‘Likely he killed more’: Kansas man is charged in cold case murders of two women from the 1990s including one found dumped behind abandoned building on Christmas Day

A long-haul truck driver from Kansas has been charged with two murders after detectives from a newly formed cold case unit linked him to the brutal deaths of two women in the 1990s.

At a news conference this week, Kansas City Police Chief Karl Oakman said it was likely that Gary Dion Davis, 52, “killed more.” While Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree said Davis was positively linked to the cases through DNA evidence.

Davis is accused of killing 26-year-old Christina King in 1998, who was found beaten to death behind an abandoned building on Christmas Day.

He is also accused of fatally stabbing Pearl Barnes, whose body was found in a vacant house in November 1996. Barnes also went by the name Sameemah Mussawir after converting to Islam in 1974. She left behind two children.

The circumstances behind the deaths remain under investigation, but police say they do not believe Davis knew any of the women. Detectives are trying to determine if Davis may be responsible for other crimes.

Pearl Barnes was also called Sameemah Mussawir after she converted to Islam in 1974. She left behind two children.

Christina King was found beaten to death in an abandoned building on Christmas Day 1998

Investigators are looking into the possibility that Davis killed others in different parts of the country through his job as a long-haul truck driver.

In 2021, King’s daughter, April Parks, told Fox Kansas City that she was outraged by the lack of progress being made in her mother’s case.

‘Who did it? Why? How could they do that to someone so young? She was only 26. And at the autopsy there were so many wounds and so many scrapes and bruises. I just don’t understand what she could have done so badly to deserve that,” Parks said.

After Davis’ arrest, Barnes’ niece said she still couldn’t understand why anyone would want to harm her aunt.

‘I don’t even know why he came her way. “My aunt sewed, she had a trucking company that took people to Chillicothe, she worked as an SRS driver, she had a daycare, she sold dinners, she sold bean pies, she was involved in her family life, she did it all,” the niece shared KSHB.

Chief Oakman said during Wednesday’s news conference that the suspect was “living his normal life as if nothing had happened.”

In the initial investigation into Barnes’ murder, detectives linked her death to three other murders: the murder of Rose Calvin, 39, in July 1996, and the murders of Norma Gray, 36, and Jeanette Holiday, 35, in November.

Detective Rick Pilgrim told media at the time that the suspect police were looking for was likely a black man who was a casual acquaintance of the victims. The four victims mentioned above were all black. Christina King was white.

After Davis’ arrest, Barnes’ niece said she still couldn’t understand why anyone would want to harm her aunt.

All four were referred to as “street people” who suffered from drug problems, Pilgrim said.

They believed that the suspect had served a prison sentence, possibly for sexual crimes. Pilgrim said at the time that the FBI was involved in the hunt.

They added that he likely lived on the north side of the city, near where the victims were found. Records show Davis lived on the North Side of Kansas City for more than 40 years between 1970 and 2022.

One woman, who police believed was attacked by the same man, survived after being stabbed by him.

A report from the time noted, “History shows that it is rare for a black man to be a serial killer.”

“The majority of serial killers are white men, but it is not unheard of for one to be a black man,” Detective Phil Miller told the Associated Press in 1996.

Davis is jailed on a $500,000 bond for two counts of second-degree murder. Davis does not yet have a listed attorney.

The Kansas City Kansas Police Department’s cold case unit became operational in January 2022 and consists of three full-time detectives.

Oakman said the department has “a lot of unsolved cases” and has already identified suspects in 11 homicide cases.

“So maybe it’s not today. It might not be tomorrow. In fact, it might not be this year. But there comes a time,” Oakman said. “You may be in a drive-thru line. You may be in the supermarket. We’ll get you eventually.’

Authorities also announced that two other unrelated cases were recently resolved.

A 66-year-old inmate was charged in May after confessing to killing 16-year-old Dion Estell, who was found shot to death in a creek bed in July 1997. The inmate, who was convicted of a 1998 murder and is now in hospice care, confessed to cold case detectives because he wanted closure for Estell’s family.

The oldest case to be solved involved the death of an hours-old girl found in a dumpster behind an apartment complex in November 1976. DNA evidence led detectives to the child’s mother in 2022.

The woman accused her grandmother of taking the baby away shortly after giving birth. The now deceased grandmother was identified as the main suspect.