Going West: True Crime - Diana Davis // 320

Episode Date: July 7, 2023

In July of 2020, a Washington woman went missing after leaving her community garden. The next day, her car was found in downtown Tacoma on fire, and days after that, her body was discovered outside of Seattle. Police initially zeroed in on her boyfriend and ex-boyfriend until they discovered that she’d been going on dates with men from dating apps. This is the story of Diana Davis. BONUS EPISODES Apple Subscriptions: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/going-west-true-crime/id1448151398 Patreon: patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES 1. GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/raising-money-for-my-mother039s-funeral-cost?utm_source=customer-andr&amp%3Butm_campaign=p_cp%20share-sheet&amp%3Butm_medium=sms&amp%3Bfbclid=IwAR2eAPF4Kcnqw3g881-Pv_XELCDJ0HxX8aZtXlp54vLEldr2MiIlPkctjdk&fbclid=IwAR0AWx1fXG86d156peC18yo0H_dMsyPAVHtrRLr7jqSfCltCGUOB0OsbZOQ 2. Fox 13: https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/diana-davis-tacoma-detectives-investigate-theory-partial-evidence-male-suspect-unsolved-2020-murder 3. MyNorthwest: https://mynorthwest.com/3616361/new-details-emerge-2020-murder-tacoma-woman-found-dead-near-mountain-pass/ 4. Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/12e1ad4/update_missing_womans_son_also_reportedly_attacked/ 5. Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/us/seattle-woman-vanishes-mariners-game-son-attacked-stranger 6. Diana's Obituary: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/spokesman/name/diana-davis-obituary?id=13739502 7. Investigation Dicovery: https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/crimefeed/id-shows/on-tv0/in-pursuit-with-john-walsh/articles/mystery-surrounds-murder-of-tacoma-woman-last-seen-driving-to-he 8. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/122993069842/posts/who-murdered-diana-davis-and-left-her-body-near-snoqualmie-pass-her-car-was-foun/10157990670359843/ 9. GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/justice-for-leticia-martinezcosman-disappearance 10. KOMO News: https://komonews.com/news/local/man-arrested-in-missing-seattle-woman-case-leticia-martinez-cosman-brett-gitchel-charged-police-mariners-kidnapping-abduction-attempted-homicide-assault-theft-crime-criminal-911-investigation-mariners-game 11. KIRO 7: https://www.kiro7.com/news/south-sound-news/new-details-emerge-2020-murder-tacoma-woman-found-dead-near-mountain-pass/43T23WF5ZJH3ZGI5V6AUH2R74E/ 12. Unsolved Mysteries: https://unsolved.com/podcasts/flirting-with-death/ 13. TP Crimestoppers: http://www.tpcrimestoppers.com/case.php?id=1636 14. Justice for Native Women: http://www.justicefornativewomen.com/2021/12/diana-davis-unsolved-washington-murder.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on to crime fans? I'm your host Tee. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody! Today's case was recommended by Tina, so thank you so much to Tina. This is quite a perplexing case out of the Pacific Northwest, and I haven't seen anybody really talking about this one at all, so hopefully we can all get a bunch of new eyes and ears on this story.

Yeah, this is actually a more of a recent case. This happened just a couple years ago in 2020. That's why it's so important to share this story. And if you wanna see photos from this case and all the other cases that we've covered, head on over to our socials. We're on Instagram, at Going West Podcast, Twitter, at Going West Pod, and we're also on Facebook.

We should probably get on threads, right? Yeah, I'm thinking we need to start a thread as well. He then I just joined today. A lot of you guys probably joined as well. So we might be making the move over or at least just joining threads as well to start posting there too and see how how that new app develops. Yeah, absolutely. Well, let's not waste any more time, guys. This is episode 320 of Going West. So let's get into it. Music In July of 2020, a 50-year-old Washington woman went missing after leaving her community garden.

Within days of her disappearance, her car was found in downtown Tacoma on fire, and days after that, her body was discovered outside of Seattle in a remote forested area. Police initially zeroed in on her boyfriend and ex-boyfriend until they discovered that she had been going on dates with men from dating apps. But was one of them responsible for her gruesome and untimely murder? This is the story of Diana Davis was born in Korea on June 25th, 1970 to parent Sylvester Davis and Quixue, and she also had three siblings, Junior, Cynthia, and Judith. Diana spent the first short bit of her life in Korea,

but while she was still young, her family relocated to Spokane, Washington, and she remained in Washington for the rest of her life. But, you know, after she grew up, she did move to Western Washington from Eastern Washington, which again is Spokane. So after graduating high school, Diana went on to attend Shoreline Community College and Green River Community College, both of which are in Washington and they're more in Western Washington as well. So growing up, Diana had a clear passion for helping others

