Transcript

The Artist

From MrBallen Podcast · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 39 min · 7,733 words · 57 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "The Artist", an episode of MrBallen Podcast published June 9, 2025 (39 min, about 7,733 words). It mentions 8 people, works and ideas, including Shelley Nance, Daniel Willum, Detective Paul Elzie, Nathan Shuck, Ashley Ala.

What this episode is about

The story centers around the unsettling events that unfold in a Dallas apartment on September 10, 2009, when an art student discovers her roommate, Shelley Nance, unresponsive in her bedroom after a day of seemingly normal activities. As the narrative unfolds, the circumstances surrounding Shelley's isolation and the grim reality of her situation come to light, leaving a lasting impact on the discovering student.

Key takeaways

  • In a world where silence speaks volumes, Shelley’s missed text turns into a chilling prelude to tragedy.
  • Loneliness disguised as independence; sometimes, the walls we build to protect ourselves only keep out help.
  • Shelley’s artistic escape became a double-edged sword, illustrating that creativity can be a mask for hidden distress.
  • Procrastination isn’t just about unfinished homework; it can delay vital conversations, pressing us into silence until it’s too late.
  • In the art of life, the most haunting sketches remain the ones left unshared and the truths unspoken.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Shelley Nance, Nathan Shuck, September 11th, 2001, Art Institute of Dallas
  2. – 10:00: Ashley Ala, Shelley Nance, Colorado Rockies
  3. – 15:00: Detective Paul Elzie, Ashley Ala, September 11th, 2001
  4. – 20:00: Ashley Ala
  5. – 30:00: Daniel Willum, Detective Paul Elzie, Nathan Shuck, Art Institute of Dallas
  6. – 39:26: Daniel Willum

Notable quotes from "The Artist"

  • Shelley liked the fact that once inside of a room, she would not need to speak to anybody. She preferred it that way.
    about Shelley Nance · at
  • At 9:00 a.m. that same morning, Cynthia and her husband went for a scenic ride through the Colorado Rockies. But Cynthia barely noticed any of it because she still hadn't heard from Shel, and.
    about Colorado Rockies · at
  • At about the same time that Cynthia and her husband got this terrible news, Detective Paul Elzie placed a fan belt and motor oil on the checkout counter at a Dallas auto shop.…
    about Detective Paul Elzie · at
  • Detective Elie was interviewing Shel's roommate, Ashley, at the police station when he heard a knock at the door, and one of the officers handed him the autopsy results. Elsie stepped into the.
    about Ashley Ala · at
  • By Saturday, September 12th, after an excruciating, mentally torturous journey, Shel's parents finally arrived back in Texas and went to meet with Detective Elie. When they came into the.
    about September 11th, 2001 · at
  • Raise. She never drank alcohol or did drugs, stayed out late, or got into trouble. After that, Detective Elsie asked them what Shel's boyfriend, Nathan, was like. Shel's mom…
    about Nathan Shuck · at
  • On November 4th, 2011, Daniel was convicted of Shel's murder and sentenced to life in prison. After the conviction, Shel's mother found Nathan and gave him a big hug and told him she was sorry for.
    about Daniel Willum · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Shelley Nance — Person · Victim / central figure of the case narrative · 3 mentions · first at
    The episode reconstructs the events leading to Shelley Nance's murder and the investigation that followed.
  • Daniel Willum — Person · Nathan’s roommate; ultimate perpetrator (as presented); convicted murderer · 3 mentions · first at
    Evidence ties him to the crime (texts to Ashley, Walmart purchase of blue latex gloves matching fragment, key duplication); he is convicted and sentenced to life.
  • Detective Paul Elzie — Person · Lead investigator / homicide detective · 3 mentions · first at
    He drives the investigation: evaluates the scene, interrogates suspects, and connects evidence (latex fragment, surveillance, texts) to identify the killer.
  • Nathan Shuck — Person · Boyfriend of the victim; early primary suspect; later exonerated · 2 mentions · first at
    Police focus on him due to possible breakup motive, temper reputation, and suspicious evidence found in his apartment; later evidence points to his roommate instead.
  • Ashley Ala — Person · Roommate; discoverer of the body; early suspect/witness · 6 mentions · first at
    She finds Shelley’s body and calls 911; her timeline and the unexplained blood in the shared bathroom make her a focus of early suspicion.

Companies & orgs

  • Art Institute of Dallas — Company · Educational institution · 2 mentions · first at
    The school where Shelley Nance was a student, central to her story and the investigation.
    Back propped against a stack of pillows, and then she took out her notebook and pencil and began to draw. Shelley spent most of her time drawing on a computer at the Art…

Places & events

  • September 11th, 2001 — Event · Key date · 2 mentions · first at
    The day Shelley Nance's body was discovered, marking a pivotal moment in the story.
  • Colorado Rockies — Place · Scenic area · 1 mention · first at
    The location where Shelley's parents were when they received the tragic news, highlighting their isolation.

