Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 16, 1990 TAG: 9006160352
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NEAL THOMPSON NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: SALTVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Most had known Mickey Davidson, his wife, Doris Davidson, and her two daughters, Mamie Clatterbuck and Tammy Lynn Day, for years.
Relatives and neighbors described Mickey, 33, and Doris, 36, as a normal married couple who had their share of minor disputes.
The two girls had both just finished seventh grade at Northwood Middle School. Mamie, 14, was the chatty one and Tammy, 13, was the quiet one.
It was an average family.
That's why, residents say, the whole town was shocked to learn that Doris Davidson and her two daughters had been beaten to death in their home and that Mickey Davidson was arrested and charged with murdering them.
Folks were talking about it Friday in front of the Piggly Wiggly. They were talking about it at Town Hall and at the Police Department.
And they were talking about it on Francis Davidson's front porch, just two doors from where police found the bodies Thursday afternoon.
"We see it on TV. We read it in the newspaper. But we never once give it a thought about being in our own front door," said Davidson, who is Mickey Davidson's aunt. "It really has shocked everybody."
Davidson was charged with three counts of capital murder and was being held in the Smyth County Jail on $500,000 bond.
Arraignment was scheduled for Tuesday and a preliminary hearing for Aug. 15.
The Smyth County Sheriff's Department got an anonymous tip Thursday about dead bodies in the Davidson house. Saltville Assistant Police Chief Steve Surber and sheriff's deputies knocked on the front door about noon but got no answer.
Neighbors told them the wife and two children hadn't been seen since 11 a.m. Tuesday, Surber said.
Mickey Davidson was stopped a few hours later by an officer as Davidson was driving through town on his way to his sister's house. He gave permission for his house to be searched while he was held at the Police Department.
What police found inside the small house on the outskirts of town were the first homicide victims in Saltville in nearly 20 years, Surber said.
Doris Davidson was found face down in the living room covered by a mattress and box spring. She had been killed by two blows to the head, Surber said.
"There's every indication that a crowbar was used," he said.
Mamie and Tammy were found in their bedroom, also with blows to the head. Mamie was covered with a plastic garbage bag and Tammy was wrapped in a quilt.
The bodies were sent to Roanoke for autopsies.
"What's so bad about it is the children," said Lois Hess, a neighbor who had known the family. "They were beautiful girls."
Their father, William David Clatterbuck, lives in Front Royal and was notified late Thursday. Mamie's last name is Clatterbuck, but Surber said Tammy prefered to use her mother's maiden name, Day.
Anita Martin, a clerk at Town Hall and Mickey Davidson's cousin, described him as a part-time construction worker who drifted from job to job. She said he occasionally drank, but that he was not prone to being violent.
"It's just astounding. It's hard for me to believe," Martin said.
Surber said he had arrested Davidson a few times for being drunk in public, but "never anything major."
"The motive, we feel like, was family problems," Surber said. "Apparently, Mrs. Davidson and the children were packing to leave."
Francis Davidson said: "It was just like any ordinary marriage; they had their problems."
Mickey and Doris had been married about five years. The family moved two years ago from an apartment into Mickey's parents' house in the Government Plant section.
The small, crowded cluster of houses is in the shadow of huge towers and smokestacks at the former Olin chemical plant. It's called Government Plant because the plant made fuel for the government 50 years ago.
It's one of Saltville's older communities.
"This kind of thing just doesn't happen here," Francis Davidson said.
by CNB