Shannon Paulk ////// | Forensic Files

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Garage. And that's enough of the business. All right, everybody. Gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's
talk some true crime. [Music] In true crime stories, we often hear statements like, "That is when our town
lost its innocence." Or, "That sort of thing just doesn't happen here." Many times those are the words of sad
and confused concerned citizens of a community rocked and shocked to the core with a recent unimaginable crime.
Big city problems come to a little town, as they say. Today we examine a terrible crime. one
that for some very strange and indescribable reason has caused me to question so many aspects of the crime.
The concealment of evidence and the nature and secrets of this little girl's neighbors and the persons that lived in
the town that was suddenly struck with a big city problem. That sort of thing doesn't happen here.
Well, this sort of thing shouldn't happen anywhere. This is True Crime Garage and this is
the still unsolved homicide case of Shannon Paul. [Music] This week we head on down to the
Prattville, Alabama area. More specifically, Captain, we're going to the nice, quaint neighborhood of
Candlestick Park. Sports fans will recognize that name as the one-time home ballpark for the San
Francisco Giants and the home field for the 49ers, but no longer as the last event held at that wonderful stadium was
a 2014 Paul McCartney concert. For the sake of our case, and the case that we're talking about here this week,
we're going to go back to 2001. The Prattville population at this time is just under 30,000 folks. And the
Candlestick mobile home community is located in the southeastern part of Prattville, Alabama. The focus of our
case is going to be 11-year-old Shannon Pulk and the date is August 16th, 2001. This is a Thursday. Now, Shannon's
mother is heading off to work first thing in the morning. When I say first thing in the morning, some sources say
that she's up at 4:00 a.m. to get things going so she can get out the door. Now,
keep in mind this is summertime, so this means no school for the kids on this day, but mom is going to work. Shannon
and her 16-year-old sister Lisa will be staying home that day. Sounds like the protocol
is that the girls have some chores and just make sure everybody's home after mom returns from work and home in time
for dinner. So, the girls were allowed to leave the home and go out and visit with friends
and play in the neighborhood and such. Just be home before dinner and you can go out as long as your chores are done.
Shannon's mom, Marie Pulk, as said, had to be at work early that morning. She says that when she left the home just
before she saw Shannon was asleep on the couch, so she kissed her on the forehead
before leaving for the day. Now, we do get a pretty detailed timeline of events. I'm not going to say it's
perfect. Obviously, we we have some gaps here and we have some details that are missing that could certainly help solve
this mystery, but we do get some good information because this is this neighborhood, this Candlestick Park is
described by several of the residents as a live community. And what they mean by
that is there's always people outside and there's always people interacting with one another in this neighborhood.
be it people out mowing the grass, people out riding bikes, kids playing, people sitting on their front porches.
So, it's referred to as a live and active community and neighborhood. As said, her mother has to be up early that
morning. She's leaving the house rather early that morning, and she has a stop on her way to work. She's dropping off a
baby nephew back to his parents' home on the way to work. So, she kisses Shannon
on the forehead and she walks out of the house. She leaves. This is supposed to just be another ordinary Thursday. One
thing that is going on here, they live on Expo. The name of their street is Expo, by the way. All the streets in
this neighborhood are named after baseball teams. Shannon's father is living about 2 hours away.
Dad and mom are in the process of a divorce. One of the items here, Captain, is stated that Shannon was supposed to
be grounded that day, which is a little tricky because in my household growing up, grounded for the day meant you
weren't to leave the house, but nobody seems to be questioning her leaving the house. Now, at 9:00 a.m., Lisa, this is
Shannon's older sister, said that she woke up and the TV was on in the living room and said that the TV was loud and
she noticed that Shannon had made herself some breakfast and that she had already left the home for the day. One
account and report that is not that there's no discrepancies in when you go to different sources is Shannon's
personality. She's a very active child. So, her already being up for the day and
out of the house was nothing out of the ordinary. >> Not out of the ordinary for Shannon, but
not out of the ordinary for the other kids in the trailer park. Around 10:00 a.m., Shannon is over at a neighbor's
house on Mets Street. She stayed with this neighbor for about 30 minutes or so. Shannon had asked this woman if she
could take her up to the gas station so she could buy some candy. She said that she could later, but at the time her
child was still sleeping in the other room, and so she told Shannon to come back later, and she would take her to
get some candy. From there, Shannon went over to another friend's home. So now on our timeline, I
have a marker of about 11:45 a.m. This is to see if some friends could come out and play.
However, the friend is said to be too busy, couldn't come out and play with Shannon. These neighbors
reported seeing Shannon with a baby walker or baby stroller. It's so from my understanding here, Captain, there is a
stroller that even though she was grounded, part of that day, it was understood that
she was going to go out and retrieve this stroller from somewhere in the mobile home park. I would like to know
more about where this stroller came from. Was this just something that was spotted that somebody was discarding or
was this an arrangement to pick it up? I don't have great details on this, but the stroller has become a rather large
part of the story because some of our witnesses that see her that day see her toing around the stroller. Now,
she was Shana was a very like helpful kid, as we'll see in some of this timeline, but she loved babies.
And the purpose of her getting the stroller was to bring it back to her own home because she was going to give it to
her relative for the new baby that mom just returned home that morning. When I hear that she's told to retrieve this
stroller, to me it's maybe an item that she was playing with that she left somewhere.
