Sharon Marshall

[rerungirl]

This is one of the saddest cases ever profiled on Unsolved Mysteries, but I keep hoping "Sharon's" true identity will one day be discovered. I don't think anyone expects Franklin Delano Floyd to ever tell the truth about Sharon's real parents and, more than 20 years after her death, we still have no answers. There have been several possible matches of missing girls that resembled Sharon but none of the dna matched. Do you think Sharon was kidnapped at a young age and that's why they stayed on the run through out her life, or was she just a throw away child (born to a young drug addict or prostitute) that no one ever reported missing? Sadly, if she was never reported missing in the first place, I don't know how this mystery can ever be solved.

[XCalibur]

Originally Posted by rerungirl

This is one of the saddest cases ever profiled on Unsolved Mysteries, but I keep hoping "Sharon's" true identity will one day be discovered. I don't think anyone expects Franklin Delano Floyd to ever tell the truth about Sharon's real parents and, more than 20 years after her death, we still have no answers. There have been several possible matches of missing girls that resembled Sharon but none of the dna matched. Do you think Sharon was kidnapped at a young age and that's why they stayed on the run through out her life, or was she just a throw away child (born to a young drug addict or prostitute) that no one ever reported missing? Sadly, if she was never reported missing in the first place, I don't know how this mystery can ever be solved.

One thing is for certain, whatever Franklin Floyd may have saved her from, he certainly wasn't the answer to a good life for her. So his garbage about proclaiming himself a hero is just that, garbage.

He reminds me a lot of Charles Manson in that sense. Charles Manson always preached about all his family, how he saved them because society rejected them. Yeah he really did them good, many of them wound up in prison for life.

You wonder how some of these guys get such a twisted perception of reality. And when you hear them interviewed they sound so sure of themselves, like they are doing right.

Like when Franklin Floyd said in that interview it was no one's business where Mike was, because they didn't have the right to love and care for him. What a complete crock. What does that dirtbag know about love?

[1990 UM fan]

Sometimes I wonder if he took her from another country outside the United States as to why she hasn't been identified yet. Our DNA databases don't extend to other countries except maybe Canada and Mexico but not places like Europe and Asia. I also wonder what happened to her son Michael Hughes, the boy Franklin said was his but DNA told otherwise. Who is Michael's real father? Is Michael dead? If so, where is his body? Did he get passed on to another sociopathic pedophile like Floyd or did Michael get sold into child sex trafficking? So many questions.

[Killarney Rose]

About a month ago, I read the book, A Beautiful Child. I am pretty convinced that short of a miracle, Sharon's true identity will never be known. Nor will Michael's whereabouts. Pretty sure that Floyd killed him.

It's pretty much accepted by the author that a boyfriend of Sharon's from the time they were living in AZ is the biological father of Michael.

[TracyLynnS]

Originally Posted by Killarney Rose

About a month ago, I read the book, A Beautiful Child. I am pretty convinced that short of a miracle, Sharon's true identity will never be known. Nor will Michael's whereabouts. Pretty sure that Floyd killed him.

It's pretty much accepted by the author that a boyfriend of Sharon's from the time they were living in AZ is the biological father of Michael.

I recently read that book too. It and The Murder of Lil Miss both made me physically ill. It will be quite a while before I feel brave enough to read them again.

A Beautiful Child reveals the full amount of horror regarding how she was forced to live her life. The way Floyd took her success and superior intelligence then used it, wasted it, threw it away, (depending on what was in his own best interests) and made every day of her life miserable... It's beyond disgusting. I don't know how she managed to cope with it all.

IMO, he murdered both Sharon and Michael and any punishment he could ever receive wouldn't be harsh enough.

I also wonder how Floyd got Sharon. In the past few years, we've seen cases of mothers selling their children in exchange for everything from a small amount of cash to drugs. Floyd could have even killed Sharon's mother in order to abduct her. There are many cases of that happening, too.

Do you remember if they have Sharon's DNA on file (IIRC she died in 1991) to compare with anyone who may be suspected to be a relative? I hope that she'll be identified someday. I'm sure Sharon was not her real name and she's buried under the name of Tonya. At the very least, she deserves a headstone with her real name and to be remembered for who she really was and not who that monster forced her to be.

[crystaldawn]

TracyLynnS, another thing I took from the book was what an amazing person Sharon was. Many people in that situation would have really been withdrawn and detached from the world but it seemed as though Sharon was outgoing and very smart and really touched the people she met. Such great potential if she could have gotten away from that monster.

