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1987 Knox, Marjorie Feb 14 1987; 14 YO El Paso
Topic Started: Aug 9 2009, 08:21 PM (997 Views)
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El Paso, like so many other cities in America, has seen its share of runaways in recent years. With drugs and broken homes, the promise of excitement to be found in other cities, other states, uncounted teens have fled their homes and schools to search for fame and fortune on the road. A few make good, some wander back in time, but nearly all leave tokens of themselves behind, some indication of their motive for departure. During 1987, though, a rash of disappearances around El Paso baffled parents and police as normal, well-adjusted girls and women dropped from sight, without a trace. Fourteen-year-old Marjorie Knox was the first to go, reported missing from nearby Chaparral, New Mexico, on February 14, 1987. Three weeks later, on March 7, 13-year-old Melissa Alaniz vanished from El Paso, police noting that both girls had parents working at the Rockwell plant, outside of town. Desiree Wheatly, 15, disappeared in El Paso on June 7, last seen in the company of a man with heavily-tattooed arms. Three days later, Karen Baker's disappearance seemed to break the pattern. At 20, she was a legal adult, but police learned that her mother worked in the same Rockwell plant, with a nodding acquaintance to Marjorie Knox. Was there some hidden link between the missing girls, thus far unknown to the police? On June 28, 19-year-old Cheryl Vasquez-Dismukes vanished from El Paso, followed on July 3 by 17-year-old Angela Frausto. Maria Casio, age 24, was staying with friends when she failed to come home on the night of August 19. They reported her missing next day, and her car was found on August 21, without a trace of the missing woman. On August 28, 14-year-old Dawn Smith left her El Paso home, promising to "keep in touch," and abruptly dropped out of sight. On September 4, utility workers unearthed Maria Casio's remains in the desert northwest of El Paso. Police were summoned to the scene, and they soon found Karen Baker buried in a shallow grave 100 yards away. With no obvious wounds on either body, the cause of death for both victims was listed as "apparent strangulation." On October 20, 1987, hikers found the remains of Desiree Wheatly and Dawn Smith within a mile of the other grave sites. Two weeks later, desert prospectors found Angela Frausto in a nearby shallow grave. Marjorie Knox, Melissa Alaniz and Cheryl Vasquez-Dismukes are still missing, but all are now presumed dead by authorities. Police, meanwhile, have focused their attention on a suspect in the case. On September 19, 1987, an El Paso prostitute complained to police that one of her "tricks" had driven her into the desert, near the grave sites, where he pulled a knife and threatened her before she fled on foot. Another hooker, raped some weeks before, came forward after the report was published, both women remarking on their assailant's numerous tattoos. A search of police tattoo files led to the October 22 arrest of David Leonard Wood, an ex-convict with a history of violence against females. Born in 1957, Wood logged his first arrest at age 19, for the attempted rape of a 12-year-old girl. In court, he pled guilty to a reduced charge of indecency with a minor and spent three years in prison, paroled in January 1980. Four months later, he raped a 13-year-old stranger and a 19-year-old acquaintance, the latter mistake earning him concurrent prison terms of 20 years on each charge. He was paroled again in January 1987, days before El Paso's string of deaths and disappearances began. Wood denies any involvement in the spate of murders, and he has never been charged in the case. (Conviction of kidnapping and rape, in March 1988, has returned him to prison with a new 50-year sentence.) In the absence of an indictment, authorities note that Woods - and his tattoos - perfectly match descriptions of the man last seen with Desiree Wheatly in June 1987. He was also seen riding a motorcycle with Karen Baker, several months before she died, and witnesses have placed Woods at a local convenience store where Cheryl Vasquez-Dismukes was last seen alive on June 28. (Wood admits hearing "rumors" that Cheryl's family suspected him of her murder, and claims he "went searching" for her, all in vain.) Finally, friends of Wood have identified photos of Maria Casio and Dawn Smith as friends of the suspect, a claim Wood dismisses as simple "mistaken identity." Hanging tough in the face of mounting suspicion, Wood granted an interview to local journalists in March 1988, prior to his sentencing on the kidnap and rape charges. Avoiding the question of guilt or innocence, he harped on the killer's apparent carelessness in disposing of victims. "If I am going to kill somebody," he declared, "I'm going to put them 15 feet under, up in the mountains, where the coyotes can't get to them."

