How a Newspaper Ad Helped Convict a Man Who Killed His Pregnant Wife and Passed it Off as Suicide

The Fort Lewis military base in Washington witnessed a tragic death in 1991. Dorothy Davis was found dead with a gunshot wound to the temple in March 1991, US, Oxygen reported. Davis had a gun in her hands. The death was ruled as a case of suicide by the Army Criminal Investigative Command after an initial investigation.

Dorothy Davis lived with her husband, Christian, at the base because of the former's job as an army truck driver, and the couple already had two children together. Dorothy Davis was pregnant at the time of her death, The Seattle Times reported, and Christian was allegedly unfaithful to his wife during their marriage. Dorothy Davis was visiting a therapist with mental health concerns around the time she died, according to Oxygen.

Dorothy Davis was found dead with three suicide notes, torn envelopes, a bottle of Prozac, and a gun firmly in her hand, the outlet reported. Two of the suicide notes were addressed to her husband, while one was addressed to her sister, Patty Schlip.

Christian Davis said he was traveling between their home and an NCO club (Non-commissioned officer's club), where he worked as a part-time DJ on the day of her death, Oxygen reported. He claimed he came home around 8.30 p.m. to find Davis dead with a gunshot wound to her head. Christian Davis also claimed in his statement that he ran to the neighbor's house and asked them to call 911. 

Sargeant Peyton Abrams' wife, who called 911, told Oxygen, "I said I just saw Dorothy hours ago. She was really in such a great mood; she seemed cheerful. I know Dorothy was crazy about her girls, they were her world. I was like this just can’t be real.” 

Charles Pritchett, an army special agent found the husband's actions to be suspicious. “I do recall the phone in the master bedroom was a working phone. It was a little odd he didn’t just use it,” Pritchett told Oxygen.

“And why did he not go back into his residence and try to perform life-saving measures on his wife? It makes no sense,” said the agent, the media outlet reported.

One of the notes read: “You said suicide was the chicken way out. I guess I’m a chicken.” A handwriting expert was brought on board to analyze the writings, who attributed it to the deceased Davis. Steve Chancellor, a CID investigator who came on board eight months after her death said there were some gaps in the investigation. “Contrary to what people think, the gun is seldom found in the victim’s hand in a suicide,” he told Oxygen.

Pritchett questioned Dorothy Davis' sister Patty Schlip about the marriage. “Three years after they got married, she got pregnant with her first child. Dorothy started gaining some weight. He would tell her she was fat. You can’t eat that. You need to lose weight. You’re not a good mother. But he never did any of that in front of us. I never saw a violent side in Chris,” Schlip told Pritchett. She also shared with Pritchett that Christian told fabricated stories to his wife.

Christian Davis would disappear in the middle of the night and tell Dorothy Davis that he was part of a secret force where he is being trained to become an assassin, Oxygen reported. Dorothy Davis' mental health was in decline during the last few years of marriage, Schlip stated. In one of the visits to her sister, Schlip said Dorothy Davis insisted on communicating via paper believing that the army was listening in on her conversations. 

While investigating officers had their doubts, there was no gun residue on his hands and further lack of evidence led to the case being ruled as a suicide. After time passed, Christian Davis put out an ad for a live-in nanny and hired a woman named Dorie Morris, Oxygen reported. A witness named Audrey came forward with claims that Morris was Christian Davis' long-term affair partner. 

That night in the club, Christian Davis had allegedly gone to the lobby to make a call to his wife, but he didn't come back, causing Audrey to follow him. Audrey said she did not find him anywhere in the lobby. He came back 20 minutes later out of breath in the club, without the purple jacket that he was previously wearing.

Another witness from the club came forward claiming Morris told him that Dorothy Davis was dead at 9 p.m., Oxygen reported. This raised suspicions among the investigating officers, as Christian Davis was at his neighbor's place making the call to 911 at the same time. These testimonies caused the case to be reopened again. Investigators considered the theory that Christian Davis came back to the house in between his DJ gig and murdered his wife

To confirm their suspicions, the officials reenacted the events of the day to see if it was possible to do the deed and return to the club in 20 minutes. Their exercise proved that it was indeed possible. 

The investigation team decided to take a DNA Analysis of the saliva samples recovered from torn-up envelopes. The samples were a match, and the jury found Christian guilty of murder, Oxygen reported.

Christian Davis was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.