Zoneboy
11-18-2014, 10:06 PM
Man infamous for killing wife with horse tranquilizer in 1980 dies in Jackson prison hospital
Link (http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2014/11/man_infamous_for_killing_wife.html)
JACKSON, MI – A man infamous for drugging his wife to death in 1980 and masking it as a horse-riding accident has died at the Michigan Department of Corrections' Duane L. Waters Health Center in Jackson.
An autopsy was to be completed, but authorities believe David Davis, 70, died Nov. 9 of congenital neuromuscular disease, corrections Spokesman Chris Gautz said Tuesday, Nov. 18.
Davis, whose widely publicized crime was the subject of a TV movie and a 1992 book, killed Shannon Mohr, 25, in 1980 near Pittsford in Hillsdale County. He fled the country, evading authorities for nearly a decade until a woman in Hawaii saw his case featured on "Unsolved Mysteries" and tipped investigators.
He was arrested in January 1989 in Pago Pago in the South Pacific for a murder that almost went unexposed.
He used what was thought-to-be undetectable horse tranquilizer to kill Mohr, allegedly to collect on insurance policies totaling more than $300,000. He bashed her head with a rock and blamed a horse. Officials initially bought his story, calling Mohr's death an accident caused by a fall
from a horse.
Mohr's family, however, persisted, unwilling to accept the finding. They pressed for further investigation, Mohr's body was eventually exhumed and toxicologist Dr. Robert Forney discovered a large quantity of the tranquilizer.
A warrant for Davis' arrest was issued in 1981, police narrowly missed nabbing him in Haiti the same year, and it took years to locate and bring him to trial.
"Unsolved Mysteries" featured the story. The show inspired no useable leads until the episode re-aired about a year later, alerting the Hawaii woman about Davis, who was using a fake name.
A jury convicted him in 1990 of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to life in prison.
As early as 2001, Davis denied killing his wife, a nurse from Toledo he had met in 1979.
"I could never have hurt her," Davis told The Toledo Blade in 2001, maintaining that Mohr fell from the horse and hit her head. Mohr's father, who has since died, called Davis a liar. "He disgusts me," he said in response.
Even in recent years, the case fascinated. Investigation Discovery aired a TV program in 2013 titled "Gallop to the Grave" about Davis and Mohr.
It was also the topic of a two-hour TV movie, "From the Files of 'Unsolved Mysteries': Victim of Love," which premiered in 1993, and a 1992 book, "Murderous Intent."
"It's one of those classic cases that you don't get out of your mind," former Jackson County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Mark Blumer said last year. He prosecuted the case while he worked for the state attorney general's office.
http://media.mlive.com/citpat/news_impact/photo/16372209-large.jpg
Link (http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2014/11/man_infamous_for_killing_wife.html)
JACKSON, MI – A man infamous for drugging his wife to death in 1980 and masking it as a horse-riding accident has died at the Michigan Department of Corrections' Duane L. Waters Health Center in Jackson.
An autopsy was to be completed, but authorities believe David Davis, 70, died Nov. 9 of congenital neuromuscular disease, corrections Spokesman Chris Gautz said Tuesday, Nov. 18.
Davis, whose widely publicized crime was the subject of a TV movie and a 1992 book, killed Shannon Mohr, 25, in 1980 near Pittsford in Hillsdale County. He fled the country, evading authorities for nearly a decade until a woman in Hawaii saw his case featured on "Unsolved Mysteries" and tipped investigators.
He was arrested in January 1989 in Pago Pago in the South Pacific for a murder that almost went unexposed.
He used what was thought-to-be undetectable horse tranquilizer to kill Mohr, allegedly to collect on insurance policies totaling more than $300,000. He bashed her head with a rock and blamed a horse. Officials initially bought his story, calling Mohr's death an accident caused by a fall
from a horse.
Mohr's family, however, persisted, unwilling to accept the finding. They pressed for further investigation, Mohr's body was eventually exhumed and toxicologist Dr. Robert Forney discovered a large quantity of the tranquilizer.
A warrant for Davis' arrest was issued in 1981, police narrowly missed nabbing him in Haiti the same year, and it took years to locate and bring him to trial.
"Unsolved Mysteries" featured the story. The show inspired no useable leads until the episode re-aired about a year later, alerting the Hawaii woman about Davis, who was using a fake name.
A jury convicted him in 1990 of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to life in prison.
As early as 2001, Davis denied killing his wife, a nurse from Toledo he had met in 1979.
"I could never have hurt her," Davis told The Toledo Blade in 2001, maintaining that Mohr fell from the horse and hit her head. Mohr's father, who has since died, called Davis a liar. "He disgusts me," he said in response.
Even in recent years, the case fascinated. Investigation Discovery aired a TV program in 2013 titled "Gallop to the Grave" about Davis and Mohr.
It was also the topic of a two-hour TV movie, "From the Files of 'Unsolved Mysteries': Victim of Love," which premiered in 1993, and a 1992 book, "Murderous Intent."
"It's one of those classic cases that you don't get out of your mind," former Jackson County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Mark Blumer said last year. He prosecuted the case while he worked for the state attorney general's office.
http://media.mlive.com/citpat/news_impact/photo/16372209-large.jpg