Dateline: Ghosts Can’t Talk - Who was Ted Shaughnessy and what happened to him? Disturbing details of the 2018 murder, revisited

Dateline brings us back into their investigation of a case that still seems unbelievable even after all these years. Ted Shaughnessy was a jeweler, a husband, a father, and a well, known person in Austin. His death was not a result of a random act, a tragic circumstance, or the work of strangers alone but something far more alarming.

He was killed in his own home as part of a murder-for-hire plan tied to family, money, and betrayal. The new Dateline episode Ghosts Can’t Talk looks at how that night unfolded, who Ted really was, and how a normal life collapsed in seconds.

This is the story of who Ted Shaughnessy was, how he died, and why the case still hurts to hear.

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Dateline: Ghosts Can’t Talk's is an episode that looks at a quiet life built on work, family, and trust

Before Dateline ever said his name, Ted Shaughnessy was known in a simple way. He was a business owner in Austin. He ran Gallerie Jewelers. He was married to his wife Corey for 30 years. He raised a son. He had parents, siblings, and a wide circle of people who cared about him.

Ted and Corey were described as true partners and their home was not a place of fear. It was where family gathered. It was where their son once lived. It was where trust felt safe.

That sense of safety is what makes the case so disturbing. There were no warning signs in Ted’s public life. No enemies. No dark business ties. No risky behavior. Just a man building a life and expecting that the people closest to him were doing the same.

Dateline brings this version of Ted forward first on purpose. Because without it, the crime becomes just a headline. With it, the crime becomes personal.

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The night everything broke and fell apart

Late on March 2, 2018, Ted and Corey were asleep when the sounds of an intruder woke them. Ted grabbed a gun and went to check. He was shot and killed inside his home.

Corey woke up to gunfire, grabbed the .357 she kept above her bed, and fired back.

She later told Dateline what those moments felt like. In a preview clip for Dateline NBC Corey says;

“I do not remember the sound of my gun...I remember seeing the muzzle from the opposite gun. He’s shooting at me and I’m shooting at him.”

When her gun ran out of bullets, Corey believed she was about to die. She escaped into the house and found Ted on the floor. He was already gone.

“Oh God,” Corey cried to the 911 dispatcher.

The dispatcher told her officers were on the way. Corey opened the front door.

“There’s no one here,” she said.

Andrea Canning, the Dateline correspondent, framed that moment clearly.

“No police. Just silence and the beginning of a mystery where nothing would be where it seemed.”

At first, the crime looked like a home invasion. But small details did not fit. The window used to enter the house was from the son’s old bedroom. The home security system had been disabled using Nicolas Shaughnessy’s phone. The trail did not lead outward. It led inward.

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How the plan was uncovered by the investigation team

Within months, police uncovered a plot that felt impossible to believe. Ted’s son Nicolas Shaughnessy and his wife Jaclyn Edison had hired two men, Arieon Smith and Johnny Leon, to carry out the attack. The goal was to kill both Ted and Corey and then collect life insurance money.

Investigators learned Nicolas and Edison were in debt and expected to receive about $8 million if Ted and Corey died.

All four were arrested and charged for their roles.

In April 2021, Nicolas Shaughnessy and Arieon Smith admitted their guilt in a conspiracy charge of attempting to commit capital murder. Each of them was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Johnny Leon also pleaded guilty, and as a result, he was given a 35, year sentence. Jaclyn Edison entered a guilty plea in 2023 and was given a 10, year probation sentence.

At a court hearing, Corey addressed the people responsible.

She said,

“Not me, my husband, anyone in our family, or any of our friends could have ever imagined that Nicolas and Jackie would want to have us murdered.”

She also said,

“They lived with me in our home, mine and Ted’s. They planned their future of profiting from the business that Ted and I had built for over 20 years. They took everything that I had to give, after failing to take my life.”

Her words are not dramatic. They are plain. That makes them heavier.

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The reason behind Dateline taking a look at the Ted Shaughnessy murder case

Andrea Canning told NBC Insider why this case stayed with her.

She said,

“It was like a movie script, only it was real life...My heart broke for her. It’s truly one of the most outrageous cases I’ve covered.”

She also said,

“The woman, the widow at the center of this, Corey Shaughnessy, said one thing that everyone needs to realize is that your whole life can change in a second. Don’t take anything for granted.”

Dateline is not retelling this story because it is shocking. It is retelling it because it shows how danger does not always come from strangers. Sometimes it grows quietly inside trust.

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Dateline: Ghosts Can’t Talk is not just about how Ted Shaughnessy died. It is about how a safe life can be turned upside down without warning. Ted was not a mystery figure. He was a normal man with a normal life who trusted the people around him.

That trust became the doorway to his death. Revisiting the case via Dateline is not about reopening wounds. It is about remembering who Ted was, how the crime happened, and why the truth matters even years later. The ghosts in this story do not speak. The living do. And their voices deserve to be heard.

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