The "Unsolvable" Murder of Roxanne Wood | Full Episode | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] little small town Niles has this brutal Savage murder there are kids that grew up locking
their doors and being scared when they went to bed at night just because of this case
Roxanne wood in 1987 was married to Terry Wood Roxanne and Terry went to the bowling
alley and arrived in separate cars Roxanne left earlier than Terry he just wanted to keep with the fun he was
having and Roxanne wanted to get home and go to bed Terry arrives home and notices Roxanne
laying in the kitchen he notices a pool of blood on the floor she was bleeding profusely from her neck my
phone and I could tell something was bad wrong he just broke down he just said someone murdered your sister
Iraq being the rock of the family she didn't have an enemy out there who just randomly breaks in and does
this to someone she was sexually assaulted the assailant left his DNA but in terms of the essential evidence
based on what was there this went cold fairly quickly did it not based off of what they had to go on yeah the DNA
technology wasn't there to really to follow up and go through on and there was absolutely not a lot more to go off
how frustrating was it that no one had been arrested no Beyond frustrating I was starting to lose hope
Dr Ashland Kirsten and I had been talking about involving the students at Western in a Cold Case project when we
first got the file it was just an amazing amount of data it just looked overwhelming some of the
documents are older than I am then we would have to sort through if it was relevant information or not
hours upon hours to scan all this stuff they were able to organize that report where we were able to put a key word in
and search across that entire document 3500 Pages how important was that hugely important I was hopeful that we would be
able to solve the case or move the case forward or that someone who came after us would
the first thing that I did was I requested access to the case File it was very easy to read through quite quickly
due to the work of the students Gabriella Vargas is a genetic genealogist probably one of the best in
the country if not the world but I'm also a pink haired tattooed mom from California
who enjoys woodworking and gardening describe the size of the DNA material that you had to work with it was 28
picograms so small that you could never see it with the the naked eye just a speck of a speck of a speck very very
very small amount of DNA it was deemed unsolvable prior to my involvement Roxanne Woods family was my motivation
for working as hard and as fast as I did they never gave up hope that one day Justice would be served
they have a Facebook page Janet Wood had made a post on the page one day Rock one day and I screamed out
at the top of my lungs no today's your day Rock today's your day [Music] laughs [Music]
[Music] foreign Woods remembers February 20 1987 like it was yesterday he was just 14 years old I
was getting ready for school and I can remember my mom pounding on the bathroom door saying to hurry up she needed to
talk to me hours earlier Brad's 30 year old sister Roxanne known as rock had been nearby in her Niles Michigan home
alone when she was viciously attacked her throat slashed when I came out you know she had told me that she had gotten
a call that rock had been killed devastated Roxanne's family couldn't imagine why anyone would want to harm
her she always made people think you were her best friend she just loved everyone
High School graduation Gorgeous Hair definitely had the hair she was tall statuesque she dressed to
the nines that was very important to her she was very classy Janet Wood could not
help but admire her older sister their parents were divorced and Roxanne had taken on a maternal role with her
siblings with divorced parents a lot of times you feel like you're being shuffled between you know house to house
and the one thing that was always stable for me was with rock she was being Mom to you yeah
rock you know she was always there she was a rock she was she was Roxanne's last name would eventually
change from Woods to wood in walks Terry and rock after meeting Future Husband Terry Wood shortly after she graduated
from high school she was working at his father's company Terry was still in high
school on the wrestling team and and he walks and he's in his wrestling shorts and whatever she said that was the
nicest looking legs she ever saw and she was just Smitten by him right away Roxanne and Terry married in 1982.
