A Deadly Discovery in North Florida | Body at the Dock | Case Files: Dark Waters | Forensic Files

[theme music] NARRATOR: North of Jacksonville in northern Florida is Yulee. An area crisscrossed by swathes of
alligator-infested swampland. But it's the color of the water that gives this forested area its distinctive, menacing feel.
JOHN SPIVEY: Even though this is a beautiful creek, you get a lot of kayakers in here that love the scenery,
it's still a sinister place. You see all the cypress trees and the different trees,
that's what colors the water. The tannic acid from the swamps makes it a dark water.
NARRATOR: One area, Lofton Creek, is especially popular with anglers like John Spivey.
But in February 2001, it was his father-in-law, a seasoned shrimp fisherman, who experienced the darker
side of these waters. [water splashing] JOHN SPIVEY: My father-in-law came home and told us he had found a body down at Lofton Creek.
He had went fishing early that morning. Cold, cold winter morning. And he came in, and when he was loading his boat up,
the boat wake actually pushed a body from underneath the dock, and it was wrapped up in something.
And he was pretty shook up. This is the dock, I believe, that the body was washed up under.
And it must have been at low tide when the body was dumped, because there's no way for a body to get under this dock
at any tide except low water. He tied the body to one of these cleats on this dock
so it would not float away while he went and contacted the authorities. GREGORY FOSTER: I remember it to be partly cloudy,
which is typical for that time of the year and high humidity. Right around lunch time, I heard over our police radio
that there was a body that was located in Lofton Creek. And it was partially wrapped in what appeared
to be a shower curtain. It's not typical for us to have somebody drown in Lofton Creek,
so I started responding to the call as the detective assigned to the area. I'm going through my mind of, OK,
do I think this is going to be a suicide? Do I think it's going to be a homicide?
Do I think it's going to be just a natural death? The information coming from dispatch,
it's popping into my mind that we may be looking at another dump job. The woods, the creeks, the rivers,
that's where people a lot of the time dump bodies after they've murdered somebody.
JONI JOHNSTON: Oftentimes it's for convenience, or proximity, or depending upon the location, there's
some hope that this person is not going to be found because it's a remote location,
or some predator is going to help them dispose of the body. GREGORY FOSTER: Most of the time when you have a dump job,
it's going to be criminal activity-related. So this is a replacement dock. But if this has been the original dock,
he would have been tied off right there. He was down in the water. We could see based on his position
that he had tattoos on his body. Then upon further inspection, while he was still in the water, there was
evidence of a gunshot wound. So on this case, that kind of starts the ball rolling.
NARRATOR: Crime scene investigators could tell the victim was a Black male in his early 30s.
But the watery crime scene made further examination of the body more difficult. GREGORY FOSTER: There were remnants of the shower curtain.
And I remember the wildlife being in the area. It was a pretty gruesome scene. MICHELLE DUPRE: Sometimes bodies and water are
bodies found after a few days. The wound's and the injuries can be obscured by things like the water, or by insects,
or other creatures that may feed on that area. In this case, there was an injury to the head
and there were fish in that area. GREGORY FOSTER: Staring at the body and staring at the water,
it's very, very dark, brackish water. So I knew that this was going to be a challenge to see what
evidence may be in the water. Some of the locals call it coffee water. It's when fresh water and salt water mix.
And then you've got the sediments off the trees off of the bark. NARRATOR: Specialist divers from the Florida Department
for law enforcement were called in to assess the body before moving it. [water splashing]
SARAH MORMINO: Remains once they're in water, and especially if they're in water for an extended period
of time, become very fragile. In this case, police divers are faced with the challenge of being extra careful
because the remains had already been altered by those who found them. It added challenge to this case,
is the fact that they had little to no visibility. So everything they have to do most of the time
it's by feel, to figure out the condition of the body, but be careful as to not destroy any evidence.
NARRATOR: Police hoped they could still use fingerprinting to identify the victim.
- Skin slippage and wrinkling is very common. This can make it difficult to collect fingerprints.
However, there are several ways that dive and forensic professionals can combat this issue.
