Shawna Ornt was the witness who was asked to help Detective Nichols by providing the details of the person she had observed near the rear of the car.  This was the person who spoke to her and said, "Get help. Someone is hurt".  She said she looked into his face while he spoke to her. She got a good look at this man.

Shawna Ornt helped construct two composites.  Both composites were of the same person; the man at the back of the victim's car.  The first was completed November 2001.  The second was completed later in March 2003.

The second one was hand-drawn by Detective Nichols who had just completed his training at the FBI Academy.

Ornt rated this second composite as an 8.5 out of a rating of 10.  She felt that it was a much better representation of the person she'd seen that night than the original composite.

Shawna Ornt, while testifying on the witness stand located just 10 feet from where Ryan was sitting in the courtroom, never acknowledged throughout her testimony that she recognized Ryan as a person that she had ever seen before.