C.C. Opanowski was simply 18 years outdated when she was brutally attacked by somebody she as soon as liked — her ex-boyfriend Shawn Doyle. C.C. tried to place the traumatic incident behind her till she realized years later that Doyle murdered a mom of two younger boys. For the primary time, C.C. is talking out publicly to” 48 Hours” and correspondent Anne-Marie Inexperienced about her story and the way she was capable of finding the energy to testify in opposition to her attacker in courtroom.
It was Jan. 27, 1996 and C.C. Opanowski has simply completed her first semester of faculty in upstate New York. She and her ex-boyfriend, Shawn Doyle had been damaged up for about 4 months.
C.C. Opanowski: My mom was going away for the weekend. … so I had this entire huge home to myself. …And my pal Shannon and I … we have been very shut … I stated, “well, let’s stay at my house ’cause there’s no one around.”
Shannon McCauliffe: it was only a women’ night time. We simply needed to relax out.
C.C. Opanowski
Shannon McCauliffe
C.C. and McCauliffe have been roommates at Sage Junior Faculty of Albany.
Shannon McCauliffe: I’m actually introverted (laughs) and he or she was very bubbly and comfortable and chipper … And he or she simply — she introduced me outta my shell.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Once you have been first assembly her, was Shawn Doyle round on the time?
Shannon McCauliffe: Sure. He was obnoxious. … she would argue with him so much on the cellphone.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: After which … in January is when this incident occurs at her home?
Shannon McCauliffe: Mm-hmm. … we have been having an excellent time. It was simply the 2 of us.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: However he retains calling.
Shannon McCauliffe: Mm-hmm. … Eager to know what we’re doing, desirous to know if he can come over. … She had a cellphone and I used to be like,” simply flip it off.” Like she’s like, no, ’trigger if I flip it off, he’s gonna come right here.
Shannon McCauliffe: We lastly get up and all we needed was espresso. … I had the — of the mindset of I’m like, “oh, I can’t go out in public looking like I’m a mess. Let me go home and get dressed.”
After McCauliffe left to go residence, C.C. says there was a knock at her door.
C.C. Opanowski: And I open it. And it’s him.
C.C. Opanowski: And he stated … I simply wanna discuss to you. … And as soon as he was inside, issues bought a lot completely different. … He pushed me onto the sofa … began, you understand, holding me down and restraining me. You understand, yelling at me … And he picked me up and pushed me in opposition to the French doorways and saved banging me in opposition to the French doorways.
McCauliffe known as C.C., however there was no reply
C.C. Opanowski: My hair was in a ponytail … And … he picked me up, held me up and reduce my hair off … it was gone, simply all of it. … he had already been choking me and … I believed he was gonna stab me.
Shannon McCauliffe: I known as her again a half an hour later, she nonetheless didn’t reply. … and that’s when my eyebrows form of went up.
C.C. Opanowski: I’m in full shock. I can’t consider it’s occurring and I’ve to determine easy methods to get out of it. …However throughout this time, the cellphone continues to ring.
Shannon McCauliffe: I waited a pair minutes and I known as her again.
C.C. Opanowski: I defined to him … if I don’t reply this cellphone, my mom will name the police. … So I do choose up the cellphone and it’s Shannon.
Shannon McCauliffe: I stated, “hey, are you OK?”
C.C. Opanowski: And I don’t know why I did this, however I began unloading the dishwasher. …And I’m saying to her, no, no, yeah, every thing’s effective. No, no. And no saved popping out of my mouth. And he didn’t choose up on it, however she certain did. And that’s when she stated,” is he there?” And I stated, “yes.”
A SURVIVOR SHARES HER STORY
It has taken virtually 30 years for C.C. to speak publicly concerning the day her former highschool boyfriend, Shawn Doyle, attacked her in her household’s residence in Hudson Falls, New York, after which used scissors to chop off her ponytail.
“I can tell you that … I knew nothing was ever going to be the same. … and it was going to change the way I looked at everything,” C.C. Opanowski tells “48 Hours.”
Shannon McCauliffe
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: What was it prefer to have your hair reduce off on this manner?
C.C. Opanowski: Demeaning.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Demeaning. You suppose that’s why he did it?
C.C. Opanowski: In all probability. Simply to ensure he might knock me down someplace.
On that day, as Doyle went out and in of violent rages — at one level holding the scissors to her throat — C.C. says she wasn’t certain she would make it out alive. Till, she says, McCauliffe known as.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: When she lastly picks up the cellphone … what did you hear in her voice?
Shannon McCauliffe: Worry.
McCauliffe says she knew that Doyle had been harassing C.C., so when C.C. advised her Doyle was there, Shannon notified police after which rushed over to C.C.’s home.
