UPDATE

This is a PLEA. Anyone who knows my daughter, Naia, encourage her to get help. Encourage her to seek therapy. Encourage her to reach out to her family. Our entire family here in Newport, in West Virginia, and Florida are praying for her and worried about her safety.

Naia has been manipulated. And misled. She suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder. She has been hospitalized 5+ times for this. She has attempted to take her life on a couple occasions. We are worried for her. The narrative of her not having a loving family or a support system could not be any more FALSE. Please research this awful disorder and educate yourself. Because if you are in active contact with her and encouraging her without knowing the whole story, you are harming her on a level you don’t understand.

The Shymanski family has knowingly and unknowingly been manipulating a girl who has serious mental health problems. They have offered her money while she was STILL A MINOR behind my back ( SEE HERE). Police active in the investigation have the original of this letter and were in shock that this was happening. The Shymanskis have offered her a car. Bought her a phone. At a hearing for the trial, Mary Shymanski, excitedly pointed out to all that would hear that Naia had not shown up with us.

This child is in a middle of a serious mental health downward spiral which started in August of 2024 when she got simply got called out for disrespectful behavior. She is in the middle of a splitting episode so deep that she has now cut off her entire family support system which is robust. 3 sets of loving grandparents, her own siblings, me, her father, dozens of cousins, aunts, uncles. People who care for her and understand completely the care and support she needs. We LOVE her. The family she is staying with REFUSED to even talk to me about my concerns.

Why are the Shymanski family doing this? Because they didn’t want me to have control of June and Jay’s money. Even if I co-jointly worked with a bank. That’s why. They are willing to manipulate, lie, and slander to no end to achieve “justice”. I willingly let the bank be guardian of my childrens’ inheritance. Why?

BECAUSE IT WAS NEVER ABOUT THE MONEY. EVER. The Shymanski family is still trying to prove that I killed Joe Shymanski because I wanted money. It has been their main objective to prove what they want to believe and ignore truths. I have been through police investigations, I have cooperated, I have provided proof, provided proof of extreme abuse. Everyone who actually knows me and what I went through with Joe knows that their lies and accusations are ridiculous. A continuation of narcissistic abuse. Not only was I fighting an unhinged Joe Shymanski, but I was helping my daughter wade through serious issues.
THEY MANIPULATED MY DAUGHTER TO TESTIFY AGAINST ME IN COURT. If I hadn’t given in to their demands, the Shymanski family would have brought my daughter to court and had her “testify against me”. What they don’t understand is that I would have brought medical files a foot thick outlining the mental state of my daughter. I would have had to tear her credibility apart in open court. How would she have reacted after going through that? I believe she would have HURT HERSELF. I would have shown how the Shymanskis have manipulated her. The Shymanski family would have HAPPILY put her into this situation. There was no way I was going to do that. There is no amount of money in the world worth that.

At what lengths are they willing to go to get “justice”? They are hurting these children. Because not only are they doing this to Naia, they are also hurting June and Jay who now have not only lost their Dad, but lost their sister as well. And then they lament about not being a part of their life. They need to seriously look at their actions.

Easy going. Happy. Fun. Adventurous. Manipulative. Lying. Controlling. Scary.

Who was Joe Shymanski really? His friends, family and those who briefly met Joe, will describe him as wonderful, caring, happy and outgoing. He took really great photos. He had a way with people. What a great dad. So generous. Magical. They will defend his character with fervor. He was indeed all of those things at times. There were good times.

But there was also more.

There was no amount of magic that would make up for the abuse that I suffered from him. The only way I could combat Joe’s lies, mind games, his public image was by writing it all down. I documented his behaviors. I wore a body camera. I put up security cameras at my house. I lived in fear of him. I was afraid that no one would believe me. The type of abuse that I have endured makes you doubt your reality, so chronicling what was happening was the only way to stay grounded. He was out of control and it seemed to just be getting worse.

His version of reality was not real, but his charm and capacity to lie so convincingly made his ability to spread misinformation deadly. It was hard not to believe what he was saying. He had a carefully managed image and was confident and convincing. People loved him.

After I left him, I have read and studied about emotional, narcissistic, and covert abuse. I started understanding things that had happened and was able to label them. It was like de-tangling my brain. This type of abuse has a ripple effect because so many people believe his distorted reality. Laying it all out in a blog like this has helped me work through the trauma. I hope eventually to be able to help others going through similar situations.

Marriage. Divorce. Post Divorce.

Why share now?

After Joe’s death, I have tried to keep quiet to protect my family and because I am a private person. We have experienced severe trauma and have been trying to recover in any way possible. I have been respectful of the detectives’ work and want justice to run its course. It is incredibly hard for me to speak and relive all of this, it is excruciatingly painful. However, Joe’s family, in their grief and confusion, have waged a war on me. I have been pushed to a point where there’s no way to NOT talk about what was really going on. His family is lying in court documents and in court, spreading inflammatory information based on the smear campaigns of an abusive man. They are using money from the estate, my CHILDREN’S inheritance, to wage a war on their own MOTHER. The money that I have to use to fight their vendetta should be used to take care of my children, my kids are already suffering and are now suffering even more because of their own family. It is nauseating. They’ve bragged about talking to Dateline and other respectable news shows; I am beyond prepared for when they come to talk to me.

I fully understand that they are hurting and don’t know what is going on, but I pray for them stop for the sake of the children; their anger and vendetta is misguided.

This was an unimaginable, horrific tragedy. I do not condone what happened to Joe. Even with everything he has done to me, I never would have wished harm to come to him. It is a horror that I do not know how to navigate and I live every day. I mourn for my children, his family, and friends. I know nothing about the upcoming trial and monitor the Maryland Judiciary site daily for information and movement; absolutely no information is being released. I have willingly given the police access to my phone, passwords, emails, OFW ( court ordered software that Joe and I had to use to communicate so it could be monitored). Everything. I sat with them willingly on two separate occasions answering EVERY question they had after I first called to report him missing. The detectives have already done their work and I have been CLEARED. I had nothing to do with this crime and I do not know anything about how it happened or why. If I had, I would have been in jail long ago and I definitely wouldn’t have my children.