00:00:00
[MUSIC PLAYING] NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): Lexington, North Carolina, 1987-- 29-year-old mom of
two, Mary Davis, goes
00:00:18
to lunch with her boyfriend. But afterwards, she's
never seen alive again. WILLIAM SCARBORO:
They actually got
00:00:26
together and then went to the
Pit Stop and got some pizza. MATHEW EFFINGER: After having
lunch with Rodney Lee Michael,
00:00:32
Mary was never seen alive again. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
A search begins, and Mary's brutalized
body found the next day.
00:00:40
DESTINIE DENNY: Her
body was covered heavily by leaves and branches. She had visible marks
around her neck,
00:00:46
and she also had gunshot
wounds to her extremities. RENEE ANDERSON: We heard Lisa
start screaming, she's dead.
00:00:52
She's dead. Mary's dead. My grandma hit the floor,
and she just started rolling.
00:00:57
And she was like, my baby. My baby. Mary can't be dead. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Lexington Police
00:01:01
turn over every single lead. But still, the case goes cold. Decades later, can
groundbreaking forensic science
00:01:10
reveal the identity
of Mary's killer? KRISTEN MITTELMAN: I think
forensic genetic genealogy is
00:01:17
going to lead to a world
where criminals are caught the first time they
commit a crime,
00:01:22
and there are no more
unidentified victims. This is the story
of a 36-year-long search for a killer--
00:01:31
a search that only amazing
science will help solve. I'm Nancy Grace. This is "Bloodline Detectives."
00:01:39
[THEME MUSIC] NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): Lexington, North Carolina-- a small town
one hour Northeast of Charlotte.
00:02:10
DESTINIE DENNY: I would
describe Lexington as a small-town-type feel. You walk through downtown,
and you can still
00:02:17
see the mom and pop shops. Everyone is very friendly. It's just your
quintessential Southern town.
00:02:25
Whenever you hear
Lexington, you do not think of major violent crimes. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
One of Lexington's residents
00:02:33
is 29-year-old mom
of two, Mary Davis. ROBBY RUMMAGE: She
had two children. She was married.
00:02:40
She was one of 10 children. Very tight knit family-- all lived in this general
area in Lexington.
00:02:46
LISA YATES: Mary was
a beautiful person. She was beautiful
inside and out. She loved her family.
00:02:51
She loved her children. She loved people. Mary was just loving and caring. She had a magnetic personality.
00:02:59
People were drawn
to Mary because she was just very friendly. She was a lot of fun.
00:03:04
She was just always bubbly. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Mary and husband Richard are having marital problems.
00:03:12
Around the same time, she meets
a guy at work named Rodney Lee. She really wanted to be with
him, but Mary was a pleaser,
00:03:23
and my grandmother didn't
believe in divorce. And she didn't want
to go through that.
00:03:27
She didn't want the
kids to go through that. ROBBY RUMMAGE: My understanding
in reading reports and talking
00:03:32
to people, they had what many
would call an open relationship. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
May 30, 1987, is just
00:03:38
another day for Mary Davis. She heads to a local hardware
store where she's a clerk.
00:03:44
ROBBY RUMMAGE: So her husband
reported that he had spoke to her that morning
around 8:45 or so, as she
00:03:50
was going to go to work. WILLIAM SCARBORO: First
thing that morning is she met with her boyfriend.
00:03:56
She met him, and
then they agreed to meet for lunch at the park. At lunchtime, she punched out.
00:04:04
She went to the park. They actually got together
and then went to the pit stop and got some pizza.
00:04:10
Went back to the
park and ate it. Talked for a while, and then
she left to come back to work
00:04:16
and he went home. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Mary's
husband Richard becomes worried
00:04:22
when Mary doesn't return home. KRISTEN MITTELMAN: Mary
Mathis Davis's husband came
00:04:28
back from his sister's house. He had gone swimming,
fell asleep, woke up, and his wife had not
returned home yet.
00:04:34
So he became concerned-- drove
down to the hardware store where she worked for the
last couple of weeks.
00:04:41
ROBBY RUMMAGE: He went
by Lanier near hardware where she worked-- had been
working there for a few weeks.
00:04:45
And they had said that she
had never returned from lunch, and they found the car there.
