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[Music] Welcome to Postmortem. I'm your host, An Marie Green, and today we are discussing
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the case of Kevin Davis. Now, in the early morning hours of August 12th, 2023, Kevin's wife, Allison, called 911
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and said that she woke up to a loud noise and she found Kevin at the bottom of the stairs. Kevin later died in the
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hospital. An autopsy later revealed that he had a crushedin skull and a murder investigation was launched with Allison
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becoming the primary suspect. She was charged with murder, arrested, and put on trial where she would fight to clear
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her name. Joining me now is 48 hours correspondent Peter Vansent. Thanks for chatting with me today, Peter.
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>> Hey, Ann Marie. Great to be here. Um, and the usual reminder before we get into it, uh, if you have not listened to
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this episode of 48 Hours, head on over to your podcast feed to get the full audio. You're going to find, uh, the
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full episode in your podcast feed right underneath this one. Go take a listen and then come on back. All right, here
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we go, Peter, cuz this one's a little different. >> It's a doozer. >> Yeah. So, of course, at the center of
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this entire episode, right, the big question, was Kevin's death an accident or was it murder? And we see sort of
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very early on, uh, people interacting with Allison are interpreting her behavior differently. She's speaking to
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first responders and they have very different assessments of what they're seeing. And you guys actually played
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some body cam footage of that. >> That's right. And these two first responders that that are of particular
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interest here, they are trained to observe anything suspicious at a crime scene as well as trying to save a life.
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And so they focus on how things are said. And at the Davis house, the first two responders were standing by an
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ambulance and one officer said, "She doesn't have a normal reaction for me telling her husband's critical, right?"
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And the EMT said, "I think she's still in shock." That shows you the range of interpretation as you look at these
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people. But having watched all of that video, there were some very odd moments. Allison apologized for wearing pajamas.
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Now, the normal reaction would be, "Quick, he's in here. Quick, as fast, follow me." But she apologizes about
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what she's wearing. She laughtalked with people at the scene. That struck some as
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very, very odd. But a lot of the people who defend Allison's behavior say she was raised to be extremely polite and
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this is how she speaks. She will always say thank you to people and whatnot. You
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know, I in watching the hour, the only time that it sort of struck me as odd was that little laugh talk that we saw.
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But as I listen to you kind of put it all in line for me, like list it all, what comes across to me is someone who's
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a people pleaser almost that you sort of mimic the reaction that you're getting from other people and you say thank you
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and you apologize for being inappropriate. Like that's how it actually comes across to me.
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>> Well, you know, the laugh talk that she did. I I've covered so many hurricanes
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and you'll walk up to someone and their house has been destroyed. Is this your house? and they'll go, "Yeah, yeah, this
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is it. There's not much here, is there?" They they'll laugh. >> I think that's a a stress reaction in
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some people that it is a involuntary uh emotion and that laugh talk occurs. That's what I was thinking about when I
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watched that. And also keep in mind her friends said that later she was incredibly emotional. She was crying at
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the hospital. And her dad said that Allison, she compartmentalizes because she knew she had to be calm to
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help Kevin. >> And Allison's defense said that, well, if she committed a crime and had
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rehearsed a story, why would she have forgotten to act sad on the police body cam video,
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>> right? Um, so there were some questions about the 911 call, and I want to play
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that. >> 911, what's the address for your emergency? My just there's blood everywhere and I
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can't look all over. I don't know if people are dead. I >> I Okay, I can't I can't understand what
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you're saying. Take a breath for me. >> I'm sorry. I'm sorry. >> What's your address?
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>> Just fell down a plane. >> Okay. And what happened to your husband? >> Um he fell down the stairs just now. I
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was sleeping downstairs. All I heard all of a sudden I heard a loud noise. time trying to take longer, deeper breath. I
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heard a loud noise. I went, he was at the bottom of the stairs. There was blood everywhere. And I can't flip him
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over. I can't wake him up. And I don't know if he's breathing or not. >> Okay. He's not responding to you at all.
