In this summer we covered the case of Shannon Lee Collins, the 48-year-old veteran who vanished without a trace from his family home in Pottsville Arkansas.
I am thrilled to report that we have a major update in this case: federal fraud charges have been filed against Shannon’s wife Treasa and her daughter, Brittany. And now that the fraud has been uncovered could murder charges come next?
School of Humans.
Earlier this year, we covered the case of Shannon Lee Collins, a forty eight year old veteran who vanished without a trace from his family home in Pottsville, Arkansas. Shannon had been married to his wife, Teresa for over twenty years. They had a son named Josh together, who also lived in the home. Teresa also had a daughter named Brittany from a previous relationship. Shannon had helped raise Brittany since she was a little girl. I am thrilled to report we have a major update in this case because federal fraud charges have been filed against Shannon's wife, Teresa and her daughter Brittany. We talked to Shannon's brother, Blake, who has been working tirelessly ever since his brother disappeared and trying to do anything he can to get justice and get answers. They also have a younger sister named Holly. After Shannon disappeared, Blake claimed that Shannon's wife, Teresa misled their fan and told them that she had been talking to Shannon when she hadn't. He claimed Teresa had conflicting stories about when and how Shannon supposedly left his home wearing just the clothes on his back. And not only that, Blake claimed that Teresa stole Shannon's VA money over thirty two thousand dollars that had been deposited into their joint account since Shannon went missing. We talked to Blake about what's going on now with those fraud charges, the explosive claims that had been made in that lawsuit, and also what could happen with potential other charges now that the Feds have followed the money and uncovered the fraud, could murder charges come next. I'm Catherine Townsend. Over the past five years of making my true crime podcast, Telling Gone, I've learned that there is no such thing as a small town where murder never happens. I've received hundreds of messages from people all around the country asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, their families, and their communities. If you have case you'd like me and my team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight seven four four six one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. I'm just gonna give you a brief recap of the case. If you want to hear all the details of the work we did on Shannon's disappearance, you can go back and check out the past episodes. Shannon had been in the military for twenty four years. He was in the Army National Guard, and then due to an injury, he was eligible to receive VA disability benefits. Blake told us that Shannon was in constant contact with his family, and he specifically mentioned his brother was a talker, not really a texter. He liked to call his family. He said there had been a recent minor disagreement between Shannon and Shannon's parents because remember this was during COVID when everything was in lockdown. They are older and not in great health. Blake said Shannon was upset when his parents said they could not attend Shannon's stepdaughter's wedding they didn't feel comfortable traveling. But a few weeks later things were pretty much back to normal. Blake and Holly were still talking to and texting their brother. The last time they heard from him was at the end of February twenty twenty one. So then came that night in March, when Shannon was away on a work trip in Tennessee, came home, and since then no one ever heard from him again. When they didn't hear from him for months, Shannon's parents and the rest of his family started getting worried. There was an additional complication we mentioned. Shannon had told his family that he was ending his marriage with Teresa and that he had a girlfriend.
Shannon said Teresa.
Knew about his girlfriend and about his plans to end the marriage. So at first, when Shannon disappeared, his family told themselves maybe he was just taking a breather. They knew he was planning on ending his marriage. When Shannon's family couldn't get a hold of him, of course, they called Teresa, and when they would ask Teresa about Shannon, she would tell them that he just wasn't around then, he couldn't talk. Then. At first they believed her, but after a while they started to ask a lot more questions about exactly what happened. On March eleventh, twenty twenty one, after all this went down, police talk to Blake, He's been able to piece together from what he learned from police and what he's done on his own his own investigating some facts. Electronic daya verified Shannon did return from that work trip to Tennessee. He flew into the Little Rock Airport, drove home, and entered his house at around ten pm. Shannon, his son, and his wife, Teresa were all in the home when he got back. Shannon's stepdaughter Brittany came to the residence the next morning. On that morning, Shannon was scheduled to go out for another job, but he never showed up. Eventually, after a few weeks of them asking what was going on with Shannon, Teresa told Blake that Shannon had left her.
She said he just walked out.