>> Could be. Again, I wish that we had a great understanding of the significance
of this stroller because there are some sources that put a lot of thought and speculation
into the movement of the stroller. And then there's other times where I just go, maybe it has nothing to do with the
story at all other than it's something. It was part of her day that day. >> Yeah. And it makes you wonder, did
people see her playing with this stroller before the day she went missing? >> There's a neighbor called M. Mary. So, a
lot of these neighbors seem to have nicknames that that as we go through some of these nicknames, you'll see it's
it's obvious that the nicknames are created by the kids in the neighborhood. So, this Ms. Mary,
>> known to wear all black. >> She saw Shannon out of her window over at this friend's house that we talked
about. She said that she saw her knock on the door and talk to them. She said that she then saw Shannon leave with the
baby stroller and walk around to the other side of the pond over to the quote Halloween man's house.
Miss Mary says that she saw Shannon knock on his door, but he must have not >> scary or anything. The Halloween man.
>> Yeah. So, he must not have been home because Ms. Mary says that this Halloween man does not answer the door.
Now, Ms. Mary is she's very important to our timeline because from my understanding, Ms. Mary is somebody that
Shannon, even though Ms. marries an older woman. This is someone that Shannon would actually go and hang out
with. You know, we talked about her sitting on somebody's porch and and talking earlier. She would go and say
hello to Ms. Mary and things like that. So, this appears to be a trusted individual within the neighborhood. And
what we're going to see with some of the players in this neighborhood, maybe some
of them should not be trusted. So, when we have Ms. Mary saying that she sees her knock on the Halloween man's door
and nobody answers. Her statement is that the Halloween man was not home. I don't know how she knows
that the man wasn't home other or she just assuming that because he does not answer the door
>> cuz it's not out of the realm of possibility that he was home and saw it's a little girl knocking on my door
and I don't want to be bothered today >> or busy or still in bed. um you know, we
don't know what his schedule would have been for that day and we do know his name. We'll get into some of the players
here as we go. But continuing on the timeline, according to witnesses, Shannon then
walked back toward the back of the park to one of the homes closer to her own. This is reported as being a little bit
before noon that day. Shannon knocked on the door of a home only a couple houses
over from hers. So, she's now back on Expo or Expose. The neighbor was a Prattville police officer. He lived
there with his wife and his boys, his kids. Shannon had recently rescued a puppy and his family had been taking
care of that dog because Shannon was not allowed to keep it. >> Right. This neighbor, however, was
getting ready for work. The statement here is it was just him and the boys, so his wife wasn't home. And people have
really red flag this thing, saying that the man, the police officer told Shannon she couldn't come in to
visit with the dog or the boys because his wife wasn't home. It's been stated that this is some kind of house rule.
Okay. I want to investigate this a little bit before we move on here. Some people have suggested that maybe the
wife created this house rule because there's something weird about this dude. Like you can't have kids in here that
aren't ours because he can't be trusted around them. That's a rumor that's circled around this portion of the
timeline. >> Well, if he's a Mr. Mcily type, then we need to create rules and boundaries for
this pedo. Well, the the rumor is that the rule is was created because he might be weird, the the adult male, the
father. Again, I want to point out this is a rumor. It may be true that he says you can't come in because my wife isn't
home. There could be what I'm saying is there could be a house rule that has nothing to do with him being a weirdo.
That >> right? You know, there are some homes that either mom or dad or what have you
just doesn't want to deal with extra kids and if the wife or husband's not there, they don't allow extra kids into
the home or was he busy getting ready for work and didn't have time. You know, there's a million reasons why she would
be denied access into this home. like you said, maybe he just doesn't want to deal with her and maybe she's a little
bit of a bugaboo >> without him being some kind of weird strange guy, but I I point that out
because that is the rumor. So, let's leave that door a little bit open on the possibility that that could be the
truth, >> but also possibly not a complete scumbag because they find this dog and they take
the dog in to take care of the dog. Well, and he is up later they're going to narrow down the time of concern for
noon scumbag 115. You know, there are there's often psychological test and all kinds of other tests that individuals
take to become a police officer or work for a city or a town. So, I'm I'm choosing to give him the benefit of the
doubt. The listeners out there can decide if uh if your boy is right or wrong here. I think that there's enough
>> Don't bet a Franklin on it. >> I think there's enough mystery here in this case that uh we don't want to spin
our tires too long on just this one individual. Now, >> well, the fact of the matter is this is
a small community, like you said, under 30,000 individuals, but in this park, even less. And anybody that saw her that
day or anybody that was in that park during this time that she went missing has to be looked at. That's just the way
that's just the way the world works. Absolutely. So, thank you for the nudge there, Captain. So, here a little
background on this trailer park, the Candlestick Mobile Home Park, as it's called. It's an all ages manufactured
home community located on South Memorial Drive in Prattville, Alabama. It's a land lease community. It
was built in 1986. It has 220 home sites. Okay, that doesn't mean that they are all filled, but they have enough
room for 220 homes. And the lots vary in size. And we know that because the the lot rent ranges,
there's quite a big range of prices that a person could pay per month to live there. So the lot sizes must vary. But
keep in mind, if this thing's filled, 220 homes, that's a lot of people in this community. So this is a big
neighborhood. And I think there's a lot of a lot of information here to suggest that whenever she went missing, whatever
caused her to go missing very likely could have happened right inside of this community, inside this neighborhood.
Here is a point for me that I don't love. All right, I do not love to see this in our timeline. And we can get
into the wise of that here in a bit, but originally police were working on the idea. So what what we're going to end up
with is that police are notified when Shannon never comes home for dinner and they're called in. Now, early in the
investigation, they are working through this timeline that we've just spoke of, and they're saying that look, this the
last sighting, confirmed sighting we have of her is Shannon leaving this house around noon. Remember, she knocks
on the door of the Prattville police officer and family, is denied access. She's seen leaving there around noon.