and this led her to a career as an in-home caregiver and certified nursing assistant. According to her obituary quote, Diana was a free spirited, spunky person whose positive personality lifted those around her. And her son, Chris, called her quote, a beautiful soul. Her two kids and three grandchildren meant the world to her, and she spent as much time around them

as possible. But when she wasn't with family, Diane really liked to exercise her green thumb, and she belonged to a local community garden where she grew vegetables. She relished the time she spent in the sun and tending to her plants, but she also loved to take her family out for dinner, especially to sushi or fa. Diana reportedly spent the years splitting her time between Tacoma and Auburn, Washington, which are both out side of Seattle and just around 20 minutes from each other. So for the most part, she spent her time alone, living on her own since her children moved

out, and friends and family were called that she lived a quiet life. A woman named Monica Joseph had been Diana's best friends since they were 13 years old, so these are like practically life-long friends, and they talked about and told each other everything. Monica remembered that Diana had been lonely the last few years, and that she dreamed of having someone to share the rest of her life with. Diana very openly told Monica about her dating experiences and misadventures, but she hadundated anybody seriously in the past few years, though she was excited at the prospect of companionship in general,

like she did want to be with somebody. And since the end of her last relationship, which we are going to talk a little bit about later, Diana had been going on on dates pretty regularly, sometimes going on to per week, but none of them were really flourishing into any real relationships it was just kind of dating around and seeing if she could meet somebody that she connected with. And Monica recalls her ideal type as somebody who was ambitious, successful, and gregarious who could kind of match her energy.

When the spring of 2020 brought the pandemic, Diana was incredibly cautious, especially because she worked in a healthcare industry around very vulnerable patients. So she was extremely careful, especially in the early days, and she became a bit of a homebody, like a lot of us did. And not only was she cognizant of spreading COVID, but she was also fearful of getting sick herself. Though Diana had frequented the dating apps pre-pandemic,

she scaled back on dates completely. And on her usage on the dating apps pre pandemic, she scaled back on dates completely and on her usage on the dating apps in general in the wake of COVID because obviously you know a lot of people were not meeting each other during this time. Yeah this was like the the age of like FaceTime dates. Yes it was. I like Zoom dates. Yeah but Monica remembers that Diana was still yearning for a partner as her loneliness was really heightened by lockdown. A month or two into the pandemic, Diana met someone on a dating app who was in a tourney, and by Monica's recollection, was very forceful and persuasive with Diana.

Now this man who has never been named publicly was very taken with her, and wanted to spend as much time with her as possible, which Diana was initially hesitant about. But she set her fears of the pandemic aside to grant him a date. So after spending time together, things were progressing well between them and Diana even told Monica that she was ready to focus her attention on him alone and that she wanted to work to build their relationship, hoping that it would become something serious. On Monday, July 27, 2020, Diana spent the morning in Auburn working. She then checked in with her boyfriend, stopping by and dropping off a plant at his house,

before heading to the community garden in the Proctor District of Tacoma to check on her plants. Her son, Chris, last spoke to Diana, she was on her way there. And when she arrived, she tended to her plants and sent her boyfriend a picture of a tomato that she had grown, asking if maybe he wanted to have it for dinner that night. I love that. Yeah, sounds really nice. He responded that he did, and she said that she would bring some over. So while there, Diana was spotted by a witness

who confirmed that she had been there for a while that afternoon. Diana was supposed to meet her boyfriend for dinner back at his house that night, but he never heard from her again. Right, so that's kind of weird. Like, she sent him a picture of a tomato saying, should we make this for dinner tonight?

And then... Then just nothing. Radio silence. And he even said yes. So it's like then why didn't she show up? So that's immediately alarming. Video surveillance surface from near the community garden and this show Diana driving her car in the opposite direction,

so not towards her boyfriend's house. She appeared to be alone, and then she stopped by a local Ace Hardware store to look at more equipment for her garden, spending almost an hour inside, arriving at 5pm and leaving around 5.50pm. An employee remembered her, confirming that Diana had spent a significant amount of time wandering around inside. The employee also remembered that she seemed to be walking around kind of aimlessly, almost as if she were killing time waiting for somebody perhaps, and then she left without buying anything.

So, it kind of makes you wonder if she went here to possibly kill time or if she went there looking for something and just didn't find what she needed. But that is a pretty significant time to spend in the store and not buy anything. So from there, Diana got in her car again alone and drove south to the entrance of the freeway and then drove north towards Seattle on I-5. She drove just south of the heart of downtown Seattle where the stadium Lumen field is located and at 7.46 pm, her phone pinged for the last time in this downtown Seattle area. And shortly after that, her phone was turned off. And something I want to mention is that the area that she

was in, you know, in Tacoma, going to Ace Hardware, to, you know, downtown Seattle is like 45 minutes, maybe a little more with traffic. And this is two hours later. So we're not exactly sure because there's a lot of information that has not been released by police. We're not exactly sure where she was when her phone last pinged just that it was in Seattle or in this area of Seattle, but it's possible that, you know, she had been there for like an hour at that time, you know, it's kind of unknown. Yeah, and it seems like all we really have is just this surveillance footage that captured like where she was in Ace Hardware, and then also just the last ping of her cell phone.