Full transcript with timestamps

On the afternoon of September 10th, 2009, an art student walked inside of her off-campus apartment in Dallas, Texas, and immediately began making herself a late lunch. A roommate didn't come out of the bedroom to greet her, but to be honest, this wasn't totally unusual. The two of them, despite being roommates, were not actually very close at all. After eating their food, the students studied for a while and then watched some TV and then went to bed. All the while still never hearing a sound coming out of a roommate's bedroom. But again, this was normal.

That is until the next day when the student received a call from their school telling her to go back to her apartment to check on her roommate because apparently the roommate's mother was very concerned about them. The student was annoyed but went back to the apartment and when they walked into the roommate's bedroom, they would see something that would haunt them for years and it would instantly explain why their roommate had not come out of the room. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So, if that's of interest to you, please offer to change the oil in the follow buttons car, but be sure you replace their oil with vegetable oil. Okay, let's get into today's story.

On the evening of Wednesday, September 9th, 2009, 20-year-old Shelley Nance walked into her bedroom inside of her off-campus apartment in Dallas, Texas, and then shut the door behind her. Shelley liked the fact that once inside of a room, she would not need to speak to anybody. She preferred it that way. She settled down on her bed with her back propped against a stack of pillows, and then she took out her notebook and pencil and began to draw. Shelley spent most of her time drawing on a computer at the Art Institute of Dallas, where she was a secondyear multimedia and animation student. But when she was by herself and just wanted to relax, she preferred just using pencil and paper.

Tonight, Shelley began sketching a young woman who looked a lot like herself, slender with long- flowing hair and just the hint of a smile on her face. Shelley originally began drawing to escape the boredom of growing up in the tiny town of Itley, Texas, where she'd always been something of a loner. She even joked about that in her senior yearbook, choosing a biting quote to go with her picture. She wrote, "You laugh at me because I'm different. I laugh at you because you're all the same. But Shelley got so good at drawing that it actually changed her life. She eventually won an art competition that gave her a partial scholarship to this art institute. And suddenly Shel had a plan for life after high school to be an artist. As soon as she got to the art school and started meeting her eccentric and creative classmates, Shel felt like she'd finally found her place. For the first time ever, she had friends who actually

understood and accepted her quirks. They would go to anime conventions together and even dress up as their favorite anime characters. It was a world that Shelley frankly never could have imagined back in her hometown, which was basically no more than a truck stop along a highway. And going to this art institute provided another big first for Shel. She had a boyfriend, Nathan Shuck, and they often could be found playing video games together on the couch at his apartment. But as Shelley sat there sketching tiny doves into her picture, she realized that having this active social life now could actually be kind of a burden.

Until recently, she had never had to consider anybody else's feelings but her own. But now having a boyfriend meant she had to plan for two people. And after dating Nathan for 2 months now, she was actually starting to have her doubts about the relationship. She thought Nathan was a good person, but deep down she knew she didn't feel about him the way he felt about her. Now, she didn't want to hurt his feelings, but at the same time, she couldn't help but feel really strongly that she kind of just wanted to break up with him. She just had no idea how to actually tell him. Shelley put her pencil down and closed her sketch pad, hoping for a new distraction. And she found one after she hopped on her computer and went on a popular website looking at other artists work. And Shel's thoughts very quickly kind of drifted away from Nathan and the seemingly imminent unpleasant conversation that she was going to have

with him. After a while, Shelley looked up at the clock and she was shocked to see that it was already 6:00 in the morning. She'd been up all night. She really needed to get some rest before her classes that afternoon. So, she left her room to make sure the front door was locked. Then, she went back to her bedroom, closed the door, crawled back into bed, and drifted off to sleep.

A little more than 24 hours later, at 7:00 a.m. on Friday, September 11th, Shel's mother, Cynthia, woke up in a motel in Colorado. She and her husband were a little over halfway through their 22-hour drive to Yellowstone National Park, which was like their dream trip. While they raised their three girls, they barely ever left their small town in Texas. But now that Shel, their youngest, was settled in college, they'd finally decided to take the plunge and go do this big trip. When they'd hit the road Thursday morning, Cynthia sent a text message to all three of the girls and Shel was the only one who didn't text back. But Cynthia was not that worried about it because Shel was a night owl and she often slept during the day when everybody else was up and about. But Shelley would usually call at some point after she woke up for class, except this time she didn't. And so Cynthia had called one of Shel's sisters

to say she was worried, but the sister thought their mother was just overreacting. And so she told her mom, "Hey, remember she's an adult. She's a 20-year-old woman who's allowed to have a social life. In fact, her sister was happy that maybe Shelley, the homebody, was out somewhere having fun for once." At 9:00 a.m. that same morning, Cynthia and her husband went for a scenic ride through the Colorado Rockies. But Cynthia barely noticed any of it because she still hadn't heard from Shel, and she just had this gut feeling that something was actually wrong. And so as they drove through this beautiful area, Cynthia grabbed her phone and called Shel's school. A school administrator answered the call, but she sounded annoyed at Cynthia's request. She said they just didn't have the resources to send somebody out to check on every student who didn't call their parents right on time. Cynthia knew she was

coming off like an overprotective mother, but she also knew it was completely unlike Shel to ignore her messages for this long. So Cynthia practically begged the administrator to please check later that day and just see if her daughter made it to class. The administrator sighed and said she'd wait for a break between classes and see if someone could track Shel down. Around noon that day, Shel's roommate, Ashley Ala, grumpily made her way up the stairs towards their apartment. Someone from the school administration had stopped Ashley when she was leaving class and asked her to just stop what she was doing and go back to her apartment and check on her roommate Shel, make sure she's okay. Apparently, Shel's parents were looking for her and she wasn't returning any calls or texts.

