He had everything set for a perfect life by his parents—until he aimed to destroy theirs.
On the evening of March 2, 2018, Ted and Corey Shaughnessy, owners of a Texas jewelry store, were enjoying a typical night. They dined, watched television, and then retired for the night.
At approximately 4:30 a.m., the couple was startled when one of their dogs began barking. Ted armed himself with a gun and went to investigate. Soon after, a gunshot echoed through the house.
“Immediately following that, there was a flurry of gunfire,” Corey recounted on Oxygen’s Dateline: Secrets Uncovered. “It was incredibly close.”
Corey quickly armed herself and moved to the side of the bed. She saw light streaming through the bedroom door as the intruder shot their dog.
In a state of panic, she fired back, grabbed her phone, and retreated into a nearby closet, where she urgently called 911.
As she remembered, “I knew I was going to die.”
Yet, somehow Corey managed to survive. By the time emergency responders arrived to her Austin home 15 minutes later, the intruders were gone. Badly shaken, Corey was convinced her husband must have been killed in a robbery gone wrong—but the truth was more chilling than she could ever imagine.
Who Were Ted and Corey Shaughnessy?
To those who knew them, Ted and Corey seemed like an ideal couple. While Ted, the more outgoing of the pair, had served as the face of their business, Gallerie Jewelers, the more reserved Corey worked behind the scenes as the appraiser.
At the center of their world was their adopted son Nicholas.
“They seemed inseparable,” friend Vicki Frenk remembered of the family. “They were like the three musketeers…They did everything together.”
Nicholas Shaughnessy, Jaclyn Edison Provide Support For Corey Shaughnessy
By the time of Ted’s murder, 19-year-old Nicholas was living two hours away in College Station with his high school sweetheart-turned-wife Jaclyn Edison.
“Nick, Nick, Nick, Nick,” Corey said in a call to her son that night. “Dad’s dead.”
A seemingly shocked Nick replied, “Wait, what?” before he assured his mother that he and Jackie were on their way to Austin.
In the months that followed, Jackie and Nick were a constant source of support for Corey as they moved into her house, helped her to trigger her memory and even began working at the jewelry store, allowing her to keep the business from closing.
Detectives Turn Their Focus to Nicholas Shaughnessy
But while Corey was finding comfort in her son’s presence, detectives began to suspect he was hiding something, especially after learning the killers had entered through the same window Nick often used to sneak out of as a teen.
“I assumed at that point that they were looking at him for the very reasons they were looking at me,” Corey, who hired a defense attorney to protect her son, said. “It was easy.”
Soon, detectives learned that at the time of the murders Nick and Jackie—who loved the finer things and fancy clothes—were broke. Nick had blown through the $30,000 his parents had given him to begin a career as a day trader. And, he stood to collect $1 million in life insurance policies on each of his parents as the sole heir to their fortune.
Although surveillance footage captured Nick and Jackie at their apartment at the time of the murders, investigators found it odd that Nick had a box at his apartment with the same type of .380 ammunition used in the shooting.
Then, authorities recovered deleted text messages between Jackie and Nick that had inadvertently been saved to a Mac mini device in the apartment.
“Do they want 50k or not,” Jackie wrote to Nick on Feb. 23, 2018. “We can’t afford to pay half before.”
Detectives believed the suspicious communications were related to hiring somebody to carry out the murders. They also learned that Nick had asked others about killing his parents.
After reviewing phone records and witness accounts, they eventually linked the killings to hired hitmen Arieon Smith and Johnny Leon.
Nick and Jackie were arrested on May 29, 2018.
Corey was still holding out hope that Nick’s arrest had been a mistake, until her son’s defense attorney sat her down and explained that Ted had been killed by his own 40-caliber gun, which had been taken from the jewelry store and given to Arieon.
“I finally had my questions answered,” she said, “and I knew that Nicholas had done it.”
What Happened to Nicholas Shaughnessy and Jackie Edison?
Nick pleaded guilty to murder in April 2021 in exchange for a sentence of 35 years with the possibility of parole.
Arieon and Johnny also pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 35 years with the possibility of parole.
Jackie admitted to investigators that Nick talked about killing his parents, but claimed in recorded interviews that she didn’t believe he was serious.
Jackie agreed to plead guilty in 2023 to attempted conspiracy to commit murder. She received deferred adjudication, which allowed her to plead to the offense and be placed on probation without being convicted. She was ordered to spend 120 days in jail and spend 10 years on probation. In addition, every year on the anniversary of Ted’s death, she’ll spend two days in jail.
It wasn’t enough for Corey, who addressed her former daughter-in-law in a taped victim impact statement played in court.
“How long will it take for you to find another family to destroy?” she asked. “How long will it be before Bonnie finds her next Clyde? You are a monster. You are evil.”
What Does Nicholas Shaughnessy Say Today About the Murders?
Now behind bars, Nick admitted he had an ideal childhood.
“It was a perfect life,” he told Dateline’s Andrea Canning. “Everything you could ever dream of. I had parents who cared for me, who would do anything for me.”
Yet, he said as he entered adulthood, he was searching for an identity and became obsessed with the idea of inheriting his parent’s money to help him “create a new life.”
He called his actions “extremely cowardly” and described the murders as one of his “deepest regrets.”
As for what he would say to his mother today? “I wish that I could express how truly sorry I am,” he said. “The pain that I caused her was so selfish and I’m trying each and every day to be the best version of myself to hopefully show the world one day that that is not who I am.”
What Message Did Corey Shaughnessy Have For Her Son?
Corey hasn’t spoken to her son since his arrest. While she said she will always love her child, she doesn’t love the person Nick has become.
“I can’t tell you what I would give in this world to be able to talk, again, to his dad,” she said. “But I can’t. And so he’s not going to get to talk to me because ghosts can’t talk, and I’m supposed to be dead.”