But other than that, we don't really know between like 5.50pm to 7.46 pm, where she was or what she was doing if she was just like you said stuck in traffic or? Yeah, so that's why it's hard because was she in Seattle for an hour before her phone turned off or did her phone turn off right when she got to Seattle, this information has not been released,

but it would be helpful. In my opinion, I would imagine that she would have been in Seattle for at least a little bit before her phone turned off, like if she had met somebody in Seattle and then something happened after that, that makes a little bit more sense to me. But again, we don't know. So the following day, neither her boyfriend nor her friends and family heard from Diana,

which they found odd and just incredibly out of character. Her family claimed that she would sometimes turn her phone off instead of just silencing it when, you know, she was with somebody, or if she was handling something very pressing at work, in order to be fully present. But Monica Joseph remembers that as soon as Diana got back on her phone again, she would respond to everybody promptly, saying, quote, she wouldn't just ignore her kids and not answer them. 50-year-old Diana Davis was very reliable and punctual, and she would answer texts and calls promptly, especially from Chris and Christina.

But it wasn't until the following day, which was July 29, 2020, when police found Diana's car. And that's when they started to panic. Around 11pm in an alley in downtown Tacoma, Diana's silver 2013 Chevrolet Impala was discovered, but it was engulfed in flames. Police determined that the fire had originated in the backseat or possibly the trunk, and the license plates had been ripped off, so obviously this was all a terrifying sign and basically made it look like somebody had tried to cover the scene up.

The car was quickly linked back to Diana by the vehicle identification number, and her family was informed of the discovery. But right before her car was found, the Auburn Police Department had just paid Diana's home a visit that day on a welfare check requested by her family. So obviously very shocked and horrified by this news of her burning car, her son Chris remembered, quote, you don't ever expect to hear something like that. Police acted quickly in an attempt to retrace her steps and find out exactly what happened to this beloved mother and woman.

Around this time Diana's boyfriend had reached out to her family to let them know that he hadn't seen her in about 48 hours. But now, their fears of foul play were becoming hard to ignore. Police poured over Diana's online presence, looking for anything suspicious. She had profiles on a few dating apps, including match.com, where she had met her boyfriend, actually. But Diana hadn't been active on match since, you know, she and her boyfriend started seeing each other, which was just about the month prior.

According to Monica, Diana was being so COVID cautious at the time of her disappearance that she likely would not have put herself in the situation where she was around large groups of people, so it seemed obvious that she wasn't out meeting other people, especially since she seemed serious about the man that she was currently seeing. So without any leads at this time, a week passed with no news or any developments. Then on August 5, 2020, the King County Sheriff's Office called from Snow Qualmie Pass, saying that they recovered human remains near an exit ramp, about 25 yards into the woods. So what happened was a woman was going out for a hike with her dog and she had her car parked nearby and let her dog out before getting its leash on. And when she did this, the dog made a bee line for what would

come to be known as Diana's remains. I think it's so interesting that we see so many stories like this where a dog is the one to alert a human being to remains. Like it's like they just know where to go. They just, they, and they truly do make a bee line. Like, it's like they just know where to go. And they truly do make a beeline. Like we've talked about this so many times. Yeah, love dogs. And what an amazing discovery, especially because this was only a week later. So that's really not a lot of time. Because as we know, obviously as more time passes, the less likely that you're going to be

able to uncover a cause of death, or even possibly a manor of death, obviously. No, sorry, not to get you out,, but yeah also DNA evidence goes away as well. Exactly, and then it's harder to identify the remains. So luckily this was found relatively, or her remains were found relatively quickly. But yeah, amazing that this woman just happened to take her dog in this area and let her dog off the leash right away for it to come upon Diana's romance. Like really an incredible situation. So in the brush alongside the road was Diana's partially

buried body because her upper half was exposed but her legs were covered in dirt. And the hole that she had been buried in was only six inches deep. So this was like a pretty poor job of concealment. Yeah, it seems like this person who ever had dumped her body there was just really trying to get it done very fast very quickly and just did not take the time. Maybe they got spooked by another car driving by or something like that, but they did a half-ass job trying to bury Diana's body. Yeah, I would agree. And also, we're going to touch on this a bit later,

