Snapped: Women Who Murder - Wendi Mae Davidson

Episode Date: May 7, 2023

When an airman from Lee, Maine vanishes only four months into his marriage to a country girl from West Texas, it triggers a multi-agency investigation that exposes a darker side to southern h...ospitality.Season 27 Episode 10Originally aired: May 10, 2020Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WatchSnappedPodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondries Podcast American Scandal. Our newest series looks at the story of OxyContin, a popular painkiller that helps spur an epidemic of addiction and drug abuse, in which prompted a broad campaign to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable. Listen to American Scandal on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Sparks fly when a new England airman meets a born in the saddle West Texas cowgirl. He was innately polite, very gentlemanly. She was raised on a branch, she was afraid to get down and dirty.
Starting point is 00:00:36 They were a match made in Honky Tongue, heaven. You'd like to go out, line dancing, two stepping. It was a flash romance. But all good things are destined to end. One way or another. I walked in and went to work. He just took off. We're the pressures of returning to war too much to bear. He was going to be redeployed back there.
Starting point is 00:01:01 I didn't notice he was drinking a lot. He said to me, very matter of fact, when I think something's up. Or had a well-traveled soldier fall in victim to a devious domestic enemy. Her parents didn't trust him. He was a Yankee. She biotani, she might.
Starting point is 00:01:20 The diapty members located something. There was this feeling of slow, dawning, dread. San Angelo, Texas is an isolated frontier town where folks are friendly and family always comes first. San Angelo is stereotypical for what the public thinks of Texas. Very conservative, extremelyimpy laid back. A town. It's out in the middle of nowhere, basically. A lot of the economy there is based on farming ranching. In January of 2005, San Angelo residents Mike Severance
Starting point is 00:02:20 and his new wife Wendy just had a child together. And we're planning a trip more than 2,000 miles northeast to Mike's hometown of Lee Maine. Mike was definitely excited to be a dad. He had spent so much time with Wendy's other son. So shortly after, their son was born. Mike and Wendy and their kids were supposed to fly to Maine to introduce Wendy and kids to Mike's family up here.
Starting point is 00:02:52 And we had a little wedding reception type thing planned for him. Everybody was excited and happy. We just waiting for the oldest boy because he had never seen snow. We had all kinds of things planned for him. But on January 16th, 2005, Mike's family receives a phone call from Texas that throws a wrench in their plans.
Starting point is 00:03:18 When he called Michael Faman, says, have you heard from Michael? What you get by me is disappears. Michael's missing, what do you mean Michael's family says, have you heard from Michael? What you get by me is disappears. Michael's missing. What do you mean Michael's missing? Well, that ain't like Michael. What the hell's going on? Michael wouldn't disappear.
Starting point is 00:03:34 He knew too many people down there. He would have called somebody. There was this feeling of slow, dawning, dread over everybody in Maine. dawning, tread over everybody in Maine. Michael Severance was born on July 20, 1980 in Lee, Maine, a rural northeast town less than 50 miles from the Canadian border. He was a little bit mischievous, non-bragged, but you never knew what he was going to do.
Starting point is 00:04:06 He was at times shy and awkward as a kid growing up, but if you put him on wheels or skis, he would adventure us in outgoing and all depending on the situation he was in, he could fit into almost any crowd. As Mike neared high school graduation, he began planning for his future. He told me that to dad, I'm going to drive truck.
Starting point is 00:04:38 Well, that's all well and good truck driving is a good career. And Mike said, Michael, you've never left Maine. You need to go out and see the world before you decide what you want to do. Dad convinced him, Mike, you can do that anytime you want. Dad was in the Air Force, so he kind of talked about the military, you see the world. If you don't like that, you can always get out
Starting point is 00:05:01 and do the truck driver's thing. Following his father's advice, Mike enlisted in the Air Force and quickly arose through the ranks. He was a crew chief on a C-130. There's a lot of pride in being a crew chief. That is, is your aircraft. They used to put your name right on the outside of that aircraft. Mike liked military because it was a purpose. New ones are respectable career and it gave him a lot of opportunities.
Starting point is 00:05:34 After multiple deployments overseas, staff Sergeant Michael Savrens received a new assignment, Dias Airbase in Western Texas. He was stationed in Heavily, and that's fairly close to St. Angelo, St. Antonio, and all that area there. The Lone Star State quickly won the Yankee over. Oh, my God, I absolutely love Texas. It seems like Michael really did it off and adapted to culture in West Texas. And St. Angelo is not an easy town for outsiders. You'd like to go out, line dancing, two step in.
