update

David Woods was found not to be mentally retarded.  He has, however, filed a new appeal.

Photo Essay

In April 2009 David Leonard Wood, the man convicted of brutally raping and murdering my sister was given an execution date of August 20th. Wood killed my sister, Ivy, and five other women in 1987. I was 13 years old at the time. Because of my age, I was not told much about what happened to her. I just knew she was killed by a serial killer. Once I was given his name on April 26th, 2009, I became obsessed with learning more about Ivy and how she met that end.

This is what I learned from the internet, phone calls, and a book written about the murders: Ivy was ten years older than I was and was raised by her mother, our father’s first wife. Ivy led a tumultuous life after our father’s death, when she was 23 she worked as a topless dance in El Paso, Texas. David Wood, recently released from prison for sexually assaulting two girls, was dating another dancer at the Cabaret Club and had offered her a ride to the Hawaiian Royale Motel, where she was living at the time. She was never seen alive again. David would lure his victims by offering them a ride, he would then tell them he was driving out into the desert by an old oil processing plant to get some drugs that he had stashed there. He would tie these girls to a tree, the only tree in the area, rape them, kill them and bury them in the same area only yards away from each other.

Knowing these facts did not bring me any solace. I decided that what I needed to do for myself and for Ivy was to retrace her steps on her last day. I wanted and needed to see how she lived before she was killed. I thought that this would be an upsetting trip but in the end it wasn’t it was one that brought me closer and hope for the future.

I started my photo essay with a picture of how I always imagined Ivy in her last moments. Hurt, scared, and stripped down alone in the woods with no one to save her. I then just chronicled my trip. I started with the airport and went from there. The place where she lived was a sad dark broken down motel. The Cabaret Club was the same. It was as if neither place had been touched since the 1980’s. It was as if they where in a time capsule waiting for me to find them. The area where the crimes were committed was a different matter though. They built a golf course over some of the burial sites in 1991.

Trial again

Today is the start of the second half of the competency hearing.  If you did not understand that last sentence; let me explain.  After a great deal of delays (2 years), the trial to decide if David Wood is intelligent enough to execute started in October.  They did not, however, schedule enough time.  This meant another 2 months went by wile the court's calendar opened up.  It starts today at 9 am El Paso time. 

I am trying not to get too wrapped up in it this time.  It became all that I thought about in October.  I actually had forgotten about it until I got an e-mail last Friday afternoon.  It made for a bad weekend. 

Trial starts finally

After 2 years of waiting, the mental competency hearing begins today. That is 2 years after his scheduled execution date. 23 years after he brutally killed my sister. They (the victim's advocate people Texas) keep telling me not to do this but I can not help myself. I read more things about him and the murders on line yesterday. I already know how my sister died; I have the autopsy results. She was stabbed 6 times in the chest. She was stabbed so hard that the knife went through her entire body. There were cut marks through both sides of her jacket and a gash on the internal part of her scapula. It took a lot of strength and a lot of anger to do it. The first 2 girls were strangled to death after being raped. Ivy's body was so badly decomposed by the time they found her that they could not tell if she had been raped. She was fully dressed though. I like to believe she fought him hard and he was not able to rape her. That maybe that was why she was stabbed so brutally. I have been told that they can not tell that and that there is no reason to believe she was any different than the rest. Maybe that is true, but I like to believe she went down with a fight. She was his last victim. People saw him offer her a ride home. He was her friend's boyfriend. She lived a tough life after our father died. I think she was smart enough to not get a ride with just anyone. Her life was so different than the rest of us. My father's death meant the best stepfather in the world for me and over seas boarding school for my middle sister. But ultimately death for Ivy. I feel like so much of my life has been me walking on the edge of this black abyss but I have been lucky enough not to fall in. I wish it were the same for you Ivy.

Another appeal. This time I found out through a letter. It was just a notification of transport. I had to call to find out what the letter was about. His competency hearing isn't until October 17th so why was he being transferred at the end of August? Two phone calls later and it is the same thing over and over again. I did not get to talk to my regular victims advocate. This woman was nice but not as polished or understanding as Karin. She told me that he had a right to keep appealing till the end. Yes, I know that. It does not mean that it does not through me in to a dark place every time I get a letter with this return address.

The photos they have of Ivy in the El Paso Times are horrible. You really can not see how beautiful she was. Honestly, the look like blobs. This is what she looked like before she was killed.

August 18th, 2011

I got an e-mail last night telling me that the judge ruled in our favor. There have been so many appeals and he was suppose to be put to death 2 years ago. So many delays. I wonder if it was not a death penalty case, would there be so many appeals?

The compatency hearing is scheduled for October 17th. I have my doubts that it will happen.

I ask Nicole what happened. Why did Ivy turn out so different than the 2 of us. She said, Dad died. When she found out he killed himself, she ran away. She hitch hiked from Colorodo to DC just to see if he was really barried there. To sse if he was really dead. She was 13.