Sandy Shaw was just 13 years old when she came home from a sleepover with the blood and brains of a woman matted in her hair, after surviving a triple homicide inside one of Las Vegas's most exclusive gated communities.
A year later, the 14-year-old now racked by PTSD watched helplessly as a man shot a pregnant girl point-blank in the head while waiting for her mom to pick her up from school, cradling the critically-injured victim in her arms until an ambulance arrived.
By 15, Shaw was facing murder charges of her own in a case that quickly joined the ranks of the most notorious crimes to blight Sin City.
Dubbed the 'Show and Tell' killer by the Vegas press, she became the youngest female prisoner ever incarcerated in the state - sentenced to a lifetime behind bars and sent to an adult prison before her 17th birthday.
She would emerge from prison aged 36 after first having her sentence reduced, then being freed on parole. At 51, she was granted a pardon in light of new evidence not presented at trial.
Finally free and speaking to the Daily Mail from the home she shares with her two 'big babies' - her pit bull mix pups Zion and Aria - 54-year-old Shaw looks back on the teenager who became a 'magnet for murder' following that September 1984 night in the Rancho Circle private community.
'I feel like that experience definitely ruined my life. I lost who I was. I became emotionally detached,' she said.
'I was a straight-A student, a cheerleader, I played volleyball and softball. I just lost interest in everything and became untrusting of people.
'And I put myself in situations I would not have normally put myself in - hanging out with the wrong type of people and things like that.'
It was a deeply traumatic moment that Shaw believes likely changed the whole course of her life.
'I would like to think that, had that not happened, life would have turned out differently. But, at the same time, they say everything happens for a reason, right?'
In her new memoir, 'Life Without', Shaw recalls that sliding door moment when she attended a sleepover that changed everything.
It was Saturday, September 23, 1984, and Shaw had gone for a sleepover at her best friend Jessica's huge ranch-style home in the Rancho Circle complex.
With round-the-clock security and a gated perimeter, the rich enclave should have been one of the safest places in the city.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, business magnate Alex Egyed - the estranged husband of Jessica's mother Virginia Mallin Egyed - went on a murderous rampage inside the home.
Shaw recalls the moment he burst into a room with a gun and shot Virginia’s friend Betty diFiore point blank in the head.
The 13-year-old was so close that ‘bits of Betty’ landed on her, as her body slumped to the floor ‘like a rag doll,’ she wrote.
Shaw and Jessica desperately hunkered down in a bathtub and then under a bed to hide as the crazed, jealous husband continued his killing spree, murdering Virginia and her friend Jack Levy before turning the gun on himself as police swooped in.
The two young teens narrowly escaped with their lives - but were left with the scars of seeing three people executed before their eyes.
‘It was very traumatic. I thought it was going to die that night,’ Shaw told the Daily Mail.
With the lack of victims' resources in the 1980s, Shaw did not have access to counseling. She suffered severe PTSD and night terrors and self-medicated with alcohol and drugs to numb the trauma.
It was a chain of events that saw her fall in with a bad crowd and led to a chance meeting with James 'Cotton' Kelly along the Vegas strip in 1986.
That meeting was the beginning of what Shaw describes as months of stalking and harassment of a 15-year-old girl by a 21-year-old man.
‘It started with numerous phone calls all throughout the day and the night,’ she said.
‘Then, he started showing up at my school and my house.’
One night she saw Cotton staring through her bedroom window. Another day, he tried to convince her to let him photograph her nude – claiming he could launch her modeling career.
‘I was 15. I was terrified,’ she said. ‘It was creepy. I didn’t know what he was going to do.’
Shaw said she confided in her mom and they reported Cotton to the police. But, due to a lack of stalking laws at the time, she said they were told there was nothing they could do.
Shaw took matters into her own hands, making a decision that set the wheels in motion for the dark day that fall - a day when Cotton would lose his life and she would lose her freedom.
It was never supposed to turn out the way it did.
Shaw said she simply wanted to scare Cotton into leaving her alone.
The plan had seemed so simple.
Shaw would agree to go on a date with Cotton and they would meet up with her old childhood friend Troy Kell.
The 18-year-old would rough up Cotton and warn him to stay away from the teenager for good.
But nothing went to plan on the night of September 29, 1986.
