Brandon Woodruff /// Part 1 /// 435 | Forensic Files

when it comes to Quality sleep Ashley has you covered with top mattress brands at winning prices and with special
financing options available you can snooze now and pay later plus your mattress purchase helps give the gift of
better sleep to children in need and US Special Operations forces visit your local Ashley store or shop online today
and make every snooze count financing is subject to credit approval C store or ashley.com for d details dreaming of
overseas Adventures or connecting more deeply with family from afar Rosetta Stone Bridges the language Gap I've
tried others but Rosetta Stone's immersive lessons and voice feedback technology are game changers dive into
25 Languages by learning intuitively just like when you were a kid and here's the holiday Sparkle grab a lifetime
membership now and save 50% gift yourself the world head to rosettastone.com now and save 50%
[Music] % [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always he's a citizen with zero discipline here is the captain it's
good to be seen and good to see you you filthy animals thanks for listening and thanks for t a
[Music] friend this week we are very happy to be featuring Big toberfest from the good
guys and girls over at the big Brewing Company big toober Fest is a miren style logger brewed to celebrate the great
German Festival of Octoberfest Break Out Your Leader hosen and let's throw back some bruise garage grade three and 3/4
bottle caps out of five and let's give some cheers to our good garage friends first up a big time cheers and thank you
to Katie Z in Dallas Texas and a big shout out to two sisters in Kentucky Sydney and a special we like your jib to
Jessica next up we have Alisa and Burke Virginia and a big cheers to Gina Nazareth Pennsylvania and we have one
more for the Lone Star State here's a cheers to Matthew D and Kingsland Texas and we have Donnie and Sharon somewhere
in Parts Unknown and last but certainly not least we have Nicole and Queens New York thank you to everyone who went to
True Crim garage.com and contributed to this week's beer fund yeah help us out with that beer run BW r n Beer Run go to
our website click on the little beer fun leave us a little tip support the show keep the lights
on keep the suds of flowing your move all right that's enough of the business everybody gather
around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime [Music] my name is Brandon Woodruff I'm 31 years
old I was arrested for capital murder in the deaths of my parents Norman Dennis Woodruff and I did not commit this crime
I'm innocent and I really hope that people that are watching this if you will just know anything at all I hope
that you'll know that I did not kill my parents parents I would never even hurt them they were really really good people
to me they raised me well they loved me unconditionally no matter what they always would um be there for me they had
they had a love for me and my sister and our whole family of an unconditional love no matter what it was I got a
grandmother that really loves me she's behind me I just want all of y'all to know that I did not kill my parents I
just want y'all to know that my parents were very very good people they were very very well liked they did not
deserve what happened to them they did not deserve to be taken away from me to be taken away from my
sister to be taken away from our family they should still be here to this day and the real people that really did this
should be in prisoned and not me I really think the investigators should really look at this case I think that
they should re-evaluate it and look at possible other people because right now they're getting away with with what
they've done I would just want to thank everybody watching I want to thank any help that I could get further my cause
to prove my innocence I really really really hope one day to be able to get to hug my grandmother to be with my family
where I should be I really hope that justice prevails [Music] the state of Texas says Brandon Dale
Woodruff murdered his parents Dennis and Norma Woodruff inside their home in Roy
City Texas on or about October 16th 2015 both Dennis and Norma died as a result of gunshot wounds and multiple
stack wounds the murders were brutal and the crime scene of course not a pretty one but before we get into the
investigation let's give some very necessary background information Dennis and Norma were high school sweethearts
they both grew up in Tex Arana that's on the Texas Arkansas border the two married about a year after they
graduated from high school this was way back in 1982 so they were married for over 20
years before their death and they were described by others as best friends and very
ly both went on to earn a degree from Southern Arkansas University Dennis in electrical engineering and Norma in
accounting after college they moved out to the lake hubard area just about 25 mil Northeast of Dallas Texas where the
two both got good jobs putting their schooling to work and they started a family their firstborn was a daughter
Charla Annette Woodruff born in August of 1985 and then a son Brandon Dale Woodruff in September of