One of the most common ways to roll prints is to actually carefully remove the skin from the hand,
slide a living hand into that, and then roll the prints. Another method is when you have significant wrinkling,
is you can actually rehydrate the finger which causes the wrinkling, it kind of tightens
the skin then resulting in the ability to roll prints. MICHELLE DUPRE: Identification was relatively quickly
in this case, because the body had only been in water for three to five days, and so the fingerprints were relatively preserved.
NARRATOR: The dead man was identified as Paul Shealey. - Paul Shealey's name was in the database
because of a minor infraction, so it was already there. And when they ran fingerprints, they got a match.
Paul had his children tattooed on his body. And in this case, it proved to be very valuable.
NARRATOR: Detectives discovered Paul Shealey was a father of eight. Lofton Creek, where his body was found,
was just 24 miles from his home in Jacksonville. GREGORY FOSTER: He was a resident of the northwest side
of Jacksonville, which is an area commonly known to us as being a violent area that homicides
do take place in. JIM CARUSO: So many questions come up when you're presented with a gunshot wound death.
Whether or not the body has spent time in the water. First is, was this self-inflicted
or do we have a homicide? Most people who shoot themselves, shoot themselves either on the side of the head
or under the chin or in the mouth. JONI JOHNSTON: So I think the initial call of a suicide
need to be taken seriously because it's always a possibility. And so given the fact that we don't know that,
they're going to then start doing what we forensic psychologists call like a psychological autopsy, which
is to begin researching that person's life and the events leading up to that death
to see if does this person have the risk factors of suicide? What indications do we have that this person
was thinking about it? And as they began doing this, there was nothing in Paul Shealey's background or
recent history that would suggest he was in that frame of mind. NARRATOR: The position of Paul's bullet wound
also ruled out suicide. JIM CARUSO: So we have an entrance gunshot wound in this particular case
on the forehead. According to the investigation, the wound was caused by a 38-caliber firearm, and it was
matched back to a weapon that Paul Shealey himself owned. And if that weapon is fired fairly close to the head,
one would expect significant injuries to the skull and the brain. And depending on which part of the brain is injured,
death can be very, very quick. NARRATOR: The autopsy suggested Paul died instantly.
- Paul was actually found wrapped in a shower curtain and one gunshot wound to the head.
He would not have been able to have done that to himself, to wrap himself in a shower curtain after he shot himself.
Therefore, it was determined to be a homicide. - And that's really where we start
the process of gathering information and starting to formulate in our mind what may have taken place.
Start coming up with predictions of where, when, who might have committed this crime.
NARRATOR: In Florida, police now know that the body found in a creek with a gunshot wound to the head
is 31-year-old Jacksonville man, Paul Shealey. He's been murdered. Evidence from the body also suggests
there's a second crime scene. JIM CARUSO: The fact that there was no significant fluid
in the lungs indicates to me that the primary scene is not the creek, and that Paul Shealey was
shot somewhere else, and then the body was dumped in the creek. MICHELLE DUPRE: We don't find any evidence
that there is blood there, or that there is any kind of tissue, or anything to indicate a struggle
at that crime scene. So everything that we find indicates that this was purely a dump site,
that Paul was killed someplace else, put in the shower curtain, and then taken to this place.
[sinister music] [water splashing] JONI JOHNSTON: I think one immediate question would be,
why is this person in this creek? And who would have knowledge of this creek? Who's familiar of this area?
We do know that most perpetrators tend to place a body-- most of them, not all--
place them relatively close to their home or in areas they're familiar with. So that would be one, I think, potential avenue
of questioning. JOHN SPIVEY: My theory is it was dumped off the bridge and washed under here.
And the people that disposed of the body must have knew the area, the tidal, the gators that were in here.
It's really close to the highway, but they knew that the tide would wash the body out
or a gator would get it. [tense music] GREGORY FOSTER: In the state of Florida, especially
in northeast Florida, it's common for people to dump homicide victims in water, thinking that alligators are going to get rid of the body
or dispose of the evidence from the body. MICHELLE DUPRE: When a body starts to decay,
there again is this odor, this putrid odor that typically will put off alligators
and they won't attack. SARAH MORMINO: Alligators and crocodiles are predators. However, they are not scavengers,
which is why in this case, although the remains were in a body of water with several gators known to be in the area,
there was no trauma to the body. NARRATOR: Next, detectives turn to Paul Shealey's background,
looking for a possible motive to his murder. GREGORY FOSTER: So we were able to determine that he did not
have a Monday through Friday full-time job, but he did have at least $1,000 in cash
on him at any given time. But also that he had twin 380-caliber pistols that he liked to carry with him.