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Execution offers closure
David Leonard Wood to be executed Aug. 20
By Diana Washington / ValdezEl Paso Times
Posted: 08/09/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT


David Wood, 33, is led from the County Courthouse by sheriff's deputies on the morning of July 25, 1990, after being arraigned in connection with the desert murders in Northeast El Paso. Wood pleaded innocent to the charges.
Click photo to enlargeDuring the investigation, the Police Department interviewed 400 people and investigated 50 suspects.«12»Related
Desert Deaths - Following the execution of David Leonard Wood
Victims of the 1987 crime wave in the NortheastDavid L. Wood's path from El Paso to Death RowChris Lopez: Reporter to witness executionVictim: Donna SmithVictim: Ivy Susanna WilliamsVictim: Desiree WheatleyVictim: Angelica Jeannette FraustoVictim: Maria Rosa Casio and Karen BakerEl Paso man to be executed Aug. 20 for slayings of 6
Photo gallery: Desert deaths

EL PASO -- The man convicted nearly 17 years ago of murdering six girls and young women, then burying their bodies in the desert, is scheduled to die Aug. 20 in Huntsville, Texas.

David Leonard Wood, 52, denied killing anyone, though police link him to as many as nine murders. He will be the third El Pasoan to be executed since 1976, when capital punishment was revived in the United States.

The senior George Bush was president when Wood was sentenced to die for the murders of Rosa Maria Casio, 24; Ivy Susanna Williams, 23; Karen Baker, 20; Angelica Frausto, 17; Desiree Wheatley, 15; and Dawn Marie Smith, 14. All were killed in 1987.

El Paso police detectives also suspected him in the 1987 disappearances of Marjorie Knox, 14; Cheryl Vasquez-Dismukes, 19; and Melissa Alaniz, 14. They are still missing.

Prison administrators said a lethal dose of sodium thiopental, a sedative, is administered to condemned inmates. They also are given pancuronium chromide, a muscle relaxant that collapses the diaphragm and lungs, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

The drugs cost $86.08, and the process lasts about seven minutes.

Marcia Fulton, Wheatley's mother, said she planned to travel from Florida to Texas to witness Wood's execution.

"I had promised Desi at her grave the day I


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buried her that I would find out who did this and help bring them to justice," Fulton said. "Twenty-two years later, it looks like I will be able to keep my promise."
The execution will bring to a close a terrifying case for Northeast El Paso, where young women disappeared in 1987 at an alarming rate.

The investigation

In the beginning, Fulton said, families of the young women who were reported missing had a hard time persuading police to investigate.

She said police initially treated the missing teenagers as mere runaways, and the young women as prostitutes and nightclub dancers who led risky lifestyles.

"I told them my daughter was not a runaway," Fulton said.

Wheatley was last seen getting into Wood's truck on June 2, 1987, after he offered her a ride home. Her body was found Oct. 20, 1987, in a shallow grave along the 12000 block of McCombs.

To call attention to the disappearances, Fulton, Karen Baker's mother and others demonstrated at the Stanton Street international bridge.

Al Marquez, then a city detective, said El Paso police mobilized once they realized something heinous was going on.

"We formed a special task force to look into the murders and disappearances. We brought in experts and dogs from out of town to search for bodies."

During the investigation, the Police Department interviewed 400 people and investigated 50 suspects. Detectives traveled to Florida, Utah and Mexico to follow up on leads. They consulted with FBI profilers, and used aircraft with heat-sensing equipment to comb the desert for more victims.

Although Wood was a prime suspect early on, Marquez said, detectives had a hard time coming up with the evidence they needed to arrest him.

A prostitute who accused Wood of tying her up and sexually assaulting her in 1987 in the Northeast desert helped break the case. Her account placed him in the area where the six bodies were buried.

Convicted in 1988 of sexually assaulting the woman, Wood was taken off El Paso streets and sentenced to 50 years in prison. Soon after, with six murders hanging over him, Wood became known as "The Desert Killer."

The victims

Wood's world consisted of biker clubs, topless bars, tattoo parlors, prostitutes, drugs and alcohol. His dark subculture snared some of the teenagers and young women who became his victims. The Northeast end of town was his playground.

The girls and women who disappeared in 1987 shared the same physical characteristics. They were small and slender.

At least some of the victims, such as Karen Baker and Wheatley, trusted Wood enough to see him socially or climb into his vehicle.

Baker was last seen at the Hawaiian Royale Motel on Dyer Street, leaving with Wood on June 4, 1987. The 20-year-old told someone at the motel she was excited about meeting Wood later that night for a date. Exactly three months later, her body was found in the desert.

Mary Baker, her adoptive mother, said Karen was attending cosmetology school and trying to get her life together when she vanished.

Most of Wood's victims knew him or had some connection to the other young women who disappeared that year. Parents of three of the victims also had something in common: They worked at Rockwell Industries.

Ivy Susanna Williams, who had been charged with prostitution and drug possession, also was known to stay at the Hawaiian Royale Motel. She was married to Ray Fierro of El Paso, but he told police he had not seen her for a year. Williams worked as a topless dancer, as did Rosa Maria Casio and the underaged Angelica Frausto.

Before her disappearance, Frausto was seen with Wood on his motorcycle. Before that, she had hung around the Hawaiian Royale Motel.

