Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast · Ben Gibson

Sharon Marshall - The Name That Wasn’t Hers - Part 1

·1 hr 1 min·4 clips

Sandra returned from jail to find Floyd gone and all four children missing.

1. Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast focuses on Sharon Marshall, the name tied to Suzanne Marie and the life built around Franklin Delano Floyd’s aliases. 2. Hosts Ben and Nicole frame Floyd’s case because they wanted a two-part deep dive on a story with false identities, long-term control, sexual assault, and murder. 3. The episode asks how a woman remembered as Tanya Hughes became Sharon Marshall, and why the name she used did not match her real identity. 4. The story opens in April 1990 in Oklahoma City, where police and hospital staff treated Tanya Hughes after she was found along a highway about 100 miles away. 5. Doctors placed Tanya in a medical coma after severe bruising and a large hematoma at the base of her skull, and her husband arrived using the name Clarence Hughes. 6. Hospital staff noticed Clarence Hughes talking about selling belongings and leaving the state with their young son Michael instead of acting like a worried spouse. 7. Friends called the hospital and warned staff not to leave Tanya alone with her husband, but there were no restraining orders or criminal flags under the name Clarence Hughes. 8. Tanya died in her hospital bed after one of his visits, and investigators initially treated the case as a hit-and-run death with no driver found. 9. The narration then identifies Tanya as Suzanne Marie and connects her to Franklin Delano Floyd, a man who had been on the run since 1973. 10. Floyd’s childhood in Barnesville, Georgia included an alcoholic father, a mother named Della, and placement in the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home in Hapeville. 11. The host describes the children’s home as strict, overcrowded, and abusive, and says Floyd reported bullying and sexual abuse there. 12. Floyd later ran away, forged documents to try to join the U.S. Army, and was discharged after six months when his age and papers were discovered. 13. At age 16, Floyd broke into a Sears store in Inglewood, California, was shot in the stomach, and later spent time in a youth institution. 14. In June 1962, Floyd abducted a four-year-old girl from a bowling alley in Hapeville and sexually assaulted her in nearby woods. 15. He was convicted of kidnapping and child molestation and sentenced to 10 to 20 years at Georgia State Prison in Reidsville. 16. After later escapes, a bank robbery in Macon, Georgia, and more prison transfers, Floyd was released in November 1972 to a halfway house. 17. In January 1973, he attacked a woman at a gas station, was arrested after she escaped, and then vanished after skipping bond and failing to appear in court. 18. By 1974, Floyd was living as Brandon Williams, married Sandra Frances Brandenburg, and used her vulnerability as a single mother of four to gain control. 19. After Sandra was jailed for 30 days over a bad check for diapers, Floyd emptied the house, took Suzanne and Philip, and eventually raised Suzanne under the name Sharon Marshall while moving often and hiding in plain sight. 20. This episode uses a chronological, detail-heavy true-crime format with strong narration and case reconstruction, and it will suit listeners who want identity fraud and criminal history; listeners wanting a short, light story may skip it.

As heard by us

A false name leads into a custody failure that let a convicted child molester disappear with a child in plain sight.

Sharon Marshall first appears here as a bright student, devoted mother, and woman whose death looked like a tragic accident. The episode steadily breaks that identity open: investigators follow loose threads to Suzanne Marie, a false name, and years of control by the man who…

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Why you'd press play

You want the real name behind Sharon Marshall, and the custody failure that let Suzanne disappear.

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