LAKE COUNTY, FL– Attorneys for a Florida woman who is accused of killing her husband and burying his body in her backyard have filed for a motion after they say a teen confessed to his murder.
Attorneys for Laurie Shaver filed the motion on May 8th asking for the 14-year-old, who would have been 7 years old at the time of Shaver’s disappearance, to be evaluated.
Authorities began investigating Michael Shaver’s disappearance in 2018 after a friend requested police perform a wellness check on Shaver who had not been seen since November of 2015.
According to reports, Laurie told friends and co-workers that Michael quit his job and moved away, leaving her and his children behind.
Those who knew Michael, however, did not believe Laurie’s stories and believed that text messages they received from his phone telling them to “leave me alone,” or “don’t bother me,” were actually written by Laurie.
Michael’s body was eventually discovered in 2018, buried under a concrete slab on his wife’s property in Clermont.
Authorities have not said how he died but Laurie was arrested in 2020 on charges of second-degree murder for the death of her husband and accessory after the fact to second-degree murder.
Attorney Jeffrey Wiggs who is representing Laurie in the case, says that he wants the minor who claimed to have killed Michael to be evaluated so that officials know that the child is not been manipulated:
“We know how the crime was committed, who committed the crime; we know the involvement of the minor child and another party,” Wiggs said. “We’ve tried to bring that to the state who have just crossed their hands and said, ‘There’s the door.’”
Lake County prosecutors opposed the evaluation stating that there is “no credible evidence supporting the claims made concerning the involvement of the child.”
While a hearing was scheduled for Monday morning, records show that no hearing took place.
Shaver’s trial is set now for September.