FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Court TV) — A man who describes himself as a witch and practitioner of the occult is standing trial on charges he murdered a missing mother — but his attorney says there’s no proof the victim is even dead.
Shannon Ryan, 44, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the disappearance of Leila Cavett, 21. Cavett was last seen alive in 2020.
Shannon Ryan sits in court on Sept. 16, 2026. (Court TV)
Police were called when Cavett’s 2-year-old son was found wandering alone near an apartment complex. When a good Samaritan who found the child couldn’t find his mother, they called 911. When police released the child’s photo to the media, the family identified him and said that he had come to Florida with his mother from Alabama in a newly acquired white pickup truck.
Detectives tracked down Cavett’s vehicle and found the defendant cleaning it out. He told officers who approached him that he last saw Cavett at a RaceTrac gas station, where she got into a black car with two unknown men. When police reviewed surveillance video from the gas station, they found that Ryan’s timeline didn’t add up — and noticed that he was the last person seen with the missing woman while she was alive.
“Around this time in the surveillance footage of Leila last being alive, the defendant conducted Google searches,” Assistant State Attorney Elizabeth Lipella told the jury in her opening statement on Wednesday. “Google searching, ‘Does alcohol and bleach make chloroform?'” Lipella said Ryan made purchases immediately after leaving the gas station, buying duct tape, cleaners and carpet deodorizer.
After speaking to police, Lipella said that Ryan “books it out of here. He’s off like a bullet,” leaving for Texas. The FBI joined the investigation and said agents narrowed down the likely location of Cavett’s remains to a landfill in Broward County. Fifty-one days of searching in the summer heat yielded no evidence of the missing victim.
“Sometimes this system makes arrests because it jumps to conclusions,” Ryan’s attorney, Dameka Davis, told the jury in her opening statement. “My client, Shannon Ryan, was misunderstood and he was stereotyped in this case.”
Davis urged the jury to remember the rules regarding reasonable doubt, even questioning whether Cavett was dead. “I agree with the State of Florida; there are multiple ways you can prove a murder,” she said. “However, prove the murder. Prove it!”
Before his arrest, Ryan posted videos on social media talking about the case and describing the victim as a “manipulative thief who wasted his time and hustled him.” On the same website, Ryan says he practices witchcraft, “the occult arts and divination techniques and divine tools associated with Tarot, oracles, pendulums, crystal [scrying] and channeling.”
DAILY TRIAL HIGHLIGHTS
DAY 2 – 9/17/26
DAY 1 – 9/16/26
- LIVESTREAM: FL v. Shannon Ryan – Day 1 | Witch Doctor Murder Trial
- Elizabeth Lipella delivered the opening statement for the prosecution.
- Surveillance video showed the victim last alive with the defendant.
- Phone evidence placed Ryan in the area where the victim’s toddler was found wandering alone.
- Ryan fled to Texas after initially speaking with police.
- Dameka Davis delivered the opening statement for the defense.
- Ryan is the victim of stereotyping and there is no evidence suggesting he killed the victim.
- Urged the jury to question the evidence, including whether there is sufficient evidence that Leila Cavett is dead.
- Tyana Cavett, victim’s sister
- Leila Cavett was extremely dedicated to her son and was still breastfeeding him when she disappeared in July 2020.
- The victim had no passport, never traveled internationally and communicated via Facebook Messenger because she had no active phone plan.
- Last spoke with the victim on July 17, 2020, and made future plans.
- Tiffany Sandles, knew victim and defendant
- Met Ryan in 2017 via a Facebook group, where he offered spiritual mentorship and guidance.
- Lived with Ryan in Alabama; Cavett and her baby showed up on their porch stranded in 2019 and she was allowed to stay with them.
- A falling-out occurred when Ryan accused Cavett of stealing crystals, herbs and a special one-eyed cat he considered a “gift from the gods.”
- Identified a gold Lexus with a missing front bumper as belonging to Ryan.
- License plate reader data showed the Lexus traveling out of Florida to Houston, Texas, after Ryan spoke to police.
- Detective Susan Smith
- Began investigating after a 911 call on July 26, 2020, reporting an abandoned 2-year-old child.
- Conducted canvasses and gathered video surveillance tracking a gold Lexus with a missing front bumper and dangling wires near the drop-off location.
- Sgt. Ernest Woods
- Assigned to conduct surveillance on Laila Cavett’s white GMC truck parked at a Walmart in Hollywood, Fla. on July 28, 2020.
- Observed Ryan approach the truck with a black plastic trash bag and go between the truck bed and the driver’s side.
- The jury heard an audio recording of Woods’ interaction with Ryan, in which he claimed he bought the truck from the victim for $3,000 cash and said the victim left a gas station at around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday in a car with unknown Black males “to party.”
- Det. Sean Keough
- Responded to assist Miramar police with the vehicle at the Walmart in Hollywood.
- Authenticated photos of the white GMC truck.
- When looking through the windows, the vehicle was noticeably missing floor mats.
