Elizabeth Davis

On January 5, 2006, a brutal double homicide in Dayton, Ohio, claimed the life of Elizabeth Davis, a 49-year-old Black woman, leaving her family with questions that linger to this day. The crime, which also took the life of her friend, Felicia Goodson, 44, unfolded inside a residence in the Dayton View neighborhood, shattering the peace of the community and beginning a long and frustrating quest for justice.

The day of the tragedy, police were called to a home on Vernon Drive where they made a grim discovery. Elizabeth was found deceased in the kitchen. Investigators determined that her friend, Felicia, had desperately tried to escape the attacker. She ran from the house to a neighboring porch on Grand Avenue, pleading for help. The assailant pursued her, shooting and killing her on the porch before she could find safety. The cold-blooded nature of the killings sent a chill through the city and left two families mourning an immeasurable loss.

The Dayton Police Department led the investigation. Retired homicide detective Dan Hall later revealed that investigators found what they believed was crucial evidence at both scenes. He stated that the believed killer's fingerprints were found inside the house where Elizabeth was killed, and also at the scene where Felicia was shot down. This evidence led them to identify a suspect, Velis S. Nelson, also known as Willie Dixon.

Despite the evidence detectives felt was strong, the path to prosecution proved difficult. Hall said that when he initially took the case to the Montgomery County Prosecutor's Office, a three-prosecutor panel refused to move forward with a murder charge against Nelson. For nine years, the case remained cold, a source of constant pain for Elizabeth’s family. Her daughter, Andrea Davis, spoke of the family's ordeal, saying, "We've just been patiently waiting, having faith in our justice system."

In 2015, a cold case detective revived the investigation, and this time the evidence was presented to a Montgomery County grand jury. The families’ hopes for a resolution were crushed when the grand jury declined to indict Nelson on four counts of murder and four counts of felonious assault. He was released from the Montgomery County Jail, a free man for the second time in connection with the murders. The decision was devastating for the Davis and Goodson families. Andrea Davis expressed her shaken confidence in the legal process, stating, "It takes away the trust that I have in our system."

A shocking and violent postscript to the case occurred just a week after Nelson's release in 2015. He was arrested in Richmond, Indiana, for the shooting death of his cousin, 36-year-old Brian Nelson, during a family argument. Shortly after his arrest, Velis Nelson died by suicide in an Indiana jail. While this development brought a final, grim end to Nelson's life, it did not provide the official closure or courtroom justice that the victims' families had sought for so long.

On the tenth anniversary of the murders, January 5, 2016, family and friends gathered for a vigil at the now-vacant lot where the Vernon Drive home once stood. Andrea Davis used the occasion to advocate for a "see something, say something" campaign, hoping to prevent other families from experiencing similar violence and loss. Though the primary suspect is deceased, the Dayton Police Department's investigation into the deaths of Elizabeth Davis and Felicia Goodson officially remains open. Authorities continue to encourage anyone with information to come forward to help bring a final resolution to the case.