Netflix's new chilling documentary, Girl in the Picture, tells the disturbing true story of Suzanne Marie Sevakis, who went by several aliases over the course of her life until her tragic death at the age of 20.
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Read on to find out what happened to Suzanne and how she wound up in the care of now-convicted killer Franklin Delano Floyd as a young girl.
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What happened to Suzanne Sevakis?
Suzanne Sevakis went by many names including Sharon Marshall and Tonya Tadlock during her life. When she was a young girl, her mother, Sandi Chipman, was put in prison and she was left in the care of Franklin, who also went by several aliases to try and conceal his long history of criminal behaviour.
Franklin met Sandi in 1974, when he went by the name of Brandon Williams. After a month of dating, the pair married and moved to Dallas, Texas.
Sandi had four children, all of whom where left in Franklin's care when she was jailed for posting bad checks. However, after her 30-day sentence, she returned home to find everyone gone.
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While two of Sandi's daughters, Allison and Amy, were put into care, her son Phillips' whereabouts were unknown until 2019 when a DNA test, taken by Phillip, revealed that he was the missing child.
As for Suzanne, she was taken by Franklin when she was just five years old in 1975.
© Photo: NetflixSuzanne was taken by her mother's husband Franklin
During her high school years, Suzanne went under the name of Sharon Marshall and was abused by her stepfather.
She later went on to earn a scholarship to study aerospace engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology but was forced to stop attending the college by Franklin. Around the time she was offered a place at the university, she fell pregnant with another man's child.
The pair then moved to Tampa, Florida where they lived under the aliases Tonya and Clarence. After giving birth to her son, Michael, Suzanne worked as an exotic dancer to provide for her and Franklin.
In 1989, the pair were married during a trip to New Orleans. During the same trip, Suzanne gave birth to her daughter, whom she gave up for adoption.
© Photo: NetflixSuzanne died at the age of 20
The same year she gave birth to her daughter, she informed a friend at the strip club that she feared for her life and planned to run away from Franklin.
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However, in April 1990, she was hit by a car and found at the side of the road at the age of 20. She died in hospital five days later. While Franklin claimed to be asleep at the time of the accident, there was a blunt-force trauma wound to the back of her head, not consistent with injuries from a car accident. He has not been charged with a crime relating to her death.
© Photo: NetflixFranklin is currently on death row
Suzanne's son, Michael, was taken into foster care and when they tried to adopt him, discovered through a DNA test that Franklin was not the biological father.
In September 1994, Franklin stormed into Michael's school and kidnapped him after holding the principal at gunpoint. Michael was not seen after the incident and Franklin later confessed to shooting and killing him in an interview with the FBI in 2015. However, no remains were ever found.
© Photo: NetflixFranklin confessed to Michael's murder in 2015
Franklin was arrested for Michael's kidnap in November 1994. He was convicted and sentenced to 52 years in prison. In 2002, he was also convicted for the murder of Sharon's co-worker Cheryl Commesso, who went missing in 1989 and whose body was found in 1995.
He is now on death row in Pinellas County, Florida for a series of crimes.
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