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 Staircase": Netflix's True Crime Docuseries on the Michael Peterson Trial

True crime documentaries have long been an obsession for me.  Netflix has recently entered the genre with a serious intent to play.  The Staircase allows Netflix to really up its game because, in short, the series is flat out excellent.

The Peterson family - Kathleen and Michael in the center

I thought I had a fair understanding of the Michael Peterson case.  A quick recap:  Peterson, a journalist and novelist and one-time mayoral candidate, was charged and convicted of killing his wife Kathleen by pushing her down the stairs at their Durham, North Carolina home and then beating her to death.  The prosecution put forward as a motive that the marriage was less than the idyllic one Peterson claimed, as evidenced by Peterson's solicitation of gay escorts.  It was this bisexual lifestyle, which the prosecution suggested was secret, that Kathleen Peterson had learnt about and led to her death.

The Staircase follows the Peterson defense team in real life (well, real time for 2001 - 2003 and then again in 2011, 2014, 2016 and 2017) as they talk to Peterson about everything from his bisexuality to his family to what happened the night Kathleen died.  The viewer gets authentic behind the scenes action of a legal team preparing for a criminal trial, including pretrial planning, diagrams, autopsy reports and crime scene photos.  Pictures of Kathleen Peterson in death, the wall and floor splashed with blood, close ups of her damaged head, shaved so the lacerations could be seen, are not for the faint of heart.  Those who are overly sensitive to language and sex may also feel uncomfortable; there is a bit of profanity and sexual innuendo from emails Peterson sent to a prospective date, as well as photos.

The staircase where Kathleen died

But it's necessary in order to fully go behind the scenes of the real nitty gritty in a murder trial, which is never pretty.  We see everything the defense has and is confronted with, including Michael Peterson's own shortcomings and personality flaws.  Knowing the outcome of the case does not make The Staircase any less interesting.

Perhaps the most important thing The Staircase does is expose the flaws and difficulties in our legal system.  Whether you believe that Michael Peterson killed his wife or not, the fact is the evidence simply wasn't there to convict for first-degree murder.  While the motive the prosecution put forward had merit, so too did the defense's experts who said the evidence pointed toward an accident fall rather than murder.  The 1985 death of Michael Peterson's former neighbor, found dead at the foot of a staircase, an eerily reminiscent portend to Kathleen Peterson's death, was submitted as further evidence that Michael Peterson is a killer.  But again, there seems to be no hard and fast evidence that Peterson had anything to do with that death which cannot conclusively be called a homicide, especially given that she suffered from medical conditions that gave her severe headaches in the weeks immediately prior to her death.  The state of North Carolina, while allowed to admit Elizabeth Ratliff's death into the Peterson trial as evidence of Peterson's M.O., did not outright accuse him of murdering Ratliff but they insinuated that she was his first victim.  

The Peterson home

I found that The Staircase left me with more questions than I entered the series with.  Believing in Michael Peterson's guilt as episode one began, I'm now unsure.  There was no smoking gun in this case, no surprise witnesses.  The state's theory is entirely plausible -- that Kathleen found out about her husband's homosexual infidelity -- but so too is the defense's - - that Kathleen knew her husband was bisexual and accepted it.  The state's expert at first seemed credible and the story put forth makes sense until it's discovered that that expert -- an FBI agent -- was discredited for framing another man in a 1991 murder.  That man, after spending 17 years in prison, was exonerated after the evidence was found to be faulty.  Could that expert have done the same to Michael Peterson?

On the other hand, could a fall down the stairs have caused multiple lacerations to Kathleen's head without skull fractures?  If Michael Peterson had bludgeoned Kathleen, wouldn't it be likely to have skull fractures?

One piece of information that I appreciated was that she likely fell down the stairs while attempting to climb up them; I always believed she fell down face first, while descending them and I couldn't understand how she had injuries to the back of her head in that case.  Falling backwards down the stairs, however, could account for that damage.

The Staircase is very much worth a viewer's time.  It's an emotional roller coaster where you waiver between grief, anger, frustration and yearning.  It's addictive and very difficult to stop once you start.  I marathoned the entire thing in one sitting (and my aching back is proof.)  My mind is still rehashing this case, back and forth, looking for a resolution, a definitive answer.

I don't have that definitive answer and neither did The Staircase.  I can't in my own mind say with certainty that I feel Michael Peterson is guilty of Kathleen's death, nor can I absolutely say he's innocent.  I can say that he didn't get a fair trial initially with the deceptive (or downright corrupt) FBI agent and I don't believe Elizabeth Ratliff's death should have been introduced as it was highly prejudicial.  I can say based on the evidence presented, the majority of which was circumstantial, had I been on that jury, I would never have voted to convict for first-degree murder (the only options were first-degree or acquittal.)

I feel sad for Kathleen Peterson, who died too early.  I feel sad for the Peterson children, who effectively lost both parents, and whose grief, agony and pain in so very evident on their faces and in their tears.  I feel sad for Kathleen's sisters, who continue to suffer the loss of their sibling.  I even feel sorry for Michael Peterson, who could be wholly innocent of any wrongdoing in regard to Kathleen's death, and has spent more than 16 years considered a suspect, a killer and more than 8 years in prison.  If he is guilty, he has paid with a loss of freedom (even for just a time), loss of home, finances and health.  More frightening, if he's not guilty, he's done time for a crime he didn't commit and lost years with his children, grandchildren and friends -- the most egregious and horrible miscarriage of justice imaginable.  Will there ever be an absolute answer in this case?  I'm afraid there may not be.

If you've watched The Staircase, drop me a comment and let me know your thoughts on the series.