Julie Bell Davis

As part of the ongoing “Cold Case Thursdays” series, WHO-TV Channel 13’s Aaron Brilbeck will report tonight on the unsolved August 1997 Julie Bell Davis slaying.

Davis, a 33-year-old Marion, Iowa, mother of two, was found August 28, 1997, in the Skyline Display’s satellite office in east downtown Des Moines where she worked. Her throat had been slashed and she had been stabbed multiple times in the chest.

Brilbeck’s story includes an interview with former Des Moines Police Department detective Craig Hamilton, one of the lead detectives who worked Davis’ case. Hamilton retired from the DMPD in 2007.

At the time of her death, Davis had just posted one of her best months ever in selling trade-show displays through her company’s Cedar Rapids and Des Moines offices. The office where she was slain was in a new business park between the state Department of Economic Development and the Botanical Center.

Police believe the last contact Davis had with anyone was an afternoon telephone conversation with an employee of Skyline Display’s Cedar Rapids office, 419 First St. SE. Davis routinely traveled to Des Moines once or twice a week to conduct business at the showroom, though the office was open only a couple days a week and by appointment only.

A Prairie High School graduate, Julie Bell Davis was married to Frank Davis, a Cedar Rapids firefighter. The couple had two sons, ages 3 and 5. Davis’ husband was ruled out as a suspect early in the investigation.

The case remains open today.

If you have any information regarding this case please call the Des Moines Police Department at 515-283-4800.