Wheatley lived on Tiber Street, near Wood's home, and knew of him through friends.

Knox, who might have been pregnant, was the first to vanish, on Feb. 14, 1987. She used to ride the bus to school with Wheatley when Wheatley lived in Chaparral, N.M. Baker, who was older, previously lived in Chaparral.

Alaniz and Wheatley attended H.E. Charles Middle School. Vasquez-Dismukes had also been a student there. The school was near Wood's home.

Denise Frausto said her sister, Angelica Frausto, knew Wheatley. "Angie nicknamed (Desiree Wheatley) 'Baby Girl,' and tried to look out after her, so that the older guys would not take advantage of her," Frausto said.

Cheryl Vasquez-Dismukes, who graduated from Andress High School, married Robert Dismukes by proxy a week before she vanished. Dismukes was in prison at the time, serving a sentence for attempted murder.

Erika Dismukes, her mother-in-law, said last week that she suspects that Cheryl is alive. Yet, for practical reasons, she said, she had her officially declared dead last year.

Casio was the only victim who did not appear to have any Northeast El Paso or Chaparral connections.

During Wood's murder trial in 1992, prosecutors revealed that he was living with Joann Blaich near the Cabaret Club on Montana Avenue. Casio was last seen leaving the club with a man who fit Wood's description.

The trial

Except for some orange fibers found where Wheatley was buried, which the court did not allow jurors to consider, there was no physical evidence -- such as weapons, fingerprints, DNA or clothing -- linking Wood to the crimes. But the circumstantial evidence was overwhelming.

The victims knew Wood or had met him through friends, and he was seen with the young women before they disappeared.

Perhaps the most compelling testimony at his trial came from the prostitute Wood had sexually assaulted, and his two former cellmates, Randy Wells and James Carl Sweeney Jr. The prisoners said Wood told them he had killed the women. Wells, in fact, said Wood claimed to have killed 15 women.

Both of Wood's cellmates had something to gain. One stood to collect a $25,000 reward. Prosecutors dropped a murder charge against the second one in exchange for his testimony.

Dolph Quijano, one of Wood's lawyers, said former El Paso District Judge Peter Peca made sure Wood got a fair trial.

"He bent over backwards for the defense," Quijano said.

Heavy publicity in El Paso led the judge to move Wood's trial to Dallas.

Prosecutor Debra Morgan told jurors that Wood, interested in sex, lured the women to the desert by offering them drugs. Two victims, Williams and Baker, were found with their clothes on. The rest were in different stages of undress.

The prostitute who testified against Wood said he told her he had cocaine buried in the desert.

In a recent interview, Denise Frausto, Angelica Frausto's sister, said she believed Wood did not act alone.

"The day before Angie disappeared, she took someone to a stash house on Yarbrough (in East El Paso). She was very excited about it," Frausto said. "There were 15 large black trash bags in the garage of the house full of marijuana. After her body was found, people she used to hang around with told our family that Angie was selling drugs for a cop out of a room at the Hawaiian Royale Motel.

"They also said Wood was seen with that cop and a judge at the motel," she said. "We told the cops all this, but they brushed it off. Then, we started receiving threats, and my mother told us to just drop it."

Freddie Bonilla, an investigator hired by Wood's lawyers, said he tried to pursue a lead that had grown cold by the time the defense team found out about it.

"If Wood killed these girls, I don't think he did it alone, and he probably didn't kill all of them," said Bonilla, who retired as a homicide investigator with the El Paso Police Department and the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. "Wood was a convenient suspect."

According to court records, intriguing information surfaced unexpectedly after Wood's trial had started. It had sat in a box for a couple of years in a locker at the El Paso Police Department. Prosecutors made it available to Wood's lawyers as soon as it came to their attention.

One of the items was a Crime Stoppers tip alleging that three people had seen a biker known as "Corey" shoot Dawn Marie Smith and bury her body in Chaparral. According to the tipsters, the biker was romantically involved with a woman who knew Wood and who was sheltering Smith at the time in her trailer house.

Smith, believing she was pregnant, had run away from home in June 1987. Her family last heard from her in August. Her body was found on Oct. 20, 1987.

"I believe Smith's body was moved from Chaparral and reburied in El Paso," Bonilla said. "A couple of years had passed since the tip, and by the time we got to Chaparral to check this, the trailer where these people lived was gone."

Wood's lawyers filed an unsuccessful motion to have Smith's body exhumed so an expert could examine her remains for gunshot wounds.

During the trial, another woman's body was found in the desert on the East Side, wrapped in an orange blanket. The victim was older than the others, between 40 and 45 years old.

"We suspected there was a connection to the Northeast murders, but the police said it was not related," Bonilla said. "The orange fibers from the Wheatley case might have come from this orange blanket."

