Jury selection is underway in the trial of Laurie Shaver, a Clermont woman facing charges for the alleged murder of her husband, whose body was found buried beneath their backyard fire pit. As reported by WFTV, the case, steeped in a tragic narrative, involves accusations of Shaver impersonating her deceased husband to family and friends for years after his disappearance in 2015, with law enforcement only getting involved three years later.

The complexity of the trial, which is expected to feature testimony from as many as 100 witnesses, will include the controversial defense claim that it was Shaver's then-7-year-old daughter who shot her father in an attempt to protect her mother from abuse, as detailed by WFTV. The girl, now a teenager, is anticipated to take the stand, with prosecutors trying to work through their list of witnesses within a week, providing a mosaic of what life inside the couple's world may have looked like, and attempting to dismantle the narrative that positions a child as the shooter.

The case garnered further attention when the remains of Michael Shaver were discovered in March 2018 under a concrete slab on Laurie Shaver’s property at Sandy Pines Road, identified some months later as belonging to the husband, who was last seen alive in 2015, according to details from ClickOrlando. Following Michael Shaver's disappearance, messages continued to be sent from his phone and through his Facebook account, which detectives believe were crafted by Laurie Shaver to maintain the illusion of Michael leading a life elsewhere.

In a May 2023 statement, Laurie Shaver's attorney, Jeffrey Wiggs, introduced the shocking claim that it was the couple's daughter who, at age 8, allegedly accessed a firearm and shot her father to save her mother from his abuse despite the years that Laurie spent masquerading as her husband through texts and social media, this according to ClickOrlando.