Ex-Fiance Charged With North Andover Woman's Murder

NORTH ANDOVER, MA -- The Essex County District Attorney's office issued an arrest warrant for Brian Chevalier, 51, of Merrimack, NH, on murder charges. Chevalier was arrested and being held in Imperial County, CA, where he will appear in court Monday on a fugitive from justice charge. Chevalier is accused of murdering 49-year-old Wendi Rose Davidson, who was strangled and found Saturday in the basement of her North Andover home.

Monday's hearing and whether finds extradition will determine how quickly he is returned to Massachusetts. Chevalier was arrested on a New Hampshire parole violation charge and a Massachusetts larceny charge, according to Essex County DA Spokeswoman Carrie Kimball Monahan.

A preliminary investigation suggests Davidson was strangled. They also said that Davdison's death did not appear to be a random act. Davidson and Chevalier had gotten engaged on Valentine's Day. But a friend of Wendi Davidson said that engagement had been broken off earlier this month.

Davidson's funeral was scheduled for Friday morning in Tewksbury. The murder investigation started after Davidson's body was discovered by a neighbor on Saturday morning at 50 Lincoln Street. Investigators executed search warrants on the victim's apartment and motor vehicle, which was located at Choice Fitness, a short distance away from her home.

Police were called to a residence at 50 Lincoln Street at 12:28 pm Saturday by the woman's brother. Another woman who lived at 50 Lincoln Street had alerted Davidson's brother after finding her body in the basement of the multi-unit home.

Chevalier Was Released From Prison In December

In 2004 a jury convicted Chevalier of kidnapping. On December 29, 2003, a 33-year-old Jaffrey, NH woman came home from work to find Chevalier waiting for her. Chevalier, according to court records, attacked her and forced her into the bedroom. He then beat her, repeatedly sexually assaulted her and threatened to kill her.

For most of the next 21 hours, Chevalier kept her duct taped to the bed. Police said at one point Chevalier choked the woman until she passed out and told her he would kill her and "leave her body in a freezer in the basement of her house." The woman said he also tried to force her to buy plane tickets to California, saying he planned to flee there after he killed her.

At the time of the attack, Chevalier was on parole after serving a previous prison sentence for burglary. That sentence was extended when he attacked another inmate. During the 21-hour assault, Chevalier called his parole officer to tell him he would not be at the home in Merrimack, NH he shared with his mother that night because they had had an argument.

The victim said Chevalier was drunk for most of the time she was held captive. When he sobered up, she said, he pleaded with her to not tell police because he did not want to go back to jail. At 2:30 pm the next day he had the woman drive him to Blake Street in Jaffrey, where he had parked his vehicle.

The woman immediately reported the attack to police, who arrested Chevalier later that night at his home in Merrimack, NH and charged him with kidnapping, burglary, criminal threatening, reckless conduct and three counts of aggravated sexual assault.

The victim had dated Chevalier for about three months in 2003 but tried to break up with him him after a "violent incident" on December 19, 2003, according to court records.

In 2006, the State of New Hampshire Supreme Court denied Chevalier's appeal of his conviction. Chevalier argued the trial court erred when it denied his request to preserve a copy of the hard drive of the victim's computer to determine whether it contained exculpatory evidence. Chevalier had argued that the hard drive may have shown evidence of a previous interest in sexual bondage by his victim, which would have bolstered his argument that the sex and restraint was consensual.

"Even if we assume that the victim's computer might have contained materials related to sexual bondage, their presence was irrelevant to whether the victim consented to engage in this activity with the defendant on the night in question," the court wrote in its opinion. "Accordingly, we find no error in the trial court's ruling."
New Hampshire Corrections records show that Chevalier is no longer in custody. The earliest he could have been released, according to parole records, was December 14, 2017. Had be served his full sentence, Chevalier would have been released in December, 2037.

Engagement Had Been Broken Off

While Davidson's profile still said the couple was engaged at the time of her death, Chevalier's profile said he was single. Earlier this month he had begun asking for friends on Facebook if they knew of an apartment for rent in New Hampshire.

Davidson had two sons, one who lives in Tewksbury and one who lives in Danvers. She moved to North Andover four years ago and worked as a staff accountant at AHA Consulting and Engineering company in Lexington. Davidson grew up in Malden and Stoneham and graduated from Stoneham High School in 1987. Her father and step mother live in Tewksbury.

"She was the type of person who didn't want people worrying about her," the friend said. "No matter how bad her problems were, she'd downplay it and ask what she could do to help you with your problem."

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Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).