(NewsNation) — A 16-year-old football player was set to start school Wednesday at Olympia High School in Washington State. Instead, he sits in a juvenile detention center, accused of murder.
It’s a case full of twists and turns that police say include the suspect faking his own disappearance and being threatened by a biker gang, as well as the alleged murder itself.
One week ago, Gabriel Davies was due at football practice. When he didn’t show, police started an all-out search.
Within the next 24 hours, they found his abandoned truck with blood inside and Davies’ shattered cellphone nearby, but no Davies.
He was later found about three miles away, walking, with no shirt or shoes. Davies said he couldn’t remember what happened to him. But he quickly went from a missing person to the center of a murder investigation.
Police say he faked his disappearance to evade being captured, and they were already piecing together what they say really happened.
Daniel McCaw, 51, didn’t show up to work for four days. Police did a well-being check and found him dead. The medical examiner says he was shot and stabbed to death.
Davies and one of his 16-year-old friends, Justin Yoon, were spotted on McCaw’s home camera, going inside the house through a doggie door.
They are being charged with first- and second-degree murder, first-degree burglary and two counts of second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. Both are being charged as adults and being held on $1 million bonds.
But this is where the case takes even more bizarre turns. It turns out Davies’ mother had a relationship with McCaw, and he and his mother lived with McCaw for a while. Davies’ father contacted police, saying his son was forced into the crime.
The father said that his son was approached by the victim’s “biker buddies” to steal something from the victim’s residence. He further stated that they threatened his son with harm if he didn’t do it.
Davies’ father says his son plotted to steal the object, but McCaw came home early. That’s when he said Yoon shot McCaw while Davies was trying to open the safe to get what they came for.
After the crime, the biker buddies allegedly came looking for what they wanted, roughing him up when they couldn’t find it.
