When Shannon Mohr visited her parents in September 1979, she was glowing with excitement. The twenty-five-year-old registered nurse had recently attended a friend’s wedding where, although she had not caught the bouquet, she had caught a man’s eye. Shannon told her parents she was going to marry this man. On that count, she was right.

Bob and Lucille Mohr were reluctant at Shannon’s desire to tie the knot so quickly, as she was coming off a recent broken engagement. Despite their misgivings of her marrying seven weeks later in Las Vegas, the Mohr’s were soon won over by their daughter’s new beau, Dave Davis, ten years Shannon’s senior. Lucille jokingly told her daughter, “Don’t let this one get away.” Shannon laughed, telling her mom she and Dave were going to have a long life of wedded bliss together. On that count, she was wrong.

Shannon Mohr was smitten and Dave Davis had done what he did best: dupe people. Ten months after their wedding, Shannon was dead. Her death was initially ruled an accident, and it took multiple efforts to determine that the groom had murdered his new bride. By then, Dave Davis was in hiding and it took multiple years to find him.

Dave Davis And Shannon Mohr

Shannon Mohr grew up in Toledo, Ohio. She met Dave Davis of Flint, Michigan, at a mutual friend’s wedding in Sylvania, Ohio, on August 4, 1979.

Dave told Shannon he was orphaned as a child and was a decorated veteran, having won several metals for being wounded in Vietnam. Before becoming a country farmer, he said her had been an international real estate entrepreneur. He concluded his life story to that point by telling Shannon his fiancée had been killed in an auto accident before they were able to start a family.

Newlyweds

Following their wedding, Shannon moved into Dave’s ranch near Pittsford in rural Hillsdale County, Michigan, near the Michigan-Indiana-Ohio border.

Davis’ Farm

The couple purchased two Tennessee walking horses, a breed known for their calm nature. Shortly before sunset on July 23, 1980, ten months after marrying, the newlyweds saddled their new horses and went for a ride. Dave was riding the white stallion, Shannon the black mare.

Shannon was a novice rider who always rode the horse at a walking pace.

Shannon With Her Horses

As Dave and Shannon rode through the farmland, they stopped and chatted with their neighbor, Dick Britton. As he was having trouble with some of his machinery, Dave offered to help.

After a few minutes, Dave returned to his horse and he and Shannon proceeded along their way. Dick said the couple were all smiles when they departed.

The Couple Take A Horseback Ride

Approximately twenty minutes later, Dave returned to Dick’s farm. This time his horse was galloping and Dave was screaming that Shannon was unconscious after falling off her horse and hitting her head on a rock. Dick hopped on a horse and the men rushed to where Dave said she had fallen, approximately a quarter-of-a-mile away.

Upon arrival, Dick saw blood on Shannon’s head and chest; he thought it unusual that her blouse was undone and her shoes were off, but he did not mention it in the heat of the moment.

Dick Britton

Dave And Shannon Davis’ Neighbor

Dick wanted to call an ambulance, but Dave said it would take too long for it to get to the rural area. At his pleading, Dick instead drove the injured Shannon and the (seemingly) distraught Dave to Thorn Hospital in the adjacent Lenawee County. Once there, Dick notified Shannon’s parents, and they also rushed to the hospital from their Toledo home, eighty miles away. By the time they arrived, their daughter had been pronounced dead.

The wound in the back of Shannon’s head and hospital x-rays were consistent with Dave’s explanation that she had fallen from the horse and hit her head on a rock.

Shannon Succumbs To Her Injuries

Dave’s story was initially accepted by Bob and Lucille Mohr, until they noticed scratch marks, appearing to have been recently inflicted, on his hands and face. Another red flag was raised when Dave expressed concern for paying for Shannon’s funeral, saying he did not have any life insurance on her. Shannon, however, had earlier told her mother that Dave had taken out a large policy on her only two days after they married.

The Mohr’s became angered when Dave insisted that Shannon’s body be cremated as soon as possible. As Catholics, they were opposed to cremation and wanted to take their daughter to her to Toledo for burial.  As Dick Britton sided with the Mohr’s and as the argument grew more heated, Dave reluctantly relented.

