33-year-old Brad Davis was arrested Tuesday (Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office)
Favored by schoolyard bullies for generations, the so-called 'atomic wedgie' has rarely, if ever, been listed as the probable cause of death in a murder investigation.
But police in Oklahoma say that a 33-year-old man allegedly killed his stepfather after a fight last month by yanking the older man's underwear up his back and over his head so that the waistband was around his neck.
Brad Davis, of McLoud, was arrested Tuesday and booked into the Pottawatomie County jail on a first-degree murder complaint for the death of his stepfather, Denver St. Clair.
A 10-page affidavit describes an argument that escalated into a fight that broke out on the evening of December 21 between Davis and St. Clair. Davis told detectives that St. Clair had made disparaging comments about the younger man's mother related to the couple's pending divorce.
Davis told police in the affidavit that St. Clair tackled Davis into the kitchen area. Then, St. Clair hit Davis in the face several times before he could make it back to his feet, Davis told investigators.
Davis told police that he pulled St. Clair's underwear up over St. Clair's head, and later noticed that St. Clair was unconscious and called the police. Detectives told KOKH-TV that when they arrived, Davis was standing over St. Clair and smoking a cigarette.
The state's medical examiner said Wednesday that St. Clair's cause of death was either blunt force trauma to the head or asphyxia. Sheriff's deputies told KOKH that they had been made to wait on the medical examiner's report before they could make an arrest.
"We've spoken with several investigators about the crime scene and if they've ever experienced anything like this," Detective Jimmy Brewer of the Sheriff's Office told the station, "and no one has."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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