But Ashley thought this request was totally ridiculous. Shel's parents did not need to know where Shel was 24/7. She was an adult. And so now Ashley felt like her time was being wasted. But nonetheless, she made it upstairs to the apartment. She unlocked the door and walked inside. And once she was inside the apartment, she noticed the door to Shel's bedroom was closed as usual. And so she walked over and knocked and she didn't get an answer. Then she called out Shel's name, but she was met with more silence. So Ashley opened the door. And there in bed was Shel lying face down under the blanket. And so Ashley quickly went from feeling annoyed at this to now just feeling angry. She'd come all the way back to the apartment to check on her roommate just to find out Shel had been sleeping all day. So Ashley walked over and kind of gruffly told Shel, "Hey, wake up. Your parents are looking for

you." But Shelley didn't move. Ashley sighed and walked back over to the door and flipped on the light in the room. But when the lights were now on, Shel didn't react. And so now, feeling sort of on edge, Ashley walked back over to the bed and gently shook Shel, but Shel didn't move. And also, Shel's arm felt cold to the touch. And that's when Ashley just grabbed the blanket and pulled it back. and she saw Shel's sheets were soaked in blood. Absolutely horrified, Ashley screamed Shel's name over and over again, but Shel wasn't moving or making any sound. And so Ashley turned and ran out of the room to call 911.

Not long after that 911 call, the school called Cynthia back and began to tell her what was going on. They told her her daughter had been found in her room. She was covered in blood. And then before the caller from the school could explain further, Cynthia's cell phone just went dead. The reception in the Colorado mountains where they were was terrible. And so she had just dropped service. And so Cynthia, who's heard this terrible thing about her daughter, began frantically trying to call back, but she just couldn't get any service. And so Cynthia shouted at her husband to turn the car around and keep driving until she got better phone reception. Her husband immediately did a U-turn and hit the gas, making the tires squeal. And then just as suddenly as Cynthia had lost service, she suddenly had service again. And so she screamed at her husband to stop the car so she could call them back. And so Cynthia, whose

hand was now shaking, finally got through to the Art Institute and breathlessly asked them if her daughter was okay. And the woman on the other end said she was so, so sorry, but Shel was dead. Police were investigating right now, but it appeared her daughter had been murdered. Cynthia and her husband just sat there in silence in the middle of nowhere, absorbing the worst news a parent can possibly receive. Cynthia felt this desperate urge to do something. Visit Shel's apartment, talk to detectives, or just be there to comfort their other daughters. But they had no choice but to just start driving again because it was going to take them nearly a day to drive all the way back to Texas.

At about the same time that Cynthia and her husband got this terrible news, Detective Paul Elzie placed a fan belt and motor oil on the checkout counter at a Dallas auto shop. He was heading out to his farm in East Texas that weekend and was looking forward to doing some maintenance on his tractor. And just as he finished paying, his phone rang. It was his partner. His partner said they had a murder to solve, and it was a tough one. A young art student had been stabbed to death in her bed with no witnesses and so far no evidence.

Suddenly, Elsie knew he was not going to be spending time at his farm. So, he left the auto shop, got into his car, and drove across town to Shel's apartment complex. Elie walked up the stairs to Shel's apartment and stepped inside. And already, it was flooded with evidence technicians who were dusting for fingerprints and snapping photos. El's partner greeted him and quickly got him up to speed. The victim's roommate discovered the body around noon, but she said she didn't know anything else because she'd been away at class all morning. Unfortunately, the technicians had not found anything useful so far. No fingerprints, shoe prints, or hairs near the body that could give police some clues to who the killer was. Detective Elie thanked his partner for the update and said he wanted to take his own look around the small apartment to see if anything stood out. Elz was a seasoned homicide detective with 36 years on the

force. He saw each case as a challenge, a puzzle he would need to solve. And sometimes the pieces did just kind of fall into place. Inside the apartment, he noticed the TV and some other fairly expensive electronic equipment were still there. Also, the windows weren't broken, and there didn't appear to be any signs of forced entry, so this didn't seem like a robbery. More likely, Elsie thought, the victim let the killer into their apartment, or the killer had a key. Elsie walked into the bathroom next to Shel's bedroom and realized why there was so little blood tracked around the apartment. He could see a spot of blood on the edge of the sink as well as a few spots on the edge of the tub. The killer had clearly tried to clean themselves up after committing the murderer and so whoever killed Shel had thought this crime through and potentially had really thought through how to get away with it. Elsie then

headed to the bedroom to look at the victim. Shel was lying on her stomach on the bed in a shirt and underwear. Her back and neck were covered in wounds, and her long reddish brown hair was now matted with dried blood. Elie had seen countless bodies over his long career, and he usually kept a very cool, professional distance from the victim's lives. But he was not prepared for what lay before him now. The murder was gruesome. But that wasn't what unsettled him. It was Shel herself. She was the same age as one of El's daughters, and he suddenly felt like he was looking at his own child lying there covered in blood.