she said was it happiest day of her life six years later Janet would change her name from Woods to wood as well when she
married Terry's brother Rob both brothers wound up working for the family business
for Roxanne and Terry it proved to be a bit too much togetherness they got dressed in the morning together and they
rode to work together and they came home for lunch together and then they went back to work together Roxanne's solution
taking a job at nearby South Bend Indiana a little time apart seemed to help the marriage very very content
happy looking forward to starting a family February 19 1987 started out as a typical Thursday
evening for the couple they met for dinner at a restaurant in downtown Niles after work and then went to a local
bowling alley arriving in separate cars from the report you could tell when Roxanne entered that bowling alley all
eyes were on her Michigan state police detective Sergeant John Moore there wasn't a whole lot of ladies there
because this was the men's bowling league so she drew some attention as midnight approached Roxanne was ready to
call it a night but Terry wanted to stay there's Witnesses where Terry and she said goodnight to each other hug kiss
love you drive safe after Roxanne headed home Terry stayed behind and bowled another game he then
headed home and arrived here about 45 minutes after his wife Terry entered the house through the
garage and once inside He Came Upon a horrific site she was laying on the floor she had her
nightgown on he said there was a lot of blood according to detective first lieutenant Chuck Christensen Terry said
he rushed over to Roxanne he got behind her according to him and picked her head
up and held her head to see if she was alive to see if she was alive yes finding no signs of Life
Terry grabbed the phone and called the local police station [Music] Terry noticed that her panties were down
around her knee slash ankle area her nightgown was pulled up now listen to me okay at times Terry seemed to get
belligerent with the person trying to help him get some information the dispatcher kept Terry on the phone I
don't scream into the farm because the phone distorts and I can't understand you that well okay
no I'm trying to get some information from you okay Terry's aggressive demeanor on the phone
quickly became a red flag according to investigators is that suspicious Behavior to you it's a bit suspicious
typically they're in shock distraught but not normally do you hear that anger component in there to the level that it
is in this one detective Sergeant Jason Bailey says a seat of Suspicion grew even more once police arrived at the
home he definitely had fits of Rage I know at one point he was screaming they wanted his supervisor a sergeant there
is he making himself a suspect by this kind of behavior everybody reacts differently but based on this abnormal
reaction I believe he was making himself a suspect First Responders eventually had no choice but to subdue Terry by
placing him in the back of a patrol car and when they drove him down to the police post for routine questioning
Terry quickly asked for an attorney which set off more alarm bells for investigators the detective at that time
told him within five to ten minutes you did this and I will not rest until I put
you away forever an investigator said that to Terry I believe I believe you're the Killer and I will not rest until
you're behind bars [Music] thank you as investigators began piecing together clues in Roxanne Woods rape and murder
the emerging picture offered up just one suspect her husband Terry there was no sign of any forced entry
did that raise eyebrows absolutely but Terry told police they'd been having problems with the lock on the back door
claiming it didn't work investigators however remain suspicious we have a sheath up here of a fillet
knife located near the body knife presumed to be the murder weapon had been taken from a kitchen drawer it
was never found that would be odd that a killer would come to a house without a weapon
Terry told police that he'd slipped in Roxanne's blood as he lifted her head to check on her but there were no blood
smears indicating he'd actually done that investigators thought they discovered a
potential motive when they looked into Roxanne and Terry's past we did uncover a extramarital affair by both parties by
both parties yeah and so when you have a murder like this and you learn there was
some infidelity are you wondering could jealousy have been a motive absolutely I remember the detective saying it was
rage it's only someone close to her would have this kind of Rage I never bought that Janet firmly
believed in Terry's innocence I just knew him too well so that just didn't fit with what I knew Terry wasn't a
rageful guy he may have a sharp tongue occasionally but never a violent person despite strongly suspecting Terry
investigators didn't believe there was enough evidence to charge him after just a few months the case went cold leaving
a cloud of Suspicion hanging over Terry declined our request for an interview I'd heard stories that at times he'd
walk into a place and somebody who would call him slash DNA was left at the crime scene a sample
was preserved but given the limitations on technology back in 1987 not much could be done with it
still Roxanne's family never gave up I didn't lose hope ever I mean this guy just didn't do this and
