Franklin Delano Floyd

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Franklin Delano Floyd (June 17, 1943 - January 23, 2023) was an American murderer, rapist, kidnapper and pedophile awaiting execution for the 1989 murder of Cheryl Ann Commesso. He is also the main suspect in the death of his wife Tonya Hughes, who was in fact Suzanne Sevakis and had been kidnapped by Floyd when she was six and raised to be his wife. An investigation into the location of his son Michael Hughes, who was kidnapped by Floyd in 1994 and has never been seen since, is ongoing.

Biography

Floyd was born in Georgia in 1943. His father died from liver failure when he was one year old and he was placed into care in a Baptist children's home, where he was sodomized by other children and scalded with hot water by nuns when they caught him masturbating. He was expelled from the home for stealing and went to live with his sister, but was kicked out and became a homeless drifter.

Floyd's criminal history began on 19 February 1960, when he broke into a Sears department store to steal. He was shot in the stomach during the robbery attempt and then sent to a youth institution for a year. He was returned to the institution in 1961 on a parole violation.

In June 1962 Floyd was arrested for kidnapping a four-year-old girl from a bowling alley and sexually assaulting her. He was convicted of kidnapping and child molestation and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He escaped while out on a medical errand in 1963 and fled to Macon, where he robbed $6000 from a bank before being recaptured and incarcerated in the Chillicothe Correctional Institution. He was transferred to the Lewisburg United States Penitentiary after an escape attempt and was repeatedly raped by fellow inmates. He was transferred to a halfway house in 1972 and and released in November, only to be arrested a week later for sexually assaulting a woman at a petrol station. He posted bail and went on the run, leading to a warrant being issued for his arrest.

In 1974 Floyd, under the alias Brandon Williams, met and married Sandi Chipman and took partial custody of her children from her first and second husbands - Suzanne Sevakis, Allison Brandenburg, Amy Brandenburg and Philip Brandenburg. In 1975 Chipman was given a thirty day prison sentence for cheque fraud. When she was released she found that Floyd had disappeared with her children. Allison and Amy were soon found, having been placed in a church-based social services group, but Suzanne and Philip were never found. Philip was finally located through DNA testing in 2019.

By 1989, Floyd was living in Florida with his second wife Tonya Hughes and her son Michael. Floyd was a domineering and controlling husband and Hughes refused to leave him for fear that he would kill her and Michael. An exotic dancer named Cheryl Commesso reported Hughes for misrepresenting her income, causing Floyd and Hughes to lose their income. Soon after, Commesso disappeared and Floyd and Hughes burned down their trailer and moved to Oklahoma before they could be questioned. Her body was found in 1995.

By April 1990 Hughes had begun having an affair with college student Kevin Brown and decided to run away with him and take Michael with her. That same month Hughes was found lying unconscious by the roadside with a severe brain bleed. She was rushed to hospital and died. It was surmised that she had been the victim of a hit-and-run. Floyd placed Michael into foster care after Hughes's death. Six months later Floyd attempted to regain custody of Michael. A DNA test was performed on Michael to establish paternity and found that Floyd was not Michael's biological father.

On 12 September 1994, Floyd walked into Michael's school and forced Principal James Davis at gunpoint to bring Michael to him. He then forced the two of them into his car and drove to the nearby woods, where he handcuffed Davis to a tree and left with Michael. Floyd was tracked down two months later and arrested, but Michael was not wit him and has never been seen again, alive or dead. Floyd himself gave conflicting accounts of what happened, first claiming that Michael was alive but refusing to disclose his location, but later telling the FBI that he shot Michael shortly after kidnapping him and buried him in a local graveyard.

During the police investigation, it was revealed that Floyd had raised Tonya Hughes as his daughter from an early age. However, DNA testing revealed she was not his daughter: she was Suzanne Sevakis. Photos found in Floyd's car showed her in various sexually explicit positions, revealing that Floyd had been molesting Sevakis since before her abduction. Several other photos showed a bound and beaten women identified as Cheryl Commesso. Floyd was charged with Commesso's murder. A judge ruled him mentally unfit to stand trial, but Floyd insisted he was mentally sound. The judge reversed her decision and Floyd's trial commenced. He was convicted and sentenced to death but died before his execution could be carried out, on January 23, 2023, at the age of 79.