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>> He's not responding. And there's blood everywhere. >> Okay. I'm going to have help on the way
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to you. They'll be there in just a few minutes. Okay. >> Thank you so much. >> You're welcome.
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So, what was the problem with that 911 call? Because I mean, it seems normal to me.
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>> I've heard, you know, hundreds of these 911 calls from local news all through my
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network life. Usually, if if my wife finds me at the foot of the stairs with blood, I'm not going to tell the 911
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operator a story. I was I woke up and I heard a noise and no, you'd say he's my my husband's at the is is unconscious.
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He's at the bottom. get someone here as fast as you can. That tends to be the normal call. So, um the the the sudden
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calm uh Detective Krueger in this thought that this was a a performance. And she also thanked the operator at the
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end of the 911 call, which was rather unusual because it was a very friendly thank you. H I mean often when we've
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done these stories, Peter, one of the things that sort of stands out when people are suspicious is that
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they give you more details than you are asking for. >> Absolutely. When they're calm, it can be
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interpreted that the person telling the story has rehearsed the story. If they are overly dramatic, then it must be a
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performance. Uh you can't win on these 911 calls. And it is also important to remember people do react differently in
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crisis. >> Yeah. >> By the way, during the course of this, there was a really uh surprisingly
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emotional moment for us. Allison's father had not heard the 911 call and and I I turned that on. He just his head
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just went right down into his hands. He all but collapsed. He started crying. I would call it even sobbing.
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>> And for him, this was his daughter. This was completely genuine. And this was
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heartbreaking. This was real. He did hear the change to the calmness. Okay. Okay. I've got my breath now. And and
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her telling the story, but he said, "That's my daughter. That's the way she talks."
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>> Just as an aside, I was so impressed by him. Um I just I thought he was sort of
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the almost the MVP of that whole hour. you know, often you see moms um and so it it was good to to see a dad defending
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his daughter and and I wondered how he was remaining so unemotional and and then we saw the emotion bubble over, you
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know. >> Absolutely. Yeah. And uh he's someone you trust implicitly when you hear him
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speak. >> Yeah. >> And and he didn't show an instant of doubt about his daughter's innocence.
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>> Okay. So, after first responders arrive and police decide not to enter the upstairs bedroom and they do that
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because Allison says that their pet pitbull is up there and the pitbull's a guard dog.
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I still didn't understand I I understand why maybe they wouldn't want to go up there without her, but they could have
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gone up there. >> Yeah, that's an obvious mistake. Uh because there could be important
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evidence inside that room. She had warned him that, you know, there's a pitbull on the other side. That's
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obviously a deterrent, but Allison had signed permission for them to enter the room. And she did offer to move the dog.
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And Detective Krueger, because he initially, much too quickly believed that Kevin's death was an accident, he
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now believes that who knows, the murder weapon might have been in that bedroom with the dog. And of course, he regrets
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not going in. Yeah, I can imagine. Uh, Detective Krueger also cleared the crime scene. So, even if he might have
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suspected that there was no foul play, why not at least wait till the autopsy? Um, especially since officers at the
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scene seem to really question Allison's behavior and certainly the amount of blood at the scene.
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>> This was an enormous blunder. Uh, there is a reason why police have crime scene
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tape to seal off that crime scene. There is no hurry to give it back to a family.
