West Valley mom buries teenage daughter, 20 years later

West Valley mom buries teenage daughter, 20 years later

Posted: 04/05/2011

By: Brian Webb

By: Jamie Ioos

EL MIRAGE, AZ - A West Valley mother said final goodbyes to her daughter on Tuesday, 20 years after the 16-year-old's unidentified remains were buried without a name.

Shannon Aumock's body was found in a remote area near Deer Valley Road and 20th Street by an ATV rider in 1992.

Police said Shannon had been brutally murdered.

Because her body was never identified, she was buried as a Jane Doe in a cemetery in Tempe.

But police didn’t give up, and in 2010, detectives tried to solve the long standing cold case.

They exhumed Shannon’s body and went through 1,600 missing persons cases.

This time, they matched DNA from Shannon to her biological mother, Tawne Townsend.

While police are still searching for the teen's killer, the connection allowed Shannon's mother to bury her daughter, but this time closer to home at the Sunwest Cemetery in El Mirage.

At the ceremony were Shannon's grown friends and even some detectives who had helped to identify her remains.

With lots of pictures, flowers and stuffed animals, family and friends said goodbye to the teen – but for the first time in two decades, she was back to being called Shannon.