00:00:06
on a warm summer evening in 1980 a young
00:00:09
married couple took their horses out for
00:00:12
a leisurely ride through the woods
00:00:14
one of the horses bucked and threw the
00:00:16
rider
00:00:18
the autopsy confirmed it was an accident
00:00:21
but the family wasn't so sure
00:00:25
[Music]
00:00:32
[Music]
00:00:36
[Applause]
00:00:38
[Music]
00:00:44
[Applause]
00:00:49
[Music]
00:00:52
hillsdale county michigan population
00:00:54
just over 40 thousand
00:00:56
this is farm country soybeans and corn
00:00:59
mostly a hospitable place where friends
00:01:02
drop in unexpectedly and there's always
00:01:04
room for one more at the dinner table
00:01:07
[Music]
00:01:10
25 year old shannon moore was a quiet
00:01:12
unassuming young woman who grew up in
00:01:15
nearby toledo ohio
00:01:17
she was a very good student in school
00:01:19
and she said when she was in first grade
00:01:23
because she went to a catholic school
00:01:24
i'll be a nun or i'll be a nurse
00:01:27
and she became a nurse
00:01:29
in september of 1979
00:01:32
shannon moore met an eligible bachelor
00:01:34
from hillsdale county 36 year old david
00:01:37
davis the two met at a friend's wedding
00:01:41
shannon came home from the wedding of
00:01:43
this other nurse
00:01:45
and said mom i met this real nice man
00:01:48
and he's
00:01:50
just we spent the whole evening together
00:01:52
we had such a wonderful time he told me
00:01:54
he was a millionaire he has farms all
00:01:57
over the united states
00:01:59
and in belize
00:02:02
and he's going to call me we have a date
00:02:04
set up i thought the world of them from
00:02:07
the very beginning
00:02:10
he was just a kind of a rugged outdoor
00:02:12
type person
00:02:13
liked to fish and hunt i thought he was
00:02:15
good to my daughter and that's the only
00:02:17
thing that i cared about
00:02:19
and i said to her
00:02:20
shannon if you let this one get away
00:02:22
from you you're nuts
00:02:25
after an eight-week courtship shannon
00:02:27
and david married and moved to david's
00:02:30
michigan farm
00:02:31
it seemed to be the ideal place to raise
00:02:34
a family
00:02:36
they bought two tennessee walking horses
00:02:38
which were recommended because of their
00:02:40
gentle nature
00:02:42
on july 23 1980 10 months after the
00:02:46
wedding shannon and david rode their
00:02:48
horses to see their neighbor dick
00:02:50
britton
00:02:55
how's your eye
00:02:57
great good real good
00:03:01
dick was having a problem with some farm
00:03:03
machinery so david spent time helping
00:03:05
him
00:03:06
we worked probably half an hour on this
00:03:08
tool
00:03:10
then shannon came up and asked me about
00:03:11
taking our boy norman home with him and
00:03:14
i went
00:03:16
i went to turn around and tell her sure
00:03:18
go ahead and take him and dave said no
00:03:20
you can come get him in the morning and
00:03:22
you know shannon had asked me the
00:03:24
question but he had answered
00:03:27
and so i dropped it
00:03:29
david and shannon then mounted their
00:03:31
horses and left
00:03:36
[Music]
00:03:40
instead of going back the way they came
00:03:42
they took a shortcut through the woods
00:03:50
a short time later david raced out of
00:03:53
the woods back to dick britton's farm
00:03:56
nick come quick he'd come riding back
00:03:59
and he had blood on his shirt he was
00:04:01
sweaty perspiring hard like he'd been in
00:04:04
a fight or something
00:04:05
kind of half fell off his horse
00:04:07
and said that shannon had fell off her
00:04:09
horse and she was hurt bad
00:04:12
davis said that shannon's horse had
00:04:14
bolted he said she fell and hit her head
00:04:16
on a rock
00:04:18
shannon was lying on her back
00:04:20
her eyes were closed there was blood on
00:04:23
the back of her head
00:04:29
shannon's blouse was undone and her
00:04:31
sneakers were off which britain thought
00:04:34
was unusual
00:04:36
i think we better get her to the car
00:04:38
okay
00:04:43
shannon was rushed to the nearest
00:04:45
hospital
00:04:46
and i was blowing the horn tooting as
00:04:47
loud as i could
00:04:49