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You have to do your CSI work there and take the time. Um I'm working on another case right now where it was months
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before the death scene was cleared by police. And Detective Krueger said the New Haven, Indiana Police Department,
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you know, they're a small town outfit. They have limited resources and expertise. And Krueger said he just
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didn't see the need to tie up all of their resources and hold the house uh uh for what he thought was an accident
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scene. They eventually called the Indiana State Police because they have many more resources, right? But by the
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time they got there, the house had already been cleared. That scene has now been contaminated and whatever they
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found would have been challenged in court. So then what evidence did in investigators actually have against
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Allison? >> Well, Allison told first responders, and this is important, that she and Kevin
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had gotten into a fight that night. That was the word that she used. And that played into the investigator's belief
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that she hit Kevin in the back of the head with an object because they think, well, if there was a fight, there was
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emotion and she may have lashed out at him. Uh, no murder weapon was was ever found. And Detective Krueger pointed to
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the a text that Kevin had sent his friend early in the morning about 2:34 a.m. He wrote, "Got to go to bed. The
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wife." Now, you hear that, the audience hears that. I heard that. I didn't think
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it was any big deal, but investigators thought, "Wow, the wife, that suggests tension inside that house." I thought
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that was a bit of a stretch. Um, another text that we didn't get to in the hour,
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Allison texted Kevin, "I love you." And he didn't text back. And the prosecution
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brought this up in court that there may have been some tension, some problem inside, some anger inside that house.
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Uh, but Allison and Kevin lived together. He knew he was going to see her later. So, you know, you get busy
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and you sometimes don't answer those. I'm guilty of that. Um, and you got to be careful about confirmation bias when
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you're an investigator. And once you start interpreting everything as evidence of a crime, um, you can really
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get in in trouble, which I think happened in this case. >> Welcome back. On October 17th, 2023,
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this is 2 months of an investigation going on. Police finally declared Kevin's death a homicide. And about 2
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months later, a warrant is issued for Allison's arrest. Uh she turned herself into the Allen County Jail with her
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parents. Uh so I want to ask you about that local bar that Allison and Kevin frequented. It's called the East Haven
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Tavern. Uh seems like a place with a lot of regulars and you spoke to some of those. I'm curious about how Allison's
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arrest affected the patrons there. I'm also curious about, you know, what they said about the
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couple. >> Anybody that's ever been in a pub. Um, I used to live in England. Uh, this East
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Haven Tavern was like a pub. Everybody knows everybody. It's like the old TV show Cheers. Everybody knows your name.
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Uh, Allison and Kevin were regulars. Kevin big personality guy. Uh, really entertain people. He liked to argue,
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debate, and things. But they they really loved him. So the people there were really shocked at what happened. And the
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East Haven Tavern is in New Haven, Indiana. It's a town of roughly 15,000 people. And it's a real microcosm. But
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after Allison was arrested and charged in jail, uh well, people thought, well, they must have something on her. They
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wouldn't just arrest her unless they they really have a solid case. So you some of the people there um started to
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drift toward that. others, you know, were saying there's just there's just no way there's just no way she could do
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this. So, this is the intrigue of this case as as our investigation went forward. Allison pleaded not guilty, but
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since Indiana rarely allows bail on a murder charge, she had to remain in jail for 17 months waiting for the trial. I
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am curious, I mean, how did she spend her time behind bars? Uh this was uh this was really terrible. Uh she was not
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allowed any in-person visits except for her attorneys. Her family not only wasn't allowed to visit in person, but
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virtually like on a a FaceTime call. She wrote letters and she could make phone calls to family and friends, but she was
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not allowed to see family members. Her attorneys say that in jail Allison, you know, tried to make the best of her life
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there. She was leading uh workout classes and she was trying to influence people in a positive way, but that
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isolation. >> Mhm. The trial is May 6th, 2025. Um I want to play a clip in the episode
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from Detective Krueger as he's heading into court that day. >> I'm anxious. What's at stake today is
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either Kevin Davis gets justice for what was done to him or we let a a murderer walk free.