She told Shannon's sister Holly something similar, saying that Shannon had walked away from the family. She told them that Shannon had literally left on foot, didn't even take his own car. By now, Blake said, Teresa was telling everyone what seemed to be a different story. One day, she would say Shannon was on pain medications and may have checked himself into a hospital, while another story that came out later had Teresa saying that he was going to work on an overseas contract. None of it made any sense, and during all this time no one reported Shannon Collins missing. Blake finally reported him missing on November thirtieth, twenty twenty one, and by now he's publicly calling out Teresa. He's asking why it took nine months to report someone missing. Shannon's wife, Teresa told police and Blake that Shannon had gotten a new cell phone number. This was a different phone from the one that he'd had for the past twenty years. We talked about how police discovered that the person who bought the new cell phone, the one that Shannon was supposedly texting from, was Teresa. Blake's theory was that it was Teresa sending messages from that phone posing as Shannon. Blake told us that police knew Teresa had bought the phone, She had shown the police text messages from the phone, and that it had to be someone in the house who was sending those text messages. Police had a lot of those messages, and by the way, police knew where.
The phone was.
They knew that that phone that was supposedly Shannon texting was in the Pottsville area from March of twenty twenty one through November of twenty twenty one. Then, once Shannon was reported missing by his family, the phone suddenly goes dead, silent, No one gets text from that phone ever again. Meanwhile, Teresa seemed to be sticking to her story. She told the police that she and Shannon went to bed that night. On the night he came home, everything was normal, and at some point he left home and did not come back. Blake and the rest of Shannon's family insisted he would have never left everything that he had behind. And by the way, one of the biggest pieces of evidence in this case was the money, because, in addition to Shannon not being the type of person who would leave his entire family in his entire life, Teresa was asking everyone to believe that he would walk away from his VA disability payments more than three thousand dollars a month. Blake said that he wanted to see Teresa brought to court and charge with his brother's death, but in the meantime, his plan was to follow the money. We said we would do everything that we could to help him get answers. The new case is called US versus Teresa Collins and Britney Collins, Shannon's wife and stepdaughter, and according to the lawsuit, Shannon started receiving the disability compensation via payments on May twenty seventh, twenty fifteen, then honor, about March eleventh, twenty twenty one, Shannon Collins traveled from Tennessee to his residence in Pottsville, Arkansas, and from that day quote, Shannon Collins has had no contact with his immediate family, has not attended any physicians appointments, and has not opened or used any financial account end quote. The lawsuit also states during that same time period, from March of twenty twenty one through December twenty twenty one, a total of thirty two thousand, four hundred and four dollars and forty nine cents and VA disability payments were deposited into a joint bank account that was in Shannon and Teresa's names, So this was one that Teresa had access to. And further, if the VA had known that Shannon Collins was deceased, it would not have paid that money. Blake mentioned the last time we talked to him that even if Shannon wanted to walk away from his marriage, it would be insanity to walk away from that money and leave it in an account where his strange wife could access all of it. All Shannon would have had to do to access his money is walk into a financial institution produce his ID and he could have accessed his money, but he didn't. The lawsuit alleges that Teresa and Britney quote voluntarily and intentionally conspired with each other to commit wirefraud end quote. And so now we have a definite timeline for that phone. It alleges that on March twelfth, twenty twenty one, Teresa called AT and T she wanted to unlock the cell phone that Shannon used. Now we're talking about his regular old cell phone number, the one he used for the past twenty years, but apparently Teresa couldn't unlock it. Then the very next day, on March thirteenth, she withdrew two hundred dollars in cash and purchased a cell phone with that cash from a Walmart in Dardanell, Arkansas. Now, remember Blake walked us through all this. He told us Teresa bought a new phone and then tried to tell everybody Shannon had changed his number. So the lawsuit goes into that. It says from that day, from March thirteenth through November of twenty twenty one, when Shannon was reported.
Missing, Teresa used that new cell phone.
