Speaker 1: School of Humans.
Speaker 2: Earlier this year, we covered the case of Shannon Lee Collins,
Speaker 2: a forty eight year old veteran who vanished without a
Speaker 2: trace from his family home in Pottsville, Arkansas. Shannon had
Speaker 2: been married to his wife, Teresa for over twenty years.
Speaker 2: They had a son named Josh together, who also lived
Speaker 2: in the home. Teresa also had a daughter named Brittany
Speaker 2: from a previous relationship. Shannon had helped raise Brittany since
Speaker 2: she was a little girl. I am thrilled to report
Speaker 2: we have a major update in this case because federal
Speaker 2: fraud charges have been filed against Shannon's wife, Teresa and
Speaker 2: her daughter Brittany. We talked to Shannon's brother, Blake, who
Speaker 2: has been working tirelessly ever since his brother disappeared and
Speaker 2: trying to do anything he can to get justice and
Speaker 2: get answers. They also have a younger sister named Holly.
Speaker 2: After Shannon disappeared, Blake claimed that Shannon's wife, Teresa misled
Speaker 2: their fan and told them that she had been talking
Speaker 2: to Shannon when she hadn't. He claimed Teresa had conflicting
Speaker 2: stories about when and how Shannon supposedly left his home
Speaker 2: wearing just the clothes on his back. And not only that,
Speaker 2: Blake claimed that Teresa stole Shannon's VA money over thirty
Speaker 2: two thousand dollars that had been deposited into their joint
Speaker 2: account since Shannon went missing. We talked to Blake about
Speaker 2: what's going on now with those fraud charges, the explosive
Speaker 2: claims that had been made in that lawsuit, and also
Speaker 2: what could happen with potential other charges now that the
Speaker 2: Feds have followed the money and uncovered the fraud, could
Speaker 2: murder charges come next. I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past
Speaker 2: five years of making my true crime podcast, Telling Gone,
Speaker 2: I've learned that there is no such thing as a
Speaker 2: small town where murder never happens. I've received hundreds of
Speaker 2: messages from people all around the country asking for help
Speaker 2: with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families, and
Speaker 2: their communities. If you have case you'd like me and
Speaker 2: my team to look into, you can reach out to
Speaker 2: us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven
Speaker 2: eight seven four four six one four five. That's six
Speaker 2: seven eight seven four four six one four five. This
Speaker 2: is Helen Gone Murder Line. I'm just gonna give you
Speaker 2: a brief recap of the case. If you want to
Speaker 2: hear all the details of the work we did on
Speaker 2: Shannon's disappearance, you can go back and check out the
Speaker 2: past episodes. Shannon had been in the military for twenty
Speaker 2: four years. He was in the Army National Guard, and
Speaker 2: then due to an injury, he was eligible to receive
Speaker 2: VA disability benefits. Blake told us that Shannon was in
Speaker 2: constant contact with his family, and he specifically mentioned his
Speaker 2: brother was a talker, not really a texter. He liked
Speaker 2: to call his family. He said there had been a
Speaker 2: recent minor disagreement between Shannon and Shannon's parents because remember
Speaker 2: this was during COVID when everything was in lockdown. They
Speaker 2: are older and not in great health. Blake said Shannon
Speaker 2: was upset when his parents said they could not attend
Speaker 2: Shannon's stepdaughter's wedding they didn't feel comfortable traveling. But a
Speaker 2: few weeks later things were pretty much back to normal.
Speaker 2: Blake and Holly were still talking to and texting their brother.
Speaker 2: The last time they heard from him was at the
Speaker 2: end of February twenty twenty one. So then came that
Speaker 2: night in March, when Shannon was away on a work
Speaker 2: trip in Tennessee, came home, and since then no one
Speaker 2: ever heard from him again. When they didn't hear from
Speaker 2: him for months, Shannon's parents and the rest of his
Speaker 2: family started getting worried. There was an additional complication we mentioned.
Speaker 2: Shannon had told his family that he was ending his
Speaker 2: marriage with Teresa and that he had a girlfriend.
Speaker 1: Shannon said Teresa.