Bob And Lucille Mohr

Shannon’s Parents 

Hillsdale County deputies viewed the area where Shannon was found the following day, July 24. Still laying on the matted grass were her untied sneakers and one bloody rock; tests determined the blood was Shannon’s. Deputies were struck that no other rocks were in the vicinity, but because her death was deemed to be consistent with a fall, they did not pursue the matter.

The Lone Rock

Shannon appeared to have died in Hillsdale County but was declared dead in Lenawee County. Due to a jurisdictional dispute, no autopsy was performed. Her death was ruled an accident caused by a fall from a horse resulting in “multiple and cervical spinal injuries,” i.e. a broken neck.

Bob and Lucille Mohr did not accept the ruling, and their suspicions were further raised the following day as their daughter was laid to rest.

Death Ruled Accidental

At Shannon’s funeral, the Mohrs were surprised when a couple introduced themselves as Dave’s parents. In addition to their son-in-law not being an orphan, the Mohr’s learned he had not served in the military, nor had he ever been involved in international real estate. The Mohrs were also told that Dave was divorced with two daughters from a previous marriage and that his former wife was still living.

Multiple attendees were struck by how little emotion Dave showed during the service and as Shannon was buried. The groom-turned-widower continuously glanced at his watch, and several people thought it appeared he was annoyed at being there.

Disinterested Dave

The red flags caused by Dave’s statements at the hospital and actions at the funeral were ablaze two days later as six separate insurance companies contacted Toledo’s Jasin Funeral Home, asking for copies of Shannon’s death certificate. The Mohrs found that Dave had taken out six separate life insurance policies on Shannon totaling $324,000. Each policy was also found to have a double indemnity clause, meaning he would be paid double if Shannon died accidentally.

Red Flags Are Raised . . .

Now believing Dave Davis had murdered their daughter, the Mohrs took their suspicions to the Hillsdale County Sheriff’s office. On August 25, just over one month after her death, Shannon’s body was exhumed for an autopsy. Although it was determined she had succumbed to head wounds as opposed to a broken neck as was originally ruled, no evidence of foul play was found.

. . . As Are Shannon’s Remains

Medical Examiner Dr. Robert Forney affirmed Shannon Mohr’s death as accidental, resulting from injuries consistent with falling from a horse. He had rendered the ruling with reluctance, however, after finding indications of an unknown drug in her body.

Dr. Forney tested several thousand chemicals but found no match.

Dr. Robert Forney

Forensic Toxicologist

The Hillsdale County Sheriff’s Department considered the death of Shannon Mohr to be closed. Bob and Lucille Mohr did not, nor did Dick Britton, who contacted Detroit Free Press reporter Billy Bowles, asking him to look into the death of his neighbor.

Bowles found that Davis’ former wife, Phyllis, had divorced him in 1976 and obtained a restraining order against him sighting physical violence against herself and the children. Shannon had only learned of the previous marriage the week before her death.

Davis was also found to have a history of shady insurance claims, including having collected settlements from two suspicious fires: $30,000 for a vacant farm house and another $6,000 for a barn that had burned. The money Davis obtained from these claims paid off the mortgage on his home.

Bowles’ article was published on the front page of the Detroit Free Press on October 12. Two days later, the investigation into Shannon Mohr’s death was re-opened.

The Press Picks Up On The Story

Following Shannon’s death, Davis sold his farm to Dick Britton and purchased a sailboat on which he was living in between Florida and the Bahamas, where he was soon joined by a new girlfriend. He had collected approximately only $20,000 of the $324,000 from Shannon’s life insurance claims. Following the re-opening of the investigation into her death, her parents filed an injunction temporarily halting him from receiving any more payments.

Davis Leaves Michigan

The Mohrs also pushed for additional medical testing of the unknown drug detected in Shannon’s body. Samples of her body tissue were sent to the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo; once again, a chemical was found which, once again, could not be identified.

What Is The Unknown Substance In Shannon’s Body?

When Dr. Forney learned that Dave Davis had previously been a dirt farmer and had large animals on his farm, he suggested investigators contact local veterinarians who may have serviced his livestock. One such doctor said he had provided Davis with the animal tranquilizer Suxamethonium, AKA Succinylcholine Chloride, a drug commonly used on large farm animals. Once injected into the muscular and nervous systems, it is quickly broken down into natural compounds, causing rapid paralysis without affecting the vitals.

