The Ghost Of David Coffin

"He was the only person that had actually seen an assailant, or actually had a conversation with an assailant," says Det. Chambers.

But the more Davis spoke, the more suspicious Chambers grew about what he was saying, especially one critical detail. "He said, 'I didn't shoot him, I didn't shoot David,'" Chambers remembers. "I didn't know how David Coffin had died ... No one knew."

Chambers was convinced that the man who murdered David Coffin had given himself away. Even before investigators knew how David died, Scott Davis was telling them it was a gunshot.

And, he said that's what Megan, his estranged wife, had told him. "When I heard that from her, that's what, you know, that's what I thought I heard," Davis said during an audio-taped interview with Chambers.

Asked what he thought he heard Megan say, Davis told the detective, "That I thought I heard her tell me that he was shot."

But Megan said she had no idea how David died, and the detective in charge now seriously doubted Scott's claim that someone had also attacked him.

"Whoever had done this had killed one person and burned a house. Why did he let Scott live? You're gonna set a fire and try to burn somebody's house down, you're going to set it on their concrete patio?" Chambers asks.

Scott Davis was the prime suspect, but he was hardly a typical murder suspect. His father, Dr. Dave Davis, is a prominent Atlanta forensic psychiatrist, who made media appearances profiling criminals.

He now found himself defending his own son. "Scott has never been in trouble. He's never done anything like this. And I've never known him to be violent. The whole thing just seemed outrageous to me," Davis tells Maher.

Davis was a 24-year-old graduate student when he met 19-year-old Megan Lee. He was running for county commissioner and had just finished his MBA.

They dated for five years, but it was quite a rocky relationship. "We broke up a lot during our relationship. Always initiated by me. I just kept on feeling we weren't really connecting in the way that I wanted to connecting the way I wanted to connect," Megan explains.

After every break up, Davis would beg for another chance, often in writing.

Eventually, they got married. A European magazine featured their wedding with a photo spread, calling the event the "Perfect American Wedding...Hollywood- Style!"

Professionally, Scott Davis' star was rising as a technology consultant; but his personal life was soon in trouble.

"He seemed to lose interest in the relationship very, very quickly. So, I think he liked the chase more than he liked the prize. He didn't seem interested in me or our relationship at all the minutes we got married. In any area," Megan says.

After just two years, Megan filed for divorce and left him.

Davis reverted to old habits, pleading with her in multiple, often lengthy, letters-
letters that took an ominous turn when Scott got wind that Megan was hitting it off with a man he knew.

"Multiple dates with one person leads to expectations which do not bode well with me. This is especially true with a person such as Dave," Megan reads from one of Davis' letters. "If things with other men are getting sexual for you, I will never be able to forgive that considering we are married."

Davis was persistent to win back the affections of his estranged wife. But persistence seemed to turn to obsession in Dec. 1996, during that weekend David and Megan spent together at her apartment.

"Scott called Friday night five, six times in the middle of the night. Saturday night, he called 30 times," Megan recalls.

When David got home Sunday morning to find his house vandalized, he called police. But he and his friend Craig Foster thought they knew who was responsible.

"The only thing we could come up with was that Scott Davis had come over upset the night before because he knew that David was with Megan. And had ransacked the house," Craig says.

Craig advised David to back off from Megan until her divorce was final. "And he agreed. Now I don't know whether he ever could have done that, because I think David was falling in love with Megan at this point," he remembers.

That Tuesday night, Coffin was found dead. And within hours, Megan's estranged husband was talking to the police

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[craigzz]

I found it hilarious the way Scott Davis's Psychiatrist father, defended his murdering son so vehemently, even to the point of perjuring himself on the stand. I will find it hard to look at any psychiatrist now with any respect.

Yes, your son is a cold blooded murderer, one of those people you spent years giving your 'expert' opinion about, pretty ironic aye ?

[delwriter]

I think David was a handsome, very alluring gay man living as a straight....Can't help but think he'd still be alive if he'd embraced his true self. What a horrible thing.

[posbornejr]

Great piece gleaned from a very complicated set of facts. The real question now is why Paul Howard allowed this case to languish for 10 years when the evidence that ultimately convicted Davis in 2006 was present-and even stronger-in 1996. I don't think Howard wants that question posed in the next election.

[curtgre]

How did Megan know that David was dead when Craig came up to the house while it was on fire? The fireman did not know at that time!!!!!!!

[ollie1169]

Gonna watch this at 5 Paces. Who's with me?