Since its release earlier this month, the Netflix documentary Girl in the Picture has risen on the streaming service's charts a viewers have been shocked by the true events.
Directed by Skye Borgman, who previously helmed 2017’s Abducted in Plain Sight, and based on Matt Birkbeck’s works A Beautiful Child and Finding Sharon, the documentary tells the story of the kidnapped daughter-turned-wife of Franklin Delano Floyd, Suzanne Sevakis.
The Netflix synopsis reads: “A bright, beloved teenager full of promise. A dark, strange father who inspires dread. Later, the terrible truth about their relationship emerges.”
Born on September 9 1969, in Michigan, Sevakis was one of four children born to her mother Sandi Chipman.
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Growing up in Atlanta, she went by the alias Sharon Marshall. Sevakis was full of promise and was a popular student who excelled academically.
However, she also had a concerning relationship with her step-father, Franklin Delano Floyd.
A friend of Sevakis’ described him as being 'obsessed' with her, took lots of pictures of her, talked about her beauty, and bought her lingerie.
Sevakis went on to receive a scholarship to Georgia Tech, but fled to Alabama after falling unexpectedly pregnant.
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Floyd pretended to raise Suzanne as his child after her mother was sent to prison, and then he married her once she became an adult.
Sevakis began going by the name Tonya Hughes, and eventually had a son, Michael, to another man.
In 1990, Sevakis died tragically at the age of 20, in what seemed to be a simple hit-and-run.
She was found by the side of a road, with her groceries scattered around her, and died five days later from injuries unusual for car accident victims.
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Floyd was placed under suspicion for her murder, and their two-year-old son Michael was placed with a foster family.
Floyd eventually turned up at Michael’s elementary school in 1994 with a gun, abducted him, and shot him, the FBI says.
Investigators identified the deceased as Tonya Hughes, but when calling her mother, her mother stated she died as a toddler. Floyd claimed he had been back at a motel at the time of her death, where he was waiting for her.
The documentary traces this shocking story as it unravels, revealing the truth behind Sevakis’ sudden death, and exposing the atrocities enacted by Franklin Delano Floyd.
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Girl in the Picture is now streaming on Netflix.
Topics: TV and Film
Emma Xerri