Reports describe gruesome discovery of Scottsdale boy abused to death

SCOTTSDALE, AZ (AZFamily) – Recently released police reports detail the gruesome details of a Scottsdale grandmother and her husband who were arrested and accused of abusing and killing their grandson.

On January 30, 2022, police found 11-year-old Chaskah Davis Smith dead in a bathroom at an Extended Stay Motel in Scottsdale.

GRAPHIC WARNING: The details of this story may be disturbing.

“The child appeared pale and lifeless and had a staring gaze with his eyelids slightly open,” a Scottsdale police officer said in a recently released police report.

Chaskah Davis had no pulse.

The officer noted that the child appeared to have fresh wounds all over his body, especially on his head, where hair was missing, revealing a deep injury.

Police arrested Stephanie Marie Davis and her husband Thomas James Desharnais and charged them with child abuse and premeditated murder. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Davis was the one who called 911. Police released the transcript this week.

In it, she calls an ambulance and says her grandson is not breathing and is lying in the bathtub.

She also repeatedly makes claims that the eleven-year-old hurt himself and continued to tell this story when the police arrived.

She later said she attempted to perform CPR before emergency responders arrived at the scene.

Both Davis and Desharnais told police that the child hit himself.

However, one officer stated in his report that he found it difficult to believe Desharnais' statements.

A paramedic at the scene said he did not believe Chaskah could have inflicted the injuries on himself due to the violence.

As the report continues, Desharnais loses his mind, retracts his previous statements, and tells police that Davis abused her grandchildren.

He further said that she had beaten both of them with a ratchet, that they had not been given much food, and that she had stabbed and injured the grandchildren with a knife.

Police examined the evidence and found an electric collar in the hotel room, but added that there was no sign of dogs living there.

An officer noticed that Davis was surprisingly calm when she was arrested.

The trial of Davis and Desharnais is not expected until next year.

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