In a different time and place, Shannon Crawley and Denita Smith might have been friends.

Like Danita, the young woman whose murder is at the center of our story,

Shannon was determined, hardworking, and full of wonder.

Very sensitive, very creative, very smart, very articulate.

She's a writer.

Poetry, short stories, that sort of thing, very creative.

Just like Danita, Shannon was a very good student.

English was her strongest subject.

It is undeniable.

If fate had dealt Shannon a different hand,

she and Danita might have met in college

and maybe formed a bond that would have lasted long past graduation.

Well, that is not the way it went.

Unlike Danita, who went to college and then on to grad school, Shannon became the mother of two while still a teenager.

She didn't want to be a statistic.

That's Shannon's mom, Anne.

The typical, you know, welfare mother, she wanted to take care of her children.

And that's what she did.

Instead of sorority pledge parties and fancy summer fellowships, Shannon's struggle to make ends meet.

She worked a lot of odd jobs.

And that's Shannon's brother, Keith Crawley, Jr.

Selling back in cleaners, worked in a factory.

...