and this nurse come running out and i
00:04:51
says we need a we need a doctor i said
00:04:53
i'll run to the front and tell him she's
00:04:55
hurt bad
00:04:57
shannon's lifeless body was wheeled into
00:04:59
the emergency room where doctors checked
00:05:02
for vital signs
00:05:04
there weren't any
00:05:06
the time of death was arbitrarily set at
00:05:09
8 45 pm
00:05:12
the wound in the back of shannon's head
00:05:14
and the x-rays taken at the hospital
00:05:16
were consistent with david's explanation
00:05:18
that she had fallen from her horse and
00:05:20
hit her head
00:05:22
her death certificate listed the cause
00:05:24
of death as multiple cranial and
00:05:26
cervical spine injuries
00:05:28
[Music]
00:05:30
since shannon died in one county and was
00:05:32
declared dead in another no autopsy was
00:05:35
performed because of a jurisdictional
00:05:37
mix-up
00:05:39
that failure would later come back to
00:05:42
haunt shannon's family
00:05:49
shannon moore had two lifelong dreams
00:05:52
the first to become a nurse the other to
00:05:55
raise a family
00:05:58
she graduated from nursing school and
00:06:00
had been married less than a year
00:06:02
her dreams for a family would never be
00:06:05
fulfilled
00:06:06
because of a freak horseback riding
00:06:08
accident which took her life at 26.
00:06:13
when shannon's parents lucille and bob
00:06:15
moore arrived at the hospital her
00:06:17
husband david davis was in the hall
00:06:19
crying
00:06:20
they all instinctively hugged each other
00:06:23
just as they always did
00:06:30
he grabbed me and as he grabbed me he
00:06:32
ran his hand under my face
00:06:35
and i looked and it was three deep
00:06:37
scratches
00:06:39
and i mean deep scratches
00:06:42
oh please god
00:06:43
[Music]
00:06:45
shannon's father had other concerns
00:06:48
david insisted that shannon's body be
00:06:51
cremated as a catholic bob moore was
00:06:54
opposed the moore family wanted to take
00:06:56
shannon's body back to ohio to bury her
00:06:58
there
00:07:00
at that point dick britton stepped in
00:07:03
you know her mother was crying and bob
00:07:05
was crying so i stood right up yelled at
00:07:07
him i said dave that's her folks they
00:07:08
said nobody knows her out here i said
00:07:10
let let him take her back to toledo and
00:07:12
bury her there i said her people will
00:07:14
come to her grave and put flowers on it
00:07:16
i said she don't know anybody here and
00:07:18
he backed down and said okay
00:07:21
the next day
00:07:22
deputies from the hillsdale county
00:07:24
sheriff's department visited the scene
00:07:27
of the accident
00:07:29
they found the bloody rock the only rock
00:07:32
for some distance around
00:07:34
not far away were shannon's untied
00:07:37
sneakers lying about five feet apart
00:07:40
and there was an area where the grass
00:07:42
had been matted down
00:07:44
then looked around a little bit
00:07:46
took a few pictures and
00:07:48
left
00:07:49
and i asked him about the shoes and they
00:07:51
said now you can have them
00:07:54
over the next several days
00:07:56
the moores made arrangements to bury
00:07:58
their daughter
00:08:00
david's parents whom the moors had never
00:08:02
met came to the funeral
00:08:05
and what they had to say
00:08:08
made it clear that everything david had
00:08:10
told the moors about his past
00:08:12
was a lie
00:08:15
he was not a millionaire he didn't own
00:08:18
farms all over the country and even more
00:08:20
shocking was the fact that he had been
00:08:23
married before and had two daughters
00:08:27
the moors believed their daughter's
00:08:29
death was no accident
00:08:33
dick britton had come to the same
00:08:35
conclusion because of something davis
00:08:37
had said the day after shannon's death
00:08:41
so the next morning we're sitting at my
00:08:42
table and he wants to know about the
00:08:44
neighbor he said does the neighbor still
00:08:46
want to sell his farm and i said huh
00:08:48
and he said never mind and i'm thinking
00:08:51
how can you be thinking of buying a farm
00:08:53
the next morning after your wife died
00:08:56
and then he left and i just that just