Another belated tip was a reference in police detective Ben Ayala's notes alluding to a sex-and-drug ring involving the murders. This group purportedly did not involve Wood. Ayala, who was part of the police task force, died in a vehicle accident before he could check further.

Other police investigators told Wood's lawyers that the tip led nowhere.

Across the years, six trial dates were scheduled for Wood. He received a continuance in 1991 to pursue yet another lead. This time it was from FBI agents in Las Vegas. They notified El Paso police in 1989 that a man had confessed to killing young women in El Paso. The man, Edward Dean Barton, was 27 at the time. Except for his blue eyes, he supposedly resembled Wood, who had hazel eyes.

"Barton claimed to have killed four women in the El Paso, Texas, area between May and December of 1987," the FBI report said. "Barton buried the women in the desert off Dyer Street. He chose the desert because the desert eats bodies up. Barton described the women as all being small, petite, young, with features similar to that of his wife."

Barton also told the FBI he had hired someone to kill his wife, Mary Alice Barefoot, but changed his mind. Later, Barton, who was on parole for other crimes, escaped from a halfway house in Nevada.

Steve Simmons, then the El Paso district attorney, said in a July 30, 1991, letter that Barton's wife confirmed her husband was in El Paso between April or May 1987 and February 1988. Simmons said that Barton was a drug addict and that his statements to the FBI "are not worthy of belief."

The graveyard

The bodies might not have been found had it not been for Frank Brooks, who worked for the El Paso Water Utilities and stumbled on the first two victims, Baker and Casio, while hunting for arrowheads on Sept. 4, 1987.

There is no longer any sign of the desert graveyard between McCombs and Dyer, where cars and trucks zip by at high speeds. Today, the only things moving around the area are cottontails that scurry through mesquite trees and quail that scratch at wild melon patches.

To the immediate north, near the New Mexico line, the Painted Dunes Golf Course, which did not exist then, thrives with throngs of golfers.

Last year, the city reported that a major company was interested in creating a giant high-end development in that part of Northeast El Paso.

Some of the people who moved into new homes nearby said they had never heard of the desert deaths.


Diana Washington Valdez may be reached at dvaldez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6140.



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Victims of the 1987 crime wave in the Northeast
El Paso Times Staff
Posted: 08/09/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT


Murdered

Karen Baker

At 20, she had three young children and lived in the 4500 block of Arlen. She left the Hawaiian Royale Motel with David Leonard Wood on June 4, 1987. Baker told a motel employee she had a date with him. A utility worker found her body Sept. 4, 1987, in the Northeast desert.

Rosa Maria Casio

A resident of Addison, Texas, she was visiting her sister in Juárez just before she disappeared. She went to El Paso on Aug. 12, 1987, to buy postage stamps. Casio, 24, was to enroll Aug. 17, 1987, at Brookhaven Community College. About 5 feet tall and 100 pounds, she worked as a waitress and dancer. Witnesses saw her at the Cabaret Club on Montana Avenue with a man who fit Wood's description. Her car, a 1974 green Ford Grand Torino, was found a day later in Central El Paso. The same man who discovered Baker's body found Casio's remains on Sept. 4, 1987. Casio's jaw was broken in two places.

Angelica Frausto

She lived in the 3600 block of Fillmore, but mostly stayed with friends. She dropped out of Henderson Middle School, where she was in a program for students with behavioral problems. Although underage, the 17-year-old worked as a dancer at the Red Flame bar on Dyer. She checked in regularly with her grandmother. Before her disappearance, witnesses saw her with Wood on his motorcycle on Aug. 8, 1987. Police found her body Nov. 3, 1987. Relatives said she was buried alive.
Dawn Marie Smith

She lived in the 6100 block of Quail before running away in June 1987. She kept in touch with her family until August 1987. Just 14, she told her family was not going back home. She told others she was pregnant. She attended Parkland High School. Tipsters who called Crime Stoppers allegedly saw a biker shoot her to death in Chaparral. Police could not verify this account.

Ivy Susanna Williams

She liked to ride motorcycles, and was married to Ray Fierro of El Paso. Prosecutors charged Williams, 23, with prostitution and drug possession. She worked as a club dancer and stayed at the Hawaiian Royale Motel, but was often on the move. Another dancer saw Williams with Wood before she disappeared. Police discovered her body March 14, 1988. The medical examiner said she was stabbed repeatedly, including in the face.

Desiree Wheatley

She was a 15-year-old student at H.E. Charles Middle School. Wheatley lived in the 10600 block of Tiber, near Wood's home. She was 5 feet, 1 inch tall and weighed 92 pounds. Her mother described her as a normal teenager who liked to collect plush toy animals. People at a convenience store saw her in Wood's pickup on June 2, 1987, before she disappeared.

