More than 30 years ago, the quiet, upscale community of Peachtree Corners was shocked by the brutal slaying of a woman neighbors knew as the doting mother of a 6-year-old.
It wasn’t until after Brenda Hope Davis, 34, was found shot and repeatedly stabbed on Sept. 18, 1985, that they learned of her secret life as a popular strip club dancer earning up to $1,000 a night in tips.
Much remains a mystery about Davis’ death 32 years later – including why she was killed and by whom.
One suspect has been identified — Joey Burton Thompson, a former Marietta resident who authorities said knew Davis and had hung wallpaper and done carpentry work in her Peachtree Corners home.
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Police named Thompson as a potential suspect in 1988 after his arrest for allegedly killing a stripper in Jacksonville, Fla.
Although Thompson has never been charged in Davis’ death, he remains a suspect. A lawyer for Thompson did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
“While I keep an open mind in regard to potential suspects, I consider Joey Thompson to be the best suspect,” Gwinnett Police Sgt. John Richter said. “However, at this point, we just don’t think we have the necessary evidence to convict him.”
Davis, who danced under the name “April” at Atlanta’s Tattletale Lounge and worked at a Norcross real estate office, was found dead by her husband, Mark, in an unused upstairs bedroom at the family’s split-level house in Peachtree Corners.
She had been sexually assaulted, shot in the head and repeatedly stabbed in the back. A wall safe in the bedroom had been open and some unidentified items removed. But police theorized that revenge, not robbery, was the likely motive based on the brutality of the crime.
Neighbors told police that Brenda Davis centered her life around her son and apparently scheduled her stints at Tattletale and later her real estate appointments around his school day. Co-workers at both jobs told police the boy’s financial security seemed to be her primary concern.
Husband Mark Davis is not considered a viable suspect and has remained cooperative with investigators, Richter said.
“I worked the case a good bit several years ago and concentrated my efforts on proving a case against Thompson,” he said. “My goal then was and remains now to connect Thompson to the crime scene through advances in forensic testing, such as DNA and other results.”
Laboratory testing by the GBI of those items has to date had negative results, Richter said.
“Unfortunately, there are not many follow-up interviews to do with people connected to Thompson,” he said.
Richter said he interviewed Thompson several years ago in Florida, where he is serving a death-sentence that was commuted to life imprisonment in the 1988 slaying of his girlfriend, stripper Annette Louise Place.
Place was found dead in Thompson’s bed on Feb. 11, 1988. She had been shot once in the head and stabbed once in the back.
According to Florida court records, Thompson, who was married and had two children, initially told police he and Place had argued over his decision to return to his wife. He said he decided to kill Place and then commit suicide. But he said he could not go through with plans to end his own life.
At trial, Thompson offered a different defense: he claimed his wife had killed Place in a jealous rage.
Richter’s work goes on.
“As with all the cold cases I look into, I remain hopeful I will close the case one day with an arrest,” he said. “But with the passage of time and working with a limited amount of physical evidence, it can be difficult.”
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