He Tried To Get Rid of Any DNA With Bleach – The Story of Shaylyn Ammerman
He Tried To Get Rid of Any DNA With Bleach – The Story of Shaylyn Ammerman
“Somebody came in and took her, is what I’m thinking. It’s the only logical explanation that could happen. There’s only one way in our house and one way out, unless they break a window. All I know is their door is loud and hard to open and shut, and they have dogs that bark. Someone would have heard. I think they know more than they’re letting on.”
The story I have for you today is one where, even after police made an arrest in this little girl’s death, there were still many inconsistencies and red flags from the other people who had been there the night she disappeared, which means there is likely more to this than we know.
This is the story of Shaylyn Ammerman.
Shaylyn Michelle K. Ammerman was born on December 31st, 2014, in Bloomington, Indiana, to Justin Ammerman and Jessica Stewart. Shaylyn also had two brothers who were five and eight at the time that she died.
Shaylyn was said to be always happy, always laughing and smiling. She loved Tinker Bell and anything shimmery or glittery. Shaylyn was a happy little girl who also loved music and dancing.
Shaylyn’s parents, Justin and Jessica, were no longer together, but they shared custody of their daughter. On March 18th, 2016, Jessica dropped her 14-month-old daughter off at her father’s house so she could spend the week with him.
His home was located on the 400 block of West Jefferson Street in Spencer, Indiana. In that home lived not only Justin, but also Justin’s mother, Tamara Morgan, his stepfather, Danny Morgan, and his brother, Adam Ammerman.
After Shaylyn had been at her dad’s house for a few nights, on March 22nd, her uncle Adam decided that he wanted to have a friend over to watch some movies and have a few drinks.
So Shaylyn’s uncle Adam, his stepfather Danny, and his new friend Kyle Parker were all hanging out in Adam’s room, drinking some whiskey and vodka and watching television.
Tamara put little Shaylyn to bed in her crib, which was out in the living room, sometime between 8:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., though the family’s accounts on the exact time would vary. And this was not the only thing that had inconsistencies.
Tamara tucked her granddaughter in, wrapping her favorite Winnie the Pooh blanket around her, and Justin would check in on his daughter around 11:00 p.m., right before he headed to bed.
Tamara would also check on her a few times prior to heading to bed around midnight.
The get-together ended in the early hours of the morning after Kyle had left and everyone else had gone to bed. But when Justin woke up the next morning around 8:00 a.m.—or possibly 9:00 a.m., because that is also something that changes from time to time in their stories—he went to get his daughter from her crib, and she wasn’t there.
Justin says that he then ran into Tamara’s room, almost knocking down her door, and asked her if she had seen Shaylyn anywhere. She said she hadn’t, and Shaylyn was nowhere to be found inside the house.
The family went into panic mode and called the police.
Shaylyn’s disappearance then set off a frantic search in the area surrounding the home where she was last seen. Hundreds of local and state police officers scoured the neighborhood, as well as nearby woods, fields, creeks, and rivers.
At the Ammerman home, there was no sign of a break-in, and she could not have walked out on her own.
Photographs of the toddler were distributed across the state, along with the information that she had last been seen wearing a white zip-up sleeper with owls on it, along with a purple pacifier that was attached to it.
The family figured that somebody had broken into their house and simply taken Shaylyn from her crib.
They couldn’t understand, however, why nothing else was taken. No computer. No TVs. Nothing expensive.
In fact, nothing in the house was disturbed.
“Who in the world would do this? I mean, this is a small town. You should know that, right? I mean, nothing like this really happens in Spencer.”
“Spencer is like the world’s smallest town. It’s not the world, no, but nothing like this has ever happened, and we don’t know why it’s happening to us right now. We’re not bad people.”
“Yeah, we’re not bad people. We’ve never made enemies with anybody.”
“Somebody had to walk through our front door and take her. They did not bother anything in the house. Nothing in the house was disturbed. It was just like it was when I went to bed and when I got up, except for Shaylyn was gone. Her baby blankets were laying on the couch next to her bed, were not disturbed. Her toys weren’t disturbed. Nothing in the house was taken but Shaylyn.”
