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The upcoming episode of People Magazine Presents: Crimes of the '90s will cover the brutal murder and assault of 11-year-old Shauna Howe from Oil City, Pennsylvania, dating back to 1992. The case that shook the small town left behind a significant impact on its residents.
On Halloween, 1992, Shauna was kidnapped from the busy intersection of West First and Reed streets while returning home. Her battered dead body was found three days later under a bridge in Oil City. Moreover, it took over a decade for the authorities to find the perpetrators. Shauna was also allegedly assaulted before she was thrown off the bridge to her death.
Ahead of the upcoming episode of People Magazine Presents: Crimes of the '90s, here are five bone-chilling facts from the brutal crime.
Five quick facts about Shauna Howe's murder and assault
1) The crime started off as a Halloween prank
Eldred "Ted" Walker teamed up with James O'Brien and Timothy O'Brien to kidnap a 'friend' of his son as a Halloween prank. According to Ted, the plan was to pick a child up and later drop them home. But things got more and more serious leading up to the crime.
Ted allegedly picked the girl up and handed her to the O'Brien brothers, who drove off with her. Ted also revealed that he heard a female voice crying, "Get off me, let me up, let me go" from O'Brien's bedroom. Ted did not hand over his friends to the authorities but allegedly did not approve of the crime.
2) Shauna Howe was most likely alive when she was thrown off the bridge
An autopsy revealed that Shauna Howe died from blunt force trauma on her head and chest. It also revealed that the victim was assaulted before she was killed. Authorities alleged that Shauna Howe was alive when she was thrown off the bridge as her hand and shoulder injuries indicated that she tried to break the fall.
3) A mistake in James' whereabouts in 1992 resulted in the case remaining unsolved for a decade
Though the eyewitness' claim suggested that Ted Walker was the one who abducted Shauna from the streets, his DNA did not match the ones found on the little girl. He was let go and the police hit a dead end. James O'Brien was never considered a suspect in 1992 because the police mistakenly thought that he was in prison at the time.
Later, when the authorities tested the DNA in 2002, James was found to be a direct match.
4) Ryan Heath, Timothy O'Brien's cellmate, revealed that Timothy told him about the crime
Timothy O'Brien was linked to the crime owing to a testimony from his former cellmate, Ryan Heath. Timothy allegedly told Ryan about the murder when the two were locked together in 2001. Though Timothy did not reveal if Shauna Howe was alive at the time, he admitted to throwing her off the bridge.
5) Ted Walker reportedly changed his story multiple times before revealing what actually happened
Ted Walker was brought in at different times concerning the case. He allegedly changed his narrative multiple times before revealing the truth about the O'Brien brothers. Walker took a plea deal to testify against the two brothers.
People Magazine Presents: Crimes of the '90s will look into the case in further detail. Be sure to catch the episode titled Devil at the Crossroads on Wednesday, August 3, 2022 at 8 PM CT on Investigation Discovery.
