“Willow,” a black and white feminine pit bull combine liked by her homeowners, did not appear destined to change into a key determine in a homicide investigation. However that is precisely what occurred. It was Aug. 12, 2023, when the canine grew to become identified to legislation enforcement in New Haven, Indiana.
That morning, police would hear about Willow, and the way she was a protecting guard canine. However they would not meet her. And that is certainly one of many locations the place this story will get fascinating as correspondent Peter Van Sant experiences in “A Death in the Stairwell,” an all-new “48 Hours” now streaming on Paramount+.
Willow belonged to Kevin and Alison Davis, a married couple. Steve Krause, Alison Davis’ father, tells Van Sant how a lot Kevin and Alison liked one another, calling one another “babe.” Alison Davis’ finest pal, Kasey Klemm, says they have been a cheerful couple who danced collectively within the kitchen. Krause explains, “That they had no kids, so the canine was … like a toddler” to them. Their pal, Jason Younger, says that Willow was “a giant barker and type of intimidating at first,” however that in “two minutes the canine would not care about you anymore.”
The evening Kevin Davis sustained his accidents, he and Alison Davis had been out collectively at an area tavern. Pals and the tavern employees say it was a typical evening and that they appeared completely satisfied after they headed house round 1 a.m. Alison Davis would later inform police that after they did get house, she and Kevin had an argument, so she went to sleep on a sofa downstairs. Kevin Davis headed to their upstairs bed room – the place Willow was too. Alison Davis says she was woke up by a loud noise. She says she discovered Kevin Davis unresponsive, face down, in a big pool of blood. Alison Davis would inform a 911 operator and first responders that Kevin Davis had fallen down the steps.
After emergency responders rushed Kevin Davis to the hospital, Det. James Krueger would query Alison Davis. She would signal paperwork, giving consent to police to enter and search the house. However Alison Davis warned the detective about Willow: “She’s a guard canine. I do not know if she’d do something, and I do not need something to occur to her,” stated Alison Davis.
Krueger advised her he would not go in that room. He says when he went upstairs, “I may hear the canine strolling round in there … So I cracked the door open … I bought the tooth, and the growls and all the things. And there was no manner that canine was letting me in that room.” Krueger appeared round the remainder of the home. He felt “all the things checked out” and that Alison Davis’ story was true — this was a tragic, deadly fall.
Kevin Davis had large traumatic accidents to his head. He wouldn’t survive one other day. Household and mates say Alison Davis was devastated by the lack of the husband she liked. However police got here to suppose otherwise. 4 months later, Indiana authorities would cost Alison Davis with homicide. Detective Krueger concluded, “It is a spouse that misplaced it and beat her husband to dying.” Authorities say she used an improvised weapon, like an train weight, maybe a baseball bat. However no weapon was ever discovered.
After 17 months of incarceration, Alison Davis — who has at all times maintained her innocence — would go on trial for homicide. In simply six hours, the jury would come to its verdict. Alison Davis shouldn’t be responsible.
Krueger, who had been promoted to chief of police, believes the decision may need been totally different if solely he had gotten into Willow’s room that August morning. “I believe that canine could have been deliberately put in that room to maintain me out,” Krueger tells Van Sant. Krueger provides, there may have been “the blunt pressure object … in that room … one thing in that room that might’ve helped with the case.”
After the trial, a juror advised Van Sant that the prosecution’s case “had quite a lot of holes.” And that there have been robust the reason why the jury had voted to acquit Alison Davis. Nonetheless, Police Chief Krueger says he’ll at all times surprise if there may have been a homicide weapon in Willow’s room.
“There isn’t any proof … It is unbelievable. Such injustice,” says Krause. “That is simply strictly an accident.”
Alison Davis is free, now residing along with her mom and father. She’s attempting to place her life again collectively, with out Kevin, the person her dad says at all times referred to as her “babe.” And by her aspect, as she at all times has been, is Willow.