00:04:52
KRISTEN MITTELMAN:
He saw her car there. He became increasingly
concerned, reported her missing,
00:04:57
contacted her brother, and
continued to look for her. ROBBY RUMMAGE: The
investigators--
00:05:02
when they arrived on the scene,
they secured the vehicle. They were able to
raise the windows,
00:05:07
lock the doors to secure
it in that fashion. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Investigators
00:05:11
searched through the night. Mary is nowhere to be found. The next day, her
brother and sister
00:05:18
continued the search for Mary. WILLIAM SCARBORO: And they
ended up near her house
00:05:24
and turned around
there in the church parking lot across the road
from where they were living.
00:05:30
And they noticed
an old roadbed that went down through the woods. And they said it looked like
there was some tire tracks
00:05:39
or like the weeds had
been knocked down. So they decided to just get
out and walk down through there
00:05:46
and look. And while they were walking,
he walked up on a body. And he said he pretty
much knew in his heart
00:05:55
that was probably his sister. So they backed out
and called the police. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): The way
Mary's dead body is concealed
00:06:05
shows the great lengths
to which the killer goes to hide the heinous crime. DESTINIE DENNY: Her
body was covered
00:06:15
heavily by leaves and branches. Her body was only partially
clothed at that point,
00:06:21
and she had visible injuries. WILLIAM SCARBORO:
The injuries that were reported by the
officers there at the scene
00:06:30
were what they initially thought
was maybe cigarette burns or something on the skin
and some possible bullet
00:06:39
holes in the body itself. DESTINIE DENNY: She had
visible marks around her neck,
00:06:43
and she also had gunshot
wounds to her extremities. NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): Police must
00:06:48
now tell the rest of
Mary's large family her body has been found. RENEE ANDERSON:
Me and my grandma
00:06:54
was in the house
and my cousin Katie. And about that time, we
heard Lisa start screaming,
00:07:00
she's dead.
She's dead. Mary's dead. I went into shock. I was in the middle of the
road screaming, crying.
00:07:09
I fell to my knees and,
in a fetal position, just screaming and crying. And my mom heard me
screaming and crying.
00:07:19
RENEE ANDERSON: My
grandma hit the floor and she just started rolling. And she was like, my baby.
My baby.
00:07:23
Not my baby. No, Mary can't be dead. And I was on the floor
holding my grandma just so she
00:07:29
wouldn't hurt
herself because she didn't know what she was doing. She was just in a
shock, and she just
00:07:34
kept rolling back and forth. LISA YATES: She was starting to
have some breathing problems,
00:07:38
so my niece Renee had called
the ambulance to pick my mom up. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
As soon as the news
00:07:46
of Mary's murder breaks, the
community goes on high alert. ROBBY RUMMAGE: You
have a missing female
00:07:54
who has been found the
next day killed in what obviously was a
violent manner and left
00:08:00
in the woods behind a business. I could tell you, knowing
this community over the years
00:08:05
and knowing it now,
that that would definitely cause some concern in
the community without question.
00:08:14
NANCY GRACE: A community
wrapped in fear-- police believe they need to
act fast before the killer can
00:08:20
strike again. That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives." NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Lexington, North Carolina,
00:08:34
May 31, 1987-- the body of 29-year-old mom
of two, Mary Davis, discovered the day after she disappears.
00:08:45
Police arrive at what
is now a crime scene. WILLIAM SCARBORO: That specific
spot where her body was located
00:08:53
was a noted place where
if you lived in that area, you knew you could pull back
there and be out of sight,
00:09:01
out of mind. And people would dump things. You might find some
old tires that somebody
00:09:05
was wanting to get rid of
or some construction debris. So from time to time, people
would just drive back there
00:09:11
and throw things out of the back
of the truck and then drive off. There was multiple tire prints.
00:09:18
Most crime scenes, you're
going to start larger. They would have basically
just roped that area off
00:09:24
and positioned officers
there at Revco and maybe up at the church to
try to keep anybody
00:09:31
else from coming in
so that they could start looking for any evidence. MATHEW EFFINGER: A wide array
of things were collected.
00:09:37
Best practice is to fan out and
gather anything that might deem pertinent to the crime scene--
00:09:43
clothing, things that were
close to the crime scene, such as shoes,
any kind of things
00:09:49
that seem like they may
have fallen off somebody or seemed unnatural
in the environment.
00:09:54
Mary had on the same thing
that Richard, her husband, described her as leaving for
work the previous day on,
00:10:01
which was a jean
overall, a white t-shirt, and some white shoes. They're going to look for
anything that they visibly see,
00:10:09
mark it, photograph
it, measure it out for sketches before it's
meticulously collected
00:10:15
and bagged properly. And then the body would have
been placed onto a white sheet
00:10:22
and covered up so that if
any evidence is on the body-- falls away from the body, they
still have it there intact.
