What happened to Sharon Marshall? Story behind Girl in the Picture on Netflix - and who is Franklin Floyd

Netflix is known for producing some shocking true crime documentaries which have kept viewers on the edge of their seats.

The latest documentary, The Girl in the Pictures, tells the horrifying truth about a young girl called Sharon Marshall who was abducted as a child by her stepfather Franklin Delano Floyd, who then went on to marry the girl he had raised as a daughter.

She was later found dead by the side of the road.

So, who was Sharon Marshall, what happened to her and when can you watch The Girl in the Picture on Netflix?

Here’s what you need to know.

Who was Sharon Marshall?

Sharon Marshall, whose name was actually Suzanne Marie Sevakis, was born on September 9 1969.

Her mother was named Sandi Chipman and Suzanne was one of Sandi’s four children. She had two other daughters called Allison and Amy and a son called Phillip.

Who is Franklin Floyd?

Chipman was married to Franklin Delano Floyd, who went by many fake names including Brandon Williams.

In 1975, Chipman had to serve a 30-day prison sentence for posting bad checks, and during this time Floyd abducted all of her children and disappeared. Sharon would have been five or six years old at the time.

At the time, police allegedly refused to take any action as they said Floyd was allowed to take the children as he was their stepfather.

This didn’t stop Chipman looking for her children. She later found two of her daughters, who had been left in foster care, but her only son Phillip and daughter Suzanne remained missing.

Floyd had taken Suzanne with him, but had renamed her Sharon Marshall so she could not be found.

Phillip’s whereabouts remained unknown for a long time, but in 2019 the now-adult Phillip took a DNA test which revealed his true identity after he suspected he was the missing child. It was later found that Floyd had put him up for adoption.

What happened to Sharon Marshall?

Floyd raised Suzanne as his own daughter, enrolling her at an Oklahoma City school under the false name of Sharon Marshall.

Sharon was said to be a brilliant student, and earned a scholarship to Georgia Tech University to study aerospace engineering.

Floyd stopped her from pursuing her dreams after she got pregnant by another man, however, and forced her to work as an exotic dancer and stripper and go by various aliases including Tonya Tadlock.

Floyd abused Sharon for years as she grew up, and he went on to marry the girl he raised as a daughter when she was around 16 years old.

They lived together in the United States, where she raised her son Michael.

Sharon had gone out to shop for baby items for her two-year-old son Michael, in April 1990, when she was found lifeless at the side of a highway.

She was 20 years of age at the time, and had bruises and a bleed to the brain. She was rushed to a local hospital but died there.

Police first assumed she was the victim of a hit-and-run, but came to suspect Floyd of Sharon’s murder, though he said he was asleep at the time and they weren’t able to tie him to the crime.

There was blunt-force trauma to the back of Sharon’s head not consistent with a car accident.

Floyd later kidnapped Sharon’s son Michael at gunpoint from his school and went on to admit to the FBI that he shot him in the head and killed him on the same day he kidnapped him.

Sharon’s death was a mystery for decades, but then her real identity was revealed almost 25 years after she died in 2014.

How did the police catch Franklin Floyd?

Five years after Sharon’s death a mechanic found an envelope in a truck he had recently bought which contained 97 photos of a severely beaten missing woman named Cheryl Ann Commesso.

Cheryl Ann was Sharon’s colleague, and Floyd had punched in the face during a disagreement in front of witnesses.

Cheryl Ann went missing in 1989 and her remains were found in 1995, but her identity wasn’t known until the pictures emerged.

The authorities traced the truck back to Floyd and found the injuries on Cheryl’s body were consistent with those seen in the grisly images.

On that basis, Floyd was convicted of murdering Cheryl Ann in 2001 and he was handed the death penalty - although, as of 2022, he remains behind bars on death row.

The envelope also contained images of Sharon being abused as a child, when she was as young as four, and also as a teenager.

Authorities believe Floyd killed Sharon because she tried to leave him and run away with a college student named Kevin Brown.

Floyd has never admitted to Sharon’s murder and has not been charged with a crime relating to her death.

When can I watch The Girl in the Picture?

The Girl in the Picture, which has been made by the creators of Abducted in Plain Sight and Dead Asleep, is available to watch in the UK on Netflix from Wednesday 6 July.

Is there a trailer for The Girl in the Picture?

Yes, there is a trailer for the documentary.

You can watch it below:

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