Oct 21, 2026 · 41 min · 13 segments
She married them fast, drugged their food, and emptied their bank accounts. Then they died. Melissa Ann Shepard did it for decades, moving between Canada and Florida, leaving a trail of dead and…
Vanessa RichardsonHostMelissa Ann Shepard was born Melissa Ann Russell on May 16, 1935, in a small fishing and logging settlement called Burnt Church in northeastern New Brunswick.
Burnt Church sits right next to a Mi'kmaq First Nation Reserve and is the kind of place where jobs have always been scarce, but especially during the Great Depression when Melissa was born.
Public records of Melissa's childhood are thin.
We don't know much about her parents or her siblings, if she had any.
What we know is that she grew up poor and that when she was 20 years old, she met a man named Russell Shepherd.
Russell was from Montague, a small town on Prince Edward Island, just across the water from where Melissa had grown up.
They got married in 1955.
Melissa took his last name, moved to Prince Edward Island, and the two of them started a family there.
While accounts the next couple of decades were normal, stable, Melissa was a wife and a mother, nothing unusual.
But somewhere in the 1970s, something changed.
In 1977, when Melissa was in her early 40s, she was convicted of fraud.
Her first sentence was 11 months, and when she got out, she just kept going.
Bad checks, forged signatures, impersonating people to cash their money.
Between 1977 and 1991, she racked up more than 30 separate fraud convictions across multiple Canadian provinces.
Those convictions added up to roughly five years in prison total, spread out over those 14 years.
So Melissa was in and out of the system.
Russell stuck around through some of it, but eventually their marriage fell apart.
In 1988, Melissa was 52 years old.
Her marriage to Russell was over.
Her kids were grown and out of the house.
She'd been drifting between Canadian provinces.
Then one day, she answered a personal ad in a Lonely Hearts column.
That's how she met Gordon Stewart.
Gordon was 41 years old.
He was a former member of the Canadian Armed Forces from Prince Edward Island with two kids at home.
Melissa Ann Shepard was born Melissa Ann Russell on May 16, 1935, in a small fishing and logging settlement called Burnt Church in northeastern New Brunswick.
Burnt Church sits right next to a Mi'kmaq First Nation Reserve and is the kind of place where jobs have always been scarce, but especially during the Great Depression when Melissa was born.
Public records of Melissa's childhood are thin.
We don't know much about her parents or her siblings, if she had any.
What we know is that she grew up poor and that when she was 20 years old, she met a man named Russell Shepherd.
Russell was from Montague, a small town on Prince Edward Island, just across the water from where Melissa had grown up.
They got married in 1955.
Melissa took his last name, moved to Prince Edward Island, and the two of them started a family there.
While accounts the next couple of decades were normal, stable, Melissa was a wife and a mother, nothing unusual.
But somewhere in the 1970s, something changed.
In 1977, when Melissa was in her early 40s, she was convicted of fraud.
Her first sentence was 11 months, and when she got out, she just kept going.
Bad checks, forged signatures, impersonating people to cash their money.
Between 1977 and 1991, she racked up more than 30 separate fraud convictions across multiple Canadian provinces.
Those convictions added up to roughly five years in prison total, spread out over those 14 years.
So Melissa was in and out of the system.
Russell stuck around through some of it, but eventually their marriage fell apart.
In 1988, Melissa was 52 years old.
Her marriage to Russell was over.
Her kids were grown and out of the house.
She'd been drifting between Canadian provinces.
Then one day, she answered a personal ad in a Lonely Hearts column.
That's how she met Gordon Stewart.
Gordon was 41 years old.
He was a former member of the Canadian Armed Forces from Prince Edward Island with two kids at home.
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