
Shannon Mae McKinney was a young woman found murdered in Bolton, Mississippi in 1999. She is believed to be a victim of Ricky Franklin.
Background[]
Shannon, the daughter of two teenage parents, experienced a tumultuous upbringing in Omaha, Nebraska. Her father left the home when she was a toddler, and her mother, only 16, struggled with the responsibilities of raising a child. It is believed that Shannon had also been sexually abused by a family friend around the age of 6, which led to issues with dysregulated behavior and rage problems. At age 12, Shannon began huffing fumes from household items and running away from home. She became a ward of the state at the age of 14, spending her teenage years in various group homes and foster care assignments. At age 19, Shannon gave birth to her first daughter, who eventually ended up in the care of her grandmother due to Shannon's drug problems. After losing custody of a second daughter, Shannon decided to move to Mississippi, where she settled in a house on Mill Street in Jackson with four other sex workers. The last time anyone heard from Shannon was when she called home on September 11, 1999.
On October 31, 1999, hunters discovered two sets of skeletal remains in a wooded area near Bolton, Mississippi, not far from where another unidentified woman had been found that summer. Three days later, another set of remains were found in the same general area. In mid-November, one of the women found in October was identified as Mable Conic, who was last seen in the same area of Shannon's home. The same month, investigators contacted Shannon's mother to obtain dental records, believing she may have been among the victims. Months later, Shannon's mother was eventually informed that none of the remains belonged to her daughter, as neither the dental records or time of death estimates were consistent. However, it would later be found that the dental records had never been compared, and it wasn't until 2004 that Shannon's dental records would actually be compared, identifying the November victim as McKinney.