Loading summary
Transcript61 lines
- [00:00]
Narrator/Advertiser
Just got a new puppy or kitten. Congrats. But also, yikes. Between crates, beds, toys, treats, and those first few vet visits, you've probably already dropped a small fortune. Which is where Lemonade pet insurance comes in. It helps cover vet costs so you can focus on what's best for your new pet. The coverage is customizable, sign up is quick and easy, and your claims are handled in as little as three seconds. Lemonade offers a package specifically for puppies and kittens. Get a'llemonade.com pet your future self will thank you. Your pet won't. They don't know what insurance is. This episode is brought to you by cars.com on cars.com you can shop over 2 million cars. That means over 2 million new car possibilities. Like making space for your growing family, becoming the type of person who takes spontaneous weekend camping trips or upgrading your commute wherever life takes you next, or whoever you're looking to be. There's a car for that. On Cars.com, visit Cars.com to discover your next possibility.
- [00:59]
Peter Van Sant
Foreign.
- [01:12]
Ann Marie Green
Welcome to Postmortem. I'm your host, Ann Marie Green. And today we are discussing the case of Kevin Davis. Now, in the early morning hours of August 12, 2023, Kevin's wife Allison called 911 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 hospital. An autopsy later revealed that he had a crushed in skull. And a murder investigation was launched with Allison becoming the primary suspect. She was charged with murder, arrested and put on trial where she would fight to clear her name. Joining me now is 48 Hours correspondent Peter Van Sant. Thanks for chatting with me today, Peter.
- [01:56]
Peter Van Sant
Hey, Annemarie. Great to be here.
- [01:58]
Ann Marie Green
And the usual reminder, before we get into it, if you have not listened to this episode of 48 Hours, head on over to your podcast feed to get the full audio. You're gonna find the full episode in your podcast feed right underneath this one. Go take a listen and then come on back. All right, here we go, Peter. Cause this one's a little different.
- [02:18]
Peter Van Sant
It's a doozer.
- [02:19]
Ann Marie Green
Yeah. So of course, at the center of this entire episode, right, the big question, was Kevin's death an accident or was it murder? And we see sort of very early on, people interacting with Allison are interpreting her behavior differently. She's speaking to first responders and they have very different assessments of what they're seeing. And you guys actually played some body cam footage of that.
- [02:45]
Peter Van Sant
That's right. And these two first Responders that. That are of particular interest here. They are trained to observe anything suspicious at a crime scene as well as trying to save a life. And. And so they focus on how things are said. And at the Davis house, the first two responders were standing by an ambulance. And one officer said, she doesn't have a normal reaction for me, telling her her husband's critical. Right. And the EMT said, I think she's still in shock. That shows you the range of interpretation as you look at these people. But having watched all of that video, there were some very odd moments. Alison apologized for wearing pajamas. Now, the normal reaction would be, quick, he's in here. Quick as fast, follow me. But she apologizes about what she's wearing. She laugh talked with people at the scene. That struck some as very, very odd. But a lot of the people who defend Allison's behavior say she was raised to be extremely polite, and this is how she speaks. She will always say thank you to people and whatnot.
- [03:51]
Ann Marie Green
You know, in watching the hour, the only time that it sort of struck me as odd was that little laugh talk that we saw. But as I listened to you kind of put it all in line for me, like, list it all, what comes across to me is someone who's a people pleaser almost, that you sort of mimic the reaction that you're getting from other people and you say thank you, and you apologize for being inappropriate. Like, that's how it actually comes across to me.
- [04:19]
Peter Van Sant
Well, you know the laugh talk that she did, I've covered so many hurricanes, and you'll walk up to someone and their house has been destroyed. Is this your house? And they'll go, yeah, yeah, this is it. There's not much here, is there? They'll laugh talk. I think that's a stress reaction in some people that it is an involuntary emotion and that laugh talk occurs. That's what I was thinking about when I watched that. And also, keep in mind, her friends said that later she was incredibly emotional. She was crying at the hospital. And her dad said that Allison, she compartmentalizes because she knew she had to be calm to help Kevin. And Allison's defense said that, well, if she committed a crime and had rehearsed a story, why would she have forgotten to act sad on the police body cam video?
- [05:13]
Ann Marie Green
Right. So there were some questions about the 911 call. And I want to play that.
