Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
‘Witch’ charged with kidnapping son of missing mom Cavett
He claims to be a fearless witch with magical powers.
Shannon Demar Ryan also claims to be one of the last to lay eyes on Leila Cavett, the wide-eyed missing mom whose toddler son was found alone and lost, wandering in a parking lot in Miramar.
Now the self-proclaimed witch from rural Alabama is facing federal charges of kidnapping the child with the intent of raising ransom money.
Ryan, 38, has not been charged in Cavett’s disappearance, but investigators on Monday revealed chilling news that he’d bought bleach, duct tape and carpet deodorizer at Walmart and researched how to make chloroform.
On Saturday, he was arrested on charges of lying to federal officials. Court documents filed Monday show he’s also been charged with kidnapping the missing mom’s 2-year-old son, Kamdyn.
FBI agents say they used surveillance video and witness statements to poke holes in Ryan’s story, but his mother told the South Florida Sun Sentinel there was no way her
son was involved in a kidnapping.
“Shannon is not no evil, violent person,” she said Monday from her home in Alabama. “Shannon loves every living thing around him. My son ain’t kidnap no child. That’s a bunch of bull. He’s not that type person. He would not harm anyone.”
Court records released Monday give more insight into what led to Ryan’s arrest, three weeks after a 21-year-old single mom drove here from Georgia with her toddler.
Here’s the story he told law enforcement officials:
Ryan says he had known Cavett since January 2019 and talked her into driving to South Florida so he could buy her truck for $3,000. They met at a RaceTrac gas station at 5800 Hollywood Boulevard around 2:30 p.m. July 25.
He took Cavett and her son to Fort Lauderdale beach in his gold Lexus, not returning to the gas station until 2:30 a.m. July 26.
Ryan claims Cavett and her son then got into a dark sedan with several men. And that was the last time he saw her.
Caught on camera
But video surveillance of the gas station does not show Cavett and her son getting into a dark sedan, the FBI said in an affidavit. It also does not show Ryan’s car at the station pumps, where he claimed to be.
In addition, surveillance footage of the apartment building where Cavett’s son was found shows a vehicle resembling Ryan’s Lexus in front of the complex just minutes before the child was found.
Cavett kept in touch with family and friends over Facebook messenger, her relatives say. The messages stopped as of July 26.
That day, Ryan used Cavett’s debit card to make purchases at the RaceTrac gas station and Walmart, law enforcement officials say. At 9:42 a.m., surveillance cameras and store receipts show Ryan buying extra large 39-gallon trash bags and two boxes of extra strength carpet deodorizer. Fifteen minutes later, the cameras show Ryan going back into Walmart and buying a roll of advanced strength duct tape.
The purchases were made not long after Cavett’s little boy was abandoned, authorities say.
On Aug. 15, law enforcement officials searched Ryan’s Lexus and made a suspicious find: a halfempty container of all-purpose cleaner with bleach, several black trash bags and a white powdery substance under the front passenger seat.
In Cavett’s truck, they found shovels with small red droplets on them.
One employee at the RaceTrac gas station recognized a photo of Ryan and remembered him using the station’s dumpster. Video surveillance shows Ryan parked in front of the dumpster in his Lexus on July 26.
Another gas station employee recalled seeing children’s toys and women’s clothing inside the dumpster on July 26 — including a pair of floral pants worn by Cavett.
FBI agents analyzed Ryan’s phone and discovered he had searched Google at 12:01 a.m on July 26 — the day after Cavett disappeared — for the phrase, “What day does commercial garbage pickup for Hollywood, Florida.”
At 1:45 a.m., the affidavit says, he searched for “Does bleach and alcohol make chloroform.”
Ryan appeared in federal court Monday and claimed to make $2,500 to $3,000 per month. He did not give his line of work, but said he was self-employed.
He told the court he does not own a home, land or property and has no money in the bank.
“I have a car, but it’s not worth a lot of money,” he said.
‘Wouldn’t hurt a flea’
Ryan travels back and forth from South Florida to Alabama to do psychic readings, according to his mother, who requested that her name not be used.
“He’d stay with a friend or at a motel or wherever he could stay,” she said.
She declined to give details about her son and his life, other than to proclaim his innocence.
“My son would not hurt a flea or a fly,” she said. “There’s no way I believe he would do anything to anybody. He’s not that kind of person.”
Family friend Mark Sawyer said Ryan’s arrest stunned him.
“His mama called me today and told me he’d been arrested,” Sawyer said from his home in Marion, Alabama. “Only thing I can say, it’s hard for me to believe he kidnapped anyone. I didn’t think he was capable of doing anything like that.”
Sawyer, 54, met Ryan decades ago, when he was just a boy.
“I’ve known him 30 something years,” said Sawyer,
who’s had a longtime relationship with Ryan’s mother. “I haven’t seen him in a little while. Last saw him a month or two ago.”
Sawyer said Ryan had been living with his mother in Sprott, just northeast of Marion. At some point, he might have moved to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, about 115 miles north of Birmingham.
But his work would frequently take him far from home.
“I don’t really know what he does,” Sawyer said. “But he travels around. He goes everywhere. I didn’t even know Shannon was in Florida.”
Ryan’s Facebook profile lists him as the owner of Magnetic Kundalini, a business specializing in witchcraft, knowledge of self, kemetic kundalini, chakra meditation, health, wellness, fitness and mentorship.
On social media, Ryan said he was questioned by police yet insisted he had nothing to do with Cavett’s disappearance.
In the days since Cavett went missing, Ryan made hundreds of posts on Facebook, in some cases almost taunting the police.
“I have never seen one person get put in jail for issuing threats to use magic, demons, hexes and curses to f—- up a person Life during so called modern times,” he wrote just a few days before his arrest. “I’m trying to see if I’m the first. Please come Crucify me. If it’s a Witch Hunt you want, it’s a Witch Hunt you will get. I guess we learned nothing from the Salem Witch trials? This time I will dance in your fires.”
In another post he claimed not to fear death.
“Most people fear death, but not me,” he wrote. “I await death. … I feel sorry for the person who thinks they can just kill me and that’s the end of it. … I’m stay right here with you, haunting your every waking moment.”