Claude Davis, longtime suspect in disappearance of Andrea Parsons, dies
Man who lived across from 10-year-old girl denied involvement in her 1993 disappearance
A man once suspected of abducting and killing a 10-year-old girl 20 years ago is dead.
Claude Davis died Tuesday of natural causes. He was once accused, but never convicted, of kidnapping Andrea Parsons, who disappeared from Port Salerno in 1993. Her body has never been found.
Davis, who lived across the street from her, was arrested shortly after Andrea's disappearance, but he was later released because there wasn't enough evidence.
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He has vehemently denied knowing anything about the girl's disappearance or death.
"I don't know where the girl is," he told WPBF 25 News in 2003. "I never did ever know where she was."
For nearly two decades, the crime remained unsolved, until a friend of Davis' was indicted by a grand jury last year.
Chester Price was charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping in connection with Andrea's disappearance.
Lead investigator Yesenia Carde testified in court that Price admitted to being with Davis when they snatched Andrea from the parking lot of a grocery store. She said Price admitted to putting Andrea in Davis' van, but the girl fought back, so he hit her and disposed of her body the next day.
While Price remains in jail awaiting trial, Davis died a free man. But the sheriff said Davis might not have gotten away with it so easy.
"In this life, Claude Davis did not face his judgment," Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said. "But he might not be so fortunate in the next."