But Shaylyn’s diaper bag, along with her Winnie the Pooh blanket, was also missing.
At first, however, Tamara said nothing else from the house was missing except for her granddaughter, even specifying that no diapers were taken and no clothing was taken.
So how did she not notice that her granddaughter’s favorite Winnie the Pooh blanket was missing?
The fact that these two very important items had disappeared along with Shaylyn initially gave Shaylyn’s mom the false hope that somebody was taking good care of her daughter somewhere else.
Unfortunately, that would prove not to be true.
Shaylyn’s family did multiple interviews with different news outlets. They said there were rumors going around that their house had a reputation for throwing a lot of parties and that there had been a party going on the night Shaylyn disappeared.
But Tamara, as well as Justin, would deny this.
In fact, Tamara was kind of adamant that they did not have a party during one of these interviews, which is kind of a weird thing to be adamant about when your granddaughter is missing, don’t you think?
“Well, last night there was a guy named Kyle there, but he was in my brother’s room the whole time.”
“Okay. What can you tell me? We’re recording this for an interview, obviously, so I need to let you know that. What can you tell me about the guy that was there?”
“He came in and went to my brother’s room, and he brought some alcohol over there.”
“So Shaylyn had been at the house beforehand, and as far as you know, she was still there up until 8:30 this morning?”
“Yeah.”
“And anything else about this guy that was over there in your brother’s room?”
“I couldn’t tell you anything else besides that, because my brother went in my room and got me. I was almost half asleep. He woke me up and wanted me to come in there and drink with him, but I told him no. So I don’t know really much about that Kyle guy.”
“Any idea about Kyle’s last name?”
“No, I don’t.”
“So at this point, you have no idea who might have taken her?”
“No. We don’t have any idea.”
“What can we do in the media to help get the word out? We’re getting the picture out there. We’re putting it on the news. We’re getting it on the internet. What else do you want people to know?”
“Well, Fox 59 has got it on there too, and they’re reporting that there was a party at our house last night, and there was no party. We did have some alcohol. My son, Adam Ammerman, and Kyle were in the bedroom, and there was a little bit of alcohol drinking, but there was no party at all.”
“And the other people that had been there at the time, had they left by two in the morning when you went to bed?”
“No. Kyle was still there when I went to bed, and Kelly came in sometime after that and left, but I don’t know when she came in and when she left.”
“And what time did you notice that Shaylyn was missing?”
“8:00 this morning.”
“So you got up at 8:00 and she just wasn’t there anymore?”
“Right. Yeah, she wasn’t there.”
“Okay. And nothing else was missing?”
“I have a brand-new laptop in the living room that was not bothered. I have cell phones. Nothing was bothered.”
“Okay.”
“Not even her clothes, her diapers, nothing was taken but her. Just her.”
Shaylyn’s mother, Jessica, didn’t live very far away from the Ammerman house, and when she got the news that her daughter was missing, not only was she devastated, but she also thought that Justin knew more than he was telling her.
Though she did not know if Justin had anything to do with their daughter’s disappearance, she also thought that he was probably afraid to tell anybody what information he did know.
Shortly after Shaylyn had been discovered missing, Jessica and Justin spoke on the phone, and while Jessica was inconsolable, Justin seemed to have no emotion.
It was also found out that the reason Jessica originally kicked Justin out of their home when they were together was because he had previously been rough with Shaylyn.
So while the search for the little girl was still ongoing, everyone who had been in the house the night she disappeared was interviewed by police.
A woman named Kelly, who also sometimes stayed at the Ammerman house, was interviewed because that morning she had actually brought two newspapers into the house sometime between 2:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. and placed them on the bar in the kitchen.
However, she was later cleared by police.
When police spoke with Tamara, she said that she had checked on her granddaughter before she went to bed around midnight.
Not long after Tamara had fallen asleep, she was again woken up by her husband Danny because he was trying to fix the TV, as the cable had gone out.
