A Kansas City truck driver has been charged in the cold-case homicides of two women in the 1990s—and investigators believe there are more victims.
Retesting of DNA evidence from both crime scenes led police to Gary Dion Davis, 52, who has been charged with second-degree murder.
“These charges demonstrate justice is possible no matter how much time has elapsed,” Wyandotte District Attorney Attorney Mark Dupree said at a Wednesday press conference.
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The victims were identified as Christina King, who was 26 when she beaten to death and left behind an abandoned building in 1998, and Pearl Barnes, also known as Sameemah Musawwir, who was found inside a vacant home in 1996.
King’s daughter, April Parks, who was 10 when her mother was killed, joined a vigil to bring attention to the dormant case in 2021.
“Who did it? Why? How could they do that to such a young person? She was only 26. And like, her autopsy there were so many injuries and so many abrasions and bruises. I just don’t understand what she could have done that bad to deserve that,” Parks said at the time.
Barnes’ niece, Arvetta Davis, told Fox 4 the family is grateful that someone has been charged in the death of the mother of two.
“We’re all still trying to process it,” she said. “[She] has two children. They were very young when this happened, so we’ve been waiting a very long time for someone to be held accountable for what happened to their mother.”
The Kansas City Police Department said that investigators believe Davis “likely is tied to other unsolved female homicides in KCK and throughout the region.”
They did not provide the alleged motive.
It’s not clear if Davis has an attorney yet. His Facebook page is full of posts about his life as a trucker as well as complaints about women.
“I’m just gone ask, all the females half naked dancing or showing us how a toaster work, I’m trying to figure out, why they get mad when we show [dick] picks and tell you about our [dick]’s ain’t that the same thing y’all be doing, so why is it good for the [chicken emoji] but not for the [rooster emoji], since I gotta use this [bullshit] now,” read one post from last year.
Another, from earlier this month, read: “Ok this just on my mind, if the man drunk and high and the women drunk and high we fucking on each other, why is it, the man taking advantage of the women, but the women not taking advantage of the man, help me out here!”
