Marrying for Murder: Shannon Mohr and Dave Davis

Shannon Mohr and Dave Davis on their wedding day, September 24, 1979
(photo: au.news.yahoo.com)

Like many a good little Catholic girl, as a child Shannon Mohr thought she wanted to be a nun when she grew up.  A sweet and caring child who was both a daddy’s girl and a mommy’s best friend, she eventually decided that she wanted to marry and have a family.  Nursing suited her caring and compassionate nature and it was a natural fit for her. 

Shannon as a nurse (photo: imdb.com) 

By the summer of 1979, Shannon was 24 years old and while happy with her career choice, she was feeling down over her personal life.  She had recently broken up with a firefighter from her Toledo, Ohio hometown and was not looking forward to attending a friend’s August 4 wedding solo.  Her mother Lucille encouraged her to go, suggesting that perhaps she might meet someone at the wedding.  It was sadly prophetic for Shannon.

At the wedding, she met 35-year-old Dave Davis, a self-described millionaire who told Shannon he was an orphan who had recently lost his fiancée in a car wreck.  He said he owned farms all over the country.  He also claimed to be a Vietnam veteran who had been injured in the war, a football player for the University of Michigan who had played in the Rose Bowl and then graduated with a psychology degree.  Davis was so charismatic, he not only swept Shannon off her feet but charmed her parents, Lucille and Robert, as well.

David Richard Davis 
(photo: findagrave.com)

On September 1, 1979, Shannon turned 25.  Twenty-three days later, she and Dave eloped to Las Vegas, only eight weeks after meeting.  Eight days after the wedding, and two days after returning from their honeymoon, $220,000 in insurance was taken out on the new Mrs. Davis. 

Shannon left Toledo and moved to Dave’s 100-acre farm in Hillsdale County, Michigan, where he grew corn and soybeans.  She was able to find a nursing job at the nearby Flower Hospital in Sylvania.  Shannon’s salary was the only real income in the Davis household; it’s unknown what excuse Dave gave her for the lack of cash flow. 

On July 23, 1980, only 10 months into the marriage, Shannon and Dave took their Tennessee walking horses to visit their neighbor, Dick Britton.  Dave helped Dick repair some machinery and then he and Shannon trotted off for home.  Not long afterward, Dave returned alone, telling Dick that Shannon’s mare had bolted and she had hit her head on a rock.  Rushing back to the scene with Dave, Dick found Shannon lying on the ground on her back, shoes off and with her blouse unbuttoned.  A rock nearby – the only one in the area – was stained with blood.  Rushed to the nearest emergency room, Shannon was pronounced dead on arrival.      

When Lucille and Robert Mohr arrived at the hospital, they found Dave Davis in tears and with scratches on his arm.  Although apparently grief-stricken, he told his wife’s shocked parents that he wanted Shannon’s body cremated.  The Mohrs disagreed, wanting Shannon to buried back home in Toledo and Dave consented. 

The Davis farm in Michigan (photo: forensicfilesnow.com)

He told Lucille and Robert that he couldn’t afford to pay for a funeral for Shannon since his money was tied up in farm properties and he had no insurance on his wife.   

The Mohrs paid for Shannon’s funeral and were shocked when his mother and stepfather showed up for the service.  They would soon learn more about their son-in-law.  Not only was his mother still alive but so was his father. 

Shortly after Shannon’s death, Lucille and Robert were horrified to discover that Dave left for a Florida trip with a woman.  Dave would later claim that he needed to get away and regroup after his wife’s sudden death and the woman was just a friend who had invited herself along.  While he was gone, he asked Dick Britton to forward his mail – he needed copies of Shannon’s death certificate for insurance purposes.

To the local authorities, Shannon’s death looked like an accident and they closed the case. 

The Mohrs, however, weren’t so sure.  They began a letter-writing campaign to ask Michigan’s attorney general to look further into Shannon’s case.  Dick Britton also asked the authorities to take a new look at the evidence against Davis, his neighbor. 

In August of 1980, a month after Shannon died, her body was exhumed and autopsied.  A severe gash on her head was discovered, along with various bruises on her face, hand, and arm. 

Despite this, the case remained closed.