Diana's body. Yeah, I would agree. And also, we're gonna touch on this a bit later, but this was kind of a more Desolate like remote area that wasn't super popular for hiking. Obviously people did hike there IE this woman in her dog, but this wasn't a popular area where a bunch of people would frequent it So I wonder if the person who buried her there kind of thought that she would not be found because of the location, but obviously it happened pretty quickly. So police surmised that it was Diana's remains based on very distinct tattoos that she had, but the amount of decomposition that she had and the damage done to her made it pretty difficult and it took about a week for the medical examiner to confirm that the remains belonged to Diana. In the words of the lead detective in her case, Jack Nasworthy, quote,

�Because of the condition of her remains, there was decomposition, and there was some animal activity, we had to send her remains to a forensics anthropologist who did determine that the cause of death was multiple blunt force injuries to the head. Now based on the level of decay, officials believe that she had been discarded within hours of her disappearance and had been concealed for the week before her discovery. Diana's cause of death was gruesome. She had multiple blunt force injuries to her face, believed to be caused by a hammer.

So obviously this was shockingly violent and just seemed like a very personal murder. So just kind of tracking back for a second, we know that her last location, her last known location, or at least of her phone, was in Seattle at 7.46 pm that night. So whatever happened to her that night, again, very quickly, she was brought out to this location and buried. Yeah, and the distance between where her phone last pinging in Seattle and Snoqualmie pass was about an hour. Yeah, well, post a map if you guys want to have a little bit of a visual because snow qualmi pass is about an hour east in a very heavily forced in more

remote area very much outside of the city so somebody specifically had driven her out there and then it makes you wonder if they had taken her out there in her own car and maybe that's why they burned her car to try to hide any evidence maybe that they had left behind or of her possibly being in the trunk, which is where the fire started. That's a good thought. And it makes sense.

If they had been in the car, they would want to get rid of any sort of DNA that would be left from them in her car. Absolutely. So the medical examiner also believes that a sexual assault occurred before Diana's death. And her burial site was left without much evidence, but the medical examiner was able to glean male DNA from beneath her fingernails.

Now unfortunately, it was not enough to enter into the combined index data system, or Codis, as many of us know it by, but it was enough for a one-on-one comparison if they could obtain DNA from the guilty party. So this is great that at least they can compare this DNA. If they do have somebody that they think is a potential suspect, they can collect their DNA and try it against what they have. But unfortunately, if this person already is a criminal, they can't enter it into quotas to uncover if this person's DNA is already in the system

or if it will one day appear there. Right, right. So kind of unfortunate, but the little bit that they do have... Better than nothing. Better than nothing, yes. So Diana's friends and family were in utter shock by this developing news.

Monica lamented, quote, who could have done this? Who could have done this and why? I couldn't believe it at first. I was like, no, there's gotta be an explanation. She didn't have an evil bone in her body. Diana's boyfriend was questioned, of course, and was cooperative with detectives. However, he did reveal information that her family didn't know. The two of them had had a fight the night before Diana disappeared. Now obviously, this put a huge target on this guy's back, although he was actually one of the first people to raise suspicions of her being missing in the first place, so

please consider that alongside of his cooperation. Now according to her boyfriend, Diana brought up the possibility of marriage, and she just mentioned you know being ready to take the next step with him. He apparently then admitted to her that he wasn't even ready to be exclusive yet, yet alone get married, which came as a shock to Diana. Now, remember, they've been dating for about a month, so this kind of reaction does make sense, but I think to her, she's like, you know, I'm 50 years old, I just want to settle down with somebody again, I want a companion, and, you know, we're really hitting it off, so why not kind of go down that route?

Sure. So he told her that he wanted to keep seeing her, but that he would keep his options open, and that she would keep seeing other men as well. He claimed that the discussion was calm and amicable, but he was investigated as a person of interest. Many officers knew of her boyfriend already because he actually worked as a criminal defense attorney, and interestingly enough, he worked on a number of homicide cases in the area. According to police, he again was cooperative and happily came in to give his statement. He provided alibis from people who are within the day of Diana's disappearance and the

two following days as well. He even had grocery store receipts from trips that he made the very evening that she went missing confirming his location. Police obtained a warrant for his cell phone records on which they found nothing out of the ordinary, nor anything that could point to him being near the location of Diana or her remains. He also took a polygraph exam voluntarily, and he did pass, and police even compared his DNA with that of the DNA that was found underneath Diana's fingernails, and it was not a match. So with that, he was officially eliminated as a suspect.