Starting point is 00:06:14 You'd like to go racing, go to the races, go out to eat, just enjoy the nightlife. Michael learned how to dance, which totally blew me away, that that Texas two-step thing, and he figured out early on, listen, if you wanna get girls, we just go out and dance. In 2003, one pretty ranch girl caught Mike's eye, Wendy May Davidson.
Starting point is 00:06:43 Born on July 23rd, 1978, Wendy grew up in a very tight-knit San Angelo family, amidst the cattle ranches of West Texas. She was unafraid to get down and dirty with livestock if she needed to. She was raised on a branch. After high school,
Starting point is 00:07:03 Wendy channeled her passion for animals into her career aspirations. What Wendy wanted to do was become of it her whole life. Wendy was always involved with animals. From early age, her family had a lot of animals, you know, the typical ranch animals. Plus horses and goats and just all kinds of animals. She went to A&M,
Starting point is 00:07:30 which is maybe the best veterinary school in the nation. Though a dedicated student, Wendy wasn't afraid to cut loose every now and then. There was another side to Wendy, which is that once you got away from the pressures of her work in school, she could raise help, she could party, and she did. In her third year of vet school, Wendy's wild side led to an unexpected pregnancy. The father was not welcomed by the family, and the pregnancy could have really upended her plans to be a veterinarian.
Starting point is 00:08:10 Despite the odds against her, Wendy successfully completed vet school, while raising her young son alone. San Angelo's good area to be a veterinarian because you could work with all sizes of animals, whether it's horses or small household pets. As she balanced her career in motherhood, Wendy still left some room in her life for a little fun. She liked to go out and have a good time, you know, dance and have a couple beers.
Starting point is 00:08:40 And it was on a night out in 2003 that Wendy met the handsome Air Force sergeant Mike Severance. Mike started dancing with Wendy, spent the whole night kind of enjoying each other's company. Exchange numbers met up again another night at the same thing. It was the flash romance. It was, you know, boom, boom, boom, very fast. When Wendy introduced Mike to her parents, her family's deep Texas roots incited skepticism. There was some tension between Wendy's family members and Michael. Stereotypical classic clash of cultures.
Starting point is 00:09:21 He was remained and when they first got together, it was fine. But her parents didn't trust him. He was the main and when they first got together, it was fine. But her parents didn't trust him. He was a Yankee. And I think her parents, big fear was he was a military and they would not stay in San Angelo. When he's dead, it was a very sweet man. He did maintenance around buildings. When his mom was really nice too,
Starting point is 00:09:40 but she would pitch you in your place. They may not have liked Michael because of the culture or differs from where he was from and us being from Texas. This is a small town. It's not a little bit, but it is a smaller town. People tend to want their daughters and sons to marry people that are from Texas.
Starting point is 00:09:58 But the differences that made Wendy's family distrust the Northeasterner were what drew the couple together. In the case of Wendy and Mike opposite it's definitely attractive. She was outgoing almost fiercely outgoing. She had an element of mystery about him. He was quiet.
Starting point is 00:10:17 They did genuinely seem to get along with each other. Wendy was motivated. She was driven. I could see why Mike would be attracted to her on a personality level. She had that southern draw. And it draws a lot of the Yankees in. So she had that going for her.
Starting point is 00:10:37 Just a few months into their relationship, much to their excitement, Wendy became pregnant. Once the initial shock were off, I think Mike was definitely excited to be a dad. He really loved kids. In September 2004, Mike and Wendy tied the knot in a courthouse wedding, just a couple weeks after their son was born.
Starting point is 00:11:01 Wendy bought this veterinary clinic and they remodeled it and put in a an apartment actually right in Veteran Plank, so they lived right there. As they settled into their new life, Wendy and Mike made plans to introduce their new son to Mike's family, 2,000 miles north. Wendy and Michael were going to Maine for her to meet his family
Starting point is 00:11:32 and take the child, and they had plain tickets. I mean, we didn't get to see Mike very often, anyway, so it would have been a joyous occasion for him to come home. Instead of the joy of a family reunion, the Severance Clan now shares mounting anxiety about the news that Michael has gone missing. It just became the kind of nightmare.
