Vanessa Lorene Cherry-Davis, 34, was found dead on November 9, 2023, in the parking lot of a Super 8 motel in Fairview Heights, Illinois. Authorities located her with multiple gunshot wounds inside a black passenger vehicle; the incident is being investigated as a domestic homicide. Her husband, 48-year-old Clifton L. Davis, was apprehended shortly afterward at a nearby bus stop and charged with first-degree murder and aggravated unlawful use of a firearm. The suspected murder weapon was recovered near the scene and the motive remains under investigation.

Born December 10, 1988, in Centreville, Illinois, Vanessa, known as Nessa, was the eldest of four children of Loletha Cherry and Derrick Hendrix and graduated from East St. Louis Senior High School in 2009. She worked for Allied Security in St. Louis and is survived by three children; her family has set up a GoFundMe for funeral expenses and asked for privacy.

If anyone has information about what happened that night, please share it with the Fairview Heights authorities.