Yeah, I think that DNA comparison again, amazing that they have that, he was officially eliminated as a suspect. Yeah, I think that DNA comparison, again, amazing that they have that because that's pretty conclusive that he is not behind this. Obviously, maybe you could say that he didn't work alone and somebody helped him and their DNA got under her fingernails instead of his, but it just doesn't seem like he's behind this. I think at this point with all the information

that police have, they have receipts, they've got alibis and witnesses, and they also tested this DNA. I think they're pretty on par with being able to officially eliminate them. Absolutely. Investigators attempted to build a profile of Diana's murder or to really zero in on anybody in her life who may have been capable of such a crime. They believed the person knew that Diana was from Tacoma and dropped the car as a red herring to deter police from broadening their search.

Her killer would likely have known Tacoma well as the car was found in a remote alley devoid of people, businesses, and security camera footage. And I do think that that is an interesting point of this as well that her car was found in Tacoma even though she was last seen in Seattle. So are they trying to cover up the fact that she would have been in Seattle? You know, obviously, maybe they didn't consider that her phone would have pinged there, but, or maybe they wanted police to believe that she returned to Tacoma on her own. And also, we have to consider the fact that Tacoma is the opposite direction of where

her remains were found. Right. And also the opposite direction of where her phone last pinged. So it does appear that somebody was trying to kind of throw police off here. Exactly. And because of this, it seems likely that Diana knew the person

who did this to her, even if it had only been for the evening. Her family isn't sure why she was in Seattle at all saying that she didn't go into the city much and just for those who aren't familiar with the area. Tacoma is a city of over 200,000 people and it also sits on the Puget Sound just like Seattle, though like we've said a bunch of times by now, it's about 45 minutes from Seattle which hosts over 700,000 people. So Tacoma is pretty much big enough to have everything that she needs, and she typically stayed in the general area.

Which beg the question, why did she drive up to Seattle that evening, especially after she had texted her boyfriend asking if he wanted a tomato as part of their dinner that was supposed to be that night. Now Monica believes that she may have run into the wrong person that night and that someone then took her phone and her car. She remembered, quote, I tried to call her when I found out that no one had heard from her, but nothing. And so my mind's racing running a thousand miles per minute, trying to figure out where

she's at, why she's missing, why has no one heard from her as she heard. When I found out her car was torched, I'm thinking like, something bad happened to her. Diana's friends tipped off police about one ex-boyfriend of hers, who, like her current boyfriend, also had not been addressed by name in the press. And her family and friends believed that he had the propensity to be involved in the case. Though they had broken up years prior, he was remembered for his obsession with her after their breakup. Jellis and resentful, he had stalked her for months after they were together, much

too Diana's distress. Monica remembered that he called her incessantly during this time, would drive by her house to keep tabs on her location, and would even stop by her house unannounced. I mean, yeah, red flags are going up all over the fucking place here. Yeah, and even before her car was found, Diana's family suspected him of being involved in what happened to her, like it just seemed like something that he would be capable of. On the second day she was missing, so hours before her car was found to flame, Diana's brother and his wife even stopped by her ex-boyfriend's house, which happened to be close

to the community garden that she had visited on the day she went missing. Diana's brother and sister-in-law were called that he spotted them outside from his window and initially refused to answer the door, which is really weird, like why would he do that? Why not open the door? We know each other, just open the door. Yeah, so are you trying to hide something? So when he finally did open the door, he claimed that he had not seen Diana in two months. And then later that day day her car was found. After the grim discovery of Diana's car engulfed in flames, police circled back to her

ex-boyfriend and ask if he would come in for an interview. According to the responding officer, he refused to come into the station and slam the door in their faces. That doesn't look good, buddy. No, it doesn't. So they tried another approach and asked his neighbors for surveillance footage, watching him for the days surrounding Diana's disappearance. But he rarely left the house, and they did not believe his activities were consistent with the activities of someone carrying out a murder, or a concealment of a body. The killer seemed to be very thoughtful in his disposal of Diana's body in car.

Detectives believed that the killer was an outdoorsy person, and that he was comfortable enough in the woods to have found a secluded spot on snow qualmi pass where Diana was recovered. So they believed that he had likely been there before. Oh, and something I want to bring up really quickly. So obviously we had said that her phone last thing didn't see at all as we know by now. And then her remains were found in snow qualmi pass, but then her car was found in Tacoma. So then you have to think that if her car was found in Tacoma we can assume that somebody you know did something to her maybe incapacitated her or killed her even in Seattle drove her out to Snoqualmie past then drove back over to Tacoma where they

lit her car on fire and then abandoned the scene But then we have to realize that this person then would have needed a ride back to wherever they came from, i.e. Seattle, right? So then that makes you wonder if not necessarily that two people are involved. I don't really think that. But then it just makes you wonder how this person got back. Did he have blood on him? Like, what's up with that kind of situation, you know? Right. Yeah. And it's possible. I mean, there's so many different scenarios. It's possible that he was actually from Tacoma and maybe he had, you know, told Diana that he was going to meet her in Seattle or something like that, maybe had taken

