Woman killed 1 day after call to mother

Associated Press

CANTON, Ohio – A police officer killed his pregnant girlfriend in her home the day after her mother last heard from her, according to a sheriff’s complaint released Monday.

Concluding a search by thousands of volunteers, Jessie Davis’ body was found Saturday in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, still carrying her dead, nearly full-term fetus, a girl she planned to name Chloe.

Davis’ boyfriend, Canton Police Officer Bobby Cutts Jr., the father of her 2-year-old son, was charged with two counts of murder and due in court Monday. Davis’ relatives have said they believed the 30-year-old Cutts also was the father of her fetus. One of Cutts’ former high school classmates, Myisha Ferrell, was jailed for allegedly hindering the investigation. She also was due in court Monday.

The Stark County Sheriff’s Department, which is leading the investigation, said in an affidavit filed Sunday that Cutts is accused of killing Davis and the fetus June 14 at Davis’ home in nearby Lake Township. The document does not say how she was killed.

Ohio law allows a murder charge against someone accused of killing a fetus that would be able to live outside the womb.

Davis’ mother last spoke to her by phone a day earlier.

Davis, 26, of Lake Township near Canton, was reported missing after her mother found her grandson home alone, with bedroom furniture toppled and bleach spilled on the floor. The boy, Blake, gave investigators some of their first clues, saying: “Mommy was crying. Mommy broke the table. Mommy’s in rug.”

Messages left Monday for Davis’ family and Cutts’ attorney were not returned.

Davis’ body was found nine days after authorities believe she was killed. Determining the cause of death will take weeks because of advanced decomposition, the medical examiner’s office said Monday. The office will test the paternity of the fetus, and conduct toxicology and DNA tests and skeletal analyses.

Ferrell, 29, was arrested and jailed Sunday. She is accused of giving false statements to investigators, according to an inmate biography form. A message seeking comment was left Monday for the public defender’s office, which was appointed to Ferrell’s case.

Also Monday, Davis’ father, Ned Davis, thanked the volunteers who helped search and said he was overwhelmed with grief.

“It’s been, at best, it’s been very, very difficult,” Davis said on NBC’s “Today” show. “I don’t believe I can really quantify what our family’s feeling.”

“The loss of Jessie has been overwhelming. There are no words,” he said.

Sheriff’s deputies and FBI agents with a search warrant broke down the door of Ferrell’s apartment Saturday night, agent Scott Wilson said. She was not home during the search.

Justin Lindstrom, 27, an upstairs neighbor, said officers spent two hours searching the woman’s apartment Saturday night before leaving with several full, brown paper bags and bottles of bleach from the basement. Authorities would not describe what the deputies seized.

Ferrell worked at a Denny’s restaurant until quitting Friday, Lindstrom said. A manager at Denny’s confirmed that Ferrell had worked there as a dishwasher.

Cutts also has a 9-year-old daughter with another woman, Nikki Giavasis, who now lives in Los Angeles. The two lived together for a while, but when she began seeing another man in 1998, Cutts was accused of breaking into her home while she was inside with former NBA player Shawn Kemp of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Cutts pleaded no contest to a disorderly conduct charge and was sentenced to three years’ probation. Giavasis told police she feared for her safety. The pair are involved in a custody dispute.

Giavasis told The Associated Press they were together about four months, and confrontations began after she broke off their relationship. Giavasis said the two had several physical confrontations.

Over the weekend, people placed flowers and red and yellow ribbons just below a sign identifying Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Just down the road from where the expectant mother’s body was found, someone posted a sign saying, “God bless you Jessie and Chloe, forever in our hearts.”

Davis’ body was found in an area with a dirt road, a small dirt parking area and a couple of benches overlooking a grassy field.

“Somebody found her and for that, I’m very appreciative,” her father said.