James W. Davis, the man who struggling comic book writer Steve Perry took into his house to help pay rent and utility bills has been arrested by Zephyrhills, Florida police and charged with Perry’s murder.  Perry, a single father who wrote for both the Thundercats and Silverhawks TV series and also penned Timespirits and Thundercats comics, was suffering from bladder cancer and had received help from Hero Initiative.  He told friends that he had taken Davis and Davis’ wife Roxanne into his house in order to split expenses and because they had a reliable car, which he could use to transport his son.

Perry’s own transportation consisted of a tempermental van, which ironically may have led to the arrest of his killers.  It appears that the killer was using the van to dispose of Perry’s body piecemeal, but before the job could be finished, it broke down one last time.  In May police, responding to complaints about an abandoned, foulsmelling van, found Perry’s vehicle abandoned near a motel on Interstate 275.  The authorities found Perry’s severed arm in a nearby dumpster and subsequently discovered other severed remains at different sites around the county.

According to local news reports, Zephyrhills Police believe that the motive for the murder “may have been related to drugs or money.”  Perry’s friend, the comic book creator Steve Bissette, speculates on his Website that the painkilling drugs that Perry had received in conjunction with his cancer treatment and the money he was getting from Hero Initiative were likely motives for Davis, who had a history of drug arrests.