Unclaimed, Unsolved

by M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
Since 1999, a trail of disappearances and the discovery of human remains littered small towns in the South. Was it sheer coincidence or the work of one killer?

---

Elmore County Jane Doe

On July 22, 2007, partial skeletal remains were found wrapped in 6-by-8 ft. green tarp, tied with 72 feet of rope. The remains were buried on private property about 40 feet from the Coosa River at 308 Gladis Road, Titus, Alabama (erroneously listed on the Doe Network as 308 Galdis Rd). This was only 40 feet from the Coosa River. The remains were discovered when the property owners were gardening. They seldom visited the location since 1991.

Lime seem to have been used around the burial site to stifle the smell of putrefaction. Her estimated date of death ranged from 1950 to 2007. Elmore County Jane Doe was probably 30 to 40 years of age, and was black or bi-racial. She was 5 feet tall and had long, dark brown hair. Fingerprints are not available, but dental and DNA evidence is available. There were no clothing, jewelry or other personal items available to identify her. She suffered several broken bones in a period of time before her death.

---

Pentacle glued to the skull of Autauga County Jane Doe. c.2007

Two months later on October 29, 2007 a skull and upper jaw bone were found on the roadside at 683 Old Autaugaville Road in Prattville, Alabama by inmates picking up litter. The area has historical significance, with nearby sites such as the Lassiter Homeplace and Autauga Place listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This was also close to the Prattville Country Club.

​The skull had a small medallion with a pentacle glued to it. Little is known about who the skull belonged to, except that she was a black female, with an estimated age of 40 to 60 years of age. She could have died between 1950 to 2007. No dental or fingerprints are available, but DNA is. She was dubbed Autauga County Jane Doe.

Was the pentacle glued to the skull as part of occult practices, or was this just something that a person with a goth flair for decorating discarded? In some black magic practice, keeping the remains whether a victim, or dug up from a cemetery, is a way to bind the soul for divination services or as a messenger.

In 2019, a reddit poster related the following: "In early 2006, grave robbing was happening not far from where the skull was found. Just a little tidbit, albeit unlikely related to these cases."

---

NOT CREDIBLE - Discrediting of a key composite sketch created from a witness's description in a 2018 grand jury investigation, as the witness, now a grown woman, admitted she did not see Shannon speaking to the man described on that day.

Another cold case tied to the same area is the disappearance of Shannon Nicole Paulk, 11, who was last seen in the Candlestick RV Park where she lived with her mother and sister.

Maria Paulk left for work at 7 a.m., and left Shannon in the care of her older sister who was 16 years old. When she got home her daughter was not there. By 7 p.m. the family became concerned, and residents of the RV park began looking for her. Police contacted Shannon's father, Billy Joe Paulk who lived in Eufaula who confirmed she was not there.

She was reportedly playing outside and visiting neighbors that day, including a friend on Mets Street and a neighbor who was a Prattville police officer, before being seen near the pond and the "Halloween Man's" house. The "Halloween Man" is a nickname given to a neighbor in the Candlestick Park mobile home park. He earned this nickname due to his elaborate Halloween decorations and the fact that he gave out candy to neighborhood children. On the day Shannon went missing, a witness named Miss Mary saw Shannon knock on the Halloween Man's door, but he did not answer, leading Miss Mary to believe he was not home. This sighting is one of the last confirmed observations of Shannon before her disappearance. Halloween Man's true identity has never been disclosed by police.

Shannon was believed to have been kidnapped between noon and 1:15 PM, after leaving the officer's house without the baby walker she had been carrying, which was later found on the curb near the "Halloween Man's" house. The walker had been cleaned by a pregnant neighbor who found it, destroying any potential evidence.

Federal, state and local authorities conducted an intense search for her without any luck. In September 2001, a 3-minute segment was aired on America's Most Wanted. They also aired a composite of the man the police were looking for as a witness. Someone had placed the man talking to Shannon the day she disappeared. 

---

Shannon Paulk

He was described as a white man, about 6 feet tall, stocky, muscular build, very tanned with a beer belly. He was estimated to be 35 to 45 years old. His arms were hairy, and his teeth yellow and crooked. He had pronounced creases around his eyes and mouth, and across his brow. A bump on the bridge of his nose indicated it was once broken. He had a prominent mole under his right eye, with hairs growing out of it toward his nose. At that time, the man wore his dark hair short, and he had a mustache and goatee. He was driving a white, 4-door car that was covered in red dirt. He may have been seen inside Candlestick Park before Shannon's abduction, and had access to different vehicles. It was not until 2018, that this whole scenario including the sketch rendered was found to be totally false and manufactured by the witness.

