An 11-Year-Old Girl Went Missing After a Girl Scouts Halloween Party—It Took 20 Years for Her Killer to Be Revealed

In a Pennsylvania town where residents commonly left their doors unlocked, Halloween celebrations were cut short in 1992 when an 11-year-old Girl Scout named Shauna Howe was abducted two blocks from her home, brutally raped and killed. The community was so spooked that subsequent trick-or-treating was relegated to daylight hours. Every year, Oil City held a memorial retracing the little girl’s last steps. 

More than a decade passed before Shauna’s family saw justice served, as seen in a season 7 episode of City Confidential. Until an observant witness and an incarcerated person helped kickstart the case, the perpetrators remained a mystery.

Lucy Brown tells A&E Crime + Investigation that her daughter was a generous soul who was learning to assert herself. She proudly recalls a time her child stood up to a bully at school. Although life was not easy for Shauna, “she wasn’t the type of child that would say ‘boo-hoo for me,’” Brown says. “She was born with a clubfoot, so she didn’t walk as early as anybody else did. But once she learned to walk, you couldn’t stop her.” 

At age 10, Shauna developed an ear infection. “I kept taking her to the pediatrician,” Brown says. “He put her on antibiotics. Within three days of coming off that antibiotic, she was back saying her ear hurt. I ended up taking her to a specialist.”

Shauna wound up needing surgery. Once she fully recovered, though, Shauna was looking forward to the Girl Scout Halloween party.

Meanwhile, pizza deliveryman Ted Walker joked with friends Timothy and James O’Brien about kidnapping and holding a child just long enough to make the Oil City police look foolish. On October 27, 1992, Walker bumped into the O’Briens. The brothers decided it was time to implement their plan.  

At around 8 p.m. that night, Shauna was ready to leave the Halloween party. Although her home was only a few blocks away, she was scared of the dark, so she asked a friend to join her. “They ended up walking as far as Central Street. That’s where they split up,” Brown says. Shauna continued west on First Street.

At the intersection of First and Reed Streets, the O’Briens saw Shauna and told Walker to abduct her. Walker stopped Shauna and asked about Girl Scout cookies. He then grabbed her, covered her mouth to muffle her screams and shoved her toward Timothy, who pulled the fifth grader into the car, according to A&E’s Cold Case Files. A witness reported seeing a tall, lanky man abduct Howe. 

Walker told investigators that when he got home, his son told him that the brothers had somebody upstairs. He was surprised but not bothered enough to complain. Walker proceeded to cook spaghetti in the kitchen when he heard a female voice yell, “Get off me, let me up, let me go!” He went upstairs and allegedly told the O’Briens to “get the hell out of my house.” Timothy said to worry about his own son, which Walker perceived as a threat. In response, he retreated to his yard and waited for the brothers to leave. 

Brown reported her daughter missing three hours after she failed to arrive home. She described the Halloween costume Shauna wore: A turquoise leotard with black stripes. A widespread search began and within two days, the leotard was discovered at Coulter’s Hole, a popular swimming spot in nearby Rockland, Penn. The following day, Shauna’s body was found 300 yards from the location of her costume. It was an area that was already searched, meaning her body was dumped after the leotard turned up. 

Police collected DNA samples from Shauna’s body and the costume. 

The O’Briens didn’t stop there. The Associated Press reported that in 1995, James followed a woman from a bar and tried to force her into the trunk of his car. When she refused, he tried to slam her head against cement. He was charged with attempted kidnapping and convicted the following year. While in custody, he provided saliva samples.

Timothy was convicted in 2003 for indecent assault of a boy and a girl, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 

Venango County Jail in Franklin, Penn., was on lockdown due to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, according to the Associated Press. Ryan Heath was playing cards with fellow incarcerated person Timothy O’Brien when they started sharing details of their criminal past. Shocked at what he heard, Heath notified authorities. “Timothy O’Brien told me he was the one who took [Shauna] out of the car and threw her over the bridge at Coulter’s Hole,” Heath would later testify.

Heath’s tip led authorities to check Timothy’s DNA against samples recovered from Howe without success. They also checked against brother James’s DNA and found a match. In 2002, the witness who saw Shauna pulled into a car noticed Walker doing an interview on television and recognized him as the abductor. He called the police again. 

Walker was eventually convicted of third-degree murder and kidnapping and agreed to testify against the O’Briens.  

An autopsy determined that Shauna died from extensive blunt force trauma, which included hemorrhaging, multiple lacerations and contusions, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She had fractured ribs, likely due to being thrown 33 feet from a railroad trestle and hitting a concrete abutment. Isidore Mihalakis, a medical examiner hired by the district attorney’s office to review the autopsy report, testified that, even with severe brain injury, "This was not an instantaneous death." Shauna lived for several minutes after she hit the rocky creek bed.

The brothers maintained their innocence, trying to pin the murder on Walker. However, semen found on Shauna and the leotard matched James’s DNA. Timothy’s confession to a fellow inmate helped seal his fate.

On October 26, 2006, the eve of the 13th anniversary of Shauna’s abduction, the brothers were convicted of second and third degree murder, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, kidnapping and conspiracy. Both are serving life sentences. 

Walker died of natural causes while incarcerated in 2022.

The conviction of the O’Brien brothers brought a collective relief to the entire community. The final memorial walk, which occurred every year since Shauna’s death, became more of a celebration.   

In 2008, NBC News reported that 10-year-old resident Elizabeth Roess collected signatures for a petition to reinstate evening trick-or-treating in Oil City. Going out during the day just wasn’t fun, Roess argued. Not as many people were home to pass out candy and the decorations were harder to appreciate. The city council agreed.

Brown worries that the passage of time has created a false sense of security. “I can understand from a kid’s point of view,” she says. “For the adults to let something like that happen, it’s crazy. They’re not protecting the kids the way they should and that’s my biggest problem. That’s one of the reasons I don’t live in Oil City anymore. I don’t want to see this happen again.”