00:08:58
kept working on me i kept thinking what
00:09:01
that don't sound right you know just
00:09:04
a week after shannon's death dick
00:09:06
britton and the moors took their
00:09:08
suspicions to the hillsdale county
00:09:10
sheriff's office
00:09:11
[Music]
00:09:13
the more is discovered the davis had
00:09:15
taken out insurance policies on
00:09:17
shannon's life totaling 330 000
00:09:21
during the ten months they were married
00:09:25
the morris demanded an autopsy
00:09:28
and shannon's body was exhumed a month
00:09:31
after her death
00:09:34
the autopsy revealed a three and a
00:09:36
quarter inch dash on the back of
00:09:38
shannon's head along with bruises on her
00:09:40
upper back left shoulder her upper right
00:09:43
arm right hand and left cheekbone
00:09:46
but they found no evidence of foul play
00:09:50
the coroner concluded that shannon died
00:09:52
of the head injury
00:09:54
the sheriff's department considered the
00:09:56
case closed
00:09:58
believe it or not yes when they first
00:10:01
brought her up and said there was no
00:10:03
evidence
00:10:04
i thought they're missing something
00:10:06
there has to be
00:10:08
and i knew then we had to keep going one
00:10:11
way or another because something was
00:10:13
wrong
00:10:15
the moors weren't the only ones who were
00:10:17
suspicious
00:10:19
billy bowles a reporter for the detroit
00:10:22
free press uncovered some devastating
00:10:24
information on david davis painting him
00:10:27
as a consummate liar who lived off money
00:10:30
gained from suspicious insurance claims
00:10:33
one claim
00:10:35
was for a questionable fire on a farm
00:10:37
davis once owned
00:10:39
the vacant farmhouse burned and he
00:10:42
collected
00:10:43
about 30 thousand dollars insurance for
00:10:45
that
00:10:47
the barn
00:10:48
burned mysteriously while he was away
00:10:50
and uh
00:10:54
and he collected six thousand dollars
00:10:56
for that
00:10:58
uh in addition to those uh he had left a
00:11:01
job at uh
00:11:03
chrysler after a very suspicious
00:11:07
injury
00:11:08
uh and he was collecting workman's
00:11:11
compensation
00:11:12
and social security for that
00:11:15
bowl's investigation revealed among
00:11:17
other things that davis had studied
00:11:19
pharmacology in college
00:11:22
armed with this new information
00:11:24
the moore family asked the state's
00:11:26
attorney general to open
00:11:28
a new investigation
00:11:31
shannon's autopsy revealed she died of a
00:11:33
single blow to her head
00:11:35
detective don brooks had two theories
00:11:38
number one
00:11:39
this young lady actually felt on a horse
00:11:41
and struck the only rock around squarely
00:11:44
and it really is an accident or number
00:11:46
two he killed her and the only way in my
00:11:49
opinion for him to
00:11:52
get her in a position where he could
00:11:53
slam her head into that rock was to have
00:11:55
her completely immobilized
00:11:58
so we wanted to look at the possibility
00:12:00
that she was drugged at the time
00:12:02
something that would paralyze her
00:12:04
but leave her heart still pumping and
00:12:07
still
00:12:08
she's still alive with davis's
00:12:11
background in pharmacology police asked
00:12:13
local veterinarians what drugs farmers
00:12:16
use with their animals that can cause
00:12:18
paralysis
00:12:20
one of the drugs mentioned was a
00:12:22
powerful muscle relaxant named
00:12:25
succinylcholine used in animal surgery
00:12:29
after anesthesia has been induced
00:12:33
they will go ahead and give you some
00:12:35
succinylcholine and what it will do is
00:12:38
completely paralyze
00:12:40
every
00:12:42
what we call skeletal muscle
00:12:44
it won't hurt the heart but it will
00:12:46
all the intercostal muscles which help
00:12:49
in breathing or
00:12:50
anything that you use to voluntarily
00:12:52
move
00:12:54
it will absolutely prevent those muscles
00:12:57
from functioning
00:12:59
it's also used in humans
00:13:01
in large doses succinyl choline can be
00:13:04
fatal
00:13:06
but there was a problem
00:13:08
succinylcholine is broken down in the
00:13:11