1986 Dennis lovingly most times simply referred to the children as the girl or the boy in the mid90s the Woodruff
family stayed in the same area but purchased and moved into a nice ranch style three-bedroom brick home sitting
on a little more than 2 acres of land they had a decent sized out building that they called the barn I think it
looks a little more like an unattached garage it seems like a fair statement to say that a sibling rivalry developed at
a fairly young age and later when questioned by police Charla and Brandon would give differing opinions of what
they thought of each other and their relationship as big sister and slightly younger brother Brandon's sounds a
little more polite and seems to take the Live and Let Live approach where on the
other hand it seems like Charla had some um some disagreements and some grudges held against her brother their mother
Norma was the outdoorsy type she grew up on a ranch and did the ranch type things
which meant raising animals working the land and getting her hands dirty Dennis seemed to prefer indoor activities both
Charla and Brandon were involved with 4 and Future Farmers of America and well let's face it it's not just the kids
when you're talking about something so involved as 4 and FFA it's really the whole family that is involved but
Brandon really seemed to have a natural ability and talent for raising and taking care of animals and yes Captain
they were equestrians or as we like to call it here in the garage they are horsee so when it came to horses or
animals in general many have said Brandon has a gift for working with animals as Brandon got older he became a
cowboy always outside riding horses beb or out on the barn working when he was about 16 he got a job at a local Feed
Store where he was not only very hardworking but also also very well-liked at high school he ran with a
group of kids that were referred to as the [ __ ] kickers other dudes that were involved in 4 Future Farmers of America
raising livestock and dressing like Cowboys yeah better to be called the [ __ ] kickers than the [ __ ] lickers the
guys he hung around with the most were Mike Etherington Joe Hagman and Dusty Perry who mostly went by the nickname of
Perry it seems like Brandon's parents didn't care for Mike as there were some local rumors that he was someone that
was kind of up to no good but never really caught for anything Brandon was outgoing both he and Charla were
attention Seekers and Brandon at times could be a bit of a showoff his senior year he was voted by his classmates as
the student with the most school spirit now we mentioned the differences in opinion between Charla and Brandon
regarding their sister brother relationship ship but there was also a very difference in opinions with the
relationship each had with their parents Charla says she had a lot of problems with her parents growing up and that her
father Dennis had a real bad temper and sometimes discipline bordered on almost abuse right Brandon says yes they were
disciplined like most children would be but that Not only was Charla's description not his experience he said
says Charla is a drama queen and dramatically overstating the family situation if there was trouble in the
home growing up it may have stemmed from Charla there is an incident when the parents called police because she
physically attacked her father and it sounds like she was quite physical with Brandon at times as well friends of
Dennis and Norma called Charla a problem child now I do want to point something out here and I'm not super clear on the
details of this and I don't think that they are necessary but Charla was abused when she was young the abuse did not
come from Mom or Dad it was sexual abuse so drama queen or Problem Child whatever
these labels mean right keep in mind that she was a victim and there's a great deal of trauma involved and often
with sex abuse especially at a young age there's a lot of confusion and that has
to be even more difficult to deal with all of that as you're becoming a woman well just the punishment from your
father maybe the son is able to take the punishment a little bit more maybe she was not going to stand for that so when
they go well she was violent with the father I'd like to know what context that was in because if he was trying to
discipline her would she really be violent towards him or would she really just def defending herself Charla
attempted suicide in her teen years uh this incident involved a gun now thank God the gun did not go off for whatever
reason now for Texas folk the Woodruff were not much for guns and it looks like at the time of the young lady's suicide
attempt that there was only one gun owned by the family and immediately after this event and very intelligently
of this good man and father Dennis gets rid of the gun you can't have that situation in the house when it's putting
people in harm right so the wood Ruffs had some money troubles and so did Brandon as an adult
and it's important as we will see this is the reason that Brandon's parents were in the process of moving during the
time when the double homicide was committed Brandon was in his first semester of college he is attending