then lead a clean pristine life the rest of his life DNA technology evolved eventually allowing the sample to be
uploaded to the criminal database CODIS in 1999 but no match was returned as disappointing as that was everyone was
hopeful that the DNA would at least clear Terry when it was tested against his the result it wasn't Terry's DNA so
did that eliminate Terry as a person of interest as a suspect in this case no why not it's not his semen just because
you find semen in somebody doesn't necessarily mean that that person is the one that killed them
after that the case offered no new leads until 2020 after more than three decades
of compiling thousands of reports police were drowning in paperwork that's when a
professor and an Innovative group of students here at Western Michigan University figured out a way to speed up
the investigation The Real World experience I think is is priceless see that Marine Dr Ashlyn Kirsten teaches a
criminal justice studies program for years she's been talking to detective Christensen about how her students might
help on a Cold Case what a great partnership that would be if we could ever make something like
that happen so the professor and the detective came up with a plan Dr Kirsten's students would process around
3 500 pages of documents accumulated since the day Roxanne was murdered into a single digitized database Samantha
Rogers was one of several students who worked on the case the officers are able to search by name and see if they've
already been interviewed if they needed a follow-up they can search locations things that they wouldn't be able to do
just flipping through thousands of pages Mackenzie stowman says that decades-old
files were a solemn reminder of how long some victims wait for justice it gave a
sense of gravity to what we were doing that these cases have gone unsolved for that long
around the same time the students began crunching data Christensen decided it was time for a Hail Mary pass
Colleen Fitzpatrick is the president and founder of identifinders international a
company that specializes in genetic genealogy it's been used in forensic cases to help identify
unidentified remains and violent offenders for violent crimes Christensen hired her genealogy company
to examine the tiny amount of DNA left from Roxanne's case we found out there was what I would call
a gnat's eyebrow of DNA left about three percent of what we normally use that was
the lowest amount of DNA we've ever had to work with to solve a case identifinders spent about 10 months
working with the data the sample produced but came up empty it really did feel impossible it really did then one
day in April 2021 Colleen happened to be chatting with investigative genetic genealogist Gabriella Vargas who worked
as a consultant for identifinders and I said well why don't you let me look at it I concluded that I did not stand with
the others I believed that this case was extremely solvable and I believe that I
could solve it so Gabriella got to work incredibly she was able to generate a genetic profile from The Killers trace
DNA it tells me where their ancestral Origins come from are they Eastern European are they Mediterranean are they
African-American and what was the race of this person Caucasian Gabriella then turned to an online DNA service when
consumers use DNA sites like 23andMe and ancestry.com they can take their results
and upload them to a broader database called GED match in the hope of finding more relatives they can choose to opt
into law enforcement matching if they do that I can see if they are a match to my
suspect Gabriella was able to use Jed match and the genetic profile she developed to start to build the family
tree of Roxanne's killer how far back did you go in time one side of the tree the ancestor was 1823 on the
other side the top ancestor was 1797. essentially what we're looking for amongst these matches are where they
connect to each other and it led me to a union couple a union couple is where two
sides of the family tree meet this couple was born around 1920. based on that we can presume that they would
have kids around 1940 maybe 1950. it would have to be one of their children the couple she found had three sons she
let the detectives know they did background checks and eliminated two of The Three Brothers as possibilities they
were down to the last brother he's been involved in a lot of different things violent things violent things
sexual deviant things you name it he's probably been involved in it and you connect the DNA with someone who has a
history of violent Behavior you got yourself a suspect absolutely how do you feel about sharing your DNA
search results with law enforcement join the conversation now on social media [Music]
[Music] after 34 years and one last chance at solving this case with a speck of DNA
too small to see with the human eye detective Chuck christensen's daring bet paid off big and to know that we had
come to this point was simply amazing Michigan State Police now believed they had finally Tracked Down Roxanne Woods
killer we were confident now we were going to solve this and make an arrest you could now pinpoint who that
individual was that had committed these awful crimes and who is that person that
individual is Patrick kill him Patrick Gillum a man who was living just a few miles
from where he allegedly raped and murdered Roxanne wood [Music] and it turns out he had a troubled past
