Gwinnett County

Boyfriend charged in death of woman found in Gwinnett Place Mall

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — An arrest has been made in the death of Silling Man, whose body was found in a vacant restaurant in the Gwinnett Place Mall in December.

Emmett Davis, 21, has been charged with aggravated assault and felony murder in Man’s death.

Emmett Davis, 21

He was dating Man at the time of her death, according to police. No cause of death was immediately available.

Man’s death had initially been ruled suspicious, but not a homicide. She was found in the back portion of a vacant Subway in the food court of the Duluth mall on December 21, 2017. No signs of trauma were immediately apparent. Man did not have any drugs or a significant amount of alcohol in her system at the time of her death, according to police.

After Man's body was discovered, Davis quickly left the state. He would communicate with investigators via phone in New York, but never made himself available for interviews.

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"That was kind of suspicious behavior for someone supposedly close to the victim to not really participate in the investigation," Sgt. Jake Smith, with Gwinnett County Police Department said. "Detectives got information just in the past few days that he was staying back in the area."

Detectives began investigating the death as a homicide in the weeks before Davis’ June 14 arrest. The Gwinnett County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled her death a homicide in March 2018.

Silling Man, show in a video made for a college assignment, was found dead inside Gwinnett Place Mall on Dec. 21. Photo: Special

Man had been reported missing by her family on October 8, 2017, but returned home the next day. She left home again shortly after, but her family did not report her missing that time. Man worked a retail job at the Michael Kors store at Perimeter Mall through November; she picked up her last check on Nov. 20, 2017.

Police believe Davis and Man were living together in hotels near the Gwinnett Place Mall in the weeks between her second disappearance and her death, which is believed to have occurred in early December. She had been dead for at least two weeks when her body was found.

Davis is set to appear in court Saturday.

Amanda C. Coyne with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution contributed to this article