Missing woman's toddler son may offer clues

updated 11:25 a.m. ET June 19, 2007

NORTH CANTON, Ohio - Jessie Davis was excited about the upcoming birth of her second child, getting baby clothes ready and packing a suitcase for the delivery.

She had decided to name the baby girl Chloe, which means “blooming” in Greek. The 26-year-old was in good spirits when she spoke to her mother Wednesday.

But Davis hasn’t been heard from since.

Authorities have no suspects in her disappearance and only a few chilling words from her 2-year-old son, who may have seen what happened to her: “Mommy was crying. Mommy broke the table. Mommy’s in the rug.”

The boy, Blake, was found by Davis’ mother, Patricia Porter, after she went looking for her daughter because she had not heard from her for a day. Blake, wearing a dirty diaper, was alone in a home with broken furniture, a pool of bleach on the floor and a bed comforter missing.

“My God something’s wrong!” Porter said in a 911 call.

Porter told the emergency dispatcher that her daughter “would never, ever” leave the child behind. Davis is due to deliver July 3.

A weekend search by police and 60 to 70 volunteers found no leads.

The father of Davis’ son and unborn girl is Canton police patrolman Bobby Cutts Jr. He is estranged from his wife, with whom he has at least one other child.

‘You just feel absolutely numb’
Besides the broken furniture and bleach, Davis’ home had a mattress in her bedroom partially off the bed and a knocked-over nightstand and lamp, Porter said. Items from Davis’ purse were scattered on the kitchen floor.

MSNBC video Frantic 911 call June 18: The mother of a missing pregnant woman makes a frantic 911 call to police. NBC's Contessa Brewer reports. MSNBC

Her mobile phone was missing, investigators said, but her car was still at the home. The sliding patio door was unlocked.

The 30-year-old Cutts was to drop off the boy at Davis’ home Thursday, Porter said in her 911 call. He could not be reached for comment Monday at his Canton home, where FBI agents and sheriff’s deputies searched Monday night, removing items.

Cutts, who took part Sunday in a search around Davis’ home, was placed on paid administrative leave due to the stress of the disappearance, Canton police Chief Dean McKimm told The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer.

Sheriff’s deputies also searched Jessie Davis’ duplex over the weekend and returned Monday evening with FBI agents.

“You just feel absolutely numb,” Porter said. “I see her picture on television and I think, ‘Oh my God, what a beautiful girl.’ And then it hits you, ‘That’s my girl.”’

Police have advised Porter not to ask the boy questions so that any recollections and information come out naturally.

“Whatever comes, comes,” Porter said. “He plays a lot. We’re not trying to prod him or anything.”

‘You always worry about pregnant women’
Davis is employed by Allstate Insurance at a call center in nearby Hudson, company spokesman Mike Siemienas said Monday. A co-worker, Dianna Piltz, sent Davis a text message at 8:15 a.m. Thursday that wasn’t returned.

“We freak out when she’s a couple minutes late. She’s pregnant and you always worry about pregnant women,” Piltz said.

Neighbors said Davis lived a low-key life, and was often seen pushing a stroller. “Every now and then we’d see her out and about,” said Jeff Midkiff, 46. “She would wave, or whatever. She seemed like a very quiet person.”

North Canton is south of Cleveland in northeastern Ohio.

In 2000 in nearby Ravenna, a pregnant woman was killed and her baby was cut out by a heavyset woman who claimed she was pregnant and took the victim’s baby as her own. She killed herself five days later when police traced mobile phone calls and went to confront her.

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