the bus or possibly an Uber. Right. And, you know dropped her car into coma, and maybe he's from Tacoma. Who knows? Or maybe he's from Seattle, I don't really know. But yeah, I mean, it's kind of hard to pinpoint exactly where this person was from. I know. I know. But it could be an interesting piece if they do find, obviously, we're still talking about potential suspects and persons of interest,

but just in general, that could be something like if it did come up on somebody's Uber receipts that they took an Uber that night from Tacoma, Octasiano, you know what I mean? That kind of thing, hopefully that can come into play here to help solve this case. Absolutely. I think it's a good start and a good thought to believe that this person probably had some knowledge of snow qualmi past had been there before because we do see that in a lot of cases where killers will dump the remains in places that they know well that are remote areas, but that they personally know. Right. And I mean, again,

her body was found about 25 yards off the road in Nacwalmi Paso it just makes you wonder were they just driving out into the wilderness and trying to find a good spot or did they know the area like really there's so many angles of every piece of this but anyway let's get back to the story so Monica claimed that Diana knew her worth, indeed mostly successful entrepreneurial men, previously seeing an attorney and also a pilot. And because of her standards, police feel confident that her killer was a successful businessmen of sorts.

He would have had to be alluring enough to Diana to convince her to forego her COVID cautiousness to meet up with him that evening, if her killer was someone that she was trying to meet up with. Many theories have emerged as to who this person could possibly be, and while it didn't appear that she was being followed, it's possible that someone trailed Diana after the hardware store. See, like this totally makes sense, but then why was she in Seattle and why did it seem like she was, you know, kind of killing time at the hardware store? It's like there's just so many questions. And what a person follow her from the hardware store all the way up to Seattle to then abduct her or was she abducted into coma. It's just a it's a mess. It's a mess really.

So one comment left by a local on an article detailing Diana's death claimed to know someone from her community garden and that they had heard through this source that a man who was not her boyfriend or ex-boyfriend had been pressuring her to date him when Diana didn't want to. But because she was dating online, it seemed most likely that she had met someone on one of those apps that she was using, potentially as a way to get her mind off of the fresh rejection that she had faced the prior evening. You know, after her boyfriend had basically told her that he wanted to keep the relationship open.

And Detective Jack Nasworthy believes that's exactly what happened. One indication being that Diana left the tomato, which she was apparently going to bring over for dinner that night at the community garden, after she had texted a picture to her boyfriend, saying that she was gonna bring it over that evening. So it's kind of, you know, kind of makes you wonder why she had left the tomato, that she was, it sounds so funny to be talking

about a fucking tomato right now, but it's like why didn't, why did she leave it there though? Well, and because the fight that she had gotten into with her boyfriend was the night before. So you would imagine that things were at least a little bit smoothed over by the time she texted him about dinner or else she wouldn't have done that, you know? Yeah, yeah, I totally get that. So what happened with that intention? Well, it's also very possible that Diana didn't want anyone to know where she was going

or what she was doing, especially her boyfriend. Well, detective Nas were the theorized that Diana probably drove up to Seattle to meet with somebody last minute that she had maybe recently spoken with and then turned her phone off when they met up as she sometimes did when she was trying to focus. And then during the evening something went wrong or she rebuked his advances and he wound up killing her. And you would imagine that police would obviously have a list of everybody who she was speaking with since they have access to her dating profile.

So if this is the case, they must have this person's name to interview them, but they're keeping this information close to the investigation if there is anybody from her dating site specifically, though we're about to dive into another possibility in this realm. So Monica is skeptical of the thought of her meeting up with someone on purpose that night, because Diana was being so careful with COVID

as we've said a million times now. And so she doesn't believe that Diana would have met with somebody new. But again, then why did she go to Seattle? But Monica feels strongly that it was somebody that Diana already knew that she met up with. Again, whether it was on purpose or whether this person just followed her. And based on the intimate and brutal nature of the crime, this seems statistically more likely,

you know, that her killer had some kind of personal vendetta against her, whether she did something wrong or not. You know, like maybe, again, this was more of a, she rejected somebody which she is absolutely allowed to do. And Detective Naz were also observed, quote, this person went through a lot of effort to cover up this crime. Not only did they take her out in the woods, bury her in a place where they probably didn't think she'd ever be located,

but they also went through the effort to burn her car to hide evidence. And that's not something that you're going to see usually in a random crime. But they also, again, did a horribly shitty job at concealing her romance. Well, yeah. Because they buried her six inches into the fucking ground. I mean, yeah, it seems like they dug just a tiny bit and then they just covered the bottom half of her body

