48 Hours - The "Unsolvable" Murder of Roxanne Wood

Episode Date: November 13, 2022

How a DNA “detective,” an undercover cop and a cast-off cigarette butt helped catch a killer. "48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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ConstantContact.ca 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 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. I answered the phone and I could tell something was bad, wrong. He just broke down. He just said, someone murdered your sister. Rock 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 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? Oh, beyond frustrating. I was starting to lose hope. Dr. Ashlyn 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 keyword in and search across that entire document, 3,500 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. Gabriela 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 you had to work with. It was 28 picograms, so small that you could never see it with 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. It was deemed unsolvable prior to my involvement. Roxanne Wood's 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. Thank you. Brad 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, she had told me that she had gotten a call that Rock had been killed. 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. She 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 Rock. She was being mom to you. Yeah. Rock, you know, she was always there. She was your 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 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 it was the 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 in 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 sight. 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 in his hands to see if she was alive. Yes see if she was alive, yes. Finding no signs of life, Terry grabbed the phone and called the local police station. She is dead. She has been cut. 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. I'm going to get some information from you. I'm going to get a car started, okay? We're going to get 50 cars started! No! They are started! No! No! No! The dispatcher kept Terry on the phone.

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 seed 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 a 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. To Terry.

I believe you're the killer. You're the killer and I will not rest until you're behind bars. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military, and when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand,

lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still a virgin. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years, I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with.

In the Pitcairn trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique lonely pacific island to the brink of extinction listen to the pitcairn trials exclusively on wandering plus join wondering plus in the wondering app apple podcasts or spotify As investigators began piecing together clues in Roxanne Wood's 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. That fillet 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'd discovered a potential motive when they looked into Roxanne and Terry's past. We did uncover an 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. 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. He declined our request for an interview. I'd heard stories that at times he'd walk into a place and somebody 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. 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 the 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 3% 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 believed that I could solve it. So Gabriella got to work. Incredibly, she was able to generate a genetic profile from the killer's trace DNA. It tells me where their ancestral origins come from. Are they Eastern European? Are they Mediterranean? Are they African American? 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 GEDmatch 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 GEDmatch 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? 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? Chat now with Peter Van Sant on Twitter. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman.

The scary cult classic was set in a Chicago housing project. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. Candyman. Candyman? Now, we all know chanting a name won't make a killer magically appear, but did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. We're going to talk to the people who were there. And we're also going to uncover the larger story. My architect was shocked when he saw how this was created.

Literally shocked. And we'll look at what the story tells us about injustice in America. If you really believed in tough on crime, then you wouldn't make it easy to crawl into medicine cabinets and kill our women. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder,

early and ad-free, with a 48-hour plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all.

I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now.

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 Wood's killer. now believed they had finally tracked down Roxanne Wood's 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 Gillum. Patrick

Gillum. A man who was living just a few miles from where he allegedly raped and murdered Roxanne Wood. And it turns out he had a troubled past. Had been a drinker. Is he into drugs? He's into drugs. Is he into drugs? He's into 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 Farrick 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 this guy going through her purse. He got scared, whatever, and chased her. Maureen 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 molest her. He wasn't successful. Maureen told Robert the man then took her purse and fled. Throughout the attack, Maureen 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 strength. 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 Maureen's. Police officer called me and said, we picked the 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 Gillum was charged with burglary and unlawful deviant 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. 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 Sandwood 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 the Fugitive Recovery Team for the 5th District.

In May 2021, Cotty 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, 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 tail, 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, 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. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The best idea yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that

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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. We were 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 car drove by right then. It was possible the cigarette butt tested was not Gillum's. 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, Cotty was determined not to lose sight of Gillum's discarded cigarette butt for even a moment. And instead of tailing him in a car, Cotty 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 was like, well, you know, I need to go over and get a pack of cigarettes and sit on the curb next to the laundromat. He came and took a seat probably about six to eight feet away from me, and we had a 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 a great situation because the cigarette was by itself. So I pull out a glove and go over, and I pick the cigarette up with my hand. Was it still smoking?

Oh, it was still warm. Yes, it was. So I wrapped it up inside that glove, I stuck it in my pocket, and headed out. Investigators held their breath until the results from Gillum's 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. You're not in trouble. You're here voluntarily.

Detective Bailey says they told Gillum they needed to question him about an old case. You know anybody by the name of Roxanne? He explains to us, I know two Roxannes, and he says one's a stripper, one's a drug addict. Gillum was shown a picture of Roxanne Wood. That girl look familiar? Never met her before? Never met her. That's a newer picture. Here's an older picture. Then, Gillum was shown a second photo of Roxanne.

Never seen her, never met her, don't know who she is. I said, well, we're here to talk to you about her. This woman's been assaulted. This is too much for me, man. You can see his body just tense up and almost to the point of hyperventilation. Hands started shaking, threw 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.

At that time, he requested to speak to his attorney. In February 2022, just days shy of the 35th anniversary of Roxanne's murder, Patrick Gillum was arrested at his South Bend, Indiana home. An answer a 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 him. Detective Christensen then met face to face with the man who had lived for decades with cruel rumors and doubt, Terry Wood. I sat him down, explained he was no longer a 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 are under arrest, okay? 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. I just can't believe I did it. If I did it, what are you saying I did? When he pressed on it, he kept saying, you guys are telling me I did this, and if I did this, I'm a monster. 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. He 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, man. I told you. 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, pounded his chest. I got to 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 at 48hours.com. dot 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 Caperell went outside to her front lawn. I was standing down 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 taillight 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? Oh, the muffler was loud. I just got a feeling that something just wasn't right. And by the time I got halfway 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, but 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 taillight in a parking lot. My mom says right away, that's the car. Stunned, Rose and Tina say 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 they would be doing something with it. No arrest was ever made. Decades later, when Rose saw the report of Gillum being arrested for Roxanne Wood's murder, she and Tina decided to tell their story to the Michigan police. Imagine if the police had come. They might have solved Roxanne Wood's case just a few months after it had occurred.

Possible, yes. An opportunity lost. Yeah, yeah, it could have went that way. But in April 2022, Gillum's day of reckoning finally came. When he walked in, I openly said, piece of s***. I didn't realize I was saying it as loudly as I did. In a Michigan courtroom, 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 just couldn't believe I'm sitting this close to the person 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. 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 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 sometime in the future, with God's help, that they can 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 Farag 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 Gabriela 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 honour. It's an honour to be able to work these cases, to bring justice to these victims 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.

And I said, I said, oh, I said, do you have to go back? And she goes, yes. She goes, but it's fine. She goes, I'm good. She said, I'm really good. That was it. Two young women. Two unsolved murders. They were both killed the same night.

Matching socks found at two different crime scenes. Now, can DNA from a fast food bag finally catch the killer? It was like gold. 48 Hours, Saturday on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.