Netflix’s Girl in the Picture details the tragic life and early death of Suzanne Sevakis, who was abducted at a young age by Franklin Floyd, who was both her step-father and eventual husband. As presented in the true-crime documentary, under Floyd’s influence, Sevakis went by numerous other identities, including Tonya Hughes, Sharon Marshall, and Tonya Tadlock. Decades of investigation eventually revealed Sevakis’s true connections to a number of children and siblings.
Suzanne Sevakis was killed in a hit-and-run in 1990 when she was living under the name Tonya Hughes and working as a dancer at a strip club. Franklin Floyd, who had at this point married Sevakis under the name Clarence Hughes, would later kidnap her son, Michael, from elementary school, igniting a nationwide manhunt. Girl in the Picture shows how the investigation into the kidnapping gradually revealed a decades-long trail of crimes, including years of sexual abuse and the murder of Tampa sex worker Cheryl Ann Commesso. Like other Netflix true crime documentaries, Girl in the Picture shows how the institutions and people around Sevakis failed her, her siblings, and her children.
In Girl in the Picture, a high school friend of Suzanne Sevakis describes her as abandoning her plans to go to college and disappearing because she became pregnant. It’s not known what became of this first pregnancy, but Suzanne did end up having at least two children. Given the secretive way in which Franklin Floyd moved Sevakis around the country, it’s possible that she had additional children. She also had three siblings, whom Floyd also briefly abducted.
What Happened To Suzanne Sevakis’ Siblings
Franklin Floyd initially kidnapped all four of Sandra Brandenburg’s children while she spent 30 days in jail in 1975. According to Brandenburg, police refused to help her because she had married Floyd, under the name of Brandon Williams. Like most true crime documentaries, Girl in the Picture leaves out some information, including the ultimate fate of Suzanne Sevakis’s siblings. Allison and Amy Sevakis were actually Suzanne’s half-sisters, born to Brandenburg’s second husband. Brandenburg was able to find Allison and Amy in a local church-operated social services institution. Brandenburg continued to raise the two girls in Virginia with a new husband. The two are now in their fifties and continue to live in Virginia.
Girl in the Picture doesn’t go into detail about the fourth child that Floyd abducted, Brandenburg’s son and Suzanne Sevakis’ half-brother, Phillip. Brandenburg never found him and reportedly told her daughters that he was dead. However, in 2019 a man came forward saying that he believed he was Phillip, and DNA tests confirmed his claim. He had been privately adopted in North Carolina shortly after his kidnapping.
What Happened to Suzanne Sevakis’ Children
As described in the Netflix documentary Girl in the Picture, Suzanne Sevakis’s young son Michael met a tragic early end. He disappeared following his kidnapping, and after decades of denial, Franklin Floyd told investigators that he killed Michael on the same day he kidnapped the boy in 2015. Prior to the confession, there was testimony from inmates that Floyd had told them he killed Michael, with different methods of death mentioned. No body has been found. Michael was not Floyd’s son, with documents from the government case suggesting that Suzanne’s high school boyfriend, Gregory Higgs, could be the father.
Suzanne Sevakis’s other known child, Megan Dufrense, appears in Girl in the Picture. The identity of her father is unknown, and she was given up for adoption shortly after her birth in 1989. Megan currently lives in Louisiana and works as a research coordinator at a sports medicine clinic. She has two children, one of whom is named after Michael.