Mystery on Maple Avenue: Where is Natasha Shanes?
A Family Still Seeking Answers
THE HOUSE ON MAPLE AVE
Almost 50 years ago in a Victorian house on Maple Avenue in Jackson, Michigan, the Shanes family settled down for the night. The children had asked their mom if they could sleep downstairs. On the couch was Adam, age 10; Mandy, age 8; Natasha, age 6; Desiree age 4 and Chance, age 6 months.[1] Also in the house on May 7, 1985 was Susan Shanes, the mother of all the children, and her boyfriend Robert Forbes, the father of baby Chance.
During the night Susan Shanes would later say that she heard what “sounded like someone being struck by a car.”[2] But when she woke the next morning and came downstairs, Natasha was gone and the door was open. Susan called police.
Detective Michael Galbreath of the Jackson, Michigan Police Department is in charge of the case today, and told APB Cold Case that there was no forced entry.
Older sister Mandy recalled that when she woke that morning, the house was flooded with people looking for her sister, combing through every room in the house. She also remembered police driving up and down the street calling Natasha’s name over the public address speaker. An alert was put out for Natasha Shanes (also spelled Natashia); age 6, about 4’ tall, and about 57 pounds. She has brownish, blonde hair and brown eyes, a scar on her right cheek, a small scar on her forehead, and a birthmark on the back of her neck. She has pierced ears and was last seen wearing a white shirt and a blue jeans skirt with a safety pin on it. Natasha has epilepsy and requires medication on a regular basis.[3]
On the day of her disappearance, in addition to searching the house, police searched the yard and surrounding area. Police said that there was no forensic evidence at the scene – no struggle, no blood, no tool marks on any doors or windows from forcible entry. They enlisted the assistance of the local news station’s helicopter to search the city. Minutes turned into hours without any sign of Natasha. Police interview Natasha’s mother, and they particularly wanted to speak with her boyfriend, Robert Forbes.
WHO IS ROBERT FORBES?
Jackson police detective Mel Hartman was assigned to the Detective Bureau and remembered getting summoned to work on the case of the missing girl. “I had been out on an undercover narcotics assignment for a little over a year when she became missing. I was contacted by some of my people to find out what was going on, because I didn’t know anything about Natasha, but her mother was dating one of the Number 1 drug men in Jackson,” said former Detective Hartman.
So Detective Hartman assembled with other police officers in the Jackson PD conference room where officers were detailed to canvass the neighborhood. Hartman was curious to see if there was any connection between Natasha’s disappearance and Robert Forbes.
Mandy Shanes told APB Cold Case that Forbes was “quiet and polite”, but he didn’t really have a lot of personal interaction with the children because his focus was mainly on spending time with her mother, Susan and his own 6-month-old son, Chance.[4]
THE INVESTIGATION
On Day 1 of the investigation police scoured the neighborhood looking for Natasha, which did not result in any leads as to her whereabouts. But on Day 2, Detective Hartman was at home after work, when he saw Robert Forbes walking down the street toward Hartman’s home. “He knocked on the door and asked if he could come in and talk to me”, said Hartman. “He came in and told me, ‘I’ve done a lot of things in my time. I’ve never hurt a child, and I did not hurt Natasha.’” Hartman replied, “well, you need to tell me more about what’s going on.” But Forbes told him, ‘I’d rather not at this time,’ and Forbes got up and left. Hartman said he did not find it unusual that Forbes knew where he lived as Hartman lived in the same home for 25 years. When asked if he believed that Forbes was presenting him with an alibi or some other defense about his involvement with Natasha’s disappearance, Hartman said he never believed that Forbes had anything to do directly with her disappearance. Jackson police said that during their investigation, Forbes had told them that he had “no idea who would be vindictive enough to bother the children that had revenge with him in mind”[5] But that statement by Forbes would seemingly imply that there were people who might have a vengeful motive toward him.
But that visit would not be the last time that Detective Hartman would see Forbes. The next day which was Day 3, as Detective Hartman was on his way to work, he saw some of his fellow officers in an alley near Main and Francis Streets. When he arrived at the police station, he was told that it was Robert Forbes’ body they had found. He had been shot, and most of his head was missing.[6] Was this a homicide or suicide? The controversy continues today. But at the time Hartman said officials wanted to label it as a suicide, but Hartman said he convinced prosecutors to leave it open while he continued to investigate. Nat Gross was a police officer with Jackson Michigan PD, too, familiar with Robert Forbes. “I tell you what. Robert Forbes wouldn’t take his own life. There was no reason for him to kill himself. He didn’t carry that kind of a guilt.”
INFORMATION FROM AN INFORMANT
Forbes was the main drug dealer in Jackson for heroin and cocaine, said Hartman. But there was a group of 5 businessmen who funded Forbes drug trafficking operation which they would receive a share of the proceeds. Hartman recalled information he received from an informant who told him that the businessmen wanted a bigger cut of the money, but they feared Forbes. So, the group decides they had to get rid of Forbes and they hire a hit man. But the first two attempts on Forbe’s life, described as a drive-by shooting, and another in which he was chased on city streets under gunfire[7], are unsuccessful. Said Hartman, “they could never get close enough to kill him.”
So then, according to an informant as told by Hartman, “There was an agreement struck between the hit man and the mother that she would leave the window, downstairs window partially open, with the child laying on the sofa, so that they could take the child to use as leverage to make him come to a location so they could kill him.” But Hartman added there was apparently confusion which resulted in Natasha being taken rather than Forbe’s biological infant son. Hartman theorized, “and that’s when they stuffed a shotgun in his mouth and made him pull the trigger.”