And from my understanding, this might be multiple accounts. We have multiple witnesses saying that spotted around
noon. So early in the investigation, police are going to hone in on the timeline of noon to about 7:30 p.m.
Okay. So that's when everybody's out in the neighborhood looking for her. [Music]
[Music] Welcome back you filthy animals. Cheers mates. Cheers to you Colonel. Cheers to
you, Captain. Cheers to people in the back. Power to the people. Around 1:15 p.m., the Prattville police officer
leaves his home for work. See, this is why I I really kind of got the feeling that this was more of just a situational
thing, like, hey, I'm trying to get ready for work. There's no other parents here.
>> And we don't know exactly what was said, though, right? I mean because >> well I believe that he gave the
statement of I told her she couldn't come in cuz my wife wasn't home. And I think that people have kind of just run
with that statement of like well that seems weird >> which is weird in itself. I mean it it
literally could be my wife knows you. I don't know you that well. I'm you can't come in. Sorry.
>> Or maybe it was meant to be if my wife was here I'm getting ready to leave for
work. >> Right. >> Right. in an hour and 15 minutes. If my wife were here, you could come in
because she would be here for the remainder of the day. >> Yeah. And we don't know what he needs to
do. We don't know if he needs to [ __ ] shower and shave >> or just be straight up weird for an hour
and 15 minutes. >> He has to do the chicken dance very slowly. >> Yeah. So, around 1:15, we get more of
this statement here that Prattville police officer is leaving his home for work. He says that he sees that baby
stroller that Shannon had been toing around. He says he spots it left on the curb outside of the Halloween man's
house. He says he does not see Shannon anywhere. So this window of time is what the police will eventually come up with
is most believed to be when she was abducted or something happened to her. Right. is not out of the realm of
possibility that she went back to Halloween Man's house. She could be safe and sound in somebody else's house at
this time. We know she was, what was she doing that morning that we know 100%? Toting around a stroller and knocking on
people's doors. So, she could have knocked on anybody's door, went in and actually been safe and sound and just
left the stroller outside somewhere to retrieve it later. Or, and this is a sad possibility, she could have already been
picked up. Somebody could have picked her up in a car or she's in someone's home and things are not not great.
>> Anybody that has grown up in a community when where there's other kids, you've experienced this. You wake up,
you're looking for somebody to hang out with. You start going door todo. You have your favorites you go to first or
maybe the kids that you know are their go-to kids. They're going to be home. And it seems like every person that
she's going to hang out with is just not available. And if somebody was available
that day, then this might have never happened. >> Yeah. A little background here on
Shannon. So, she's 11 at the time. As we said, she's 5 foot tall, 83 lb. This is
according to her missing poster. Uh, Caucasian with green eyes and sandy brown hair. I don't know how tall a
kid's supposed to be if at 11 years old. That seems tall for to to my mind, but she is reported to have been very
friendly, very outgoing. She saw everyone in that neighborhood as her friend. She's remembered for visiting
the trailers of other persons of her neighbors to ask if they needed help with anything. In particular, she was
known for visiting an elderly resident known as Ms. Mary to help her bathe and brush the teeth of her small dog. Listen
to how much care this little one had. Right. She She's retrieving a stroller for her cousin, the her baby cousin.
>> She's rescued a a puppy and and gave it to a neighbor to take care of and is going over to check on the dog. She's
helping an elderly resident bathe and brush the teeth of her small dog regularly. So, she's extremely
kind-hearted, extremely outgoing, which might be might end up being a big problem here. She was a person that was
described as she knows no stranger. She never met a stranger. And her mother, Marie Strad, stated she
had a heart of gold and just love people, all people, and everybody loved her. So, do we have any more information
on this Halloween man? >> A little bit. Let's Let's We have a couple more items here on the timeline.
We have a pregnant neighbor who came home sometime later. I don't have a a marker, a time marker for this,
but it stated that she came home later that day to see the stroller on the curb. She thought that it had been
thrown away. I guess she retrieved it thinking that it it was just, you know, somebody had tossed it, was discarding
it, and so she could use it. Uh, so she retrieved it. Now, she did clean the stroller, and I don't know what kind of
evidence anybody would think that they could have retrieved from the stroller, but we we should note here that if there
were to have been any evidence, physical evidence on that stroller, it was cleaned that very day, the same day that
Shannon goes missing. And we don't have a time marker for this individual, but we do know that her mother left early in
the morning because she had to work. So, she's going to get home earlier. So, she
comes back around 2:30 or so. >> Mhm. >> And and she doesn't see any signs of her
daughter. >> Yeah. Shannon's not at home when mom returns. And I guess the breakup was
fairly recent, maybe 6 months prior or just a few months prior, >> right, >> between mom and dad. And so, look,
Shannon's not the only big heart caring person in this family. Mom says she she knows her daughter was upset and sad
about the situation. She came home, her daughter's not there. She's like, "Okay,
cool. She's just out playing with some friends. I'm going to swing over to Walmart and pick up a couple of items to
surprise my kid and try to cheer her up. And so she goes over to the store, purchases some items, comes back.
