Shauna the sexual exploiter screws over soldiers

A woman has been held without bond for the past three weeks after charges that she married men, then left them without divorcing her previous husbands. Shauna Marie Keith, 27, is currently facing bigamy and fraud charges in Georgia.

Shauna’s mother, Cindy Gibson, who lives in Gresham, OR, told Good Morning America that she was expecting this.

"This is somewhat of a shock, but I've been expecting this. For the last five or six years, I've gotten random calls from men saying, 'I think I am married to your daughter.’”

Gibson told "GMA" her daughter suffers from Munchausen syndrome, a disorder where a person tells fictitious stories about their health or background in order to gain sympathy and attention. "People with factitious disorders act this way because of an inner need to be seen as ill or injured , " the Cleveland Clinic says about the condition on its Web site.

"If the world she's living in doesn't fit her needs, she creates another reality," said Gibson.

Authorities count at least five marriages starting in 1999 to men stationed at bases from San Diego to North Carolina. Some of those marriages ended legally, but in others, she just left. Keith, who is currently pregnant, has three children, two of whom Gibson legally adopted.

Georgia authorities say that Keith's reality has included leaving her military husbands financially and emotionally devastated and abandoning at least three children to be raised without their mother. Walton County Sheriff's Office Detective Jim Mayes counts seven names, five different Social Security numbers and three dates of birth used by Keith since 1999At least three times, Mayes said, Keith has been married to two men at the same time.

Mayes began investigating Keith in early January, shortly after she was married to a staff sergeant Marine at a Christmas Eve ceremony in Georgia. After a doctored license and other evidence of identity theft was discovered, suspicious family members called police.

On Jan. 4, a warrant was issued for Keith’s arrest — her birth name is Shauna Marie McDonald. The next day, Keith was picked up in Beaufort County, S.C., just miles from the Parris Island Marine Corps base. She was staying with another Marine when authorities found her.

Shauna was returned to Walton County January 11th. She currently faces bigamy and fraud charges, and is being held without bond because she is considered a flight risk.

During Mayes' investigation, which included interviews with Keith and conversations with Gibson, Mayes says a timeline emerged showing at least five marriages that began in 1999 when Keith married a Navy sailor based in San Diego. Keith gave birth to her first child during that marriage, which ended in divorce. A California court, Mayes said, gave full custody of the child to the father. Keith then reportedly married a member of the Air Force stationed at Fort Carson, Colo. She became pregnant during that marriage and the child was ultimately adopted by Gibson, Mayes said. That marriage was legally dissolved after Keith left the man.

In August 2006, Keith married again, this time to a soldier stationed at Fort Knox, Ky. Sometime around that date, Mayes said, she gave birth to a third child, whose father remains unclear. That child was also adopted by Keith's mother. Soon after, she left that husband without a divorce, Mayes said, adding that the soldier has continued to work to get military officials to annul his marriage to Keith.

Just months later, in January 2007, Keith allegedly married a fourth military man, this time someone met at Fort Riley, Kan. In that case, the Army soldier found out that Keith was still legally married to the third husband from Fort Knox and the Army annulled the marriage, Mayes said.

After that, Keith met her most recent husband, a Marine Corps staff sergeant stationed at Cherry Point, N.C. After talking online, they met and subsequently married in a civil ceremony Christmas Eve in Walton County, Ga.

While Shauna had never actually enlisted in the military, she had obtained a military issued card which allowed her to go on and off bases without any suspicion. Shauna faces possibly more fraud charges.

There was never any love, and never any caring. The marriages were a sham, and her husbands were the victims of a sexual predator and exploiter.

Dr. Bob Shoop, the specialist in teacher/student sex abuse, calls it intimate sexual exploitation.

(Shoop, 2004, Sexual Exploitation In Schools, page 3)

The modus operandi of the intimate exploiter involves leading the youngster to believe the educator has a genuine desire for a mutually committed intimate relationship. The immature youngster is often mesmerized by the belief that a charming, smart sophisticated, attractive adult is interested in him or her.

Regardless of the sincerity of the adult’s motivation, the intent is irrelevant; the impact of the behavior is exploitative.

The same processes can be defined for sexually exploitive relationships between adults outside an education or other fiduciary setting. It is my view that most bigamous, abusive, and otherwise dysfunctional adult relationships have this type of exploitation.

All of Shauna’s victims believed that they were into an mutually committed intimate relationship, otherwise, they would not have married her. While the military men which Shauna exploited were not kids, and were not students, they believed that a young attractive woman were into them for their military service and their high moral vaules and sense of duty. Indeed, the sense of duty led one victim to take full care of his child after Shauna abandoned the child. yet the same exploitation inherent in teacher/student sex occurred.

Factors include

1) Hormones – the sex drive of a male under 40 is not that much weaker than that of a teenager.
2) The desire to settle down and have kids, which she exploited for her own purposes.

3) Power imbalances between the exploiter and the victims, where there is no formal power difference, but the foreknowledge that she would cut and run acts as a power difference.

There are a lot a comments about this case. Some comments are from parents of grown sons who are trying to deal with other exploiters, some blame both the (alleged) victims and Shauna's mom, and others shed more light on the situation.

Statement from Shauna's family:

Our family has been deeply saddened by the developments in the life of our daughter, Shauna Keith. Shauna has long suffered from Munchausen (facticious) syndrome, but only within the past few years did we become aware of this little-known disorder.

Unfortunately, she would not respond to our requests to receive medical and psychiatric help. We have been working with the police and child protection services in several states for the past five years sharing with them what little information we received on Shauna’s whereabouts. We are relieved that Shauna is now incarcerated in hopes she can make retribution for her mistakes and eventually receive the help she so desperately needs.

Our greatest hope is that no one else, especially husbands and children, will be harmed or heartbroken by her actions. We hope the families who have been hurt can find it in their hearts to forgive her. We ask the news media to please respect our privacy at this time as we search for ways to best help those affected by this ordeal.