Succinylcholine is similar to curare, the first paralytic used in anesthesia and what Central American Indians had tipped on their arrows for centuries to subdue animals. In large doses, it can be fatal; in the wrong hands, it can be fatal to investigations as well, as it was undetectable. Victims would appear to have died of natural causes.

Succinylcholine Chloride Was Called

“The Perfect Murder Weapon”

A new test developed at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, however, was finding Succinylcholine in embalmed tissue. After six weeks of testing, scientists found the drug in Shannon Mohr’s tissues.

The Swedish Center Detects Succinylcholine

Nearly a year after her death, Shannon’s body was exhumed a second time. Needle track marks were found in her right shoulder and wrist and trace amounts of Succinylcholine were detected in these areas, as well as in her upper arm.

Authorities finally had findings supporting Bob and Lucille Mohr’s contention of foul play in their daughter’s death.

Succinylcholine Is Found In Shannon’s System

Investigators believe that after leaving Dick Britton’s farm, Dave Davis coaxed Shannon off her horse, perhaps under the pretext of having sex. The couple often engaged in outdoor intercourse, which would explain why her blouse was undone and her shoes were off. As Shannon was undressing, Davis is believed to have sneaked behind her and injected the Succinylcholine into her right shoulder. Shannon saw him coming and was able to prevent him from injecting the full dosage. As a result, the shot did not take full effect and she was not initially paralyzed.

As Shannon and Davis struggled, they matted down the grass. Police believe Davis then slammed her head on the rock, knocking her out, then fatally injected her with the remaining Succinylcholine.

Shannon Fought For Her Life

The issuing of the warrant for Dave Davis’ arrest in October 1981, charging him with first-degree murder, was kept under wraps because his whereabouts were unknown to investigators. Authorities hoped to cuff him when he appeared in court to face the Mohr’s challenge of his claims to Shannon’s life insurance money, but he did not arrive for the hearing; the money was awarded to the Mohrs.

Attorney Thomas Bleakley learned of the warrant for his client’s arrest and contacted him. Davis, sailing in the Caribbean with a new girlfriend, was still living on a boat near Florida. He said he would return to Michigan within a couple of weeks, but he instead set sail for a destination unknown. Subsequent attempts to reach him failed.

It had taken over a year to determine that Dave Davis had murdered his wife. It would take even longer to locate him.

Despicable Dave Dodges Arrest

Over the following year, sightings of Davis were reported in Florida and throughout the Caribbean, including  the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Haiti, where his abandoned boat was found shortly before Christmas 1982.

For the next six years, however, Davis eluded detection.

Davis Is Charged With Murder

Dave Davis’s case was first profiled on Unsolved Mysteries on November 29, 1987, during the fourth of the special episodes before it became a weekly show on NBC. It was the first case to air that was narrated by Robert Stack as the UM host.

After the second profiling of the case on December 28, 1988, a woman contacted authorities saying she had dated Davis, whom she knew as David Myer Bell, for several years after Shannon’s murder.  The call was deemed credible after the woman mentioned the man was often called “Rip”; Davis had been called “Ripper” when he was young.

Davis was last known to be in the Caribbean wing of the Atlantic Ocean, but the woman said he had moved to the Pacific coast.

“David Bell”

The woman told police that in his years on the lam, Davis had lived in San Diego, California; Bethel, Alaska; and Honolulu, Hawaii, and that he was now living in the American territory and Polynesian island country of American Samoa, still using the name David Myer Bell.

Davis’ Pacific Trail

Alaskan officials faxed Michigan investigators a copy of David Myer Bell’s driver license. It was unmistakably a photo of fugitive Dave Davis.

The Alaska Driver’s License Photo Of “David Bell”

Dave Davis covered his tracks for over seven years and had fled thousands of miles, but national exposure flushed him out of hiding.

The woman’s claims were accurate as Davis was found to be living on the Samoan island of Tafuna. He was arrested by FBI agents on January 6, 1989, at Samoa’s Pago Pago Airport where he was working an office job for Pacific Island Airways. He was also regarded as an expert bush pilot.

