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Double Homicide Turns Into a 16-Year-Long Manhunt for a Violent Killer
N.Y.P.D. detectives search for a man wanted for his sister's fatal shooting and the possible abduction of his estranged girlfriend.
Homicide detectives with the N.Y.P.D. became part of an international manhunt when a suspect was accused of killing his sister and possibly abducting his estranged girlfriend.
It began on the night of July 8, 2002, at around 10:30 p.m., when officers were dispatched to what was believed to be a non-urgent call in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Now-retired N.Y.P.D. Sgt. Jim Fox for the 71st Precinct was on patrol in the area and responded to the call, believing a woman might require minor medical assistance.
Fox and his partner entered the woman’s apartment and headed toward the back room, lit only by a television screen.
“It turns out to be a bedroom, and as I enter the bedroom, I see a woman lying on the bed,” Fox told New York Homicide, airing Saturdays at 9/8c on Oxygen. “So, I call out to her. I get no response, and as I step into the room, I see the bullet wound in the back of her head.”
A closer inspection revealed the woman, later identified as Patricia Neverson, also sustained a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
RELATED: How a Retired Cop’s Murder Helped the NYPD Catch a Pair of Violent Spree Killers
Earlier that evening and just a few miles away, Patricia’s son, Akim Neverson, spoke with his mother, agreeing they would meet for Akim’s basketball game. Patricia never showed up, and Akim left for his maternal grandfather’s home.
Akim walked in on his grandfather in the middle of a “frantic” call with his son, Andre Neverson.
“I hear him saying, ‘Andre, how could you do that? That’s your sister, that’s your sister,’” Akim told New York Homicide. The grandfather told Akim he couldn’t get ahold of Patricia, and when Akim tried calling, he kept getting a busy signal.
Akim said he “had a bad feeling” and ran from his grandfather’s house to the crime scene, where police had already found his mother dead.
It was the grandfather’s call to police that alerted cops to Patricia’s home. His grandfather would later tell police on the scene that his son confessed to the shooting.
Who were Patricia and Andre Neverson?
Patricia grew up in a rough neighborhood in Trinidad before immigrating to the United States for a better life at 22. She was a single mother with close-knit ties with her relatives, including her brother, Andre.
“She always wanted to show us that if you want something, you just have to push towards it,” said Akim. “’And don’t let anybody tell you [that] you can’t do it.’”
Making her way, Patricia sometimes had to lean on loved ones, like Andre, whom Akim once referred to as his “favorite uncle.” But those closest to the Neversons described Andre — an intelligent nightclub D.J. with a bodybuilder physique — as having a bad temper and little impulse control. This was illustrated in 1992 when Andre was sentenced to five years in prison for attempting to kill his former girlfriend’s uncle by shooting him five times.
Why would Andre fatally shoot his sister?
While Andre was in prison for attempting to kill his girlfriend’s uncle, he was awarded a $20,000 judgment stemming from an unrelated accident involving an ambulance. Andre agreed that Patricia could take the money and use it to buy a house, with plans that she’d repay him once he was paroled.
Instead, Andre was deported to Trinidad upon his release. In an attempt to help, Patricia and friends gathered thousands of dollars to have a fake Jamaican passport forged so that Andre could return to America.
But things soon soured once Andre was back in the house. According to detectives, Andre wanted the residence in his name, which wouldn’t have been possible because of his illegal status in the country and his violating parole. He also refused to accept payback money from his sister.
“Every day he’s in this house, he gets more and more burned that he gave the money,” said Magaddino. “It just seems like Andre just snapped."
Andre Neverson’s Estranged Girlfriend Goes Missing
Word soon spread around the neighborhood that Patricia had been murdered, and Andre was the sole suspect. Things took a twist when parents Clyde and Daisy Davis approached officers still on the scene, concerned about the whereabouts of their daughter, Donna Davis.
According to Mr. and Mrs. Davis, Donna and Andre were in the process of breaking up. However, concerns grew when Donna failed to return from school that day. Witnesses from Donna’s school would later state they saw Donna getting into a blue Dodge Caravan driven by Andre, but there was a question as to whether Donna left of her own volition.
