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| Scott Davis Now: Where Is the Survivor of the Craigslist Killer Case? |
Scott Davis was looking for a simple way to move closer to his unwell mother when a Craigslist job advertisement sent him into a nightmare he could never have anticipated. In November 2011, he travelled to Ohio for what appeared to be a farm caretaker position, only to discover that the man calling himself Jack was Richard Beasley, a man later convicted in a case involving multiple killings. Davis survived being shot and spent hours hiding from his attacker before eventually reaching a farmhouse and getting help.
Davis was living in Woodrow, South Carolina, with his fiancée when he began searching for work that would bring him nearer to his mother in Ohio. Her health problems had made the distance increasingly difficult, while his own search for employment had gone nowhere for months.
Then he spotted an advertisement on Craigslist offering work at a huge 688-acre farm in south-east Ohio, complete with around $300 a week and a trailer for accommodation. It sounded less like a career gamble and more like an unusually convenient escape route from his situation.
Davis decided the opportunity was worth taking. He was prepared to sell his business, relocate and live in a remote area if it meant being closer to his mother. On November 6, 2011, he met the man who introduced himself as Jack. A younger man accompanied him and was presented as Jack's nephew. Nothing about the meeting initially suggested that Davis had just walked into a situation where the job description really should have included an enormous warning label.
The men took Davis to a grocery shop and encouraged him to choose food for his stay. His purchases were loaded into a large van, but Jack reportedly said the muddy roads could make travelling in it difficult. Instead, Davis was told that they would drive to the farm in the younger man's car so he could see the property, with the implication that they would return for his belongings later. Jack also warned him that mobile phone service was limited around the farm.
Davis got into the car with the two men and initially still had phone reception. That changed when they turned on to Don Warner Road. According to Davis, Jack then said they had shot deer nearby and wanted to check the area. Davis followed them into the woods, apparently believing there was nothing particularly unusual about the detour.
The situation changed dramatically when Jack claimed they might have taken the wrong route and suggested turning around. Davis said he then heard a click. When he looked back, Jack was pointing a gun directly at him. Before Davis had time to properly understand what was happening, the man fired and struck him in the elbow.
Davis ran. He said he could hear the two men pursuing him, turning what had started as a job visit into a desperate fight to stay alive. Eventually, weakened by blood loss and the cold, he collapsed and could no longer get back to his feet. He believed moving would make him an easier target and feared that the men would shoot him again.
For around seven hours, Davis remained on the ground. The temperature was dropping, his body was becoming increasingly numb and he had no idea whether the attackers were still nearby. He later described believing that he would die there. Eventually, he forced himself to try again, managing to get up and run until he found a farmhouse.
Even then, the ordeal was not immediately over. Davis noticed hunting bows outside the property and worried that the people inside might somehow be connected to the men who had attacked him. He nevertheless approached the farmhouse and asked for help. Emergency services were contacted, and Davis was taken to hospital.
According to Davis, his initial account was met with scepticism. He said officers questioned his version of events and that he felt they were not taking what he had experienced seriously. That changed when Deb Bruce contacted the police after seeing reports about Davis being shot. She told authorities that her brother, Davis Pauley, had disappeared after travelling to the same area in connection with a job opportunity.
The connection became more significant when another man, Timothy Kern, was reported missing from the same area. Investigators began piecing together information that increasingly supported details Davis had provided from his hospital bed. His description of the supposed employer and the circumstances surrounding the shooting ultimately helped investigators identify the man behind the name Jack.
That man was Richard Beasley. Davis's testimony became an important part of the case, and he later appeared in court to describe the attack. Beasley maintained a different version of events and claimed Davis had been responsible for shooting him, but the court ultimately rejected that account. In February 2013, Davis testified during Beasley's trial.
Beasley was convicted of attempted murder in relation to Davis and three counts of aggravated murder. For Davis, however, the conclusion of the court case could not simply erase what had happened in those Ohio woods. He had gone looking for employment and a way to be closer to his mother, only to become the survivor of an attack connected to a much larger criminal investigation.
Davis has largely remained away from public attention since the trial, choosing a much quieter life rather than turning his experience into a permanent public identity. He has nevertheless appeared in documentary programmes, including I Lived with a Killer in 2019 and Oxygen's Mastermind of Murder, where his experience has been revisited.
There is something particularly unsettling about Davis's story because the danger did not arrive wearing an obvious disguise. It came packaged as a job advertisement, a weekly wage and a place to stay. On paper, it was exactly the sort of opportunity someone trying to rebuild their life might seriously consider. The fact that Davis questioned what was happening, kept trying to escape and ultimately survived makes his account all the more striking.
My informal take is that Davis's story is a reminder of how quickly an ordinary decision can become something completely beyond anyone's expectations. He was not heading into the woods looking for trouble; he was effectively going for a job interview with a man who had managed to make a remote farm sound like a perfectly reasonable workplace. The most frustrating part is that Davis did what many people would do when an opportunity appears: he trusted the information in front of him and hoped it would improve his circumstances.
Then reality decided to deliver the worst possible plot twist. What stands out most is his determination after being badly injured and left in the cold for hours. Surviving the attack was one thing, but continuing to push for his account to be taken seriously was another. His story also shows why his decision to stay largely private afterwards makes sense. He survived something extraordinary, but he does not owe the public a lifetime of explanations about it.
Davis's story remains one of those cases where the most remarkable detail is simply that he made it out alive. What do you make of his decision to keep such a low profile after the trial, and had you come across his story before watching the documentary episodes?