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A kidnapped child was raised by the man who took her — then, years later, Franklin Delano Floyd married her. The disturbing true story of Suzanne Sevakis became one of the most twisted kidnapping and murder cases in American true crime.
For years, the woman known as Tonya Hughes appeared to have lived a relatively ordinary life. But after her suspicious death in 1990, investigators began pulling apart her past and discovered that almost everything they thought they knew about her was false.
Her name wasn’t really Tonya Hughes.
The man claiming to be her husband had previously claimed to be her father.
And the deeper investigators went, the more horrifying the story became.
Her real name was Suzanne Marie Sevakis, and she had disappeared as a young child after convicted criminal Franklin Delano Floyd abducted her and raised her under a series of false identities. Over the years, Floyd moved Suzanne around the United States, changed their names repeatedly and presented himself as her father — before eventually marrying the girl he had raised.
But Suzanne’s story was only one part of what investigators would eventually uncover.
After Suzanne died following a suspicious hit-and-run, her young son Michael Hughes was placed into foster care. Floyd later kidnapped Michael from his elementary school at gunpoint, disappearing with him and triggering a mystery that would remain unresolved for decades.
Then investigators connected Floyd to another young woman: Cheryl Ann Commesso, who had disappeared in 1989. Years later, her remains were identified, photographs discovered in Floyd’s possession became crucial evidence, and Floyd was ultimately convicted of her murder and sentenced to death.
What followed was an extraordinary investigation spanning decades, multiple identities, kidnapping, murder, forensic evidence, FBI investigations and unanswered questions surrounding Suzanne Sevakis and Michael Hughes.
In today’s true crime deep dive, we’re breaking down the entire Franklin Delano Floyd case from start to finish — including Floyd’s criminal history, the kidnapping of Suzanne Sevakis, the false identities he created for them, Suzanne’s childhood, the disturbing change in their relationship, their marriage, the birth of Michael Hughes, Suzanne’s suspicious death, Michael’s disappearance, the murder of Cheryl Ann Commesso, the evidence that finally caught up with Floyd, his conviction, the decades-long search for Suzanne’s real identity and the eventual truth about what happened to Michael.
This is one of those disturbing true crime cases where every answer seems to uncover another secret — and somehow, the story becomes even darker the further back investigators go.
If you enjoy disturbing true crime documentaries, solved cold cases, kidnapping cases, murder investigations, criminal psychology, shocking true crime stories, missing persons cases, forensic investigations and long-form true crime deep dives, you’re in the right place.
Let me know your thoughts below. What shocked you most about the Franklin Delano Floyd case — Suzanne’s real identity, the fact that the man she knew as her father later married her, or the decades-long mystery surrounding Michael Hughes?
Podcast: True Crime w/ Anna Templeton