The real story of ‘The girl in the photo’: what the Netflix documentary leaves out

The last documentary film or Netflix’s ‘true crime’ docuseries, ‘The girl in the picture’ (one of Netflix’s top 22 true crimes about murderers and mysteries), is unimaginably tragic and follow the story of a girl that I hardly knew his true identity until the moment of his death.

Regardless of what name she was given – Tonya Hughes, Sharon Marshall, or Suzanne Sevakis’s real name – the general reflection of her personality remained the same: it was a bright young man with a kind character and the potential to do anything he put his mind to.

Unfortunately, fate had other plans for her, and hid secrets so terrible that not even she was aware of how bad they were.

in april 1990was found on the shoulder of a highway in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, after a apparent outrage. After being taken to the hospital, her husband “Clarence”, notably older than her, was not long in coming for her, and five days after to be admitted he died because of his injuries. He was only 20 years old and was survived by a son little boy named Michael.

The hospital immediately saw in Clarence a alarm signalespecially for his “strange” behavior and the fact that the woman who claimed to be called “Tonya” was covered in bruises and had scratches on the chest. She had suffered head trauma and she was admitted to intensive care before she died.

Her death began a process of unraveling who the young woman was, and the answers were even more creepy than was initially thought.

‘The girl in the picture’one of the premieres of Netflix in the week of July 4, gives an overview of what happened, and it’s a really difficult and brutal. Worst? Some of the aspects plus unpleasant of history they weren’t even included.

This is all we know about Suzanne’s true story.

What happened to Suzanne Sevakis?

Suzanne Sevakis was not identified as such until 2014 -24 years after her death- through DNA tests. She was a girl who had been kidnapped by her stepfatherFranklin Floyd in 1975.

Floyd was the third husband of Suzanne’s mother, Sandi Willet, and took the opportunity to run away with her children when she was jailed for 30 days for using fake checks at a grocery store to buy diapers for her children. The law allowed her to keep the children as her guardian while Sandi was in prison.

At the time of the kidnapping, Suzanne I was only five years old. Her two younger sisters were immediately placed in foster care, but she and his brother Phillipone year old, were kidnapped by Floydwho fled with them.

Phillip later exited the story. Some believe he too was left in foster care, others said he was killed and buried by Floyd while he was on the road. In 2019, however, a man who believed he was Phillip came forward, and his identity was confirmed by DNA evidence. He had been privately adopted as a baby in North Carolina, discovering his true identity at age 45.

Suzanne and Floyd ended up in Georgia, where Suzanne was renamed Sharon Marshall and raised by Floyd like his father.

During his high school years, Floyd began to abuse her physically and sexuallyand a friend details in ‘The girl in the photo’ a slumber party at “Sharon’s” house where he went threatened with a gun prior to witness the violation of Suzanne.

Floyd forces her into sex work and refused to let her go to college, even though she dreams of being an aerospace engineer and getting a scholarship to Georgia Institute of Technology. In 1986, when she was offered a position, found out she was pregnant and Floyd refused to allow him to continue studying.

Instead, he picked her up and the couple moved to Tampa, Florida, where they began living under the aliases of Tonya and ClarenceY they began to live as husband and wife. During her stay in the city, she worked as a stripper after giving birth to her son, Michael. They officially became husband and wife in June 1989 during a trip to New Orleans.

During that trip, Suzanne would have a daughter, which she would give up for adoption.

That same year, Suzanne informed her close friend at the strip club that she feared for her life and that Floyd had taken out life insurance on her behalf. Despite being afraid that he might do something to her, she was equally terrified of leaving him because she had her son so close to her. That’s why she felt compelled to stay.

In April 1990, his body was discovered on the road in a apparent outrageand it was the decision of his friends to look for his parents to inform them that he had died which made him youode the story of their life will be revealed. When her “mother of hers” was tracked down, it was discovered that Tonya Hughes was actually an 18-month-old baby who had died 20 years earlier.

franklin floyd have a length and detailed history of abuse and criminal behavior, and was actually on the run the entire time he was in Suzanne’s life, which was one of the many reasons they would continue to move around the United States.

His previous convictions included a sentence of between 10 and 20 years for the sexual assault of a four-year-old boy he had kidnapped from a bowling alley in 1962, when he was 18 years old. He attempted to elope in 1963, seizing the opportunity during a medical visit, and robbed a bank.

When he was released in November 1972, he lasted two months before being arrested again, this time for sexual assault at a gas station. An old friend from prison posted bail for him and he fled, losing his sight in June 1973 and apparently disappearing without a trace.

During his escape he kept a handful of false identities, including Trenton Davis, Warren Marshall and Brandon Williams, and met Suzanne’s mother in 1974.

However, all of this was discovered too late to save Suzanne. The horrible truth of what she suffered did not come to light until after her death, which to this day Floyd has refused to speak.

The pieces began to fall into place when he became a person of interest after his death. In 1991, Floyd was arrested and convicted of possession of a firearm following his previous felony conviction.

Suzanne’s son was taken to a foster home, where the couple who fostered him later tried to adopt him. During the DNA tests carried out in this process it was discovered that the young Michael was not the biological son of Floyd.

In September 1994, Floyd broke into the boy’s school, held his principal at gunpoint and kidnapped the boy and principal, fleeing in the educator’s van. The principal was later found duct-taped and handcuffed to a tree on a dirt road near the school. Michael was not seen again and it is not known what happened to him.

News coverage of the incident eventually alerted Suzanne’s friends and family to what had been going on, and investigators began to piece together what happened when witnesses who had seen her and Floyd referred to them as “father and daughter.” , and husband and wife”, respectively.

He was eventually arrested in Kentucky for Michael’s kidnapping in November 1994, found guilty and sentenced to 52 years in prison.

In March 1995, the Body of the disappeared Cheryl Commesso (a former co-worker of Suzanne’s) was discovered on the interstate. She had disappeared in 1989, shortly after an argument with Floyd.

that same month, found a collection of photographs taped under the truck that Floyd had stolen from the director. The photos contained images of Suzanne’s abuse since she was about four years old and images of a bound and beaten Commesso. The injuries in the photos coincided with those that determined her death.

In November 2002, Floyd was ultimately convicted of the murder of Cheryl Commesso. Currently remains in the death row in Pinellas County, Florida.

In September 2014, Floyd claimed to have murdered Michael shortly after kidnapping him, but no body was found at the location he claimed to have committed the murder.

That same year, a DNA test carried out by her daughter in an attempt to find her family finally found the missing piece, returning Suzanne to her birth name upon confirmation of her identity.

Technically, andhe case of Suzanne’s death remains openand Floyd has never been convicted of his involvement.