abalene Christian University or ACU for short and ACU is not cheap and the school itself has quite strict rules as
well Brandon is supposed to like even let's say they don't have class on the weekend right classes Monday through
Friday if he is going to leave campus he has to have have his parents call in and
get a approved dismissal from campus so it's not like a normal campus where you can
just come and go as you please yeah a lot of the colleges as you know Captain they don't even care if you show up to
the classes as long as you pay nobody really cares what's going on here they had very strict rules as to curfew and
things that you typically may not see on most college campuses because of this look most kids
when they're 18 19 pretty irresponsible and when you first get out on your own away from Mom and Dad you might be
exploring who you are or out partying a little too much Brandon was missing and failing a lot of his classes now Brandon
nobody argues this he is a smart guy so it's not an intelligence thing I think it's more likely that it's a lack of
maturity on Brandon's part yeah or lack of effort right he's failing and dropping class
because he's choosing not to attend these classes MH he's often leaving whether it be excused approved or not
for the weekend and there's a there's a club that he likes to go to that is all ages it's like 18 and up so I guess not
all ages but 18 and up on Sunday nights and on Wednesdays he and his friends are
typically going to this club late on Sunday nights party until the we hours of the
morning and he's therefore missing a lot of his Monday classes and he's getting in trouble for not being on campus the
way that this works Captain is after he misses several classes they drop him from the class right and he's probably
not telling his parents CU then his parents would expect him to come home but he wants to go out and party with
his friends and when we say party the word party has a weird you know definition depending on on who you ask
part a right yeah the captain and the colonel usually that means probably a good not just hanging out with friends
but a good amount of drinking going on drugs yeah whatever hookers not so much but anyway the the story here is that
Brandon does not seem to be much of a drinker and he's definitely not into drugs so when we say party he's out
dancing and that sort of thing so is it because he's going out partying I mean he's not spending money on boo so you
said he had money troubles yeah I don't know an 18 or 19 year old that doesn't but right I'll
give you the skinny of it so what they or whomever is calling money troubles this is what I could find in September
of 2005 Brandon got a city card with a limit of $2,500 on the card he maxed it out in
one week then later that same month he got a Capital One card with a $1,000 limit and
maxed it out in less than two weeks okay question for what's in your wallet do we
have context for any of this because I think my first credit card was $1,500 and it was maxed out the first
day I used it but I was buying school books yeah these were not school books that were purchased it looks to me like
a lot of this was was clothing electronics and um restaurants he was known to be fairly generous with his
friends often offering to pay well it's pretty easy to be generous when it's not
your money right and that that's where I think some of this stems from it's you know it's nice to be generous but he's
really just being frivolous with the with these uh credit cards again abalene Christian University is expensive it's
not cheap how's he going there well he has some help from his parents he has a $500 scholarship that he earned from
4H and he has $7,500 in student loans he gets a $1,300 tuition refund this is because he's missing the
classes so they dropped him from those classes they're nice enough to say all right we're going to refund some of your
money since you're not taking those classes anymore again this was $1,300 he spent
all300 of that cash rather than giving it to his parents and it seems that this caused some kind of feud between him and
his father Dennis so that that's where I would go and say okay that's money trouble to me
then the weird thing about the scholarship and this is something that we should note is that the $500 4
scholarship seemed to cause a bit of a feud between Norma his mother Brandon's mother and Norma
Etherington the mother of Mike Errington who was once Brandon's friend I don't know the details of why there was this
feud between the two of them over this $500 scholarship maybe Mrs Errington thought her son was supposed to be
getting it or deserved it more than Brandon I don't know but that is what has been reported now Dennis and Norma
Woodruff they had money troubles of their own now they made pretty good money together they made about
$125,000 a year but they had $300,000 in credit card debt so they sought the help of a credit counselor
and September of 2005 Dennis and Norma bought a doublewide manufactured home at 5545 County Road 2648 in Roy City
Texas this was at the advice of their credit counselor and this makes a lot of financial sense because their home where