Gang activity is prevalent in that area of Jacksonville, also narcotics activity.
Is he involved in the drug trade? It may have ripped off somebody, not paid them, owed somebody money,
and was that what caused this? NARRATOR: They also discovered he had a complicated love life with eight children
by several different women. [tense music] One of his girlfriends at the time was Aisha James.
AISHA JAMES: I met Paul when I was about 24 years old. I met him working at a men's clothing store.
Yeah, Paul was a very, very much of a ladies' man. He loved women. He just came up to me that asked me,
would I help him with some clothes, and I did. He was nice-looking short, but he was nice-looking.
He had a great style by himself. Kind of goofy, but he was sweet. He was very, very sweet.
And then afterwards, he was like, can I get your number or can I take you out for a drink.
And I was like, sure, no problem. And then we hit it off from there. He was pretty much a free spirit,
spontaneous, loved to travel, loved to be around family. He spent a lot of time with his kids.
He took them shopping. The latest tennis shoes came out, Jordans, He was there buying all of his kids clothing, all of the kids
shoes and just everything. He spoiled his kids. JONI JOHNSTON: One of the things
I think is important to realize is that even though had multiple children with different women
and didn't really seem motivated to settle down with any of the women, he absolutely adored his children
and tried to be very involved in their life. And as a matter of fact, had their names tattooed on him.
And people who knew him said he talked about his children all the time. NARRATOR: His eldest son was Paul Shealey III.
He was only 10 when his father's body was found. PAUL SHEALEY III: My dad definitely
when it came to his children, he did above and beyond. He was a hell of a guy. I carry his name, you know what I'm saying?
I look like him, walk like him, talk like him, dressed like him, act like him. - Paul loved to dress from head to toe.
We had to match, including down to his socks and underwear, his shoes, everything.
Paul loved to wear jewelry from like necklaces to watches, rings. PAUL SHEALEY III: He had a lot of jewelry, for sure.
Anywhere from $20,000 to probably $25,000 worth of the jewelry. AISHA JAMES: Paul was very, very flashy.
He would pull out lots and lots of money and buy anyone a drink that he knew. - He had a lot of cars.
So it's not like it was just one car. GREGORY FOSTER: He also liked the Jacksonville Jaguars,
our NFL professional football team. So he had his vehicles painted like a Jaguar fan would
have their vehicle painted. AISHA JAMES: He had it painted in the Jaguar colors.
He had it painted in teal and gold. GREGORY FOSTER: So this is a person that liked to draw people's attention towards him.
Was he so flamboyant that he shows so many people that he had money, jewelry, guns, everything like that?
Did somebody just decide to rob him? NARRATOR: At first, evidence from the body seemed to support the robbery theory.
GREGORY FOSTER: We noticed that he was not wearing any jewelry. He was not wearing flashy clothes.
And every time the newest version of the Nike Air Jordan came out, he was the first one to have it.
So finding the body without the flashy clothes, the jewelry, and specifically the Air Jordans,
which are high-dollar shoes, that gave us a little bit more of an idea that this may have been a robbery.
[sinister music] AISHA JAMES: Our last conversation, it was on Sunday. We stayed out together for a long time,
just talking to almost the wee hours of the morning. And we had a deep conversation just about life in general.
I told him I loved him and he told me he loved me. And things are going to be OK.
But at the same time, it was like surreal. I called him on a Monday and I didn't hear any word from him.
I just had a bad feeling. - It wasn't a day going by that my dad didn't talk to his mom.
So for her not to hear from him one day, it's weird. But two or three days, it's just-- that's something wrong.
Something's not right. [tense music] My grandma came and picked me and my sister
up from daycare one day. And when we got back to the house, there was a note on the mailbox.
A detectives car, actually. And say give me a call. So she called him. I remember he said, "you might want to take a seat."
And she just fell out and she just started crying. She was like, "my baby gone, my baby gone, my baby gone."
You got to understand my grandmother was told that she couldn't even have kids and that was her only child.
So there was no words for saying that, "hey, your child is gone and he's never coming back."
