Pubdate: Fri, 12 Jul 2002
Source: Quad-City Times (IA)
Copyright: 2002 Quad-City Times
Contact:  http://www.qctimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/857
Author: Barb Ickes, Quad-City Times

DEATHS PUZZLE POLICE

East Moline police said they will continue today to try to unravel the 
mystery surrounding the sudden and simultaneous deaths of two men Wednesday 
in an East Moline home.

The men have been identified as Robert "Pap" Watson, 62, of Brookport, 
Ill., which is on the Illinois-Kentucky border, and Jeffry Davis, 43, of 
Aurora, Colo. Both men previously have lived in the Quad-City area and were 
visiting members of Watson's family, police said.

People living at the East Moline home declined comment when contacted 
Thursday by the Quad-City Times.

Rock Island County Coroner Sharon Anderson said she attended the men's 
autopsies Thursday and said it appears the results will be inconclusive for 
a cause of death.

"She believes the cause is going to be in the toxicology," Anderson's 
secretary, Beverly Boultinghouse, said Thursday afternoon as the autopsies 
were being completed.

Shortly after the men were found dead in a home at 1355 12th Ave., Anderson 
said she believes they died from a drug overdose. The circumstances 
surrounding the deaths were alarming, she said, because they suggest they 
might have been using a tainted street drug.

Toxicology tests, which are examinations of bodily fluids for alcohol and 
drugs of abuse, are to be performed in St. Louis. But the results generally 
are not available for about two weeks.

Meanwhile, police also are sending evidence they collected at the home to 
the state police crime lab in Morton, Ill., to hopefully learn what type of 
drug they might have been using. Those tests results can take longer than 
two weeks.

Police Lt. Bill DeVrieze said he spent much of the day Thursday 
interviewing people who could have had contact with the men before their 
deaths.

"We're trying to track down what happened leading up to this," he said.

One of the next steps, he said, is to look at their criminal histories. In 
Watson's case, DeVrieze said, police already were aware of a criminal 
record. That record includes a guilty plea in 1998 to cocaine possession, a 
felony, for which Watson was sentenced to two years probation and 120 days 
in the Rock Island County Jail.

At the time of his arrest, Watson's address was listed as 1534 8th Ave., 
East Moline, which is about six blocks from the location where he died.

Rock Island County court records indicate no criminal history for Davis in 
that county.

DeVreize said police department investigators are to meet today to decide 
how much information about the case should be released to the public. While 
information is typically kept private during investigations that could 
result in criminal charges, he said this case could be different.

"We need to decide what information, if any, is important for the public to 
know," he said. "It may be that we see something that should be put out there."