- [05:19]
911 Operator
91 1. What's the address of your emergency? My average is some of the. There's blood everywhere, and I can't look all over. I Don't know if you alive or dead. Okay. I can't. I can't understand what you're saying. Take the breath for me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. What's your address? I just fell down. Oh, Lane. Okay. And what happened to your husband? He fell down the stairs just now. I was sleeping downstairs. All I heard. All of a sudden I heard a loud noise. Sorry. I'm trying to take longer, deeper breath. I heard a loud noise. I went. He was at the bottom of the stairs. There was blood everywhere. And I can't flip him 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. He's not responding. Okay, I'm gonna have help on the way to you. They'll be there in just a few minutes. Okay. Thank you so much. You're welcome.
- [06:17]
Ann Marie Green
So what was the problem with that 911 call? Because, I mean, it seems normal to me.
- [06:24]
Peter Van Sant
I've heard, you know, Hundreds of these 911 calls from local news all through my network life. Usually, if my wife finds me at the foot of the stairs with blood, I'm not going to tell the 911 operator a story. I was. I woke up and I heard a noise. And. No, you'd say he's. My husband's. Is unconscious. He's at the bottom. Get someone here as fast as you can. That tends to be the normal call. So the sudden calm. Detective Krueger, in this thought that this was a performance. And she also thanked the operator at the end of the 911 call, which was rather unusual because it was a very friendly. Thank you.
- [07:07]
Ann Marie Green
I mean, often when we've done these stories, Peter, one of the things that sort of stands out when people are suspicious is that they give you more details than you are asking for.
- [07:18]
Peter Van Sant
Absolutely. When they're calm, it can be interpreted that the person telling the story has rehearsed this story. If they are overly dramatic, then it must be a performance. You can't win on these 911 calls. And it is also important to remember people do react differently in crises.
- [07:37]
Ann Marie Green
Yeah.
- [07:37]
Peter Van Sant
By the way, during the course of this, there was a really surprisingly emotional moment for us. Allison's father had not heard the 911 call. And I turned that on. He just. His head just went right down into his hands. He all but collapsed. He started crying. I would call it even sobbing. And for. This was his daughter. This was completely genuine. This was heartbreaking. This was real. He did hear the change to the calmness. Okay, okay, I've got my breath now. And her telling the story. But he said, that's my daughter. That's the way she talks.
- [08:14]
Ann Marie Green
Just as an aside, I was so impressed by him. I just. I thought he was sort of almost the MVP of that whole hour. You know, often you see moms, and so it was good to see a dad defending his daughter. And I wondered how he was remaining so unemotional. And then we saw the emotion bubble over, you know?
- [08:35]
Peter Van Sant
Absolutely. Yeah. And he's someone you trust implicitly when you hear him speak. And he didn't show an instant of doubt about his daughter's innocence.
- [08:48]
Ann Marie Green
Okay. So after first responders arrive and police decide not to enter the upstairs bedroom. And they do that because Allison says that their pet pit bull is up there, and the pit bull's a guard dog. I still didn't understand. I understand why maybe they wouldn't want to go up there without her. But they could have gone up there.
- [09:09]
Peter Van Sant
Yeah, that's an obvious mistake, because there could be important evidence inside that room. She had warned him that he know there's a pit bull on the other side. That's obviously a deterrent. But Allison had signed permission for them to enter the room, and she did offer to move the dog. And Detective Krueger, because he initially, much too quickly believed that Kevin's death was an accident, he now believes that, who knows, the murder weapon might have been in that bedroom with the dog. And of course, he regrets not going in.
- [09:44]
Ann Marie Green
Yeah, I can imagine. Detective Kruger also cleared the crime scene. So even if he might have suspected that there was no foul play, why not at least wait till the autopsy? Especially since officers at the scene seem to really question Allison's behavior and certainly the amount of blood at the scene.
- [10:04]
Peter Van Sant
This was an enormous blunder. There is a reason why police have crime scene tape to seal off that crime scene. There is no hurry to give it back to a family. You have to do your CSI work there and take the time. I'm working on another case right now. Where it was months before the death scene was cleared by police. And Detective Krueger said the New Haven, Indiana, Police Department, you know, they're a small town outfit. They have limited resources and expertise. And Krueger said he just didn't see the need to tie up all of their resources and hold the house for what he thought was an accident scene. They eventually called the Indiana State Police because they have many more resources. Right. But by the time they got there, the House had already been cleared. That scene has now been contaminated. And whatever they found would have been challenged in court.
- [11:01]
Ann Marie Green
So then what evidence did investigators actually have against Allison?