00:10:30
Once the body is removed, they
would go back through that crime scene again using metal
detectors to see if they
00:10:35
find any shell
casings, or somebody would have dropped anything-- just doing a foot grid
search, a neighborhood
00:10:42
canvas of any residences-- just knocking on doors
to see if anybody's seen or heard anything.
00:10:48
DESTINIE DENNY: Her shirt
was there, her bra, her bib overalls, her shoes,
and also her personal
00:10:55
affects as far as her
pocketbook was also located. They did an
incredible job in 1987
00:11:01
to preserve and
collect everything that they located there-- all the way down to the tree
branches were collected.
00:11:09
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
There is one piece of crucial evidence
at the crime scene
00:11:12
that is nowhere to be found. WILLIAM SCARBORO: There
was no shell casings found.
00:11:18
There was no gun
ever found either. ROBBY RUMMAGE: There was a gun
that we had seized at one point.
00:11:25
But no, there was
never any determination that that was the gun. NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): Police--
00:11:30
extremely disappointed. Neither a gun nor shell casings
discovered at the crime scene.
00:11:38
They can only hope Mary
Davis's autopsy will give them an important lead. WILLIAM SCARBORO: They have
the training and the skills
00:11:47
to see things that
we're not going to be able to see with the naked eye. For instance, what the officers
thought were cigarette burns
00:11:55
ended up being bites
from bugs where her body had laid there overnight. DESTINIE DENNY: She had signs of
strangulation around her neck,
00:12:05
and then she had gunshot
wounds to her legs and arms. WILLIAM SCARBORO: They had the
training to be able to go in
00:12:11
and determine cause of death. We may think, OK,
someone is shot. So they were killed
by being shot.
00:12:18
And she had been shot. But that's not
what took her life. ROBBY RUMMAGE: The
autopsy revealed that that
00:12:24
was a postmortem wound. She ended up dying
of asphyxiation. She choked. MATHEW EFFINGER: You could tell
there was some kind of struggle
00:12:32
just based on how her
body was positioned and the markings she
would have on her arms.
00:12:39
WILLIAM SCARBORO: Why,
after she is deceased, would someone shoot her four
times in non-fatal areas?
00:12:51
It didn't make any sense. If you wanted to make it look
like she was shot and killed,
00:12:56
then you would shoot her
somewhere in the torso or in the head area, not
in the arms and legs.
00:13:04
That's not going to do
anything, especially with a small caliber handgun. The wounds also appear to
be basically contact wounds.
00:13:12
The gun was strategically placed
before the trigger was pulled, almost as to minimize
the amount of damage.
00:13:21
MATHEW EFFINGER: The only thing
that would point to postmortem wounds would be a very
personal vendetta,
00:13:28
or somewhat a crime of passion,
which speaks to no intent. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
An autopsy is performed
00:13:36
as well as a sex assault exam. MATHEW EFFINGER: Her body
would have been transported
00:13:42
to the hospital,
and they would do a sexual assault kit,
which is standard procedure
00:13:48
for us on a case like this. And then it's properly
packaged and put in evidence.
00:13:55
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Police
ask Mary's mother to formally identify her murdered daughter.
00:14:03
LISA YATES: When my
mother left the house, the ambulance took
her to the hospital.
00:14:07
When she arrived, they
had Mary in a body bag. And my mom saw that, and
she was just really upset.
00:14:17
And so she went into
the emergency room. They checked her
out, and then they asked her if she would identify
the body of her daughter.
00:14:26
And so my mother
and my cousin was the ones that identified her. NANCY GRACE: Once the
post-mortem exams are complete,
00:14:36
Mary's family have a
closed-casket funeral for Mary. Many of Mary's
loved ones find it
00:14:43
very difficult to say goodbye. LISA YATES: The
funeral was very hard. I think I was still in shock.
00:14:51
There was a lot of
officers there undercover. There was family. There was friends.
00:14:57
ROBBY RUMMAGE: A
lot of times, you go there to support a family. In a community like this, we go
sometimes to support the family.
00:15:04
But there is other things there. We want to see who's
there, see the lay of the land, who shows up.
00:15:11
Is there anybody that
looks suspicious? Is there anybody that the family
observes and be like, hmm, that
00:15:19
seems odd where they're here. You just don't know. But you got to be there and
be observant, just in case.