AISHA JAMES: Because I seen the news report about a guy, they found the body, and over 31-year-old man.
It was like an eerie feeling when I seen it. And I went around to one of his friend's house,
and the look on his face kind of told it all. His friend told me that it was Paul.
I broke down crying. It was very, very emotional. NARRATOR: The autopsy put Paul's murder
between 3 and 5 days before his body was found. It also raised serious doubts about the investigation's
working motive for the killing, which was robbery. MICHELLE DUPRE: One of the things
also looked at at autopsy is something we call defensive injuries. In this case, there were no defensive injuries
found on Paul, and that indicates that there was no struggle. JIM CARUSO: He had no significant blunt force trauma,
and there were no antemortem injuries consistent with binding of the hands or feet
by ligatures that would have left bruising on those areas. GREGORY FOSTER: Most information
that we got was that he was very streetwise, that he always paid attention. He always knew when there was trouble brewing.
He did not want to get involved in the trouble. So that started really making us go down that path
of, OK, it's not robbery. NARRATOR: There was also no evidence Paul's murder was related to gang crime.
- So when we started getting the information that he would leave town to be involved in whatever activity he was being
involved in, he would come back with large sums of money, which would point towards criminal activity.
But the information that we gathered from family members and friends was that they never saw anybody
come in town to deal with him. NARRATOR: After eliminating several lines of inquiry,
investigators were left with one probable motive for Paul's murder. - Paul had several children with several different women.
And in fact, during the beginning parts of this investigation, we had determined
that there was a young lady that was pregnant with Paul Shealey's child but it wasn't the person that he was
currently with at the time. Do we have a crime of passion? Do we have a situation where a girlfriend, a lover,
had found out that he was being unfaithful, and could that be part of this? [sinister music]
NARRATOR: Detectives investigating the murder of Paul Shealey found dumped in a Florida Creek
with a gunshot wound to his head now suspect one of his many lovers could be the killer.
They launch a fingertip search of the swampy water where his body was found, looking
for evidence to support their theory that this is a crime of passion. [tense music]
GREGORY FOSTER: When a body is found in water, there's a lot of complexity to the investigation.
The body can travel because this is a tidal area. So anytime the ocean tide goes out,
our tributaries go out also. It also affects where we're going to find evidence that may have been dumped with the body.
So when they dive in the water, they use a combination of intense lighting to try to see what's there, metal
detectors, side-scanning sonars, and then just touch and feel. [water splashing]
SARAH MORMINO: When police divers have to conduct searches in water where there is no or limited visibility,
this often requires the diver to be tethered by a line, and someone on shore is guiding them through the water
using a search pattern. The diver is responsible for slowly pulling themselves along the bottom of the water, feeling anything
that comes along their path. Once an item is found, the diver at that point should use some form of flotation device
to actually mark the location of the item in situ. It is up to the dive team to properly recover the item
while minimizing the amount of contamination. NARRATOR: As well as the shower curtain
Paul's body was wrapped in, divers retrieved a large rug, a gold chain, and a pair of glasses.
JONI JOHNSTON: And these glasses look like women's glasses. And because they were found in the proximity of the shower
curtain, they're really hopeful that this might be a significant piece of information,
particularly if they can find somebody they belong to or somebody who has a similar pair of glasses like these.
NARRATOR: While they waited for forensic results on the items found in the creek,
detectives began to get a clearer picture of Paul Shealey's love life. AISHA JAMES: We were seeing each other probably
just a couple of months. Then I got pregnant and he was like, OK. He told me that he was going to be there for me and my son.
He was like, when the baby is born, I'll be there to help you out no matter what.
We saw a lot of each other while I was pregnant, and we talked on the phone pretty much every other day.
I called one day to find out where he was because he was supposed to come and visit me.
And when I called, a female answered, which was his girlfriend at the time, Olicia Lee.
I knew that he was in a relationship in the beginning of our relationship. NARRATOR: Olicia Lee, a single mother of three,
had been living with Paul in Jacksonville for more than a decade. JONI JOHNSTON: He was dropping off one of his kids at daycare.
She was a daycare worker, and they really hit it off right away. And I think this was pretty unusual for Paul to actually
have that kind of relationship where he moves in with somebody. So I think he was quite smitten.
I also get the sense that, in some respects, she was kind of different from a lot of the women
that he had relationships with that were more casual. And I think from Olicia's point of view,
I don't think that she thought of philandering, for example, as part of that relationship
or an acceptable part of it. AISHA JAMES: Olicia told me that she's his girlfriend.
They've been together for 10 years, and pretty much he's not going anywhere. So, you just leave him alone and stop calling his phone.
I proceeded to tell her, I said, I'm not sure if he told you or not, but I was pregnant with his son.
I could sense from her the phone conversation that she was very, very hurt, very disappointed and
disgusted with him. - I think she would have certainly told herself that he wouldn't do this to her,
because they had a different kind of relationship. And I think it would have been very frustrating
and cause a lot of rage and disappointment to discover that, no, you're not special in that way,
that Paul's behaving with you just as he has with every other woman in his life.
AISHA JAMES: We exchanged words, cuss words back and forth, and after we hung up, that was it.
- Ms. Lee's very upset. So now we've determined, OK, that was within a couple of days of Paul going missing, not being seen.
That kind of gave us more of that idea of, OK, there are some heated passions here.
Could that be the way that this went? JONI JOHNSTON: One of the things that becomes clear
is that there were some bad blood between them and some serious jealousy. When you look at the motives for murder,
love/jealousy/revenge, that's at the top of the list in terms of why people murder other people
that they're involved with. NARRATOR: Detectives questioned Olicia Lee about the days
before the discovery of Paul's body in Lofton Creek. [sinister music] GREGORY FOSTER: Ms. Lee had provided a little bit of a time
frame for the Sunday, a potential time that this could have occurred. She advised that Paul had come home, either from out of town
or somewhere else in Jacksonville, that she believed that he was with one of the other girls
that he was having a relationship with. And then when he got home, he went to sleep.
She got her children up. She got them dressed. She had them eating breakfast in the kitchen.
She takes them to church. Pretty consistent with what she's done in the past. She drops off her children at the aunt's house
and then goes back over to her house. When she returned home, Paul was gone, that the car was gone.
She decided to replace the mattress on her bed that her and Paul share. Why would you replace the mattress all of a sudden,
actually on a Sunday morning? We determined we needed to get the Florida Department
of Law Enforcement forensic team out there and process the house with a search warrant.
NARRATOR: The team did forensic tests in the main part of the house. - They did come up with a small amount of blood
in one of the sinks. Again, not consistent with the amount of blood that would have been lost during a gunshot wound.
There were no shell casings. There was no other physical evidence that was found during this processing.
[sinister music] One of our main concerns with a case like this is it turning into a cold case, turning into a situation where we know there
was a homicide, we have potential suspects, but we cannot prove what occurred. We have a good idea that, OK, this probably
happened in the city of Jacksonville, but we cannot prove that. Nobody's talking.
Nobody's giving us any more information than giving us an idea of who he is. So we know that it's just going to take
that one person to tell us, yeah, this is what happened. To blow this thing open, unfortunately, we
were unable to get over that hurdle in the initial part of the investigation. JONI JOHNSTON: It's very hard, I think, for a family
to really grieve, not knowing what happened to their loved one, not having justice,
not having answers. And unfortunately, this case for a number of months, just kind of stagnates.
GREGORY FOSTER: So it starts moving into that cold case field, which is very difficult to get out of.
And then one day I got a phone call saying, "hey, guess what? Jacksonville Sheriff's Office busted the case wide open."
[tense music] NARRATOR: For nearly a year, Florida detectives have drawn a blank in their hunt
for the killer of Paul Shealey, whose body was found in a Florida Creek. They suspect this is a crime of passion
committed by his long-term girlfriend, Olicia Lee, but can't prove it. GREGORY FOSTER: We have potential suspects, but
we cannot prove what occurred. There was nothing indicating any other way that this was going to go, but we just could
not get over that last hurdle. NARRATOR: DNA tests on the items found near the body in the creek--
a pair of women's glasses, a gold chain, a shower curtain, and a large rug also offered no answers.
[water splashing] SARAH MORMINO: The evidence that was found in the water posed several difficulties,
especially when considering an item such as a rug. Because of the fact it was in very murky water,
there likely would have been a lot of algae, vegetation, mud, and other debris on the rug.