they were currently living before making this purchase was in Heath Texas and they were spending about $1,400 a month
plus the property tax for that home the double wide was was only $500 a month plus the property taxes as well but
given the area of the double wide the property tax was much much less there than in Heath taxes but as far as the
credit card debt goes his parents have tons of credit card debth it's not maybe something that they sat down and taught
him how to be bad with credit cards but it's something that he obviously saw his
parents do and so that's probably another reason why it wasn't that big of a deal to
him yeah this is something he may or may not have known anything about I find growing up my own personal experience
has been when I got to be like in my 30s I have friends complain my man my parents are way in debt and you had no
idea growing up right you just think that everybody's parents makes really they make good money and they make good
spending decisions it sounds like with their spending with Dennis and Norma what most of the friends and family say
is they were all about being good parents and trying to give their kids whatever the kids needed or wanted and
so it's generally thought that they spent a lot of this money on their children raising them and this is credit
card debt too it's a slippery slope man like you start getting a little bit behind or you get high interest and that
debt really starts to pile up very very quickly and then at some point it's like you don't want to even pay for it
cuz you know you're not even paying for that item anymore you're just paying for
interest so this double wide is going to save them quite a bit of money every single month so it's a very smart move
financially but it's also not like a penalty it you know they're not being they're not putting themselves in
financial jail here Norma was kind of looking forward Ward to this move because the property at the new place
would be on 5 acres of land and plus they own horses and they're boarded somewhere else so by having this extra
land they they'll be able to board their own horses which should save them quite
a bit of money yes so this this whole move and everything makes a lot of sense now we did fail to set up one very
important thing in this case maybe it's important maybe it's not to me but for the storytelling purposes there are a
lot of people that will tell you that Brandon was convicted simply because he is a gay man he lived most of his life
up until sometime in high school where he was not openly gay he had girlfriends he hung out with these [ __ ] kicker guys
he was referred to as a cowboy well when he starts to change his lifestyle a little bit or realize who he
is the [ __ ] kicker buddies don't take too kindly to Brandon's new lifestyle and we'll get more into this
as we go but it's important to know that from now on and now that he's in college
we kind of have two things going on here Captain some will say that Brandon was leaving that Brandon was living too
lives that one was this secret gay life where from what I could see yeah it appears that he had two sets of friends
and that he was doing two sets of activities that were different from one another but I don't know that I would
say so much that he had a secret life right it actually appears to me that he's in the process of coming out and
he's kind of doing it casually and maybe slowly he's still still a very young man
probably still figuring out who he is and what he wants out of his life Brandon is though weird about the
new house I did find this to be quite strange this was something that he had stated he didn't like the location of
the new house and he didn't like the double wide house itself he is on record having told family and friends that he
would never spend a single night in that house he wasn't planning on ever living
there in fact he would never spend a single night in the new place at the time of the homicide here
Captain the Woodruff still have both properties they have the new property that they recently purchased and they
have their home their old home in Heath they are moving from one house to the other the Woodruff are the Woodruff
are staying the night at the new house night after night slowly moving in they're plan is once they're out of the
house in Heath that they will either sell it or rent it out oh and maybe he just felt bad for his parents and
thought it was a little bit of a downgrade from what they were used to I think that he thought that it was
Hillbilly is that it was a double wide in what he referred to as hickville out in the middle of nowhere mhm and he's
now becoming more of this big city kid he's spending his weekends in Dallas out clubbing with this other set of friends
the thing that we have to keep in mind and one thing that is very important to this case is knowing that they still
have both of these properties they're in the process of moving yet they are staying in the new place now Brandon is
helping them from time to time when he's not away at College he will help them move things from the heath house to the
new house but when he is helping Mom and Dad he is often crashing and sleeping at