Starting point is 00:11:56 It was like clouds filling the sky. Coming up, a special investigation team takes on the case. They're kind of like a mini CIA. They are really, really clever. They knew what it looked like when a guy wanted out, and Mike didn't have that. January 16, 2005. Just before a long anticipated trip to his hometown in Maine, 24-year-old Sergeant Mike Severance has reportedly disappeared from his residence in Texas.
Starting point is 00:12:42 His brand-new wife, 26-year-old Wendy Davidson, is in contact with Mike's family up north. The message that Wendy gave us, we're not coming up, Mike is gone, he just took off. I said, something ain't right here, Wendy. You've got to call the police. So, she called the police. San Angelo police ask Wendy to come to the station
Starting point is 00:13:07 for a formal interview. She tells them she last saw her husband the day before they were scheduled to leave for Maine. Sorry, morning. He always sleeps late in the morning. And when I left, I was going to get up and we were sitting on the couch and he was wearing his walk for shorts, and I left.
Starting point is 00:13:25 She remained calm. Wendy indicated that the last time she saw him was... he was in the clinic when she left at approximately 3 p.m. There was no indication at that time that there was anything unusual in his demeanor or what was going on with him. Wendy says when she came home around 8 p.m., Mike was gone.
Starting point is 00:13:47 I walked in and he liked you. I stayed up, and I just waited when I needed it. Wendy reported to the police department that he had left behind his vehicle and his cell phone, which was in the vehicle. I mean, it made no sense. It didn't take his billfold, it didn't take his phone, it didn't take his truck, but he disappeared.
Starting point is 00:14:06 Wendy says she initially thought Mike had taken off to blow off steam. She had two kids to take care of. He had to commute to his job, the Air Force. There was no telling when he was going to get sent overseas. I think there was a lot of bills that need to be paid. They definitely weren't rolling in the dough prior to all of this happening.
Starting point is 00:14:35 Wendy says once Mike failed to return, she began to suspect there was something more serious behind his absence. In the days leading up to their trip, he'd been hard to live with. He started like going to the liquor store to buy beer, which he never did. Even when I first was dating him,
Starting point is 00:14:55 he never drank at home. He went out. At first, Wendy couldn't understand what was driving Mike's bender. Even days he has to get up real early in the morning, go to work, and he was stepping right. I didn't know why he was doing that. Other than I knew he could have gone to Patrick's
Starting point is 00:15:12 here, and I thought it was a community. Wendy says she realized what was troubling Mike wasn't her at all. He had been serving him that war, Afghanistan war, and he was going to be redeployed back there. Wendy told the law enforcement that he wasn't happy with their force. She said, oh, he didn't want to be deployed. He kept saying he didn't want to be deployed. After speaking with Wendy,
Starting point is 00:15:41 San Angelo police reach out to the Texas Rangers for additional investigative assistance. I was contacted and met with several other investigators who were going to work on the investigation and figure out what had happened to Michael. I obtained his cell phone records. With those cell phone records, I identified that there were calls with another woman. Mike's phone records spark a new theory that could explain the odd behavior Wendy had described to police.
Starting point is 00:16:14 There were lots of theories concerning his disappearance. Maybe in a fair, there was a phone call to Michael's phone, with the trace to a woman, but they went to talk to her and she said, no, I was just hurting them to the Air Force friends that Michael was gone, and I just called the phone, and I was just trying to see what was going on. I don't believe he would. I think he had two children. He had too much going on to be messing around. I don't think he had time.
Starting point is 00:16:44 There was nothing that we identified that would indicate that he was having an affair. He had too much going on to be messing around all the good time. There was nothing that we identified that would indicate that he was having an affair, was involved with another woman at all. With an affair quickly ruled out, investigators faced two possibilities. You got to try and get into the mind of the person that's missing and figure out whether they went missing voluntarily, or if there's some foul play involved. On January 18, investigators search Mike and Wendy's residence and surrounding property.
Starting point is 00:17:18 They were looking for anything out of the ordinary, or any signs that would indicate what had happened to him. During the initial search, there wasn't anything that stood out to them as far as evidence. As the investigation slows, Mike's father Leslie reaches out to the Air Force for help. He is put into contact with special agent Greg McCormick. Air Force Office of Special Investigations, they're kind of like a mini CIA.
