Police Tie LAX Death to Suicide of Marine

LOS ANGELES — Angry over his former lover’s refusal to terminate her pregnancy, a married El Toro Marine killed the woman and set her car ablaze at the Los Angeles International Airport last month, police said Wednesday.

The body of Stacey Janelle Horst, 29, of Huntington Beach, herself a former El Toro Marine, was found badly charred and still attached to her near-full-term fetus by the umbilical cord April 15.

The female fetus was about 8 months old, authorities said.

Police linked Lance Cpl. Jonathan A. Davis, 21, of Sacramento to her killing after investigators searched Horst’s home and found legal papers indicating she had filed a paternity suit against him in March, Los Angeles Police Department Det. Bill Cox said.

Last Thursday, Davis fatally shot himself in the chest in Sutter County with a military firearm, authorities said. Hours before Davis’ suicide, his friends and relatives had reported him missing to the Sacramento Police Department, indicating he was armed and possibly suicidal, authorities said.

Davis apparently had been worried that the paternity suit might ruin his military career, because adultery is grounds for a military discharge, said Pete Waack of the Los Angeles police.

Davis, a military police dispatcher who had lived on base with his wife and their 4-year-old son, was served with the lawsuit March 20 and had 30 days to respond.

“[Horst] wanted to keep this child,” Waack said. “He didn’t want anything to do with it.”

Waack said Horst was very open about their affair, while Davis pushed her to have an abortion. Waack said Davis’ wife knew about her husband’s romantic ties to Horst, but she believed the affair had ended and that Horst had terminated the pregnancy.

“He didn’t admit to [his wife] that he was the father of that child until right before he killed himself,” Waack said, adding that Davis apparently had had other affairs.

On April 30, detectives interviewed Davis at his home at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. He told detectives he had been at home with his son the evening Horst’s body was found, but he asked few questions about the circumstances of her death.

“He really wasn’t that interested,” Cox said of Davis. “[He was] very calm, detached.”

As part of their investigation, police and airport authorities studied video images of cars that entered or departed LAX the day Horst’s car was found. They saw images of Horst’s Suzuki and of Davis’ car, a Honda that belongs to his wife.

Horst’s car entered the airport shortly after 3 p.m., while Davis’ car appeared at 7:40 p.m. and departed about 25 minutes later. Smoke from the fire was first reported about 7:45 p.m., authorities said. Preliminary investigations indicate that Horst was dead before her car was set afire, police said.

On May 15, investigators flew to Sacramento and interviewed Davis’ wife. The next day, El Toro officials reported that Davis had disappeared without authorization and had not turned in his weapon or ammunition.

Early that afternoon, a warden with the state Department of Fish and Game approached Davis’ Pontiac, parked near a fishing spot in rural Sutter County, known locally as Beer Can Beach.

“This area is very, very rural,” said Jim Denney of the Sutter County Sheriff’s Department. “It’s mainly farms. There’s no street addresses or anything like that around there. People call it Beer Can Beach because local kids go out there for parties.”

Although Davis told the warden he was OK, the officer returned to his vehicle, radioed in Davis’ license plate number and learned that he was considered armed, dangerous and possibly suicidal, authorities said.

After calling for backup, the officer returned to the car and asked Davis to put his hands up. Davis raised his hands and then his body slumped down. Police said Davis had already shot himself near the heart with a military-issue handgun.

Davis joined the Marine Corps in February 1993. No disciplinary actions had ever been taken against him, El Toro base spokesman Sgt. Matthew Fitzgerald said.

Horst, also a former lance corporal, was assigned to El Toro in March 1995, her fifth year in the service, government records show. At the base, she reported to Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 11 as a supply clerk.

Lance Cpl. Brooke Born, who worked with Horst in the base’s supply warehouse, said Horst was very excited after she learned she was pregnant.

“She was looking forward to having a family,” said Born, who lost touch with Horst after she left the service last November.

Born said Horst never made it a secret that she was seeing Davis. She talked about him frequently and gushed about “how good-looking he was.”

Horst, however, had told Born that Davis was not happy about the baby.

“She told me that he said he didn’t want her to have it, that he already had a kid,” Born said.

Times staff writer Tracy Weber contributed to this report.