For decades, he was a ghost, a man who lived in the shadows, collecting identities like souvenirs. Franklin Delano Floyd was a career criminal whose horrific acts spanned kidnapping, rape, and murder, leaving a trail of shattered lives in his wake. His story, a chilling saga of deception, only came into full public view with the Netflix documentary, “Girl in the Picture,” long after his reign of terror began.

The Man with a Thousand Faces: Who Was Franklin Delano Floyd?

Franklin Delano Floyd was more than just a name; he was a collection of aliases, a chameleon who adapted to his surroundings to evade capture. To some, he was a loving father, to others, a husband, but underneath it all, he was a predator.

He died on Florida’s death row in January 2023, but the mysteries he left behind continue to haunt investigators and the public alike.

A Childhood Forged in Turmoil

From Broken Home to State Care

Born in Georgia in 1943, Floyd’s life began with instability. His alcoholic father died when he was just a year old, leaving his mother unable to cope with raising her children alone.

Soon, Floyd and his siblings were placed in a children’s home, where his formative years were marked by trauma and abuse.

A Pattern of Violence Emerges

It wasn’t long before Floyd’s troubled childhood curdled into a violent disposition. His criminal record began in his teenage years and quickly escalated.

By 1962, he was convicted of abducting and sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl, a dark precursor to the crimes that would later define his legacy.

The Abduction That Started It All

A Mother’s Nightmare

In the mid-1970s, Floyd, using an alias, married a young mother named Sandi Chipman. When she was sentenced to a brief 30-day jail term for a minor offense, she left her children in his care.

It was a decision that would become her lifelong nightmare. When she returned, Floyd and her children were gone.

A Life Under a False Name

While two of her daughters were later found in foster care, her youngest son, Phillip, and her eldest daughter, Suzanne Sevakis, had vanished.

Floyd had taken Suzanne, a bright and promising young girl, and plunged her into a life on the run, a life built on a foundation of his lies.

A Web of Lies and a Stolen Life

From “Father” to Husband

Floyd raised Suzanne as his own daughter, giving her the name Sharon Marshall. He moved her from state to state, enrolling her in school and creating a fictional backstory.

As she grew into a young woman, his role shifted from that of a father to a controlling, abusive husband, and he eventually married her under yet another set of aliases.

The Mysterious Death of “Sharon Marshall”

In 1990, Suzanne, then known as Tonya Hughes, was found on the side of an Oklahoma highway, the victim of an apparent hit-and-run. She died in the hospital from her injuries, leaving behind a young son, Michael.

The circumstances of her death were deeply suspicious, but Floyd was the only one who knew the truth.

The Final, Heartbreaking Crime

A Desperate Abduction

After Suzanne’s death, her son Michael was placed in foster care. In 1994, Floyd, having been proven by DNA not to be the boy’s biological father, walked into Michael’s elementary school with a gun.

He kidnapped the 6-year-old boy and his principal, leaving the principal handcuffed to a tree and disappearing with the child.

A Confession Decades in the Making

Michael Hughes was never seen again. Two months later, Floyd was arrested, but he refused to say what happened to the boy.

It wasn’t until 2014, in an interview with the FBI, that Floyd finally confessed. He admitted to shooting Michael twice in the back of the head on the very day he kidnapped him.

A Trail of Victims

The Murder of Cheryl Ann Commesso

Floyd’s web of crime extended beyond Suzanne and Michael. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of Cheryl Ann Commesso, a coworker of Suzanne’s.

The discovery of disturbing photos of a beaten and bound Commesso in Floyd’s possession was key to his conviction.

A Career Criminal’s End

Floyd spent two decades on death row before dying of natural causes in 2023. He took many of his secrets to the grave, leaving a legacy of pain and unanswered questions for the families of his victims.

Unraveling the Truth

The Power of DNA

For years, the identity of the woman at the center of the case was a mystery. It was only in 2014 that DNA testing confirmed that the woman known as Sharon Marshall and Tonya Hughes was, in fact, the long-lost Suzanne Sevakis.

This breakthrough finally gave a name to the “Girl in the Picture.”

The “Girl in the Picture” and a Legacy of Pain

The case of Franklin Delano Floyd is a harrowing reminder of the depths of human cruelty. It is the story of a stolen childhood, a life lived under a shadow, and a series of crimes that took decades to fully uncover.

While Floyd is gone, the story of Suzanne Sevakis, the girl in the picture, serves as a permanent testament to the lives he destroyed.