with dirt and then left the rest of her exposed. So I don't know unless animals did come more into play than they already did. Other than that, she would have just stayed there. So with Diana's boyfriend and ex-boyfriend cleared by police, because her ex-boyfriend was cleared by the way, the only viable option seemed to be that it was someone that she met that evening. So police continued to dive into her online dating presence and came across another development. I hate that we have to kind of err this, something that seems a little bit more personal,

but it could be a really big piece into solving her murder, so we have to go into it. Now Diana was interested in bondage and communicated with others in that community on certain Kink lifestyle websites. She had used bondage forums to meet sexual partners who shared the same interests and desires in the past, and this opened up a whole new crop of people who may have been involved in her death. Administrators of the websites were reportedly not very helpful in the search efforts, which led to a complete lack of suspects.

But police believe that she met someone from one of these websites discreetly, wanting to put the fight with her boyfriend behind her possibly and wound up with somebody violent. And this is not to say that people who are into bondage are inherently violent or malevolent people. It's just what police went with since they're investigating all the leads

and they knew that whoever she did come in contact with that evening was a bad person obviously exactly you know and we do not kink shim on this podcast so please don't do it don't be an asshole absolutely i mean this is this is just something that she was doing and it could have come into play with that evening because if she did chat with somebody discreetly on this website police are not able to figure out who she was talking to because like i said with that evening because if she did chat with somebody discreetly on this website, police are not able to figure out who she was talking to

because like I said, these websites are not being helpful. They're the administrators are not being helpful, which sucks because this could be it. Well, and oftentimes on sites like that, there is some sort of anonymity. So it's possible that that was also, you what happened here yeah or a factor of this factor yeah it's just unfortunate because obviously this is a very important situation where they're just trying to figure out who killed this woman and if there is a person on these websites that is

murdering people they shouldn't be out they shouldn't be allowed on these websites to meet other people and put other people in danger. But you would think that they would be able to kind of dig through her chat logs and see whether or not she was talking to somebody or... I know, but I don't know. But that's what just seems like that they weren't able to really access these or find any people from these websites that she used. And it's also possible that being in the bondage had nothing to do with her murder at all. Very true. Now, she was not believed to associate with drugs, criminal activity, or people who were criminals themselves. So, all signs pointed to again, it being somebody that she had, you know, tried to meet up within some fashion.

Her son Chris said, sadly, quote, Somebody cut my mom's life short. My mom just turned 50, and I feel like she had 50 more years in front of her. She was so full of life. Every night, it's hard to sleep. It's hard to eat every day. I've dealt with loss before, but when it's something like this, so unnatural, unexpected, so untimely, I can't really fathom it.

This is real life, this is a TV show or a movie, there is somebody really out there who had the capability of killing my mom. I feel like we should be talking about this more, this should be a major concern. Detective Nazworthy now believes the public to be their only hope of solving Diana's murder. Their goal moving forward is to quote, seek out information from the public about anybody that might know, contacting her in the past, like, when I talked to her, this is the dating website that we talked on. See if anybody can let us know.

These are the websites that she was using. This is who she was talking to. Sadly, there have been no developments in Diana's case since the summer of 2020. Monica said, quote, I think about her every single day. She couldn't even harm a fly. So for someone to do this to her, to take her life the way that they did, it's just it's really difficult to process. Diana deserves justice. and what happened to her, she didn't deserve it. It's just time for this to come to an end. Now Chris and Christina are still mourning the loss of their beloved mother and grandmother,

saying quote, You're never prepared for the call your mom is murdered. You're never prepared for that. And because of the vicious nature of Diana's demise, many online have theorized that it's possible that she was the victim of a serial killer, and that her death may be connected to other murders in the area, which I kind of have the same thought because this was so brutally done, and if somebody can go through with what they did, murdering her in this way, and then covering up all of this evidence burning the vehicle. Yeah, it's a little sophisticated.

That means to me that somebody probably could have done this before and maybe doing it again. Well, on the topic of a serial killer, one murder in particular has been continuously linked to Diana's in the press and in online forums, and the similarities are pretty eerie. So 58-year-old Latisha Martinez Cosmin, nicknamed Letty, vanished in March of 2023 after a date. So obviously this was only a few months ago from when we were recording. So on March 19, Latisha went shopping at a Costco in South Seattle with a friend, and it was there that she met 46-year-old Brett Gitchell, who chatted with the two for a while, and kind of charmed Latisha.

She gave Brett her number and the two made plans to meet up later that month, again in March of 2023. So they bonded over their shared love of baseball, and Latisha offered to take him along to her next game. So on March 31, 2023, Latisha and Brett attended a Seattle Mariners baseball game at T-Mobile Park together, even sending a selfie of the two of them to the friend who was with Latisha when she met Brett at Costco. And that was the last time that her friend saw or heard from Latisha.