She used it to send text messages, that she claimed were coming from Shannon, including one stating, thank you for talking with me today. I picked up a cheap phone till I get mine back. This is my temporary number. On April seventh, Teresa falsely told Shannon's sister that Shannon was working on building his business so he was traveling. Then, on April sixteenth, Teresa sent another text message from the new phone, again pretending to be Shannon. She sent that message to her son. The message falsely said that Shannon was quote in a VA program. She also sent a text message from that fake phone the new phone to her phone, stating, quote, I have not needed to pull anything out of our joint accounts. I know you will spend wisely so you'll be able to keep the bills paid. I trust you and know you want to keep the house for our son at least until he leaves next year. We will talk more about that later end quote. So this completely backs up what Blake told us in our previous episodes.
It seems as.
Though Teresa was trying to cover her tracks, trying to make it seem like there was reason why Shannon would not access his own money, and making it appear as though Shannon left voluntarily. In May, Teresa told Shannon's sister that the kids were talking to Shannon regularly, that he was texting them, which of course was also not true. Of course, everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and we'll have to see what happens with these charges.
But if Teresa's story.
Was true, if Shannon left voluntarily, why would she buy a new phone and pretend to be her own missing husband.
Then on May.
Twenty fifth, twenty twenty one, Teresa sent another text message to her own phone from the new phone which she had bought, pretending that it was Shannon's new number. It read quote, I'm thinking of signing up for a two year contract to work overseas as a contractor. I would be gone the entire two years and maybe longer. I plan on leaving the center that I am at in July. I would leave in August. If I'm approved to go, I will leave the money coming to the bank like it is now, but I will keep all the contract money so that way we will both be okay.
Again.
This completely points to this pattern of deception, her inventing reasons why Shannon would not be accessing his own money, trying to keep the family placated so she can keep that money train rolling. She continued throughout the summer to lie to Shannon's family to tell them that she was communicating with him, that he had this new phone, which, of course she knew that she had bought herself at Walmart. On November thirtieth, twenty twenty one, after Shannon's family reported him missing, police interviewed Teresa Collins, and during that interview, she told them she had been communicating with Shannon through this new phone number, that Shannon had told her he hitched a ride and accidentally left his cell phone in a truck, that he had gotten this new phone, and that he told her in a phone call that he was working in Mexico. Now, of course, this is the complete opposite of what he had allegedly texted her, which was that he was at some point kind of va center or in a hospital. She just kept coming up with all these different stories and none of them were true. Now, Britney comes into this a little later, because remember Blake said Teresa told Shannon's family that he walked away from the house. But then on December twenty eighth, twenty twenty one, police talked to Brittany and Brittany apparently had an entirely different story.
According to the lawsuit.
Britney told police that he had left their home with a friend on March twelfth, which was completely different from what her mother had said. She said that she had talked to Shannon since then, that she had facetimed him in October of twenty twenty one. Of course, this was later proven to be completely false. So the bottom line is from March twelfth, twenty twenty one, through January of twenty twenty two. This suit alleges that Teresa took out the VA money that had been deposited in that joint account for Shannon and used it. Teresa and Brittany are facing a total of twenty one counts of fraud if convicted.
According to the federal sentencing.
Guidelines, each one of these charges could carry a maximum penalty of thirty years in prison, so she could be facing life in prison. There's still a lot of unanswered questions in this case. Even though Shannon's family faced an uphill battle and had a lot of frustrations along the way, the work that Blake and his family have done in keeping Shannon's story out there has been amazing, and while it's great that the fraud charges have been filed, Blake and the rest of Shannon's family, of course, ultimately want to know what happened to Shannon and for those responsible to face justice in criminal court. Blake says he will continue to share updates on the Facebook page share Shannon's story. On that page, he states that Brittany has retained counsel. Teresa's trial date has been set for Monday, November eighteenth, at nine thirty am. Helen Gone Murder Line is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. It's written and narrated by me Catherine Townsend and produced by Gabby Watts. Special thanks for the research assistance provided by Amy Tubbs.
Music contributed by Ben Sale.
Executive producers of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and LC Crowley. If you have a case you'd like me and my team to look into, you can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight seven four four sixty one four five. That's six seven eight seven four four six ' one four five.
School of Humans