A Pennsylvania state trooper revealed Tuesday that investigators received 671 tips in the months after a Maine man was gunned down beside the interstate five years ago.
The Chambersburg Public Opinion reports that Trooper Jason Cachara, the lead investigator into the death of 28-year-old Timothy Davison of Poland, detailed to the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas alternate suspects he pursued before police were led to John Wayne Strawser Jr., 41, of Terra Alta, West Virginia.
Davison was driving from Florida to Maine in the early morning hours of Jan. 2, 2014, when he called 911 to report that a dark-colored Ford Ranger was chasing him along Interstate 80 from Maryland into Pennsylvania.
In the 911 call played in court on Monday, Davison told the dispatcher that “This guy is firing shots at me.”
The 911 call also contained what prosecutors said were Davison’s last words after his silver Mitsubishi Montero was forced off I-80 into the median: “He’s f—-ing here.”
Davison was shot multiple times — including in the left hand, right foot and head — and died later at a local hospital.
Cachara told the court Tuesday that police had investigated another West Virginia man who owned a blue Ford Ranger that was crushed after Davison’s death, the Public Opinion reports. Police interviewed the man several times, conducted polygraphs and even wiretapped his phone, the trooper told the court. But the man was never charged because Cachara told the court there was not enough evidence to tie him to Davison’s killing.
A second suspect from York, Pennsylvania, was also considered because that man had shot at another vehicle that same evening in what police called a “road rage incident,” according to the newspaper. But that suspect was ruled out because neither the truck nor bullets matched those in Davison’s killing.
The court learned about a third suspect who came to the attention of police after that man’s family had found multiple guns in his home, including a .44 magnum, the caliber bullet police say killed Davison. That man, who had a history of mental illness, also owned a Ford Ranger, but it was not within the year-range police were looking for, the Public Opinion reports.
It was not until police received a call from Jamie and Courtney Breese that police gathered enough evidence to charge Strawser with first-degree murder in September 2015, according to the newspaper. Strawser has pleaded not guilty.
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Pennlive.com reports that the couple told police that Strawser was stalking Courtney Breese, who admitted to having an affair with Strawser, and he had threatened to kill Jamie Breese to get to her.
District attorney Matt Fogal said in his opening statement Breese is the one that Strawser had threatened to kill the night of the shooting, Pennlive.com reports.
Strawser was sentenced to life in prison in August 2016 for killing his girlfriend, 38-year-old Amy Lou Buckingham of Tunnelton, West Virginia, on April 15, 2015.
The trial continued on Wednesday with testimony from the Breeses.
Related: Theresa Hemond talks about her friend Timothy Davison
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