It’s been over 17 years since Shannon Matthews disappeared on her way home from school.
Only, it eventually transpired that the nine-year-old, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, hadn’t really ‘gone missing’ at all.
As a detective points out the signs that may have been overlooked in the appeals at the time, it transpired that it was Shannon’s own mum who was behind the kidnapping.
Karen Matthews and Michael Donovan - the uncle of Karen's boyfriend, Craig Meehan - orchestrated the plot in February 2008 before West Yorkshire police found the young girl three weeks later.
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The disgraced mum and her boyfriend’s uncle ended up jailed as their plan collapsed with the case during national attention. With another new documentary now released on Prime Video, there was even an ITV drama made, starring Sheridan Smith.
But while much of the UK may not have forgotten her, Shannon has not been heard of since.
What happened to Shannon Matthews?
Said to have been a reaction to the attention Madeleine McCann’s disappearance garnered, Karen and Donovan staged Shannon’s kidnapping in a scheme to claim a £50,000 reward.
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The schoolgirl went missing as she walked home from school on 19 February, and soon sparked a nationwide effort to find her.
In Dewsbury, the community rallied around with police appeals shared far and wide, including emotional appeals from Karen herself. One of the largest searches ever conducted by West Yorkshire Police, it was revealed to have cost £3.2 million.
However, Donovan had been housing Shannon all along, and it was revealed during the court case that the pair had planned to release her at Dewsbury Market and then ‘find’ her so they could claim the cash.
How was Shannon Matthews found?
Karen and Donovan’s plan caved in when the girl was found hidden in the bottom of a bed frame at the man’s flat after 24 days of searching.
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Nick Townsend, an investigator on the case at the time, told LADbible that ‘nobody had mentioned’ Donovan to the police, so he hadn’t been on their radar.
But it ‘rang some alarm bells’ when it was made known that his own children had been taken into care and he’d previously abducted one of his own daughters from outside of school.
Donovan didn’t answer the door to police, but when a neighbour said they could hear ‘tiny footsteps’ from his flat, it sent a ‘shudder’ through Townsend’s spine, and he knew they needed to get in.
A support unit came to assist his team and broke the door down to get into the flat, and ‘the rest, as they say, his history’.
Shannon, who had been restrained by a homemade leash during her captivity, was found by her rescuers hidden in the bottom of a bed frame.
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Where are Karen Matthews and Michael Donovan now?
Both Karen and Donovan were jailed for eight years as a judge said what they had done was ‘despicable’.
"It is impossible to conceive how you could have found it in you to put this young girl through the ordeal that you inflicted upon her," Mr Justice McCombie said during sentencing.
They were jailed for kidnapping, false imprisonment and perverting the court of justice.
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Karen served only half of her sentence and Prime Video’s new documentary, The Hunt for Shannon Matthews, explains she changed her name upon her release.
Little is known about where she is now, but in 2018 she spoke out for the first time to say she was ‘scared’ she would end up dying ‘lonely and alone’.
Karen still maintained her innocence, despite being found guilty.
Donovan died in April 2024 after collapsing at a mental health unit. He had been staying at Three Valleys Hospital (specialising in caring for those with complex mental health issues) for six years and was reportedly diagnosed with stage three throat cancer.
Where is Shannon Matthews now?
Now 26 years old, Shannon was taken into care after being found, placed with a new family and given a new identity. Her six siblings were also taken into care.
There is a special order in place to prevent anyone from contacting her but at the end of the new Prime Video doc, producers revealed they had communicated with her while making it.
However, nothing is known about who or where she is now, with her right to privacy and anonymity rightfully respected.
Towsend says he hasn’t seen her since taking her to the police station from the flat.
“We were with her in the office for half an hour or so, just drawing and colouring in,” he explains. “And then the social services arrived and whisked her off and I never saw her again.”
But the retired detective does have a message to share with her all these years later: “People have sort of dismissed this inquiry as ‘an elaborate game of hide and seek’ but Shannon was still a victim. She wasn’t a part of this conspiracy, she was still a victim.
“And I just hope that really, she’s been given a chance for a better life and that she’s made something out of herself, hopefully.”
‘Missed signs’ in the Shannon Matthews case
Townsend says ‘hindsight’ can change a lot about the appeals made by Karen at the time, but that perhaps there were things that went under the radar.
In retrospect, he says there was ‘something about her demeanour’ that didn’t sit ‘quite right’.
“Little smiles to the camera and things like that,” he notes.
“But people tried to explain that away as just a mother’s grief or ‘she didn’t know how to react’, she wasn’t media trained or anything like that. So, I think we tried to take account of that,” Townsend continues.
“It’s easy in hindsight to say ‘that’s a giveaway’, ‘that’s a tell’, the psychologists will say ‘well, it was clear that she was lying’ but it wasn’t clear at the time.
“And bearing in mind, this nine-year-old girl had gone missing without any trace, you had to give her the benefit of the doubt.”
The Hunt for Shannon Matthews is now available on Prime Video in The UK & Ireland.
Topics: True Crime, UK News
Jess Battison