So the investigators are now faced with the challenge of trying to find a way to remove the debris while still preserving
any forensic evidence, and also without removing too much of those environmental factors that link
the rug to that body of water. The type of water that evidence is recovered in will directly impact if any DNA can be recovered
from the pieces of evidence. Where there's a lot of debris, a lot of vegetation,
and when they're in warmer environments like the state of Florida, there's a lot of bacteria.
That bacteria can quickly eat away at any DNA evidence that might be left on any of the items
found in the water. And that's exactly what happened in this case. [water splashing]
NARRATOR: Then detectives got a breakthrough. Daniel Reddick, who was serving time for attempted burglary,
confessed that he and three accomplices dumped Paul's body in Lofton Creek. - This is an acquaintance of both Ms. Lee and Mr. Shealey,
had been arrested and started providing information on what actually took place that Sunday,
how the body was dumped, where the body was dumped. - Prior to her shooting him and wanting him dead,
what did she say to you, sir? - She asked me, would I do it? - Do what? - Was it hard to kill anybody?
- And what did you tell her? - I told her no. NARRATOR: Reddick denied shooting Paul.
Instead, he claimed it was Shealey's girlfriend, Olicia Lee, who had planned and executed the murder.
- She said she sent him on his way. - Meaning? - She sent him home. - Meaning what, sir?
- She killed him. JONI JOHNSTON: He pretty quickly fesses up and says that he did help hide this body,
and that he did this at the request of Olicia Lee, who had made no bones about the fact
that she wanted Paul Shealey dead. He said that she had asked him if he would murder him,
and he had said, no, I won't do this. And he said, I thought that was the end of it,
until she calls me out of the blue and says that she's done it. NARRATOR: Reddick admitted he and three friends
helped Olicia Lee dispose of the body and the mattress. Then Lee rewarded them by divvying up Paul's jewelry
and expensive sneakers. - And I think it's just-- it is somewhat mind-boggling that you
have these four individuals who have had nothing to do with the actual murder, who were willing to just assist her
in getting rid of his body. NARRATOR: Now certain that Paul and Olicia's Jacksonville house
was the primary crime scene, forensic teams returned for a second time. Their focus-- the master bedroom.
- The brain starts working, that mattress, that bedroom. Jacksonville Sheriff's Office took their forensic unit.
They luminol that bedroom, and they found plenty of evidence showing that the crime had actually occurred in that bedroom.
So now it's time to bring in your person of interest, the only real suspect you've had
during this entire process. You bring Ms. Lee in and start questioning her, and that was ultimately successful.
NARRATOR: Lee denied murdering her partner, but it was the pair of women's glasses
found with the body, which would finally prove her guilt. GREGORY FOSTER: When they were interviewing her,
they provided her with something to read, and she actually pulled out a set of reading glasses,
and a very astute detective remembered seeing those glasses in the pictures of the physical evidence that was collected
at the bottom of Lofton Creek, and it was an absolute match for the ones that she had on her then.
NARRATOR: Lee had lost an identical pair in the shower curtain she'd used to wrap Paul's dead body in.
- That's what took the wind out of her sails, along with everything else, that made her finally confessed
to committing the murder. NARRATOR: Later, Lee re-enacted for detectives the moment she shot Paul in the head as he slept.
- And this hand was shaking and I was trying to hold this hand with that hand and pull the trigger.
- And shot? JONI JOHNSTON: What did surprise me, and I thought was interesting, is her demeanor
during this confession. She's very matter of fact in how she talks about the very specific
details of murdering him. - Did anybody promise you that-- - No. - Why are you doing this?
JONI JOHNSTON: I don't get any sense of remorse from her. It is jealousy. I think that motivated Olicia, but
I think it was more revenge. [sinister music] NARRATOR: Olicia Lee was charged with first degree
murder and sent to trial. - This is what we think happens. Paul Shealey had come home.
He had gone to bed. The children were in the kitchen. She's made up her mind to kill him.
She recalls that Mr. Reddick had advised her that a way to silence a gun is with a potato.
AISHA JAMES: She waited until he was good and asleep. She made sure her children were busy in the other room.
She went into the closet and got his gun and got the potato and put it on there as a silencer.