the heath house they still have some animals there he's helping to take care of them as well but this is really a
slow moving process of filling up Norma's truck or Brandon's truck and one load at a time moving to the new home we
also have to keep in mind too both of their children Charla and Brandon are both off to college at this point so
they're kind of downsizing their empty nesters for the first time in their [Music]
[Music] marriage this show is sponsored by better help do you look forward to the
holidays maybe you struggle with seasonal Blues this time of year can be a lot and and it's natural to feel some
sadness or even anxiety about it but adding something new and positive to your life can counteract some of those
feelings therapy can be a bright spot something to look forward to to make you feel grounded and to give you the tools
to manage everything going on if you're thinking of starting therapy give better
help a try it's entirely online designed to be convenient flexible and suited to
your schedule just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists
at any time for no additional charge find your bright spot this season with betterhelp visit betterhelp.com garage
today to get 10% off your first month that's better help hp.com garage this ad is about AT&T's deal on
the new iPhone 15 Pro and it's real guaranteed that's not always the case with other ads the view of a lifetime
only with a pricey upgrade breathe in to find inner peace then pay extra to remove the ads at AT&T we mean what we
say learn how to get iPhone 15 Pro with Titanium on us with eligible tradein guaranteed connecting changes everything
AT&T see at.com iPhone for details about the guarante trade in promo for new and
existing customers available for limited time terms and restrictions apply dreaming of overseas Adventures or
connecting more deeply with family from afar Rosetta Stone Bridges the language Gap I've tried others but Rosetta
Stone's immersive lessons and voice feedback technology are game changers dive into 25 Languages by learning
intuitively just like when you were a kid and here's the holiday Sparkle grab a lifetime membership now and save 50%
gift yourself the world head to rosettastone.com now and save [Music] 50% [Music]
all right we're back cheers mates and for those who do not like to drink just shake your booty a little bit Shake Your
Booty a little bit well we went through a lot of the events that were going on in August and September of
2005 on Tuesday October 18th 2005 at about 400 p.m. and Norma Woodruff they would be found dead having been murdered
inside their home in Roy City Texas let's go through the events that lead up to that horrific Discovery to see who
might be responsible for the double homicide or the very least who should be on the suspect list right on the weekend
of Friday October 14th Brandon will be on an approved leave from from the ACU campus for the entirety of the weekend
this is his father Dennis called in said hey my son wants to come home for the weekend and the college approved this
leave he will need to be back in time for whatever classes he may have scheduled for Monday Brandon drives an
older Dodge pickup truck and this detail is quite important to the case as well on this Friday Brandon gives a to a
fellow student that he does not know very well his name is Robert Robert is going to Denton for the weekend this is
a suburb of Dallas so not entirely out of the way for Brandon Brandon dropped Robert off at his girlfriend's place in
Denton on Friday night fairly late the deal was Brandon would pick Robert up at this same location on Sunday evening and
then the two of them would go back to ACU to the campus Brandon spent most of Saturday helping out a longtime friend
her name is Morgan Lee Morgan Lee it said was Brandon's one-time girlfriend the two stayed very good
friends after the relationship was over that night he hung out until the we hours of the morning with some of his
Club friends again we are on Saturday Sunday Brandon wakes up he is at the heath house remember he said he won't
stay at the new place right now even though he won't stay the night at his parents new place he does go over there
and he helps with things like unpacking and getting the new place all set up a little after 6:00
p.m. Dennis Woodruff picked up a pizza for the three of them for dinner that Sunday night this is brand Brandon and
his parents Dennis and Norma they're going to have dinner at the new place after dinner Brandon left the new
house and drove his Dodge truck to the horse stables to drop off some medication for one of Norma's horses he
then drove to the family's Heath house and that was because he says he has permission to drive his mother's truck
okay the parents have three vehicles I have a description of two of them one of them is a big fancy newer
Silverado Chevy truck it's got leather interior it sounds like it's fully loaded they also have a Toyota Camry and
then the Third vehicle I do not have a description for but two of the vehicles are at the new house and this big fancy
nice Silverado is at the old Heath house his Dodge truck is not in great working order it's an
