Shirley appealed her imprisonments and was released by the same judge, Gale Welsh, who had granted her bail before, she felt she did not pose a threat to society in general and should be free until the extradition case was decided to determined if she'd be sent to the US.
Shirley then sued for joint custody of Zachary and won.
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On July 2003, six months after being released, Shirley met a man at a bar in St. John's. The pair dated and slept twice but the man broke off the relationship after hearing about Andrew's murder. Shirley then made a total of 200 threatening phone calls to the man. Shirley claimed to have gotten pregnant by the man, but no evidence proves this to be true. The man contacted the authorities on 3 occasions to complain about the harassment which violated the terms of her bail and would have been grounds to loose custody of Zachary.
However, because the man didn't identify himself and declined to file a criminal complaint no investigation was launched. When an officer contacted Shirley's lawyer about the harassment she denied it.
On August 13th, Shirley purchased thirty sleeping pills from a St. John's pharmacy. She then drove with Zachary to an area by were her latest ex boyfriend lived, she parked her car and left photos of her and Zackary along with a used tampon on the front seat. She then spiked Zachary's formula with sleeping tablets and strapped the baby to her before jumping off a fishing wharf into the Atlantic Ocean. Both of them drowned.
She had left her car and photos near her ex boyfriend's home in order to frame him, but police knew it was suicide. She had no intention of loosing the custody she did have to Andrew's parents, she would rather the baby and herself be dead than allow that to happen.
Kathleen and David were beyond heartbroken, a bill was introduced as "Zachary's bill", which meant that courts could deny bail to those accused of serious crimes in the name of protecting their children. Kathleen and David not only lost their son but also their grandson in a span of two years.
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A/N: my heart goes out to them and damn, this case is a really sad one. If the judge had not appealed, Zachary could've been alive now. Shirley was a threat to society. Truly unfair. I would also like to recommend another
✨𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲: while you can search for more info about the case online there's a documentary from 2008 named "Dear Zachary" that I do recommend watching
here's also a video I found regarding the case if you're interested