She said that at that time, which was around 2:00 a.m., she went to check on Shaylyn again, and she was fine.
When Adam’s friend Kyle—the one who had been at the home the night Shaylyn disappeared—was interviewed by police, he initially told them that he had left the Ammerman house sometime between 12:30 and 1:30 in the morning.
He said that as he was walking to his car, he remembered Adam leaning out the window and saying goodbye to him.
After that, he drove his maroon Pontiac Grand Am to a friend’s house in Gosport.
Kyle said he then sat in their garage in his car, listening to music, until around 3:20 a.m., when they woke up and let him inside the house.
Kyle also had numerous scratches on his forearms and hands that appeared to be fresh, though he denied that they were fresh and said they were actually from cats that he had at his house.
But later, Kyle would change his story.
He told police that while he was drinking and hanging out at Adam’s house, Adam had come into the room at one point with the toddler wrapped up in a blanket.
He said Adam asked Kyle if he could help him dispose of her body, to which Kyle said he agreed.
Kyle then said that he drove Adam, as well as Shaylyn’s body,
which was laying across Adam’s lap to an Access Road located in gosport Indiana one where he would often go to drink and smoke marijuana he described this as shaylen’s final resting spot he said when they got there he had watched Adam roll shayan’s body out of the blanket down a slight incline until it hit a tree at the bottom from there Kyle agreed to show police where shayan’s body was located and he drew them a map but he told them that they would not find his DNA on her they would find
Adams however Kyle was then held on the preliminary charges of obstructing justice failure to report a dead body and improper disposal of a corpse after Kyle’s Interview police contacted his stepfather Mike Patton and told him that they thought Kyle was more involved with shayla’s disappearance than he was letting on Mike said he would talk to Kyle about doing the right thing now that police had the information from Kyle as to where shayan’s body was located on March 24th 2016 around 600 p.m. investigators searched the banks of
the White River in a rural area of gosport Indiana and it was near the intersection of Indian Creek that shayan’s body was discovered she was naked and lying next to a tree that was located on private property this was about 9 miles away from the home where she had disappeared from when shayan’s autopsy was conducted it was determined that she had died of xixi she she had injuries to her nose and mouth area that were consistent with a hand being held over them she also had injuries to her throat that were consistent with
strangulation it was also discovered that prior to her death shayen had been raped and the medical examiner who specializes in pediatric autopsies involving sexual battery says it was the worst case of sexual trauma she’s ever seen in her career now that police had found shayin they needed to speak with Adam since Kyle had said that he was guilty though Adam would give a much different story Adam told police that he had fallen asleep in his chair sometime after midnight and Kyle was still up drinking at the time then between 3 and
4:00 in the morning he suddenly heard the front door slam and when he looked out the window he saw Kyle walking towards his car with his back facing Adam when the family had given an interview previously however they said that nobody had heard anything that night so Adam said that when he saw Kyle walking towards his car he called out to him to say goodbye but Kyle didn’t answer and he kept walking Adam also said that he noticed that Kyle was holding something and he says that he might have saw a foot but he wasn’t sure
because he was tired and had been drinking so he just went back to bed yeah cool but Adam said that he trusted Kyle he had been over the house before and he had played with shayin about a dozen times though Adam at one point only described Kyle as being a friend of a friend who he had just recently met personally I don’t let people that I just recently met that are friends of friends come over and hang out for hours and hours and be around my child but both Adam and Justin voluntarily took polygraph tests and while it wasn’t
publicly revealed if either of them passed police did tell Kyle that Adam had passed his polygraph test whether this was true or just a tactic to get him to talk we don’t know however Jessica later did say that Justin did not pass his from jail Kyle had spoken with his stepfather Mike and Kyle told him that police would now have the truth since they had found shayan’s body and would be testing any DNA that was found on her Mike said he knew right then and there that Kyle had taken shayin raped her and killed her Kyle also told his
stepfather that when he had taken shayin from the house she was alive well and clothed Mike immediately told the police what his stepson had told him he said that he could never live with himself if he hadn’t after police spoke with Kyle’s stepfather they brought Kyle in for another interview this time he told police that he was in a bit of a haze and his memory was foggy but what Kyle told his stepfather was that he was driving towards gosport and at one point he pulled the car over to the side of the road there Kyle raped shayen in the
