17-year-old New Franklin, Ohio, teen Chelsea Schobert attended one of the area’s best schools and came from a wealthy family, but the girl felt quite alone until she connected with Shawn Eric Ford Jr. on Facebook in the summer of 2012.
The 15-year-old was a high school dropout from a low-income family, yet he and Schobert got along great. Furthermore warming up to the young man, her parents, Jeffrey and Margaret Schobert, bought him clothes and even succeeded in getting him a job.
Chelsea turned 18 in March 2013, and Shawn planned to celebrate by getting drunk. Shawn and Chelsea got into an argument after being heavily intoxicated at a friend’s house in Akron, Ohio. Shawn attacked Chelsea with a brick then stabbed her in the neck and back with a knife as the argument heated up.
Chelsea was sent to Akron Children’s Hospital, where, after regaining consciousness, she provided police a fake account about her attack (as instructed by Shawn).
Schobert first chose not to report Ford’s attack to the authorities, which had grave repercussions for her parents. She was hospitalized for a month and first claimed that another man had attacked her.
Ford became upset that Schobert’s parents were denying him access to their daughter in April while she was in the hospital getting better because they had grown suspicious of him.
According to the prosecution, Shawn Ford Jr. and Vaughn traveled eight miles from Akron to New Franklin, where they broke into the couple’s garage and took a sledgehammer out of the toolbox.
Police claim that Mr. Schobert, a health-care attorney, was the first victim of the incident in April 2013 and was struck 14 times in his own bedroom.
He also had multiple little knife cuts that Vaughn is thought to have inflicted.
The boys then texted Margaret Schobert, who was staying at a hospital with her adopted daughter Chelsea, pleading with her to return to her lakeside home. They did this using Mr. Schobert’s smartphone.
The crime scene’s carnage, including Jeffrey Schobert’s 14 sledgehammer blows, astounded the detectives.
According to investigators, physical evidence linking Ford to the deaths of Jeffrey and Margaret Schobert were found at the horrific crime scene. Construction workers who were refurbishing the couple’s home discovered the bodies.
Police believe Ford stole Schobert’s automobile as well as money from the family’s house.
Trial and Sentencing
Ford, who was dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit and had his wrists bound with shackles, acknowledged before his sentencing that he’d been ‘selfish’ and ‘stupid.’
Ford was promptly detained, and after a 2015 trial, he was found guilty of the killings and given the death penalty. Vaughn was also found guilty in the same year and given a life sentence with a 25-year parole window.
‘I want to say sorry to the whole Schobert family, sorry to my family, sorry to everybody I let down,’ he said.
Chelsea’s life changed once her parents died. She and her new partner spent their inheritance money on cocaine. Chelsea was sentenced to 30 months in prison for cocaine trafficking after the couple was apprehended. In the summer of 2014, she gave birth to her daughter while incarcerated. In April 2014, she was freed from prison. However, she was arrested and sent to prison the next year for disobeying direct court orders.
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