Original Air Date:
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Facing Trial for Murder - Barbara Sheehan's Story:
Mother of 2, Barbara Sheehan was married for 24 years, worked as a school secretary and was involved in her community church. No one would have ever expected that in just a few months, Barbara will be tried for murdering her husband and face the possibility of life in prison.
Barbara felt early on in her marriage that she had a great life with her husband. 2 years after they wed they welcomed their daughter and later a son.
After the birth of their children, things changed and Barbara found herself on the receiving end of violent physical, psychological and emotional abuse. Barbara never filed a police report against her husband because he was part of the force and told her that no one would ever believe her over an officer.
Family vacations were the worst for abuse, says Barbara, as her husband would drink too much and becoming increasingly violent. Barbara tried to get out of the situation, but felt stuck because of her husband's position and had been controlled and alienated for the past 17 years.
Barbara's husband always kept 2 guns on his body - one on his ankle and one at his waist, even in the bathroom. On the day of the murder, things were different. Barbara attempted to tell her husband that she did not want to go on their trip to Florida, but the conversation turned into a terrible fight, according to Barbara. When her husband reached for his gun on the bathroom counter and threatened her, Barbara ran down the hall to the bedroom and grabbed his second weapon. Trying to get out of the house alive, Barbara hoped he would back down if she too had a gun.
Feeling it was his life or hers, Barbara fired at her husband, causing him to fall, but not die. When he again went to reach for his gun, Barbara described grabbing it first and shooting, but she has trouble with the fact that she shot her husband 11 times, saying that it went by so quickly.
Barbara's daughter Jennifer joined her on the show and spoke of always being afraid watching her mother be abused. Surprised that it was her mother who pulled the trigger, Jennifer always thought it would be the other way around. When there wasn't fighting in the house, there was tension, she explained.
The kids also received some physical abuse, but not to the extent that there mother was mistreated. While there were people in Barbara's life that knew what was going on, her husband had built such fear in her that she was unable to even see a way of escaping the abuse alive.
Barbara uncovered a secret life with transvestites that she feels her husband was using his family to try and hide - a secret that made his abuse that much worse. If she has to go to jail, Barbara expressed, she would be better off than where she was with her husband.
Jennifer declared that her mother was the nicest person, would never hurt anyone, and that she was proud of her for standing up for herself. The entire family feels that they are much better off without him in their lives and do not have and part of them that misses him.
Stacy Lannert's Story:
The Lannert family seemed perfect from the outside - a working dad, stay-at-home mom, and 2 little girls. Stacy Lannert's family began to fall apart, and a dark side of her father was revealed. At the age of 8, according to Stacy, her father began to molest her - moving from touching, to oral sex, to rape by the age of 9.
Stacy was told that her mother knew what was going on, which built up a huge resentment for her. When Stacy's parents divorced when she was 12, Stacy and her sister made the surprising decision to live with their father where the abuse continued, sometimes as much as 5 times a week. After trying to leave, Stacy's sister needed her so she returned and was raped and kicked in a fight with her father. One month later, Stacy shot and killed her dad while he was asleep.
Tom Shulte, a detective on the case, was the one to interview Stacy after the shooting when he asked her about abuse and she broke down and confessed to everything. Stacy explained that she first fired a shot at her father while he slept to scare him and it hit him in the collarbone. After he sat up and started yelling at the girls, says Stacy, she feared he would try to kill them so she fired again; this time hitting her father in the face, killing him. Stacy was charged with 1st degree murder and given life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In January of 2009 after having her sentence commuted, Stacy was released from prison after serving 18 years of her sentence. She joined Oprah on the show to share her story. Grateful to be given her life back, Stacy has been out for 4 months and has the hard work of her detective and attorneys to thank.
Stacy attempted to explain that she remembers just wanting the abuse to end when she shot her dad, seeing him in her mind as 2 different people - her father she loved and the abuser she killed. Taking the sexual abuse from her dad, Stacy felt she was helping to protect her sister from her dad.
Stacy's detective declared that he did believe Stacy was being abused, but also believed in her receiving a sentence; though, life without parole, he felt, was too much for her crime. Stacy also believed in the time she spent in jail because of breaking a rule of society.
Stacy chose to share her story to deal with her shame and guilt, and help her forgive herself, while also reducing the power he secret of abuse has over its victims. Working on herself while in prison, Stacy was not given therapy in the jail, but did work hard to forgive her dad and let go of what she had done.
Stacy has received support from other survivors and has been able to face herself and realize that she is not alone with experience. While in prison and since her released, Stacy has been a dog trainer and is working hard to put her life back together.