had been a drinker is he into drugs using the drugs just an individual that was lost in life and a bad individual based
on his background when detectives dug into gillum's criminal history they found a connection
to another disturbing case eight years before Roxanne's attack my wife Maureen was attacked by Patrick
Gillum in 1979. Robert and Maureen farig and their two young daughters lived in Gary Indiana
back in September of 1979. we were just kind of blossoming into adulthood with the kids with our lifestyle with
our jobs Robert was economic director for the city and Maureen was an art teacher at the local Middle School what
is it about Maureen that you fell in love with wow I can't say one thing only she was very attractive which has caught
my eye she was so nice people gravitated to her because of her warm personality one night while making his way home from
a business trip Robert called Maureen with a favor I said Maureen I don't have my keys to the house
so could you leave the side door open at around 11 at night Robert turned onto his Street
he'll never forget what he saw when I pull up I see the police cars Robert quickly found Maureen who calmly
told him she was in bed when she was startled awake by a noise downstairs Maureen sees the sky going through her
purse he got scared whatever and chased her more each started going upstairs and he
grabbed her at the bottom of the stairs and got on top of her and he tried his best to molester he wasn't successful
Maureen told Robert the man then took her purse and fled throughout the attack Marine had stayed
quiet she didn't want to awaken her two girls that takes an incredible amount of
Courage she was willing to sacrifice herself there if need be to protect her one and three-year-old daughters Maureen
had a lot more than courage she had striped about a week later Gillum was pulled
over in Gary for a traffic violation a police officer noticed credit cards on the seat next to him
they were Marines police officer called me and said we picked a guy up we're bringing him into
the station when he was interviewed by police he said all I remember is going into the house and I blacked out and
woke up with my pants around my ankles Patrick killum was charged with burglary and unlawful deviate conduct he pleaded
guilty and was sentenced to 14 years in Indiana State Prison how did you go on with life from that
point we forgot about it we changed our house we changed our neighborhood she never told anybody because she felt that
was a private issue Patrick Gillum served just seven years of his 14-year sentence about four
months after his release police believe Gillum assaulted Roxanne wood criminals learn as they go and I believe
he learned from that first crime he did that I better not leave this witness alive because I will be in
prison for a long long time Maureen died in 2018 from cancer not knowing anything about the Roxanne wood
case now armed with their DNA evidence investigators were ready to move in on Patrick Gillum
at this point we decide to get a surreptitious sample to compare to the profile that we had from Brock sand wood
from the scene and we do this through our undercover surveillance team I'm Ryan cotty and I am a trooper with
the Michigan State Police and you do some undercover work from time to time I do I'm assigned with a fugitive recovery
team for the fifth district in May 2021 Connie and his team surveilled Gillum in South Bend for days
on end and picked up a crucial clue that would Aid them in collecting his DNA we
noticed that he was a smoker and why does that help you just in the simple fact that uh you know when you're
smoking it's a great source of DNA you have your lips directly on the butt of the cigarette and your saliva gets in
the cigarette hot on gillum's Tale the team witnessed their target flick a cigarette butt
outside his truck window while driving and so oh boy you're rubbing your hands you're going
this is going to be that final piece of the puzzle that you had talked about right yes but there's a twist
we sent that up to the lab right away a couple days later their lab director calls me and he said it's not a match
foreign [Music] if it's not a match it's not a match detective Moore says investigators were
shocked when the lab called to say the DNA sample from Patrick gillum's cigarette butt did not match Roxanne's
killer who are scratching our heads I called the trooper that grabbed that cigarette butt and I said is there any
way at all that you lost sight of that when it flipped out of his finger and he said a card drove by right then
it was possible the cigarette butt tested was not gillums the only thing logically that we can do is go back and
get another one So Undercover Trooper Ryan cotty headed back to work once again tailing Gillum he pulled into this
laundromat which we saw as a window of opportunity that he would most likely be coming out to take a smoke break
this time Cody was determined not to lose sight of gillum's discarded cigarette butt for even a moment and
instead of tailing him in a car Cody followed Gillum on foot I'm not a smoker and there was a gas station right over
on the corner that I saw and I I was like well you know I need to go over and get a pack of cigarettes and sit on the
The Crib next to the laundromat he came and took a seat probably about six to eight feet away from me and we had to
smoke together so how did you strike up a conversation with him I just tried to say hi to him made some small
