Samantha “Shelley” Nance was a 20-year-old young woman from the small town of Italy, Texas. She was a student at the Art Institute of Dallas when she was brutally murdered. Shelley was stabbed 42 times in her back and neck. The murderer was her boyfriend’s roommate, Daniel Willyam, who had become progressively obsessed with Shelley’s boyfriend Nathan Shuck.
Willyam was a gay former Navy pastry chef who was also attending the Art Institute. According to Veterans Affairs medical records submitted as evidence during the trial, Willyam once “asked to be removed from the ship [because] he was concerned that in the heat of the moment he wouldn’t be rational.” He said he was so upset with superiors that he might be tempted to use knives to hurt them. Willyam was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Nance.