The horrifying true story behind disturbing Netflix series The Girl in the Picture

She was just 20 when her barely-conscious body was found by the side of the road – apparently a victim of a hit and run.

But as the story of Sharon Marshall unravelled, it proved more shocking than anyone could have imagined.

Sharon was kidnapped as a child and raised by her abductor, Franklin Floyd, as his daughter.

But then in a sick twist, the evil paedophile married her and they lived as man and wife – even raising a child together.

READ MORE: What really happened to Sharon Marshall? Mystery death of Netflix’s Girl in the Picture

Sharon never knew who she really was – and her identity remained a mystery until years after her death in 1990.

Now a new Netflix documentary examines the case.

Floyd had already spent time in prison for kidnapping and child molestation and was on the run from police when he met Sharon’s mother Sandra Brandenburg in 1974.

They married after dating for a month but when Sandra was jailed for 30 days for writing bad cheques, pervert Floyd saw his opportunity, snatched five-year-old Sharon and fled.

They then travelled around the US, posing as father and daughter – a photo from the time shows the young girl looking sad as she perches on his knee.

By the time she was a teenager, the pair were living in Forest Park, Georgia, and against the odds Sharon was thriving.

She blossomed in school, dreamed of becoming an aerospace engineer and even won a scholarship to college to study the subject.

But her dark secret always lay just below the surface.

In the Netflix true crime special, friend Jenny Fisher recalls going to her house for a sleepover and breaks down as she tells how Floyd raped Sharon at gunpoint while she was in the room.

By 1988, Sharon and Floyd had ended up in Tampa, Florida, where Floyd forced her to work at a strip club.

Heather Lane who danced with her at the Mons Venus club, recalls being horrified when she caught Sharon offering sex services for £41.

Sharon said her dad had told her to do it and even provided her with condoms.

In 1988 she gave birth to son Michael.

At the same time, Sharon became friends with another dancer – Cheryl Ann Commesso, who would hang out with Sharon and Floyd.

Cheryl told Heather how Floyd had tried to have sex with her and turned violent when she turned him down.

By 1989 Sharon, Floyd and Michael were living in Oklahoma where again he made her work in a strip club.

They were now married and living under the aliases of Tonya and Clarence Hughes.

Dancer Karen Parsley remembers seeing signs of abuse on “Tonya”.

She says: “She had bruises the whole back side of her.

“One day Tonya told me Clarence had taken a life insurance policy out on her.

“She was terrified and wanted to run but she had Michael and he kept him under lock and key.”

In April 1990 Sharon died after being taken to hospital following what appeared to be a hit and run – until doctors found evidence of old bruises and injuries. Michael was put in foster care and Floyd spent four years trying to get him back – and when that failed, he kidnapped the six-year-old.

He was eventually caught but Michael was nowhere to be found.

Floyd refused to reveal his location and was sentenced to 52 years in prison for the kidnap.

Then in 1995 there was a new development.

An abandoned truck, used by Floyd, was found.

It contained pornographic of pictures a woman, who was so badly beaten it seemed unlikely she could have survived.

After cops put out an appeal for any unidentified female murder victims one matched – it was Cheryl Ann Commesso, the dancer Sharon had befriended in Tampa.

Floyd was was found guilty of her murder and sentenced to death.

It took until 2015 for Floyd to finally confess to killing Michael with two shots in the back of his head and reveal Sharon’s true identity – Suzanne Sevakis.

Now aged 79, Floyd is on death row – and considered a person of interest in Sharon’s death.

● The Girl in the Picture is on Netflix.

READ NEXT:

Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk