The Franklin Floyd Case — Decades of Kidnapping and Murder

The Case

The Franklin Floyd case is not a single crime but a decades-long cluster of major American offenses committed by Franklin Delano Floyd, including the 1989 murder of 19-year-old Cheryl Ann Commesso in Florida and the 1994 kidnapping of 6-year-old Michael Anthony Hughes in Oklahoma. The case also intersects with the still partly unresolved story of Suzanne Sevakis, a child Floyd abducted years earlier and who later died under suspicious circumstances. Floyd, born June 17, 1943, was a convicted murderer, rapist and child sex offender who spent his final years on Florida's death row before dying on January 23, 2023.

The Crime

Floyd's criminal pattern spanned kidnapping, rape, robbery, murder, fraud and identity manipulation. In 1989, Cheryl Ann Commesso was killed in Florida; prosecutors later relied on disturbing photographs showing her "bound, beaten, and near death" to tie Floyd to her murder.

Five years later, Floyd abducted Michael Anthony Hughes, a six-year-old boy he had falsely claimed was his biological son. The federal appellate court found that Floyd transported Michael outside of Oklahoma after taking him, satisfying the interstate element of federal kidnapping charges. Michael has never been found, and his remains have not been recovered.

Throughout his life, Floyd used a long list of aliases and forged identities to evade detection, marry his victims, and obtain custody of children he then abused or exploited. False parentage claims were a central tool of his manipulation in legal proceedings.

The Victims

Cheryl Ann Commesso was 19 years old when she was murdered in 1989. She had crossed paths with Floyd in Florida, and photographic evidence later revealed the brutality she suffered before her death.

Michael Anthony Hughes was six years old at the time of his 1994 abduction. Although Floyd had presented himself as Michael's father, that claim was false; Michael had been in state custody proceedings in Oklahoma before being seized.

Suzanne Sevakis, kidnapped by Floyd as a child decades earlier and raised under false identities, is the connecting figure of the broader case. Her death has never been fully explained in publicly available materials, and her story is detailed in extensive reporting and podcasts revisiting Floyd's crimes.

Investigation

The investigation into Floyd was driven by a chain of coincidences and dogged forensic work. After Michael Hughes vanished in 1994, federal authorities pursued Floyd aggressively, eventually capturing him without the boy.

The breakthrough in the Commesso case came years later, when a Kansas mechanic discovered a sealed envelope taped above the gas tank of a truck previously linked to Floyd. Inside were nearly 100 cut-up photographs, some of them depicting Cheryl Commesso in the moments captured by her killer. That evidence, combined with human remains earlier recovered from a Florida swamp, allowed investigators to identify Commesso and connect her death directly to Floyd. Identification specialist Todd Matthews has discussed the painstaking work behind tying the victims to Floyd's trail.

Trial and Verdict

Floyd was first convicted in federal court for the kidnapping of Michael Hughes and related firearms and identity offenses; the Tenth Circuit upheld findings that he had moved the child across state lines. He was later prosecuted in Florida for the murder of Cheryl Ann Commesso and sentenced to death, with the photographic evidence playing a decisive role at trial.

The proven crimes are considered solved. What remains unresolved is the fate of Michael Hughes — whose body has never been found — and the precise circumstances of Suzanne Sevakis's death.

Today

Franklin Delano Floyd died on January 23, 2023, at age 79 while still on Florida's death row. His death closed the legal chapter of the case but left families and investigators without final answers. Floyd reportedly made partial statements about Michael Hughes before his death, but no remains have been located.

The case continues to draw attention through documentaries, true crime podcasts and ongoing identification work, and Floyd's biography is documented in references such as Murderpedia. For many, the story of Franklin Floyd stands as a stark example of how a single offender exploiting false identities can leave a trail of victims spanning decades and several states.