00:15:27
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Meanwhile, police continue the investigation. ROBBY RUMMAGE: There was a
couple different individuals
00:15:34
that that was of interest. Obviously, knowing that there
was a boyfriend at the time
00:15:41
and a husband at
the time, that gives you a few things to look at. We started getting information,
tips and things that the husband
00:15:50
was involved,
boyfriend was involved, perhaps even a
brother was involved. The boyfriend was interviewed.
00:15:57
MATHEW EFFINGER: Rodney
Lee Michael was very, very emotional during the interview.
00:16:00
He explained his day as
meeting up with Mary for lunch. ROBBY RUMMAGE: He said that they
had been talking for a while.
00:16:08
They had worked together,
I think, previously at another place where they met. He says that he came to
Lanier's that morning
00:16:15
and spoke with her
before she went to work. They agreed to meet at lunch. They met at lunch.
00:16:21
They went and got something
to eat, went back to the park, spent a little bit more
time there eating, talking.
00:16:27
MATHEW EFFINGER: He
described the last time he saw Mary around 1:30. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Next, police question
00:16:33
Mary Davis's husband, Richard. MATHEW EFFINGER: So Richard
came in for an interview
00:16:39
here at the Lexington
Police Department. He was forthcoming with his
DNA, which was something that
00:16:45
definitely needed to
be collected from him, given a sexual assault
kit-- he'd been done.
00:16:51
WILLIAM SCARBORO: He gave them
a statement about what happened that day, and I'm sure
at some point later
00:16:56
on, they probably pressured
him more to see if he was still telling the same
story, asking him
00:17:02
if he had any
involvement in her death, what exactly was going on. And then at some point during
their speaking with him,
00:17:10
he got upset. MATHEW EFFINGER:
Richard realized that he was a suspect
early on, I believe,
00:17:15
and requested a lawyer. WILLIAM SCARBORO: They did
offer him a polygraph test. He took it, and he did not pass.
00:17:22
MATHEW EFFINGER: The family
shifted their main focus on the husband, Richard
Davis for the old saying
00:17:27
that if someone passes
away, the husband did it. But I know that Mary and Richard
did have a rocky relationship,
00:17:35
and so a lot of the
focus was on Richard. Mary's family remained
suspicious of husband Richard,
00:17:41
even though police have no
evidence implicating him. Then Mary's
boyfriend, Rodney Lee,
00:17:49
offers investigators
a potential lead. MATHEW EFFINGER:
Mary's boyfriend stated that he noticed
Russell Woods' truck
00:17:57
near the parking deck entrance
as he picked Mary up for lunch. WILLIAM SCARBORO: Mr. Michaels
knew Russell from school
00:18:07
and from around town. And when he came to
see Mary that morning to discuss meeting
at lunch, he observed
00:18:18
Russell's father's truck. It was a distinctive
vehicle, an older blue truck. And he noticed Russell
was driving it.
00:18:27
So he just made a
mental note of it. He remembered it. He then told law enforcement
later during an interview
00:18:35
that while he was there,
he did see Russell. So, of course, anybody that we
could identify as having been
00:18:43
at Lanier's or around
Lanier's, and we had a name, then it was somebody we
needed to absolutely talk
00:18:49
to to see what they had seen. He was interviewed, I think,
by a couple of detectives.
00:18:55
He said he had some
knowledge of Mary, but really didn't
know her personally-- knew the family.
00:19:01
He had grown up
a few blocks away from them on another street. So he knew of her,
but he stated he
00:19:10
didn't really have a personal
relationship with her-- didn't know her personally.
00:19:14
ROBBY RUMMAGE: Russell Wood
had mentioned that he had been at Lanier Hardware,
but he was only
00:19:18
there for five or six minutes. So that did put him there. There was no other
evidence at the time.
00:19:24
NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Police cannot link Russell Wood to the crime scene
long enough for him
00:19:29
to become a prime suspect. Now they must look
for new leads. DESTINIE DENNY: They
luminoled Mary's vehicle,
00:19:36
and there was blood found
on the rear of the vehicle. At that time, they did not have
access to the DNA technology
00:19:44
that we do now. They did some very critical
interviews, including witnesses at her workplace.
00:19:52
MATHEW EFFINGER: Near Lanier's,
near the parking deck, there was a tip that-- a woman called her
saying that she
00:19:59
did hear some screaming coming
from the top of the parking deck. ROBBY RUMMAGE: The
police responded
00:20:04
there was nothing to
be found at the time that could be followed up on. This was a time when you didn't
have cameras on every corner.
