, okay, let's say Karen wasn't guilty. Is the way that the press treating her classist or maybe we kind of forget about it because she is guilty and we hate her? So we're like, oh, let's just ignore that. But imagine if she was innocent, that'd been horrible. That's just retraumatizing, right? Yeah. And then like the fact that you know this is vision is that she watched Madeline McCann's press coverage and decided That's money Yeah, and you say Craig was the one that emailed We came from Craig's computer. Oh, so we don't know who emailed it. I see but I'm sure Craig helped you know But I feel like Craig did it. What didn't they just rat crack out immediately? Yeah, no, I don't know. I feel like they would yeah like like that type of personality

They would be like it's Craig it's Craig Bizarre yeah, I think it's crazy. I mean the whole thing is crazy and if you really want to do a deep dive if you read the book The author actually points out a lot of parallels of what Madeline McCann's parents did in the press that Karen Matthews would later do. Can we say that Karen Matthews was inspired or anything like that? I'm not necessarily sure, but it is interesting. So the McCann family, they had something called the cuddle cat, which is what Madeline loved. I mean, she always took that little stuffed cat everywhere.

So Kate, McCann, her mom would be constantly holding it, sniffing it, you know? And then suddenly, we had the love teddy from Shannon Matthews. But some people say like her close family and friends say, I don't even think that was her favorite. So there's kind of like this speculation was, we don't know for sure, but like, was that our favorite? What do you guys think happened? Some people think that Michael is less innocent. Some people think that Karen has been duped. It's up in the air. Do you think Craig was involved? Let me know. And I hope you guys enjoyed this week's mini-sode, and I will see you guys on Wednesday. Bye!

this week's mini-sode and I will see you guys on Wednesday. Bye!