body almost immediately and is therefore
00:13:14
undetectable
00:13:17
if this was the drug david davis used on
00:13:20
shannon
00:13:21
he had gotten away with murder
00:13:26
[Music]
00:13:28
in the seven months in shannon moore's
00:13:30
death her husband david davis sold his
00:13:33
michigan farm and moved to the bahamas
00:13:35
where he lived on his sailboat with his
00:13:38
new girlfriend
00:13:40
davis was waiting for the conclusion of
00:13:42
shannon's investigation so that he could
00:13:45
collect the 330 thousand 000 from her
00:13:47
life insurance policies
00:13:50
although the autopsy was consistent with
00:13:53
davis version of her death
00:13:55
the crime scene wasn't
00:13:57
davis said he and shannon were riding
00:14:00
back to their farm when shannon's horse
00:14:02
bucked threw her to the ground and her
00:14:04
head hit a rock
00:14:06
but the rock she hit was the only one
00:14:09
within a hundred yards
00:14:11
for some unexplained reason shannon's
00:14:13
blouse was unbuttoned and her shoes were
00:14:16
removed and placed a few yards away the
00:14:18
grass was matted around the body
00:14:23
police wondered whether davis might have
00:14:26
injected shannon with some kind of
00:14:28
paralyzing agent like succinyl choline
00:14:31
before her death
00:14:33
there was no known test to identify
00:14:36
succinylcholine
00:14:38
but local scientists heard about a new
00:14:40
test developed in sweden which was
00:14:42
having some success finding succinyl
00:14:44
choline even in embalmed tissue
00:14:48
dr robert forney and tom carroll took
00:14:51
shannon's tissues to the karolinska
00:14:53
institute in sweden
00:14:56
it took a team of toxicologists several
00:14:59
weeks of trial and error just to extract
00:15:01
a sample they could test
00:15:04
we were working 10-hour days
00:15:07
working on trying to get the method
00:15:09
perfected and once we got the method
00:15:11
perfected then we started analyzing all
00:15:13
of shannon's tissues
00:15:16
the tests were conducted with the mass
00:15:18
spectrometer which bombards chemical
00:15:21
molecules with ions shattering them into
00:15:24
their molecular components the
00:15:26
fragmentation creates a chemical
00:15:28
fingerprint that can be compared to
00:15:30
other chemical fingerprints to determine
00:15:33
the unknown's identity
00:15:35
[Music]
00:15:36
after weeks of testing and hundreds of
00:15:39
tests scientists finally got a break
00:15:42
i looked over in one corner and in that
00:15:44
one corner was one piece of paper and on
00:15:47
that piece of paper was a perfect mass
00:15:49
spectra of succinyl choline
00:15:52
and that piece of paper was identified
00:15:55
to have come
00:15:56
from shannon's tissues
00:16:00
that caused
00:16:03
a riot
00:16:05
when prosecutors in michigan learned the
00:16:07
news they were elated but they didn't
00:16:10
feel it was enough
00:16:12
they wanted more evidence and needed to
00:16:15
know where davis had injected her
00:16:18
[Music]
00:16:19
as a result
00:16:21
for the second time
00:16:23
shannon's body was exhumed
00:16:25
the vast majority of the
00:16:27
injuries sustained by shannon
00:16:30
were on the left side of her body
00:16:33
her left shoulder her left back
00:16:36
and the left side of her head
00:16:38
which would indicate a fall
00:16:40
to the left and then falling on your
00:16:42
left
00:16:43
on her right side however there was a
00:16:47
bruise
00:16:48
in the upper quadrant of the right arm
00:16:52
and also on the hand
00:16:55
so
00:16:56
those were the only bruises that you saw
00:16:59
on her
00:17:01
right side
00:17:03
dr fourney took tissue samples from all
00:17:05
the brew sites and returned to sweden
00:17:09
he discovered the shannon's right wrist
00:17:12
and upper arm had much higher
00:17:14
concentrations of succinylcholine than
00:17:17
her other tissues
00:17:18
an indication that davis had injected
00:17:21
her twice
00:17:23
based on that evidence
00:17:25
david davis was finally charged with
00:17:28
shannon moore's murder
00:17:30
when police went to arrest davis
00:17:33
he was nowhere to be found
00:17:36
