On June 26th, 2002 at around 3:00am, a severe thunder storm in Hamilton, Alabama brought Lightning that struck the home that Shirl was living in and caused a fire that killed three of her children, Jesse (age 7), Christian (age 9), and Jeremy (age 15). Though the fire was deemed to be an accident by investigators, details regarding the fire and the days leading up to the accident seem extremely sketchy at best, including the suspicious behavior of Shirl’s ex-husband, who later used paid public officials to carry out a plan to ruin her name and reputation and to steal her daughter from her.