front seat and then smothered her with a cloth that he had in the vehicle prior killing her Kyle had also confessed that he had burned shayan’s sleeper outfit her Winnie the Pooh blanket and pacifier Kyle said that he wiped down his body and shayan’s body with bleach as well as poured some inside her to try to get rid of any DNA evidence though there was no evidence of bleach anywhere on her body and although Kyle had told Mike his stepfather that the DNA would point back to him police were actually unable to
recover any of his DNA from the scene or from shaylen’s body they would however recover DNA from a third party who they were never able to identify 22-year-old Kyle Parker was then arrested and charged with rape murder child molesting kidnapping aggravated battery strangulation obstruction of justice and failing to report a dead body he would plead not guilty to all of these charges and he received no bonds police publicly said that even though they had arrested Kyle their investigation was far from over and they could possibly still be
making more arrests though this would never end up happening even with all the inconsistencies and red flags that you’ll later see from shayan’s family so when detectives interviewed several of Kyle’s friends they all said that he liked violent pornography and he would also sometimes get naked when he was drinking these friends also said that Kyle preferred girls 12 to 14 years old I’m very much hoping that nobody in the house knew that prior to inviting this man into the house with a child living there but also how does this come up do you
just like one oh yeah I like 12 to 14 year olds that’s a huge risk telling anybody that like how multiple friends Knew Too multiple friends they said I don’t know of course Kyle denied these claims one of Kyle’s friends named Tina Wagner and her husband who lived in gosport said that Kyle had arrived to their home the morning that shayon had gone missing around 3:40 in the morning apparently Kyle used to live at their home though he no longer resided there he would sometimes go back to take showers and to help them with various projects around
the house the couple said that he had pulled his car into the garage and closed the door he then began trying to throw various things away from inside his car Kyle also went inside the house and washed his clothes at this point these friends told police that Kyle was quiet and acting distant not at all like himself they also thought that it was very odd that he had gotten there at such an early hour of the morning when the amaran learned that Kyle had been arrested and they heard the details of what had happened to
little shayon they were horrified and in another interview that Justin did after they found shayan’s body another inconsistency popped up when shayen had first Gone Missing Justin had said that he didn’t know Kyle he was just a friend of Adams now he said that he was a good person that he trusted and he had played with shayon as well as rocked her to sleep on several occasions previously police also learned that there was one time Tamara had come home when she walked in the front door Kyle was there and he was drunkenly rocking shayen on
his lap in a rocking chair due to all the inconsistencies in their stories Justin and the rest of the family started to receive serious backlash online people were attacking Justin for letting Kyle into his house to begin with they were calling him the lowest of low and hoping that he would go to jail along with Kyle others said they had no sympathy for any of the members of the family because they had all neglected shayin Justin posted a status on Facebook hitting back at these people saying to all the haters out there F you
leave me and my family alone this this is the last time I’m asking you just stop with the it’s also said that during a candlelight vigil on March 25th 2016 for shayen her family was not acting as serious as people expected them to they were laughing and making jokes for much of the time on February 27th 2017 Kyle Parker appeared in court hoping a judge would accept a plea deal Owen County prosecutor Donald vandemore argued that if shayan’s Case went to trial it was doomed and Kyle could possibly walk free this was because
there were several problems first investigators had been unable to collect any DNA that matched Kyle’s on shayan’s body or anywhere in the crime scene over a 100 items had been tested for DNA and Kyle’s DNA was found on none of them making matters worse some of the witnesses AKA shayan’s family members had previously been charged with and convicted of crimes this would seriously complicate matters especially given that these offenses included battery and sexual assault shayan’s dad Justin had actually been charged in 2009 with