Shannon McCauliffe: I pulled onto her road and I parked after which I noticed the – the — the law enforcement officials and every thing. … so I kinda went in after the actual fact. … She regarded terrified and offended and unhappy.
C.C. says she thought when police arrived, they might make her really feel secure. However that’s not precisely what occurred.
C.C. Opanowski: They don’t put him in handcuffs. … And so they put us behind the identical police automobile.
C.C. Opanowski: Thoughts you, all of this time … I clearly seem like I’ve been assaulted. My hair is totally reduce off.
And once they arrived on the police station —
C.C. Opanowski: I used to be like, why — why are we right here? Why is he not — why are we in the identical room?
C.C. says as a substitute of separating them, police questioned them collectively.
C.C. Opanowski: And so they made it look like it was some struggle between two younger children, that turned, you understand, barely darkish.
When “48 Hours” reached out to the Hudson Falls Police Division, they acknowledged that legislation enforcement’s response to home violence has advanced over the previous a number of many years to raised work with and help victims. Police arrested Doyle and charged him with menacing, harassment and trespassing.
C.C. Opanowski: Taking a look at it … And also you’re saying, “did this really happen to me?” You understand, “how could this happen to me?”
JEALOUSY, A TATTOO AND OTHER RED FLAGS
C.C. Opanowski and Shawn Doyle grew up within the small city of Hudson Falls positioned in upstate New York.
C.C. Opanowski: He was good to me. He was very nice.
Shawn Doyle and C.C. Opanowski grew up collectively. They dated in highschool and into C.C.’s freshman 12 months of faculty.
C.C. Opanowski
When C.C. began relationship Shawn Doyle, she was simply 15 years outdated — a sophomore in highschool. Doyle was one 12 months older.
C.C. Opanowski: You understand, we’d exit and do plenty of issues collectively. We simply frolicked on a regular basis.
C.C. says Doyle had troubles at residence. Throughout his junior 12 months, Doyle advised her his dad and mom kicked him out. So, C.C. begged her dad and mom to let him transfer in with them.
Anne Marie Inexperienced: Did you are feeling sorry for him?
C.C. Opanowski: Def — oh undoubtedly.
Quickly after he moved into C.C.’s household residence, she says she noticed a change in Doyle’s habits. C.C. says he grew to become jealous and would secretly observe her round — one thing she says she didn’t suppose on the time was an enormous deal.
C.C. Opanowski: Once you’re a 16-, 17-year-old woman and you understand you’re , oh, jealousy, you understand, he should love me a lot and that’s why he’s doing this. Or he adopted me residence, he’s so fearful about me, however is that basically what the case is? Once you look again as an grownup, somebody with expertise, you understand, you suppose. That’s in all probability not — not OK.
And Doyle confirmed much more possessive habits that C.C. discovered troubling.
C.C. Opanowski: He at one level did get a tattoo. … It was a coronary heart on his arm. … And it had my title within the center.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: What did you say?
C.C. Opanowski: Why would you do this?
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: And his response?
C.C. Opanowski: I really like you.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Was it a pink flag?
C.C. Opanowski: Undoubtedly.
Throughout his senior 12 months, C.C. says Doyle dropped out of highschool and was working odd jobs that he couldn’t maintain.
C.C. Opanowski: And that is the place issues begin to get … darker. You understand, he — he doesn’t have any prospects. He is aware of that I’m on the point of go away to highschool. And to him, his entire life is — is about to fully change.
However C.C. says she caught by him, writing in her senior yearbook, “I love you Shawn!” And in the summertime of 1995, when she left to attend what’s now Russell Sage Faculty in Albany, they agreed to remain collectively and see one another on weekends.
However on the finish of September, issues took a scary flip when C.C. advised Doyle she wouldn’t be coming residence each weekend to see him. Doyle confirmed up at her dorm.
C.C. Opanowski: He stood outdoors, principally threatening that he was going to kill me.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: And now he’s threatening not simply you, however anybody round you.
C.C. Opanowski: Principally anybody round me … so he was arrested.
Doyle was charged with harassment and trespassing. It was the ultimate straw for C.C., who says she broke it off with Doyle for good and he moved out of her dad or mum’s home. Later that winter, that’s when Doyle confirmed up and viciously attacked her at her residence.
Anne Marie Inexperienced: I do know he threatened so much, however did you ever consider that Shawn Doyle would have bodily harm you?
C.C. Opanowski: Not till that day, not in that manner.
“I’m really introverted (laughs) and she was very bubbly and happy and chipper,” Shannon McCauliffe, left, says of her pal C.C. Opanowski. However McCauliffe says her pal modified after the assault.