older truck with a lot of miles like 140 or 150,000 miles on it because he's been having some trouble
with the vehicle with his vehicle he says he was given permission by his parents to drive out to the heath house
take care of the animals there leave his truck and take the nice Silverado back to the college campus and keep it for a
few days while his father Dennis figured out what is wrong with his Dodge truck so Brandon is on his way to drop off the
medication to the horses and I'm assuming here captain that this next event takes place after that medication
is dropped off so at 7:36 p.m. Brandon calls his mother this is according to phone
records there was some a message that he needed to relay regarding her horse or or one of her horses that's why I'm
assuming that this is after he dropped off the medication for the horse to the stable yeah from there Brandon has about
a 30 minute drive to the heath house I've seen this listed as short as 23 minutes and as long as 30 minutes the
problem for Brandon will become that his timeline does not match up with some of the other
people's statements in regards to his timeline meaning that there's some minutes and maybe hours that he is
unaccounted for to give him the benefit of the doubt I am going to use the longer time frames that are listed for
all of these events okay so we will say we'll go with the longest one that has been stated that it's about a 30 minute
drive from the the stable to the heath house where he has the family's animals to take care of it's also been stated
that they estimated that this task of taking care of the animals feeding them letting them out and such at the heath
house would require about a half an hour to take care of all of these animals we don't know what time Brandon
left the heath house in the Silverado that's always been in question and that in part is why Brandon is sitting in a
prison cell today right now remember Robert the schoolmate that Brandon was scheduled to pick up on that Sunday M
Brandon spoke with Robert around 6:00 saying that he would pick him up in a few hours the weird thing here Captain
is Brandon's already late it sounds like according to Robert that they had originally scheduled
Brandon to pick him up between five and six that day so we're already running late on picking up Robert right but he's
doing some errands for his parents so that makes sense yeah he may not have known that he needed to do all of these
tasks and then to top that off look Brandon loves this Silverado truck it's fully loaded it's a million times nicer
than his yeah he very likely did not know that his parents would be generous enough to let him borrow it for a couple
days while his truck that doesn't run so good would be out of commission one it's
a good reason to be a little late oh if I'm a little late I get a way better vehicle for the next week I'll take that
trade any day and again the Silverado is at the old house so there's no getting that vehicle without going to the old
house so you're you're right there lock step with me my friend where we can we can see the reasoning for him being late
at this time Rob Rob Bert calls Brandon around well not around I have the exact time
9:49 p.m. this is because Brandon was still not there yet to pick him up Brandon asked if Robert could catch a
ride and meet him at the Denny's this is not to get anything to eat it's just meet me in the parking lot
at the Denny's it's about a halfway point from where you are Robert and where I am we're already running late
this is going to save us some time around 11:00 11:00 p.m. Brandon is at the Denny's this is at
9009 skilman Road in North Texas again he's running late he's been running late all day long and now he's even later
than expected Robert says all right I met you at the Denny's but you were still late getting here what's the
problem Brandon says I'm late because I got lost that's as much detail as we have of of an explanation as to where
Brandon was right before going back to the college campus Brandon and now Robert who's riding
shotgun Brandon decides hey I want to go out this is Sunday night I go to these clubs that are all ages or 18 and up and
I have my group of friends that I go with Robert do you want to go out and go clubbing before we go back to the
college campus Robert agrees to do this and so now they going to go to a guy named Alex's place and he is in Plano
Texas and from there a group of guys including robbert and Brandon will go clubbing and they leave for the clubs a
touch after midnight according to everyone and they're back at campus by Monday morning Monday was a pretty typical day
for Brandon he hung out with his friends at College went to lunch with several of
them this is followed by Tuesday which again was typical both of these days normal days with the exception of a few
things one Brandon's sister Charla called him and said that she had been unable to get in touch with their
parents she is away at College as well she's a junior at Southern Arkansas University roughly a 3-hour drive from
the Royce city house she lives on campus in an apartment with some roommates she's in a sorority she's working a
