Shannon Verhage

Eleven-month-old Shannon Verhage was last seen on June 3, 1997 in Cedar Springs, Michigan.

In August of 1996, Shannon's mother, Rachel Timmerman reported to the police that she was raped by Marvin Gabrion six weeks after giving birth to Shannon. Marvin was later charged with rape and Rachel was supposed to testify against him in court during the summer of 1997. One of the witnesses to Rachel's rape, Wayne Davis (who also planned to testify in court on Rachel's behalf) disappeared in February of 1997.

During that time, Rachel sent Shannon to live with her paternal grandparents. She was having issues with her family, but she was working on repairing them and planned to move into her dad's home with Shannon. On the weekend of June 3, 1997, she took Shannon to her dad's house to prepare for the change of custody.

Three days before Rachel was supposed to testify in court, she left her dad's house with Shannon, telling her family that she was going out to dinner with an unidentified man and planned to come home in approximately two hours, but they never returned.

Shortly after Rachel and Shannon left, her dad got a letter that was supposedly written by Rachel, saying that she planned to elope and would be in contact with her family in about two weeks. Two weeks later, her dad got another letter from Little Rock, Arkansas, saying that Shannon and Rachel were doing okay and they would write again soon when they found a permanent home in the area.

A month later, Rachel's body was found in Oxford Lake in Manistee National Forest. Her eyes and mouth were covered in duct tape, she was placed in handcuffs, chained to cinder blocks and she was thrown into the water alive where she drowned. Her brother said that Marvin threatened to kill Rachel if she testified against him in court.

The police believed that Rachel's friend, John Weeks picked up Rachel and Shannon on the day they went missing; however, John disappeared in June of 1997 and has not been seen since.

In July of 1998, Marvin was charged with Social Security fraud after it was discovered that he was collected Social Security checks using the identity of Robert Allen, a missing mentally impaired transient from Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was sentenced to 5 years in federal prison.

In 2001, Marvin was charged with Rachel's murder. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2002; however the death sentence was overturned on a technicality in 2011, but it was reinstated in 2013.

In July of 2002, the body of Wayne Davis was discovered in a lake located less than a mile behind a house belonging to Marvin's parents. Like Rachel, Wayne had been chained to cinder blocks and thrown into the river alive. Marvin has not been charged with Wayne's death, but the police believe that he was responsible for it.

Shannon's case is classified as a non-family abduction.