Shannon McCauliffe
After the assault, C.C. returned to school and completed up her freshman 12 months. However McCauliffe says her pal had modified.
Shannon McCauliffe: I feel it had a profound impression on her life.
C.C. Opanowski: You understand, I used to be at all times trying over my shoulder … I purchased myself a Swiss Military knife. … I’m having night time terrors. … You understand, waking up crying, waking up screaming, not with the ability to sleep. … terrible, terrible.
So eight months after the assault, when it was time to take the case to trial, C.C. — who was nonetheless simply a teen at 19 years outdated — advised prosecutors she couldn’t undergo with it. She says she was too traumatized and scared.
C.C. Opanowski: I didn’t wanna need to face him in courtroom. I didn’t wanna be going over this over and again and again. I actually needed it to go away.
Doyle was provided a deal. He pleaded responsible to menacing within the second diploma and was sentenced to only three years’ probation. C.C. transferred faculties and moved hours away from Hudson Falls.
C.C. Opanowski: I wanted peace and I didn’t know easy methods to get it.
C.C. tried to overlook her previous, however she says she was haunted by a dialog she had with the prosecutor.
C.C. Opanowski: She stated, you understand … primarily based on what I see right here, he’s going to do that once more to a different individual. And that has for the previous 28 years caught in my head.
LORI LEONARD DISAPPEARS
9 years after C.C. Opanowski left upstate New York for a brand new life far-off from Shawn Doyle, 33-year-old Lori Leonard disappeared.
Lori was a single mother who lived along with her two sons, Austin, who was 9 on the time, and Zackary 5, in Chittenango, a small city outdoors Syracuse, New York.
Lori Leonard with sons Zackary Wicklund, left, and Austin Feltrinelli.
Jennifer Leonard
Austin Feltrinelli: She was a — a really caring mom. The recollections of her — simply us at all times being comfortable collectively, spending time … form of at all times … the three of us.
Zackary Wicklund: It was simply a variety of love and affection.
Jennifer Leonard: Her dream was to have a house, a father determine for her children, and for them to be comfortable. … She needed the white picket fence.
Jennifer Leonard was Lori’s older sister.
Jennifer Leonard: We have been good associates. However I used to be a little bit little bit of a bossy mom to her. … I had been by way of a variety of issues already in my life and my relationships, and I used to be very, I’d say, overprotective.
In 2003, Lori met a person on the relationship web site Cupid.com. His title? Shawn Doyle. On-line relationship was new again then, so Jennifer was skeptical about him.
Jennifer Leonard: He was not charismatic. He was not social. … He was like a chunk of furnishings that you simply simply walked round.
However she says Lori didn’t agree; she solely noticed the nice in individuals.
Jennifer Leonard: She would say, you understand, he’s misunderstood or he’s shy.
Shawn Doyle
Det. Wade Irvin
Jennifer says Lori advised her little or no about Doyle, besides that he lived three hours away in Hudson Falls and labored at an ice cream manufacturing unit. She additionally talked about that Doyle was on probation.
Jennifer Leonard: She advised me that he was a boxer, that he was defending a girl at a bar and was arrested as a result of he used a few of his skilled boxing strikes.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Did you ever see any kind of proof of his skilled boxing?
Jennifer Leonard: No.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: I imply, did he — do you suppose he was even a boxer, ever?
Jennifer Leonard: No. … I didn’t purchase the tales that he was promoting her. … It gave the impression of he was making an attempt to be one thing that he was not.
Jennifer says after her sister met Doyle, Lori grew to become distant.
Jennifer Leonard: I’d discuss to Lori 3 times a day.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: After which when Shawn got here into the image?
Jennifer Leonard: It was — it was a little bit quiet.
And issues solely bought worse.
Jennifer Leonard: I had known as her one night time and he was over there and all I might hear within the background was him yelling at her. And that — that was like, “what is this?” And he or she’s like, you understand I’ll name you again. It’s not an enormous deal.
Jennifer Leonard: However I feel what scared me greater than something was when he was caught yelling at her … it stopped. Just like the form of guys that you understand don’t need anybody else to see what occurs behind closed doorways. … He was sneaky.
Lori Leonard
Jennifer Leonard
Quickly after this incident, Lori ended her romantic relationship with Doyle. Lori advised Jennifer they agreed to be simply associates and that he was effective with it.
Jennifer Leonard: And I used to be like, no, he’s not. Nope. Folks like that aren’t simply OK with being associates.
Regardless of the breakup, Doyle would nonetheless drive three hours from Hudson Falls to go to Lori. Oftentimes hanging out on the bar the place she waitressed late at night time.