00:20:13
You didn't have all
kinds of stuff around, so there was nothing to go on. WILLIAM SCARBORO: We got a
lot of tips and a lot of them
00:20:21
were dead ends, or what
we call a dead end. But we were very appreciative
of anything that was given.
00:20:27
After you work a
case for so long, you just run out of fresh ideas. It's monotonous.
00:20:33
You're going over
and over and over. You go back and interview the
same person for the second time,
00:20:37
third time, fourth time. And I'm sure they
may get tired of it. You have to keep it fresh
in the minds of the public,
00:20:46
hoping that you finally get
that piece of information that you need. ROBBY RUMMAGE:
After a few years,
00:20:54
everything was being
pointed to the husband. There was no tangible
evidence, really.
00:21:00
You could say it went
cold in the sense that there wasn't a lot
of new leads coming in.
00:21:04
But that doesn't mean
that we shelved it. We'd never close our cases,
particularly unsolved homicides.
00:21:11
We do not close
unsolved homicides. NANCY GRACE: Mary Davis's
murder stays cold 33 years.
00:21:20
When we return to
"Bloodline Detectives," we find out whether
a new forensic science can finally give police
and Mary's family answers.
00:21:39
NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): Lexington, North Carolina, 2020-- a new team of investigators
planned to look at the 1987
00:21:47
murder and rape of a
29-year-old mom, Mary Davis, the mother of two,
brutally murdered
00:21:56
and left in a wooded area. Mary's family never
gives up hope her case will one day be solved.
00:22:06
LISA YATES: My mother
mourned for so many years. She would always tell me,
Lisa, whatever you do,
00:22:12
don't ever give up. Don't ever give
up trying to find out who did this to our Mary.
00:22:18
And I promised her I
would never, ever give up. WILLIAM SCARBORO: She was
the driving force behind not
00:22:28
letting the case get cold. I think that Lisa was so
interested in the case. And the old saying, the
squeaky wheel gets the oil--
00:22:38
she was not going to let
this case go, and she didn't. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): The
persistence of Mary Davis's
00:22:44
family begins to pay off. Police take a DNA sample
preserved from the crime scene,
00:22:51
and they enter it
into the criminal DNA database known as CODIS. DESTINIE DENNY: CODIS
is a national database
00:23:00
where offenders' DNA-- their DNA is collected and then
placed into the CODIS database
00:23:08
so that whenever we do have
a crime where DNA is located, they can run it. As long as it's CODIS eligible,
they can run it against CODIS
00:23:16
and see if there's a hit. NANCY GRACE: Mary
Davis's murderer has never been
arrested, so his DNA
00:23:23
is not in the CODIS database. Police seem to hit another
dead end until Detective
00:23:31
Mathew Effinger joins the case. MATHEW EFFINGER: I was
assigned the case in 2020,
00:23:38
making headway on it in 2021. DESTINIE DENNY: Detective
Effinger with the Lexington
00:23:42
Police Department did an amazing
job with finding this evidence that had never been tested.
00:23:48
He advised that it was
from a sexual assault kit and it was going to
be a sperm sample.
00:23:53
And at that point, we
contacted the lab to find out the quality of the DNA. MATHEW EFFINGER: Special Agent
Denny with the North Carolina
00:24:02
SBI, Special Bureau
of Investigations, had a connection
with Othram Labs in Texas who specialize in
DNA and forensic genealogy.
00:24:10
And that is how
the connection took place between the
Lexington Police Department and Othram Labs.
00:24:15
KRISTEN MITTELMAN: Othram is the
first lab in the world that's purpose built to identify
victims and perpetrators
00:24:21
from crime scenes. Prior to Othram, people
were using medical testing and consumer testing--
00:24:27
genomic testing to try to
build profiles that were more comprehensive than the
traditional forensic testing
00:24:33
profiles that you have. But unfortunately, when you
use medical testing or consumer
00:24:39
testing, that's built for fresh
DNA, single-source DNA, DNA that is stored in pristine condition
in the right temperature taken
00:24:50
from lab to lab and then tested. That's very different
from the type of evidence
00:24:54
that you see when you
go to a crime scene. You almost always have mixtures
of perpetrator and victim.
00:25:00
You almost always
have contamination. So what we did is we
built a lab that created
00:25:05
forensic-grade genome sequencing
in order to be able to get the most information from
the perpetrator or victim
00:25:13
profile left at a crime
scene so that you can truly ascertain their identity. Even if the matches
in the database
00:25:20
were very few,
very remote, you'd still be able to see
those relationships and be able to build back
and infer their identity.