A Detroit Free Press reporter by the name of Billy Bowles entered the picture.  Having heard of the case, he began poking around David Davis.  He found that Davis wasn’t a millionaire; in fact, the only farm property he owned was the one in Hillsdale County, Michigan.  Furthermore, he hadn’t played college football (in the Rose Bowl or anywhere else), hadn’t graduated college and had never served in Vietnam.  Davis had also never told Shannon that he had been married once before and was the father of two daughters.  Dave’s first wife had resided with him on the same farm property that would be Shannon’s final home until she filed for a court protective order, alleging physical abuse. 

Bowles also discovered that Davis had profited from two separate fire incidents on his farm, as well as a workers’ compensation case in which he sustained a suspicious injury while working for a car manufacturer. 

He also found out that Davis had taken advanced courses in pharmacology at the University of Michigan.  Sharing the information with investigators, the investigators began to wonder if Davis could have used some type of drug to cause Shannon’s death.  The state finally reopened Shannon’s case.

Davis, meanwhile, sold his Michigan property and collected several smaller life insurance policies on Shannon’s life that netted him five figures.  Currently living in the Bahamas on a boat with a new girlfriend, he was awaiting the results of a second autopsy on Shannon in order to collect from the larger life insurance policies.

Shannon, during the last year of her life
(photo: au.news.yahoo.com)

It would take a third autopsy before investigators sent their findings out to a Swedish lab who found high concentrations of succinylcholine in Shannon’s body.  Succinylcholine is a medication used to cause short-term paralysis, or a skeletal muscular relaxant, during anesthesia.  It paralyzes every muscle but the heart and makes it impossible to breathe without use of a ventilator.  The drug is often used for medical procedures with horses. 

With this information, investigators determined that Davis gave Shannon two injections of succinylcholine and it was the succinylcholine that caused her death and not the blow to the head. 

The Attorney General’s office took the evidence before a grand jury in October of 1981.  The grand jury returned with a first-degree murder warrant.  Authorities moved in to arrest Dave Davis on Christmas of 1981 in Port au Prince, Haiti but he had already fled, leaving behind his sailboat.   

(Photo: shannonmohrmovie.blogspot.com)

Eight long years would pass by for Shannon’s parents, who wanted justice for their daughter.  Salvation came in the form of the television show Unsolved Mysteries.  Hosted by Robert Stack, the documentary-style show, complete with reenactments, featured cold cases, unsolved crimes, missing persons, and the paranormal.  The first episode, part of a seven-episode special, premiered on January 20, 1987; on October 5, 1988 it officially became a weekly series.  The program featured Shannon’s case on its November 29, 1987 episode.  One viewer, a Beverly Hills dentist by the name of Cheri Lewis, thought the David Richard Davis on the program resembled a man she had dated.  That man, according to Lewis, claimed his wife Shannon had drowned.  A Hollywood stuntman by the name of Beau Gibson had also caught Unsolved Mysteries and noticed an eerie resemblance between David Richard Davis and a man he knew as Rip Bell.  Bell was not only his “best buddy” but had also given Gibson flying lessons.

However, it would take a second airing of the episode, on December 28, 1988, to get the tip that would lead to the capture of David Davis.  A female viewer claimed she knew her from her visits to American Samoa and gave authorities information on where to find the man who was now going by the name of David Myer Bell. 

Under arrest (photo: mlive.com)

On January 6, 1989, Davis was arrested at Tafuna International Airport in Pago Pago by four FBI agents.  Davis was not only working as a pilot for Pacific Island Airways, he also had a 23-year-old wife whom he had met through his job as a pilot.  When asked if he was David Richard Davis, he admitted he was and surrendered. 

Davis had apparently been living in American Samoa since 1985, after stints in Florida, the Caribbean, Alaska, and Hawaii.  He had posed as a doctor, a nurse, and a harpsichord player but he was indeed an actual pilot, as he had earned his FAA certification while on the run.  He and his Samoan wife had been living in a tin-roofed shack in Tafuna.