Elsie composed himself and leaned over the bed and looked more closely at the condition of Shel's body. He couldn't even count the number of stab wounds in her neck and back, but there didn't seem to be wounds anywhere else, including her hands and arms. The lack of defensive wounds made Elie think that Shelley had not put up much of a fight against her attacker. Plus, all the blood seemed to be concentrated on the bed, while the rest of the bedroom looked basically undisturbed, as though Shel never had a chance to get up. So maybe she was asleep when this happened.

Shel's clothes were still on and relatively undisturbed, making Elsie think she had not been sexually assaulted as well. But looking at her battered body, Elsie saw a killer that must have been filled with rage. And this ragedfilled killer clearly had ready access to this apartment. And so the detective felt certain that Shel must have been killed by someone she knew who must have had a very personal and serious problem with her. Later on that day, sometime in the afternoon, the medical examiner provided a more detailed picture of what actually killed Shel. Both her corateed artery and her jugular vein, which are in her neck, were severed, and her esophagus and trachea had been punctured, as well as one of her lungs. And so, Shelley had suffered multiple wounds that on their own would have killed her. But she had several of these fatal wounds. Yet, beyond the savage attack on Shel's upper

body, there were basically no other injuries. Not only were there no additional stab wounds, the medical examiner also concluded that Shelley had not been sexually assaulted, and the killer left behind almost no obvious physical clues, except perhaps one. As the medical examiner was swabbing under Shel's fingernails in hopes that maybe she might have scratched or kill her, he spotted a blue speck under Shel's left wrist. It looked like nothing more than a tiny piece of plastic, but it was the only physical evidence the killer seemed to have left behind. So, he had sent it off to the lab to be tested.

Detective Elie was interviewing Shel's roommate, Ashley, at the police station when he heard a knock at the door, and one of the officers handed him the autopsy results. Elsie stepped into the hallway outside of the interview room and quickly scanned over the report for highlights, and one finding jumped off the page at him. From the condition of Shel's body, the medical examiner estimated that she had been dead for up to 24 hours by the time Ashley found her. Elsie was startled. He had assumed that Shel must have been killed no more than a few hours before Ashley found her. But now the medical examiner was saying that the murder most likely happened a full day earlier sometime on Thursday, not Friday. And this cast the murder into a whole new light. And so LZ went back into the interview room with lots of new questions for Ashley. It dawned on Elzie that if Ashley's story was to be believed, that meant Ashley

had been living with the corpse of a roommate for the better part of a full day. Ashley had said that she and Shel were really never friends. They were just roommates, and it wasn't uncommon for them to go days without seeing each other. In fact, Ashley had already told Elzie that the last time she had seen Shel was Wednesday morning before she'd left for class, so 48 hours before Shel had been found. But despite that, Elsie really just wanted to know where Ashley was all day on Thursday when she apparently didn't see her roommate at all. Ashley told him she'd left for class at 9:00 a.m. that day and then come back to the apartment at 3:00 p.m.

And for the rest of the day, Ashley said she stayed at the apartment eating dinner, doing homework, and then going to bed. El's eyebrows shot up and he held up the autopsy results. And then he told Ashley that the report showed her roommate had been killed earlier than police realized initially. He told her that if what she was saying was true, she'd gone about her business in their small apartment for 18 hours with a dead body in the next room. How was that possible? But Ashley only seemed confused, like she couldn't quite process the information she had just been given. She said she really didn't know what he was talking about, but the detective thought that just wasn't good enough. Elsie pointed out that the roommates shared a single bathroom and that investigators found blood on the sink and in the bathtub. How could Ashley possibly have missed the blood?

Didn't it make her worry about her roommate? At that point, Ashley began to cry. She did see the blood, but it was only a few spots, so she didn't think Shel was hurt in any serious way. But still, Elsie was not persuaded. He thought there was more going on here than Ashley was saying. So, he asked her, "Was there any problem between them?" Ashley insisted that they'd only had minor disagreements. You know, just girl stuff, she said. The detective wondered what that meant exactly. And so, he said, "Were they fighting over the same love interest or something?"

But Ashley swore that never happened. Shelley had a boyfriend, Nathan, and Ashley was not interested in him at all. In fact, Ashley said she had very little contact with Nathan, and she kind of liked it that way. Friends of hers told her that Nathan actually had a really bad temper. He apparently loved playing video games so much that if something went bad for him in the game, he would just totally lose his cool and explode. Detective Elsie thought Ashley's answers still seemed off. In fact, they were so far off that Elsie started to see Ashley as a suspect. After all, who would have had easier access to the apartment than Shel's own roommate? But Elsie decided to try a new tactic, and he asked Ashley, "Was there anybody else besides her who had a key to this apartment?"