Shannon's still not there. Now it's time to start making dinner. Shannon never comes back. And it's, as we said
earlier, it's understood that by 7:30 p.m. whatever happened happened. She was she was gone by 7:30 p.m. To me, I would
like that to be a big marker on our timeline. So, what we do know happens is mom and sister Lisa, they're out in the
neighborhood knocking on doors. Shannon knew no stranger. So, a lot of these neighbors start joining in helping to
look for the little girl. They're going through the neighborhood. They're checking people's yards. They're
knocking on doors. They're doing everything they can. This all goes down approximately 60 minutes, let's say 1
hour's time. Now, we know at about 8:30, this is when Shannon's mom calls Shannon's father. In fact, he was
supposed to come and get the kid the next day and keep her for the weekend. And of course, he's like, "Yeah, I've
not heard from her." But but he lives two hours away at this point. >> He says I've not heard anything from
her. He's extremely concerned. So he's like, I'm jumping in my car. I'll be there as quickly as I possibly can.
>> But if I'm clear on something, the the last person that actually saw her was the police officer.
>> That's what it sounds like to me. Yes. And and so you you're making a big marker at this 7:30, 8:00. But I think
when you look at when he saw her last, the mom getting home, other people in the neighborhood getting home, the
abduction to me seems like it happened before 2:00 p.m. I can agree with that. But the reason why I want to make this
7:30 marker very important is because I think that I think that people have created a narrative here that she must
have gone miss because of the stroller. >> Right. Again, I think that a lot of time
I think that there's way too much weight put into the movement of this stupid stroller and because it's found it's
seen just sitting there unattended by Shannon at 115 that that there's they've created this narrative that has has
stood now for 20 years that oh something must have happened to her between noon and 1:15. I think I think it's it's very
it could be very likely. I'm not saying that that's impossible. I'm not saying that that
could be very creates saying that they've seen her after that time and and she had a lot of friends
and knew a lot of the neighbors. So, it would it would make sense that that we would have good people saying, "Yeah, I
talked to her. Oh, yeah. I saw her walking there." But what I'm saying is I don't know that she 100% had to be in
the possession of her abductor by 115. And and and you'll see why I think that that's irresponsible.
>> Well, and I also think too it's like she could have retrieved the stroller, walked around with it for a little bit,
and went, "Yeah, not today. I'm going to I'm going to leave it here. going I'm going to go to a couple more places and
I'll come back and get the stroller, but I'm not going to just push this around with me all day. And now what we have
here is the police are called. The time the marker I have on my timeline, Captain is around 9:00 p.m. The police
are called. They do come out. They are talking to neighbors, talking with the family. I've not seen Shannon's family
say a bad word about the police. I have seen, not a bad word, but neighbors saying that they didn't think that the
police were taking it very seriously until the next day. Now, this is this is why I really have a problem with that
noon to 1:15. So, neighbors went around, they're searching for Shannon that night around
1000 p.m. They said that everyone was very helpful and very concerned. Now, they've they're talking to police,
right? Everyone's very helpful. Everyone's been very concerned. But they >> the neighbors, the people out searching
for her, they've got a problem with with two of the people that they speak with that
night. It's two men, two individuals. When they knocked on the root beer man's home, so he lives right across the
street from the Halloween man. >> This makes the story creepier, though, right? Do you agree with that? I mean,
you got one guy called the Halloween man. this other guy called the root beer. Man, it sounds like a story that
children are telling you, but these are probably nicknames that are >> thought up by children.
>> Well, so from my understanding, the the reason why root beer man gets his name
is, and this is this is absolutely creepy in my opinion. He was known to to invite neighborhood kids into his home.
He lived by himself to invite them into his home or to have them like do chores or work around his home.
>> Yeah. >> And he would either pay them or often he would give them a can of root beer as
payment. >> So he gets this nickname root beer man. Halloween man from my understanding it's
a very similar situation but he was known to hand out candy to the to the kids in the neighborhood.
>> Oh I'm Halloween man. Give me some candy. I would say, hey, give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they're
just, you know, nice guys that that are misunderstood that are handing out root beer and Halloween candy. But we'll see
with Root Beer Man. There's a lot of reason to have some concern here. So, Root Beer Man lives across the street
from Halloween Man. People got a bad vibe about him that night because they say when they knocked on his door, he
took forever to answer the door and he only cracked the door. He refused to open the door all the way. when asked if
he had seen Shannon, he said, "No, she was probably just out getting candy." That seems like a strange statement to
say at 10 p.m. at night that an 11year-old is probably out getting candy and that's why she's not home. And then
people were concerned that he took forever to answer the door. Could be simply that he was sleeping at the time.
They did say he was fully dressed, which which some people thought that that was
strange as well because he too worked early in the morning and typically would be up and out of the neighborhood early
in the morning to be off to work. >> Yeah, just a little over the flicky flicky.
>> Extensive searches of the area were done by local, state, and even federal law
enforcement as the days went on. Waterways were searched, dogs were used, helicopters, the whole nine yards. But
they couldn't find her. the uh state police were involved and as and the FBI even got involved as well, but nobody
really had any idea what had happened to her. Now, there was a man who had a dog
trained in either search and rescue or or cadaavver search. It's not fully explained and those are
two very different things. Handlers will know that that those are two very different things. But this man offered
to provide services to Shannon's family. And Shannon's father says that the dog went into Shannon's room, smelled some
of her clothing. The dog takes off running directly over to Root Bear Man's house,
>> right over to the creepy [ __ ] >> And it's stated that the dog sniffed around this trailer and tried to sniff
under the root beer man's trailer for around 45 minutes. Once they were able to get the dog to continue, the dog then
ran to the nearby forest up to the railroad tracks and over to County Road 4 and then stopped. So, I love these
dogs, but I've pointed out plenty of times one one problem is they can't talk. They can't tell us. When you ran
to those when you ran to the forest nearby and ran over to the railroad tracks, were you still following the
scent? >> You must be a scent dog cuz you can't freaking talk either. >> Right. But what we do know is that dog
seemed to show great concern for the root beer man's house and under the trailer of that house. So much so that
they had to they had to urge the dog to to move on. It just wanted to stay there. That's where my concern would go.
