“The state on Thursday announced that it will seek the death penalty for Clifford A. Davis, the man accused of killing his mother and grandfather in the historic Wares Creek neighborhood in early December. Authorities said Davis, 19, confessed to strangling his mother, Stephanie Ann Davis, 43, and killing his grandfather, Joel C. Hill, 77. They said subsequent medical tests showed Davis had sex with his mother’s dead body… Details of the crime Davis is alleged to have committed were released slowly by authorities, who used the term ’strange’ to describe the events that took place on Dec. 4. Authorities have said that after strangling his mother and having sex with her body, Davis went through her belongings and then went on a shopping spree at DeSoto Square mall to buy a new outfit and other items. He later attempted to strangle his grandfather, authorities said, but because Hill was wearing a pacemaker, Davis reverted to stabbing Hill in the eye and the chest.” — The Herald (US)

(Thanks to Shane for the link.)

It can be maddening to research a story such as this, since the details are usually scattered across thirty different newspaper articles. What’s more, you know that somewhere out there in the ether Mr. Davis — who was apparently studying computers at Keiser College in Florida — has a blog or a myspace account or something of the sort. What pseudonym did he use? What insights into his evidently disturbed mind would a livejournal account reveal? What magic combination of words would pull it up and reveal him on a search engine?

At any rate, here’s Mr. Davis’ mug shot, and here are his driver’s license photos from 2003 and 2005. You can see that in the two years between the two photos he underwent a conscious change in style. In 2003 he was some large — standing 6′4″ and weighing 250 lbs — prep/dweeb hybrid, but by 2005 he’d apparently made an effort to look cooler. One newspaper called the latter incarnation goth, describing Mr. Davis as “a black-clad man with gothic tattoos including a sword across his back.”

The change in appearance accompanied a life change as well. Mr. Davis had been living in a Houston suburb — possibly with his father, whom he had also threatened to kill. Two scuffs with the law there must have inspired him to leave Texas for Bradenton, Florida, where he lived first with his grandparents and then with his mother, who worked as a security guard. Evidently he didn’t get along with her either, as there were reports of tension that culminated in her murder and posthumous rape — an act probably motivated far less by desire than by hate.

Weirdly, after killing his mother and violating her cadaver, Mr. Davis went to the local mall on a shopping spree. He bought some new pants, a Pentagram necklace, and a spike bracelet — obviously he was still trying to perfect that goth look. “He was real nice” said a clerk, noting that he’d been showing off a knife he also bought. When he had difficulty closing it, he joked that he’d get arrested if he walked around the mall with the knife open.

Really he must not have wanted to close the knife, because when he tired of shopping he used it in the murder of his grandfather. This poor old man went through a horrific ordeal with his kin. First Mr. Davis tried to strangle him, but grampa’s pacemaker kept him going anyway. Then Mr. Davis tied his feet and stood on his neck. When none of that worked, he “used a knife to stab Hill once in the chest and the left eye. He then cut his throat, according to the records.” Afterward he placed a penny in the victim’s mouth. “It was to pay the ferry,” he told police — more goth mythology.

Evidently Mr. Davis had long harbored a fantasy to kill, and newspaper reports indicated he had further plans to kill other family members and/or friends. Apparently he didn’t have too many of them. “He was isolated, he had no friends,” a police lieutenant said. “He came across as a controlling individual,” the same officer told another paper. “The reason he had sex with his mother was to relieve tension. I don’t know the reason why he killed his mother.”

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