criminal sexual assault as well as predatory sexual assault on a child under the age of 13 it was alleged that he had raped a young girl in 2003 and that’s where this charge had stemmed from this case would end up getting dismissed in 2012 and for a ridiculous reason Justin didn’t get arrested until 2012 even though there was a warrant out for his arrest for at least a year before that due to the fact that it took so long to arrest him however a judge ruled that his right to a speedy trial had been violated and that’s why it was
dismissed the other reason why they did not want this to go to trial was because investigators had done a sweep of all electronic devices belonging to everybody that was there the night shayen disappeared appeared this had turned up searches for very violent pornography now much of this was on a computer that the Amarin owned and was in their home so it wasn’t just Kyle looking this stuff up some of the searches that investigators found on the witness’s devices were who’s your daddy a video of a female who was bound with
rope and a gag was in her mouth there was also a search term for girls wanting to get punished by strangers and there was much darker stuff there were Search terms for snuff movies girls hanged and girls eaten alive now multiple people had had access to this computer and this was all evidence that could not be hidden from a jury the judge would end up agreeing with prosecutor vandemore and accepted Kyle’s plea deal a long list of charges were dropped in exchange for Kyle’s plea including obstruction of justice fail failure to report a dead
body strangulation aggravated battery child molestation and rape so everything except for the murder and kidnapping charges now since the rape and molestation charges were dropped Kyle will only have to register as a violent offender when he gets out of jail and not a sexual offender which is effed up even though the judge agreed that the plea deal was the best thing she was displeased that the maximum sentence she was allowed to give Kyle was 60 years for the murder and 16 years on the kidnapping charge and these were to be
served concurrently and since Kyle was convicted of murder he will have to serve at least 45 years of his sentence before he can be released for good behavior at that time he would be 68 and since he won’t have to register as a sex offender he still has time to do other awful things to children as the judge handed down his sentence she said to Kyle the facts of this case were the most gut-wrenching I’ve ever heard your actions were pure evil on that evening many in this community rightfully wanted you to receive the
death penalty or life without parole for this crime what I can legally do as a judge and want to do as a parent and member of this community are totally in Conflict it’s clear to me based on the gruesome facts of this case that you Mr Parker have no moral compass or decency shayan’s mother also took the stand and would say a few words to the man who had murdered her daughter she said you took my loving sweet and beautiful daughter away from me her brother her dad and everyone who loves her I hope you live with your guilt and it torments you for
the rest of your life a year ago I was able to hug kiss feed talk to and dance with my beautiful little girl it’s hard to believe that so much can change in just one year Kyle declined to speak at his hearing but his mother Christine Patton told the court that her family has been harassed their home has been spray painted with graffiti and lemons and limes have been thrown at the residents which seems random why lemons and limes following the plea deal protesters stood outside the courthouse holding signs that read no justice and
they yelled baby killer at Kyle as authorities escorted him from the building for shayan’s family though it was enough they finally had some closure and they felt they had some justice for shayen they’re also glad to know that Kyle is now gone and off the streets shayan’s funeral was held on Wednesday March 30th 2016 at the Christian Life Center in Spencer around 200 people attended wearing purple in memory of shayon and even bringing flowers many even hung purple ribbons from their cars and the family opened the doors early
for more than 50 Law Enforcement Officers many of whom had been deeply disturbed by the troubling details of the case after the service people line the streets in Spencer as the hearse carrying shayan’s body drove off into the night escorted by law enforcement she was buried during a private service at chambersville Cemetery in Spencer Tamara shaylen’s grandmother said she was my first granddaughter and she was my pride and joy she was a silly little girl who loved to dance the slightest tone of Music would come on and she
would start bouncing up and down doing a little dance she loved music she was just the happiest baby in the world well thank you for listening to of shayan’s story today I definitely think that shayan’s dad and uncle know more than they’re letting on there are just way too many red flags and while Kyle definitely had something to do with shaylen’s murder I wonder if his story about helping Adam might be closer to the truth what do you think so if you do like True Crime and you want to hear it from me then don’t forget to hit that
