Shannon Burgess and Her Husband Had a Seemingly Happy Marriage. Then, He Killed Her So She Would 'Stop Talking' By Emily Blackwood

Dateline has investigated many missing and murder cases, but the death of Shannon Burgess was especially devastating.

The 25-year-old aspiring Canadian actress disappeared from Calgary, Alberta, in November 2014. Though her car and belongings were found at home, her husband, Joshua Burgess, told police that he didn’t suspect any foul play, as she frequently left town for auditions.

“It didn’t feel like any alarm bells had been set off,” Calgary Police Detective Christina Witt said in Oxygen’s 2019 docuseries A Wedding and a Murder. But as the months passed, Shannon never resurfaced — and authorities became increasingly suspicious of Joshua.

When police presented him with a warrant to search their cars and cell phones in July 2015, Joshua made a shocking confession: he had killed his wife and buried her body in their backyard.

Here’s everything to know about what happened to Shannon Burgess and the motive her killer gave police.

Shannon went missing in November 2014

On Dec. 1, 2014, Shannon was reported missing after she missed a scheduled dinner with her brother. Though her car and personal belongings were at the home she shared with Joshua, the actress was nowhere to be found.

“I was really concerned that something bad had happened,” her sister, Erin Madill, told Dateline in a sneak peek. “And that’s why we couldn’t find her anymore … I became really obsessed with trying to find her, and it became all-consuming for me.”

Joshua, then 29, initially told authorities that he wasn’t concerned about Shannon’s disappearance because she often traveled for auditions. The year she went missing, she appeared in a number of short films, including Scared Stiff and Ascension. Erin described Joshua as “phenomenal” for the support he showed toward her sister’s ambitions.

Shannon and Joshua had an open relationship, but she wanted to close it

Shannon’s husband also told police that they were in an open marriage and that they often spent time with other partners, including Shannon’s boyfriend Ian Wallace. Police later learned that the couple had argued about a woman he was dating weeks before she vanished.

During that fight, Shannon allegedly told Joshua that she wanted to close their marriage, per A Wedding and a Murder. But he continued to date the other woman.

Police and Shannon’s family found Joshua’s behavior suspicious

When interviewed by police, Joshua’s memory of the night Shannon disappeared was fuzzy, and his behavior grew increasingly suspicious as time went on.

According to A Wedding and a Murder, he allegedly found his wife’s phone in a pair of her pants four days after she went missing — even though it was continually ringing with calls and texts from worried loved ones.

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Though the last time she was seen alive was on Nov. 27, 2014, Shannon’s cell phone records show that her phone had gone outside her residence the following day. “Her phone had done a walkabout in the alley behind their residence,” Witt told Dateline. “But who was with this phone? Was it Shannon?”

Joshua confessed when he was confronted with a search warrant

On July 8, 2015 — six months after Shannon had vanished — investigators brought a search warrant to Joshua’s home for their cars and his wife’s cell phone. After stalling, Witt called him and within minutes, he confessed.

“Within the first 10 minutes of our conversation, he became very emotionally upset and crying,” she said on A Wedding and a Murder. “And then he blurted out to me that ‘I killed my wife.’ ” 

When Joshua came out of the house, he was covered in blood, having tried to cut his own throat. He recovered at a local hospital and was taken into police custody the next day.

He said he strangled Shannon to get her to “stop talking”

Joshua allegedly told police that he asked Shannon if she wanted to have “angry makeup sex.” They did, but afterward, he learned she had thought he said “break-up sex” and that she “regretted” marrying him.

“I just wanted her to stop talking,” he allegedly told police, per A Wedding and a Murder. “She said she was disgusted touching me … I put my hand over her mouth.”

After strangling and killing Shannon with his hands and a belt, Joshua said he placed his wife’s body in a Rubbermaid container. He allegedly moved her remains multiple times, including on the deck of their house, and eventually buried her in the front yard.

Police located Shannon’s body after the confession.

Joshua was sentenced to life in prison

When prosecutors charged him with second-degree murder, Joshua initially pleaded not guilty. However, he changed his plea to guilty the day before his trial in December 2017 and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

“I’m very sorry for the vows that I made, that I promised to look after her, no matter what the circumstances were,” Joshua told the court during his sentencing. “I failed her in that.”

He continued, “For several months afterwards, everybody stood by me, unquestionably … I failed all of you in that and I am so very sorry for that and so very sorry that I didn’t say something earlier.”