And Ashley told him that besides her and Shel, no one else did. At this point, Detective Elsie couldn't help but feel convinced that Ashley must have had something to do with Shel's death. If Ashley had the only other key, well then she was either directly responsible or perhaps she was the one who let the killer into the apartment. He didn't know which it was, but based on how nervous Ashley looked at this moment, he had a pretty good idea how to find out. So, he just came out and accused Ashley outright of the murder. He told her to confess and that things would actually be much easier for her if she did. But Ashley just stared back at the detective in total disbelief and began to cry again. For the next couple of hours, Detective Elsie tried to wear Ashley down, hoping for a confession that would wrap up the case. But Ashley did not change her story, and she never confessed to anything.

By Saturday, September 12th, after an excruciating, mentally torturous journey, Shel's parents finally arrived back in Texas and went to meet with Detective Elie. When they came into the station, Elie thought they looked like they hadn't slept the entire drive back, and he knew they were obviously grieving. But he did need to talk to them right now, regardless of their condition. Their answers could be the key to finding out who killed their daughter. And so the first question he asked them was, "Were there any problems between Shelley and her roommate Ashley that they were aware of?" Her parents seemed surprised by the question. They said their daughter and her roommate Ashley weren't exactly good friends, but they certainly didn't have any major problems that they knew of. Elsie followed up by asking if they could think of anyone who might want to hurt Shelley. Did she have any enemies? But

her parents said that Shelley had always been a bit of a homebody who kept to herself. And because she didn't really go out much, there wasn't any drama in her life and very little opportunity to make enemies. Cynthia said that of their three daughters, Shel was the easiest to raise. She never drank alcohol or did drugs, stayed out late, or got into trouble. After that, Detective Elsie asked them what Shel's boyfriend, Nathan, was like. Shel's mom said they never met him since they had only been dating for a couple of months. The only thing Shel had said about Nathan was that her dad probably wouldn't like him, but it was just because he had a lip piercing and tattoos.

However, Cynthia did tell the detective that a couple of weeks ago, Shelley had called her to ask how to break up with her boyfriend, Nathan. Cynthia had given her some advice, but after that, she had no idea if Shel actually had broken up with him or not. Now, Elsie needed to know whether Shelley had followed through and ended that relationship with Nathan. If the guy had a hot temper, as Shel's roommate claimed, a bad breakup in theory could be enough to send him into a rage. Later that day, when Elsie walked into the interrogation room to speak to Nathan for the first time, he was surprised to see Nathan's appearance.

Even though he had tattoos and a piercing, he was really just kind of a skinny kid. And the way he was sitting in the chair seemed so childlike. He had pulled his feet up onto the seat and was kind of clutching his knees close to his chest the way a child would. But Elsie knew looks could be deceiving. So right away, he asked where Nathan had been on Thursday, the day of Shel's murder. Nathan said he'd been staying at his mother's house that week and he had slept there on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, his mother had dropped him off at the school at around 9:00 a.m., but he didn't have school until 3.

The detective couldn't believe what Nathan had just told him. He had just admitted that he had this big window of time on the day Shelley was murdered that was basically unaccounted for. Nathan told the detective that all he had done that day was homework in the computer lab during the 6 hours before his 3 p.m. class. But Elsie was sure that Nathan had left at some point for some amount of time, maybe to go to the bathroom or maybe to get something to eat, something. He just felt like six hours sitting in the same spot doing homework non-stop sounded sort of unlikely for even the most diligent of students. But Elie kept that to himself and just asked Nathan if he had a key to Shel's apartment. But Nathan said he didn't. Elie asked him why not. If Nathan was her boyfriend, wouldn't Shel give him a key? But Nathan said they'd only been dating a couple of months and really their relationship was not that

serious. They hadn't had sex. In fact, they hadn't even kissed. He told the detective the only thing they'd ever done that was sort of intimate was hold hands. Elsie was convinced that Nathan had to be downplaying his relationship with Shel to kind of make himself seem less culpable. I mean, after all, what college couple didn't do anything more than hold hands if they've been dating for a couple of months? I mean, it just seemed kind of unrealistic. But Nathan swore that really was the truth, and he insisted that holding hands was actually a really big deal for both of them. At this point, the detective realized he was likely dealing with a very sheltered and somewhat awkward kid. But he also knew about Nathan's reputation for having a really bad temper. And so maybe he could get Nathan to show it by catching him off guard. So the detective directly confronted him. He asked Nathan how he felt when Shel broke up with him.