Returned to Michigan via Hawaii, Davis’ murder trial began in November of 1989.  The formerly blond, charismatic Dave Davis that Shannon Mohr had met and married was now an overweight, gray-bearded, even slovenly, man.  His appearance had changed so much that by the time of his trial, many witnesses failed to identify him in the courtroom. 

The prosecution presented their case, theorizing that while taking the horses back to their property, Davis suggested that he and Shannon stop to have an intimate moment.  Shannon took off her shoes and began to take off her blouse and it was then that he injected her with one or two shots of the succinylcholine.  Before the drug could fully take effect, Shannon fought back, scratching him the process (he blamed those scratches on tree branches as he was desperately seeking helping for his wife).  He then staged the scene to look like an accident by striking her in the head with a rock. 

Prosecutors also showcased the character of Dave Davis by introducing evidence of his con jobs and scams.  He had been wife shopping before meeting Shannon, asking a series of women to marry him only weeks after introductions.  Kay Kendall took the stand and said that she had been briefly engaged to Davis, whom she believed to be a CIA agent but she soon backed out of their engagement.  Barbara Matthews had been another candidate for murder and had also believed that Davis worked for the government, even after learning of Shannon’s death. 

A girlfriend by the name of Jeanne Hohlman testified that Davis told her he was a CIA agent assigned to protect Shannon; after Shannon’s death, Jeanne was informed that Davis’ “mission” was over and they could resume their dating relationship. 

Cheryl Nicholaidis testified that following Shannon’s funeral, Davis had told her “you’re the most beautiful woman in my life now.”

Shannon’s cousin, Tori Abrams, testified for the prosecution that she recalled seeing drug vials in the freezer of their farm while visiting. 

Davis chose not to take the stand during his trial and the jury took only two and a half hours to find him guilty of first-degree murder.  Judge Harvey Moes, stating that Shannon’s terrifying death by suffocation was “more despicable than a contract murder”, sentenced Davis to life without parole. 

Lucille Mohr publicly said she wished that Michigan still had the death penalty while Robert Mohr believed that Davis being locked up in a cage was “100 times worse.” 

Sent to Marquette Branch Prison, Davis continued to proclaim his innocence.  In 2001, he told the Toledo Blade, “I could never have hurt her,” maintaining, still, that Shannon had fallen from her horse and hit her head. 

Incarcerated for life
(photo: mylifeofcrime.wordpress.com)

That same year of 2001, he filed an appeal with a federal court, citing the controversy over the lab work that revealed the presence of succinylcholine; a number of scientists believed the tests were “junk science.”  Not that their beliefs helped Dave Davis.  Added to the life insurance policies, which he lied about, his life, which he lied about, and the staged murder scene, he expectedly lost the appeal. 

Other than a 1993 made for television movie about the case, called Victim of Love: The Shannon Mohr Story, David Richard Davis faded into prison obscurity.

Lucille and Robert Mohr visit Shannon's gravesite
(photo: findagrave.com)

Lucille Mohr died in 2008; Robert Mohr died in 2012. 

Two years later, on November 9, 2014, David Richard Davis, who somewhat ironically acquired a neuromuscular disease, died in a prison healthcare facility at the age of 70. 

Billy Bowles, the Detroit Free Press reporter, who had started the real investigation into Davis, died the same year Davis did.

As for the insurance money that Shannon Mohr was married for and killed for?  The bulk of the payout, some $300,000, went to her parents.

Shannon's final resting place.  Her parents removed her married name from her grave marker when it was determined Dave killed her. (photo: findagrave.com)

 

The Death of Rising Star Dorothy Stratten

Vancouver native Dorothy Stratten very nearly had it all - - small town girl makes good in Hollywood - - living the dream before her estranged husband took it all away.

Dorothy was discovered at the age of eighteen by Playboy, who had received nude photos of the beauty sent by her then-boyfriend Paul Snider.  Snider had found the blonde Dorothy working at a Dairy Queen and, always looking for an angle, the former pimp decided her star potential would allow him to ride her coattails to success.