I do believe they have Sharon's dna on file. Not sure whether it was from her or one of her children she gave up for adoption. I do believe law enforcement knows who they are. It seems that I have read on websleuths over the years that they have made dna comparisons with various families of girls who went missing but unfortunately not a match yet. I can't help but think that whoever Sharon's mother is, she's no longer alive. Not out of the realm of possibility that Floyd killed her when he took Sharon.

[Killarney Rose]

Sharon's mother could've been an addict or prostitute, estranged from her family. A perfect target for Floyd. No one would have ever reported them missing, and they might not've known Sharon even existed.

[TracyLynnS]

I read A Beautiful Child again and was reminded that they have tested Sharon's DNA against at least one family who thought she might be related to them, but she wasn't.

Looking at the most well known photo of Sharon and Floyd together, the Father/Daughter photo from when she was just about 6 years old, I wonder if she's related to him in some way and if they checked for that.

Obviously, she's not his daughter but they do have a strong resemblance to each other. They also both have cleft chins which is a genetic thing, even tho it's not 100%. Michael had a cleft chin, too, likely inherited from his mom.

When they checked Sharon's paternity, did they rule out all possible blood relationship between her and Floyd? His family was so weird, with his mom ending up as a drunken prostitute, it makes me wonder if Sharon could have been a niece or cousin that really was "abandoned to him" by a useless relative.

[dynoguy88]

Originally Posted by TracyLynnS

A Beautiful Child reveals the full amount of horror regarding how she was forced to live her life. The way Floyd took her success and superior intelligence then used it, wasted it, threw it away, (depending on what was in his own best interests) and made every day of her life miserable... It's beyond disgusting. I don't know how she managed to cope with it all.

I read the book last year and I had the exact same reactions. This girl was a brilliant, beautiful and intelligent human being with the kind of potential most people could only dream about. Despite having to grow up under the care of a monster, she was a straight 'A' student who was beloved and admired by every teacher she ever had. She received a full scholarship to Georgia Tech, her dream school, where she wanted to fulfill her dream of studying aerospace engineering and eventually working for NASA.

And what did Floyd do this girl? He took her college dreams away and forced her to work as a stripper 7 days a week to pay his own bills while he stayed home and did nothing. At the same time, he also forced her to become a prostitute. He used Sharon's earnings to pay for cheap plastic surgeons to give her breast implants in order to become a porn star. This was all despite the fact that he was molesting her for years and years. She followed his every command knowing that if she ever said, "no," he would kill her, which he everntually ended up doing anyway but never got charged. And then he has the arrogance to appear on Unsolved Mysteries and claim that he saved this girl's life.

It amazes me how a human being could literally be this evil. But it amazes me more that Sharon was able to function as well as she did for as long as she did.

[1990 UM fan]

They have finally made a new age progression photo of Michael Hughes after 11 years. Here it is:

[fabgourmet]

On Matt Birkbeck's blog he recently wrote about how he recently interviewed a classmate of Sharon's from high school who would call her when her "father" wasn't around. He would frequently hear a toddler in the background and, when asked about it, Sharon replied that it was her little brother. This is 2 years before Michael was born. Who this little boy was, where he came from, or where he disappeared off to is anybody's guess.

Just adds another layer to the bizarre and macabre nature of this case; I'm sure Floyd killed him, too, eventually, just like Sharon and Michael. Sick, disgusting scum, there's a special place in hell reserved for Floyd, that's for sure.

[nohwheregirl]

Like others here, I personally lean towards the theory that Floyd knew/dated Sharon's mother, killed the mother, and then took Sharon. Her mother may have been estranged from her family, and therefore no one ever looked for Sharon when Floyd took her.

In the photo taken of Sharon when she was a little girl, she has such sad eyes. It haunts me.

[WishfulDreamer]

This is definitely one of the saddest cases on UM and one of the sickest. UM didn't even go into the excruciating details in the book. I would have wanted to see FDF grilled for certain things he did and to have seen his reaction and how he tried to play that off. Of course he would have been smug and lied as usual. I want to punch him whenever I watch the case, which is very difficult to sit through after you've read the book. Poor Michael and his mother

[DALLASTEXAN!!]

This was one of the strange cases. The guy reminded me of Ted nudgent.

[Killarney Rose]

I had an update on Facebook yesterday from Matt Birbeck's A Beautiful Child page that LE is very confident they have found Sharon's family and are perfoming tests.

I so hope they are right and that Sharon will be given her true identity back.