Teenager Brutally Murders His Own Mother!
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Let's get into today's case. Today, we are going to be discussing the very disturbing murder of Melanie Davis.
Who was Melanie Davis and what was her family background?
Melanie Davis was born February 11th, 1967 in Australia before she moved across the world to Bowling Green, Kentucky before moving the family to the quiet small town of Hendersonville, Tennessee. From there, she became married to her husband, Chris Davis. Melanie worked as a paralegal and in her free time, she trained for triathlons. She absolutely loved being active and fit. Chris and Melanie then went on to have two sons, Josh and Zachary. Josh was born in 1996 and Zach was born in July of 1997. By all accounts, Melanie and Chris did their absolute best to raise their boys in a stable, loving home. They were your classic picture of your typical middle-class family. Chris and Melanie loved each other and they made sure to show their sons how much they loved them.
Now, growing up, Josh was known as being outgoing, talkative, and easy to get along with. Meanwhile, his little brother Zachary, he was known for being a bit of a loner, he was quiet, and he didn't have too many friends of his own. But despite their differences in personalities, Josh and Zach were always very close with one another. But tragedy struck this happy, close-knit family when Zach was only nine years old. Chris had been diagnosed with amyotropic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. ALS is a rare debilitating neurological disease that attacks your motor neurons within your brain and spinal cord that leads to progressive muscle weakness and eventual paralysis. This disease is progressive and starts with a patient having weakness in their arms and legs
until they eventually become unable to walk or get out of bed. They lose their ability to chew food or speak or swallow, and eventually the patient's diaphragm and other respiratory muscles become affected, which leads to inability to breathe on their own, which ends up with them being ventilated. This is an incurable disease at this point, and most patients die within two to five years of diagnosis, though some patients live as many as 10 years or longer. So truly, it's a debilitating, awful, nasty disease. And unfortunately, Chris died of ALS when his sons were only 9 and 10 years old. His death had a truly devastating effect on the family. Zach fell into a deep depression and those around him started to notice a very obvious shift in his behavior.
First, his grandmother Gail Kahn, she noticed that he became very withdrawn during this time. Then, a teacher of Zach's talked to Melanie because Zach had been drawing disturbing images in school. This included images of people being blown up and things like that. So, because of these notable shifts in behavior, Zach started to receive psychiatric care. Zach first started seeing a psychiatrist named Dr. Bradley Freeman from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. At first, Zach had a hard time opening up about his feelings and telling Dr. Freeman what was going on. He hardly even answered his questions at first. However, he did eventually open up to him about how deep of a depression he was in. He also told Dr. Freeman that he was hearing voices of his father in his head.
But at first, Dr. Freeman thought that this wasn't too far from normal things that someone in that deep of a depression could experience. Hearing his father's voice in his head seems like pretty normal right after the loss of his father. It seemed like a coping mechanism that he was going through. Either way, because of the mental health struggles that Zach was facing, he was prescribed Zoloft to help him manage his symptoms. But it seemed that pretty quickly after his therapy started, Melanie pulled him out. I haven't seen exactly what happened, but court documents list that Melanie was angry with Dr. Freeman for whatever reason, so she stopped having Zach receive therapy from him. In the months and years that followed, Zach's depression seemed to just get worse.
Zach stopped showering, only cleaning himself once in a while.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:08
2
Who was Melanie Davis and what was her family background?
0:08–9:54
3
How did the death of Chris (ALS) affect Zachary’s behavior and mental health?
9:54–17:03
4
What events and symptoms led Zachary to receive psychiatric care as a child?
17:03–32:45