Episode 43 - "The Murder of Steven Davis"

Dec 4, 2019

Episode 43 – The Murder of Steven Davis

• Today’s case, although it does cover a murder, which is inherently sad, has a particularly satisfying ending to it. This case deals with money, intrigue, an unfaithful lover, and a mother’s revenge. This is the case of the murder of Steven Davis, a brilliant computer programmer living abroad in The Philippines. His life was abruptly ended when, sitting in his apartment, three gunmen entered and shot him in cold blood. His case grew cold, until, through the dedication and determination of his mother, who launched her own investigation into his assassination, was able to solve the crime, and bring his killers to justice… even the one responsible, who no one believed could have done the crime. Now, this episode sort of ties in with last weeks, in some respect, because I’ve been enjoying looking up cases that were cold and then were solved through DNA, like with the murder of Sophie Sergie, or, in this case, cases that were solved by unusual means, namely, a mother’s desire for justice. Now, none of us are parents, but I can absolutely see how a mother, mourning the mysterious death of her child, would dedicate much of her life, time, and finances to solving a case, and I give a lot of respect to Steven’s mother, Margaret Davis. She took his crime into her own hands, and went from an average grandmother to a full time detective. And that is why I wanted to tell this story. Because justice is within the reach of anyone who has the courage to pursue it.
  
  
  [Pictured: Steven Davis, with one of his children. Photo Credit: www.stevenalstondavis.co.uk]
  
  
• Steven Davis was a 32 year old man who lived in the Philippines, where he established a software company. He was born in March of 1970 and grew up in England, specifically in Nottingham, which, as an American, sounds like a fairy-tale place. He was the only son born to his parents, but he had two sisters. Unfortunately, Steven lost his father very, young, at the age of 14, and he spent much of the rest of his childhood taking on a care-taking role for his mother and sisters. He was responsible, studios man, who worked hard to ensure that he could financially assist with his families bills. By the time he had turned 21, he had already excelled considerably in his job to the point that he accepted a position which paid triple the salary he was receiving in England. With this new job, Davis moved to Hong Kong. Not long after, he made the choice to move to The Philippines, where he branched out on his own and started his own software developing company. He was handsome, tall and blond, and charismatic. And he enjoyed spending time with friends made through work, including the quintessential 90’s young man’s hobby of hanging out in night clubs and strip clubs. It was there at a club that Steven met Evelyn, his future wife.
  
  
  [Pictured: Evelyn Davis. Photo Credit: www.stevenalstondavis.co.uk]
  
  
• Evelyn came from a poor family, and in order to help pay for the family’s finances, she had been forced to work as a sex worker at starting at the age of 13. When she first met Steve, she was 15 years old, stuck in a difficult and dangerous life working for the club as a sex worker. She was very beautiful and looked a bit older than she was, so she convinced Steven that she was several years older. The two began dating, and after a few years of dating, Steven married Evelyn when she was 17. He believed however, that she was 21 at the time they got married, and Evelyn even went so far as to use her older sisters ID to get married legally... He was 26. Once married, Steven paid the club owner 500 pounds to quote unquote buy her freedom from the club, and he promised Evelyn that she would never have to go back to the life of a sex worker. He would protect her, just like he had his mother and sisters after the death of his father. Evelyn was grateful, as she was embarrassed that she had had to work in the business, and she had long told her friends and family that she prayed that one day, a rich man would rescue her. By the way, I don’t want anyone to think that this is a shot on people who chose the life of a sex worker, as those who chose it are one thing. But she was 13. She had no choice in the matter. The club essentially owned her, and I can’t blame Evelyn for wanting an out, and unfortunately, at that time in The Philippines, the only way out was a husband.
  
  
• Not everyone was happy with the new nuptials, however. Steven’s mother, Margaret, was not particularly happy that her son had married a sex worker, particularly one that no one in the family had ever met. However, when Margaret ended up meeting Evelyn, she was pleased to find that Evelyn was a polite and sweet young woman, and Steven seemed to really love her. Eventually, as time went on, the couple would go on to have two children. They first had a daughter, Jessica, and the family was so excited that such a beautiful child had been born to them. Once Jessica was born, Steven began providing his wife with a regular allowance, so that she could have her own money and autonomy. She would then, in turn, send the money she received from him to her family, who desperately needed the income. Steven also like to give her family gifts whenever they visited, hoping to win them over as well. Overall, Steven wanted to make his wife happy. Not long before his murder, Evelyn gave birth to their second child, a handsome son, who they named Joshua. Margaret, and her new husband Alan, grew to accept the relationship, and often traveled to visit their grandchildren. Margaret even invested quite a bit of her own money into Steven’s business, making her a part shareholder. She wanted to ensure that her son and his family would be secure, and that his business would thrive. On the outside, Evelyn and Steven seemed a perfectly happy couple, a shining example of the opposites attract theory. However that would all come crashing down when, on a late night in the hot summer of 2002, Steven’s life would be taken from him.
  
