The Strange Case of Gabriel Davies: Missing teen found and arrested for murder of mother's ex-fiancé
THURSTON, WASHINGTON: A 16-year-old Washington high school football player who went missing under "suspicious circumstances" was arrested by the state police on suspicion of killing a 51-year-old man. Now it turned out, that the Orting man found dead inside his house on Thursday, September 1, 2022, was the ex-fiancé of the teenager’s mother.
As per the reports, investigators located Gabriel Davies on Thursday night, September 1, and booked him under the charges of second-degree murder, first-degree burglary, and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. The teen is currently in Pierce County Juvenile Detention Center along with another teenager, who is booked under the same charges.
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During the investigation, the deputies got to know that Davies and the dead man had a long-lost connection, Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Sgt Darren Moss said. Davies' mother and the dead man were a couple and the three had lived together for several years at the house where he was found dead, claims a report by the New Tribune. The man and Davies’ mother had filed multiple statements in support of each other. Property and court records obtained by The News Tribune linked Davies to the address.
Sheriff’s Department spokesperson revealed that the deputies found the remains of the 51-year-old man on Thursday morning, Sept 1, in response to a requested welfare check from his place of work. The deputies responded to the 21900 block of 190th Street E in Orting after the man, who has not been formally identified, did not report to work for four days. They found the man dead from an apparent gunshot wound. However, they didn’t discover any weapons at the crime scene. The victim had been dead for at least 24 hours prior to the discovery of his body on Thursday morning.
The PCSD said the evidence found at the crime scene directly linked the two teenagers to the man's death but did not specify what that evidence was. "Our detectives did a lot of work finding evidence at the scene as well as talking to other people and just developing good probable cause to find a connection between the suspects and the victim," Moss said. "Ultimately, they were able to get all the evidence they needed by Friday afternoon to make these arrests."
The severity of the situation is still shocking to many who live on the street. “Shocked, not expecting anything like that around here,” Sharon Kisinger, who is living on the street for 25 years said. Kisinger said the 51-year-old kept to himself, but sometimes she did hear him. “Mostly if he rode his motorcycle because he was the only one in the area on a motorcycle, and I didn’t have to look out to see it was a motorcycle,” Kisinger said.