Starting point is 00:17:47 They are really, really clever. Greg McCormick talked to me, I said, yeah, my son's missing, something's wrong. Greg McCormick says to me, he says, hold on, I'll call you back in 50 minutes. McCormick spoke immediately to Mike Supervisors. And they told him he wouldn't have just taken off like this. They knew what it looked like when a guy wanted out,
Starting point is 00:18:10 and Mike didn't have that. Greg calls me back. He said to me, very matter of fact, I think something's off. Because Mike is technically still on schedule leave for five more days, Greg McCormick and Air Force OSI have to take a jurisdictional backseat until January 24th. He was on leave, so because of that, Air Force couldn't really do much because he want an AWOL. With OSI benched for a few more days, San Angelo detectives sit down with Wendy's vet assistant, Jamie Carrasco.
Starting point is 00:18:55 They start by asking Jamie about the relationship between Wendy and Mike. There was a section of the word and they never thought I mean, what do you think you might have to run off and get an impression? Well, he might have just got tired of having a deal with him and hearing her parents. He didn't want to be on either at all. Jamie says the couple had been bickering lately and it was usually about the same thing. Wendy's mom, Judy Davidson.
Starting point is 00:19:27 Anywhere you go, anybody that ever met my nobody hated it, except for the Davidson family. Coming up, could family tension have anything to do with Mike's disappearance? I don't know if it was mother-in-law syndrome or what it was. And the investigation reaches a new level. A whole apparatus, military apparatus worldwide, started coming into play here. Hey, listener, it is me, Jason Bateman. I want to tell you that we've struck podcast gold in our new episode with David Letterman available four weeks early on One Dree Plus. It's like a late night talk show hangout, but with a smart list twist. We are diving deep
Starting point is 00:20:23 into David Letterman's incredible career in the moments that shaped him into the beloved icon he is today. Our interview with David Letterman was reported live in Brooklyn in front of thousands of our biggest fans from our smart list tour. This is the fourth of 10 interviews with new episodes releasing every Thursday. We're talking with celebrities and icons like the great,
Starting point is 00:20:41 Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, Mark Cuban, Jimmy Campbell, so many more. Join us for an unforgettable conversation that will have you laughing pondering and quite possibly contemplating growing a beard like Letterman's. I know I have. You can listen to these episodes four weeks early and add free on Wundry Plus, find Wundry Plus in the Wundry app or on Apple podcasts. During their investigation into Mike Severance's January 2005 disappearance, detectives in San Angelo, Texas have uncovered tension in his relationship with his mother-in-law, Judy Davidson. Judy, go out of her way and tell you she didn't like Mike or did you just tell? Well, that's all working there. She's like, she looked back at me and I was like, do you like Mike? And she just, you know, she might not tell me she didn't like.
Starting point is 00:21:34 Judy Davidson wasn't just Mike's mother-in-law. She also ran the business side of Wendy's vet clinic. Wendy's mother worked as an office manager at the practice. She was there during business hours. I don't know if it was mother-in-law syndrome or what it was, but she just plain didn't like Michael. According to veteran area assistant Jamie Carasco, every day on the job at Mike and Wendy's combination home in vet practice was tense.
Starting point is 00:22:10 Judy, on the very beginning, told me that you don't not shoot in my chair for it. And it was weird to me to see something like the perfect guy, Scott. Jamie Carosco says there was a particularly hot flare-up between Wendy, Mike, and his in-laws just a few days before Mike vanished. Would you be telling me that, uh, my pick-up was maybe, and they didn't know where he was, and he went answer his phone, and then he found me answering the symptoms of an avalanche.
Starting point is 00:22:39 He was gonna take his son up to Abelene and show him off to his friends. He was just an infant. She became livid. Just absolutely livid. Don't you ever take that child without my permission? That kind of thing. When his family was very angry with Michael, then to find out that he just disappeared like that on her,
Starting point is 00:22:58 they were mad. When investigators summon Judy Davidson to the police department for questioning, she doesn't disguise her disapproval. I'm in life in the end. He's very, very rude, disrespectful. I mean, he would walk around my house and my house with his underwear on. In front of me, eat my food, never say. Thank you, wellhias, clothes.
Starting point is 00:23:25 I mean, you know, what do you expect from a person? Judy freely admits to being furious when Mike took his infant son to Abelene without warning. Me as he got a mental problem, does he? Well, I don't know, but that's, you don't take a baby with this leave. I don't care if it is you. I tell somebody. Despite her distaste from Mike, Judy insists she had nothing to do with his disappearance. I don't like him. I don't like him. I don't like him been walking, never did. Never will.
