Shania Gray Murder: Franklin Davis Confesses to Murder

Thirty-year-old Texas resident Franklin B. Davis has been charged with the murder of 16-year-old Shania Gray who disappeared late last week, police said on Monday.

Gray, a student athlete at Hebron High School, went missing Thursday afternoon just after she was let out of school. After police called on the help of residents in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton over the weekend, Gray’s body was found on Saturday by a cyclist along the Trinity River.

Police say that Davis, who later confessed to the murder of Gray, likely murdered her because she was set to testify against him in a sexual assault case she had pending against him, which alleged that Davis had sex with Gray four times in 2010 while she was babysitting his children.

The Associated Press reports:

“According to an arrest warrant, Davis contacted Gray through social media and pretended to be someone else in an attempt to get information about the sexual assault case. Davis then used a pre-paid cellphone to set up a meeting with Gray at her high school on Thursday.”

In an interview with local television station WFAA-TV, Davis claimed that he didn’t track down Gray with the intent to harm her: He says that he was trying to “prove his innocence” in the sexual assault case.

“I needed to get some kind of evidence, some kind of proof myself to show I did not have sex with her and that she’s lying,” Davis told the television station. It wasn’t until he was “overcome” in the moment, he says, that he killed Gray.

“I was fighting demons. It was like a different person was in me. It wasn’t me.”

A video of Davis’ confession can be found below.