Dorothy Tucker: Shawn, at all times known as me and he — he’d name me to get recommendation.
Dorothy Tucker lived down the road from Doyle in Hudson Falls and thought of him an in depth pal.
Dorothy Tucker: I noticed a candy man who would bend over backwards if I requested him to.
Nevertheless, after the connection with Lori ended, she says Doyle advised her he had adopted Lori and watched her as she went out on a date.
Dorothy Tucker: I used to be like, “Shawn, you can’t do that. … She does not wanna be with you.”
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Had been you beginning to get involved about him and his habits at that time?
Dorothy Tucker: No. No. As a result of he agreed with me. … I didn’t see the monster that he actually was … He hid it fairly properly.
On Friday, April 29, 2005, Lori, who was residing with Jennifer, moved to a brand new rental house.
Dustin Delatore: Often individuals are depressing once they’re transferring. She was simply comfortable.
Lori’s nephew Dustin Delatore, who was 15 on the time, helped with the transfer.
Dustin Delatore: She needed her personal place. … She noticed her future in that day.
Additionally serving to with the transfer was Shawn Doyle, who provided up use of his truck.
Jennifer Leonard: She had requested a pair individuals earlier than that. So he was a final resort. … He was nonetheless enjoying the “I’m your friend.”
Anne Marie Inexperienced: What was Shawn like that day?
Dustin Delatore: Standoffish. Simply, I imply, quiet.
Jennifer says the transfer went easily till Doyle determined to hold round— and stayed with Lori in her new place for days.
Jennifer Leonard: It was beginning to get on her nerves now.
5 days after the transfer, Jennifer says Lori advised her Doyle was lastly leaving as a result of Lori had plans to go to Albany for the afternoon.
Jennifer Leonard: She was alleged to go choose up the tickets.
Tickets to a Yankees recreation — a present from somebody she had met at work.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Had been you involved in any respect about her going to choose up tickets from a stranger?
Jennifer Leonard: Sure, sure. However that was how she was. … She was very trusting.
On Wednesday, Might 4, Jennifer known as Lori within the afternoon, hoping to catch her whereas she was heading to Albany.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Was that bizarre?
At first Jennifer thought she could have gotten misplaced on the drive or that her cellphone battery had died.
Jennifer Leonard: It wasn’t a thought on the time, that, that one thing dangerous occurred, simply that, you understand, the place is she?
Twenty-four hours later, when Lori by no means known as or returned residence, Jennifer notified Chittenango police.
Wade Irwin: Patrol began trying into her whereabouts at the moment.
Lead investigator Wade Irwin searched Lori’s rental house.
Wade Irwin: She had simply moved into the house. … There have been nonetheless plenty of packing containers, objects being unpacked. Didn’t seem that there have been any indicators of a break-in, or a criminal offense that occurred on the residence. … However her automobile was there.
And he stated there was one thing else unsettling concerning the scene.
An odd clue – a single shoe atop Lori Leonard’s mattress
Washington County District Legal professional’s Workplace
Wade Irwin: There was one shoe within the heart of the mattress. It was odd.
Investigator Irwin says he was decided to talk to at least one individual.
Wade Irwin: The final person who — that we have been capable of decide that noticed her, was Shawn Doyle.
However earlier than investigators might attain out to Doyle, Jennifer says she tracked down Doyle’s quantity and known as him herself.
Jennifer Leonard: “Shawn, have you talked to Lori?” And, uh, he goes, “no I haven’t talked to her in a couple of days. Um, wasn’t she supposed to get tickets the other night?” And I’m like, “yeah, she was, we haven’t heard from her since. I’m like, you know, if she calls you let us know because the phone’s off” … and he’s like, “oh yeah, definitely let you know …” …Once I hung up, I used to be like I had chills and I’m like, he’s stuffed with it. He is aware of one thing.
A KEY CLUE IN THE CASE
As days glided by, Chittenango investigators reached out to everybody who had contact with Lori Leonard prior her to her disappearance— together with the person she was alleged to get Yankees tickets from in Albany.
Wade Irwin: He was an government for an organization. … We have been capable of observe him down. He was interviewed.
Detective Wade Irwin says the manager waited for Lori in Albany and when she by no means confirmed up, he known as her and even left a message.
Wade Irwin: He was … calling with concern of … the place she was. “We’re supposed to meet up. I got the tickets. I’m here, are you OK? I hope an accident didn’t happen.”
His alibi checked out, however Lori’s cellphone information would reveal much more about one other one who hadn’t known as.
Wade Irwin: What grew to become regarding for myself is … the person who cared about her, supposedly.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Shawn Doyle.
