BURLINGTON, Vt. — A 911 call that sent Vermont State Police troopers on a search for a nonexistent man claiming to have shot his wife was a big clue that helped detectives unravel an international murder-for-hire plot tied to a potentially lucrative — yet troubled — oil deal.
Within hours of Gregory Davis’ body being found by the side of a snowy Vermont back road in January 2018, investigators learned of the deal that had the New Jersey native threatening to tell the FBI about his experiences with two Turkish investors he felt weren’t living up to their financial obligations.
Four years later, charges have been filed.
Prosecutors link Los Angeles biotech investor Serhat Gumrukcu, 39, to two middlemen and then to Jerry Banks — the man who allegedly made the 911 call, kidnapped and killed Davis.
Gumrukcu was arrested in May in Los Angeles. He was returned to Vermont where he pleaded not guilty Tuesday to the charge of the use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.
Most of the details of the case are in the voluminous court documents that have been filed in federal courts in Vermont, Nevada and California.
Davis, who was born in Englewood, New Jersey, moved to Vermont about three years before his death at age 49. Davis, his wife, and their six children, were renting a house in Danville, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of the capital, Montpelier.
Davis’ LinkedIn page described him as the managing director of New Jersey-based Mode Commodities. It also said he had 20 years’ experience with foreign direct investment programs and that he’d advised governments across the world.
Sometime after arriving in Vermont, Davis took a job with an environmental waste cleanup company, but the court records and his work history indicate he was involved in a series of investment ventures. After Davis’ death, his wife, Melissa, told investigators they lived off money he received from the investments.
That all came to an end at about 9 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2018, when a masked man knocked on the door of Davis’ Danville home.
Melissa Davis described the man as having handcuffs, a rifle, and wearing a jacket that had a U.S. Marshals emblem. Their 12-year-old son told investigators the man drove a white, four-door car with red and blue emergency lights on the dash.
The man told Davis he had an arrest warrant for racketeering for him from Virginia. They went away together. Melissa Davis did not call police.
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