Bio

Franklin Delano Floyd was born on June 17, 1943, in Barnesville, Georgia, the youngest of five siblings. His father, a mill worker and chronic alcoholic, died from kidney and liver failure in 1944. After his death, Floyd’s mother struggled to support the family and was eventually forced to place her children in the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home in Hapeville.

Floyd's formative years at the home were marked by extreme trauma. He was allegedly sexually assaulted by other boys and subjected to severe corporal punishment. In his teens, after running away and committing petty crimes, he was sent to juvenile detention. By 1960, at age 16, he was shot during a burglary attempt and began a lengthy criminal career involving child molestation, kidnapping, assault, and robbery. He spent much of the 1960s in and out of prisons and psychiatric facilities.

In 1972, Floyd was released from prison and committed another sexual assault shortly after. He fled and adopted several aliases over the following years, eventually becoming a fugitive. In 1974, while using the name Brandon Williams, he met Sandra Brandenburg, a mother of four, and married her. In 1975, while Brandenburg served a short jail sentence, Floyd disappeared with her children — including Suzanne Marie Sevakis, who was later identified as the girl he raised under a false identity as his daughter and eventually his wife.

Murder Story

In 1975, Floyd abducted four children — Suzanne, her two younger sisters, and infant brother — during their mother’s jail sentence. He ultimately left the younger girls with authorities and vanished with Suzanne and her baby brother Phillip. Phillip was placed for adoption and later identified via DNA in 2020. Suzanne was raised under multiple aliases, including Sharon Marshall and later Tonya Dawn Hughes. Floyd posed as her father, controlling her life and movements for over a decade.

Suzanne was an academically gifted student and received a college scholarship, but Floyd prevented her from attending. She later gave birth to at least two children — one daughter placed for adoption and one son, Michael Hughes, born in 1988.

By 1989, Suzanne was working as an exotic dancer in Florida. That same year, 18-year-old Cheryl Ann Commesso, a coworker, disappeared following a violent confrontation with Floyd, who accused her of reporting Suzanne to the government for welfare fraud.

In April 1990, Suzanne was found critically injured by a roadside in Oklahoma, apparently the victim of a hit-and-run. She died shortly afterward. Floyd claimed she had left to buy groceries and never returned, but he remained a suspect in her death.

Following Suzanne's death, Michael was placed in foster care. Despite Floyd’s attempts to regain custody, a DNA test revealed he was not Michael’s biological father. His request was denied.

On September 12, 1994, Floyd entered Michael’s school in Choctaw, Oklahoma, armed with a gun. He abducted Michael and the school principal at gunpoint. After handcuffing the principal to a tree, Floyd vanished with Michael. He was arrested two months later in Kentucky, but Michael was never found.

In a 2014 interview with the FBI, Floyd confessed to murdering Michael on the day of the abduction, stating he shot the child twice in the back of the head and left his body on the side of Interstate 35. A search of the area yielded no remains.

In 1995, Cheryl Commesso’s remains were discovered in Pinellas County, Florida. She had been shot twice in the head and severely beaten. The case remained unsolved until a mechanic discovered an envelope hidden in a stolen truck previously used by Floyd. It contained 97 photographs — some depicting a woman who was later identified as Commesso in bondage and showing signs of extreme abuse. Objects in the photos were traced back to Floyd’s trailer, which had been destroyed by fire in 1989.

The evidence was deemed sufficient to charge Floyd. He was convicted in 2002 of Commesso’s murder and sentenced to death. While awaiting trial, Floyd was initially declared incompetent but was later found fit for court.

In 2004, journalist Matt Birkbeck published A Beautiful Child, which sparked renewed interest in the true identity of “Sharon Marshall.” The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the FBI reopened the case. In 2014, Floyd admitted that Sharon Marshall was actually Suzanne Marie Sevakis, the daughter of his former wife, Sandra Brandenburg. The daughter Suzanne had placed for adoption was later identified as Megan.

Franklin Floyd died of natural causes on January 23, 2023, at the age of 79 while incarcerated on death row at Union Correctional Institution in Florida.