part-time job busy girl and she's Got A Horse of Her Own that is boarded nearby her campus living situation mhm she's
calling and saying look I speak with our parents daily while away at school and I
haven't been able to get a hold of them this is on Monday Brandon tells her I'm supposed to have a call with
them sometime tonight so she's calling Brandon Monday evening been trying to get a hold of mom and dad since 11:00
p.m. the night before Sunday night right which is odd right she says it's even more odd because I not only do I speak
with them daily but this was a scheduled phone call right but you but we know that
they're moving and they're doing some stuff and at some point they have to get their horses moved so there is a lot on
the parents plate is it possible that they just fell asleep early not so weird that you can't get a hold of them during
the day because there'd be two different locations they could be at or obviously
work but come that second day you're going okay something's up here MH yeah and there's going to be some phone calls
that were made by the wood Ruffs and I mean the parents Norma and Dennis on Sunday night that will help us really
kind of hone in on what time frame we should be really looking at here but this scheduled call that was to be at
11:00 p.m. on Sunday the way that this works Captain is Charla was away visiting extended family on Sunday
evening she is at her grandmother's house this is Norma's mother her mom's mom while she's there and the
grandmother says this is right around 9900 p.m. she is on the phone with Norma with Charla's mom to which she says to
Charlotte would you like to speak to your mom I got her on the phone Charla says no I will call them
when I get home so that's the what I mean by the scheduled call of 11: p.m. that night
right Brandon tells Charla on Monday evening don't worry about not being able to get a hold of them as he is expecting
a phone call from Mom and Dad between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m. that night on Monday he says I'm sure it's nothing
I'll talk to them later tonight and after I get off the phone with Mom and Dad I'll give you a call so that way
Charla will know everything is all right she's just unable to get a hold of mom and dad for whatever reason right Charla
says that she never heard back from her brother that night he doesn't call her like he said he would that's suspicious
she says that she went out with some friends that Monday night and she does say that she kind of forgot about the
call from Brandon okay so it's possible that he called and she just didn't answer no I don't think that it is
because they've really track down a lot of the phone records or but what is he saying is he
saying he called and it's just not registered anywhere no it's I couldn't find it to
be registered anywhere I don't know that he said that he was going to call her those are Charla's words
right but she goes on to say she kind of forgot about the call but never heard from Brandon that night she goes out
with some friends again she's in college and she admits she went out and got pretty drunk that night when she gets
home that night she's now concerned she's like oh I still didn't hear from Mom and Dad and I didn't hear from
Brandon so a little buzzed or you know drunk as she put it she's kind of drunk dialing mom and dad at 2 or three in the
morning trying to get a hold of them she said she at this point didn't care if she woke them up or she didn't care that
she was drunk and they would probably know it you know from her calling it that that yeah I mean at that point who
cares and and your parents would understand like look I couldn't I couldn't get a hold of you I called my
brother he was going to try to get a hold of you I never heard from him I don't want to drive all the way out
there so I'm calling thanks for answering the phone go back to bed talk to you in the morning I couldn't get an
exact number here captain but it sounds like she called them three or four times
that night and sometime in the hours of 2:30 to 3 in the morning again no luck Mom and Dad don't
pick up the phone their phone system is something we should discuss as well because the way
that it sounds to me is that they have three numbers okay they each have a cell phone and the home the new house has a
telephone number as well from my understanding and they used a term for this and I failed to put it
in my notes but if you call let's say you call the house it will ring to all of their phones all right right or if
you call Mom it will ring to all of the phones and whoever picks up first yeah the ringings it's just call uh call
forwarding okay so that makes it even a little more strange Charla says and I'll
back her up on this I agree with her that it's diff she should have no problem getting a hold of mom and dad
with that type of phone setup and it sounds like the Woodruff had that mainly because they have two kids who knows
what they may need and when they may need it right so you're telling me that she tried to call them once when she was
drunk dialing like you say three or four times is Charla statement and I think there are some not that I think there
