Today is Saturday, March 14, 2020. On this day in 2008, 9-year-old Shannon Matthews was discovered in a flat in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England.

She'd been missing for 24 days. Welcome to today in True Crime, a parcast original. Today we're covering the discovery of Shannon Matthews, a nine-year-old girl from West Yorkshire

England who went missing in the winter of 2008. After failing to come home from school on February 19th, her mother, Karen Matthews, contacted the police in a state of distress.

The story sparked an intense search for Shannon that captured the nation's attention for weeks.

But 24 days later, the police were no closer to finding her and had essentially given up any hope that Shannon was still

alive. That would all change around 1 p.m. on March 14th, 2008.

It was a typically cold gray wet Friday afternoon in Dewsbury and the weather was doing little to improve the moods of the county's residents

The local playground in Batley Car had gone practically unused for weeks.

Swings hung dormant, chains creaking in the wind.

The same flyer plastered every lamp post and street sign displaying the smiling girl with a

ponytail of dark brown hair.

Shannon Matthews was the second missing British girl to capture the nation's attention in less than a year.

The first, three-year-old Madeline McCann had vanished in May of 2007 and had never been found.

She remained in the news for months.

Of course the McCanns had come from higher stock.

Nine-year-old Shannon Matthews came from a poor family

and was already losing her place in the headlines

after only 24 days.

But not in Dewsbury, for the small West Yorkshire community, the disappearance

had hit troublingly close to home, especially when Shannon's mother, Karen Matthews, appeared on the evening news, tears streaming down

her face as she pleaded, Shannon, please come home, you are not in trouble.

That was over three weeks ago.

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