conversation he liked the Red Wings it wasn't long before Gillum finished his cigarette and went back inside I saw him
throw his cigarette which was right in about this area so it was great situation because the
cigarette was by itself so I pull out a uh a glove and go over and I picked the cigarette up with my hand was it still
slow it was it was still warm yes it was so I wrapped it up inside that glove I stuck it in my pocket and and headed out
investigators held their breath until the results from Gillum cigarette butt came back it was a perfect match to the
DNA left at the 1987 crime scene I was ecstatic I was very very happy but investigators were not yet ready to make
an arrest opting to bring Gillum in for an interview in July 2021. if you're not
in trouble you're here voluntarily detective Bailey says they told Gillum they needed to question him about an old
case do you know anybody by the name of Roxanne he explains to us I know two Roxanne's and he said one's a stripper
one's a drug addict Gillum was shown a picture of Roxanne wood that girl look familiar you ever met
heard over never met her maybe that's a newer pictures and here's an older picture then Gillum was shown a second
photo of Roxanne I've never seen her never met her don't know who she is and I said well we're
here to talk to you about her this This Woman's been assaulted there's too much you can see his body just tense up and
almost to the point of hyperventilation and started shaking through his hands you know back in the air
I've never had a reaction out of somebody like that in 23 years of doing this because he continued talking I got
to talk to my lawyer at that time he requested to speak to his attorney I talked to my lawyer man in February 2022
just days shy of the 35th anniversary of Roxanne's murder Patrick Gillum was arrested at his South Bend Indiana home
family has waited 35 years for Roxanne's Brother Brad Woods it didn't seem real it was nothing like I had ever played in
my mind of how I would be when they came to the door to say we've got them detective Christensen then met face to
face with the man who had lived four decades with cruel rumors and doubt Terry Wood I sat him down explain he was
no longer Person of Interest and we knew he had nothing to do with it how did he
react he was very emotional he started crying of course was bewildered and in shock
as a 35 year old burden was lifted off Terry the hammer was about to fall for Gillum you're under arrest okay
investigators questioned him for five and a half hours at a police station in South Bend with Gillum only asking for
an attorney at the very end at times he spoke in circles what are you saying I did so went
pressed on it he kept saying you guys are telling me I did this and if I did this I'm a monster I'm a monster man if
I did that that's a monster that's a monster man only a monster would do this let me ask you this how do you think
your DNA was found with her I have no clue how do you think I have no clue man said that several times during the
interview when he was confronted with the case facts he kept saying I don't remember I don't remember I don't
remember doing that but Janet says gillum's reaction when he was questioned seven months prior proved
he was lying now he visibly reacted shook like a leaf leaned back in his chair pounding his chest I gotta talk to
my lawyer I think I need a lawyer you tell me he doesn't remember what he did Gillum was charged with Roxanne's murder
but had a golden opportunity to apprehend him decades earlier slipped through investigators fingers I truly
believe that I would have been raped and murdered see more of the evidence and timeline
the eighthours.com in the summer of 1987 just months after Roxanne wood was murdered in her home
her alleged killer crossed paths with yet another woman it was a hot night in South Bend Indiana
when Rose Caporal went outside to her front lawn I was standing on there watering and all of a sudden I hear this
loud car coming down the street Rose standing alone says she noticed a blue El Camino similar to this one driven by
a stranger getting closer I looked and he had a tail light out on the car about three four minutes later I hear the same
car coming back down this street now it had a bad Muffler right well the muffler
was loud I just got a feeling that something just wasn't right and by the time I got
happily to my front door a man came around the corner of the house he had a stocking cap on and he had a full beard
all you could basically see was his eyes I just turned and ran screaming down the
street have you ever run faster in your life than that moment and I'm not a runner that I ran Rose says she ran to a
neighbor's house and called local police but the assailant had escaped what do you believe would have happened if that
man had caught up to you my thought was he was going to rape me a few days later
while Rose and her family were driving to dinner her daughter Tina says she spotted that same blue El Camino with a
burned out tail light in a parking lot my mom says right away that's the car stunned Rose and Tina saved they went to
call the police leaving Rose's husband Stan a retired Marine waiting for the car's owner I came back to my dad
holding a gun at the attacker sitting on the ground Tina says her father demanded the man hand over his
driver's license they say the name on that license Patrick Gillum we had never heard the name before