Wade Irwin: Shawn Doyle. By no means known as, by no means left a message.
When Chittenango police went to interview Lori’s former boyfriend, he advised them that on the day she disappeared, he left her house “about 3 p.m.” after which drove three hours residence to Hudson Falls.
Wade Irwin: He simply at all times, had stated all alongside… that he left her and he or she was alive on the house.
Once they checked out his alibi, Irwin says they couldn’t clear him. But, Doyle was cooperative and even allowed investigators to go looking his truck and take images. Once they searched Doyle’s glove compartment, they discovered one thing curious.
When police searched Shawn Doyle’s glove compartment, they discovered a key with a serial quantity on it. On the time it didn’t imply something to investigators. However it will later change into essential to the case.
Kevin Kortright
Wade Irwin: There was a key with a serial quantity on it.
As investigators saved an eye fixed out on Doyle and continued to seek for Lori, Jennifer says her household struggled to clarify Lori’s disappearance to her two younger sons.
Austin Feltrinelli: After a number of days to a number of weeks you understand one thing’s up. Your mom’s not residence. … The query is, you understand, the place is she? What’s — what’s she doing?
Jennifer Leonard: We might say issues like she bought misplaced … you understand, we’ll get her. We’ll discover her.
To make issues worse, Austin and Zackary have been now separated, staying with their fathers, and solely seeing one another on weekends.
Austin Feltrinelli: We’d lived collectively our entire lives. … That was clearly completely different, you understand, waking up each day with one — your mother’s not there, uh, however two — now your brother isn’t.
Jennifer Leonard: We have been struggling and each day our household was doing one thing to seek out her. … We have been in search of her. We have been a well-oiled machine.
“We were looking for her. We were a well-oiled machine,” Jennifer Leonard says of the seek for her sister.
CBS6 Albany
Jennifer suspected Shawn Doyle had one thing to do along with her sister’s disappearance. So, weeks after Lori vanished, she headed to Hudson Falls and held an illustration, hoping somebody there would know one thing about Doyle that would assist investigators.
Jennifer Leonard: We had posters. We had indicators, we had Shawn’s title up on indicators, if anyone will converse to us.
Dorothy Tucker says when she heard Lori’s household was on the town, she instantly known as Doyle.
Dorothy Tucker: I used to be like, “Shawn, what’s going on?” You understand, “did you do something?” (mimics his voice) “I didn’t do anything to her. She’s probably off on a beach somewhere with some guy.”
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: However you consider Shawn on the time?
Dorothy Tucker: Oh, undoubtedly.
Later that day when Dorothy handed Lori’s household rallying on the streets, she says she did one thing she has come to deeply remorse.
Dorothy Tucker: Like an fool, I yelled out the window. … telling them to go residence. Shawn didn’t do something and so they wanted to go away.
As months handed with no signal of Lori, the household’s hopes started to dwindle.
Wade Irwin: I made a promise … to discover a decision to this for them and provides them the closure and solutions that they wanted. … It was disheartening as a result of each night time … I’d name them and provides them an replace no matter whether or not there was constructive or adverse data. (tears in his eyes)
After which, on July 24, 2005, three months after Lori went lacking —
Capt. Tony LeClaire: We had a report {that a} fisherman had been going by on this space right here.
Captain Tony LeClaire is with the Washington County Sheriff’s Workplace.
Capt. Tony LeClaire: He noticed, uh, what he considered a toolbox that goes behind a pickup truck floating. Thought it could be helpful for him. So he grabbed onto it … towed it along with his boat a couple of mile-and-a-half (factors) … After which they dragged it outta the water there.
The field was locked and emitting a foul odor, So police have been known as, and once they broke open the lock, authorities found a physique inside.
Lori Leonard’s ID, a photograph of her sons, and different private belongings have been additionally discovered within the toolbox.
Wade Irwin
Wade Irwin: And there was contents, pillows, bedding, purse, however proper on high was Lori’s ID. (emotional)
Additionally within the field was a photograph of Lori’s two sons.
Wade Irwin: She was handcuffed behind her again. … There was duct tape across the handcuffs. Her toes have been certain collectively and duct taped. .. Her face, from chin to brow, um, had duct tape. After which as soon as that duct tape was eliminated there was a bandana tied in her mouth.
The Medical Examiner would rule that Lori died of asphyxiation.
Jennifer Leonard: I couldn’t wrap my head round what they have been saying. “What do you mean she was found in the toolbox in the water?” I — I couldn’t, I couldn’t, I couldn’t settle for it.
Irwin says that’s when Shawn Doyle went from an individual of curiosity to a suspect within the case.