“If he did something to this magnitude, there’s no way he didn’t calculate it,” Akim remembered telling the police. “If he’s gonna kill someone, he’s not gonna have a little hole-in-the-wall story; it’s gonna be something well thought out, it’s gonna be financially secured so he could do it.”
On July 10, 2002, just two days after Patricia’s murder, police found Andre’s blue Dodge Caravan abandoned near Canarsie Park, Brooklyn. Inside was a bloodied yellow t-shirt, blood stains on the floor, and a broken earring, all of which belonged to Donna Davis.
A vast search ensued at the 132-acre park and its surrounding bay, when Donna’s mother, Daisy, called the 71st Precinct that same day, reporting they received a letter in the mail from Andre.
“Andre sends Daisy Davis this three-page letter telling her how she screwed up the relationship between both of them,” according to Capt. Magaddino.
Any hopes of finding Donna were dashed when, on July 11, a dogwalker found the missing woman’s body in a vacant lot about three miles northeast of Canarsie Park. She was shot in the back of the head at point-blank range.
It was determined she died the same night as Patricia.
“She was a very loving person. She liked music, she liked to dance,” Clyde Davis told New York Homicide in broken English. “I tried my best to give her everything that she wanted. I told her that I would give my life to take care your life.”
A Large-Scale Manhunt Ensues
It was all hands on deck in the search for Andre Neverson, with even Interpol and the U.S. Marshals Service involved in the manhunt. Authorities, such as U.S. Marshal Manny Puri, feared Andre — who used many aliases — used his fake Jamaican passport to flee the country.
“Every time we got a lead, it kind of branched out further and further,” said Puri.
Popular T.V. show America’s Most Wanted featured Andre’s case. Still, he seemed just one step ahead of authorities, even as they spoke with his numerous associates, relatives, and ex-girlfriends. Detectives got close, however, when the mother of one of Andre’s children — a nurse at a local hospital — said she found a plastic bag hanging from her car’s rearview mirror after leaving work.
Inside was a two-way portable radio and a note from Andre that stated, “Keep me on,” according to N.Y.P.D. Detective Pete Margraf.
The ex-girlfriend notified hospital security, who in turn called 911. But by the time police arrived, Andre was gone once again.
Two months later, Andre broke into the same woman’s home, crawling through a window in an attempt to see his daughter. The woman’s brother called police, reporting Andre was armed with a gun, but Andre fled just minutes before the cops arrived.
Once again, the double homicide suspect was on the lam.
“We tried everything we could to find out the identity of the passport because we had no idea what alias he was using at this time,” according to U.S. Marshal Puri. “So, I think that’s how he was able to stay one step ahead.”
Subsequent leads revolved around Andre fleeing the country. Authorities, including Puri and Margraf, even flew to Trinidad to inquire about Andre, but to no avail.
The trail went cold for the next 16 years.
Investigators Finally Arrest Double Homicide Suspect Andre Neverson
There was little to no movement in the case until September 2018, when — to everyone’s surprise — Andre was arrested on a reckless driving charge in Connecticut, about 60 miles northeast of Brooklyn.
“We’re thinking he’s in Trinidad, we’re thinking all these other things, but he’s living right here,” said Patricia’s son, Akim Neverson.
Connecticut officials brought Andre in for the traffic charges. However, they released him one hour later, just before learning that his fingerprints matched those of a wanted man. There was a chance that Andre fled again, but when investigators tracked the Connecticut address left with officers, they were in for a surprise.
“Lo and behold, Andre’s doing work in the front yard,” said U.S. Marshal Puri. “And they finally take him into custody.”
More surprising for authorities was that Andre had a 16-year-old daughter in Connecticut.
In 2021, Andre was tried at the Brooklyn Supreme Court, where he was convicted on charges of second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the murders of Patricia Neverson and Donna Davis.
“He take my daughter,” Mr. Davis told New York Homicide. “I say no money, silver, nor gold can replace that. Whenever I go to the grave, I say, ‘Donna,’ I say, ‘Dad is right here, man.’”
“He took away my protector,” Akim said of his uncle. “Andre took everything from me.”
Andre Neverson was sentenced to 50 years behind bars.
Watch all-new episodes of New York Homicide as Season 2 continues, airing Saturdays at 9/8c on Oxygen.
