SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) – Investigators searched the home and veterinary clinic of the widow of an airman after toxicology tests on his body found high levels of a drug that can be used to euthanize animals.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Michael Leslie Severance’s body was found tied to cinder blocks at the bottom of a West Texas stock tank last month. The 24-year-old Maine native’s death has been ruled a homicide.
His wife, Wendi Davidson, was free on bond Thursday on a charge of tampering with evidence.
According to an affidavit filed Wednesday in state district court, Lubbock County Chief Medical Examiner Sridhar Natarajan told investigators that toxicology tests found high levels of pentobarbital, a sedative that can be prescribed to humans to relieve anxiety and fight insomnia. The drug also can be used to euthanize animals.
The tests also found a similar drug called phenobarbital, court records show.
San Angelo police spokesman Lt. Curtis Milbourn said in Friday’s edition of the San Angelo Standard-Times that he didn’t know whether either drug was prescribed to Severance.
Police were still waiting for a final autopsy report.
Department of Public Safety officers took four bottles of phenobarbital tablets from Davidson’s veterinary clinic this week, as well as two unidentified pill bottles and documents related to the administration of the drugs to various animals, according to the affidavit.
Davidson referred the newspaper to her attorney, Tom Davidson, who declined to comment. The two are not related.
Authorities say Wendy Davidson told her brother she found her husband dead in bed on Jan. 15 and hid his body, fearing that someone in her family had killed him. She reported him missing on Jan. 16 and filed for divorce the next day.
Severance was stationed at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene and served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The couple married on Sept. 21 and have a 6-month-old son. Davidson’s parents and Severance’s father have filed for custody, and that dispute is pending in court.
AP-ES-04-14-05 2205EDT
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