And then she just she went in there and just shot him while he slept. - And then goes about her business
for the rest of the day, taking the kids to church, taking them over to the aunt's house,
and then dealing with the four other people to get rid of the body, get rid of the mattress,
get rid of the evidence, take it up to Nassau County, and dump it into Lofton Creek.
- Well, when I was told, it shocked me because I didn't think or suspect that she would have did anything like that
because she was such a quiet person, a laid back, chill person. JONI JOHNSTON: When you look at Olicia Lee,
it's hard to see anything at all in her background that would predict this. She goes to church, she takes her kids to church.
She has a steady job. She's a childcare worker. She's responsible. This is somebody you would never think
would engage in some kind of violence, certainly murder of somebody they're in a relationship with.
PAUL SHEALEY III: The story and how she did it is the most disgusting thing that I could
ever think of like, you killed them and then you got your kids ready for church.
You took them to church, came back, and disposed of the body with some friends. She actually came to the funeral.
She was on the porch with us crying and consoling my grandmother. That is wild to me.
[tense music] NARRATOR: In March 2006, Lee accepted a plea bargain, admitted second degree murder, and was sentenced
to 30 years in prison. Her four accomplices got between three and five years for disposing of Paul's body in Lofton Creek.
GREGORY FOSTER: What makes this case so bad was not only the fact that she had done this while her children were in the house.
She then drew other people into this murder investigation, into this conspiracy, had them help
her get him to Lofton Creek in Nassau County, and then to pay them by telling them that they can divvy up
those flashy jewelry pieces, the flashy clothes, everything that everybody had told us in the beginning
was part of Paul Shealey, what made Paul Shealey, Paul Shealey. It was just-- it was cold blooded.
JONI JOHNSTON: You're not giving that person any chance to defend themselves, explain themselves,
think of other options. I mean, you've made a decision. You've made a unilateral decision that I'm going
to end this person's life. That, I think, is cold. Do I think that perhaps in Olicia Lee's mind
she justified it by saying, "Paul made me do this. I've reached the breaking point.
He pushed me over the edge"? I can see her thinking that. Nobody pushes anybody over the edge.
They step across that line. But I do think that that would have been possibly a reason for her, a justification
for her making the decision to end his life. NARRATOR: Justice was done, but Paul Shealey's family and
those involved in the investigation would feel the consequences of his murder for years to come.
PAUL SHEALEY III: It definitely affected my life, especially during that time because I was
getting in so much trouble. I was rebelling and I don't have a father, and I'm not getting the things that I'm used to getting.
It was hard. It was hard. JOHN SPIVEY: My father-in-law actually was a little afraid
that his name would get out. And the people that had murdered the victim would come after him because he found the body.
And that was something that disturbed him the rest of his life. AISHA JAMES: Paul had eight kids and my son was number 9.
I think he would have been a proud dad. If he was still around, he would be there at everything that happened in my son's life.
PAUL SHEALEY III: Still to this day, I'm still to this day, still angry for sure because the hurt never goes away.
People speak of closure, but there's no real closure. GREGORY FOSTER: Being here in this context, not
a lot of change here and it really brings it back to mind the sadness of a father of nine
coming to this end, in this location, in this manner. It's a terrible thing. [somber music]
[theme music]

Police discover a body floating near a dock in North Florida, uncovering a crime of passion.

In this chilling true crime series, detectives, pathologists and police divers work together to decode complex crime scenes where victims' bodies are discovered in water.

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Brief Summary

Paul Shealey was murdered in 2001; his girlfriend Olicia Lee confessed to the crime after a complex investigation.

Key points

The Sinister Waters of Lofton Creek. Lofton Creek is known for its beauty, but it hides darker secrets beneath its surface.
Discovery of a Body. John Spivey's father-in-law finds a body while fishing, leading to a police investigation.
Identifying the Victim. The victim is identified as Paul Shealey, a father of eight, found in a creek.
Murder Investigation Unfolds. Detectives suspect foul play as they investigate the circumstances surrounding Paul's death.
Paul's Complex Love Life. Paul's relationships and children complicate the investigation into his murder.
Aisha's Discovery. Aisha learns about Olicia, Paul's long-term girlfriend, while pregnant with his child.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's still a sinister place.

John Spivey describing Lofton Creek.

1:13WatchMar 10, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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