​At the beginning of October 2001, the search ended. Rabbit hunters in a wooded area in the Autauga Wildlife Management Area, approximately 15 miles north of Prattville found the body, which was later identified via DNA as Shannon Paulk.

---

Heaven Ross' murder from 2003, remains unsolved

According to Margaret Faulkner, an FBI agent assigned to the case, they were looking for a suspect who was familiar with the mobile home park where Shannon lived, and the area where the body was found. A sergeant with the Prattville police department, said the suspect may have changed his personal appearance by growing or removing facial hair, or changing his hair color. He asked people in the area to lookout for someone who recently cleaned his car more than would be normal. Despite all the effort by law enforcement and the community, the case went cold.

Several individuals were considered persons of interest over the years. Jack Earl Gibson known as the "Root Beer Man," earned his moniker since he gave children root beer and candy in exchange for performing odd jobs around his home, a practice that many in the community found unsettling. He lived just two blocks from Shannon's home and was known to pay her to clean his house. He lived across the street from the "Halloween Man," and was arrested the same night Shannon disappeared for possessing over 1,000 explicit images of children, though none were of Shannon.

Ty Foster, another neighbor was arrested in 2003 on unrelated sexual abuse charges and was later found to have a history of child-related offenses, including possession of child pornography and assault on a minor. He pled guilty to assault and sodomy charges involving a nine-year-old boy in a Baldwin County courtroom, with the trial moved from Prattville due to the high-profile nature of the Paulk case. Despite being a person of interest and having a history of criminal activity involving children, Foster was never formally charged in connection with Shannon Paulk's murder. Traces of Shannon’s blood were found in his home, which he attributed to a nosebleed she had experienced there. Her family confirmed this was accurate.

---

Abandoned house where the remains of Heaven Ross were found two years after her disappearance.

Investigators have explored potential connections to other similar cases, such as the disappearances of 11-year-old Heaven Lashae Ross who was reported missing on August 19, 2003, in Northport, Alabama. It was just two years after the abduction and murder of Shannon Paulk. Despite massive community searches with hundreds of volunteers, Heaven’s body was not found until December 18, 2006, in an abandoned house 8 miles from her home. This led police to believe her killer was someone from the community. They have never revealed how they believe Heaven was killed.

Two years before Shannon Paulk was kidnapped, 11-year-old Teresa Dean was walking to a friend’s house in her mobile home community in Twiggs County, Georgia on the evening of August 15, 1999. She vanished.

The police department tried to determine if Heaven's murder was connected to Shannon Paulk's case, and the disappearance of Teresa Melissa Dean.

All three girls disappeared in August, they were 11 years old. All three lived in trailer parks. In all three cases, commercial construction, roadwork or bridge building was being done nearby.

When Teresa Dean was last seen in 1999, she was walking down Lawrence Street near her family trailer at about 8 p.m. on the way to a friend's house to see some puppies. She was wearing a blue and white striped shirt, orange knit pants, clear gel sandals and gold ball earing. She had a speech impediment. 

Cody Dwayne Landers, Teresa's mother's live-in boyfriend at that time, failed a polygraph test which he took voluntarily shortly after Teresa disappeared. He said it had been improperly administered. The relationship between him and Teresa's mother ended.

In October, 2001 he was convicted on seven child molestation charges (GA 16-6-4(a)), involving two children and sent to prison. He has been released and lives in a southern state. He is registered in a national database as an Adult Tier 3 sex offender.

---

Teresa Melissa Dean disappeared in 1999

Teresa's body has never been found, and authorities believe she was a victim of foul play. Teresa's 14 year old sister Christy, was put into foster care after her disappearance. There must have been some type of risk at the home for her to be removed from her mother's care.

A reddit poster commented: "And the fact that someone else called the police because they thought the family wasn't searching properly is heartbreaking. A throwaway child." 

Three months before Heaven LaShae Ross went missing, 13-year-old Tabitha Tuders was last seen walking to her school bus stop on the morning of April 29, 2003, in Nashville.

Martin Tim Boyd, arrested four months after Tabitha’s disappearance for attempting to lure an 11-year-old girl into his car near her home, was investigated but never linked to her case

Neither Teresa Melissa Dean nor Tabitha Tuders have ever been found.

Authorities do not currently believe these cases are linked, despite the similarity between the victims, and the setting they were taken from.

All of these cases remain unsolved, in some instances the victims are unnamed.

---