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>> So he he's, you know, clearly convinced that Allison is guilty. >> Yeah. She is innocent until proven
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guilty. They didn't have a CSI moment. They didn't have an eyewitness. They didn't have a motive for certain. They
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didn't have so much in this case. And to say that if she is found not guilty, she
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still is, that's just wrong. That's just wrong. Uh, now keep in mind, Detective Krueger is now police chief Krueger. He
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is highly respected in the community, in his profession, and he owns the mistakes
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that he made in this releasing that crime scene so early. >> So, the trial was really a battle of
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experts. The jury heard from Dr. Smok who testified for the prosecution and Dr. Dragovich who testified for the
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defense. When a jury is faced with two experts with two totally opposing views, how how do they determine who or what
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they believe or I wonder if at times they just cancel each other out? >> The prosecutors actually had three
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different doctors testify and both Dr. Smok and Dr. Dragovich, they were convincing. This was a face off. It's
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always dramatic when this happens because a life is hanging in the balance in this case Allison's life. We also
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interviewed them and they had a lot of additional material for us about this case. Dr. Smok, the prosecution's
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expert, said that Kevin's CT scan showed multiple fractures to multiple areas of
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his head. And he believes that Allison wielded some sort of a weapon, a blunt object to beat Kevin that was never
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found. That he didn't fall down the stairs, but he was attacked. Dr. Dragovich, who testified for the
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defense, said that the injuries and that fall and all of that was was the result
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of one impact to Kevin's head that led to multiple fractures. He believes that Kevin fell and his head hit the
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banister, which caused Kevin's brain to ricochet inside his skull. He made a compelling case that one single impact
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would not necessarily cause any open external wounds or blood marks on the banister. There weren't any cuts on his
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head. We, the 48 hours people were a bit overwhelmed trying to figure all of this
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out. And so we really laughed out loud when the juror that we interviewed after this case in our interview said that
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they found the the expert testimony to be easy to follow and and clear. >> Really?
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>> Yeah. and um they were getting it more than we were, but Dr. Dragovich explained it in ways that people could
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could could follow >> and um he prevailed. >> Uh it's a 4-day trial. The jury deliberates, they deliver a verdict.
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Allison Davis is not guilty. We don't cover a lot of not guilties. I I mean, in in your years of doing 48
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hours, how many not guilty verdicts have you covered? >> I've had two. This is one of them.
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>> Two. >> Two. That's it. There have been other cases, too, where I thought there would
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be a not-uilty verdict, but uh there have only been two. And you know, one of the jurors said the prosecution's case
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had holes in it. Um >> but Krueger took the loss very hard and um the Democratic thing to do would be
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to accept the jury's verdict. and the lead prosecutor said, "Well, the jury has spoken and that her next best theory
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would be that there was another attacker in the house." But Krueger said 100% that Allison got away with murder. Um,
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and it's very rare to go on the record to say something like that. And it's unfair. This puts a little scarlet
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letter on her as she goes back into society, back into life. A jury of her peers said she's not guilty. And as her
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dad said, I can't believe they did this to her. It's unbelievable. Such injustice. He can't believe that they
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ever charged her with homicide, kept her in isolation, and then a jury takes just
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6 hours after all of that to find her not guilty. Uh, you got to go with that verdict. And in this case, I think the
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jury got it right. >> Yeah. Yeah. I I mean, I felt everything that dad was saying. And another thing
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that people don't kind of think about is the money that it takes to defend yourself. I mean, just being accused can
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be ruinous to your life, you know. >> Um, so then that brings me cuz the one person that that we're all as a viewer
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waiting to hear from in that hour is Allison. I know you guys reached out to her. Um, and clear clearly she didn't
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want to be involved. >> No. Uh, she's left New Haven and is living with her parents. We did reach
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out. She declined. We understand that. It wasn't long after she had been acquitted that we we put in this request
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to her. Um, she not only lost a husband, uh, she was accused of murder, spent 17
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months in in jail. But, uh, Allison, if you're listening out there, in my mind, and I believe in the public's mind now,
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uh, you are an innocent person. And, um, I wish her all the best in life. and the
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fact that her father participated. I assume that she gave her blessing and he represented her very very well.
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>> Absolutely. >> Um well, Peter, thank you for participating in this podcast. This was
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an unexpected ending because 48 hours doesn't always end like this. And you know, I'm I'm really happy that Allison
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is rebuilding her life cuz there's a lot more life to live for her. >> All the best to you, Allison. And if you
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like this episode, of course, please rate and review on Apple Podcast or Spotify.