Missing

Melissa Alaniz

She lived in the 10400 block of Orpheus, near Wood's home. The 14-year-year-old disappeared on March 7, 1987. She had run away before then, but returned home after two nights. Her family said she was going through a teenage rebellion after she got involved with the wrong crowd. She attended H.E. Charles Middle School. Alaniz stood 5 feet, 2 inches tall and weighed 105 pounds.

Marjorie Knox

Only 14, she disappeared Feb. 14, 1987, while visiting friends in El Paso. She lived in Chaparral, N.M., and might have been pregnant. She had gone to a friend's house for a Valentine's Day party. Her father said she loved horses and sports. Wood was seen with her on several occasions before she disappeared. She was 5 feet, 3 inches tall and weighed 115 pounds. She knew Desiree Wheatley from when both lived in Chaparral and rode the same school bus.

Cheryl Lynn Vasquez-Dismukes

She was a graduate of Andress High School and H.E. Charles Middle School. She worked at Whataburger in the 8100 block of Dyer and at Matador Plastics. The 19-year-old married Robert Dismukes by proxy a week before she disappeared. He was an inmate at the state prison in Huntsville, and was convicted of burglary and attempted murder. She was 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighed 105 pounds. Witnesses saw her buy cigarettes at a Circle K store on McCombs on June 28, 1987. Before she vanished, they said, she was talking to a man in a truck who resembled Wood.



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Interview: Convicted Serial Killer David L. Wood Claims Innocence
February 01, 2008 by Dee

Dee Published Content: 195Total Views: 364,287Fans: 100View Profile | Follow | Add to Favorites Recommend (18)Single pageFont SizeRead comments (42) Share More topicsClaims | Expert Witness | Grim Sleeper | Killer | Day Job Killer My Interview with David from His Death Row Cell in Texas, with Summary of His Case Concerning the Northeast Desert Murders
Back in 1987, several young women between the ages of 14 through 24 were missing from El Paso Texas. The police and officials in El Paso were baffled as to who the killer was, but they felt they were dealing with
David L. Wood, Convicted Northeast Desert Murders Serial Killer
Date of Interview: 1/2008 a serial killer. Bodies of six women were soon found in shallow graves in the desert in El Paso, and the murders became known as The Northeast Desert Murders.

David L. Wood wrote to me and sent paper work about his case. Here is his story, about his case, followed by my interview with David. He alleges that in January of 1987 he was paroled to El Paso from a prison term of 2-20 years for a sexual offense. He says he was picked up by police 4 times in a 3 month period and accused of crimes he didn't commit.

David alleges that when the young women began disappearing he became a prime suspect when one of the missing women, Cheryl Vasquez was said to have been seen with David last, but later reports show Vasquez was at a party after she was seen with Wood. Vasquez was never found. Wood claims because of the high media attention this case was receiving he was under constance surveillance. He was routinely questioned and photographed, including photos of his tattoos. Wood says he cooperated with police and that his truck was broken into and clothes belonging to him were taken, but nothing else. Wood claims he was constantly harassed by police at that time.

David claims that on September 4, 1987, two of the missing girls bodies were found, Maria Casio, and Karen Baker. The following month another search located the bodies of Dawn Smith and Desiree Wheatly. The following month an even larger search of the area produced the body of Angie Frausto.Wood claims the last search "was massive in size" with over 350 people helping out and with search dogs from the police department and Texas's prison system, resulting in no finds. He alleges that police made this fact clear on the news that "there were no more bodies."
Wood alleges that only three days after the last girl was found he was arrested on October 23, 1987, on unrelated charges. He claims he wasn't aware of what he was being arrested for, for almost sixteen hours. He claims he soon found out he was being arrested for 2 warrants which Woods
David L. Wood, Convicted Northeast Desert Murders Serial Killer
Date of Interview: 1/2008 called holdout warrants that police had on him for 2 months. He says the first was for aggravated sexual assault of a women named Judith Brown Kelling. Wood alleges that Kelling was a prostitute with a heroin habit, and a self admitted police informant with a long arrest history.

Wood claims that Kelling gave the date of the alleged crime as "sometime between July and August", Wood claims the statement backfired when it was learned the alleged truck was in a wrecking yard during that time, because it had been in an accident by Wood's brother. Wood's also claims it was then that the date on the indictment was changed to the day before.the accident.

Wood alleges the second warrant was for the alleged attempted kidnapping of Gina Gallegos. Wood says she was also a prostitute. He claims that his trial for the Kelling case was to begin on March, 15, 1988, and that he was going to be tried as a habitual offender, and that if he was convicted he would face a life sentence. Wood claims the day before his trial another body, Ivy Williams, was found in the same area as the "massive search" that had previously taken place.He claims this story made headline news the day before his trial. Wood wondered, "How could they have missed this body?" He says it's "No Way" they could have missed this body then find it the day before his trial. He claims the pathologist said this girl could have been out in the desert for more than a year, and Wood says, that was before he had been paroled from prison.

