Suzanne Sevakis’s life

Suzanne Sevakis was born on September 6, 1969, in Michigan. She was the oldest out of her 3 younger siblings. Suzanne’s father Clifford Sevakis was a Vietnam veteran which meant that he was barely home. This left Suzanne’s mother Sandra Chipman to take care of her four kids alone. After returning home, they both got a divorce, formally leaving Sandra a single mother. Clifford lost contact with his kids, including Suzanne, after the divorce. Not too long after, Sandra met a man named Franklin Delano Floyd. Floyd presented himself as a kind and helpful partner and married Sandra in 1974, officially becoming a family. The next year, Sandra served a 30-day jail sentence for writing a bad check. While in jail, Floyd vanished and abducted all four of Sandra’s kids, leaving no trace behind.

Franklin Floyd

Franklin Floyd was born on June 17, 1943, in Barnesville, Georgia. Franklin was the youngest of five siblings in his family and the one who experienced the most trauma. Floyd’s father died of liver failure when he was just a one-year-old. Floyd’s mother Della was unable to care for her children and placed them in a religious children’s home in Georgia the next year. Floyd spent a decade in that children’s home and there, he suffered “every classic form of abuse one can imagine.” In the children’s home, he was assaulted by older boys for being “feminine” and would face harsh punishments by the staff. During his time at the home as a teenager, he would frequently get in trouble for fighting and stealing. In 1959, at the age of 16, he ran away from the orphanage, would break into houses for food, and would eventually be placed into his sister’s custody to avoid criminal charges. He was eventually kicked out of his sister’s home and began to search for his mother, later using his forged documents to enlist in the U.S. army while underage. He was dishonorably discharged six months later when his true age was discovered. After his discharge, he began a life full of violence until he met Sandra at a church. During this time, Sandra was dealing with a divorce, trauma from a tornado, and was struggling to take care of her kids. Floyd offered to help take care of her kids and that’s when their relationship started. The couple married and moved to Dallas, Texas with Sandra’s kids.

Life with Floyd

Suzanne was 5 years old when Floyd kidnapped her and her siblings. Shortly after the abduction, Floyd left two of Suzanne’s younger sisters at a church, who were eventually found by their mother. Floyd put Suzanne’s brother Phillip up for adoption in North Carolina under a different name. He kept Suzanne under the alias “Sharon Marshall” which was the name she used for most of her life. Suzanne was raised to believe Floyd was her biological father, and she grew up not knowing her true identity or her past. Throughout her childhood, she was sexually abused by Floyd. Since Suzanne was abducted at a young age, Floyd was the only father figure she knew for most of her life. Floyd moved her to different states and changed her name to prevent her from being found. They finally came to Georgia, putting Suzanne in high school. In school, Suzanne was a brilliant student and was accepted into Georgia Tech on a full scholarship for aerospace engineering. Despite her academic potential, her father Floyd prevented her from going to college and not too long after, Suzanne found out she was pregnant with his child. She told her friends that she wasn’t allowed to keep the child because Floyd didn’t want her to have it, unbeknownst to them that it was actually his child. However, shortly after graduating high school, Suzanne left Georgia with Floyd and had their child Michael Anthony Hughes. Floyd forced Suzanne to change her name to Tonya Hughes and become an exotic dancer. During this time, Suzanne’s main priority was protecting her son from Floyd. She also got pregnant again with her daughter Megan, but was forced to put her up for adoption soon after. 

Suzanne Sevakis’s death

On April 30, 1990, Suzanne Sevakis was found unconscious and badly injured on the side of a highway near Oklahoma city. She was surrounded by scattered groceries, which suggested that she was walking back to a nearby motel. Suzanne was rushed to Presbyterian Hospital where she died from her injuries 5 days later. Her husband Floyd was the primary suspect in her death, though he claimed that he was asleep at a nearby hotel while Suzanne went out to get groceries. After Suzanne’s death, Michael was put into foster care and placed in a family with Ernest and Merle Bean. They kept Michael under their care for 5 years while trying to adopt him in the process.

Michael Hughes abduction

On September 12, 1994, six year old Michael Hughes was kidnapped at gunpoint from his first-grade classroom at Indian Meridian elementary school. His kidnapper said to the principal that he was his father and forced him at gunpoint to take him to Michael’s classroom. The kidnapper turned out to be Floyd himself and took Michael and the principal hostage. He knew where Michael was because he was relentlessly stalking his son during the adoption process. Floyd handcuffed the principal to a tree in a wooded area before fleeing with Michael. Two months later, Floyd was arrested in Kentucky. Unfortunately, Michael was never found.

Conviction

Floyd stayed in prison until 2002, where he was convicted of the 1989 murder of Cheryl Ann Commesso, her remains discovered in 1995. A judge formally handed him the death sentence on November 22, 2002. While on Death Row in his Florida prison in 2014, he told prosecutors in an interview the truth about what really happened to Michael Hughes and Suzanne Sevakis. He told them that the day he abducted 6-year-old Michael Hughes, he shot him twice in the back of the head. He also told them Suzanne’s true identity and told them all about her abduction. Despite these admissions, Floyd never confessed to murdering Suzanne himself. He says that her death was caused by a hit-and-run accident; he remained the primary suspect in her death, which investigators believe was a murder.

Aftermath

Suzanne Sevakis’s story is one to remember for exposing the critical failures in child welfare, law enforcement, and identity verification. Her story inspired Netflix to make a documentary about her called The Girl in The Picture where it shows interviews with Suzanne’s biological parents and some of her friends from high school and her job. Suzanne’s sisters started their new life and have been active in advocating for awareness of familial abductions. Their brother Phillip had been missing for over 40 years, but was finally found after a DNA test in 2019. After his adoption, he grew up under the name Steve Patterson, not knowing his true past. Suzanne’s daughter Megan began a new life as well, still wondering about her biological mother, until she read the book a Beautiful Child by Matt Birbeck where she found the truth about her mother. Since then, she has connected with her maternal grandmother and grandfather. She holds a strong relationship with them and Clifford noted in the documentary, “I can’t talk to Suzanne but I can talk to Megan and that will… that will do.” Suzanne’s story will be greatly remembered and used to prevent anything like this from happening again in the future.

References:

Clémence Michallon. (2022, July 10). Raised by, abused by and then married to her kidnapper: The horrifying true story behind Netflix’s Girl in the Picture. The Independent. https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/girl-in-the-picture-netflix-suzanne-sevakis-b2116243.html

https://www.facebook.com/peoplemag. (2025). He Stole a Little Girl — and Decades Later, Murdered the Boy He Fathered with Her. People.com. https://people.com/franklin-delano-floyd-netflix-girl-in-the-picture-11796172

Miller, K. (2022, July 7). All About “Girl In The Picture’s Suzanne Sevakis” Children, Megan Dufresne And Michael Hughes—And Their Father. Women’s Health. https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a40545767/suzanne-sevakis-children-girl-in-the-picture/

Mitchell, M. (2022, July 6). “Girl in the Picture”: What Happened To Michael Anthony Hughes? Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/what-happened-michael-hughes-suzanne-sevakis-son-franklin-floyd-girl-picture-1722207

Shafer, E. (2022, July 13). “Girl in the Picture”: Were Michael Hughes’ Remains Ever Found, Is Frank Floyd Still Alive and More Unanswered Questions. Variety. https://variety.com/2022/film/news/girl-in-the-picture-unanswered-questions-suzanne-sevakis-michael-franklin-floyd-1235314054/