Speaker 2: Knew about his girlfriend and about his plans to end
Speaker 2: the marriage. So at first, when Shannon disappeared, his family
Speaker 2: told themselves maybe he was just taking a breather. They
Speaker 2: knew he was planning on ending his marriage. When Shannon's
Speaker 2: family couldn't get a hold of him, of course, they
Speaker 2: called Teresa, and when they would ask Teresa about Shannon,
Speaker 2: she would tell them that he just wasn't around then,
Speaker 2: he couldn't talk. Then. At first they believed her, but
Speaker 2: after a while they started to ask a lot more
Speaker 2: questions about exactly what happened. On March eleventh, twenty twenty one,
Speaker 2: after all this went down, police talk to Blake, He's
Speaker 2: been able to piece together from what he learned from
Speaker 2: police and what he's done on his own his own
Speaker 2: investigating some facts. Electronic daya verified Shannon did return from
Speaker 2: that work trip to Tennessee. He flew into the Little
Speaker 2: Rock Airport, drove home, and entered his house at around
Speaker 2: ten pm. Shannon, his son, and his wife, Teresa were
Speaker 2: all in the home when he got back. Shannon's stepdaughter
Speaker 2: Brittany came to the residence the next morning. On that morning,
Speaker 2: Shannon was scheduled to go out for another job, but
Speaker 2: he never showed up. Eventually, after a few weeks of
Speaker 2: them asking what was going on with Shannon, Teresa told
Speaker 2: Blake that Shannon had left her.
Speaker 1: She said he just walked out.
Speaker 2: She told Shannon's sister Holly something similar, saying that Shannon
Speaker 2: had walked away from the family. She told them that
Speaker 2: Shannon had literally left on foot, didn't even take his
Speaker 2: own car. By now, Blake said, Teresa was telling everyone
Speaker 2: what seemed to be a different story. One day, she
Speaker 2: would say Shannon was on pain medications and may have
Speaker 2: checked himself into a hospital, while another story that came
Speaker 2: out later had Teresa saying that he was going to
Speaker 2: work on an overseas contract. None of it made any sense,
Speaker 2: and during all this time no one reported Shannon Collins missing.
Speaker 2: Blake finally reported him missing on November thirtieth, twenty twenty one,
Speaker 2: and by now he's publicly calling out Teresa. He's asking
Speaker 2: why it took nine months to report someone missing. Shannon's wife,
Speaker 2: Teresa told police and Blake that Shannon had gotten a
Speaker 2: new cell phone number. This was a different phone from
Speaker 2: the one that he'd had for the past twenty years.
Speaker 2: We talked about how police discovered that the person who
Speaker 2: bought the new cell phone, the one that Shannon was
Speaker 2: supposedly texting from, was Teresa. Blake's theory was that it
Speaker 2: was Teresa sending messages from that phone posing as Shannon.
Speaker 2: Blake told us that police knew Teresa had bought the phone,
Speaker 2: She had shown the police text messages from the phone,
Speaker 2: and that it had to be someone in the house
Speaker 2: who was sending those text messages. Police had a lot
Speaker 2: of those messages, and by the way, police knew where.
Speaker 1: The phone was.
Speaker 2: They knew that that phone that was supposedly Shannon texting
Speaker 2: was in the Pottsville area from March of twenty twenty
Speaker 2: one through November of twenty twenty one. Then, once Shannon
Speaker 2: was reported missing by his family, the phone suddenly goes dead, silent,
Speaker 2: No one gets text from that phone ever again. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: Teresa seemed to be sticking to her story. She told
Speaker 2: the police that she and Shannon went to bed that night.
Speaker 2: On the night he came home, everything was normal, and
Speaker 2: at some point he left home and did not come back.
Speaker 2: Blake and the rest of Shannon's family insisted he would
Speaker 2: have never left everything that he had behind. And by
Speaker 2: the way, one of the biggest pieces of evidence in
Speaker 2: this case was the money, because, in addition to Shannon
Speaker 2: not being the type of person who would leave his
Speaker 2: entire family in his entire life, Teresa was asking everyone
Speaker 2: to believe that he would walk away from his VA
Speaker 2: disability payments more than three thousand dollars a month. Blake
Speaker 2: said that he wanted to see Teresa brought to court
Speaker 2: and charge with his brother's death, but in the meantime,
Speaker 2: his plan was to follow the money. We said we
Speaker 2: would do everything that we could to help him get answers.