Wood claims about three weeks before the trial was to begin his attorney informed him that he was going to be charged with the rape of a sixteen year old girl who lived in his area. He claims this was one of the cases he was picked up and questioned
David L. Wood, Convicted Northeast Desert Murders Serial Killer
Date of Interview: 1/2008 about right after he was paroled. Wood claims the headlines read "Rape victim identifies desert suspect through voice lineup." Wood claims their was much publicity about this case, and samples had been taken from him and sent to the DPS lab for comparison with a rape kit taken from the victim. Wood claims when the test came back about a week later, he was cleared 100%. Wood alleges that district attorney Richard Jukes told the judge that he was completely cleared but he asked the judge to order that the results be kept out of the media. Wood says they did not want the media to know that he was cleared, and called this "an example of dirty politics." Wood was sentenced to 50 years for "non-aggraved " and claims after his conviction the charges with the Gallegos case were dropped, and feels that she was just backup if they needed it. Woods claims that Kelling's pending charges were dropped.

Wood claims while in prison serving the 50 year term, Steve Simmons the head DA tried to get him indicted on the Northeast Murders, but was twice denied by the grand jury. Woods states that he had given 6 vials of blood, head and pubic hair, fingernail clippings, skin scrapings, and saliva, all before he was even charged with these murders. He alleges that every scientific test known in 1987 had been done to him, his truck, (taking dirt and rocks from his tires), to compare to samples taken from the crime scenes. Woods claims he has FBI and DPS lab reports of tests that had been conducted and that in his words "Could not find one single match of evidence from me and the evidence found with any of the six victims."

There was questions about what police described as orange fiber, that Wood's claims he can explain. Woods claims the orange fiber in question came from the Wheatly crime scene. Woods claims that when Wheatly was found buried, the detectives set up around the crime scene, did a preliminary search, exhumed the body, and left. He claims the police work was incompetent, and that the grave site was left open to the public for 8 days before they returned to look for evidence. He claims one of the four that went to look for evidence was from the bomb squad, one was an ID sergeant, and none were the detectives that were working on the case.
Woods claims that 3 days after Wheatly was found and he was arrested they impounded his truck and totally dismantled it, including taking the seat out of the truck and placing it in the evidence room. Five days later Woods claims that when 4 police sergeants returned to the Wheatly
David L. Wood, Convicted Northeast Desert Murders Serial Killer
Date of Interview: 1/2008crime scene to look for evidence they found a clump of fibers, and found another clump of fibers the following day. Woods also claims that during his murder trial the states own expert witness testified that it is unusual to find that amount of fibers at a crime scene. He says this is in his trial records. Woods alleges that they made a link between the orange fibers and himself, and claims they said the alleged fibers came from underneath his car seat. He says it did not come from the wall to wall shag carpet, the seat covers, or the numerous other fibers througout his truck. He claims this orange fiber was only found at the Wheatly crime scene. Because they had no warrant to cover it in the search of his truck, Wood's said the fibers could not be used as evidence, and he alleges they came up with another plan.

Wood's alleges that on November 28, Detective Guerrero got a warrant to search the garage where he had been living with his girlfriend. He found several items and left. A couple of days later the land lady called him to tell him about a Hoover vacuum she had found in the garage. Wood claims the detective got another warrant, returned to the garage and took only the vacuum cleaner bag. Wood's claims there were no fingerprints taken to determine if the vacuum cleaner belonged to him. Woods said "Well, magic, as only cops can do, the orange fiber miraculously turned up in the vacuum cleaner bag." He goes on to say that the "really odd thing about this is that this was a full sized stand up vacuum cleaner," He states that none can explain how one kind of fiber got from underneath his truck seat, and into a full size, stand up vacuum cleaner.

Wood's states that three years later a reward was being offered to find the murderer of these girls. Wood's states the total reward money was $26,000. Wood's alleges that this was when jail house informers came into the picture. Wood's claims that James Carl Sweeny and Randy Lee Wells
David L. Wood, Convicted Northeast Desert Murders Serial Killer
Date of Interview: 1/2008 both ex-cons, and both were cell mates of his while he was serving the 50 year sentence. Wood's alleges that Sweeny was doing a 69 year sentence for drug possession and forgery. Woods states that Sweeny was a self proclaimed jail house lawyer who did legal work for inmates, and offered to do legal work about his case, and file a civil rights lawsuit for him. Wood's alleges that Sweeny wanted all his information, and also said he had to pay him. Wood's alleges that he found out Sweeny had contacted a DA in Dallas about another inmates case he was working on. He alleges that Sweeny tried to get help on his own prison sentence but the DA didn't want to be bothered.Woods claims that one day in the cell Sweeny was reading about the $26,000 reward on the Northeast desert Murder cases, and allegedly said "Well, your screwed now because there's going to be a witness against you." Woods claims the very next day when Sweeny went to work and the warden was called. He states the warden then called the detectives. Wood's claims that after Sweeny talked to detectives, they started looking up all the "cellies" he had, and that is when they found Randy Lee Wells.