Starting point is 00:24:05 And I hope no varmts come to him. But if I never see him again, that's fine too. Detectives are taken aback by Judy's obvious distinct from Michael. But detectives have no evidence of anything more than that. As leads to indel, the case stalls after only a week. Pretty quickly, the local law enforcement, I think, just threw their hands up. They did know what happened.
Starting point is 00:24:41 Then, on January 24, Mike's official leave from the Air Force expires, which means the OSI can finally take the lead. OSI became involved because, in addition to Michael Severance being a missing person, he also didn't show up for work in the Air Force, and it made him a wall, and ultimately a deserter investigation for them. The Air Force doesn't take it mildly when one of their people leaves. It's a whole apparatus, military apparatus worldwide. Started coming into play here. For weeks, the OSI, along with local police, retrace every step of the previous investigation,
Starting point is 00:25:29 including another search of the couple's property on February 2nd. When they went to the clinic, they got her hard drive from her computer. Local police also informed the OSI that early in the investigation, Wendy offered a potential explanation for her husband's absence. Wendy told the law enforcement that he wasn't happy with their forks, and he didn't want to be deployed. If Mike did desert, OSI chief investigator Greg McCormick suspects his wife Wendy could be secretly assisting him. Greg would call me and talk with me.
Starting point is 00:26:08 And one of the things that Greg said to me was, if you were Wendy, where would you hide, Michael? So I told McCormack, I said, I would search at 1,000 acre ranch where Wendy keeps her horses. If Michael had left, and she was assisting him, and going AWOL, maybe he was out there at the ranch. Investigator McCormick is eager to locate the ranch. Since he's with OSI, McCormick has easy access
Starting point is 00:26:41 to invasive investigative techniques. They put trackers on when he's car and her parents' car, but they didn't know what happened. And they just tracked where she was going. Normally, that has to be ordered by a judge. And OSI has different rules being the Air Force. And they only had to have it okay by the supervisor to place the track you device.
Starting point is 00:27:08 After nearly two weeks of observation, Air Force Analyst notice Wendy has paid several visits to a sprawling livestock ranch just outside of town. The ranch that she traveled to, well, we've been best gave learned that that belonged to a friend of the family. By itself, it wasn't unusual for her to travel there, but during her travel to that ranch, there was an incident where she stopped briefly, near a pond, and then left.
Starting point is 00:27:40 With the ranch owner's permission on March 3rd, police converge on the precise location where OSI's trackers repeatedly placed Wendy. The investigators from the OSI searched out buildings there to see if perhaps Michael was staying out there at the ranch, and they weren't able to locate any sign that he had been out there. Though investigators come up dry, they refuse to give up.
Starting point is 00:28:05 Later that day, they received results from the search, conducted on the computer confiscated from Wendy's vet clinic a month ago. The investigators with OSI conducted a search of Wendy's computer. It took some time to get that information back once that search was completed. They found that Wendy had looked into how bodies decomposed in water. Coming up, family ties begin to crumble. I can't even trust my own brother. Why don't you let me test your phone?
Starting point is 00:28:47 And the search for answers takes police underwater. It was held together underwater with wire running to things like tire rims, concrete blocks. The most dangerous thing is the most dangerous thing. The most dangerous thing is the most dangerous thing. The most dangerous thing is
Starting point is 00:29:10 the most dangerous thing. The most dangerous thing is the most dangerous thing. The most dangerous thing is the most dangerous thing. The most dangerous thing is the most dangerous thing. The most dangerous thing is
Starting point is 00:29:18 the most dangerous thing. The most dangerous thing. The most dangerous thing. The most dangerous thing. The most dangerous thing. The most dangerous thing. The most dangerous thing. The most dangerous thing. The most dangerous thing. The most dangerous thing. The most dangerous thing. Investigators feel a little closer to cracking the case. They discovered on the hard drive on the computer after the teacher
Starting point is 00:29:29 not missing that she had research bodies decomposing water. And okay, that's a clue. On March 5, Ranger Palmer meets Wendy at her vet clinic and demands answers. He went back out and said, Wendy, why are you researching on the internet? Body's decomposing in water. She basically laughed and indicated that she expected to be asked because she had searched it when investigators are searching an area behind the clinic where there's a very small creek. And so her explanation was that if Michael was in that creek
Starting point is 00:30:10 and that little bit of water that was there, what would have happened to his body? Investigators have a very different idea about Wendy's suspicious online research, based on the precise coordinates from the OSI tracker placed on her car. When we've learned of the location where Wendy stopped at and that location being right next to it, Pond had that coupled with the Internet search
Starting point is 00:30:40 and reference to the decomposition of a body and water brought on great suspicion. But Ranger Palmer's conversation with Wendy's cut short. While I was interviewing Wendy at the clinic, she received a telephone call from somebody that had a emergency case with a cat that had been injured. And so she indicated that she would need to take care of that. Just before leaving, investigators issue a warning.
