From the moment Officer 4206 could not be reached on the radio, reaction was immediate. Law enforcement swarmed into response mode both on the island and off. At one point, there were 15 State Bureau of Investigation Agents, 35 deputies, NC Highway patrolmen, policemen from Southport, Oak Island, Holden Beach and Shallotte on the scene.  The sheriff's SWAT team flooded the island, ready to take down the perpetrator who had killed one of their own. The island had been sealed off from all water traffic going and coming to the island.
It would take time for people in authority to assemble. At least two witnesses would later say that the island was in complete chaos. "If someone had shouted, 'There he is!' There would have been shots flying everywhere." When another came back from the crime scene to the harbor, he saw about a dozen officers outside a marina restaurant, "drinking coffee, smoking and chewing tobacco,"

There are specific proceedings investigators are to do at any crime scene. They can be found in many places on the web, for example,  Dade County's web site. Procedures are set for each person on the investigating team. The victim is to be treated first, if a dead, then the body and crime scene is to be preserved. That didn't happen. The body had been moved, as had been the gun.
The crime scene should have three areas of control to keep the evidence from becoming contaminated. Care should be taken in collecting evidence, taking photographs, taking notes, keeping a log of who enters the scene, and drawing the crime scene at the least. Seasoned detectives and investigators know all of this and equipped to carry out their specific duties. All of these procedures can also be found in great detail on the web where some large police agencies, police institutions and police instructors publish this information. In fact, some of this work was done, as well as it could be, in this case that early morning of October 23, 1999.
There is also no doubt that some things were not. The first thing is to interview the first person on the scene, who was Davina's partner, Keith Cain. He had been an officer only several months longer than Davina. For reasons never fully explained, he had been left for an undetermined amount of time, while in intense shock after finding his partner's body, guarding an 'unsecured' pitch-black area with an unarmed paramedic for company. When he finally was able to leave the island in the early hours of the morning, he had been left with his t-shirt; his uniform and gun had been confiscated by the investigators. Not only did they fail to protect the body, they didn't take too great a concern with the surviving officer either.
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For example, from crime scene photos, apparently the bullet casing found at the scene moved, at least one time.

Bullet's first position

 Bullet in second position
Davina's service revolver was a Glock Model 23 .40 caliber. The trigger can only be pulled from the center because a safety feature requires that the inner trigger first be depressed. It has a capacity of 13 rounds and one in the chamber. Davina's wound showed soot inside the skull which means that the gun was pressed hard against her head when the gun was fired. It requires almost 7 pounds of pressure to pull the trigger and makes a tremendous noise when fired. Several people who heard the shot later said they thought they had heard the sound of a trash can lid slamming. Glock Model 23
One of the most important aspects of any crime scene is to collect finger prints. Contrary to popular belief, there were prints found on the scene. 4 finger and 2 palm prints, to be exact. They were collected, according to proper procedure. However, as was the case many times, they were only partially investigated. The prints were compared ONLY to Davina's prints.
The Bald Head Island Police Chief testified that there was a blood spatter at the back of Davina's truck and drag marks from the back of the truck to the place where the body was found. The drag marks were also drawn on the official crime scene drawing, though they were 'explained' as having to do with the museum construction, not the crime scene. There was also blood spatter elsewhere that has never been acknowledged nor explained by anyone. 
At the end of the tape where Davina calls in "Out with three, Officer Cain asks for dogs to be brought to the island. Curiously, a Southport officer does just that. He and another officer took a dog to the island, but he is not allowed by the highest official present to bring the dog off the boat to work.
At some point in the pre-dawn hours, the Bald Head Police set up a command post of sorts in the Association Building just beside the lighthouse. It would later be shut down by higher-ranking officials. Association Building