00:25:29
COLBY LASYONE: We want to
know, once we have the evidence in house, if we feel
reasonably confident,
00:25:34
we can build a DNA profile that
will help to resolve the case. In the case of
Mary Mathis Davis,
00:25:41
Othram received a DNA extract. That DNA extract was from
a sexual assault kit. We developed a DNA profile
from that DNA extract
00:25:49
for a male individual. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER): Once
a DNA sample is developed, Othram begins the revolutionary
process of genetic genealogy.
00:26:01
COLBY LASYONE: In forensic
genetic genealogy, after a DNA profile is built, and it's been
developed in the laboratory,
00:26:08
that profile is
uploaded into databases. And in this particular
case, the DNA profile
00:26:13
was uploaded into the
database and Othram's forensic genetic genealogy team
went to work to build a family
00:26:19
tree for this individual. And so what we're looking for is
relatives-- genetic relatives.
00:26:25
These aren't necessarily
people that you know or people that you
would associate with,
00:26:29
but these are people that
in some way you're related-- maybe a fifth cousin,
a fourth cousin,
00:26:34
a great-great-great grandparent,
something like that. And so in this
particular case, we
00:26:38
worked to provide new leads
to investigators that helped to point them in a direction
so that they can talk
00:26:44
to potential relatives
of the person responsible for the murder
and rape of Mary Mathis Davis.
00:26:50
MATHEW EFFINGER: What
they did was they provided lists of
targets that they wanted for us to collect DNA.
00:26:58
So it started out as a list of
first cousins, half cousins. And what we would do is try to
speak to somebody on this list
00:27:08
and have them consent
to give their DNA. DESTINIE DENNY: The
first list of people
00:27:13
would have been
further out matches. At that point, we
located one of them who previously was a police
officer at the Lexington Police
00:27:23
Department. That would have been who we
initially tested on the list. So at that point, we
collected his DNA,
00:27:31
and we sent that to Othram. NANCY GRACE: The
bloodline detectives worked through the
perpetrator's family tree,
00:27:38
and finally, a breakthrough. They recognized a name from
the original investigation
00:27:44
back in 1987. DESTINIE DENNY: After
we submitted his DNA, they returned back with
another batch of people.
00:27:55
And those would have been
potential cousins as well. At that point, I began
building those family trees.
00:28:03
Whenever I started building
their family trees, each one, I located the
name Russell Grant Wood.
00:28:10
MATHEW EFFINGER: Once
she saw it on the list that Othram had provided,
she contacted me right away,
00:28:14
and we began to look back
through the case file, looked back through the supplements,
and it all started
00:28:20
to fall together at that point. DESTINIE DENNY: So he began
looking at his case file.
00:28:25
I began looking at mine. And he was all
over the case file. They had initially
spoken to him,
00:28:31
and he was always one of
the suspects in the case. NANCY GRACE: Remember, police
interviewed Russell Wood
00:28:36
shortly after Mary's murder. Mary's boyfriend saw him in a
blue truck in the parking lot
00:28:43
the day Mary is killed. At the time, police did
not have enough evidence to link him to her murder.
00:28:52
DESTINIE DENNY: In
his police interview, he did say that he was
at Mary Davis's work
00:28:57
that morning, which would
have been Lanier's Hardware. He said he was only there
for a couple minutes, though.
00:29:02
He said that he knew
Mary Davis's father, but did not know Mary. MATHEW EFFINGER: I think that
would ultimately be what did it
00:29:11
for me and Special
Agent Denny is when he denied knowing her at all. NANCY GRACE: Police
want to know,
00:29:18
who exactly is Russell Wood? MATHEW EFFINGER: Russell
grew up here in Lexington,
00:29:25
went to high school
here, and actually worked for the city of Lexington
here, I guess, until he retired.
00:29:31
He worked a long time,
just over 20 some years. I knew Russell, not real
well, but in attending
00:29:39
certain city functions
was around him, had spoken with him in the past. To me, he was an introvert
type of a person.
00:29:47
Quiet. He always seemed a
little uneasy around me. DESTINIE DENNY: Russell Woods
had a girlfriend at the time.
00:29:54
Whenever he was
spoken to by police, he did talk about falling
off of a pallet at work,
00:29:59
and he had sustained
some injuries and broken his
glasses at the time. And he also drove
a truck that was
00:30:07
suspected to be in
the area, which would have been his father's truck. So we found evidence that would
lead us to believe that he
00:30:16
was definitely in the area. After 36 years, police finally
have a break in Mary's case.