Was he angry? Did he lose control? Is that what happened? But Nathan didn't seem angry at all. He seemed confused. He said he didn't know what the detective was talking about because Shel had not broken up with him. Elsie told Nathan he was lying. He knew from Shel's mother that Shel definitely wanted to break up with him. And he told Nathan his new theory. Shel must have ended their relationship and Nathan had been so upset he had flown into a rage and killed Shel. But to Elsie's surprise, instead of protesting his innocence, Nathan barely reacted. He just sat there staring. Elie asked him, "What are you thinking about?" And Nathan just said he felt sort of numb, that he didn't know how to react, that this felt like a bad dream he was just hoping to wake up from. Following a hunch, Elsie then asked Nathan to lift up his shirt.

Nathan did what he was told and stood and lifted it up, and the detective could see visible scratches on his chest. Elsie immediately wondered if maybe he got those scratches from Shel as she tried to fight off her attacker, maybe at first, because he knew she didn't put up much of a fight, but maybe she put up a little bit of a fight and that was it. But Nathan said no, he got those scratches actually from scratching himself. He said he didn't kill his girlfriend and he really had nothing to hide. At this point, Elie saw an opening. If that was true, that Nathan had nothing to hide, would he let detectives search his apartment right now? Nathan said, "Yeah, go ahead. They wouldn't find anything."

And so, a little while later that day, Elsie and some other investigators followed Nathan up the steps to his off-campus apartment. When they got to the door, Nathan unlocked it and let them inside. Elseie told Nathan to wait by the front door and he had a detective stay with him. Elseie didn't want Nathan to interfere. When Elie got inside the apartment, the first thing he noticed was the apartment was incredibly clean. He'd been inside a fair number of college apartments, and typically they were a mess. He turned to Nathan and asked him, you know, why is this place so immaculate? Had he cleaned it up recently, hoping to hide evidence? But Nathan said that he had nothing to do with how the apartment looked. His roommate was a total neat freak who couldn't bear the sight of dirty dishes or things lying around the house. Nathan said his roommate even cleaned up after him. Elsie nodded and then asked which

room was Nathan's. Nathan raised a hand and pointed him in the right direction. The detective went inside the bedroom and within minutes he made a troubling discovery. Nathan stored weapons underneath his bed. The detective found throwing stars and swords, but most disturbingly were all the knives. boxes and boxes of knives. Elzie felt sure he would find the murder weapon among all these blades, so he bagged up each knife individually to be tested for blood. After that, Elsie left the bedroom and confronted Nathan again. He asked if Nathan had a fascination with violence.

But Nathan said it really wasn't like that. He just liked to collect weapons that he thought were cool. Elsie didn't know what to make of that, but he was not convinced. Next, Elsie went to Nathan's bathroom, which unlike the rest of the apartment, was a total mess. The counter was covered with containers of deodorant, hair gel, and shaving cream. I mean, there was stuff everywhere. But tucked in amongst the chaos was something very odd, even chilling. It was a clear sandwich bag with what appeared to be long reddish brown hair inside. Hair that was the same color as Shel's. But that wasn't all. There was also what appeared to be drops of blood inside the bag as well.

Carefully with a gloved hand, Elsie lifted the bag up and then went to Nathan and held the bag out in front of him, demanding to know what he was doing with it. But Nathan, whose face now went white, swore he'd never seen it before in his life? He didn't even know what it was. And after all, who would collect a random sandwich bag of hair and blood? It made no sense. And then something shifted in Nathan's mind, and he said he wanted a lawyer before he answered any more questions. And he asked the investigators to please get out of his apartment. Since the detectives didn't have a search warrant and they were there only as Nathan's guest, legally they had no choice but to leave. But they could keep everything they'd already found. And Elsie was very confident that one of the knives and also that baggie would come back positive for Shel's blood.

On Friday, September 18th, so a week after Shel's body had been discovered, the school held a memorial service for her. When Shel's parents got there, they were touched to see that Shel's beautiful art was on display. Shel's mother, Cynthia, was also moved by just how many people had come out to celebrate Shel. She never thought her quiet, introverted daughter would have such a large group of friends. It was a small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless, that Shel had meant something to so many people. Then, a young man with a lip piercing and tattoos approached Cynthia. He introduced himself as Nathan, Shel's boyfriend. He told her he wasn't sure if he should be speaking to her, but he just wanted her to know how sorry he was that Shel had died. And then he held out his hand for her to shake it, but Shel's mother couldn't do it. She had seen the look on Detective Elsie's face after she had mentioned the breakup. And she knew

exactly what the detective was thinking, that Shel's boyfriend, Nathan, had murdered Shel. And now, with Nathan standing right in front of her, Cynthia couldn't help but feel repulsed. And so, she did not shake his hand. And so, Nathan just stood there awkwardly for a second. And then Nathan got the hint, lowered his hand, and walked away. By the end of September, the analysis of the knives and the baggie that were taken from Nathan's apartment came back from the lab. The first result shocked Elsie. None of the knives in Nathan's apartment had any traces of blood, Shel's or anybody else's. However, that little baggie containing the hair inside of Nathan's bathroom did have blood in it, and it belonged to Shel. And so Elsie assumed after Nathan killed his girlfriend, he must have taken that as sort of like a trophy from the murder scene to add to his bizarre collection.

