Talkeetna man charged with murder

TALKEETNA -- A suicide report turned into a homicide investigation last weekend, resulting in a Talkeetna man being charged with murder in the shooting death of his wife.

Rex B. Davenport, 32, was arrested early Sunday morning, just hours after he called troopers from a Talkeetna-area bar to report his wife, Irene Davenport, 40, had shot herself with a .357-caliber revolver at their lakeside cabin, according to Alaska State Troopers.

Davenport was arraigned on a first-degree murder charge Sunday in Palmer District Court and is being held at Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility in Palmer in lieu of $250,000 cash-only bail and a court-approved, third-party custodian.

According to court records, Davenport called troopers at 7:12 p.m. Saturday from the H & H Lakeview Restaurant and Lodge, which is across from the Davenport cabin.

Trooper Skip Chadwell said he met Davenport at the Talkeetna-area lodge and told Davenport to stay there while he went to Davenport's home.

When the Talkeetna trooper arrived and saw the scene inside the cabin, Chadwell said he immediately called for help. Soon several other troopers arrived, charging documents stated.

Inside the cabin, the troopers saw a grisly tableau. A pool of blood surrounded Irene Davenport, who was lying motionless on the floor. More blood spattered the ceiling and walls.

The woman had suffered a head wound so massive that a portion of her skull was torn apart, according to court documents.

Investigator Randel McPheron said the bullet that caused the devastating damage to the woman's skull was a jacketed hollow-point bullet.

Davenport told Chadwell he and his wife had been drinking together at home earlier that evening when they began to argue about Davenport getting a new job, according to Chadwell's affidavit, which accompanied the charging documents. Davenport said their altercation was only a verbal one.

The Talkeetna man said he was about to leave the cabin with his shotgun to go target shooting, when he said his wife threatened to shoot herself if he left.

Irene Davenport grabbed the .357-caliber revolver out of a backpack, then, Davenport reportedly told troopers, put the gun to her head and shot herself. Davenport said he immediately left the cabin to report the shooting, according to court records.

Investigators were apparently suspicious of Davenport's story after they discovered what they said was evidence that a physical struggle occurred inside the cabin, according to court records.

An easy chair was lying on its back a few feet away from Irene Davenport's feet. An iron frying pan with its handle broken off was on the kitchen floor and slats from a pantry door were damaged, according to charging documents.

Investigators said in charging documents there were no apparent wounds on Irene Davenport's head consistent with a self-inflicted contact gunshot wound.

Troopers found the revolver on a long white skirt Irene Davenport was wearing. Investigators alleged that a swipe mark on the bloodied floor indicated the gun and skirt were moved after she hit the floor, according to court documents, and that there was blood on the revolver's grip, trigger, hammer, and cylinder, but not on the barrel.

A witness told troopers he was fishing in a canoe on the lake that night when he heard an altercation from inside Davenport's cabin, court records stated. Just a few hundred feet from the cabin, Glenn Turner said he strained to hear what the couple was arguing about.

According to charging documents, Turner said he heard a woman screaming, shouting several times, "Put it the f___ down." He said he then heard a loud bang he thought was a firecracker. A large man then walked out of the cabin and headed toward the highway, he said. The woman's screams stopped, Turner reported.

Sgt. Dallas Massie found a brown leather holster lying on the ground by a path about 30 yards away from the cabin, court records stated. Davenport could not tell troopers how the revolver holster ended up outside when the last time he had seen it was in his wife's hand, he told troopers.

Davenport told troopers he and his wife had married a little over a year ago, McPheron said. Davenport's cooking job had recently ended at the Mount McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge, troopers said. Massie said he met Davenport when he was a cook at the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge.

Massie said troopers had never received any complaints of domestic violence from the couple.

On Wednesday, troopers had received Irene Davenport's autopsy report. However, McPheron declined to comment on the results, citing the pending investigation.

Davenport was scheduled to appear Thursday at a pre-indictment hearing.