- [11:07]
Peter Van Sant
Well, Allison told first responders, and this is important, that she and Kevin had gotten into a fight that night. That was the word that she used. And that played into the investigator's belief that she hit Kevin in the back of the head with an object, because they think, well, if there was a fight, there was emotion, and she may have lashed out at him. No murder weapon was ever found. And Detective Krueger pointed to a text that Kevin had sent his friend early in the morning about 2:34am he wrote, Gotta go to bed. The wife now. You hear that? The audience hears that. I heard that. I didn't think it was any big deal. But investigators thought, wow, the wife. That suggests tension inside that house. I thought that was a bit of a stretch. Another text that we didn't get to in the hour. Allison texted Kevin, I love you. And he didn't text back. And the prosecution brought this up in court that there may have been some tension, some problem inside, some anger inside that house. But Alison and Kevin lived together. He knew he was going to see her later. So, you know, you get busy and you sometimes don't answer those, I'm guilty of that. And you got to be careful about confirmation bias when you're an investigator. And once you start interpreting everything as evidence of a crime, you can really get in trouble, which I think happened in this case.
- [12:45]
Ann Marie Green
Welcome back. On October 17, 2023. This is two months of an investigation going on. Police finally declared Kevin's death a homicide. And about two months later, a warrant is issued for Allison's arrest. She turned herself into the Allen County Jail with her parents. So I want to ask you about that local bar that Allison and Kevin frequented. It's called the East Haven Tavern. Seems like a place with a lot of regulars. And you spoke to some of those. I'm curious about how Allison's arrest affected the patrons there. I'm also curious about, you know, what they said about the couple.
- [13:26]
Peter Van Sant
Anybody that's ever been in a pub? I used to live in England. This East Haven Tavern was like a pub. Everybody knows everybody. It's like the old TV show Cheers. Everybody knows your name. Allison and Kevin were regulars. Kevin, big personality guy, really entertained people. He liked to argue, debate and things, but they. They really loved him. So the people there were really shocked at what happened. And the East Haven Tavern is in New Haven, Indiana. It's a town of roughly 15,000 people. And it's a real microcosm. But after Allison was arrested and charged in jail, well, people thought, well, they must have something on her. They wouldn't just arrest her unless they, they really have a solid case. So you, some of the people there started to drift toward that. Others, you know, were saying, there's just, there's just no way. There's just no way she could do this. So this is the intrigue of this case. As, as our investigation went forward.
- [14:26]
Ann Marie Green
Allison pleaded not guilty. But since Indiana rarely allows bail on a murder charge, she had to remain in jail for 17 months waiting for the trial. I am curious, I mean, how did she spend her time behind bars?
- [14:42]
Peter Van Sant
This was, this was really terrible. She was not allowed any in person visits except for her attorneys. Her family not only wasn't allowed to visit in person, but virtually like on a FaceTime call. She wrote letters and she could make phone calls to family and friends, but she was not allowed to see family members. Her attorneys say that in jail, Allison, you know, tried to make the best of her life there. She was leading workout classes and she was trying to influence people in a positive way. But that isolation.
- [15:20]
Ann Marie Green
The trial is May 6, 2025. I want to play a clip in the episode from Detective Krueger as he's heading into court that day.
- [15:32]
Peter Van Sant
I'm anxious. What's at stake today is either Kevin Davis gets justice for what was done to him, or we let a murderer walk free.
- [15:42]
Ann Marie Green
So he's, you know, clearly convinced that Allison is guilty.
- [15:48]
Peter Van Sant
Yeah, she is innocent until proven guilty. They didn't have a CSI moment. They didn't have an eyewitness, they didn't have a motive. For certain, they didn't have so much in this case. And, and to say that if she is found not guilty, she still is, that's just wrong. That's just wrong. Now, keep in mind, Detective Kruger is now Police Chief Kruger. He is highly respected in the community and his profession and he owns the mistakes that he made in this, releasing that crime scene so early.
- [16:23]
Ann Marie Green
So the trial was really a battle of experts. The jury heard from Dr. Smock, who testified for the prosecution, and Dr. Dragovich, who testified for the defense. When a jury is faced with two experts with two totally opposing views, how, how do they determine who or what they believe or I wonder if at times they just cancel each other out.
- [16:48]
Peter Van Sant
The prosecutors actually had three different doctors testify and both Dr. Smock and Dr. Dragovich, they were convincing. This was a face off. It's always dramatic when this Happens because a life is hanging in the balance in this case, Allison's life. We also interviewed them, and they had a lot of additional material for us about this case. Dr. Smock, the prosecution's expert, said that Kevin's CT scan showed multiple fractures to multiple areas of his head. And he believes that Allison wielded some sort of a weapon, a blunt object to beat Kevin that was never found, that he didn't fall down the stairs, but he was attacked. Dr. Dragovich, who testified for the defense, said that the injuries and that fall and all of that was, was the result of one impact to Kevin's head that led to multiple fractures. He believes that Kevin fell and his head hit the banister, which caused Kevin's brain to ricochet inside his skull. He made a compelling case that one single impact would not necessarily cause any open external wounds or blood marks on the banister. There weren't any cuts on his head. We, the 48 hours, people were a bit overwhelmed trying to figure all of this out. And so we really laughed out loud when the juror that we interviewed after this case, in our interview, said that they found the, the expert testimony to be easy to follow and, and clear.