So on October 8th, 2009, almost a month after Shelley was murdered, Detective Elie called Nathan to the police station for a second interview. But this time, Nathan showed up with his lawyer. And the lawyer who spoke on behalf of Nathan said that Nathan was happy to answer the officer's questions and wanted to do whatever he could to help catch Shel's killer. But the lawyer hoped that this conversation would be civil. Elie knew what that meant. He would have to keep a lid on how aggressively he questioned Nathan or potentially they would just leave. And so Elsie nodded and then told Nathan that the bag they'd found in his bathroom contained his girlfriend's hair and blood. And so he asked Nathan to please explain how it got there.

Nathan's lawyer looked down at Nathan and nodded, letting him know it was okay to answer this question. Nathan took a deep breath and then looked at LZ and told him he had never seen that baggie before. He swore it. But he argued that that really shouldn't be that surprising. After all, he was not the only person who lived in that apartment. And his roommate, whose name was Daniel Willum, did have easy access to the bathroom. And Nathan didn't stop there. He claimed that his roommate, Daniel, was jealous of his relationship with Shel because Daniel actually had a crush on Nathan. In fact, Nathan said Daniel had gotten really possessive of him and wanted to control him. Elie asked Nathan if his roommate Daniel had ever made a legitimate pass at Nathan, like really tried to be romantically involved with him. And Nathan said no, he had not. And so, even though Elie didn't know what to make of this, he suspected that maybe

this crush that he was talking about was not real, and perhaps Nathan was just throwing his roommate under the bus to protect himself. Elsie turned to the lawyer and said that things didn't look good for his client. The investigators had found Shel's blood in his bathroom, and he said that Nathan had a motive to hurt Shel because he knew that she planned to break up with him. Plus, Nathan had a reputation for having an explosive temper. And so, if Nathan confessed right now to what he did, maybe the prosecutor would be lenient with him. At this point, the lawyer stood up and said the interview was over. And then he led Nathan out of the room.

At this point, Elsie felt sure that Nathan really was just raising suspicions about his roommate simply to protect himself, but the detective had been around long enough to know that he would need to speak with Daniel as well, because it was true he did have access to that bathroom where that baggie was found. So, a couple of days later, Elsie got in touch with Daniel and asked him to come to the police station to answer a few questions. And once Daniel was there, Elsie decided not to ask him about his supposed crush on Nathan right away. Instead, Elsie asked Daniel where he was the morning of Shel's murder, and Daniel described his busy day. Daniel said he went to Starbucks to grab a coffee, and then after that, he drove to the lake to take some photographs for school, and then he went to Walmart to pick up some soap and hair dye, and then after that, he'd gone to a friend's apartment to work on an assignment.

However, that friend wasn't home. Elsie's years perked up. Daniel's alibi was not any better than Nathan's. Daniel had said when he took photos at the lake, he was alone. And since the friend that he had gone to study with wasn't home, there was no one to corroborate that part of his story either. So then at this point, Elie asked Daniel if he had romantic feelings for Nathan. And Daniel said absolutely not. Then Elsie told him that Nathan had said that Daniel was very controlling about their relationship, and he asked Daniel if that was true. And Daniel said something surprising. He said that yes, he actually was pretty controlling, but he was only doing it because he was concerned for Nathan. Daniel said that Nathan was stalking Shel. He was following her around all the time to the point where he was ignoring his own classes and his grades were dropping.

Daniel said he was actually trying to get Nathan away from Shel. This surprised Elie. Now, both roommates were basically suggesting that the other could have killed Shel. And if it was true that Nathan really was stalking Shelley, well, Elsie already felt like he was the most likely suspect, and that sort of fit. At this point, Elsie asked Daniel about that little bag that contained the hair and blood inside of Nathan's bathroom. And Daniel told him he had no idea how that got there. Now, of course, if Daniel did do it, you know, obviously he would say he didn't know where it came from. This is what Elsie was thinking. The bag with Shel's blood and hair was easily the most damning piece of evidence they had, and both roommates claimed they knew nothing about it. So Elzie used the same tactic he had tried with Ashley and with Nathan. He flat out accused Daniel of the murder, hoping his tough cop routine

would intimidate him and get him to come out and confess. But when he accused Daniel of the murder, just like Ashley and Nathan before him, Daniel swore up and down it really was not him. Elsie tried pressing him again and again, but just like Ashley and Nathan, Daniel said, "Really, I had nothing to do with this." After Daniel left the station, Detective Elie stayed in the interview room for a few minutes, thinking about everything he had just learned. He hit three likely suspects. There was Ashley, who apparently was just in the apartment going about her business with her roommate's dead body for 18 hours. There was Nathan, who Shelley wanted to break up with and apparently who had a very bad temper. And finally, there was Daniel, who may have seen Shel as a romantic rival, if Daniel really did have a crush on Nathan. But all three of these suspects totally insisted they had nothing to do with the crime. And so

Elsie felt like one of them had to be lying. He just needed to figure out who. So Elsie and his team started digging deeper into each of their suspects alibis. Elie found himself staring at computer screens, surveillance tapes, and phone messages for days on end. But after so many hours, when he felt like he could barely keep his eyes open anymore, something on one of those screens finally jumped out at him. LZ was staring at a brand new piece of evidence and it pointed directly to Shel's killer. On November 4th, almost 2 months after the murder, police moved in to make an arrest. And Elsie had a very clear idea of what had happened to Shelley.