>> Well, why are you urging the dog to go anywhere else other than where it wants
to go? Isn't that the point of having the dog? >> Right. But it that's why I pointed out
it's different to be trained in search and rescue or to or cadaavver because if that dog's trained in search and rescue,
you're that dog's job is to find the person. Right. >> Right. >> If it's trained in cadaavver, it's
trained to find a cadaavver. Any cadaavver. But here, if it's if if it's looking for the person, you get to this
man's home. He not he answers the door, right? And this dog is really concerned about this home, but you've not found
the person you're searching for. So, you do have to kind of move on. But, but it
wasn't lost on anybody that this dog showed concern about this this home. This is one of those situations that
we've seen in made for TV movies where fictional or whether it's true crime based,
the whole community was constantly checking in on the news, reading the newspapers. Where is this little girl?
We're not just talking about Candlestick Park. We're talking about Prattville, the whole town and city of Prattville.
They were putting up yellow ribbons. Now, unfortunately, those yellow ribbons did bring her home, just not in the way
that anyone wanted, >> right? >> On October 6th, 2001. So, remember, she goes missing mid August. So, this is
weeks and weeks that pass. We have two rabbit hunters and forgive me if I say this wrong, but they were hunting in the
Itaga Wildlife Management Area. This is a public hunting area. It's about 19 miles
north of Prattville. They come upon an area that appeared at first to be they think that it's just like scattered
trash that they find in this hunting area. However, they quickly realized that they had found a body. They found
the body of a little girl who had been tied with a rope stuffed inside a trash bag and found with her underwear around
her head. And enough time has passed that they're pretty certain, unfortunately, that this is Shannon
Pulk, who they've everybody's been looking for for all this time. But they're going to have to confirm that.
And in fact, we we have the police statements that are saying, you know, we don't have another missing person that
even vaguely fits this description. So, we're pretty certain that it's Shannon Pulk. They do run some DNA and
and get confirmation that it is in fact the little girl that everybody was looking for. We need to point out here
that that this area to me is one of the keys to solving this case, I believe, because there are several people that
have gone on record saying, "I lived in Prattville, Alabama my entire life." And
we're not talking about 15year-old people saying this. We're talking about 50, 60 year old people saying, "I lived
in Prattville, Alabama my entire life. I didn't know that this area existed. this
this this hunting area. I I had never been there, >> right? >> It's it's like a dirt road off of a dirt
road off of a dirt road to get to it, >> which is a tough thing because you look
at these crimes where the the victims are found in remote areas and law enforcement always assumes that that
means it's somebody local, but I I don't necessarily believe that. You might not
believe it, but I'll tell you the first thing I would be doing after after they found this girl, if it were my case, I
would be checking for I would be cross referencing hunting licenses, >> right, >> with people that lived in her
neighborhood. >> Well, that definitely makes sense. >> Remember, just like just like finding
the Long Island serial killer, it it was as simple as who owns a truck that the witness saw
in this neighborhood. there was one guy and he fit the description, the physical
description of of a potential witness in that case, >> right? >> In this case, I would be looking for I
if if I if I see out of 220 homes in this trailer park, only one dude has a hunting license, I'm going to be on him
like white on rice. So, the the key players here, the persons of concern that stand out, and again, it's possible
that none of these individuals have anything to do with the murder of this little girl or or her disappearance for
weeks at all. But the but the people that remain key players or people of concern in this case for 20 years is the
Prattville police officer. He doesn't seem very likely to me, Captain, because his his kids are home the whole time,
right? Like, we know that he's not alone and then he leaves for work. >> Well, because the way her body was
discovered to me, the crime didn't take place there. It's more likely that it took place somewhere else and she was
transported there. >> So, I think what you're saying, >> and not that there's not other
possibilities, but it's like the guy's at home. He has to go to work. He tells her not to come in the house.
The boys never see her in the house. And so we don't have any evidence of him leaving super early and then, you know,
picking her up and doing something with her. The case is unsolved. So he is one of the last people that we know of
to see her. So he has to stay on the list until we can prove that he didn't do it.
>> Yeah. The the thing here I that I keep >> I want to put him at the top of the
list. >> No, actually I I I wouldn't discard him. I wouldn't remove him from your list,
but I'd put him at the very bottom because I what I see here and I look, no Sherlock Holmes, but it looks to me like
somebody had to conceal Shannon Pulk. >> Yes. >> And there's no nice way of saying it, so
I'll just say it. They had to conceal this girl either abducted and alive or or otherwise. And
I don't given the timeline when a when a that's a pretty solid alibi. A police officer is at work. He leaves at 1:15
and is very likely trying to help the investigation by saying, "Yeah, she knocked on my door. I told her to go
away." And then when I left for work at 1:15, I saw that stroller that was with her earlier and I didn't see her. If he
is involved, he's got a short window of of an hour and 15 minutes to do whatever
happened and conceal her, abducted and alive or otherwise. It there just doesn't seem to be enough time for any
of that. And he's not alone at any point in that timeline. The Halloween man is of concern. I wish I had more
information on this on this individual. He lived across the street from root beer man. Handed out candy to the kids
in the neighborhood. >> I'd love to know if any of these guys are registered sex offenders.