Rose says the police never arrived so Stan lowered his gun and let Gillum leave she says she later reported the
incident at the South Bend Police Station we didn't pursue it because we figured you know they would be doing
something with it no arrest was ever made decades later when Rose saw the report of Gillen being arrested for
Roxanne Woods Murder She and Tina decided to tell their story to the Michigan police imagine if the police
had come they might have solved Roxanne Woods case just a few months after it had occurred possible yes and
opportunity lost yeah yeah it uh it could have went that way but in April 2022 gilliam's Day of Reckoning finally
came when he walked in I openly said Peace I didn't realize I was saying it as loudly as I did in a Michigan court
he faced some of the people whose lives he had viciously altered he made eye contact with me he sat down and he
looked up and he stared right in my face even though Gillum had insisted to investigators that he didn't remember
murdering Roxanne he later pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and now everyone waited for his sentence to be
handed down it was almost like being face to face with the devil I remember being
shaky and nervous and just I I just couldn't believe I'm sitting this close to the person that that did this
Brad and Janet finally got the chance to address the man who killed their sister
all those years ago Patrick Gillum is a very definition of a nightmare women fear our whole lives
Gillum appeared confused as though he'd seen a ghost when looking at Janet he wore headphones in order to hear Janet
does look a lot like rock he was probably in shock seeing her sitting there his actions gave all of us a life
sentence well he got to live most of his as a free man and we are here today to see him finally pay something for what
he's done which is likely the rest of his life in a cage like the vile animal that he is
it seems people like him tend to find Jesus in prison don't bother looking because the devil
will be the only one greeting you when it was his turn to speak Gillum offered an apology and a prayer I can't believe
I did what I did and I pray for them every night and I am so sorry I just hope that sometimes in
the future but God's help that they could start to forgive me the judge sentenced Gillum who was 67 at the time
to a minimum of 23 years in prison sitting in court Terry Wood now Vindicated watched as his wife's real
killer was led away Robert farig witnessed Terry's pain firsthand I shook his hand he was you
know shaking crying I felt more empathy for him than I could for any other person I've
met Terry was cleared and his wife's killer found thanks in large part to advances
in technology genetic genealogist Gabriella Vargas who solved a decades-long cold case in just
four days says she's eager to do it again as a result of your work more and more law enforcement agencies will be
coming to you more and more families hoping that you can do your Miracle work and solve their cold cases that's quite
a burden for you isn't it oh absolutely not it's an honor it's an honor to be able to work these cases to bring
Justice to these victims and and closure to these families and I will never stop
as the Wood family finally found some peace their Rock will always be with them giving them the strength to move
forward Janet remembers a dream she had about her sister we were downtown Niles and she came up
and grabbed me and she goes Janet and I was like oh [ __ ] oh my God and we're walking and walking and walking and just
laughing and all of a sudden I look up and it's dead silent and we're at the gates of the cemetery
foreign and I said um I said oh I said you have to go back and she goes yes she goes but it's fine
she goes I'm good she's really good that was it [Music] her home became a crime scene I knew my
mom was in distress her mother's fiance dead it was shocked what really happened I
didn't even know what to think what Angelina saw 48 hours Saturday on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus
[Music]

How a DNA “detective,” an undercover cop and a cast-off cigarette butt helped catch a killer. "48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant reports. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

True crime. Real justice. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

Brief Summary

Roxanne Wood's 1987 murder was solved in 2022 with DNA evidence linking Patrick Gillum to the crime, exonerating her husband Terry Wood.

Key points

The Savage Murder of Roxanne Wood. In 1987, Roxanne Wood was brutally murdered, leaving her small town in fear.
A Cold Case Reopened. Decades later, students and a professor tackle the overwhelming evidence in Roxanne's case.
DNA Technology Evolves. Advancements in DNA technology finally allow investigators to revisit Roxanne's case.
The Killer Identified. After 34 years, police believe they have tracked down Roxanne's killer, Patrick Gillum.
Gillum's Disturbing Past. Detectives uncover a connection between Roxanne's murder and Gillum's previous attack.
Crucial Clue Found. The team discovers a cigarette butt that could be the key to solving the case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

No, today's your day, Rock!

A moment of hope for Roxanne's family.

4:13WatchAug 18, 2023

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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