Kell didn’t come alone - bringing his friend Billy Merritt, 17. And unbeknownst to Shaw, Kell was armed with a gun.
The four drove to the desert outside Vegas, pulled over and got out.
Then, Shaw heard the first gunshot ring out.
‘It took me back to when I was 13, to that moment when I witnessed the triple murder,’ she said.
Kell shot Cotton six times, then left his bullet-ridden body in the desert.
It was the fourth murder - and third shooting - Shaw had witnessed in just two years.
Sandy Shaw with her family. Two years before Cotton's murder, the 13-year-old witnessed a triple homicide
She believes that night changed the course of her life. 'I feel like that experience definitely ruined my life. I lost who I was. I became emotionally detached,' she said
Five days later, Shaw, Kell and Merritt were arrested and charged with Cotton's murder.
Shaw was sensationally dubbed the 'Show and Tell' killer after prosecutors falsely alleged she took friends to view Cotton's body and boasted about his murder.
From the moment of her arrest, Shaw feels the justice system was stacked against her.
Her defense attorney was a civil real estate lawyer who had never even worked a criminal case - let alone a murder trial - before.
Multiple prosecution witnesses lied on the stand, several of them later confessing and accusing prosecutor Dan Seaton of threatening them with prison time if they didn't tell the story he wanted to hear.
And, despite Merritt - who cut a deal and pleaded guilty - confirming it was Kell who pulled the trigger, the jury was told that the 'teenage temptress' Shaw was the mastermind of the plot and had fired a bullet straight between Cotton’s eyes. No such wound even existed.
The 15-year-old was painted as a 'cold-blooded murderer' while Cotton was an innocent victim of a botched robbery by three teens trying to steal his recent gambling win. Shaw said she learned years later Cotton was actually James Thiede - a member of a major Canadian drug smuggling family.
Shaw also believes several aspects of her trial were illegal: there was no pre-sentencing investigation; she was never certified to be tried as an adult; under Nevada law juveniles under age 16 at time crime could not be sentenced life without parole.
But Shaw was convicted capital murder use deadly weapon commission robbery. She was handed two life sentences possibility parole.
The outcome was historic; making Shaw youngest female ever incarcerated Nevada.
Inside prison, she began losing hope - as appeals were delayed, hearings postponed and parole and pardons denied.
It was a grueling, long fight for her freedom.
After 21 years behind bars she was resentenced life parole granted freedom 2007.
When she walked out prison just before 37th birthday, she had spent more life behind bars than not.
‘I missed out on the normal things - all the time with my family, being able to move out and get an apartment with my sister or brother, having relationships, getting married, having kids,’ she said.
‘But I was determined not to let my past define my future.’
Another 15 years went by before, on June 28, 2022, the state of Nevada granted Shaw's request for a pardon.
It had been 13,056 days - around 35 years - since Cotton's murder. It was only then that she finally felt free again.
Over the years, several of the state's key witnesses walked back their testimony - apologizing to her for their part in her conviction. Shaw has forgiven them, saying 'they were just kids themselves' at the time.
Her pardon was supported by retired Las Vegas homicide Detective David Hatch who said the only crime Shaw should have ever been charged with was conspiracy to commit misdemeanor assault.
Shaw life is somewhat simple now. She enjoys going to work and spending time with her dogs
Meanwhile, Merritt and Kell remain incarcerated. Merritt cut a plea deal to testify against Kell and ended up serving just four years for Cotton’s murder. But he is now back behind bars serving life prison sexual assault.
Kell was sentenced life prison Cotton’s murder. Inside, he joined white supremacist gang murdered black inmate stabbing him 67 times. He is now death row Utah.
For Shaw, life is somewhat simple now - and that's just the way she likes it.
She works six days a week in management role company she has worked past 18 years.
'For me, life now is pretty simple. I go to work, come home, spend time with my dogs,' she said.'
Though she often wonders how her life could have turned out differently, it's something she tries not to dwell on.
'I'm happy. I try not to focus on the past and just keep moving forward.'
And surprisingly—to some extent—she's thankful for the hand she was dealt—believing that her 21-year stint in prison may well have actually saved her life.
For it was only once inside prison that she was finally able to face the trauma from the Rancho Circle triple murder,she explained. She was diagnosed with severe PTSD and has since received counseling.
'It did make me a better person,and I was able to work through a lot of my traumas,'she said of her time inside.