The same day that Wendi filed for divorce, the 7th Security Forces Squadron at Dyess Air Force Base referred Mike’s disappearance to the Office of Special Investigations. On Wednesday, January 19, Special Agents Arch Harner and Greg McCormick drove down to San Angelo to the residence of the missing airman.
They verified that Mike was not at his home, that he had not taken any military clothing or any other equipment necessary for his position and hadn’t left in any personal vehicle. In response to their questions, Wendi said, “Mike talked about not wanting to go on his next deployment and how easy it would be to disappear into Canada.”
The agents were surprised at how unemotional and apathetic Wendi appeared. When they ran through the list of possibilities, including everything from the question of suicide to the likelihood of another woman, Wendi’s demeanor did not change. Most wives of missing men show something—worry, fear, anger—but Wendi was devoid of any expected human response in the initial volley of the queries.
Then, almost as if a cartoon light bulb had formed over her head, Wendi seemed to understand that the agents wanted her to be upset. She teared up once she picked up on the unspoken cue, but the reaction appeared mechanical and artificially induced. The sorrow did not show itself in her eyes.
By January 24, San Angelo Police Department investigator Dennis McGuire was beginning to feel uneasy about the Michael Severance case. There was a world of possibilities. Michael could have gone AWOL and be hiding out in the countryside or he could have fled to Canada. Perhaps, as suggested by Wendi’s family, Michael had committed suicide. And then there was the possibility of homicide. McGuire had seen no definite signs of foul play, but that might only mean the killer had been careful. McGuire needed answers, and to get them quickly, he needed help.
The San Angelo Police Department had a heavy case load investigating incidents that they knew were criminal. They had every crime you’d find in Dallas, but with lower numbers. They had a big city to police, with minimum staff and a small-town mentality. They’d even had to launch a major education effort to teach citizens to lock their cars and houses.
In this case, all they had was a missing person and the knowledge that adults had the right to abandon family and friends without warning. It was a far more serious matter for the military. They had few desertion cases. Most of the time when an airman went AWOL, he was found within a couple of days, usually at his mother’s house. This case was unusual.
McGuire referred the case to the San Angelo Major Crimes Task Force, calling a meeting of representatives of the law enforcement agencies impacted by any of the scenarios. At 2 P.M., the task force members, Lieutenant Randy Swick from the sheriff’s office, Texas Department of Public Safety Special Crimes Sergeant David Jones and Texas Ranger Shawn Palmer gathered at the San Angelo Police Department. Because of this case’s connection to the Air Force, Agent Greg McCormick of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations was also asked to attend. Detective McGuire briefed them all.
McCormick noted that Michael had not reported to duty that morning and was now AWOL, which, for the Air Force, meant that a serious violation had been committed. For their investigators, on that day, the case had turned criminal.
Palmer noticed an uncomfortable undercurrent at the conference table. There seemed to be an unspoken animosity between McCormick and McGuire. Being in a position of minimal responsibility, he did not pursue the problem. But what he noted was a clear conflict of agency objectives.
In correspondence a few months later, the Air Force acknowledged the friction and blamed it on Special Agent McCormick’s belief that the San Angelo Police Department was uncooperative and lacked enthusiasm for the investigation. The agents, the letter read,
became somewhat frustrated. Their perception was there did not seem to be a sense of urgency by others to help locate an active duty Air Force member who was missing under suspicious circumstances.
Palmer left the meeting with three responsibilities and started to work right away. He contacted Budget Rent A Car at the San Angelo Regional Airport terminal. They reviewed their records, as well as the records of the other rental car agencies operating out of that facility. No one had rented a car to Michael Severance.
He then contacted Crime Analyst Melanie Schramm to request a search for any computer queries made in reference to Mike, or to either his truck or Wendi’s car. After that, Palmer put in a request for the cell phone records for the number listed in Mike’s name. An administrative subpoena was served on Sprint communication company on January 25.
That same day, the OSI agents interviewed Judy Davidson who said, “Mike hated the military and talked about going to Canada.” Lloyd repeated the comments made by his daughter and his wife. He mentioned that his employer, Terrell Sheen, owned more than a thousand acres that the family, including his son-in-law, could access at any time. “Maybe Mike is hiding out there,” he added.
Wendi faced additional concerns that Tuesday. She was served with papers from the court relating to her divorce petition. She was required—along with Mike—to attend and complete a Children’s Interest Seminar provided by For Kids’ Sake, a non-profit agency, within sixty days of her original filing.
Wendi and Lloyd both underwent a polygraph examination administered by Detective James Johnson, at the San Angelo Police Department, at the request of the Air Force. The results were inconclusive. One of Wendi’s attorneys leaked the information that she’d passed a lie detector test. It is uncertain if he was referring to the same polygraph examination. But there is a reason why the results of these exams are not admissible in many courtrooms. Although a nice addition to the arsenal of law enforcement’s collection of investigative tools, it is not perfect.
The instrument records three levels of autonomic arousal—heart rate/blood pressure, respiration and skin conductivity. But the idea that these psycho-physiology changes are constants and can accurately predict a person’s veracity is closer to myth than reality.
Whether the subject possesses guilty knowledge or not, results can reach a dead end with no conclusions possible. Innocent but anxious people are found deceptive. Sociopaths lie and are found to be truthful. In fact, the most trustworthy results often are created by the placebo effect—a person who believes in the infallibility of the testing is most likely to exhibit the types of changes in their readings that the examiner uses to gauge levels of deception.
The fallibility rate is believed by some to be only slightly more than chance. Even proponents of the device admit that many who administer the polygraph are inadequately or incompletely trained, skewing the results they obtain. Estimated accuracy rates range from 52 to 76 percent—not exactly conclusive indicators of honesty. It might sound like a scam, but some people advertising surefire methods for beating a lie detector test actually can help an interview subject do just that.
Wendi logged on to her computer and researched lie detector tests, looking for that kind of information. On January 26, she entered a search for details about the decomposition of dead bodies in water.
Wendi Davidson was an intelligent woman. But she had to doubt her own smarts when she found the information that pointed to her big mistake. The body she’d tossed in the stock tank would surely rise to the surface and reveal her secret.
She had to return to where she’d dumped the remains of her husband and cover up her error. She had no other choice.