Obliteration Completed
The Bald Head Island Police Chief had to leave the island to attend a press conference with the Sheriff and several others at Indigo Plantation Landing. She left specific orders that the crime scene not be touched. Yet, before she could get back, the fire department had washed it down. She was never able to find out who had ordered it. Supposedly, there was concern because a wedding was to be performed in the chapel adjacent to the lighthouse the next day and blood and yellow crime scene tape would detract from the newlyweds' day. Two teenagers were brought over from Southport to clean up the area around the lighthouse proper as well. When the police chief returned, there was no longer any crime scene to investigate. However, 73 tourists did get to climb the lighthouse that day, so $219.00 was made on that afternoon; it was not a total loss.
Fire truck at crime scene Cleaner
Fire truck already in place. Cleaner out before crime scene pictures are finished
Canvassing the area the next morning, investigators try to find out if anyone saw or heard anything the night before during the time Davina was killed. officers canvassing
(picture from Wilmington Star-News)
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Suspects
People would have the public believe that there were no suspects, but there were, from the very beginning. A few of them were eliminated quickly, but there were several other important ones that were not.
Davina's two ex-boyfriends were questioned, both were or had been policemen. One was on night duty himself in a neighboring town; the other one failed a lie-detector test.
Shortly after the death, three boaters were picked up by the Coast Guard. They were without running lights coming from Bald Head. They said they had been illegally fishing and didn't know anything about the death of a police officer. They were given a GSR test (gunshot residue test) and released. For more information on gunshot residue, click here. It should be noted here that both Davina and Keith Cain's GSR tests came back with the SAME results as these three boaters did. Yet the DA ruled that she killed herself.
There was a gentleman on the island who lived not far from where the incident took place who had been in trouble with the law several times before and was known to have been involved with drugs. He was out with his dog at the time of the incident. He was never seriously questioned.
Drugs have been an unspoken known fact of life on Bald Head for some time. It is not something that promotes business that family vacations are prone to be drawn to, so information about it is suppressed. However, Davina had talked about seeing things going on during various times of her shifts. Interested in undercover drug work, she had participated in some activity in another district. Regardless of what the mayor had said, Davina had come to hate working on the island because she had had trouble getting along with the rich and powerful who felt they were above the law. She felt that rules should apply to all. Several weeks earlier, she had reported a sexual harassment abuse charge against an EMT on the island, gone through channels and felt like no one was taking her seriously. She had reported it to the local Fraternal Order of Police, but felt as if the Village management was now out to fire her, so she was actively looking for a job elsewhere. She told her boyfriend that she was going to make big drug bust there on the island, probably in hopes of redeeming herself or helping to land another job elsewhere. Also, she had made a report of seeing drugs being loaded into an out building of a high-ranking North Carolina official just a week before her death. No sign of that report has ever been found.
Drugs are said to be delivered at times, not only by boat, but also by small place. The lighthouse light shines straight up and can be used by pilots to pinpoint their drop. Perhaps by coincidence, a small plane was seen by several people in different areas around the area flying without lights that night around six o'clock on its way over to Bald Head Island. At least one of them reported it to 911.
Three Mexicans boarded the ferry to the island the same night as Davina did when she went to work. They tried to catch the first ferry off the island the next morning at 6:00 am. They were questioned and released. They claimed to be landscapers from Charlotte. Later, the interim police chief requested funds to go question them further and was denied by the town manager. He said the police had already questioned them. That they were good Christian people. Further investigation by others later produced rap sheets on these men of 48 pages of crimes from several states which include drug charges. One of these gentlemen has already been deported.
Bald Head Island police received a tip from an out-of-state police agency telling them of a drug dealer living on Bald Head who had turned state's evidence and was in hiding there. It was believed that he was still involved in the drug business and if drugs were involved in this officer's death, he would probably be involved. Perhaps by coincidence, several months later, this same man was overheard in a local restaurant,  proclaiming to a table of his friends discussing Davina's death, "I had Davina put down because she was getting into my &*^!" The information was turned over to the police, who said they gave the gentleman a lie detector test and he passed it. There has never been any proof of that test seen.
Oddly enough, a gentleman came forward a few years later, presented himself to the Buff family and gave a sworn statement that he had been at the church, right down from the lighthouse on October 22, 1999. He was working on the island and had been enjoying the evening, drinking a beer. He walked around the side of the church to relieve himself when he heard a loud noise. The sound of it surprised him and he made his way to the front of the church, but instinctively stayed in the shadows. He shortly saw a golf cart without lights on speed by carrying three men away from the lighthouse area. Something about the situation made him feel uneasy and he slipped back to the place where he was staying, not finding out about the murder until the next morning. He told the family he had not wanted to get involved, but he found he could no longer stay silent. The information was passed on to the police. The man was subsequently picked up in the town where he lived, handcuffed, and taken to jail where he was questioned non-stop for three days until he finally recanted his story. A strange situation considering how delicately the other people supposedly interrogated were treated.
Davina had made friends with a drug agent for the county, who was also involved with her FOP case. She had talked to him about things she had seen going on concerning drug dealings around the lighthouse. She had given him a ferry pass to come over that weekend to "See what you think about this shit." He said he was not able to get there because he had broke his foot while involved in some chase with the sheriff's department and was in Dosher Hospital. There was a statement that he came to the ferry and present his pass. Someone who knew him saw him dressed in fatigues on Bald Head Island prior to Davina being killed.

Early in the morning hours, he was at the hospital when Davina's body was brought in. He then showed up at the Buff's house,  the first 'official' policeman to enter their house since their family friend had awakened them earlier to tell them Davina had been killed. This man told them she killed herself - shot herself behind her ear with the bullet coming out the front. He manned the telephone and even took the sisters to the house to retrieve some of Davina's personal things. There were no signs he had injured his foot at all. He showed up one or two other times and then was never seen by the Buff family again.

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