Playboy liked what it saw and Dorothy headed to L.A., with Snider following her a month or so later.  By August of 1979, she was Playmate of the Month, two months after marrying Snider in a quickie Las Vegas ceremony.  While Dorothy's motivation seemed to be obligation and a sense of gratitude for her "manager," Snider's intent was to keep her from slipping away from him.  Her friends and those acquaintances connected with Playboy were none too happy that she had married the slimy Snider, who began driving around town in a Mercedes with vanity plates - - STAR80- - to indicate where he felt he and his wife were going.

Dorothy and Snider

Dorothy worked as a Bunny at the Playboy Club and acting seemed a natural transition for her.  Hefner believed she could be one of the then few who could move from Playmate to actress.  She got roles, albeit small ones, in tv shows like Fantasy Island and Buck Rogers and the 25th Century and her first film role as a skater in Skatetown, U.S.A.  All of these roles showcased her girl-next-door type of beauty but did little to demonstrate any talent.   Her first starring role was as and in Galaxina, a science fiction parody, released in 1980.    

Her career was gaining momentum but the more success she seemed to gain professionally, the more stress her marriage was put under.  Snider was jealous, not just of Dorothy potentially looking at other men but of her career.  He had wanted to make her a star but now that she was solidly on the way, he began turning on her.

Hugh Hefner encouraged her to leave Snider, calling him a hustler and a pimp but Dorothy felt responsible for her husband and refused.  Friends began to warn her about Snider and his increasingly unstable behavior but again, Dorothy felt responsible.

Dorothy and Bogdanovich

In January 1980, Dorothy received the holy grail of Playboy stardom - - she was crowned the 1980 Playmate of the Year.  She also landed a small role that could have turned the tables completely for her, a mainstream part in the studio film They All Laughed, alongside Audrey Hepburn and Ben Gazarra.    Leaving to shoot in New York must have been a wonderful reprieve for Dorothy; director Peter Bogdanovich kept a tight set and Snider was not allowed to be present.  This breather allowed Dorothy to think about her future . . . and fall in love with Bogdanovich,

Snider, always teeming with jealousy, must have known the end was near when Dorothy left to shoot the movie.  There was no doubt in his mind when he hired a private investigator who gave him details of the director and his star's relationship on set that spring of 1980.

Dorothy told her husband she was leaving him.  Snider had always had other women on the side and in fact was living with one by the time Dorothy was filming in New York but such hypocrisy mattered little to him; he wanted Dorothy if for no other reason than so no one else could have her.

Once filming on They All Laughed wrapped, Dorothy returned to L.A. with Bogdanovich and moved into his home.  Bogdanovich was head over heels for her and believed they had a future together, especially once her divorce from Snider was final.

Snider asked his estranged wife to meet him at their former marital home on August 14, 1980.  Against Bogdanovich's concern and wishes, she went.  She thought she and Snider were going to work out details of their split; she didn't know that Snider had acquired a Mossberg 12 gauge shotgun.

Shortly after noon, Dorothy arrived at the residence with $1,000 to give Snider in hopes of an amicable divorce.

The house where Dorothy died; a news crew is by her car

At 11 p.m., Snider's private investigator called the owner of the home and Snider's current roommate on his private line to say that he had been attempting to reach Snider for hours without luck.  The roommate noted that there was nothing but silence coming from Snider's room; he knocked and called himself without answer before breaking in and discovering the gruesome sight of two dead bodies.

Both had died of shotgun blasts.  Police theorized that at some point that afternoon Snider had raped his wife before shooting her in the face; Dorothy had held her hand up in front of her as evidenced by a wound to her finger.  After that, based on bloody hand prints found on her, it seems likely that he violated her body on a bondage machine he designed and built before turning the gun on himself.

The tragedy shocked and saddened Hollywood.  Dorothy was known to be a sweet and somewhat naive girl; that she could have met such a brutal end and at the hands of a man she had supported and defended was doubly tragic.  Surprisingly, the media did not make mincemeat of her, instead going after Snider and the bitchy industry itself.  Quite a change from the Cielo Drive victim blaming of a decade earlier, where Sharon Tate's slaughter was laid down at her own doorstep.

Peter Bogdanovich, particularly grief stricken, claimed himself to be a widower and doubting that he would ever find such love again.  (He did; he married Dorothy's younger sister Louise in 1988 when she was 20 and he was 50. They would divorce after 13 years of marriage.)   He also went bankrupt in order to finish They All Laughed, which tanked at the box office and wrote a beautiful tome to Dorothy titled The Killing of the Unicorn.  

