Military murder is an independent project and is not endorsed by the Department of Defense or any military component.

The views expressed are those of the host. The content of this podcast is not meant to be legal or medical advice.

Warning, this episode contains graphic details of murder and is not suitable for young listeners.

Welcome back, Trookam Army. I am your host Margot and this is Military Murder, a show where I focus on crimes committed by military members and veterans.

But don't worry, you don't have to know anything about the military to listen, I promise.

You just have to be a Trookam enthusiast and if that's you, welcome home.

Today I am taking you back to a case from the 90s. It's a case that many people probably have never heard about.

But then, in 2018, there was a Navy veteran by the name of Judy Farmer. She discovered that at Arlington National Cemetery, there was a veteran who was interred there.

But he wasn't just a regular veteran who just happened to pass away.

The reason this veteran passed away is because he died on death row on the electric chair.

I know you're probably wondering what? He died on death row on the electric chair because this veteran killed a Navy sailor and raped her.

What? How could that be? How could this guy be interred at Arlington National Cemetery? And would he be there forever?

Join me today as I tell you the tragic story of a sailor by the name of Melissa Harrington and how her cause moves some bigwigs in DC to make some changes for the sake of justice.

Now, let's dig in.

A trigger warning before I begin this episode discusses rape and murder. Listener discretion is advised.

On July 9, 1991, at around 6.20 a.m., Navy sailor Melissa Harrington was leaving her house. Her house was located on the 2400 block of Spinnaker Court off of Shore Drive in Virginia Beach.

She was stationed at Norfolk Naval Base just up the road. When all of a sudden, she was getting into her vehicle and she was attacked by a man who put his arm around her neck and then forced her into a car driven by a second perpetrator.

As Melissa was being accosted, neighbors heard screams coming from outside and by the time they were able to go outside or get to a window to see what was happening, they saw Melissa's car door open.

Inside the car, it appeared that Melissa had already gotten her lunch and other items into the vehicle when all of a sudden she was attacked.

Clearly, neighbors knew it was Melissa's car, but as reported by Matthew Bowers, since they didn't see Melissa's abduction, all they said was that they heard a semi-historical woman yelling, no, no, no!

Neighbors did, however, see the vehicle that took off with the woman. It was a white Ford Torres and some very savvy neighbors even got a full license plate number that they quickly provided to the police.

Police acted as quickly as humanly possible to run the license plate number and it came back to a vehicle owned by 34-year-old Andrew J. Shabrol.

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