LEE, Maine — He is still a young boy, but Shane Severance already has the long, thin frame, fair hair and the bright, mischievous smile of his father. His walk, love of speed and bright eyes make it clear that he is his father’s son.
“He looks exactly like his father did at that age, acts like his father. He’s a very outgoing, happy kid, a typical 7-year-old kid,” Shane’s grandfather Leslie Severance said Friday.
Shane Severance’s presence is always a joy, family members said, but one that never much diminishes the fact that his father cannot be with them.
Michael Severance’s wife, veterinarian Wendi Davidson, pleaded no contest in October 2006 to charges that she poisoned her husband of four months on Jan. 15, 2005, with drugs used to euthanize animals, weighed his body down with car parts and cinder blocks and dumped it in a pond owned by a Davidson family friend in San Angelo, Texas.
Severance’s body was stabbed 41 times after death to keep it underwater. Police found the 24-year-old Air Force staff sergeant’s body on March 4, 2006.
Davidson took a deal to serve a 25-year sentence on a murder charge and two concurrent 10-year sentences on two evidence-tampering charges. She remains incarcerated in a Texas prison, and the Severances share custody of Shane with Davidson’s parents.
Shane visits his Lee family on school vacations and alternate Christmas holidays, having arrived at the Severance family home on Thursday.
“He is getting big,” Frank Severance, Michael’s brother, said of Shane. “He is really well-mannered and well-spoken. You hear lots of ‘please’ and ‘thank yous’ from him.”
The Severances delayed their Christmas until Friday to share it with Shane and were opening presents with him at about 5 p.m. Shane is due to return to Texas on Jan. 3, Leslie Severance said.
The custody arrangement is awkward, at times excruciating, as the Severances lost a bitter civil court bid to take full custody of the child in the wake of Davidson’s conviction.
“It is pretty much the same as it was. We have our typical custody deal. We pretty much follow that to the letter,” Leslie Severance said. “We were hoping for snow. He [Shane] is excited to have snowmen. We like to make them together.”
The family still holds an annual dance in Michael Severance’s name to benefit a senior at Lee Academy, Severance’s alma mater, with the next event scheduled for the Lincoln Knights of Columbus Hall on March 17. The murder was the subject of a true-crime novel, “A Poisoned Passion,” in October 2009. Leslie Severance also stays in touch with many of Michael’s Texas friends, plus his attorney in the custody battle, Thomas Goff, he said.
That helps him cope with the loss of his son.
“It’s tough. You would think it gets easier but it gets tougher,” Leslie Severance said. “I don’t know why it does, but it does get tougher.”
Frank Severance said his father “seems to be doing pretty good.”
“He has his good days and his bad days,” Frank Severance added. “I know that a lot more of them are good when Shane is around. We just try to enjoy him when he can.”
Given that the child is 7. He has obviously been raised in Texas by his family there. As long as they are healthy enough to continue, since he has lost his parents, due to no fault of his own. It is best not to uproot him again.
My heart goes out to his Grandparents here, but the child’s attachment issues must come firts and foremost. His family, friends and school is established in Texas. Uprooting is never good provided his needs are being met there by loving caregivers.
What a devestating story for all involved.
The Davidson family should never have been given custody of Shane. Wendi Davidson is a sick woman along with her family http://www.meet-an-inmate.com/ladies/wendi-11620.html
Wow! Wendi Davidson currently has that posting – how is that even possible for someone in
prison? Do the seven year old’s guardians take the boy to visit this woman?
they raised a murderer and helped cover for her. They should be sitting in jail with her!
Wow, just looked at that site. Sounds like she is in real pain in the clink. She must have had help. At 5 feet, she can’t carry a body alone. What a horrible person. I feel for the Maine family members. Can’t imagine how they lost their case. Unfair. God bless family. Enjoy him while he is here.
I couldn’t imagine this woman at 5 feet tall commiting this crime alone??…. someone had to have helped her…. she sounds like a psychopath!! Feel horrible for the child involved!
I never understood the Davidsons getting custody of this child.
If both grandparents wanted him. Seems only fair to share custody. It seems that the Texas grandparents get him more of the time, but how else could you do that while he’s in school? It sounds like he is doing very well…………..and that is all that really matters. If he spends summers in Maine, he will always have roots/attachment to this state and remember how much fun his summer vacations were. Very sad for all the grandparetns………….but again. Keep this little man smiling and happy!!
The article doesn’t say summers in Maine, unless that’s what school vacations means…not sure. And every other Christmas.
After 4 months of marriage she killed him? What for, his insurance money, or is she just crazy?
Crazy, check out what this whack job is up to http://www.meet-an-inmate.com/ladies/wendi-11620.html
She said she wants to “live life to its fullest” too bad she felt the need to take that away from her husband.