>> Well, we do have somebody on our list that is. Um so I wish that we knew more
about this Halloween man. He but he he is became under suspicion because of people in the neighborhood. So that does
hold some weight to me. >> Yeah. that he's he's rumored as being thought as could be possible. I got to
admit, Captain, when I found out that he handed out candy to the kids, that completely made sense why he had this
nickname. I was hoping that it was more of a he looked like Michael Myers situation. Um, but then I guess nobody
would knock on his door if that was the case. >> Ty Foster is a person that's named as a
person of concern. And and I'm saying a person of concern because the police have not outwardly named anybody as a
suspect or person of interest in this case. So let's just say person of concern. And a lot of this concern is
coming from individuals in the neighborhood. This is an individual that he was a neighbor of Shannon's. He lived
there with his wife and kids. His kids were similar age to Shannon. He frequented their I'm sorry. She frequent
frequented their trailer to play with his kids. Another tie to the family is that Shannon's older sister, Lisa,
babysat his kids. The root beer man. I say pay attention to this guy. His name is Jack Earl Gibson. He lived a
couple blocks from Shannon. Uh he lived on Met Street, I believe. He's the one known as Root Beer Man. He would have
kids do odd jobs around the trailer in his trailer. He would pay the younger kids with candy and or soda. I'm sure
sometimes he was paying them with money. But the reason why I say pay attention to this man is the same night that
Shannon goes missing, Jack Gibson is arrested for possession of child pornography. So this makes him a a
strange suspect, right? Like wouldn't you move him directly to the top of the list knowing
this? But also think of the timeline. If he's arrested that night, that means police were in his home and found the
stuff that night. So they had concern enough to go in or he allowed them to go in. And again, if and I firmly believe
she had to be concealed. Had he already made provisions to move her at another time? Was she under his trailer? Is that
why that dog paid so much attention to his trailer? >> Right. Did he hide her for did he
conceal her on his property before he moved her? >> Which I think that's what somebody did
here. But again, we don't know the details that the police were working with at the time. He gets problematic
for me because of my earlier statements of she needed to be concealed and he's he's arrested that night.
>> Yeah, I wish I had a better timeline on that. It's it's just stated that he was
arrested that night. Now, he ends up being charged with all kinds of possession. They go through his computer
and the the type of images and files that he had stored on his computer were of kids that were around the same age of
of Shannon. If you're looking to make an arrest and close out this case, unfortunately, what you're looking for
on this guy's computer and in his belongings in his home are images of Shannon. That's what they don't find. They find
images of other kids, but not of her. Now, to take this a step further, this doesn't sound like it was just something
where he was collecting these images off of the internet or or wherever he's getting this gross stuff from, but it it
sounds like he on several occasions had lured children into his home and he was physically
taking photographs of of kids. One thing that I want to point out about him, I think that, like I said earlier, I would
be cross-referencing hunting licenses with persons that live in this neighborhood. Whether those licenses are
active or not, that's a paper trail that police could easily find. That's something I don't have access to. We
here at the garage task force, we don't have access to that type of information.
But I can say this, his email address, I found his email address. The word hunter is in his email
address. >> Yeah, our task force didn't find that, but our ask force did find that
information. >> I'm concerned that this guy is a hunter. I'm concerned that he lives in the area.
I'm concerned that he has all this child sex abuse material. >> Yeah. >> Uh and pornography in his possession.
>> He's a creep. He's super creep root beer man and he he fits he checks a lot of boxes here
as a great suspect. Now I've seen several statements that this guy has been cleared
>> now. Yeah. Do we have DNA? Do we have fingerprints? Do we have anything? >> And look, I don't I don't I don't This
is not We don't need to be privy to this information, but I do get mad as hell when I see somebody that's cleared and
we get no explanation as to why. Now, I've heard a few different person's thoughts that live in the area, and both
would make sense. So, one thought is that he's been cleared either by DNA, like you just said, or that he has or
that his alibi is rock solid. And before we wrap up here today, make sure that you make me circle back to that cuz I I
got a lot of thoughts on that. But but let's continue on with these persons of concern, right?
We already mentioned the police officer. We mentioned Halloween man. Um, one thing that makes him a little concerning
too is we do know that Shannon knocked on his door close to the time that she is believed to have been abducted. But
we do have the witness saying that he wasn't home, that he didn't answer the door.
>> Like you said, root beer man lives right across the street from Halloween man. So
whether she's knocking on Halloween man's door or root beer man's door, they both I think equally become suspects
because of the proximity. Ty Foster becomes a person of concern because they found a small a very small amount of
blood in his home. This was collected, it was tested, it was believed to be Shannon's blood. I don't know if they
ever confirmed that it was 100% Shannon's blood, but we but he says to police, you know, because they're going
to they're they're smart. They're going to ask these questions. You try to trip these dudes up, right? You don't say,
"Why did why did we find this blood in your home?" No, you say, "Hey, buddy, why would we have found Shannon's blood
in your home, whether it's hers or not?" Right? That that's how you word that question. Try to trip this guy up. His
statement to police is that she she would come over to his home. Remember, she played with his kids. He her older
sister babysat Ty Foster's kids. So, there is an easy explanation for Shannon to have been in his home. He says on one
of those visits, she had a nose bleed. Shannon's mother did confirm that Shannon often got nosebleleeds. So, this
seems to >> make some sense. >> Maybe explain this away. It does make some sense, but then you don't love to
hear this at all that later he pleads guilty to charges of of assault and sodomy on a 9-year-old boy.