Wade Irwin: All the pieces began to come back collectively actual shortly. We bought a search warrant inside hours to go to his residence.
Throughout their search, police discovered sand tubes in his storage that matched the sand tubes contained in the toolbox used to weigh it down.
Wade Irwin: We have been capable of observe down within the residence, comparable handcuffs, bandanas, duct tape different signifies that he used that matched what was used on Lori.
Do not forget that key investigators had found in Doyle’s truck? It matched the lock of the toolbox, tying Doyle on to the crime.
Scratches on a canal bridge railing in Kingsbury, New York, pictured, matched scratches on the underside of Shawn Doyle’s toolbox.
Kevin Kortright
When investigators checked the bridge close to the canal the place the toolbox was discovered, they found scratches on the bridge railing that matched scratches discovered on the underside of the toolbox.
Anne Marie Inexperienced: Simply inform me about what investigators suppose occurred? What was the idea?
Capt. Tony LeClaire: The speculation is that he got here right here along with his pickup truck, got here to the bridge, um, someplace within the heart of the canal and took the toolbox and principally simply pushed it over the sting … and as he did, it scraped throughout.
Simply in the future after the invention of Lori’s physique within the toolbox, investigators arrested Shawn Doyle.
Anne Marie Inexperienced: What was that second like for you?
Det. Wade Irwin: Overwhelming.
Zackary Wicklund: I felt it as quickly as I walked into the room. And I feel my dad was the one which stated that she’s not coming residence and I simply form of fell into him and simply didn’t know easy methods to react.
Jennifer Leonard: I watched a little bit boy break. He stated not a phrase.
Then it was time to inform 9-year-old Austin.
Austin Feltrinelli: You understand I let loose form of like a shriek and, and form of simply collapsed, uh, in my dad. And I can nonetheless form of really feel it.
Jennifer Leonard: And he wailed. It wasn’t a cry. It was, it was a pained guttural wail. … I’ll at all times have that sound in my head.
Jennifer says she couldn’t really mourn her sister as a result of she needed to put together for Doyle’s upcoming trial.
Jennifer Leonard: I used to be gonna be sure that he bought what he deserved.
A SURVIVOR’S BREAKING POINT
In late summer time of 2005, C.C. Opanowski obtained a cellphone name from her father: her ex-boyfriend Shawn Doyle had been arrested for homicide.
C.C. Opanowski: I couldn’t consider what I used to be listening to. I couldn’t consider it. … You don’t need it to be true … and it’s horrible.
When C.C. realized that the sufferer was 33-year-old Lori Leonard, a single mother of two younger boys, she says she was overwhelmed with excessive guilt.
C.C. Opanowski: That was a breaking level for me. I felt for her entire whole household and her two younger youngsters.
C.C. says she was haunted by the selection she made as a traumatized and scared teenager.
C.C. Opanowski: And all I can take into consideration is … If I might return, I’d have accomplished it in a different way. … I’d have pressed my costs a lot additional.
“I need to make sure that he is put away for — for murdering Lori,” C.C. Opanowski says about her choice to testify in opposition to Shawn Doyle.
So simply weeks later, when investigators reached out to C.C. and requested if she would testify at Doyle’s trial, she was decided to assist.
C.C. Opanowski: I have to be sure that he’s put away for — for murdering Lori. … At this level now, I’m offended. I’m not fearful.
However C.C. was not Doyle’s solely ex-girlfriend who investigators hoped would testify in opposition to him. 5 years after Doyle attacked C.C., he allegedly tried to kill 23-year-old Sarah Volmar.
“48 Hours” reached out to Volmar and obtained no response, however she did converse with the CBS affiliate in Albany concerning the assault in 2005.
In 2005, Sarah Volmer advised a WRGB reporter how Shawn Doyle allegedly tried to kill her.
CBS6 Albany
SARAH VOLMAR/ CBS6 ALBANY NEWS REPORT: He had tied me up with shoelaces and, um, put the duct tape again over my mouth after which simply started strangling me till I handed out. After which my mom walked in on it.
Doyle was charged with illegal imprisonment within the second diploma and assault within the third diploma. However once more, a deal was made. Doyle pleaded responsible solely to the cost of illegal imprisonment. A choose sentenced him to 3 years’ probation.
On Jan. 23, 2006 Shawn Doyle’s trial started. It was a day that Lori’s sister Jennifer Leonard had waited for.
Jennifer Leonard: I used to be gonna be her advocate. I used to be gonna converse for her. I used to be gonna converse for the boys.
When Doyle entered the courtroom, Jennifer Leonard says she was caught off guard as a result of his look had modified.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: What’d he seem like?
Jennifer Leonard: Choir boy. He’d grown his hair. He had a sweater on.
