Recently I met with Detective Sergeant Chris Sager of the New Windsor Police Department. While we mostly talked about Nancy Smith, he also related to me the story of Sheila Davalloo. Her crimes weren’t committed in upstate New York, nor are they unsolved. So why am I featuring them in this blog? Read on to find out.

A Murder in Stamford

On November 8, 2002, a 911 call from an anonymous “neighbor” led police to Anna Lisa Raymundo’s Stamford, CT condo, where they discovered her body. She had been bludgeoned with a dumbbell and stabbed multiple times in the chest, face, and neck. The 32-year-old Brooklyn native worked for a pharmaceutical company in New Jersey and left behind a boyfriend, Nelson Sessler.

Sessler had been having an affair with a coworker at Purdue Pharma, 33-year-old Sheila Davalloo. Recently, Sessler had called it off to devote himself to his relationship with Raymundo. However, after Raymundo’s death, Sessler and Davalloo resumed their affair.

But there remained one last barrier to their relationship, at least in Davalloo’s mind: her husband of two years, Paul Christos.

A Dangerous Game

It was March 23, 2003, and Davalloo and Christos were at home in their condo in Pleasantville in Westchester County, New York. Christos was handcuffed to a chair, blindfolded, while Davalloo touched his skin with various items. The evening quickly turned from a teasing sexual game to something much more serious when Davalloo stabbed her husband twice in the chest with a paring knife.

Shocked, in tremendous pain, and still blindfolded, Christos begged his wife to call 911. She stalled, insisting the stabbing was an accident. She told Christos that she was calling 911, but no one was answering.

Christos finally convinced Davalloo to drive him to the hospital. Once there, however, she avoided the emergency room and drove around to the back of the hospital where, after a brief argument, she stabbed him a third time. This time there was a witness, and Christos was rushed into surgery. Davalloo tried to flee but was apprehended by police.

Christos survived the brutal attack. Police questioned Davalloo and checked her phone records. They found that when she told Christos she was calling 911, she was actually calling Nelson Sessler. According to Sessler’s later testimony, she was calling to invite him over for dinner. He was shocked to learn that she was married, and stated that their relationship had never been that serious.

Davalloo clearly felt differently.

“A Tale of Obsessive Vanity”

During the investigation of Christos’ attempted murder, police began tying Davalloo back to the murder of Anna Lisa Raymundo. In addition to a mound of circumstantial evidence, they matched Davalloo’s DNA to blood found in the sink at Raymundo’s apartment, where they concluded the killer had tried to wash up.

In 2004, Davalloo was convicted in New York of the attempted murder of Paul Christos. With their suspect safely in custody, the Connecticut investigators were able to take their time and build a case that was airtight.

When she was tried for Raymundo’s murder in 2012, she was already serving a 25-year sentenced imposed in New York. Davalloo represented herself, which gave the jury ample time to compare her voice to the recording of the mystery 911 caller the day of Raymundo’s murder. A jury took just a day and half to convict her.

The prosecutor during the Stamford trial, Supervisory State’s Attorney James Bernardi, said of the state’s case, “Witness by witness, it revealed a tale of obsessive vanity.” Davalloo was sentenced to 50 years, which she’ll serve after her stint in a NY prison. She will not be eligible for parole until 2079, effectively a life sentence.

Today, Sheila Davalloo is serving her NY sentence in Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women. While she has admitted her role in Christos’ attack, she claims she never meant to kill him. She denies being anywhere near Raymundo’s apartment the night of her murder.

A Connection to Nancy Smith?

There’s a reason why Detective Sergeant Sager brought this case to my attention, and why I wrote about it here. In fact, there are several.

Investigators were hopeful that this lead, one of many they were pursuing, would lead to a viable suspect in Nancy’s 2001 murder. They looked for a connection between Nancy and Davalloo or Sessler. Ultimately, they were unable to establish that connection. Nancy and Davalloo do not appear to have crossed paths or worked together in any capacity. According to Detective Sargeant Sager, it was a promising lead that did not pan out. Incredibly, it seems to have been mere coincidence.

And that calendar entry? Another incredible coincidence.

Sheila Davalloo’s Nelson…

…and Nancy Smith’s Nelson.

Yes, the “Nelson, CT” calendar entry referred to one of Nancy’s beloved hair bands, which she went to see in Connecticut. (Author’s note: in a previous post, I erroneously wrote that Nancy saw Nelson in Vegas).

I believe that DS Sager pointed me toward the Davalloo case to help me understand how easy it is to follow a lead down the wrong path. Investigators must always be on guard against the kind of tunnel vision that tempts them to make the evidence fit a theory, instead of the other way around. Sager showed me a small storage room during my visit. Plastic totes full of carefully organized paperwork are stacked on and under a table. The sheer volume of leads is both encouraging and fatiguing.

Ultimately, the message I took away from my visit is this:

We haven’t forgotten about you, Nancy. Whoever did this, however long it takes…we’ll find them.