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Body found, man charged in missing woman case

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 24, 2007

CANTON, Ohio - A massive search ended in sadness Saturday when authorities announced they found a body believed to be a pregnant woman who vanished from her home a week earlier. A police officer believed to be the father of the unborn child was arrested on two counts of murder.

Jessie Davis, 26, who was due to deliver a baby girl on July 3, was reported missing after her mother found Davis' 2-year-old son home alone, bedroom furniture toppled and bleach spilled on the floor.

The boy gave investigators their first clues. "Mommy was crying. Mommy broke the table. Mommy's in rug, " the boy said.

Thousands of volunteers had searched for Davis over several days, while investigators continued to question Bobby Cutts Jr., 30, who is the father of Davis' son but is married to another woman.

Investigators were mum on many details of their work until they announced Cutts was taken into custody Saturday and was to be arraigned on charges of murder in the deaths of Davis and her unborn child.

The Stark County Sheriff's Department also said a woman's body was recovered in Summit County at 3:30 p.m. Authorities did not give a location but said they believed it to be Davis.

Television news footage taken from helicopters above Cuyahoga Valley National Park showed investigators riding off-road vehicles to reach an area that is heavily covered with trees and brush. It also showed authorities carrying a body bag on a stretcher and loading it into a white van.

Roger Riggins, an investigator with the Summit County medical examiner's office, confirmed a body was found at the southeast edge of the park, about 25 miles from Davis' home in Lake Township.

Tim Miller, director of Texas EquuSearch, an internationally active search group that organized the volunteer effort, said Davis' mother, Patricia Porter, and other members of her family were called together and told about the body in the late afternoon.

"A lot of the community stopped their lives to looked for Jessie and that meant so much to her and the entire family that they knew they were not alone in this, " Miller said.

An attorney for Davis' mother said the family had a roller-coaster ride of emotions and had no comment.

"I've seen them laugh, cry, be angry - everything you can imagine, " Rick Pitinii said. "They need to be together, and they need to be alone, and they need to grieve."

Cutts, a Canton police officer since 2000, has said that he and his wife are separated and that she knew about the affair with Davis.

Cutts has been on paid administrative leave from his job. The Police Department had tried to fire Cutts in 2003 when authorities conducting a drug raid on his cousin's home found Cutts' handgun hidden under a mattress. Cutts pleaded no contest to a disorderly conduct charge in 1998 after he was accused of breaking into the home of a former girlfriend. He was sentenced to three years' probation.

[Last modified June 24, 2007, 01:43:38]