Speaker 2: The new case is called US versus Teresa Collins and
Speaker 2: Britney Collins, Shannon's wife and stepdaughter, and according to the lawsuit,
Speaker 2: Shannon started receiving the disability compensation via payments on May
Speaker 2: twenty seventh, twenty fifteen, then honor, about March eleventh, twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one, Shannon Collins traveled from Tennessee to his residence
Speaker 2: in Pottsville, Arkansas, and from that day quote, Shannon Collins
Speaker 2: has had no contact with his immediate family, has not
Speaker 2: attended any physicians appointments, and has not opened or used
Speaker 2: any financial account end quote. The lawsuit also states during
Speaker 2: that same time period, from March of twenty twenty one
Speaker 2: through December twenty twenty one, a total of thirty two thousand,
Speaker 2: four hundred and four dollars and forty nine cents and
Speaker 2: VA disability payments were deposited into a joint bank account
Speaker 2: that was in Shannon and Teresa's names, So this was
Speaker 2: one that Teresa had access to. And further, if the
Speaker 2: VA had known that Shannon Collins was deceased, it would
Speaker 2: not have paid that money. Blake mentioned the last time
Speaker 2: we talked to him that even if Shannon wanted to
Speaker 2: walk away from his marriage, it would be insanity to
Speaker 2: walk away from that money and leave it in an
Speaker 2: account where his strange wife could access all of it.
Speaker 2: All Shannon would have had to do to access his
Speaker 2: money is walk into a financial institution produce his ID
Speaker 2: and he could have accessed his money, but he didn't.
Speaker 2: The lawsuit alleges that Teresa and Britney quote voluntarily and
Speaker 2: intentionally conspired with each other to commit wirefraud end quote.
Speaker 2: And so now we have a definite timeline for that phone.
Speaker 2: It alleges that on March twelfth, twenty twenty one, Teresa
Speaker 2: called AT and T she wanted to unlock the cell
Speaker 2: phone that Shannon used. Now we're talking about his regular
Speaker 2: old cell phone number, the one he used for the
Speaker 2: past twenty years, but apparently Teresa couldn't unlock it. Then
Speaker 2: the very next day, on March thirteenth, she withdrew two
Speaker 2: hundred dollars in cash and purchased a cell phone with
Speaker 2: that cash from a Walmart in Dardanell, Arkansas. Now, remember
Speaker 2: Blake walked us through all this. He told us Teresa
Speaker 2: bought a new phone and then tried to tell everybody
Speaker 2: Shannon had changed his number. So the lawsuit goes into that.
Speaker 2: It says from that day, from March thirteenth through November
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty one, when Shannon was reported.
Speaker 1: Missing, Teresa used that new cell phone.
Speaker 2: She used it to send text messages, that she claimed
Speaker 2: were coming from Shannon, including one stating, thank you for
Speaker 2: talking with me today. I picked up a cheap phone
Speaker 2: till I get mine back. This is my temporary number.
Speaker 2: On April seventh, Teresa falsely told Shannon's sister that Shannon
Speaker 2: was working on building his business so he was traveling. Then,
Speaker 2: on April sixteenth, Teresa sent another text message from the
Speaker 2: new phone, again pretending to be Shannon. She sent that
Speaker 2: message to her son. The message falsely said that Shannon
Speaker 2: was quote in a VA program. She also sent a
Speaker 2: text message from that fake phone the new phone to
Speaker 2: her phone, stating, quote, I have not needed to pull
Speaker 2: anything out of our joint accounts. I know you will
Speaker 2: spend wisely so you'll be able to keep the bills paid.
Speaker 2: I trust you and know you want to keep the
Speaker 2: house for our son at least until he leaves next year.
Speaker 2: We will talk more about that later end quote. So
Speaker 2: this completely backs up what Blake told us in our
Speaker 2: previous episodes.
Speaker 1: It seems as.
Speaker 2: Though Teresa was trying to cover her tracks, trying to
Speaker 2: make it seem like there was reason why Shannon would
Speaker 2: not access his own money, and making it appear as
Speaker 2: though Shannon left voluntarily. In May, Teresa told Shannon's sister
Speaker 2: that the kids were talking to Shannon regularly, that he
Speaker 2: was texting them, which of course was also not true.
Speaker 2: Of course, everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and we'll
Speaker 2: have to see what happens with these charges.
Speaker 1: But if Teresa's story.
Speaker 2: Was true, if Shannon left voluntarily, why would she buy
Speaker 2: a new phone and pretend to be her own missing husband.
Speaker 1: Then on May.