00:30:25
Now they need solid
proof Russell Wood is, in fact, Mary Davis's murderer. That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives."
00:30:45
NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): Lexington, North Carolina, 2022-- the bloodline detectives
have a suspect
00:30:50
in the 1987 murder of a
29-year-old young woman, a mother of two-- Mary Davis. His name-- Russell Wood.
00:31:01
Police are sure he murdered
Mary in cold blood, leaving her body
alone, abandoned,
00:31:09
hidden in a small wooded
area at the edge of town. But now they need to
find Russell Wood.
00:31:17
They want to notify
Mary's family first. MATHEW EFFINGER:
We purposely waited to notify family
just because nobody
00:31:27
wants to get their hopes up. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Investigators are wise to be cautious with
a murder case 36 years old.
00:31:34
They come up against
one more obstacle. We were not able
to interview Russell Woods because he died in 2013.
00:31:47
It is always hard
when you find out that the perpetrator
of a crime like this will never be brought to justice
because they're deceased.
00:31:56
KRISTEN MITTELMAN: He died
of pancreatic cancer in 2013. His family had
said it was pretty
00:32:01
painful and difficult death. NANCY GRACE (VOICEOVER):
Russell Wood is now deceased,
00:32:07
but police still need that
DNA sample to prove he is, in fact, Mary Davis's killer.
00:32:14
He had been cremated. He had no biological children. KRISTEN MITTELMAN:
Cremation leads
00:32:19
to most DNA being destroyed. But sometimes there's
bone fragments left. From those, we are
sometimes able to get DNA.
00:32:26
There wasn't a need to
get DNA from his ashes, because you could
confirm his identity
00:32:32
by testing close relatives
and using kinship. And that's exactly what we did. DESTINIE DENNY: So we
were told to obtain
00:32:39
a sample from his nephew. MATHEW EFFINGER: The nephew
was very open with us. We explained in detail,
somewhat, the investigation,
00:32:48
and just that we were curious,
and that this could either rule the suspect out
if he wanted to consent
00:32:56
to providing his DNA. The nephew was very open
and said that he would be shocked if it was his uncle.
00:33:03
DESTINIE DENNY: Once we obtained
the sample from the nephew, we then had to go obtain
a sample from a cousin
00:33:09
on the other side of the family
to confirm that it was Russell Woods as the perpetrator.
00:33:15
NANCY GRACE: 36 long years
of uncertainty, confusion. Countless hours of determined
police work have passed.
00:33:25
Finally, Mary Davis's
family and police get the answers they've
waited for so very long.
00:33:34
DESTINIE DENNY: We
were absolutely elated because they said that
the probability was 95%
00:33:40
that Russell Woods was our guy. It was a moment that
you'll never forget. Whenever I looked at
Mary in the case file,
00:33:48
as a young mother
myself, you connect with her on a different level. And you cannot imagine
what she went through
00:33:54
in her final moments on Earth. ROBBY RUMMAGE: Our investigators
came to me and says,
00:34:00
we know who killed her. I'm like, OK. And they started telling me,
I'm like, I know that name.
00:34:11
I know that name. And so they started
explaining more to me. MATHEW EFFINGER: So once I
notified the chief of police,
00:34:19
we came up with a when and where
we would notify the family. We drove personally out
to the home of Lisa Yates
00:34:26
and spoke to her personally
in her living room about it. LISA YATES: I heard
a knock at my door,
00:34:32
and it's Sergeant
Effinger and Rummage. They told me that they
were closing Mary's case.
00:34:39
And I get really defensive with
them because I was like, why? Why are you closing her case?
00:34:45
And they said that
they had solved it. I was in shock. They were going through
everything from step
00:34:52
to step on what had
happened and what procedure and everything that they took. And they said that
Mary had been raped.
00:35:01
And I just broke down and
started crying because I never knew she had been raped.
00:35:08
By looking at the autopsies and
stuff like that, I never knew. | was so emotional.
00:35:15
And I was just asking
all these questions about, where did this guy live? Who is this guy?
00:35:22
Did they have any
information about that? And then I started
thinking about my family.
