How an NC police officer became a suspect in Garner teen’s unsolved killing
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- Court records show a Four Oaks officer was identified as a suspect in a 2004 homicide.
- Joshua Davis was 16 years old when he was found dead on the side of the road.
- The officer’s former spouse tipped off police in 2010, according to court records.
Sixteen years after the former spouse of a Four Oaks police officer tipped off investigators, that officer is now considered a suspect in the 2004 death of Garner teenager Joshua Davis, court records show.
The News & Observer isn’t naming the police officer because they haven’t been charged with a crime as of Wednesday morning. Newly released search warrants show the officer’s Benson home was searched March 31, with investigators seizing an iPhone and laptop.
Davis was 16 years old when his cousin found him dead Jan. 6, 2004, on the side of the road, The N&O previously reported. The two boys had been walking from Davis’s mother’s house to his father’s house to play basketball when the cousin returned to the home to retrieve a CD. In the minutes that passed between the cousin’s departure and return, Davis was killed by a blow to the head, which detectives have previously theorized occurred when a car struck the teen.
Garner police renewed a call for tips from the public in January, stating they’d received new information “that merited follow-up,” a detective told The N&O then. The search warrants released Wednesday indicate investigators began digging into the Four Oaks officer in September. The officer was not working as a police officer at the time of Davis’ death.
The town of Four Oaks had not responded to The N&O’s request for comment Wednesday.
Detectives with the Garner Police Department and State Bureau of Investigation interviewed the officer Sept. 22, 2025, according to the warrants.
During that interview, the officer said they knew their former spouse had implicated them in the murder, the warrants state.
“After the interview, extensive follow-up was conducted that resulted in numerous inconsistencies in [the officer’s] statements both in 2004 and 2025,” the warrants state.
The officer’s former spouse originally tipped off police in 2010, according to the warrants. ABC11, The N&O’s newsgathering partner, reported in 2010 that the tipster learned of the spouse’s possible involvement in 2009.
In the ABC11 story from 15 years ago, the tipster says their former spouse told them they were driving that night with two passengers and smoking marijuana. According to ABC11, one of the passengers said, “There’s that guy” and directed the now-officer to pull up next to the teen. That’s when the passenger allegedly hit Davis with a baseball bat before the now-officer sped away, according to ABC11’s story.
It’s not clear from new court documents if the tipster in search warrants is the former spouse cited in the ABC11 article from 2010.
The police officer’s former spouse was interviewed again in November “and gave a consistent statement from (the) 2010 tip,” search warrants state. At that point, the officer “was identified as a suspect in the homicide, and a follow-up interview was sought.”
The warrants allege the officer didn’t cooperate with investigators’ interview request and only wanted to be interviewed at the Four Oaks Police Department in Johnston County.
After being informed the interview needed to be conducted elsewhere, the officer said they would consider it and would call the SBI the following week. That didn’t occur.
An SBI agent called and texted the officer Feb. 16 but did not get a response, according to the warrants. Investigators then decided to audit the officer’s CJLeads account. CJLeads is a law enforcement database that provides personal information on people using records pulled from the DMV, criminal histories and other sources. It is illegal to use it for non-law enforcement purposes.
Warrants show the officer used the account to seek information on their former spouse the same day the SBI agent contacted them.
A search warrant for the officer’s Benson home was initially granted March 24, but was returned unexecuted after two days. Investigators ultimately seized an iPhone and Dell laptop from the officer’s home March 31.
Rumors swirled in the months after Davis’s death that he had been killed with a baseball bat by a rival as the rival drove past Davis, according to a March 2004 article from The N&O.
“Joshua was described as good-humored, likeable and well-dressed young man who was popular with girls at Garner High School,” The N&O wrote.
The N&O submitted a records request to the town of Four Oaks on April 15 for the officer’s personnel records. That request had not been filled as of Wednesday morning, but WRAL reported April 17 the officer had been suspended from the force.
No one had been arrested in Davis’s death as of Wednesday morning.
This story was originally published April 22, 2026 at 11:36 AM with the headline "How an NC police officer became a suspect in Garner teen’s unsolved killing."