Kevin Kortright, now retired, had solely been district legal professional for lower than a month. He says key to his case was ensuring Doyle’s different victims – C.C. and Sarah — could be allowed to testify. Oftentimes, judges don’t permit a defendant’s prior dangerous acts to be introduced into trial.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Why have been the ladies so essential?
Kevin Kortright: It exhibits what he’s able to.
Kevin Kortright: He’d accomplished it virtually precisely the identical prior to now. … It’s his modus operandi. It’s robust proof.
Regardless of the protection’s objections, the choose dominated that C.C. and Sarah might testify. However first, Kortright introduced the jury with all of the items of bodily proof that pointed to Shawn Doyle — just like the objects they present in Doyle’s storage and residential: the sandbags and handcuffs.
Shawn Doyle
Wade Irwin
Anne Marie Inexperienced: And what about that bandana?
Kevin Kortright: He wore a bandana 24 hours a day … He had bandanas in his bed room. He had bandanas in his truck. The bandana in Lori’s mouth was the one which I consider he was sporting that day.
After which there was that toolbox. Kortright known as to the stand a clerk from an area AutoZone retailer who says she bought Doyle the toolbox only one week earlier than Lori disappeared.
Kevin Kortright: She recognized him completely. … She even recognized his shirt he was sporting.
And crucial piece of proof: that key present in his glove compartment that tied Doyle on to the field.
Don Lehman: That was as robust as proof as you could possibly get.
Don Lehman: The important thing to the toolbox was … there was no manner round that …
Then Kortright known as Dorothy Tucker, Shawn’s as soon as shut pal, to the stand. He says she was a serious witness as a result of she supplied data as to how they consider Doyle transported Lori’s physique from Chittenango — three hours over to Hudson Falls — after he murdered her.
Dorothy Tucker: He simply saved calling me.
Tucker advised the jury that the day that Lori disappeared, Doyle stopped by her home. Behind his truck, she says, was a really giant cardboard field.
Dorothy Tucker: I stated, “Shawn, what do you got there?” … Oh simply rubbish. Junk I had at Lori’s. … and take it to the dump.
DA Kortright believes Lori’s physique was within the field and that in some unspecified time in the future, Doyle transferred her physique to the toolbox. Tucker testified that simply days after his first go to, Doyle confirmed up at her home once more and the cardboard field had been changed by a big toolbox.
Dorothy Tucker: I stroll out and I stated “hey Shawn … what do you need a toolbox for? You don’t have any tools to put in it.” And he laughed and yeah, yeah, you understand. So then he began saying a couple of pal … was going to fulfill him. They have been gonna go fishing.
Tucker stated Doyle advised her he was going to fish by the Champlain Lock canal space – a spot he knew properly and frequented typically. Doyle had even taken C.C. there many occasions once they dated.
Kevin Kortright: Lori was within the field that day. And he was taking her to dump her within the canal the place she was later discovered.
District Legal professional Kortright known as C.C. Opanowski as his final witness.
Kevin Kortright: You at all times put the very best for the final.
C.C. Opanowski: I used to be very, very nervous.
C.C. advised the jury concerning the assault and the long-lasting psychological anguish Shawn Doyle brought on her.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: What did you need Shawn Doyle to see?
C.C. Opanowski: That I wasn’t afraid. That you simply’re not my scary something anymore.
When it was the protection’s flip, Lehman says they tried to poke holes within the prosecution’s case.
Don Lehman: There simply was not – not a variety of holes to poke.
“48 Hours” reached out to Shawn Doyle and members of Doyle’s household, however they declined to be interviewed.
After three lengthy days of testimony, the case went to the jury. Lori Leonard’s relations held their breath.
Jennifer Leonard: I felt like I hadn’t exhaled in months and that’s what I wanted. I wanted to exhale.
SHARING IMPORTANT LESSONS
Regardless of the all of the proof in opposition to Shawn Doyle, retired journalist Don Lehman says nobody knew which manner the jury would rule.
Don Lehman: There have been occasions that we’ve seen many circumstances the place the jury does issues that simply form of defy the proof.
On Jan. 26, 2006, after simply two-and-a-half hours of deliberations, the jury got here again with a verdict: responsible of second-degree homicide.
CBS6 ALBANY NEWS REPORT: When the responsible verdict was learn, Lori Leonard’s household burst into cheers and sobs, however Shawn Doyle confirmed little response.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Responsible.
Kevin Kortright: Um hmm.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: What went by way of your thoughts if you heard that phrase?
Kevin Kortright: Thank God.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Why does it nonetheless have an effect on you?
Kevin Kortright: As a result of dangerous issues occur to good individuals.