Hartman persists in his investigation, and eventually identifies the man suspected of having the contract to kill Forbes. But, said Hartman, that suspect had subcontracted the hit to another man only identified at that time by a nickname. It would take Hartman 3 more years to finally learn his last name, and Hartman finds him at the state prison. This is a turning point in the investigation, said Hartman who tells the suspect he wants to know where the child is. Hartman remembered the conversation, telling APB Cold Case, “He says, ‘well, the child is dead’, that she got sick and she died that same night.” Hartman said that Natasha’s body was put in the trunk of a car, and when they got to Detroit, they placed her in a suitcase and buried her outside a gambling house in a backyard.[8] But when Hartman goes back to the prison a couple months later to follow-up with the man, bad news. He had died 2 days earlier from cancer.[9]
BURIED IN DETROIT?
But Detectives Hartman and Gross speak with another informant with knowledge about the location where Natasha is reportedly buried. This informant accompanies the detectives to the plot of land that was once the location of a gambling house – an after-hours ‘blind pig’. Former Detective Nat Gross described a ‘blind pig’ as an underground location where people go once bars have closed, to continue drinking and gambling. Gross was with Hartman when the informant pointed out the location. Gross remembered that the informant told them that Natasha was buried in a garden at that location.[10] Gross said the location has changed significantly over the years, but a Burger King restaurant once sat opposite the location, and that there was a gang shootout there in years past. Gross said there is a Comcast building and small fence in the same area today, and the remnants of a concrete slab nearby that was once part of a factory. The detectives approached Detroit police as the location was in Detroit’s jurisdiction. But they said local officials were not interested, fearing that there could be other bodies buried there.
But Detectives Hartman and Gross are confident in the information they developed. Gross credits Hartman with teaching him about handling informants, and he trusts the credibility of Hartman’s source. “Mel had some of the best informants, and, he usually didn’t disclose who his informants were, but this informant said that they would go with us to Detroit,” said former Detective Gross.
Why weren’t Detroit police more interested in pursuing a tip that could lead to the recovery of a missing girl? Did they question the authenticity of the information coming from he Jackson detectives? Let’s take a look at the limited knowledge we have about the source of the intel – the confidential informant (CI): First, the CI wasn’t ‘working off’ criminal charges, that is to say he wasn’t looking for a deal with prosecutors in exchange for intelligence which can always lead to suspicion about the their true motive in providing information; Second, the informant physically accompanied detectives to Detroit to demonstrate his knowledge, providing context to his testimony; Third, if the CI possessed information about the concealment of Natasha’s body after the fact, those could be admissions against his penal interest, meaning that the information he's providing could result in criminal responsibility, which can also lend credibility to a source.
BONES IN THE YARD
In the years following Natasha’s disappearance, Mandy remembered digging in the yard for a pond when she discovered bones. She placed them in a bucket. Mandy said that she travelled out of state following her discovery and that when she returned, the bones were gone, reportedly taken to school by a sibling. We were unable to find any details of why someone didn’t intercept the bones and give them to investigators, especially if they knew Natasha was missing. But later, Mandy found one more bone in the same spot at home and took it to the police station where she was later told that it was not human.[11]
Reports say that Susan Shanes would not let police do any digging on her property. But in 2023, according to Detective Mike Galbreath, police had their opportunity to thoroughly search the former Shanes home when the city took over the property which had been condemned. They enlisted the services of cadaver dogs and an anthropologist in the search, but found no signs of a body. Former Detective Hartman is confident about his information indicating that Natasha is buried in Detroit, but the search of the Shanes home was part of the due diligence that police need to address as part of their investigation.
Over the years there have been people who came forward claiming to be Natasha Shanes, but none of those claims has ever been confirmed. DNA samples from Natasha’s mother and Mandy are on file with CODIS, a national DNA database, in order to be compared with any unidentified persons.
Mandy Shanes said that after Natasha disappeared, it affected the lives of she and her siblings. “We really didn’t have a childhood after that,” she said. And she wants answers, saying, “without closure, there’s no peace.” In the years following Natasha’s disappearance, Mandy said the family travelled through many states posting flyers about Natasha. (See flyer in Show Notes at apbcoldcase.com). But Mandy says they are still a close family and hopes for the day when there is a resolution to Natasha’s investigation.
LIFELONG GOAL
The detectives are likewise hopeful to bring Natasha’s case to closure. Current case detective Mike Galbreath said that the case will remain open until there is an answer. A solemn retired detective Nat Gross said, “No child should be some place where their loved ones can’t visit them.” For seasoned detective Mel Hartman who worked on Natasha’s case in the first hours back in 1985, he said, “That’s been my lifelong goal, ever since that she disappeared, was to just find her and return those remains back to the family.” When APB Cold Case interviewed Hartman he was hospitalized, anxiously awaiting his discharge. We told Hartman that our interview could wait until he was better, but Hartman insisted on talking about Natasha’s case. It was personal to him - something he wanted to solve. Days after our interview, Mel Hartman passed away.
If you have any information about the disappearance of Natasha Shanes, call Jackson Michigan Police at 517-788-4100 or Crime Stoppers of Mid-Michigan at 517-483-7867 or the NCMEC hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST.
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[1] Mandy Shanes
[2] Det. Galbreath, Jackson MI PD
[3] Inside Detective magazine; May 1986
[4] Mandy Shanes
[5] Det. Galbreath, Jackson MI PD
[6] Det. Hartman
[7] Det. Hartman
[8] Det. Hartman
[9] Det. Hartman
[10] Det. Gross
[11] Mandy Shanes