>> Jesus. >> He is somebody that remains a person of concern. You just wonder if
when I compare him to somebody like Root Beer Man, Root Beer Man checks a lot more boxes, I believe, than Ty Foster,
but but obviously you can't move off of this guy. And then of course you have the the the
low probability of a random abduction. And I think here we can't rule that out obviously because we we just don't know.
It's unsolved for a reason. But we do have statements by local kids. And this I don't want to get all weird and
Stephen King on you here, Captain. >> Dude, you're weird as [ __ ] bro. But I've had like this case gives me a
really weird and uneasy feeling. I mean, of course, any child abduction, murder case should make us all feel
something very strange, depressed, what have you. But there's something about this case that almost feels like like it
cannot be solved. And I don't mean because of police or because of of the actions of the perpetrator. There just
feels like there's something out in the in the ether. I don't know. Like I can't
explain it, but there seems to be something preventing this case from being solved. And when I first got this
uneasy feeling was because of the next detail here is that we had a couple of kids who gave a a description of a
person that they said that Shannon was last seen to be speaking with. I hesitate to know how much time to spend
on this next detail because years later, we're told by the authorities to disregard
that sketch that that that it's not part of the case, that it that it may have been simply a hoax or that they were
given bad information, right? But part of that part of that information that came from teenagers, this was teenagers
that gave the information to police was that she was seen spotted talking to this
individual near where the bus would pick up the kids to go to school. This could point more towards a random
stranger abduction or it could also point to somebody that maybe lives in the larger community of
Prattville but not in the trailer park community because I have to wonder did they come up with
this idea because was there someone that would stop and talk to the kids at the bus stop? That's very possible. A lot of
creep >> because that's part of the story that that this was an individual that that
may have stopped on more than one occasion and talked to kids at the bus stop. >> Well, if you're looking for kids, the
bus stop is a good place to find them. >> So, part of that let's let's include this here because I this could still be
important. Again, we we were told eventually to disregard that sketch. Supposedly, there are
witnesses that saw Shannon talking to a stranger on the day of the abduction. They claimed that Shannon was speaking
to a man in a red Jeep Wrangler or a red Jeep with a soft black top. She It was said that she Shannon seemed to be
familiar with this person. There was also word of a white sedan spotted in the area that day that was dirty that
had a braided license plate uh like a metal braided license plate holder. That was part of the description.
The the description of this man is pretty detailed. Uh kind of a a square shaped head.
>> Spongebob >> with facial hair. >> Nope. >> Goatee down to a beard. Short dark hair.
A tan male. White male. >> Well, what I wonder, and I don't know if law enforcement has come out and said
anything, they're saying disregard the sketch. Are they saying disregard this this these eyewitnesses altogether?
Because it's such a detailed description of the individual, the description of their car, it seems like law enforcement
would have figured out who this individual was and they would have talked to him. So the information I have
is that simply that years later the persons that provided this information to police recanted the statements
and even told law enforcement that the the sketch was made up. >> Strange. Why would you make why would
you make this [ __ ] up? >> Right. And these are not like these are not like adults that had a that had
reason to point the finger elsewhere, right? to, hey, don't look at me too much because you should be looking for
this guy in this Jeep or this white sedan. Here's what he looks like. This is coming from from youngsters at the
time. And again, that's why I not to get all Stephen King on you, but I there's just like some some like dark force I
feel like that is preventing this case from being I don't know. I I know I'm not making
any sense, but I can't I've had that like weight on my chest all week long, and I don't know how to describe it. A
couple things here. It could be and probably most likely it's a pedo. It's a creep.
>> Oh, >> couldn't control their urges. >> But then you get this weird eyewitness,
very detailed report coming from teenagers like you said, why would they be making stuff up? Well,
maybe something bad happened. Maybe. And that that's not out of the realm of possibilities because yes, hunters would
know about very weird remote locations, but who else knows about weird remote locations?
Kids and teenagers. >> Yeah. >> That's something if you're law enforcement, you have to question why
did these kids make this up? >> Yeah. Well, exactly. And the the other thing though we need to keep in mind is
what at its simplest form makes your best suspect. Well, it's one a person that that was around
in the area with Shannon at some point that day and two had the ability to sorry but there's no nice way of saying
this discard her body in that location that is miles and miles away. Right. Th So those two things have to happen for
your good suspect. Now I want to point out here this root beer man, he worked in he was
a maintenance man at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Montgomery, Alabama. I This is a this is a call to
action. This is a little homework for any of our listeners out there. if anybody in the area knows where this guy
worked beyond this. I I'm trying to really I know that that's a pretty good description of where he worked, but if
anybody has more information about where he worked. I there is a a possible lead
on this case that that that could be a connection could be made here if we had more information about his employment at
this time. The reason why, okay, he could have been ruled out by DNA. And our listeners are out there, we we're
lucky because we live in the golden age of using DNA to solve these cases, genealogy, detective work. And I'm sure
there's a few listeners out there going, "Okay, if they ruled him out by DNA, that means they have suspect DNA in the
case. Why aren't they just using genealogy work to get a surname and then figure out a suspect from there?"
Hopefully, I have my hands together in the praying motion that that is going on behind the scenes right now and they're
close to finding this dirt bag. But we could also have a situation where the DNA is not great
and it's just enough to exclude people but not really hone in on the the person responsible.
Now, we don't have any confirmation of why the statement of this child pornography collecting dirt bag that's
taking pictures of kids as well living in the neighborhood handing out root beer.