are phone records that back up that statement and she also called her brother and and he never got a hold of
them there right so now we're we're to Tuesday October 18th that morning Charla does not have
any classes scheduled so she's got the the day free she's going to spend a good deal of the morning trying to get a hold
of her parents she says that at some point around lunchtime she tries calling her
parents at their work this is when major fear sets in she learns that her parents who both had
good jobs and both were very professional people they were both absent from work a no-show at work both
missed work on Tuesday and both of them missed work on Monday as well and even more alarming neither of them notified
their employer that they would be absent Charla notifies her aunt of the situation now the aunt is Norma's sister
she's been trying to get a hold of Norma as well nobody can get a hold of these people yeah the aunt's name is Linda
Matthews and probably at this point you're probably thinking they should call well they should call a wellness
check with the police right so what we have going on here Captain is just that we have and
this is from some court documents so forgive me if it sounds a little legally uh Todd Williams told deputies
that on October 18th 2005 at approximately 3:15 in the afternoon he received a phone call from Linda
Matthews the sister of Norma Woodruff asking that he go by their residence and check the welfare of Norma Woodruff and
Dennis Woodruff Todd Williams stated that Linda Matthews had attempted to call her sister and never received an
answer when she called Todd Williams stated that he Todd Williams stated that Linda Matthews gave him normal
woodruff's address he asked his friend Ron Allan Merritt to travel to the house with him
he says that when they arrived at the house he found that all of the doors were secured and there was no answer at
the door when they knocked so Todd Williams calls Linda Matthews back and says hey all the doors and windows seem
to be secured there's Vehicles here I'm not getting an answer knocking on the door what do you want me to do she tells
them can you figure out a way to get inside the house he decides to get a chisel from
his truck and using the Chisel he pried the screen off of a window located on the north side of the residence near the
carport and then Pride open the window Todd Williams stated that he was able to gain entry into the residence and stated
that after gaining entry into said residence he walked through the kitchen and into the living room and found both
Norma Woodruff and Dennis Woodruff deceased he stated that he exited the residents and he called The Hunt County
Sheriff's Office to report their [Music] findings if if you're looking for more garage check out our bonus show called
off the record on Stitcher premium and for all of our old episodes a lot of chatter about Chris Watts you can check
out our Chris Watts episode you could check out our West Memphis 3 episodes or the three-part series we did on Ted
Bundy and those are all for free on the Stitcher app all right join us back here
in the garage tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't litter [Music] [Applause]
[Music] you can live out your Master Chef dreams when you find a professional on Angie to
tackle your dream kitchen remodel connect with skilled professionals to get all your home
projects done well visit angie.com you can do this when you Angie that

Brandon Woodruff /// Part 1 /// 435

Part 1 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com (http://www.truecrimegarage.com/)

In October of 2005 college freshman Brandon Woodruff was arrested for the murders of his parents. Someone killed Dennis and Norma Woodruff in their new home. Questionable tactics have many asking was this Texas Justice or an Injustice?

Beer of the Week - Bigtoberfest by The BIG brewing companyGarage Grade - 3 and 3 quarter bottle caps

The full archive of True Crime Garage is available on the Stitcher listening app - for FREE. Our show “Off the Record” is only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com (https://pcm.adswizz.com) for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brief Summary

Brandon Woodruff claims innocence in the murder of his parents, discussing family dynamics and the investigation timeline.

Key points

Brandon Woodruff's Innocence Claim. Brandon Woodruff insists he is innocent of the murder of his parents, expressing deep love for them.
The Brutal Murder of the Woodruffs. Dennis and Norma Woodruff were brutally murdered in their home, shocking the community.
Brandon's Reluctance to Move. Brandon expresses strong feelings against living in the new house, calling it a downgrade.
Charla's Growing Concern. Charla can't reach her parents, raising alarms about their well-being.
Absence from Work. Both parents miss work without notification, heightening fears for their safety.
A Disturbing Discovery. Todd Williams breaks into the Woodruff residence and finds both Norma and Dennis deceased.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I did not commit this crime.

Brandon Woodruff's declaration of innocence.

4:10WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.