- [18:14]
Ann Marie Green
Really?
- [18:15]
Peter Van Sant
Yeah. And they were getting it more than we were. But Dr. Dragovich explained it in ways that people could, could, could follow, and he prevailed.
- [18:25]
Ann Marie Green
It's a four day trial. The jury deliberates, they deliver a verdict. Allison Davis is not guilty. We don't cover a lot of not guilties. I mean, in, in your years of doing 48 hours, how many not guilty verdicts have you covered?
- [18:41]
Peter Van Sant
I've had two. This is one of them.
- [18:43]
Ann Marie Green
Two.
- [18:44]
Peter Van Sant
Two. That's it. There have been other cases, too, where I thought there would be a not guilty verdict, but there have only been two. And, you know, one of the jurors said the prosecution's case had holes in it, but Krueger took the loss very hard. And the democratic thing to do would be to accept the jury's verdict. And the lead prosecutor said, well, the jury has spoken, and that her next best theory would be that there was another attacker in the house. But Kruger said 100% that Alison got away with murder. And it's very rare to go on the record to say something like that, and it's unfair. This puts a little scarlet 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 dad said, I can't believe they did this to her. It's unbelievable, such injustice. He can't believe that they ever charged her with homicide, kept her in isolation. And then a jury takes just six hours after all of that to find her not guilty. You gotta go with that verdict. And in this case, I think the jury got it right.
- [19:57]
Ann Marie Green
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I felt everything that dad was saying. And another thing that people don't kind of think about is the money that it takes to defend yourself. I mean, just being accused can be ruinous to your life, you know? Um, so then that brings me, because the one person that. That we're all as a viewer, waiting to hear from in that hour is Allison. I know you guys reached out to her and clear clearly she didn't want to be involved.
- [20:23]
Peter Van Sant
Now she's left New Haven and is living with her parents. We did reach out. She declined. We understand that it wasn't long after she had been acquitted that we. We put in this request to her. She not only lost a husband, she was accused of murder, spent 17 months in. In jail. But, Alison, if you're listening out there, in my mind, and I believe in the public's mind now, you are an innocent person. And I wish her all the best in life.
- [20:53]
Ann Marie Green
And the fact that her father participated, I assume that she gave her blessing, and he represented her very, very well.
- [21:01]
Peter Van Sant
Absolutely.
- [21:05]
Ann Marie Green
Well. Peter, thank you for participating in this podcast. This was an unexpected ending because 48 hours doesn't always end like this. And, you know, I'm really happy that Allison is rebuilding her life because there's a lot more life to live for her.
- [21:19]
Peter Van Sant
All the best to you, Allison.
- [21:21]
Ann Marie Green
And if you like this episode, of course, please rate and review on Apple Podcast or Spotify. Spotify.
- [21:31]
Peter Van Sant
Now streaming. Everyone who comes into this clinic is a mystery.
- [21:35]
Ann Marie Green
We don't know what we're looking for.
- [21:37]
Peter Van Sant
Their bodies are the scene of the crime. Their symptoms and history are clues. You saved her life. We're doctors and we're detectives.
- [21:46]
Narrator/Advertiser
I kind of love it, if I'm being honest.
- [21:48]
Peter Van Sant
Solve the puzzle, save the patient. Watch all episodes now streaming on Paramount plus.
- [22:01]
Ann Marie Green
Now streaming on Paramount plus. Witness an intimate look at Ozzy Osbourne's fight.
- [22:05]
Peter Van Sant
I should take pills for fun.
- [22:07]
Ann Marie Green
I would take just that to reclaim the magic.
- [22:10]
Peter Van Sant
I took dad to the studio every day. God was having a great time. Of course he's making music. I think that that's fuel for my.
- [22:16]
Ann Marie Green
Dad one last time. What do you think? Think about a big farewell show.
- [22:20]
Peter Van Sant
I'm not good at being sick. I'd belong up there, you know, had.
- [22:23]
Ann Marie Green
A brilliant career, and it ended in a brilliant way. Ozzy no escape from now new documentary now streaming on Paramount plus.