Case Files: The Murder Of Brian Davis

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - It was the early morning hours of September 24, 2006. Betty Davis says she woke up out of deep sleep.

The feeling was very uneasy. “About 2 a.m., was laying there and all at once, I just felt really funny, like I could feel like something had happened to him.”

Betty is referring to her 29-year-old son Brian Davis. He was the joy of her life, and she says she has always had a close connection to her son.

Brian was getting ready to go back to the University of Toledo to finish his bachelor’s degree in Finance. He’d taken time off school to work at the Ford Stamping Plant in Maumee until it closed. As far as Betty and her husband knew, Brian was with a friend of his, Lloyd Henderson.

As Betty awoke the next morning that uneasy feeling grew. “I kept thinking something has happened to my child because he hasn’t called me, he hasn’t called.”

By 2 in the afternoon, Betty had called around to every friend she knew looking for Brian. That’s when the doorbell rang.

“I walked up there and I knew what it was automatically,” she said. “I had that feeling.”

Betty and her husband were informed by police that Brian and his friend Lloyd had been found murdered. Both had been shot to death and their bodies were found in the back of Brian’s car parked in the 300 block of Lake Street in North Toledo.

“A neighbor noticed a car as they were walking by and called police,” says Jay Gast, the cold case investigator for the Lucas County Prosecutor’s office. Gast says investigators at the scene of the shooting say it may have been more than one person because both men were of good size and healthy guys. “Whoever it was obviously got the drop on them....came up and surprised them.”

And no witnesses have come forward. The case has been cold almost from the start. Brian’s mother says it has made little sense to them.

“We were so shocked,” she said. “Everyone only had good things to say about Brian.”

Betty says she feels Brian was in the wrong place at the wrong time and it cost him his life. She says someone out there knows what happened 15 years ago.

“There are many individuals that know what happened, but no one will come forward and that is my biggest plea. Please come forward, please come forward,” she said. “Give us some closure.”

If you have any information about the murder of Brian Davis and Lloyd Henderson, you can call Crime Stoppers at 419-255-1111 or the 13ABC I-Team 419-534-3838 and leave a tip. Both you can do anonymously.

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