Speaker 2: Twenty fifth, twenty twenty one, Teresa sent another text message
Speaker 2: to her own phone from the new phone which she
Speaker 2: had bought, pretending that it was Shannon's new number. It
Speaker 2: read quote, I'm thinking of signing up for a two
Speaker 2: year contract to work overseas as a contractor. I would
Speaker 2: be gone the entire two years and maybe longer. I
Speaker 2: plan on leaving the center that I am at in July.
Speaker 2: I would leave in August. If I'm approved to go,
Speaker 2: I will leave the money coming to the bank like
Speaker 2: it is now, but I will keep all the contract
Speaker 2: money so that way we will both be okay.
Speaker 1: Again.
Speaker 2: This completely points to this pattern of deception, her inventing
Speaker 2: reasons why Shannon would not be accessing his own money,
Speaker 2: trying to keep the family placated so she can keep
Speaker 2: that money train rolling. She continued throughout the summer to
Speaker 2: lie to Shannon's family to tell them that she was
Speaker 2: communicating with him, that he had this new phone, which,
Speaker 2: of course she knew that she had bought herself at Walmart.
Speaker 2: On November thirtieth, twenty twenty one, after Shannon's family reported
Speaker 2: him missing, police interviewed Teresa Collins, and during that interview,
Speaker 2: she told them she had been communicating with Shannon through
Speaker 2: this new phone number, that Shannon had told her he
Speaker 2: hitched a ride and accidentally left his cell phone in
Speaker 2: a truck, that he had gotten this new phone, and
Speaker 2: that he told her in a phone call that he
Speaker 2: was working in Mexico. Now, of course, this is the
Speaker 2: complete opposite of what he had allegedly texted her, which
Speaker 2: was that he was at some point kind of va
Speaker 2: center or in a hospital. She just kept coming up
Speaker 2: with all these different stories and none of them were true. Now,
Speaker 2: Britney comes into this a little later, because remember Blake
Speaker 2: said Teresa told Shannon's family that he walked away from
Speaker 2: the house. But then on December twenty eighth, twenty twenty one,
Speaker 2: police talked to Brittany and Brittany apparently had an entirely
Speaker 2: different story.
Speaker 1: According to the lawsuit.
Speaker 2: Britney told police that he had left their home with
Speaker 2: a friend on March twelfth, which was completely different from
Speaker 2: what her mother had said. She said that she had
Speaker 2: talked to Shannon since then, that she had facetimed him
Speaker 2: in October of twenty twenty one. Of course, this was
Speaker 2: later proven to be completely false. So the bottom line
Speaker 2: is from March twelfth, twenty twenty one, through January of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two. This suit alleges that Teresa took out
Speaker 2: the VA money that had been deposited in that joint
Speaker 2: account for Shannon and used it. Teresa and Brittany are
Speaker 2: facing a total of twenty one counts of fraud if convicted.
Speaker 1: According to the federal sentencing.
Speaker 2: Guidelines, each one of these charges could carry a maximum
Speaker 2: penalty of thirty years in prison, so she could be
Speaker 2: facing life in prison. There's still a lot of unanswered
Speaker 2: questions in this case. Even though Shannon's family faced an
Speaker 2: uphill battle and had a lot of frustrations along the way,
Speaker 2: the work that Blake and his family have done in
Speaker 2: keeping Shannon's story out there has been amazing, and while
Speaker 2: it's great that the fraud charges have been filed, Blake
Speaker 2: and the rest of Shannon's family, of course, ultimately want
Speaker 2: to know what happened to Shannon and for those responsible
Speaker 2: to face justice in criminal court. Blake says he will
Speaker 2: continue to share updates on the Facebook page share Shannon's story.
Speaker 2: On that page, he states that Brittany has retained counsel.
Speaker 2: Teresa's trial date has been set for Monday, November eighteenth,
Speaker 2: at nine thirty am. Helen Gone Murder Line is a
Speaker 2: production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written
Speaker 2: and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts.
Speaker 2: Special thanks for the research assistance provided by Amy Tubbs.
Speaker 1: Music contributed by Ben Sale.
Speaker 2: Executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and LC Crowley.
Speaker 2: If you have a case you'd like me and my
Speaker 2: team to look into, you can reach out to us
Speaker 2: at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight
Speaker 2: seven four four sixty one four five. That's six seven
Speaker 2: eight seven four four six ' one four five.
Speaker 1: School of Humans