Is Franklin Floyd still alive? If you've binged Girl in the Picture, you probably have questions...a lot of questions.
Making a mark on the best true crime on Netflix, Skye Borgman's new documentary focuses on Floyd's horrific acts, which ultimately went unsolved for nearly 30 years.
For those who are unaware of the story, the convict kidnapped his step-daughter Sharon Marshall (who was born Suzanne Marie Sevakis in 1969) and her half-siblings Allison, Amy and Philip Brandenburg, while their mother, Sandi Chipman, served a 30-day sentence for writing a bad check. From there, matters only grew worse.
Chipman's twin girls ended up in foster care and Philip had been assumed missing, though his real identity was uncovered 40+ years later.
Floyd had raised the man raised Sevakis as his own in oblivion, unaware of her true identity. Once he had changed her name to Sharon Marshall, he later claimed to be Warren Marshall, her father.
But his actions were a far cry from fatherly. Floyd sexually abused the young girl when she was as young as 4 years old. He denied her a college education and even forced her to work as an exotic dancer to help him earn money. To make matters even more complicated and horrifying, Floyd changed his name to Clarence Hughes and Sevakis' as Tonya Hughes in 1989, claiming his daughter was now his wife.
Then, Sevakis died in a hit and run in 1990, and many suspect Floyd had involvement in her untimely death. Her young son, Michael, had subsequently gone missing after his mother's passing, and Floyd later admitted to killing the young boy to FBI agents, according to Newsweek. His body was never recovered. She had two other children, one of whom is Megan Dufrense, who appears in the docu-series, the other who remains a mystery.
For nearly three decades investigators and journalists have been working to find out the truth about Marshall, and only recently have been able to uncover her actual identity. So what happened to the man who completely turned the woman's life upside down?
Is Franklin Floyd still alive?
Yes, Floyd is still alive and currently 79 years old.
Although he has committed horrific crimes against Sevakis, he was convicted in 2002 for an entirely different offense: killing 18-year-old Cheryl Commesso, a colleague of his "daughter's". He is on death row at the Union Correctional Institution in Florida, but has not received a sentencing.
He was never convicted for Suzanne's murder or her young son's, but he did admit to killing the toddler
"I shot him twice in the back of the head to make it real quick," he revealed to FBI agents.
The harrowing story is multifaceted and certainly not an easy watch, but viewers keep tuning in for the new Netflix must-watch, which is considered "more than a crime story," according to its trailer.
If you're interested, a further investigation of this story via the You Can't Make This Stuff Up has a five-part "Girl in the Picture" podcast series, an even closer look at the terrifying series of events. The first two episodes have debuted on July 6. The remaining three will premiere every subsequent Wednesday.
