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The mystery runs deep.
By Jonathan Alfano — Written on Jul 04, 2022
Netflix's documentary “The Girl In The Picture” is raising decades-old questions about who Michael Anthony Hughes’ real father is.
The documentary, which releases on July 6, centers around Franklin Delano Floyd and the kidnapping of Suzanne Marie Sevakis, who also went by the names Sharon Marshall and Tonya Hughes throughout her kidnapping.
Floyd first met Sevakis in 1974, when he met and eventually married her mother, Sandi Chipman. In 1975, Chipman served 30 days in jail for passing bad checks, and left Sevakis and her three younger children in Floyd’s care during her sentence.
When Chipman finished her sentence, Floyd and her children were nowhere to be found. She found her two middle children, Allison and Amy, in the care of social services, however, Sevakis and her youngest child Phillip remained missing.
Floyd kept Sevakis in his custody and the two formed a “father-daughter relationship.” Later on, Floyd married Sevakis.
Sevakis died in a hit-and-run in Oklahoma City in 1990, and Floyd was named a suspect but never charged. Floyd put Michael, then two years old, into foster care and disappeared. A DNA test later proved that Floyd was not Michael’s biological father.
Who is Michael Anthony Hughes’ father?
After DNA evidence proved Floyd was not Michael's father, theories developed linking other men in Sevakis's life.
The little evidence there is regarding Michael’s father points to a man named Gregory Higgs, who was a resident of Oregon according to The Oklahoman.
Legal documents from the case state that Sevakis entered a relationship with Higgs while she and Floyd were living in Phoenix in 1987. At some point in the relationship, Sevakis became pregnant with Michael, but she did not tell Higgs the news. She and Floyd then moved to Tampa, Florida, and she gave birth to Michael on April 21, 1988.
The documents add that Floyd contacted Higgs following Sevakis’ death in 1990 and asked him if he wanted to raise Michael. Higgs told Floyd that he wanted to raise Michael, and Floyd vowed to deliver Michael within a month. However, he never heard from Floyd again.
Web sleuths have also theorized that a man named Kevin Brown was Michael's father. Sevakis and Brown had a relationship and were allegedly planning to run away together before her death.
Floyd later kidnapped and killed Michael.
On September 12, 1994, Floyd abducted Michael from his elementary school, and the child has not been seen since. Floyd insisted that Michael was still alive, but would not reveal where he was. In 2015, Floyd finally admitted to the FBI that he killed Michael on the day of the kidnapping
“Floyd felt the pressure and he just ran out of patience,” FBI agent Scott Lobb said. “He turned and looked at me and said, ‘I shot him twice in the back of the head to make it real quick.’”
Floyd has been on death row since he was convicted of a separate murder in 2002. With DNA tests proving that he was not Hughes’ real dad, the mystery of who the child’s biological father remained.
Jonathan Alfano is a writer who focuses on news and entertainment topics. Follow him on Twitter to keep up with his content.