Post Mortem | A Death in the Stairwell

0:10Welcome to Postmortem. I'm your host, Anne-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 Cent.

0:51Thanks for chatting with me today, Peter. Hey, Anne-Marie. Great to be here. 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 going to 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, because this one's a little different. It's a doozer. 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.

1:34She'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. That's right. And these two first responders 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 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.

2:12That 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. Allison 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. 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.

2:56But as I listen 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. 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? The laugh talk. I think that's a stress reaction in some people that it is a involuntary emotion and that laugh talk occurs.

3:40That'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? Right. So there were some questions about the 911 call, and I want to play that. 911 what's the address for your emergency my husband just fell down the stairs there's blood everywhere and I can't look all over I don't know if you live or dead okay I can't understand what you're saying take a breath for me I'm sorry what's your address my husband just fell down a plane 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, and I'm trying to take longer, deeper breath.

4:49I 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. There's blood everywhere. Okay. I'm going to have help on the way to you. They'll be there in just a few minutes, okay? Thank you so much. You're welcome. So what was the problem with that 911 call? Because, I mean, it seems normal to me. 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.

5:34I woke up and I heard a noise. No, you'd say, my husband is unconscious. 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 Kruger 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. 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. Absolutely. When they're calm, it can be interpreted that the person telling this story has rehearsed this story.

6:22If 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. Yeah. 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 him, this was his daughter. This was completely genuine. This was heartbreaking. This was real. He did hear the change to the calmness.

7:04Okay, 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. 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? Absolutely. And he's someone you trust implicitly when you hear him speak. Yeah. And he didn't show an instant of doubt about his daughter's innocence. 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.

7:59I 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. Yeah, that's an obvious mistake because there could be important evidence inside that room. She had warned him that, you 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 Kruger, 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.

8:38And of course, he regrets not going in. 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? 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.

9:24And Detective Kruger said the New Haven, Indiana Police Department, you know, they're a small town outfit. They have limited resources and expertise. And Kruger 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. So then what evidence did investigators actually have against Allison?

10:04Well, 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 investigators' 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 Kruger pointed to a text that Kevin had sent his friend early in the morning, about 2.34 a.m. 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.

10:50I 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 Allison 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've 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.

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12:46Welcome back. On October 17th, 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. 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. Anybody that's ever been in a pub, I used to live in England.

13:33This 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 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 have thought, well, they must have something on her. They wouldn't just arrest her unless they really have a solid case.

14:13So 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. Allison pleaded not guilty, but since Indiana rarely allows bail on a murder her 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? 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.

15:07Her 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. The trial is May 6th, 2025. I want to play a clip in the episode from Detective Kruger as he's heading into court that day. 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. So he's, you know, clearly convinced that Allison is guilty. Yeah, she is innocent until proven guilty. They didn't have a CSI moment. They didn't have an eyewitness.

15:55They didn't have a motive for certain. and they didn't have so much in this case. And to say that if she is found not guilty, she still is. That's just wrong. That's just wrong. Keep in mind, Detective Kruger is now Police Chief Kruger. He is highly respected in the community, in his profession, and he owns the mistakes that he made in this, releasing that crime scene so early. 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 do they determine who or what they believe?

16:45Or I wonder if at times they just cancel each other out. 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.

17:25that 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 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.

18:05And so we really laughed out loud when the juror that we interviewed after this case in our interview said that they found the expert testimony to be easy to follow and and clear. Really? 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. 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 your years of doing 48 hours, how many not guilty verdicts have you covered? I've had two. This is one of them. Two? Two.

18:46That'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 Kruger 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 Allison 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.

19:32A 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 got to go with that verdict. And in this case, I think the jury got it right. 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?

20:12So then that brings me, because the one person 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 clearly she didn't want to be involved. 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 put in this request to her. She not only lost a husband, she was accused of murder, spent 17 months in jail. But Allison, 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.

20:53and the fact that her father participated, I assume that she gave her blessing and he represented her very, very well. Absolutely. Well, Peter, thank you for participating in this podcast. This was an unexpected ending because 48 Hours doesn't always end like this. And I'm really happy that Alison is rebuilding her life because there's a lot more life to live for her. All the best to you, Alison. And if you like this episode, of course, please rate and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.