Two movies were made about Dorothy's life and death; the first with Jamie Lee Curtis and the second, and better known, with Mariel Hemingway and a frightening Eric Roberts as Snider.  The second was very aptly titled Star 80.  Star 80 had scenes filmed at the actual property Dorothy and Snider lived and died at - - even the murder/suicide scenes were shot in the very room that Dorothy was killed.  Bogdanovich dismissed Star 80 as "shit," although he admitted that he had never met Snider.

Why did Snider do it?  Jealousy was a part, although he himself was living with a blonde teenager that he hoped to turn into another Dorothy Stratten.  I don't think it was jealousy based on love he may or may not have had for her; I think it was jealousy based on Dorothy being his property.  In his mind, he had found and made Dorothy.  Based on that alone, he earned the right to be a star himself, he deserved it.  Nobody, and that included Dorothy, was going to take that away from him.

More importantly though, I think fear motivated Paul Snider.  Fear of losing Dorothy.  Fear of losing his golden ticket, his entry into the entertainment world where everybody was somebody.  Paul Snider knew he was nobody without Dorothy Stratten.  Without her, he would be exposed for the fraud and fake he was.  A failed pimp.  A failed nightclub promoter. A failed husband, whose gorgeous young wife had left their marriage for a man twice her age.  He couldn't return to Vancouver having come so close to the top.

I think once he decided to murder Dorothy he elected to do it in a way that would kill her beauty too.  He would destroy that which had initially attracted him, which had opened doors for her.  Why else would he choose a shotgun?  Why else would he aim it at her face and pull the trigger?  I think he felt power by doing so, I think he probably liked seeing the fear in Dorothy's eyes and knowing that he would be the last thing she ever saw on this earth.

I think he was punishing everyone else as well.  Hollywood and the rest of the world had effectively dropped him.  He would show them.  He would take what they loved most, this thing of beauty, and absolutely destroy it.  

Dorothy's story is especially sad as she felt she knew the man who would ultimately kill her. This man who at one time praised her beauty, gave assurances of love had intentionally pointed a gun at her face and pulled the trigger.  Her friends saw the signs; they noticed Snider's eroding behavior.  How had she not seen it?  Was it her youth?  Did she only see what she wanted to?  Was she so naive that she believed in the general good of everyone?

Dorothy

When I think about this case, my mind races with "what if"s.  What if Dorothy had listened to her friends?  What if she had listened to Hugh Hefner?  What if she had listened to Peter Bogdanovich?  What if she had met Snider in a public place or taken a friend?  What if she had never married Snider?  What if Snider had not come into the Dairy Queen in Vancouver on that particular day?  There are so many "what if"s, my brain hurts with them.

This case too reminds me of one that would follow nearly fourteen years later, also in Los Angeles, when O.J. Simpson would decide that his ex-wife should not live and butcher her, along with the innocent Ron Goldman.  I think the emotions were similar - - jealousy and fear.  Simpson was notoriously jealous of any attention being paid to his ex-wife and I think he was fearful that Nicole had moved on from him, once and for all.  Like Snider, if he couldn't have her, no one could.  The difference, of course, is that Simpson was a far greater narcissist than Snider could ever hope to be and played the murders into himself being victimized and persecuted by the corrupt LAPD.  Snider at least saved us all that.

It's been thirty-six years since Dorothy was brutally taken from this life.  Had she been allowed to live, she would be fifty-six years old.  What she might have become, who she might have become, we will never know.  She was in Hollywood only two years, from 1978 until 1980, and yet had managed to accomplish more in that short period than many artists do in their career lifetimes.  More importantly, she did not allow the seamy underside of the business to change her.  She was still the sweet, kind girl from Canada who wrote poetry.

Dorothy was buried in Westwood Memorial Park, the same location where Natalie Wood would be forever placed to rest a year later.

Paul Snider's body was returned to Canada, where he was laid to rest.  Since he and Dorothy both died without wills, he as her legal husband inherited her estate upon her death which was then reverted to his family upon his death.