  
  [Pictured: Steven Davis. Photo Credit: www.stevenalstondavis.co.uk]
  
  
• It was late at night on July 17th, 2002, when Steven worked late with his co-worker and friend Martin. To be closer to the financial center of The Philippines, Martin and Steven rented an apartment together in Makati, which they used as an unofficial work space. It was not unusual for the pair to stay there during the week, as they would often go out to dinner or go bar hopping with business associates. When not working, Steven would return to the house he owned with Evelyn in Angeles, which was about three hours away from his work apartment. That night, in a moment of silence, there was a loud crash, and the front door to the apartment sprang open. Three men ran inside, holding guns in their hands. Martin sat in the main room, and the men raised their guns, aimed them at him, and asked if he was Steven. Martin told them he was not, and the trio then moved on to the next room, where, after a pause, Martin heard a barrage of shots, about 3 or 4 booms. They then ran out of the apartment. Martin immediately rushed to the aid of his co-worker and friend, but Steven lay in his bed, seemingly unresponsive. He had been shot several times in the chest. Martin immediately called police, but by the time Steven arrived at the hospital, he was dead. It would be two days until Margaret received the call that no mother ever wants to hear. However, the caller was surprising. Evelyn had not called her late husband’s family to inform them of his death. In fact, it was Martin, who called Margaret. She was devastated, but even more so, she wanted answers.
  
  
  [Pictured: Steven and Evelyn Davis. Photo Credit: www.stevenalstondavis.co.uk]
  
  
• Police began investigating the murder right away, as there was a concern that the murder of an English citizen on their soil could potentially cause international issues that they wanted to avoid. Unfortunately, thought the police moved slowly, believing the motive for the murder to be related to business. Originally, the suspicion was placed on Steven’s co-workers, including Martin, who was there at the scene. Police investigated their theory, however it did not sit right with Margaret that business was the motive. While the police investigated their theory, Margaret grew impatient. Her son had been killed, and no one was listening to her. If this assassination was motivated by a rival business partner, then why not kill Martin too? Why only Steven? After all, they even left a witness alive who was a member of Steven’s business. This, to Margaret, seemed personal. Steven was obviously their only target. Margaret had to get to where her son had been murdered if she wanted answers. So Margaret and her husband, Alan, made plans to travel to be with Evelyn and their grandchildren, and eventually, bring home their son for burial. They arrived less than a week after the murder. While there, they also wanted to keep an eye on the investigation. Which, thankfully, was the saving grace in solving this murder.
  
  
• See, right away, from the first moment that Margaret had learned of her son’s murder, something had not felt right to her. Why did Evelyn not call her? Surely, if her son was murdered, his wife should have been the one to call, not his friend. Originally, Margaret suspected Martin as being involved, as she wanted to know how the killers got into the apartment without having to break in, and the fact that Martin was left alive. But, when she landed in the Philippines, Martin was her first stop. She sat down with him and spoke to him, and once doing so, realized that he was telling the truth. Martin was suffering from extreme PTSD related to the trauma he had endured at the hands of Steven’s killers. He was skittish and frightened, and according to Martha, he would not stop looking over his shoulder, always afraid that the door would burst and it would be his time instead. Martin was clearly a victim of the murder, just in a different way. After meeting with Martin, Margaret and Alan met up with Evelyn, who was at the funeral parlor, setting up arrangements. Margaret, expecting a weeping widow, prepared herself to console Evelyn, but was stunned when, upon walking into the funeral parlor, Evelyn was cold and distant. She did not shed a tear for Steven. In fact, the first thing that Evelyn said to Margaret, was that she needed money. Margaret, stunned, obliged, and when she asked if she and Alan could stay at their house, instead of a hotel, as Margaret wanted to be with her grandchildren, Evelyn said no. According to her, Evelyn’s family was staying with her at their home in Angeles, so there would be no room for her in laws. At this point, Margaret’s suspicions began to grow. Thinking something seemed off, the following day, Margaret went to her son’s home, and was surprised to find that only Evelyn, the children, and several of the houses maids were present. There was no family. Also, while speaking with the family, Evelyn said that the killers had been in the apartment for about 20 minutes, but Margaret wondered how Evelyn knew that, since Martin had not said anything about the length of time the killers had been in the apartment to her. At this point, Margaret had begun to form an opinion on the murder of her son, and she believed that Evelyn had something to do with it. So, she began to dig. Margaret voiced her concerns to the police handling the investigation, but they did not listen, as they still believed that this was a business related crime, and not a spousal disagreement. Due to their unwillingness to listen to any other suggestions, the case went cold. Frustrated, Margaret made her decision, and hired a private detective. Once she had help on her side, a lot of things began to emerge, dark little tidbits of information about her son’s marriage, and his wife’s behavior.
  
