LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – The trial for a woman accused of killing her husband and burying his remains in her backyard resumed Wednesday in Lake County with testimony from the woman’s new husband.
Travis Filmer talked about what he knew about Laurie Shaver’s relationship with husband Michael Shaver and was asked why Shaver’s disappearance from his family didn’t raise more questions in Filmer’s mind.
Another man, Robert Proper, testified that Filmer knew Michael Shaver was dead, saying Filmer said Michael “may no longer be walking this Earth.”
Filmer, however, said he didn’t mean it the way prosecutors were framing it.
The jury also heard from two people who say Shaver sold them guns, and from a banker who said a loan was taken out in Shaver’s name but they were never able to get it repaid.
The state has three more witnesses to get through Thursday.
We are also hearing that Shaver’s daughter, who was 7 years old, had confessed to the killing, and that she will testify sometime this week.
Prosecutors on Tuesday laid out their case for second-degree murder against Laurie Shaver, who’s charged in the death of Michael Shaver, who was last seen alive in 2015.
Laurie Shaver was arrested in 2020, more than two years after her husband’s remains were found buried on her Clermont property and five years after he was last seen alive.
The remains were found in March 2018 buried under a concrete slab and fire pit on the property on Sandy Pines Road. Several months later, authorities positively identified the remains as Michael Shaver.
On Tuesday, the state called several witnesses, including coworkers, friends and family members of Michael Shaver.
Prosecutors said they have 15 more witnesses to call.
Laurie Shaver, 41, told Michael’s friends he had quit his job and left his family. Those friends and co-workers found the story odd and did not think Michael Shaver would leave his children, according to the arrest affidavit.
Investigators spoke to multiple witnesses who described the Shaver’s relationship as tumultuous and the two had separated at one point, while both dating other people.
The last person besides his wife to see him alive was Michael Shaver’s co-worker at a tractor show on Nov. 7. The co-worker told investigators Michael and Laurie Shaver were there with their two children and did not appear to be getting along.
Laurie Shaver’s stories varied, according to detectives. She told some people he moved to Georgia, others he was in New York and even California, records show. Her friends were told Michael Shaver was stalking her. She told her new boyfriend’s mother he was a pilot and traveling and told her supervisor at work he was in jail for nonpayment of child support.
No person ever saw or verbally spoke to Michael Shaver after Nov. 7, 2015. Investigators said there is no evidence Michael Shaver existed anywhere after that date.
Investigators believe Michael Shaver was killed sometime between Nov. 7 and Nov. 10, 2015. The fire pit near where his body was found was constructed around March 2016 and a concrete slab poured in September of the same year by Laurie Shaver and her new boyfriend, Facebook posts by the suspect show.
Laurie Shaver was later arrested on a warrant at her home in Okahumpka.
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