Keith Morrison Correspondent • Profile

SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. - The first 911 call came as the eleven o’clock news began, the second less than a minute later.

911 caller: Somebody’s laying downstairs and there’s a lot of blood.

There, in the courtyard, a young man was struggling for breath, bleeding to death on his own doorstep.

Neighbor: I saw Jarrod’s body. I saw a lot of blood.

His name was Jarrod Davidson and he was as unlikely a murder victim as you could imagine — a quiet, private young man, by all accounts. He was a University of California PH.D. student known mostly for spending hours in his lab or teaching students chemistry.

But his murder was anything but quiet or private.

Det. Greg Sorenson: It was ruthless,more like an execution... a high-powered rifle at short range. The bullet went right through his chest, entered the apartment next door, traveled through several more walls and wound up in a neighbor’s shower.

Jarrod Davidson was just 27 years old.

Detective Greg Sorenson: It was a gruesome, execution-style murder that you don’t see around here.

Detective Greg Sorenson works for the Sheriff Department in Tony, upscale Santa Barbara. He heard the gunshot from his house a few miles away just as he was going to bed.

Det. Sorenson:  I heard what I distinctly knew was a high-powered gunshot way off in the distance. And I knew something wasn’t right.

Neighbors at the murder scene told Sorenson they saw a man and a woman rush away from Jarrod’s building.

And then, something odd: When the paramedics arrived, they found a potted plant lying between Jarrod’s feet.

Det. Sorenson: It had a card on the plant that said, “To my teacher.” And then it was written, the victim’s name. However it was misspelled.

It was a Persian violet, a murderer’s calling card.

Detective Sorenson had no idea how important that plant and the card would become.

Right then, he was thinking how familiar this place was and this victim.

A particular suspicion was already focused by the time police finally located Jarrod’s parents, Richard and Susan Davidson.

Richard Davidson, Jarrod’s father: The phone call came in at a little before 7 a.m. I got up, answered the phone. He said who he was and he just said, “Jarrod has been murdered.”

Keith Morrison, Dateline correspondent: Just like that?

Richard Davidson: Just like that. “I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but Jarrod has been murdered.”  And in one flash of a second, I went into a primal scream of “They’ve killed him. They’ve killed him.” 

By then, Detective Sorenson was already at work on his own suspicions.

Keith Morrison, Dateline Correspondent: You had encountered this particular victim before.

Det. Sorenson: Correct.

And suddenly, up to his ears in a bloody murder investigation, Sorenson knew he was about to be dragged back to a case he thought he’d already resolved.

Det. Sorenson: We had an investigation back in March of 2004, where some allegations were raised against him by his ex-wife.

Kelee Davidson is the ex-wife,  who, during a bitter dispute over visitation, had accused Jarrod of sexually molesting their little girl, a 3-year-old named Malia.

Kelee Davidson: When I asked her, “Does anybody touch you somewhere they’re not supposed to?” That’s when she disclosed that her father was touching her.

Kelee says she told her parents, who suggested she report her suspicions to Malia’s preschool teacher, knowing the teacher was required by law to inform authorities.

And that’s how Detective Sorenson got involved... how he met Jarrod Davidson. 

Det. Sorenson: Jarrod was very nervous when we brought him in here, he seemed surprised. He didn’t understand why he was here.

According to the sheriff’s report, Jarrod was “baffled” by the allegations, denied them vehemently, and said he was willing to answer any questions.

He agreed to a polygraph test. But as the examiner zeroed in, asking detailed questions about how he may have touched his daughter, and when, and where, Jarrod seemed nervous, unsure how to answer.

Morrison: Is it true that Jarrod actually failed a lie detector test in that investigation?

Det. Sorenson: He failed one of them— true. Did not mean he was guilty of anything. There’s plenty of innocent people that have failed lie detector tests for some reason or other.

A second polygraph was conducted. And this time, Jarrod passed.

A psychologist interviewed Malia, who said Jarrod had not touched her.

After four months of investigation, authorities dismissed Kelee’s allegations. There would be no charges.

Det. Sorenson: They didn’t find that there was any of the elements of sexual child molestation were present so the case was dropped.

Back then, Sorenson wondered, was Kelee so desperate to win the custody battle that she would invent the story of molestation?

Now he wondered: Had she murdered him?

After Jarrod’s death, Malia was re-interviewed.

Forensic interview:

Psychologist:  What did your mommy tell you?

Malia:  She told me.... my mom didn’t like him.

A little girl caught in a domestic war. Was she confused about events? Had Kelee coached her?  After all, here she was months after the allegations against Jarrod were dismissed...  claiming he had molested her.

Forensic interview:

Malia:  He did a bad thing.

Psychologist:  What did he do?

Malia:  He touched me.

Psychologist:  Who told you that?

Malia:  I just know that.

Detective Sorenson was almost certain that Jarrod’s murder was somehow connected to his domestic problems with Kelee. That suspicion only increased when he discovered that on the very evening Jarrod was killed, he had filed a complaint with local sheriffs, saying he had driven 70 miles to Kelee’s house for a court ordered visit with Malia only to find that his ex-wife had skipped.

Det. Sorenson: We immediately started to look at her.

Morrison: She accused him of child molestation. She was involved in a child custody battle. He winds up dead. Doesn’t look good for her.

Det. Sorenson: Does not look good for her.

The day following the murder, detectives brought her in for questioning. But at first, claims Kelee, they didn’t tell her Jarrod was dead.

Kelee Davidson: I’m just thinking, “Well this is a little bit ridiculous for a custody dispute. “You know, what happened? Did that complaint on Friday night go a little further than it should have? And I spent four and a half hours locked in a room with my daughter in handcuffs while we waited for Santa Barbara to show up.

Eventually, says Kelee, investigators told her Jarrod had been killed  but didn’t tell her how.

Kelee Davidson: I was still confused on why I was there. But I didn’t do anything wrong, so i didn’t see any reason...

Morrison: Were you afraid?

Kelee Davidson: ...why I should be concerned?

Morrison: You weren’t afraid?

Kelee Davidson: Not really. I didn’t do anything wrong.

Kelee told detectives that she’d spent the evening of the murder with her daughter Malia and a friend named Mark, first going out for barbeque, then watching television with them at home.  The story checked out. She was at home that night.

So even though Detective Sorenson was still suspicious, Kelee was released.

Morrison: And to think that you’re a suspect. Did you believe you still were at that point?

Kelee Davidson: I knew I was at that point. Because when they did release me and let me go, they said, “Oh, you know. We’ll be back for you.”

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