Kriti Mehrotra
When 55-year-old Theodore “Ted” Shaughnessy was heinously shot to death inside his suburban Austin, Texas, home in the early hours of March 2, 2018, it left the entire community utterly shaken. That’s because the happily married father of one and proud owner of a jewelry store seemed to have no enemies, making his wife assume his death was the result of a robbery gone wrong. However, as carefully explored in NBC’s ‘Dateline: Ghosts Can’t Talk,’ he was actually the victim of a murder for hire plot orchestrated by none other than his adopted son, Nicolas “Nick” Shaughnessy.
Nicolas “Nick” Shaughnessy Had an Almost Idyllic Childhood
A native of Ukraine, Nicolas “Nick” Shaughnessy was merely 16 months old when he was adopted by Corey Shaughnessy and Ted Shaughnessy from a local orphanage in 2000 — he was already walking. He thus primarily grew up in Austin, Texas, surrounded by affection, kindness, love, respect, and support at every step, which shaped his fiery ambitions as well as his innate confidence. He even spent most of his free days during his early and teenage years carting with his father, with the latter having gotten him into the hobby before it evolved into a bonding activity for them.
Things gradually took a turn when Nick was in high school, though, as he started dabbling in the world of day trading and soon decided to pursue it as a full-time career after graduation. His parents weren’t particularly happy that he wasn’t going down the path of further studies, but they supported him as much as they could while also sharing their concerns with him. In fact, they reportedly provided him with a $30,000 capital to kick-start his own business in College Station, under the condition that it was a loan he would repay in gradual installments.
Corey and Ted even gave Nick their blessing to move in with his then partner, Jaclyn “Jackie” Edison, in an independent apartment, but their reason was different from what anyone believed. While they did like her, their true hope was that she would rub off on him over time, especially in terms of college education, since she was an engineering major at Texas A&M University. What none of the adults knew at the time was that the young couple had already eloped to tie the knot in a cozy ceremony in July 2017, when they were both merely 18 years old.
Nicolas “Nick” Shaughnessy Became a Suspect in His Father’s Case Within Days
From the outside looking in, the Shaughnessys were all devastated in the aftermath of Ted’s homicide, but they were also extremely cooperative in the hopes of attaining quick justice for him. They willingly agreed to have their phones, homes, and clothes tested, with then-19-year-old Nick even offering detectives access to his house alarm system to show his whereabouts. The videos proved he was two hours away in College Station at the time of his father’s homicide, yet restored text messages between him and his secret wife painted a much darker picture.
According to records, in the months following Nick’s move out, the couple’s struggles with cash flow and additional financial stress had led them to begin discussing his parents’ wealth. Since he was the sole heir of their potential $8 million fortune, his and Jaclyn’s conversations reportedly quickly turned to getting them out of the picture for good by hiring two hitmen for the job. They allegedly even spoke of possibly paying them $50,000 before reducing it to $10,000, all of which didn’t come to light until more than 2 months after the fact, in late May 2018.
Nick and Jaclyn had dropped everything and moved in with his mother by this point, portraying the part of grieving family members so well that Corey genuinely believed in their innocence at first. However, once formal documents following their arrest for solicitation on May 29, 2018, started detailing everything, her trust was shattered as there was a mountain of evidence against them. These papers described not only the texts but also Nick’s strange behavior in the aftermath of Ted’s murder, how all initial leads were provided to officers by him, and witness statements.
Related
Nicolas “Nick” Shaughnessy is Incarcerated in a State Prison Today
As investigations continued, it came to light that Nick had hired two men to fatally shoot both his parents for their money in February 2018, after months of carefully contemplating his plan. Fortunately, his mother survived by fighting back with the .375 caliber pistol she kept near her bed until the intruders fled the house, who were later identified as Johnny Leon and Arieon Smith. The fact that the .40 caliber handgun missing from Nick’s room at his parents’ place was not only found with Arieon’s family but also identified as one of the murder weapons didn’t help him either.
Corey Shaughnessy stopped talking to her adopted son altogether after his arrest, but she sent him a letter via a third party around the spring of 2021, which resulted in him taking a plea deal. Johnny and Arieon had pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of murder in exchange for 35 years in prison with the possibility of parole, so she suggested Nick take the same deal. Therefore, today, at the age of 26, he is incarcerated at the administrative security Clemens Unit in Brazoria County, Texas, where he is expected to remain until at least he becomes eligible for parole in November 2036. Otherwise, his sentence will conclude on May 27, 2053.
