Crazy Case Of Micheal Hughes

2021-08-26 17:20:10 Written by Katherine

Michael's case begins with the kidnapping of his mother, an unknown woman who authorities think was abducted by Franklin Delano Floyd between June 1973 and August 1975. Photos of Michael's mother and Floyd are posted below this case summary. Floyd claimed that he 'rescued' Michael's mother after her family abandoned her in the 1970s and served as her parent.

He has never given any details about the woman's identity or background, but it is believed she was born around 1969. Detectives know that Floyd and the girl traveled to various states and used many aliases together through the 1970s and 1980s. The first public record accessible for the girl states that she was enrolled in an Oklahoma City, Oklahoma school in 1975 under the name Suzanne Davis. Davis graduated from high school in Forest Park, Georgia in 1986. Detectives assumed that Davis moved to Phoenix, Arizona later that year under the name Sharon Marshall. She gave birth to Michael in Tampa, Florida on March 21, 1988, while using the alias Tonya Dawn Tadlock. It is known that Floyd used the aliases Charles Hughes and Clarence Marcus Hughes during this time; officers think that this was the reason Michael was given the last name of Hughes at birth. Floyd claimed to be Michael's biological father; however, DNA testing performed in the mid-1990s verified that he was not related to the unidentified woman's son.

In another bizarre twist, Floyd and Michael's mother were married in New Orleans in 1989 under the names Tonya Tadlock and Clarence Hughes. Both Floyd and the woman were wanted in connection with a Florida homicide by 1990. Before any legal action could be taken against them, the woman was murdered in a skeptical hit-and-run vehicular accident in Oklahoma City in April 1990. Floyd is the main suspect in her death. Authorities did not know the woman's identity was unknown until after she was killed; only then did it come to public attention that Floyd kidnaped her years earlier.

 

Michael was placed in foster care in Oklahoma after his mother's death. His foster parents told authorities that he had limited muscle control, was non-verbal, and often exhibited a hysterical attitude when he first came to their home. However, Michael made great progress in foster care before his kidnapping in 1994, and his foster parents had begun adoption proceedings for him.

Detectives began probing Floyd's background after the girl's death. They learned he was a career criminal who had been arrested in 1960 at age 17 after a gunfight with law enforcement during a burglary. Floyd had also been sentenced to kidnapping and raping a young girl from a bowling alley in 1962. Authorities searched Floyd's truck and found several photos of Michael's mother as a child in sexually explicit poses. The photos showed the girl from approximate age four through her adolescence. Other pornographic pictures of young women and girls were also located in Floyd's vehicle. Floyd used the aliases Trenton Davis, Warren Judson Marshall, Preston Morgan, and Kingfish Floyd in addition to the names once mentioned in his criminal past.

 

Floyd kidnaped Michael from Indian Meridian Elementary School in Choctaw, Oklahoma on September 12, 1994. He held school officials at gunpoint and forced Michael and the principal into his truck. Floyd tied the principal to a tree in a nearby field and escaped with Michael. The principal was rescued several hours later and was not physically harmed. Michael has never been seen again.

Floyd was arrested in Kentucky two months after the child was last seen, but he denied to divulge Michael's location. He was convicted of Michael's abduction and was sentenced to 55 years in prison. Floyd has claimed that Michael is living outside the United States or in Atlanta, Georgia, but the government has witness statements detailing alleged confessions by Floyd regarding Michael's death. Floyd reportedly told his sister he drowned the child in a Georgia motel's bathtub in 1994. Other witnesses stated that Floyd told them he killed Michael in the same manner, while another person claimed he saw Floyd bury Michael's body in a cemetery. Due to these allegations and Floyd's history of criminal conduct, authorities believe Michael met with foul play. Floyd has not been charged in connection with Michael's assumed death of Michael's mother's case, but he is still being interrogated for his roles in the crimes.