Wood's claims Wells was a habitual offender with a long record. Wood's alleges Wells was told he would get his charges dropped to a lesser crime, the $26,000 reward money, and the rights to any book or movie deal that may come out of his testimony against him. Wood's stated that he feels the last promise was laughable but that it can be verified in trial transcripts. Woods claims that Sweeny and Wells were moved into a protective cell together for 5 days. Wood's claims they were both taken to the crime scene, both visited detectives together, and all before they went before the Grand jury. Wood's said "They were practically handed a script to read from." It was at this point that Wood's was finally indicted for the Northeast Desert Murders. He was found guilty and is now residing on Texas 's death row, Polunsky Unit. David has an enormous amount of paper work concerning his case, and documents to prove what he has said. He proclaims his innocence.

The following is my interview with David. l. Wood. Some of his answers have already been answered in the above summary of his case, but I wanted to show the complete interview

What were you convicted for and what is your sentence?

I was convicted for (6) six murders in El Paso Texas and I was given the death penalty.

Did you have any prior record, and what what it for?

I have two prior prison sentences both for sexual offenses. (Actually it was three/ but one of those was the Kelling case which in tied with this case.)

Could you tell us a little about the case?

The bio included with this letter will explain the circumstances
involved with this case and no one knows what actually happened to the victimes including the police. There was only one that they suspected was stabbed. In one of the cases the body 'and all her cloths were destroyed 'before' evidence could be taken from them.

Are you innocent?
Am I innocent? Damn right! But let my case speak for itself! If people will only listen to what is actually involved they'll see the case for what it really is. A 'built" case from nothing! As for proof there is NO proof in a 'circumstantial case. Either against the defendant or the
David L. Wood, Convicted Northeast Desert Murders Serial Killer
Date of Interview: 1/2008 defendant trying to clear himself. That is 'why' it is so easy to get a conviction and given the death penalty. Again if ALL of the facts are included and listened too then 'that' should be enough to 'presume' innocence.

Do you have any thoughts on who might have done this crime and why?

"I" have no thoughts as to who may have been involved or no idea of why they were done.

How did they get the conviction and the death penalty?

I was tried convicted and sentenced to death on the testimony of (3) informants working for the state prosecutors for favoritism in their own legal situations. Also I was tried for ALL six cases in the same trial it is a part of my trial transcripts that the head DA Steve Simmons quoted in a memo to the D.A.'s over my case "There is only one way to get any convictions on Wood we need to try all the cases at once in .the same trial for the prejudice (or prejudicial) factor and we also need to do it with 'inmate testimony, (known as jail house snitches) Also I had two court appointed attorneys who were more worried about 'offending' the people they work with then defending me and there is some proof to that issue. Also my case was moved to Dallas Texas highly against my wishes because at the time Dallas was the leading city in the country for handing out the death penalty. I even refused to participate in my trial because of this move.

What has it been like on death row all these years?

Being on death row has been one of the hardest experiences I've ever known not only for the factor that I did NOT kill these people/ and I have been turned down at every turn for justice from the courts but the conditions, here are the worst that I have ever seen in the prison system. I've been told that I had aged twenty years in eight years and there are many here who have become the same way. I have been on death row since early 1993 but we have been here on the Polunsky lock down segregation unit going on nine years now.

At what point is your appeals at?
MY appeals are at the Supreme court level, and this is my last shot at hope before they execute me. Every court before them have all turned me down NOT on evidence but false testimony given by criminals. 90% of the people involved in this case had some type of criminal record. Also the
David L. Wood, Convicted Northeast Desert Murders Serial Killer
Date of Interview: 1/2008 courts have stated"That even though they agree that inmate testimony tainted it is still evidence in the court of law, and it is the burden of the defendant to 'prove that said testimony is false." This in itself is an almost impossible act to achieve if the snitch) is protected by the state and he won't admit his testimony is a lie how can the defendant prove it is?

How can the public help you?

Wow this is the question isn't it? They say that once you get to the supreme court on your case thats pretty much it if they don't want to help you. I would like to think and hope that is not the case. Before I am executed for this crime I would at least like to have to chance to have all the facts an issues heard. About how it got started how it progressed how I was arrested. tried, and convicted. The rules of Police conduct and rules of law did not come into effect in this case. This is a border town that is used to doing things their own way without any outside help. In fact in this case they 'refused outside help from other agencies including the FBI. I would like enough attention on my case that it would bring enough pressure to my lawyers to do their job the way their suppose too also enough attention needs to be brought against El Paso in this case and have it investigated for the police corruption and corrupted coercion tactics they used to get statements, and people involved. They should at least be investigated for their illegal and lack of use of proper police procedures. I might not be liked because of my past crimes but 'if' I did not commit these murders then the state should not be allowed to so easily pass out the death penalty. This is the final punishment if later it was found out that someone was innocent theres no correcting it. its to late for that.

