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Trigger warning: This article contains information about graphic violence
The murder of Shauna Howe became the talk of the town back in 1992 when the crime shook the small town of Oil City, Pennsylvania. What was even more shocking was that the case remained unsolved for over a decade despite the authorities getting really close to solving it in the initial stages.
Decades later, People Magazine Presents: Crimes of the '90s is ready to revisit this complicated case in its upcoming episode. 11-year-old Shauna Howe was kidnapped from a busy street on Halloween 1992. Three days later, her battered and bruised body was found on an abandoned railroad under a bridge. The three perpetrators, Eldred “Ted” Walker, James O’Brien, and Timothy O’Brien, were caught over a decade later.
Read on for more details about the brutal crime that left a permanent imprint on the small town of Oil City.
Who killed Shauna Howe?
Shauna Howe was reportedly a random victim of a prank that went too far. According to Ted Walker, one of the perpetrators involved in the crime, he and James O'Brien and Timothy O'Brien allegedly planned to kidnap a random kid from a busy street on Halloween as a prank. Their motive was to embarrass the local police force of the city.
It was initially supposed to be a friend of Walker's son, but it later turned into any random female victim. By the time the kidnapping took place, the plan had escalated rapidly to a proper crime. Walker allegedly realized the gravity of the situation when the two brothers carried Shauna inside their house.
James and Timothy allegedly assaulted the child before carrying her in the trunk of their car and throwing her off the bridge. Authorities also claimed that Shauna Howe was most likely alive when she was thrown off the bridge and tried to break her fall.
When the police finally found a DNA match in 2002, they realized it was James O'Brien's, someone they wrongly thought to be in prison when the crime took place. The other DNA from Shauna's body matched Timothy O'Brien, James' elder brother. Both the brothers were in prison on separate charges when the authorities discovered the lead.
They also connected it to Ted Walker, who was the original suspect after an eyewitness contacted the police on the day of the crime. When Ted was brought in, he allegedly narrated a different version of the events. He finally told the truth after agreeing to a plea deal.
State Trooper Vernon Brown, who heard the story from Walker, described how it took so long for Ted to realize what the O'Breins were going to do to Shauna Howe. He said:
"He told me he was furious they brought her to his house because that wasn't part of the plan,...Once they got upstairs, he heard yelling and screaming, and heard Shauna say 'Let me up. Get off me. Leave me alone."
Ted Walker was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison while James and Timothy were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. After the trial concluded, Shauna Howe's mother said:
"I'm going to tell her what's been happening these two weeks, and tell her she can rest in heaven."
People Magazine Presents: Crimes of the '90s will explore the case of Shauna Howe in detail this week.