00:35:27
DESTINIE DENNY: It
was a somber moment. You're very excited to
bring closure to the family,
00:35:33
but you're very aware of the
weight of that on the family. They're going to relive
everything that they've
00:35:38
went through since 1987. And then Russell
Wood's family is also going to grieve the fact
that their family member
00:35:46
committed such a heinous crime. NANCY GRACE: The bloodline
detectives are sure they have
00:35:51
IDed Mary Davis's murderer. When we come back, loose ends
are tied up once and for all.
00:36:07
Lexington, North
Carolina, 2023-- the bloodline detectives finally
link a suspect to the murder
00:36:14
of Mary Davis 36 years earlier. Sadly, that suspect
now deceased. But they finally share the
news with investigators
00:36:25
who worked so hard on the case
over three decades before. MATHEW EFFINGER: We notified
the previous investigators
00:36:35
and people that were actually
close to the case, even patrol. And it was all a big
light bulb moment.
00:36:43
A lot of people would have never
thought Russell was the suspect. So it was a lot of
shock and awe that day.
00:36:50
WILLIAM SCARBORO:
He always seemed a little uneasy around me. Maybe it explains it.
00:36:55
It makes sense now. It didn't make sense then. I just thought that was
the type of person he was.
00:37:00
He was a big burly guy,
just quiet and unassuming. Now, I think some
of the uneasiness--
00:37:08
to me, it starts to make sense
of why he was acting like that. NANCY GRACE
(VOICEOVER): Police meet
00:37:14
with the district
attorney's office to show them the evidence. And finally, they put a
name to Mary Davis's killer.
00:37:23
MATHEW EFFINGER: So
the DA, Gary Frank, sat down with us as
I presented the case
00:37:27
as a whole in presentation
and laid out elements of crime to see what fit. ROBBY RUMMAGE: Our
staff put together
00:37:35
a very good
presentation and said, look, we have all
this information. Here's the evidence we got.
00:37:42
And in meeting with the
district attorney, Gary Frank, he acknowledged even documenting
in writing that should Russell
00:37:52
Wood be alive at that time,
he would have been charged, even indicted for
murder, which allowed us
00:38:01
to publicly state who it was. DESTINIE DENNY: The DA made
sure that he made it public
00:38:09
that if Russell
Grant Wood was alive, that he would be prosecuted
for first degree murder.
00:38:17
NANCY GRACE: Mary Davis's
murder could never have been solved without
the incredible efforts
00:38:22
by the original investigators
to preserve evidence in 1987. Those efforts before the
emergence of DNA science
00:38:32
are critical to the success now
enjoyed by bloodline detectives. DESTINIE DENNY: I
actually was surprised
00:38:41
that they took the time to
do what they did in 1987. Because DNA was
not prevalent then,
00:38:48
it really showed their
forward thinking of this may be important in the future. WILLIAM SCARBORO: My
father-in-law likes to say
00:38:55
once it's gone, it's gone. That's a true statement. Evidence can be contaminated
if it's not handled properly,
00:39:01
but they handled it
properly with the technology that they had back then. They preserved it, and it
ended up solving the case.
00:39:10
NANCY GRACE: Mary Davis's
family can finally move forward after 36 years of uncertainty,
and they can focus
00:39:20
on celebrating Mary's memory. LISA YATES: She was
a social butterfly. She was charming.
00:39:27
She never met a stranger. She was always kind to people. She would always want
to be there for people.
00:39:33
I mean, she would give
you the shirt off her back if she had to. RENEE ANDERSON: She
has watched over me
00:39:38
since the day she passed. Sweetest, kindest, selfless
person you could ever meet,
00:39:43
and beautiful. NANCY GRACE: This
case would never have been solved without
the tenacity and pioneer
00:39:50
work of genetic
genealogists plus incredible forensic science. DESTINIE DENNY: I do not believe
this case would have ever
00:39:59
been solved without forensic
investigative genetic genealogy because there is no hope
for a CODIS profile hit
00:40:07
if the offender
is no longer alive and continuing to commit crime. So there is no way to
identify them through CODIS
00:40:15
unless you have their DNA. I'm hopeful in the future that
more cases like Mary Davis
00:40:21
will also get closure
because of the impact that forensic investigative
genetic genealogy
00:40:28
is going to have on our career. Russell Wood dies-- 2013. If alive, he would be charged
with first-degree murder,
00:40:38
first-degree kidnapping,
and first-degree rape by the district attorney
there in North Carolina.
00:40:44
If he were still alive, he
would certainly be behind bars for Mary Davis's murder.
00:40:51
Instead, he's in another
kind of hell forever. I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for joining us here
on "Bloodline Detectives."
00:41:03
[THEME MUSIC]