Myrtle Beach police ask for help in cold-case murder

By Jody Barr
WBTW News 13 Reporter
Published: October 15, 2008

Myrtle Beach Police hope someone saw something on Oct. 23, 2003 that will lead them to a killer in a deadly armed robbery inside a convenience store.

Detectives with the Myrtle Beach Police department’s cold case division plan to hand out fliers asking for information in the shooting death of store clerk, 43-year-old James Davis, who a customer found dead behind the counter at around 3 a.m. the morning of the killing.

“We’re getting these pamphlets out here. We’re talking to the neighbors and hopefully with that, it’ll be a renewed effort for us to solving this case; bring justice to Jim Davis’, bring closure to Jim Davis’ mother,” Myrtle Beach detective Tony Lever said Wednesday.

Investigators will be out for several hours Wednesday as the five-year anniversary of the killing approaches.

The shooting happened at the Pantry store at the intersection of 34th Avenue North and Kings Highway in Myrtle Beach.

“I’m thankful the lord allowed me to have him 43 years and I miss him,” Jim Davis’ mother Miriam Davis said Wednesday.

“I was never a closed case, police have been following up clues and leads in and out of the state, Davis said of the work Lever and Byrd have put into the case over the years, “This renews it and I’m thankful for it.”

Davis said she was proud of her son and that he was proud of his family and that her son adopted a daughter, was the father of two boys.

The Davis’ sold their North Carolina home in 2001 and moved to Myrtle Beach where Jim Davis’ father died a week after the move to Horry County, according to Miriam.

On Dec. 13, 2003 Pantry owners offered up a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Davis’ killer and the reward stands today, according to Lever.

Investigators indentified a man they believe killed Davis and described him as black male, 6-feet tall, of average to heavy build, with short wavy dark hair and possible stubble/facial hair, according to a release from the department.

Police think the suspect was wearing a white tank-top with a puffy down red vest, baggy pants the night of the killing.

Investigators think the man who killed Davis was driving a dark in color two-door hatchback.

Miriam Davis said her son’s family and friends have a memorial service planned for Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. at the Trinity Presbyterian Church on Glenns Bay Road.

If you have any information about the murder, you’re asked to call the Myrtle Beach Police Department at 843-918-1908.

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