“My parents were great, but they were very proud of me,” says Marshall.
“I was a child.”
After his father died in 2006, Marshall and his mother moved to California to be closer to their daughter, then aged six.
“My dad was a carpenter, and we would work on a home,” he says.
“He always loved cars.
He had a car that he was selling at a garage sale, and I remember when I was younger I used to drive him to the garage and drive the car home, and he would just smile and say ‘Oh, yeah, that’s my car!'”
At the time, Marshall was living in a small town in California.
“We didn’t have much money, so we went and bought a house,” he recalls.
“When I got there, there was nothing in the house except a couch, and a television.”
“I didn’t think anything of it.
I was so naive,” Marshall continues.
“It was just like going to the mall and buying a toy.”
The family decided to go to a mall, which they had never been to before.
“This mall was huge, and there were all these kids everywhere,” he remembers.
“They were all dressed up and doing their things.
It was a great time.
I had fun, but I didn’t want to be alone.”
The next day, Marshall went to visit his mom.
“She came in and said, ‘Look, you’ve just got to get over there,’ and I was just thinking ‘I’ve got to go home now’.” They walked to a park and went for a walk.
“The next thing I knew, we were running through the woods, and my mother’s car was gone,” he said.
Marshall says he was “absolutely terrified”.
“I remember running back home to find the car in the middle of the road, with my mother behind the wheel, and the car was empty.”
“And I was thinking, ‘Oh my god, she didn’t mean for it to happen,'” he recalls of the moment he realised what had happened.
“So I ran to her and I just hugged her.
I just told her ‘I love you so much.
You were my best friend, and you helped me make my dad happy.
And I love you, and it’s over’.” “I cried for about 10 minutes.
I could feel her tears coming down her face, and then I just burst into tears,” he continues.
Marshall’s family members told him they had found his mother’s keys, and told him to bring them to the hospital.
Marshall took the keys home, only to find his mom’s car had been parked in the driveway.
“But when I opened the door, she was dead,” he explains.
The police found his body, with his feet and legs in the snow, with the car still parked in a field.
“In the car were my shoes, my socks, and her phone, and everything,” he continued.
“And it was still in the car. I didn