C.C. Opanowski: I used to be relieved and comfortable that he was going to be punished for what he did.
For C.C., it was tough to course of the truth that an individual she as soon as liked was convicted of homicide.
C.C. Opanowski: To me, it virtually felt like there wasn’t a person left inside him. However extra like a monster. In your crimes to change into worse as you go … to virtually excellent them, to consider them in that serial trend.
One month later, earlier than Doyle was sentenced, a choose listened to testimony and browse over sufferer impression statements from Lori’s family and friends.
LORI LEONARD’S FAMILY MEMBER (in courtroom) | CBS6 ALBANY: Jail isn’t even the suitable place for somebody like him. It’s not punishment sufficient.
Austin and Zackary, Lori’s sons, have been too younger to attend trial, however each wrote letters to the choose.
Zackary Wicklund (studying his assertion): She let me sleep along with her once I was scared. … And once I see one thing scary and listen to one thing scary … we used to sing songs we preferred essentially the most collectively.
Austin Feltrinelli reads the letter he wrote to the choose as a 9-year-old.
Austin Feltrinelli (studying his assertion): I feel my mother was the best mother on this planet. … My mother, my brother and I had actually nice occasions collectively. … I’m additionally unhappy as a result of (pauses) I’ll by no means see my mother anymore now due to what occurred …
Shawn Doyle was sentenced to the utmost — 25 years to life, with the potential of parole.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: Was that sufficient?
Jennifer Leonard: I didn’t suppose so.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: You don’t need him getting out?
Jennifer Leonard: No. There’s no forgiveness. No manner man. No. none.
Dorothy Tucker: He’s a hazard to society. And I — I hope he by no means will get out.
Dorothy Tucker, who initially stood by Doyle, says she feels betrayed by him.
Dorothy Tucker: He lied straight to my face and right here is somebody that I trusted thought I knew, by no means noticed that aspect of him.
Tucker hopes Lori’s household will forgive her for a way she beforehand handled them once they got here to rally in opposition to Doyle in Hudson Falls.
Dorothy Tucker: I needed to inform them how sorry I used to be and I nonetheless am. … that was completely uncalled for and it was unacceptable habits on my half.
Lehman, who has lined many home violence circumstances in his virtually 30 years as a reporter, says there are essential classes that may be realized from C.C. and Sarah’s assaults and Lori’s homicide.
Don Lehman: Each case of home violence is a possible murder. … All of them need to be taken severely. All of them need to be dealt with in a solution to shield these victims.
Don Lehman: You understand, as a younger lady with two younger children … that’s simply mind-boggling that these children misplaced their mother … to a man like this …
C.C., who bravely got here ahead to inform her story, hopes that others can study from her.
C.C. Opanowski: Be vigilant. Have a look at what’s occurring in entrance of you and ensure somebody is aware of. Don’t maintain it quiet. … Concentrate and … when you’ve gotten that feeling, that one which doesn’t go manner — you understand, the one that you simply attempt to push down — that’s the one it is best to take heed to essentially the most.
She says she is able to let go of the guilt she has felt for what occurred to Lori.
C.C. Opanowski: I’ve waited so lengthy and I’ve needed to dwell with it for all of those years.
Jennifer Leonard: It’s not her fault. It’s the system that failed. … She did what she needed to do. … I don’t blame her. I really feel unhappy that she’s felt guilt all this time.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: How would you like your sister to be remembered?
Jennifer Leonard: Lori Ann. She … so enjoyable. So humorous. So loving …
For Jennifer Leonard, she longs for the life she at all times thought she would have with Lori.
Jennifer Leonard: We have been alleged to be … residing in the identical place and going out and elevating our children and having events and that’s what it was alleged to be. That’s what we have been alleged to have … And I’m it … simply me and the children making an attempt to get alongside with out her.
Anne-Marie Inexperienced: What do you miss essentially the most about Lori?
Zackary Wicklund as an toddler within the security of his mom’s arms.
Jennifer Leonard
Zackary Wicklund: In moments the place I’m actually unhappy, the place I’m like I simply want her to carry me and he or she hasn’t been in a position to try this in 20 years.
Shawn Doyle is eligible for parole in 2030.
If you happen to or somebody you understand wants assist, the Nationwide Home Violence Hotline has counselors accessible across the clock at 1-800-799-7233 [SAFE].
Produced by Chris Younger Ritzen. Elena DiFiore and David Dow are the event producers. Michael Loftus and Chelsea Narvaez are the affiliate producers. Anthony Venditti is the content material analysis supervisor. Michael McHugh is the producer/editor. Ken Blum is an editor. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.
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Anne-Marie Inexperienced