the search for davis dragged on for
00:17:38
months
00:17:39
and then years
00:17:41
[Music]
00:17:47
police believe that david richard davis
00:17:50
murdered his wife by injecting her with
00:17:52
a lethal drug making the death look like
00:17:54
a horseback riding accident
00:17:58
the drug he allegedly used was believed
00:18:00
to be undetectable but a team of
00:18:03
determined toxicologists found it
00:18:06
for eight and a half years davis eluded
00:18:09
police before they finally got a break
00:18:13
a story about shannon's murder appeared
00:18:15
on network television
00:18:17
an old girlfriend of davises called
00:18:19
police with a tip
00:18:21
she called and she wanted to tell me
00:18:23
about an individual that she thought
00:18:25
could be david davis she knew him by a
00:18:28
different name
00:18:29
however she was very very reluctant to
00:18:31
get involved she was in fear of her own
00:18:33
life
00:18:35
the caller revealed that davis was
00:18:37
living in american samoa with the samoan
00:18:40
wife under the name david meyer bell
00:18:44
in the eight years since shannon's death
00:18:46
he had lived in california alaska and
00:18:49
hawaii he had taken flying lessons and
00:18:52
had become an expert bush pilot
00:18:55
[Music]
00:18:56
the fbi arrested davis at the pongo
00:18:59
pongo airport
00:19:01
and he returned to michigan for trial
00:19:04
we know that he courted and dated
00:19:06
several women before shannon and asked
00:19:08
each of them to marry him in an
00:19:10
extremely short period of time something
00:19:12
like 14 months he asked five different
00:19:14
women to marry him
00:19:15
the first one who said yes
00:19:17
became his victim
00:19:19
bloomer said the motive was money and
00:19:22
that the murder was premeditated
00:19:27
prosecutors believe that after the
00:19:29
couple left dick britton's farm
00:19:32
davis coaxed shannon off her horse under
00:19:35
the pretext of having sex
00:19:38
the couple had a habit of making love
00:19:40
outdoors
00:19:46
[Music]
00:19:47
[Applause]
00:19:49
[Music]
00:19:53
as shannon took off her shoes and
00:19:56
unbuttoned her blouse
00:19:57
prosecutors believe davis snuck up
00:20:00
behind her and injected the succinal
00:20:02
choline in the shoulder
00:20:08
the injection didn't take effect
00:20:10
immediately the two fought matting down
00:20:12
the grass
00:20:15
he then hit shannon on the head with the
00:20:17
rock and injected her again this time in
00:20:20
the wrist
00:20:22
the dose killed her instantly
00:20:26
if you're given an injection of
00:20:27
succinylcholine outside of the hospital
00:20:29
where they can help you breathe by a
00:20:30
respirator you'll die of suffocation and
00:20:33
that's exactly what happened to shannon
00:20:34
davis
00:20:35
i believe that the sectional calling
00:20:38
answered the ever-present question in
00:20:39
the jury's mind and that was if she
00:20:42
didn't die from being thrown off a horse
00:20:43
then what killed her we had to have that
00:20:45
answer for the jury
00:20:48
the jury deliberated for two and a half
00:20:52
hours
00:20:53
my heart was pounding so hard and i
00:20:56
thought
00:20:57
it's over we've got him
00:21:00
david davis was found guilty of first
00:21:03
degree murder
00:21:05
i remember the courtroom which is full
00:21:07
burst in applause and uh
00:21:10
instead of standing around and shaking
00:21:12
hands and i had to leave
00:21:13
i had to leave the courtroom there's a
00:21:15
law library right off the courtroom and
00:21:17
i had to go in there
00:21:18
and
00:21:21
it was pretty emotional
00:21:24
he was sentenced to life in prison
00:21:29
i know we went out to the cemetery right
00:21:30
afterwards
00:21:32
and we looked down and said
00:21:35
we got him
00:21:40
he was that good of a liar
00:21:43
so that i shouldn't feel too bad that he
00:21:44
fooled us
00:21:47
but i think i heard living
00:21:49
with a killer all that time 10 months
00:21:52
and i didn't know it
00:21:57
and i also think i should have picked
00:21:59
something out and i didn't
00:22:02
[Music]
00:22:12
[Music]
00:22:17
so
00:22:18
[Music]
00:22:33
you