Davis Is Captured In American Samoa

Davis was determined to have been living in American Samoa since 1985. He had married again and was living in a one-room shack on Tafuna Island.

Davis’ Samoan Shack

The forty-four-year-old Davis had told his twenty-year-old Samoan wife, Maria Koleti, that his first wife had died in a car accident. She stood by him after his arrest, even after learning of his true identity, saying she believed his claims of innocence.

Davis’ New Wife

Maria Koleti

Fugitive pilot Dave Davis, as a passenger shackled in handcuffs, was flown back to Michigan to stand trial for Shannon Mohr’s murder.

Welcome Home, Dave

At Davis’ trial, several women testified he had courted and dated them shortly before he married Shannon. He fed each of his girlfriends a sensationalized pack of lies, such as saying he had been a Vietnam War hero, ag college football player at the University of Michigan, a CIA agent, and a multimillionaire farmer.

Each woman said Davis had proposed marriage after briefly dating them and that he wanted quick weddings, such as going to Las Vegas to get hitched. He even convinced one girlfriend he was a CIA agent pretending to be married to Shannon and that her funeral was the completion of the assignment. That woman then accompanied him to Florida.

In a fourteen-month period before marrying Shannon Mohr, Davis had asked five other women to wed him. All said no. Had any of them said yes, authorities believe they could have succumbed to Succinylcholine.

Multiple Women Turned Down Desperate Dave

After attempts to discredit the women failed, Davis’ defense attacked the scientific evidence, arguing the findings were unreliable. They emphasized the prosecution had not produced the syringe that was allegedly used as the murder weapon, nor had they proven that Davis ever owned or had been in possession of the drug. Two expert witnesses also testified the method used to detect Succinylcholine in Shannon’s body had not passed sufficient scientific review to determine if it was reliable.

The jury rejected all of the defense’s arguments. After only two-and-a-half hours of deliberation, they found Dave Davis guilty of first degree murder on December 5, 1989. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Dave Davis had married Shannon Mohr to murder her. His conviction meant he would murder no more.

“Aw Shucks,

I Thought I Got Away With It”

Dave Davis remained incarcerated for nearly twenty-five years, before dying in a prison hospital of congenital neuromuscular disease on November 9, 2014, at age seventy.

Davis Dies

Davis graduated with a Psychology degree from the University of Michigan in 1966. He began graduate work in the Department of Pharmacology, focusing on Psychopharmacology, the study of the effects of drugs on behavior. During the second semester he dropped out due to poor grades. He then went to work at a Chrysler plant, where he became head of security after six years. Of note, he was in charge of processing disability claims.

On January 1, 1974, Davis was found unconscious following an alleged accident at the Chrysler plant. After complaining of bad vision, headaches, and an arm injury, he was placed on medical leave and began collecting disability benefits. He soon quit his job after being suspected of faking his symptoms. He was not charged with doing so, however, and began living off of disability benefits, ultimately totaling over $20,000 a year through 1979 when he accepted a large lump sum payment from Chrysler in exchange for the ending of the monthly disability payments.

The incident may have been the impetus for Davis’ subsequent questionable insurance claims, which commenced soon thereafter.

The Birth of His Schemes?

One of his former girlfriend’s recalled Davis mentioning Succinylcholine as being a good way to commit murder. She also believes she once saw a copy of F. Lee Bailey’s book The Defense Never Rests at his home.

Davis may have conceived of using Succinylcholine to murder Shannon Mohr from reading the famed attorney’s book, in which he writes about the drug being used for murder in one of his cases.

Did Bailey’s Book

Give Davis The Idea?

The 1993 television movie Victim of Love: The Shannon Mohr Story stars Dwight Schultz, (Murdock of The A-Team fame and Reginald Barclay to Star “Trekkies,”) as Dave Davis and Sally Murphy as Shannon Mohr Davis.

Made Into A TV Movie

After it was determined Shannon had been murdered, her parents had a new tombstone inscribed sans the “Davis.”

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6625167/shannon-lou-mohr

Shannon’s Headstone Is Redone

SOURCES:

• American Justice
• The Blade
• Jackson (Michigan) News
• Orlando Sentinel
• Sun Sentinel
• Unsolved Mysteries