  
  [Pictured: Margaret Davis. Photo Credit: RealStories/Youtube]
  
  
• Margaret had known from conversations she had had with Steven prior to his death that the marriage was going through a rough patch. She had told her that the family was having financial troubles, and that they were having trouble paying their bills. At the time, Steven had mused aloud that the missing money may have been related to Evelyn. He had wondered if she was stealing from him. In fact, he also mentioned that he had recently cut her allowance, something that did not go over particularly well. In fact, while going through her sons things after his murder, she found a discarded receipt from a pawn shop. It was for Evelyn’s ring. She had pawned it off, several days before his murder. From here, Margaret and her investigator had a theory, and they began questioning people who knew the couple. Margaret was so determined to get answers that she temporarily moved to The Philippines full time so she could work more closely with her investigator to get answers. And they found a lot… rather quickly. Apparently, for several months leading up to Steven’s murder, Evelyn began to behave… strangely. She would disappear from the house at random hours, leaving the children alone or with housekeepers. She would constantly be glued to her cell phone, talking on it or texting, and rarely wanted to be in the room with Steven. She refused to sleep with him, and several of Steven’s friends confided to Margaret that during the time that Steven was at his work apartment, Evelyn would often entertain various male suitors. Eventually, the truth came to light. Evelyn had a boyfriend. And apparently, Steven had learned about his existence just prior to the murder. Steven had his suspicions that his wife was being unfaithful, but he found out exactly what was going on one day when he took his daughter to school. Apparently, when he arrived at the school to drop off Jessica, he was told by the employees of the school that his daughter was not even enrolled there. However, he distinctly remembered arranging the enrollment with Evelyn, and even, gave her the large sum required to pay the school tuition. Evelyn had spent the money given to her for their daughter’s education on her boyfriend. At this point, Steven was done. He cut off Evelyn’s allowance, and told her that she would need to get a job or go to college to further her education and of course, to ditch the boyfriend. However, here was motive. Evelyn stood to inherit everything if Steven died.
  
  
• Sure that they were on the right track, Margaret and the investigator began surveillance on Evelyn, following her in the hops of photographing some evidence which they could bring to police to convince them to look into their theory. Eventually, the pair compiled a list of names and photographs of the people that Evelyn routinely spent time with, and brought them to Martin’s home, hoping he could positively identify the killers who had assassinated Steven. Martin held the pictures in his hands, staring at them, and they knew in an instant that he had seen these men before. Martin pointed to three of the pictures, to three men. One of the men was Arnold Adoray… Evelyn’s boyfriend. This, to Margaret, was proof enough that Evelyn was related to this whole thing. She believed that Evelyn planned on getting rid of her husband so that she could inherit his business, sell it, and enjoy a blissful life, wealthy and comfortable, with her boyfriend and her two children. Considering the gunmen did not break into the home, but used a key, Margaret believed that Evelyn had been the ringleader, giving the key to her boyfriend and his team. And what was worse, Margaret believed that this may have been planned for some time. Before his death, Margaret and Alan had visited Steven and Evelyn, and on their last day, Evelyn kept pushing them to spend as much time as possible with their son, and even urged them to say goodbye to him multiple times. It was as though she had known, even at that point, that they would never see their son alive again.
  