After that evening, neither the friend nor Latisha's 24-year-old son Patrick or her brother Ricardo Martinez heard from her. And after two days past, a very panicked Ricardo reported his sister missing. That same day, Latisha's son Patrick felt victim to Brett Gichel as well. So Brett actually tracked Patrick down and Patrick has special needs and he convinced Patrick to get into the car with him. Now Brett allegedly told Patrick that his mother Latisha had been in an accident which is you know a tale as old as time and that he would take Patrick to see her in the hospital. But when Patrick got into the car with Brett,

the two just drove around for an extended period of time. And then Brett parked and hopped out the car, leaving Patrick inside for a few minutes before jumping back into the car, attempting to smother Patrick into unconsciousness. Now luckily, Patrick was able to push Brett off and flee the vehicle. And then he went to his uncle Ricardo's house, arriving very distressed, apparently, understandably,

and he described how he had been kidnapped and assaulted. So the two reported the incident to 9-1-1, but Brett was still at large and Latisha was still missing. Then, that same night, Latisha's Honda CRV was found torched and abandoned, just like Diana's had been. Man, I mean, that is eerily similar.

Yeah, it gets worse. So on Tuesday, April 11th, 2023, a body was recovered in Renton, Washington, 30 minutes southeast of the stadium from which Latisha disappeared. One week later, on April 18, 2023, the remains were confirmed to belong to Latisha, who had been strangled to death. Though the loss was heartbreaking, Latisha's family was relieved to be able to bring her

home. Ricardo said, quote, just to know that we have her and we can take her back to see her mom and her family, even if we didn't find her. I don't know where I'd be in my state of mind, but this has changed my whole life. In a go fund, me started to pay for Latisha's funeral expenses, Ricardo wrote, quote,

as a single mom of a special need son, Latisha would work at times two jobs to make ends meet. She is the sole caregiver of her son who requires 24-7 care. When she speaks of him, it's easy to understand her devotion to his well-being and her sense of pride in her accomplishments despite his special needs. It was a rare occasion that Latisha would take time for herself. Ricardo called her an exceptionally trusting and generous person, even when the recipient didn't deserve her kindness. And this was her first attempt back into the dating world.

Ricardo recalled quote, she always looked for the best in anyone. I think this low-life thief targeted her. I guess he saw, oh, she's got baseball anyone. I think this low-life thief targeted her. I guess he saw, oh, she's got baseball tickets. I wonder if she's got money. And when Ledi somehow got in his way, he just killed her and tried to kill her son to cover his tracks. So after his arrest on April 4th of this year, Brett's extensive criminal history came to light, which included seven felony charges, one misdemeanor, and nine gross misdemeanors, meaning that his offense was more serious than a misdemeanor but less serious than assault or murder. Brett Kitschel pleaded not guilty to all of the charges that were leveled against him,

which included murder, kidnapping, attempted murder, theft, and unlawful possession of a firearm. The similarities between the cases of Diana and Latisha were hard to deny, but no link between Brett and Diana has ever been found, or at least not announced by police. So we can imagine because he was arrested, he would have given up his DNA and they would have compared it to what was found under Diana's fingernails and Obviously that wouldn't have been a match. Yeah, I mean that sounds like that's probably what happened here Unfortunately, so while this hypothesis remains entirely possible It's gonna depend on the fate of Brett Gichel and what law enforcement and lawyers can surmise from his trial

Diana's case remains cold and her family and friends are still waiting for answers. So if you have any information regarding the murder of Diana Davis, please call Crime 87540. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Tuesday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. I'm so sorry, I feel like I had such sporadic responses and comments today, but I took a seder in this morning and I just feel like wired up and crazy. But thank you guys so much for tuning in today.

She's fired up to talk about true crime people. Fired up, I'm twitchy. So thank you guys. Please make sure that you share this one. Would love to hear your thoughts on this. Obviously, there's still a lot of information that isn't known to the public because it's unsolved, but would love to see this one solved, obviously, for the sake of her and her family, so make sure you share.

And you know, hopefully we'll be able to keep you guys updated on Brett Getchel's trial because there is still a possibility that he could somehow be connected to Diana's case, but yeah, hopefully we'll find out. Yes, so remember, follow us on our socials, comment if you'd like. We'd love to chat to you over there, and we'll see you next week. Also, very quickly, I just wanted to say thank you to everybody who's been leaving us very nice reviews lately. We do see those, and it makes us really feel good, and yeah, we just appreciate it, so thank you.

Yeah, there was a really heartfelt one that I read this morning that just made me so happy so yes agreed. Love you guys so much so for everybody out there in the world don't be a stranger. 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5%

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