On June 29, 2009, Brian Davis disappeared. According to his wife, Robyn, and her best friend, Carol Saltzman, Brian had left to go boat shopping and never came home. Police soon began to suspect the women when an examination of their cell phone records convinced police that they were lying. The two were both charged with murder when Brian was found shot to death alongside his car on an isolated road in St. Charles, LA. “48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty reports. This classic "48 Hours" episode last aired on 4/13/2013. Watch all-new episodes of “48 Hours” on Saturdays, and stream on demand on Paramount+. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What happened to Brian Davis on June 29, 2009?
I can remember the phone call when she first went out with him. She's like, you're not going to believe this. What? I went out with this guy, Brian, that I work with. And I was like, yeah, call me back and let me know how that works out for you.
It did work out, at least for the most part. They married in 2008 after a four-year courtship.
I was happy. I was at home. And, you know, he was working. And for the first time in my life, I just worried about him. Nothing.
I mean, just nothing. It was Brian's third marriage, Robin's second. And combined, they had six children. Robin had two. Brian had four. How would you describe him, Cissy?
Loud and proud. I mean, he was funny. He was a great dad, too. I mean, he's a people person, you know, people person. Every way he went, he talked to somebody about something. He knew something about everything.
To everyone who knew him, including his younger brother Scott, Brian was a man who loved a good time.
He always had a smile on his face. He had fun whether it was work or whether it was play. He laughed about it.
But sometimes, Brian's idea of fun got in the way of his marriages. Brian had an eye for other women, and he didn't just look. So he wasn't always faithful? No.
He had been caught twice in Baton Rouge before they ever moved here.
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Chapter 2: How did Brian's family react to his disappearance?
When Robin and Brian arrived at the scene, the sheriff says one or both of the women shot and killed him. And why would Robin want her husband dead? The oldest reason in the world. Money. More than $600,000 in insurance payouts.
It's a substantial amount of money. It's certainly motive for murder, in our opinion.
Investigators discovered that Robin had recently lost her job. Her love for video poker had racked up gambling debts, and she and Brian were on the verge of losing their home. Robin says those alleged motives are nonsense.
Well, I'm not gonna tell you that I never gambled, but we gambled together. Brian and I gambled together. That's not the problem.
And then, what is Cissy's motive for murder?
I think she just had that close of a relationship with Robin. I mean, that's a good friend. There's no question. There's no question. She did not crack.
Finally, after a six-month investigation, police formally charged Robin Davis and Cissy Saltzman with murder. What did this case become known to all of you?
Well, we called it the Thelma and Louise case, obviously because of the movie.
The movie is a tale of two women friends.
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Chapter 3: What evidence led police to suspect Robin and Sissy?
What else bothered you? Brian, who's very meticulous about everything. Why in the world would he even drive his car down that bumpy, horrible road on a flat tire?
Okay, Ms. Davis, we need to get back to the cell phone thing.
Jurors also had to deal with other troubling contradictions in Robin's story.
Look at her cell phone records. She says she called him right after he left. That's a lie. She also said, I left voicemails for him, several voicemails, not a single voicemail from his wife.
Jurors heard from experts who say those same cell phone records put the women at the crime scene.
Our experts from the FBI will show that both of them were at or near the crime scene at the time of the death.
When we make the calls, we need to make sure and document where we are, what time it is.
But the defense performed its own tests of the cell phone signals. What can happen, says investigator Aaron Miller, is that when one tower becomes overloaded, cell phone signals sometimes bounce to another tower. You just can't pinpoint someone's position, and especially in a more rural area like this. However, their unscientific results could not be admitted as evidence at trial.
I would cringe if that piece of evidence sent someone to the penitentiary.
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Chapter 7: What were the charges against Robin and Sissy?
Kelsey's gonna be all right. I mean, their support system is just phenomenal. And like Sunday, I called Kelsey and they had just gotten back from the family dinner that we do every Sunday. And it's like, my life is where it's supposed to be and it's moving on, but I'm not in it. I'm here and I don't know why I'm here.
And what about Sissy, whose friendship with Robin landed her behind bars? How do you have that smile on your face? I don't know.
It's all I can do. My worst nightmares come true. From day one, I said, the two things that scare me the most is that my life is hanging on the bingo of a cell phone tower and there's 12 people that's gonna judge me that don't know me.
Sissy Saltzman and Robin Davis are serving their time in the same facility. They see each other briefly in the jail's church. But the women are determined to hold on to what they say matters the most.
Nope.
So your friendship will survive all of this?
Oh, I would hope so. I would really be pissed if it didn't.
My brother's in a tomb. He doesn't get to wake up and walk this earth anymore. Until the day that I die, those two will be the ones who are responsible for my brother's murder.
The first season of Georgie and Mandy is a bona fide hit. Be cool, okay? We don't say it out loud. Hmm, okay. Can we just say it's great?
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