Ann Marie Shaw Godbey Missing Person Case

Jan 28, 2026

Jan 28, 2026

Ann

Marie Shaw Godbey

28

28

Unknown inches

Asian

Female

In the winter of 1995, a 28-year-old woman named Ann Marie Shaw Godbey vanished from Manassas, Virginia. A mother of two, Ann Marie, a female of Filipino descent, was last seen on December 3rd of that year. She shared her children with a former boyfriend, an independent contractor named Walter Thomas Godbey. Although the couple had never married, Ann Marie often went by his last name. Earlier in 1995, she had been granted custody of their children, and a court had ordered Walter to provide child support. Following her disappearance, Walter Godbey told a story that she had dropped their children off at his residence on Oronoco Lane in Manassas and then left for the Philippines to visit her mother. For years, Ann Marie's absence remained a quiet mystery, not officially a missing person's case. Her sister, Jewel Terry, later explained that they had an argument around the time Ann Marie disappeared and were estranged, which is why she didn't immediately contact the police. However, suspicion began to cloud Walter Godbey's account. Terry knew that her sister did not possess a passport, and their mother had passed away years prior, making a trip to the Philippines highly unlikely. The silence was finally broken in December 2001, when Walter Godbey was arrested for the murder of an America Online marketing director, Douglas Alexander Small. This event prompted Ann Marie's sister to formally report her as missing, nearly six years after she was last seen. The investigation into Ann Marie's disappearance then began to gain momentum, with law enforcement focusing on her former boyfriend as a person of interest. The investigation into Ann Marie’s disappearance uncovered disturbing details. Walter Godbey’s wife, Carla, led police to a box hidden under the stairs in their home containing Ann Marie’s birth certificate, Social Security card, driver's license, credit cards, and cherished pictures of her children. Carla also made a chilling claim to investigators, stating that Walter had confessed to murdering Ann Marie and had even shown her the body while threatening her with a gun. She alleged that Ann Marie's body had been dismembered and her torso buried in a wooded park in Fairfax, Virginia, though a search of the area yielded no evidence. In November 2009, Walter Godbey was indicted for murder in connection with Ann Marie's death. He ultimately pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in June 2010. For his role in her death, he received a ten-year prison sentence, to be served on top of the thirty years he was already serving for the murder of Douglas Small. Despite his conviction, Ann Marie Shaw Godbey's body has never been recovered, leaving her family without the closure of a final resting place. The case that began as a missing person report after years of silence ultimately unraveled a story of domestic turmoil and violence, officially closing as a tragic homicide.

Dec 03, 1995

Manassas

Virginia

Manassas

Prince William County Police Departmen

703-792-7200

06/28/2026