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.

another delay

This is the e-mail I got last night:


There was a hearing scheduled for June 20th, then July 11th for David L. Wood. The judge canceled the July hearing because he has a conflict that day.

Currently, nothing is scheduled. I will notify you as soon I a new hearing date is set.

Feb 22, 2011

Sunday night I was watching the movie Winters Bone, when my middle sister sent me a text about Ivy. It was weird timing because the darkness of the movie was making me think about her already. She wanted to know about the competency hearing. It was rescheduled to June and I don't know how, but Nicole was not told. I called on Monday to find out the answer to her questions.

Why the delay?
Why the new judge?
Why the new lawyer?

The judge was because the original judge was in a car accident. To make it speedy (this was a year ago) they switched judges. The delay was because the new judge (which is actually his original judge from when he was convicted) had a conflict. The new lawyer s because the DA had a conflict of interest.

These days are always tough on me. 24 years after her death and it hurts these days.

Anger

My anger pops up when I least expect it. I was listening to this song about God forgiving someone on death row and I got so angry. I hate that David Wood has made me into a person that would hate a Christian rock band for creating a song. Although I know they had good intentions their song created pain. My sister says she has forgiven him. I am not that evolved.

Another delay

In a way this is a good thing because I do not know if I would be able to get off work in February to go to the trial. However, he does seem to be amazingly good at prolonging his life. I honestly do not care if he is put to death or not, I just never want him outside of a jail cell. He is an evil man that should not ever be unleashed on the world. I do want this to be over. Every time it is brought up it opens a wound that I think all of us just wish could heal.

08.29.10

The people in the victims office in Texas are some of the best people I have ever interacted with. I received the autopsy report with in a day of asking for it and they wanted to make sure I was okay before they sent it to me.
She was stabbed six times in the chest. Her body was just bones and clothes by the time they found her. They know she was stabbed six times because there are six slices in her shirt and jacket that go strait through. By this, I mean that there were six cuts on the front of her shirt and 5 on the back and one crack in her scapula were the knife was stopped. You would have to be very strong and very angry to run someone through 6 times. She was fully dressed. I know this is silly, but I like to believe this means he did not rape her. I like to believe that she fought him.

07.14.10 ii

This morning I stumbled upon this website. In the comments section, I asked if she knew how Ivy died. She wrote back within a few hours and I called her to make it easier to ask questions. She told me that Ivy was stabbed (which I knew) and that they only knew this because the cuts on her jacket went strait through, from the front to the back. By the time they found her she was just skeletal remains. Trish told me that she believed it was 7 times.

I thought that it was more than that. I had been told it was more by someone along the way. Still, someone has to be very strong and filled with a lot of rage to stab anyone with that much force.

07.14.10

My name is Beatrice Josephine Williams. I am the youngest sister of Ivy Susanna Williams. This blog is an attempt to help me deal with her death.
When I was 12 years old she was brutally murdered by David Leonard Wood. Because I was 12, I was not told much about her death. Last April the State of Texas gave Wood an execution date. When that happened it opened up a flood gate of emotion for me. I do not know why but it has. Since then I have been trying to learn more about my sister and why this happened to her. I created this blog is to help me get all the information and emotions down in one place so that I can stay organized and try to understand.
The day before his execution Wood was granted a stay. He is claiming that he is mentally retarded and therefore should not be put to death.