>> Yeah. >> To to kids when they come into his trailer. We don't have any statement
from law enforcement as to why this dude was ruled out other than he's been eliminated. Now, I I I have concern of
that because here's where my fear is. If they didn't use DNA, if they didn't use
science to eliminate this guy, there's got to be a detective in this agency that's going, "Come on, guys. Let's take
another look at this dude." Because the other rumor that I've heard is that he was ruled out due to an alibi, that he
was at work all day and so he was not in the area. Remember, we said that two things have to happen for your good
suspect. He has to be in the area at the time that she went missing and has to have the ability to transport her all
that way away to to try to hide the body. Okay. So, he was at work all day. That's great. That works if you are
correct in your belief that she went missing during that 1 hour and 15 minute window that they've created.
If that window is wrong, if you guys are wrong about that, you can't eliminate him.
>> Absolutely not. >> If you if you take that timeline back out to what you were originally working
with, that between noon and 7:30 was your time of concern, he could have been back home and in the area well before
7:30, but still not in the area to meet that noon to 1:15 window. You see what I'm getting at with that? That's why I I
hope that they've not eliminated persons because they were at work at 1:15 that afternoon,
>> right? >> Because there could be there could be a situation where she's not abducted until
after that 1:15 timeline, that marker there. And the other thing that that brings up some great questions
here, right? Time of day. Who has access? Who who's just out and about that time of day? That's this is middle
of the week. This is a Thursday. That plays a part here, I believe. The other thing, too, that you have to
wonder about is the time of year. This is about a week or so before they would start school.
So, who's not working in the summertime? Somebody had to have access to to get her at that time. Whatever time of day
that was, they had to have access to actually to getting her. There's a lot of mystery with this case. Now, root
beer man, Jack Gibson, he he has served his time. He he faced a lot of charges. He served his time. He's I believe he's
moved out of the area. As said though, I think I'm going off of the idea because
he the word hunter is in his email address that that he was at one time a hunter uh and therefore may have known
of this area where the body was disposed of. I have a lot of trouble moving on from this guy.
>> Well, that's cuz he was your high school sweetheart. >> And I I'm not law enforcement and I'm
not certainly not qualified to say who should be cleared and not cleared in this case. Well, what's tough is we have
a pretty good timeline. We have a lot of individuals in this neighborhood that search for her. We
have a handful of suspects. Her body is recovered. We're not privy to what other what other
evidence was retrieved by law enforcement. But with all these years later, you think
they give us a list, like a updated list of individuals they've ruled out or ruled in? Well, and this is a big-time
case there. This remains a case that is hyperfocused on by law enforcement and locals even more than 20 years later.
So, that is one thing that is glass half full here. Now, another thing that I want to point out is Jim Baird. This is
the one-time mayor of Prattville. He was, in fact, he was the mayor for 12 years and was the mayor at the time that
she went missing and that was later found. But Jim Bayard, he's on record very recently saying, quote, "One of the
things we have got going on right now is we have another state that we've been working with and also a federal agency
that is working with us to review all the information on Shannon's case." Again, it goes on to say that is one of
those things that we are talking about trying to link a case in another state to Shannons and that's what we are going
to see if they are linked. It could have been nationwide. He's talking about kids
getting snatched. could be nationwide and somebody else was invol, you know, somebody was involved that that was
moving about or it could be somebody that was going through the state. He says, "We don't know. We're hoping that
one of those cases outside of the state might be of help to Shannon's case." As said, this is very much on the hearts
and minds of local law enforcement and even law enforcement at the state level. The FBI has been involved. This is a
horribly heartbreaking case. I'm hoping that somebody out there somewhere knows something. Tom Allen
from the Prattville Police Department is on record. He he's the lead, I believe,
current lead on this case. He has said that they still receive tips and they still receive information and they still
have people reach out that want to help about this case, help with this case. So, that's also something in the
positive as well. For those of you out there or anyone out there with any information at all on Shannon Pulk's
case, we urge you to call Prattville CSI Sergeant Tom Allen at 334595256. [Music]
Want to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage each and every week. And thanks for telling a friend, thanks
for telling your mother. And until next week, be good, be kind, and don't live. Heat. Heat.
[Music]

Shannon Paulk ////// 780 Part 1 of 1

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

One week before the start of the school year a little girl was taken from her Candlestick Park neighborhood. The entire city of Prattville, Alabama was looking for this little girl. Eleven year old Shannon Paulk was missing for about two months when rabbit hunters found her remains in a remote hunting area. This is the crime that forever changed Prattville. The murderer is still out there, hiding from the men and women of the law that are yet to get justice for this little angel. Anyone with any information at all is urged to call Prattville CSI Sergeant Tom Allen at 334-595-0256.

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the unsolved case of Shannon Pulk, who disappeared in Prattville, Alabama, in 2001, exploring key witnesses and suspects.

Key points

Welcome to True Crime Garage. Hosts Nick and Captain introduce the episode and their featured beer.
The Unsolved Case of Shannon Paul. A chilling look into the unsolved homicide case of Shannon Paul, a young girl from Prattville, Alabama.
Shannon's Kindness. Shannon was known for her caring nature, often helping neighbors and friends.
The Search Begins. After Shannon goes missing, her family and neighbors join forces to search for her.
Creepy Neighbors. The investigation reveals unsettling characters in the neighborhood, including Root Beer Man.
Tragic Discovery. Weeks after her disappearance, hunters find Shannon's body in a remote area.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What happened to Shannon Paul?

The central question of the episode.

4:10WatchJul 30, 2025

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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