Chad and Shannon Floyd: Trials, Hung Juries, and Dismissal

The Chad and Shannon Floyd murder case centered on the 2005 disappearance of Michael Eugene Golub, Shannon Floyd’s ex-boyfriend and the father of her son, in Stanton County, Kansas. The couple was arrested in June 2006 and charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Two trials ended in hung juries, and in November 2008 the Kansas Attorney General’s office dismissed all charges. Golub’s body has never been found.¹

How Michael Golub Disappeared

Golub was 27 and working for Kramer Custom Harvest when he vanished on May 20, 2005. That evening he told his employer, Eric Kramer, he would “be right back,” and left to pick up his five-year-old son, Mikey, from the rural home where Shannon and Chad Floyd lived. The visit was part of a scheduled weekend custody arrangement. Golub never arrived at the Floyd home and never returned to work.²

Five days later, his pickup truck was found abandoned on a remote road in Stanton County. There were no signs of foul play inside the vehicle. Stanton County Sheriff Ed Bezona called in the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, and the case was quickly treated as a suspected homicide.¹

Why Investigators Focused on the Floyds

Shannon and Golub had a son together in 2000 but never married. After the relationship ended, Shannon married Chad Floyd, part of a prominent local farming family. By 2005 the two households were fighting over child support and visitation, and Golub had filed for custody of Mikey. That filing blocked the Floyds’ plans to move to Montana or Colorado: a child custody worker had warned Shannon she could lose custody if she left Kansas without Golub’s consent. Prosecutors would argue this custody battle was the motive for murder.¹

The Evidence Against Chad and Shannon Floyd

The state’s case was circumstantial, and it was assembled without a body. Prosecutors from the Kansas Attorney General’s office, Richard Guinn and Barry Disney, relied on several strands of evidence.

Six weeks after Golub disappeared, KBI agents dismantled the front deck of the Floyd home, which had been repainted shortly after May 20. On the unpainted underside of the boards, they found small amounts of blood and DNA traces matching a cigarette butt recovered from Golub’s truck.¹² Investigators also noticed a front window in the home had been replaced. A repairman confirmed the old window had a hole in it.

On the day Golub disappeared, Chad Floyd bought an untraceable rifle from his cousin. Investigators noted that Chad also owned a Glock handgun that was never located, and they theorized the Glock was the weapon actually used. Two weeks before Golub vanished, Chad cashed in $50,000 in family stock at the First National Bank. He claimed the money was meant to pay Golub to drop the custody suit and leave town, but investigators found much of the cash was later re-deposited into an out-of-town bank. Golub’s family said he would never have accepted money to give up his son.¹²

Cell records showed 10 calls between Chad and Shannon in an 18-minute window on the evening Golub vanished. Witnesses testified that Chad had previously threatened to kill Golub or “drop him in the well” if the custody disputes continued.¹

Prosecutors built the following theory from the evidence: Golub came to the Floyd home to collect his son, Chad shot him on the front porch, and the couple then disposed of the body at an unknown location.

Arrest, Bail, and Defense

Chad and Shannon Floyd were arrested on June 25, 2006, and charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. They posted $1 million bail.³¹ The couple retained two prominent Kansas defense attorneys: Dan Monnat of Monnat & Spurrier in Wichita represented Chad, and Kurt Kerns represented Shannon.⁴

Two Trials, Two Hung Juries

The first trial ran two weeks in the summer of 2007. Prosecutors laid out the DNA evidence from the porch, the gun purchase, the $50,000 cash-out, the phone records, and the alleged threats. The defense countered that no one near the Floyd home reported hearing gunshots, that a friend of the couple had arrived unexpectedly during the window the state claimed the killing occurred, and that no body had ever been found. After two days of deliberation, the jury deadlocked and the judge declared a mistrial.¹

A second trial began in April 2008. The defense repeated its core arguments and went further in attacking Golub’s credibility, introducing testimony about his past drug use and suggesting he could have “overdosed in some drug dealer’s squalid drug den.” Kerns told jurors Golub might simply have disappeared to avoid paying child support, and the defense floated a theory that Golub’s role as an informant in a local drug case had made him a target.¹⁵

The second jury split 7 to 5 and deadlocked. Prosecutor Rick Guinn initially said “two hung juries aren’t going to discourage us.” Prosecutor Barry Disney acknowledged the difficulty of convicting a well-known defendant in a small community, observing that “you’re not just convicting this arbitrary defendant… you’re convicting Gary’s son or Marla’s boy or Chris’ cousin.”¹ Prosecution witnesses reported difficulty testifying because so many residents worked for or were related to the Floyd family, which had been in Stanton County since 1887 and included a lawyer and a bank president among Chad’s close relatives.²

Why the Charges Were Dismissed

Seven months after the second mistrial, the Kansas Attorney General’s office reversed course. Prosecutors dropped all charges, concluding that a third trial would likely produce another hung jury given the available evidence. A final order of dismissal was signed in Johnson City in November 2008.¹

The dismissal was not with prejudice, as the defense had requested. Under its terms, the state retained the right to refile charges if new evidence emerges that “materially strengthens” the case.⁵ After the dismissal, Dan Monnat said: “They will never find evidence incriminating Chad and Shannon Floyd because no such evidence exists nor did it ever exist.”¹

Where the Case Stands

Michael Golub’s body has never been recovered. The Kansas Attorney General’s office has stated that the investigation “remains ongoing,” and KBI agents have periodically revisited the case. No new charges have been filed.²

After the charges were dropped, Chad and Shannon Floyd largely left the area. As of a 2018 report, Shannon and Mikey were living in Burlington, Colorado, and Chad had obtained a commercial driver’s license and was driving a semi-truck. Sources indicated the couple were rarely seen together.¹²

1
CBS News. Justice in the Heartland
2
The Hutchinson News. Still Missing in Stanton County
3
CBS News. Where Is Michael Golub
4
Monnat & Spurrier. Murder Case Dismissed Against Southwest Kansas Pair
5
Monnat & Spurrier. Western Kansas Couple to See Murder Case Dismissed