Davie’s birthday.
[Soft key-click sound]
Here’s one message, sent from Caroline’s phone to David Mercer three weeks before she disappeared:
You can’t control everything, David. I’m not staying here to make you comfortable. Davie is my son too. He deserves better than walking on eggshells around you.
And another, two days later, from David to Caroline:
You are not taking my boy away from his family. He’s a Mercer. You think I’m going to sit back while you let some other guy play dad? Not happening.
We don’t know everything that was said between them.
We don’t have every call, every fight, every threat or apology.
But we do know this:
Flyers vanished
Flowers disappeared
A camera never caught who was doing it
A young mother talked about leaving town with her son
And the father of that boy, by multiple accounts, was not okay with that
And there’s something else.
We spoke with a former sheriff from a neighboring county who reviewed what’s publicly available from the original investigation.
His takeaway?
“In a case like this—young mother, abandoned vehicle, no confirmed sighting—you treat that as a potential homicide from the start.”
A brief pause.
“And you don’t release a primary scene—like the vehicle—back to the family within twenty-four hours.”
MARA (V.O.):Because once that happens… you don’t get that evidence back.
“At the time, the case fell under then-Sheriff Burton Scott—father of current Sheriff Burke Scott.”
We reached out for comment.
We did not receive a response. Not a denial. Not an explanation.
Which raises a question that’s hard to ignore—was critical evidence lost before this case ever had a chance?
And if David Mercer really did mean what Rick says he meant… someone in Jackson County has been cleaning up Caroline Simms’ memory for seven years.
In our next segment, we’re going to talk about the lawyer who took David Mercer’s case—and why that choice has Jackson County buzzing for reasons that have nothing to do with billable hours.
Because when the district attorney and the woman representing the man he might have to treat as a murder suspect are spotted kissing under a streetlamp?
Even in a town that pretends to mind its own business…
People talk.
