Shanna was previously married to Detective Terrell Bryce while living in New Orleans, a fact that she disclosed from her current husband, Ben Hemmings. When she finally told Ben about Terrell and the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death, he was gravely disappointed that she was able to close off that part of her life without ever finding out what really happened.
Despite Shanna's wishes to keep the past buried, Ben started digging around in Louisiana. When she learned that he was in Louisiana, she insisted her husband come home, but he refused. Desperate to save her husband from possible danger, Shanna asked Derek (Ben's best friend) to go after her husband. A few days later, Ben returned, but Derek was no where to be found. Shanna, in a state of denial, convinced herself that Derek was either out sick or his plane had been delayed on the way back, but when days passed, Ben decided to do some checking around. He discovered that Derek had not been to his shop in days and more so, he never took his scheduled flight out of New Orleans. Confused and worried about his friend's safety, he confronted Shanna, who finally told her husband the whole truth about how she had been banned from Louisiana by her parents, who were head of a mob family in New Orleans and were being heavily investigated by her former husband, Terrell. When Terrell shared his suspicions to Shanna, she could not believe it and ran to her parents for confirmation. Later that night, Terrell was found dead in a morgue cooler, having been frozen to death. Ben could not believe her stupidity, nor the fact that she suspected her parents might be holding Derek hostage and was going to sit by and do nothing. Ben then forced her to gather the strength to face her parents because they were going back to New Orleans to find Derek, whether she liked it or not.
The showdown was very quick as she and Ben stumble onto her parent's hideout, where Shanna's mother put Ben to sleep with a tranquilizer gun. Shanna then came face to face with her father, who was armed and ready to eliminate her. Luckily, before any blood could shed, the cops charged in and hauled off Shanna's parents. Shanna's father decided he couln't leave his daughter without giving her one last bit of advice, a warning, that the war was far from over. After returning to Hallandale, things went back to normal between Shanna and Ben, but Derek could not forgive Shanna for her part in his kidnapping. However, things wouldn't remain quiet for the Hemmings for long. Derek would find himself married to Shalia Mendez, a woman he had a one-night stand with after getting drunk at a bar. It took Derek a while to grapple the fact that he married Shalia, but after seeing the marriage license, he really couldn't deny it. Ben, on the other hand, could not let go his suspicions about Shalia and went as far as investigating her, despite Shanna and Derek's reasoning that he was just being paranoid.
Shortly after, Shanna met mysterious stranger Andrew Stokes, who she allowed to recuperate in her home after he had been jumped by thugs. As Ben became more invested in Shalia, Andrew was able to pull Shanna into his orbit by offering to build her an art studio. Despite her doubts and suspicions at first, Shanna agreed. Shanna later learned during the construction of her studio that Ben had gone off to Louisiana once again, this time to get the dirt on Shalia and left Derek, once again to look after her. When Derek confirmed all of this for her, she informed him of the real reasons for Ben's sudden trip and that Shalia knew all about it, hence her visit a week ago in an effort to stop Ben. Derek, speechless to how to respond, left in silence. Shanna would continue to bury herself in the throws of her artwork, spending more time with the cunning, Andrew Stokes, who was slowly beginning to make his move, and not to Derek's liking. In fact, Derek found it rather disconcerning that Shanna was spending so much time with another man and wondered when she even last thought of her husband. This, of course, blew up into another one of their infamous arguments until it finally dawned on Shanna that Derek's lashing about Ben was more about the fact that he was worried something bad had happened to Ben. When he revealed that Ben was on the verge of a breakthrough that led him to Coral Springs, Shanna immediately became suspicious of Shalia, who was the reason Ben left town in the first place. Derek naturally jumped to her defense, but that didn't keep Shanna from trying to convince him that his wife was no good and that she was beginning to suspect that Ben was right all along. She then ominously warned him to guard his wife because if she learned Shalia had anything to do with his disappearance, nothing would stop her from going after her.
Weeks would pass as Shanna fought with the Hallandale Police Department, Shalia and Derek, all the while trying to hold onto hope that her husband would be found. However, nothing could prepare her for how her husband would be found as Derek broke the news to her (while in the company of her friend, Jessica Chappell) that Ben had been involved in a plane crash, in which he did not survive. The news was certainly a crushing blow and when she learned that the plane crash was just a few miles outside of Coral Springs, the antennas in her head immediately went to Shalia possibly being involved. Derek did not even want to entertain the logic, but when Shanna insisted on voicing her suspicions, he, like always, jumped to his wife's defense. This ultimtately led to Shanna placing the blame squarely on Derek since everything Ben was doing in his final moments was in an effort to protect him. The fact that Shanna could blame him so outright stunned Derek and if it wasn't for Jessica's intervening and reminding them what was important in this moment, there's no telling what either one would have done to the other. The next morning was a difficult one for Shanna as she prepared to identify Ben's body and say good-bye.