Starting point is 00:31:10 They specifically told her, don't go near the ranch. We're going out to search the ranch. Shortly after I departed, the clinic, I received a telephone call from an investigator that told me that Wendy Davidson had arrived at the gate and had attempted to enter the ranch. When she was prevented from entering the ranch, she departed that area.
Starting point is 00:31:34 Her reaction of quickly traveling out to that area was the first indication of any kind of sense of panic or distress on her part during this whole investigation. At 6.45, that same evening, a call comes in at the San Angelo Police Department. The police department received a telephone call from Wendy's brother. Wendy's brother.
Starting point is 00:32:05 Wendy's brother indicated that the investigator needed to come out to the Great Creek Cemetery. According to Wendy's brother, Wendy had gone to the cemetery after police caught her at the ranch. Wendy leaves the ranch and she called her brother and said, you need to get the family and you need to come to the cemetery. She met there with her brother and Lloyd and Judy, her parents, and essentially confessed to dumping the body. Police race to the cemetery. When investigators arrived at the cemetery, Wendy's brother made some statements to them that
Starting point is 00:32:51 they needed to search the pond. During the exchange between the investigators and Wendy and her family members, some comments were made to the effect that Wendy didn't kill Michael. She found him and but moved his body to the pond. The information is incriminating enough for police to take Wendy into custody. Investigators later on that evening attempted to interview Wendy Davidson.
Starting point is 00:33:23 She refused to be interviewed and requested an attorney. If you told us earlier you didn't want to say anything, was that? And I'll let you say anything. I know someone you won't speak too far or is from what? I don't know. See, my partner was supposed to be calling a lawyer. I can't even trust my own brother. One of them would have to answer. One of the things that I mentioned was that we kind of got to know from you, you know, why this all happened. But I'm not talking about you. I guess you forgot that part of the conversation.
Starting point is 00:34:00 I'm not talking about you. Following that, the evidence that we had up to this point was put forth in an affidavit for an arrest warrant for tampering with evidence. The next morning, investigators returned to the ranch to search for Mike's body in the stockpond. The dive team from the Texas Department of Public Safety arrived and initiated their dive search of the pond itself, which is a slow methodical process, so it was unclear at that time how long it would take to complete that. After three and a half hours of searching, police on shore receive a signal from the lead diver.
Starting point is 00:34:45 The dive team members had located something. The water is cloudy, muddy, murky, and so once they were able to get closer and they were able to identify that it was in fact a body that was located in the pond. It was held together and held underwater with wire running to things like tire rims, concrete blocks. Once the items were removed from the body, and the body was buoyant enough to come to the surface, we could see that it was a male, a white male. Though investigators will not be able to confirm the body's identity until autopsy,
Starting point is 00:35:30 they have little doubt they've just found Mike Severance. The body was cloned in a pair of boxers, which was significant because Wendy had described the last thing that she'd seen Michael wearing when she left the clinic was a pair of boxers. which was significant because Wendy had described the last thing that she'd seen Michael wearing when she left the clinic was a pair of boxers. Once out of the pond, investigators get a closer look at the body, which had been preserved
Starting point is 00:35:55 by the cold water. It had been nearly two months since Michael had been reported missing, but the body was in pristine condition. Yeah, I think it was like 44 stab wounds to his body. It was unfair at that time whether those were something that caused his death or if those were something that was done post mortem. caused his death or those are something that was done post mortem.
Starting point is 00:36:32 The following afternoon, the Lubbock County Medical Examiner confirms through fingerprints that the John Doe is Michael Severance. The ME also determines the dozens of stab wounds on Mike's body were inflicted after he died, with a specific purpose in mind. It was done post mortem to kind of help keep his body from floating in water. I wonder if it was post mortem, the initial emotion and shock. A toxicology analysis reveals Mike's actual cause of death. Michael was murdered with a combination of poisons that paralyzed him and stopped his heart.
