Author uses Alice Davis’ story as cautionary tale of domestic violence

By Ally Lanasa, Staff Writer

(Aug. 27, 2020) Stephanie Fowler, author and owner of Salt Water Media, a self-publishing company in Berlin, is set to release “Chasing Alice,” a book about the dangers of isolation and domestic violence through the focus of a beloved English teacher, Alice Davis, who was murdered by her husband in 2011.

“I knew at some point I would have to write about this because … frequently, writing about it is my way of coming to terms with how I understand my experience,” Fowler said. “So, I always kind of knew at some point I would write about her just because I felt I had so much inside. There were so many memories, so much emotion connected to her and what happened.”

Between 2013 and 2014, Fowler considered writing a longform nonfiction essay to honor the legacy of Davis.

“Once I got my Freedom of Information Act paperwork together and got all the documents for the police files, I realized that the story was bigger than 8,000 to 10,000 words,” Fowler said.

For the past six years, she has been working on the book that is part memoir, true crime and biography.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve been working on it steadily for six years because in the middle of that my mom needed a kidney transplant, so I had to push pause on the book because I had to do a kidney transplant with my mom,” Fowler said. “Then, I got married and, of course, that pushed pause on the project. Then, a couple months after I got married, my wife and I were in a terrible car accident. My wife had about a year of recovery from that.”

Fowler’s research for the book included interviews with Davis’ two sisters, Barrie Parsons Tilghman and Ellen Hitch, her stepdaughter, her husband’s sister, law enforcement officials, her fellow teachers, her former students, her two neighbors and her childhood best friend.

“Part of my job I felt was tracking down all these different memories and different pieces of her and kind of collect them together into a portrait,” Fowler said.

Fowler added that the title, “Chasing Alice,” came to her early in the writing process while conducting research and interviews.

“I felt like I was chasing her,” she said. “I felt like I was chasing her through other people’s memories. I felt like I was chasing her through the paperwork. I felt like I was chasing her through photographs.”

To learn more about Davis, Fowler was also chasing after the truth.

Davis was a private person with an elusive narrative, she added.

“People didn’t realize what she must have been going through,” Fowler said. “People began to understand that maybe things were harder for her than what they knew and what they assumed.”

Davis’ murder greatly affected the community because she was “a pillar of light” despite the dark reality of domestic violence.

“She was a teacher who had a great influence on her students, and so her loss was really felt as a community loss,” Fowler said. “She was the kind of teacher that she inspired you, she encouraged you, she pushed you. You could always look back and credit her with helping you to be a better version of yourself.

“There are people who have gone on to be writers and authors and teachers themselves and look back and credit her with moving them in that direction,” she continued.

Fowler was one of many students whose lives were changed through a relationship with Davis.

“She was someone that I developed a very real, deep, sincere affection for. I loved her,” Fowler said.

Davis taught Fowler AP English during her senior year at Parkside High School in Salisbury.

“She saw that I loved to write, and she nurtured that,” Fowler said. “Also, she was someone that I could feel safe with. I always say she kind of took me under her wing like a mother hen.”

Fowler admits that she endured several challenges throughout her final year of high school, including her mother’s failing health, athletics and a rigorous academic course load.

“Alice Davis was the only person in my life, who noticed that I was struggling,” she said.

Fowler graduated from Parkside High School in 1997 and went on to further her education at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, where she won the Sophie Kerr Prize in 2001.

The Sophie Kerr Prize is the nation’s largest undergraduate literary award. For over 50 years, the award is given to a graduating senior at Washington College, who has demonstrated literary promise.

“That night, I remember I got home, and I raced into my mom’s kitchen, and I grabbed the phone book to call [Davis],” Fowler said. “She was the first person I called.”

Davis then asked Fowler to come speak to her students.

Flashforward a decade to Labor Day Weekend in 2011 when Davis went missing.

At the time, Fowler said she was working for her mother’s ambulance company in Salisbury in the human resources department.

“I came to work [on Tuesday], and I heard two women in our building office talking about a teacher at Parkside had gone missing,” Fowler said.

Then, her younger sister called to confirm that Davis was the missing teacher.

“I knew immediately something was wrong,” she added. “It didn’t make sense that she would go missing.”

In the afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 4, 2011, Davis’ husband, Jess Davis, murdered her and then dumped her body in the woods off Loretto Road near a church in Princess Anne.

“Then, he went home and concocted this story about how she had driven to Walmart, and she had never come home,” Fowler said.

By Wednesday evening, Davis’ husband committed suicide as the police were closing in on him as the prime suspect.

Davis’ body was soon discovered by church members who were going to burn trash in burn barrels in the woods, and the police swiftly came to a conclusion about the crime, Fowler said.

Shortly after, a memorial service was held for Davis at Parkside High School, where Fowler gave a speech. Then, she gave a eulogy at the funeral on Oct. 8, 2011.

“I think the thing that I could not reconcile then and the thing that I can still not reconcile now is the fact that such a kind, sweet, smart, loving, good person had such a cruel, brutal, awful ending,” Fowler said.

Fowler hopes readers take away a fuller portrait of Davis, not simply a statistic of a murder victim.

“I always disliked it that she was kind of connected or remembered for her worst day,” she said. “So, what I hope with the book is that people will see more than what her worst day was. They will see that she was a kind person, that she was a caring person, that she was a selfless, dedicated teacher who inspired and challenged her students.”

Fowler also hopes to dispel rumors about Davis’ murder.

Lastly, Fowler aims to educate readers about the red flags of domestic violence through Davis’ narrative.

“These things can end in the worst possible way,” she said. “So, I guess maybe there is part of me that hopes her story can maybe be a cautionary tale for someone else.”

Fowler includes a list of local and national domestic violence resources in the back of the book as well.

“Chasing Alice” will be on sale at The Greyhound Independent Bookstore and Fine Art Gallery in Berlin and Sundial Books in Chincoteague, Virginia, in September. Pre-orders are currently available through Salt Water Media’s website, https://www.saltwatermedia.com/. Paperback copies are $17.99 and hardcover copies are $24.99. An e-book version will be accessible later. In addition, “Chasing Alice” will be available on Amazon in November.

For more information, watch the book trailer on YouTube at https://youtu.be/PKvEZQhjvyM.