Shownotes Transcript
It brought back sleepless nights for me after you called me. I dreamt about it. The sounds of their voices, the looks on their faces. That's a trauma that I can't wrap my head around. But I sure heard it. San Angelo, Texas. July 4th, 1988. Shane Stewart's Camaro was parked just outside of town at OC Fisher Lake. Shane and his girlfriend Sally McNelly reclined on the hood, looking into the night sky.
They dreamed aloud about their future together. A fresh start. That night, they never came home. Their bodies were found four months later. What happened to Shane and Sally is still a mystery, but there were witnesses and warning signs. She said, "If you don't hear from us in a couple of months, then we're dead." And I recall telling them, "You guys better be careful. You're going to piss off the wrong people." We talked about, could it have been satanic? Possible.
Could have been a drug deal that went south. Possible. Could have been they were out there and they saw something they weren't supposed to see. Shane and Sally loved hanging out with their friends, speeding around San Angelo at night. But at some point their mischief with friends crossed over into something much darker, much more dangerous. Shane and Sally worried they were in over their heads. This is the devil's playground down here. And you have to be very careful.
It's just, there's something ominous about this whole case.
For 35 years, Shane's father Marshall has been searching for answers and struggling to understand how so many people could hold these secrets for so long. You have that memory of, "I was there and I saw this and I'm guilty." Whatever the reason that you can't come forward. Were you in an altered mind state? Have you done bad things since that point in time? You need to act like an adult and deal with the consequences.
and let these families have the closure that they're really looking for. My name is Rob D'Amico. My reporting partner, Karen Jacobs, and I started looking at this case five years ago. Marshall took us out to where it all happened. Looking for evidence, anything that's unusual. This is 2288, we call it the Lake Road. And he showed us where to look.
We interviewed investigators, knocked on suspects' doors, tracked down Shane and Sally's friends, and pretty much called everyone involved. Hi, Carol. This is Rob D'Amico. I'm a journalist here in Texas. I'm sorry, you're a what? Hi, this is Rob D'Amico. Hi, this is Rob D'Amico. Okay, thanks, Carol. I appreciate it. Be blessed. God bless. You too. Bye-bye.
We also have a good idea of who is telling the truth and who isn't. Even the investigators have become targets. I don't want to slander anyone, but I want to be honest with you. They don't want to have to go back and say, oh, look at all these dirty cops we had that we celebrated, that we gave awards to. Well, you mentioned a name to me that we need to talk about, and there are some things about this that are just not right.
And the trail has taken us far beyond the town of San Angelo, Texas. What's the advantage in finding people here in the Philippines? People love to talk. Well, I mean, if I could get enough to get a warrant on him, I could extradite him. One of those things, you know, he might as well be on the moon. This is a story about two teenagers who were trapped. It's also about betrayal and revenge.
And it's about a parent's search for answers. Because someone out there knows exactly what happened and why. And so that's where I see the value of podcasts like what you're doing is that someone listening to it may say, wait a minute.
I know that guy. So I almost backed out of this, I really did. But I can't do that. Not for myself, I'm not going to do that. And these other girls deserve it too. They deserve justice. These guys all need to go to jail. Every one of them. From Texas Monthly, this is Shane and Sally. You haven't asked us this most screwed up case we've ever seen. Is it? Yeah. Coming March 19th.