Starting point is 00:37:11 Fennabarbitol, Pedabarbitol, and Fennatone. These are all horse-train blisters. It really didn't take us very long to put two and two together that Mike's wife is a veterinarian. Coming up, investigators work to pin down a killer. This was just a case of an explosion of pressures. And an accused killer speaks out. The biggest thing that people always ask,
Starting point is 00:37:43 like, you know, why did you kill your husband? A month after the body of Sergeant Michael Severance was recovered from a stockpond in Texas. A toxicology panel has revealed the presence of animal tranquilizers in his system. Part of that is that the body is a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, from a stock pond in Texas. A toxicology panel has revealed the presence of animal tranquilizers in his system.
Starting point is 00:38:09 Part of that evidence that was collected included the control substance logs that were kept for the clinic and in reference to the veterinary care that was given to animals. If we use anything, we have to write it in our log. The tectops did bring me the logs, and I had to go through an initial all of my entries in there for them.
Starting point is 00:38:30 And there was one or two of those that were windies in there. Upon their review of the logs, investigators noticed something off about Wendy's entries. We identified this animal by the name of Weezy, this dog. They had received rather large dose of the phenobarbital. Weezy was a very small dog, the amount of drugs that she said that she used on Weezy.
Starting point is 00:38:56 It didn't add up. When the owner of the animal was interviewed, she advised that she had taken the dog to be treated for seizures, and that the dog had been prescribed volume and had not been prescribed any form of phenobarbital. The discovery gives investigators a direct link between Wendy and the murder weapon. and the murder weapon.
Starting point is 00:39:30 The investigators believe that she put a sedative into his beer to hear her have beer mic. Rendered him unconscious. She's youth and I see. Very deliberately. He was actually drugged and then stabbed several times. And then waited down at car parts and dumped in a stockpile. As prosecutors move closer to an indictment, the question of why remains.
Starting point is 00:40:04 It was never really clear to us what caused that Wendy Davidson to murder Michael Severance. I was never able to establish a motive for the murder. I could establish a lot of facts, but going to Maine and hatred of a mother, I took her mother's deposition. She made no moans about she hated Michael. I think there's a little bit of gaining her mother's approval. Her mother hated Mike so much,
Starting point is 00:40:37 and I think there's more to the story that we don't know. After weighing the evidence, a grand jury upgrades the charge from Wendy's initial arrest. They returned indictments for Wendt Davidson for two charges of tampering with evidence and for the charge of murder. In the year leading up to Wendy's murder trial, both sides prepare for a drawn-out court battle.
Starting point is 00:41:07 But in October 2006, Wendy's defense blinks at the 11th hour. She had decided to plead no contest, and I understand by pleading no contest, you will be considered a convicted murderer? And when he says, yes, yes, I understand. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of Michael Severance. After nearly a decade and a half in prison, Wendy Davidson maintains she did not kill Mike. The biggest thing that people always ask are they just assume, I guess,
Starting point is 00:41:58 and of course they'll assume with this show, too. You know, why did you kill your husband? That's what people will say. Maybe people need to think outside the box and think, well, was he murdered? Was he really murdered? There's always a motive when it comes to murder. And the police, the authorities, they went through all that.
Starting point is 00:42:22 We were only married four months. We were happy. There was no problems. And if he was, could have somebody else murdered him? Instead of just always thinking, why did you murder him? When he says she has felt the repercussions of Mike's death. I've lost everything.
Starting point is 00:42:47 You know, obviously, I lost him. You know, I've lost my family. I've lost my kids. I've lost my freedom, you know, my career. So, you know, I was a girl that had everything and lost it all. I have a 25-year sentence, so I've done 13 years of that so far. My whole laugh is in somebody else's hands, you know, and I don't know who was hands my life is in. I just know that I have no control over at this point in time.
Starting point is 00:43:16 So, I guess my only goal is to get out of prison and, you know, from there, I guess we'll see what happens. Mike's gonna be remembered as a fun-loving, laid-back type of guy. I don't think we got to see the best of him. I think we really would've got to see the best of Mike as a father as a role model for his son. He's our hero. He's Staff Sergeant Michael Severance.
Starting point is 00:43:52 He survived Afghanistan, but the same evil got him at home in his own bed. Wendy Davidson became eligible for parole on April 15, 2019 at the age of 40. A parole board denied her first request for release in May 2019. There is no evidence connecting either of Wendy's parents to the crime. For more information on snapped, go to oxygen.com.

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