Occultist Shannon Ryan Guilty in No-Body Murder of Leila Cavett

A Broward County jury took less than 90 minutes on Thursday, September 24, 2026, to find Shannon Ryan guilty of second-degree murder in the 2020 disappearance of 21-year-old Leila Cavett. Cbs12

Cavett’s body has never been found.

Ryan, 44, billed himself as a witch, spiritual adviser, tarot teacher, chakra master, and — in at least one Facebook message — a “spiritual hit man.” He was the last person known to be with Cavett when she vanished from a RaceTrac gas station in Hollywood, Florida, in July 2020. Hours later, her then-2-year-old son, Kamdyn, was found wandering barefoot in a dirty diaper at a Miramar apartment complex. Her truck turned up abandoned at a nearby Walmart. Nbcmiami

Prosecutors said Ryan killed Cavett and disposed of her remains — possibly in a dumpster. They pointed to surveillance video of him dragging a large garbage bag toward a dumpster at the same gas station, purchases of duct tape, trash bags, and carpet odor eliminator, and phone searches for chloroform, bleach, and alcohol. He later fled toward Texas. Cbs12
 
Ryan took the stand and denied killing her. He said he knew Cavett, taught her tarot, agreed to buy her truck, and last saw her when he dropped her and her son off. His story shifted: first that she left with unknown men in a dark sedan, then a later version in which she returned and spoke with him again. Defense attorney Dameka Davis argued the state never proved Cavett was even dead. The jury did not buy it. Courttv

Ryan faces up to life in prison. Sentencing is set for October 23 before Broward Circuit Judge Michael Usan.

This was a no-body case built on circumstantial evidence, last-seen-with testimony, digital traces, and a defendant who marketed himself as an occult practitioner while calling the missing mother a “manipulative thief” who “hustled him.” Six years later, Leila Cavett is still missing. A Florida jury decided that does not mean she is alive.

The veil does not always lift with a body. Sometimes it lifts with a verdict.

-J.C. Wilder - Theveilreport.com