Victim Offered Harrowing Account Of Night With Accused Killer

NORTH ANDOVER, MA — Even as Brian Chevalier ordered a Jaffrey, NH woman to drive him back to his car on the afternoon of December, 30, 2003, she worried that he would make good on his threat to kill her. For the previous 21 hours, Chevalier held her hostage in her own home. He repeatedly raped and beat her and had told her he was going to kill her and hide her body in the basement of the house she and her 8-year-old daughter were sharing with her ex-husband.

While stopped at a traffic light on that short, terrifying ride, the woman contemplated crashing her Jeep into a parked car and fleeing on foot, according to testimony during Chevalier's 2004 trial on 11 counts related to the incident. Chevalier was acquitted on 10 of the charges but found guilty of the most serious charge, kidnapping. He was eventually sentenced to 10 to 30 years in prison.

"And then the light changed and the moment was gone," she testified.

The woman now lives in the southeastern United States -- a move prompted by her lingering fear of Chevalier. Chevalier is in custody in California and fighting extradition to face charges that he murdered 49-year-old Wendi Davidson, his ex-fiance, on April 21 in her North Andover home.

Once the Jaffrey woman pulled into the parking lot where Chevalier had parked his truck, he got out of the Jeep and walked around to the driver's side. He opened the door and the woman, fearing he was going to pull her out of the driver seat, threw the Jeep into reverse and leaned on the horn. Chevalier jumped on top of her and jammed his thumb down her throat. Chevalier slammed her into the steering column and threatened to shoot her.

He said "if I did anything else to draw attention to us while we were on the road, that he would basically bust open my eye sockets with his fist," the woman testified.

The woman could not be reached for comment. But court records give a complete account of the night that has striking parallels to the evidence released so far in Davidson's murder. When Chevalier came up for parole last year, the woman submitted a victim's statement saying that she still feared Chevalier and that she believed he had colluded with other inmates "to finish the job of killing me."

Chevalier Continued To Attack Victim In Court

Since that night in late 2003 the woman's life has been radically altered. She did not publish her engagement announcement and has no presence on social media. In her letter to the parole board last year she said she "has never been able to relax" and her daughter had to watch her go through life emotionless, "working hard to get through even small stressors I am no longer equipped to handle."

At Chevalier's trial, his defense team tried to ruin the woman's credibility. They built a case saying that the sex was consensual and that she only claimed she was kidnapped when her ex-husband came home unexpectedly. The two had continued to live together for financial reasons but had agreed to start seeing other people with the one rule being she would not bring new boyfriends to their home.

On appeal, Chevalier's attorneys used the 10 acquittals as evidence that the jury believed the woman's story lacked credibility. A private investigator analyzed the victim's statement and concluded it contained "obvious signs of deception." At his parole hearing, Chevalier maintained his innocence, saying his attorneys "proved all her lies" during the trial and that the letter sent to the parole board was also a lie.

"I did not hold her against her will, I did not rape her, or anything," he said.

A 21-Hour Ordeal

The woman told police she and Chevalier met on a dating Website and dated for about three months, but she tried to break up with him after a "violent incident" on December 19, 2003. Chevalier broke into the woman's home on a night her husband and daughter were expected to be away. When she came home from work at 5:20 pm, he jumped out from behind a door. He choked her and forced her to the floor, then dragged her to the bedroom and forced her to perform oral sex on him, according to court records.

For most of the next 21 hours, the woman was bound to her bed with duct tape and cable ties. Chevalier periodically released her when the phone rang and led her to the kitchen to check the answering machine. 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 the woman's husband came home. Chevalier had the woman drive him to Blake Street in Jaffrey, where he had parked his vehicle.

The woman immediately went to Cheshire District Court in Jaffrey. Police were called and after taking a statement from the woman, they arrested Chevalier later that night at his home in Merrimack, NH. Initially, Chevalier was charged him with kidnapping, burglary, criminal threatening, reckless conduct and three counts of aggravated sexual assault.

Paroled Despite Lingering Fears

At his sentencing in 2005, Assistant Cheshire County Attorney Kathleen O'Reilly said Chevalier posed "a substantial threat to any woman he comes in contact with" when she asked a judge to impose a sentence normally reserved for convicted murderers in New Hampshire. The judge concurred, but last March Chevalier was released to a halfway house. He was paroled in December, the earliest date he was eligible for parole. Shortly after his release he signed up for an online dating service and met Davidson. The two began dating and were engaged on Valentine's Day.

"She knew about his past," one of Davidson's close friends told Patch. "I'm just not sure how much she knew."

At some point between their Feb. 14 engagement and early April, Davidson started to have second thoughts. She told another friend that he was controlling and prone to angry outbursts. Her son did a deeper search into his past and learned all the lurid details of the crime he had been convicted of. In late March or early April, the friend said, Davidson tried to cool things off with Chevalier and called off the engagement.

The victim of Chevalier's 2003 attack, who also tried to break up with him, said he choked her until she passed out. Davidson, investigators said, was strangled.

The victim of Chevalier's 2003 attack said he told her he was going to kill her and hide her body in a freezer in the basement of her home. Davidson's body was found in the basement of her home.

The victim of Chevalier's 2003 attack said he wanted her to buy him plane tickets to San Diego so he could go to Mexico, where he planned to flee after he killed her. Last week he was captured in Mexico just over the border from San Diego. He is now being held in an Imperial County, CA holding facility.

"I have no belief in the judicial process anymore," the victim of Chevalier's 2003 attack wrote in her 2017 letter to the parole board.

More on this story:

• Meet The Men Who Tried To Free The Accused North Andover Killer (5/1/2018)
• Accused Killer Still On West Coast, DA Seeks Gov.'s Warrant(4/30/2018)
• Accused Killer's Record Of Violence Against Women Started In 1990 (4/29/2018)
• North Andover Victim Met Alleged Killer On Dating Site(4/28/2018)
• Ex-Fiance Charged With North Andover Woman's Murder(4/27/2018)
• Murder Victim's Fiance Kidnapped Ex-Girlfriend In 2003(4/24/2018)
• North Andover Murder Victim Was "Kind, Caring" (4/23/2018)
• North Andover Homicide Victim Was Strangled (4/22/2018)
• Police Investigating Homicide In North Andover (4/21/2018)

Never miss another local news story: Get free local news alerts right to your inbox.

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