The renters probably only wanted to enjoy the Florida sunshine and maybe some homemade salsa when they moved into a trailer on Seashore Drive in Palm Beach County. But when they dug into the backyard one day in 2013 to plant tomatoes, they found the skeleton of a murdered man—sparking an investigation that led this week to the arrest of the slain man's son.
Jason Henry Davis was there when his father, Henry Davis Jr., was strangled to death and buried behind their trailer in the Palm Breezes Club trailer park, but he didn't report the murder and began collecting his dead dad's pension and Social Security checks, according to a new federal indictment. The 37-year-old has always insisted his dad's ex-wife—his mom, who died of cancer in 2011—was the killer, a source told The Palm Beach Post. Prosecutors say in court papers that Davis "was present" when his father was murdered, but haven't revealed any other details about the murder.
Jason Davis pocketed almost $120,000 from his father's pension checks, which the old man had been drawing after retiring from his job with a housing authority in southern New Jersey. "Beginning in or about March 2008, however, there was a noticeable change in the 'Henry Davis' endorsement signature on these checks," the indictment reads, possibly pointing to when the son's alleged scam started.
Henry Davis retired in 2003 and moved into the Seashore Drive trailer with his ex-wife and his son in 2005, according to the indictment unsealed Wednesday in federal court in the Southern District of Florida. "The indictment alleges that Jason Davis was present when his father was murdered, as early as 2008, and failed to report his death to the authorities," prosecutors said in a press release. "Jason Davis then assumed his father's identity in order to collect approximately $1,500 in monthly Social Security and...pension retirement benefits."
"On or about April 18, 2013, the skeletal remains of Henry T. Davis, Jr. were found by renters," the indictment reads. "Although officials could not determine a date of death, examination of the remains confirmed that the death occurred many years before the discovery. The State of Florida Medical Examiner certified the manner of death as homicide, and the cause of death as strangulation."
Jason Davis pocketed his murdered father's benefits for several years, first by cashing checks made out to Henry T. Davis, Jr. and later, when the money was automatically deposited in his father's bank account, by making $500 ATM withdrawals—and once used the bank card in his dad's name to spend $202.14 at a comic book shop in West Palm Beach, according to the indictment. And the Social Security Administration kept sending benefit checks for about 18 months after Henry Davis Jr.'s body was discovered. "The defendant also failed to report his receipt of these funds to the Department of Agriculture in order to fraudulently obtain food assistance benefits," prosecutors said in their press release.
Robert Adler, a public defender representing Jason Davis, declined to comment. Davis will appear in court January 27 for a bond hearing. He faces up to 20 years in prison on the top count of wire fraud.
"I can't believe somebody would do that. He's a rotten, no-good you-know-what, to do something like that to his father," says retired Baltimore school bus driver Pauline Farrell, 92, who lives near where Henry Davis was buried. "It's terrible. I heard of that kind of thing—there was a case like that in Baltimore. The mom died and they put her in the attic." Other neighbors now call the doublewide where the Davis family lived "The Bone House," according to The Palm Beach Post.
Uncommon Knowledge
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