Shannon Graves Case: Murder, Impersonation, and Convictions

The Shannon Graves murder case is the 2017 killing of a 28-year-old Youngstown, Ohio woman by her boyfriend, Arturo Novoa, who beat her to death, dismembered her body with help from a friend, tried to dissolve part of it in acid, and hid what remained in a padlocked freezer while his new girlfriend impersonated Graves for months to delay discovery. Three people were convicted for the murder and its cover-up. Novoa received 48 years to life in prison.¹

Who Shannon Graves Was

Shannon Graves was 28 years old and living in Youngstown, Ohio. She met Arturo Novoa, who also used the alias Anthony Gonzalez, in April 2016, and the two moved in together. Prosecutors later described the relationship as volatile.² Graves had a car, a cell phone, and a dog, ordinary pieces of a daily life that would later be used against her family to disguise the fact that she was gone.

How Shannon Graves Was Killed

On February 24, 2017, Novoa bludgeoned Graves to death in the bathroom of their home. He shaved her head, wrapped her body in garbage bags, and put it in the trunk of her own car.¹

Novoa then drove the body to the home of an associate, Andrew Herrmann. In Herrmann’s garage, the two men dismembered Graves, separating her arms, legs, and head from her torso. The limbs went into one storage bin. The head and torso went into another. Using yet another alias, Novoa ordered twelve gallons of sulfuric acid and poured it into the second bin. The acid dissolved most of her torso and skull. What was left of the skull was moved to a freezer along with her arms and legs.¹

The Months-Long Impersonation

While the body was being destroyed and hidden, Novoa’s new girlfriend, Katrina Layton, worked to make Shannon Graves look alive. Layton drove Graves’s car, sent messages from her cell phone, spent on her credit cards, and took in her dog. From the outside, the activity looked like a woman going about her life.

The deception held for months. Graves’s sister, Debbie DePaul, grew worried when Shannon missed her birthday in March and then Easter, but Graves had gone long stretches without contact before. DePaul did not file a missing persons report with the Youngstown Police Department until late June 2017, roughly four months after the killing.

How the Crime Was Discovered

The case broke open in July 2017, and not through the missing persons report. A man named Ken Eshenbaugh, who knew Novoa as Anthony Gonzalez, was asked to store a large, padlocked freezer in his basement. Novoa said the power was out at his home and the meat inside would spoil. Eshenbaugh agreed and let him deliver it at night.³

Within days, the padlocks bothered him. Eshenbaugh forced the freezer open, found a bag of dismembered human remains inside, and called the Campbell Police Department.¹ Investigators identified the remains as Shannon Graves by her distinctive tattoos.³

Who Was Convicted and What They Got

Four people were charged in connection with the murder and the cover-up. Each case was resolved separately in the Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas.

Arturo Novoa

Novoa was indicted on 48 counts, including aggravated murder, murder, two dozen counts of tampering with evidence, multiple counts of abuse of a corpse, possession of criminal tools, theft of WIC benefits, grand theft of a motor vehicle, drug trafficking, and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. In May 2019, the state dropped the aggravated murder count as part of a plea agreement, and Novoa pleaded guilty to the remaining 43 charges. He was sentenced to 48 years to life.¹

Katrina Layton

Layton pleaded guilty to eight felony counts: four counts of tampering with evidence, three counts of obstruction of justice, and one count of abuse of a corpse. She was sentenced on January 29, 2020, to 18 years in prison.⁴ Layton was not accused of taking part in the killing or the dismemberment. Her convictions were tied to the impersonation and the concealment.

Andrew Herrmann

Herrmann pleaded guilty to four counts of tampering with evidence, one count of abuse of a corpse, and one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. He was sentenced to 12 years for his role in dismembering and hiding the body.⁵

Michelle Ihlenfeld

Herrmann’s wife, Michelle Ihlenfeld, was not involved in the killing or the dismemberment. She was charged with lying to a grand jury investigating the case and received two years in prison, six months in a halfway house, and five years of community control.⁵

The Appeal

Novoa challenged his sentence, with his defense arguing that the 24 tampering-with-evidence convictions should not have carried separate prison terms because they were part of a single course of conduct.² The Seventh District Court of Appeals rejected every argument and affirmed the trial court’s judgment in full. His 48-year-to-life sentence stands.⁶

Shannon’s sister, Debbie DePaul, has spoken publicly at each stage of the case. When Novoa filed his appeal, she told reporters she was disgusted but not surprised, and said he had never taken responsibility for what he did to her little sister.⁷

1
Supreme Court of Ohio. State v. Novoa 2021-Ohio-3585
2
CBS Pittsburgh. Defense Seeks Reduced Sentence Of Man Convicted Of Killing And Dismembering His Ex-Girlfriend
3
WFMJ.com. Coroner Confirms Identity Of Frozen Body Found In Campbell
4
Ohio Attorney General. Mahoning County Woman Pleads Guilty to Abuse of a Corpse
5
Ohio Attorney General. Final Conspirator Sentenced to Prison in Youngstown Dismemberment Case
6
Justia Law. State v. Novoa 2023 Ohio Court of Appeals, Seventh District
7
WFMJ.com. Sister of Murder Victim Speaks Out After Appeal