Back on Thursday, September 10th, just after 10:30 a.m., the killer drove to Shel's apartment complex and put on a pair of latex gloves. They climbed the stairs to the apartment and used a key to unlock the door. They quietly walked in, closing the door behind them. Once inside, they went straight to Shel's closed bedroom. Slowly, so as not to make any noise, they turned the handle and opened the door. Shel was fast asleep. The killer slowly walked to the bed, pulled out a knife, raised it up, and then brought it down into Shel's neck. And then before she could scream, the killer stabbed her again and again and again.

The killer stabbed Shel 42 times in the neck and back before they finally stopped and stepped away from the bed. Shelley would die without ever waking up. After the attack, the killer went into the bathroom. There, they climbed into the bathtub, took off their bloody clothes, and put them into a bag. But in the process, they got spots of blood on the edges of the tub. Then the killer went to the sink and rinsed the last of the blood off their hands, never taking their gloves off. The killer then got dressed in the fresh clothes they brought along. Then they left the apartment, closing and locking the door behind them.

When Detective Elie looked into the three alibis of the three suspects, initially it seemed like they all checked out. Ashley had been in class. Daniel really had gone to Walmart and Nathan was in the computer lab for six long hours. But while Ashley was in class, something strange was happening. She was getting a near constant stream of text messages asking where she was and if she was home. Elsie believed these text messages were the murderer trying to make sure the house was empty except for Shel. And the person who sent all those text messages to Ashley was Nathan's roommate, Daniel.

Then, when investigators studied surveillance footage from Daniel's trip to Walmart on the morning of the murder, Detective LZ caught something crucial. Daniel had purchased hair dye just like he said. But he also purchased blue latex gloves, and the crime lab determined that the material from the brand of gloves matched that little blue piece of latex that had been found on Shel's wrist. From there, Daniel's alibi fell apart. Surveillance showed he left Walmart at 10:12 a.m., but police could find no evidence that he went by a friend's apartment like he claimed he had. Police then began to look into whether Daniel's story about his roommate Nathan stalking Shel was actually true. But it turned out if anybody was stalking and obsessed with Shel, it was actually Daniel. Lots of his own friends said he disliked Shel because she was dating Nathan. And Daniel was really interested in Nathan

to the point where it seemed like he was romantically interested despite the fact that Daniel denied that. And then also, Daniel would apparently send these aggressive text messages directly to Shel sometimes, openly disapproving of her and Nathan's relationship, further making it seem like his motive for harming Shel was because he wanted Nathan for himself. The last piece of the puzzle for Detective Elsie was figuring out how Daniel got into Shel's apartment. Elsie discovered that Daniel had once borrowed Ashley's car keys, and that gave him the opportunity to make a duplicate of her and Shel's apartment key, which he then used on the day of the murder.

On November 4th, 2011, Daniel was convicted of Shel's murder and sentenced to life in prison. After the conviction, Shel's mother found Nathan and gave him a big hug and told him she was sorry for suspecting him and not shaking his hand at the memorial. He accepted her apology. Shel's family created a scholarship in her honor. Every year since 2011, they've given it out to a student who was pursuing a degree in the arts.

Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast. If you enjoyed today's stories and you're looking for more strange, dark, and mysterious content, be sure to check out all of our studios podcasts. They are this one of course, Mr. Ballin podcast, and we also have Mr. Ballins's medical mysteries. We have bedtime stories and also RunFool. To find those other podcasts, all you have to do is search for Ballin Studios, wherever you listen to your podcasts. To watch hundreds more stories just like the ones you heard today, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So, that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support.

Until next time, see you.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "The Artist"?

MrBallen (Host), Shelley Nance (Guest), Cynthia Nance (Guest), Nathan Shuck (Guest), Ashley Ala (Guest), Detective Paul Elzie (Guest), Daniel Willum (Guest).

What is "The Artist" about?

The story centers around the unsettling events that unfold in a Dallas apartment on September 10, 2009, when an art student discovers her roommate, Shelley Nance, unresponsive in her bedroom after a day of seemingly normal activities. As the narrative unfolds, the circumstances surrounding Shelley's isolation and the grim reality of her situation come to light, leaving a lasting impact on the…

What is mentioned in this MrBallen Podcast episode?

8 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Shelley Nance, Daniel Willum, Detective Paul Elzie, Nathan Shuck, Ashley Ala, September 11th, 2001. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "The Artist"?

The episode runs 39 min; the transcript is about 7,733 words in 57 timestamped sections.

More from MrBallen Podcast

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.