  
•  Now that they had a positive ID from Martin, the police had no choice but to shift gears in their investigation, and to focus on the trio that Martin had identified. Police arrested two of the three men, Arnold Adoray, Evelyn’s boyfriend and a security guard named Alexander Dagami. The men were questioned by police, and when Margaret was asked about these men, she stated she didn’t know them, nor had she ever met them before. This of course was ludicrous, as the detective had photographic proof that Evelyn was seen with the group. Unfortunately, however, once the men were in custody, the police finally began to realize the scale of this crime, and were worried that Margaret, Alan, and Stevens’s two children were not safe in the Philippines, as they had not found all of the killers. The British Embassy was asked to intervene, and the family was forced back to England, as there was a legitimate concern that there would be retaliations against Margaret due to the arrest of the men. Unfortunately, however, baby Joshua was still with Evelyn when Margaret received the visit from the Embassy. At this point, a violent legal battle began, with Margaret trying desperately to save Joshua and bring him home to England, where his older sister was living safely. Unfortunately, this could not legally be done without his mother’s permission, so Margaret once more went on the warpath. After six weeks of tough negotiations, Margaret was eventually able to pay off Evelyn enough money that she allowed Joshua to live with his grandmother in England. When the workers from the Embassy came to collect Joshua, he had been severely abused by Evelyn and her family. He was suffering from sever malnutrition, and had several internal infections. When asked what had happened, they learned that Evelyn had tied her son to a tree to ensure he didn’t run away. Unfortunately, Evelyn went into hiding immediately after her son was taken, so police could not investigate her for the child abuse, nor for her part in Steven’s murder.
  
  
  [Pictured L-R: Evelyn, Steven, and Margaret Davis. Photo Credit: www.stevenalstondavis.co.uk]
  
  
• While all of this was going on within the family, the three men were formally charged with the murder of Steven Davis. Martin afraid for his life, had also gone into hiding, so there was a chance that he would be too afraid to testify as a witness, so now came a new issue. With no physical evidence to bring to trial, there was a good chance that the charges of murder would not stick. But finally, the third shooter, a man named Robin Butas, had been tracked down. He had been in hiding in the jungle, for months after the murder, and had only been found when, Margaret, once more, had stepped in and actually paid for the airfare so the police could afford to travel to his location, as they were not able to without her input. But it was well worth the investment, as Butas was ready to talk. And in exchange for a lesser sentence, Butas not only confessed and confirmed that the two men in custody were his cohort, but also, the theory that Margaret had been suggesting for all this time… Evelyn was the ringleader. According to Butas, who, by the way, was Evelyn’s brother in law, Evelyn was desperate, and needed help. She convinced the three men that, once her husband was dead, she would be extremely wealthy, and they could afford a better life, free from the binds of poverty. When the men agreed, Evelyn handed the key to the apartment to Butas. She even drove the men to the apartment herself, and sat downstairs, in her car and waited, when her husband was brutally murdered in the apartment above her. Finally, after over a year of investigating, and pursuing justice, Evelyn was found and arrested. In February of 2004, 18 months after the murder of Steven Davis, Alexander Dagami and Arnold Adoray, were found guilty at their murder trials, and were sentenced to 30 years in prison each. Butas was released and his charges were dropped, due to his confession. I don’t love that, but the justice system is different in other countries so that’s how they do things, I guess. Regardless, later that year, in November of 2004, Margaret was there, in court, when Evelyn Davis was found guilty of arranging the murder of her husband. In The Philippines, at the time, this was a capital offense, but, having seen enough death, Margaret told the court that she did not want to see Evelyn killed. The judge agreed with her, and instead of the death penalty, Evelyn was sentenced to 40 years in prison, with no chance of parole.
  
  
• As of recently, Margaret and her husband Alan have taken over custody of Steven’s children, and they are raising them as their own. Margaret has specifically said, when interviewed on why she took the investigation in her own hands, that she was doing, quote, “what any mother would do in the circumstances.” Because of her determination, her drive, and her good thinking, the people responsible for her son’s death were found, arrested, and will be spending most of their lives in prison, punished for a crime they committed due to greed. Margaret will never see her son again, this is true. But she can see his face in that of his children, who she saved from an abusive parent, hell bent on living life in her own selfish way. And if Margaret’s story of a mother’s determination teaches us anything, it’s that a parent’s love is stronger than any other force, and that one woman’s drive can truly change the world.

Sources for the Story Portion: 

• https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/personal-column-a-mothers-story-416320.html
• https://www.ranker.com/list/steven-davis-facts/laura-allan
• http://www.lifedaily.com/story/grieving-mothers-instinct-and-desire-for-revenge-finds-justice-for-her-son/