On May 26, 2018, Frances Zaayer walked into Shawna and David Scott’s home in Mount Sterling, Kentucky, and shot both of them. The act of shocking violence came after months of bad blood between the neighbors.
Despite being shot in the face, Shawna survived. She underwent 16 facial surgeries to repair the damage to her face. David, who was shot in the heart, was pronounced dead at the scene. Frances pleaded guilty to murder, second-degree assault and wanton endangerment in 2022. She was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Frances is currently incarcerated at the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women. She is eligible for parole in 2038. According to inmate records, she is expected to serve time until 2046. Her latest possible release date is May 2053.
The story of Frances’ crime is documented in episode 1 of the Netflix true crime series “Worst Neighbor Ever,” which premiered on July 1, 2026.
Frances was a longtime family friend of Shawna’s. As a teenager, she lived with Shawna’s grandmother due to problems with her own family. Frances and Shawna fell out of touch for a while as adults, but in 2016, Frances bought property across the street from Shawna. She asked to stay with Shawna while waiting for renovations to be complete, and Shawna agreed.
Shawna quickly grew exasperated with Frances’ behavior. She scolded Shawna’s grandson and showed Shawna a video of her attending an anti-Islam protest. In January 2017, Shawna told Frances she had to move out. But things only got worse when Frances moved into her own home.
Shawna was receiving Social Security Disability insurance but would often spend time hanging out and helping at her friend’s tanning salon. Frances threatened to report Shawna for “working” while receiving disability. When Shawna went to Frances’ house to confront her in April 2017, they got into a physical altercation. Frances called the police, and Shawna was arrested.
Frances pressed charges against Shawna and became convinced that law enforcement was giving Shawna special treatment due to her husband David’s job as a deputy jailer. She routinely called the cops on Shawna and David out of the blue, claiming that she feared for her life. Shawna and David attempted to ignore Frances, even as she hurled a racial slur at their biracial daughter, banged on the windows of David’s car and mowed her front lawn naked in front of their young grandson. Shawna believed that Frances was racist against David, who was Black.
Frances became a major source of stress in Shawna and David’s lives. Shawna’s daughter Haley Boyd eventually stopped visiting with her young son, fearing what Frances might do. Still, Shawna and David never imagined that she would shoot them in their own home.
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“Frances never gave an explanation for anything,” Duane Kidd, former deputy sheriff of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department, said in the “Worst Neighbor Ever” doc. “She don’t believe she did anything wrong … There’s nothing there. She took his life for no reason.”
Shawna said her “biggest fear” is for Frances to get parole.
“I fear for my kids, for my family, honestly I hope she never gets out,” she said. “I mean it’s still a fear that’s in the back of my head every day.”
“Worst Neighbor Ever” is available to stream on Netflix.