David ended his letter with these words "Thats about all I can give you for now if you have any questions and I mean anything don't hesitate to ask. because I'm suppose to be a professional liar and con I don't expect you to just 'believe' what I have to say so what ever you ask and will send whatever 'proof' that I can with that answer. I do have police reports supplements, DNA reports at least everything 'they' wanted us to have. Again thank you, and take care.

David can produce documents, newspaper clippings, paperwork, etc. for all he has said, and can be reached at this address:

David Wood #999051

Polunsky Unit Death row

3872 FM 350 South

Livingston

Texas, 77351

Source:

Letters from David Wood, Documents and legal paperwork, with written permission from Wood to use.
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Hostile, unstable killer
El Paso serial killer on death row led stormy life
Special report part 2: The execution of David L. Wood
By Diana Washington Valdez / El Paso Times
Posted: 08/10/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT




EL PASO -- Convicted serial killer David Leonard Wood led a troubled life marked by anger, frustration and perhaps even a learning disability.

Wood, 52, has been on death row for 17 years. The state plans to execute him Aug. 20 for the 1987 murders of six girls and young women in the desert outside El Paso. Police also suspected Wood in the disappearances of three other teenage girls, all of whom vanished in 1987.

His father, Leo Wood, who worked at the El Paso Electric Co., said in 1992 that Wood had a rough and unstable childhood. He said Wood's mother was mentally ill, and that he divorced her after a stormy 24-year marriage.

During times the parents were separated, David Wood and his siblings stayed in foster homes. The senior Wood described his son as a hyperactive child who required medications.

David Wood has maintained his innocence in the murders, but declined requests to be interviewed.

While with his parents, Wood lived in a middle-class neighborhood in Northeast El Paso. For a brief time, he also lived in Chaparral, N.M. All but one of his victims had ties to those two areas.

Wood told a court-appointed psychiatrist in the 1980s that he became sexually active when he was 12, and began using alcohol and marijuana in his early adolescent years. He dropped out of Parkland


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High School in the ninth grade. Wood tried to join the military, but was rejected.
Another psychiatrist, this one from Stanford University, testified at Wood's 1992 capital murder trial. He said Wood had a below-average IQ of 68.

Police, though, said Wood was a cunning predator and a longtime lawbreaker before his crimes escalated to murder.

Wood served more than two years in prison, from April 1977 to December 1979, after being convicted of indecency with a child.

Soon after his parole, he was in trouble again, this time charged with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old and a 19-year-old. The attacks occurred eight days apart, in March 1980. Wood knew the older teenager but the other girl was a stranger.

A psychiatrist's report after the two sexual assaults said Wood "sees relationships as conflicted. It appears that there is considerable hostility as well as paranoid insecurity."

Convicted of the two sex crimes, he served another seven years in prison.

The state paroled Wood for the second time in January 1987. His return to El Paso coincided with a crime rampage in the city.

Teenage girls and young women, nine in all, began disappearing, mostly in Northeast El Paso. Six bodies turned up in the desert.

The murder victims were Rosa Maria Casio, 24; Ivy Susanna Williams, 23; Karen Baker, 20; Angelica Frausto, 17; Desiree Wheatley, 15; and Dawn Marie Smith, 14.

Police also suspected Wood in the disappearances of Marjorie Knox, 14, Cheryl Vasquez-Dismukes, 19, and Melissa Alaniz, 14. All three vanished in 1987.

Wood roamed Northeast El Paso in a truck or on a red Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He had several tattoos, wore his hair long and packed a buck knife.

Roy Hazelwood, an FBI profiler whom El Paso police consulted in 1989, said the killer buried the bodies near where he lived. At the time, the profiler did not know Wood was a suspect.

Hazelwood said the killer projected a "macho" image to mask feelings of inadequacy. Wood often kept company with teenage girls.

Pete Vasquez is the brother of one of the missing woman, Cheryl Vasquez-Dismukes. Vasquez said Wood attended the Crossroads Church, which had an outreach ministry for teenagers.

"I don't recall specifically meeting David Wood, but a week or two after I started attending, the group was asked to pray for him because he had been arrested," Vasquez said.

Now, he says, he hopes Wood will disclose any details about his missing sister in the 10 days before the state executes him.

Wood did not respond to requests asking him if he knew what happened to Vasquez-Dismukes or the other missing girls, Alaniz and Knox.

Wood worked in a furniture store and did odd jobs, such as yard work for real estate companies. His friends said he frequented bars and nightclubs along Dyer, Alameda and Montana, and was especially fond of clubs that featured topless dancers.

His former cellmates said Wood claimed he was a drug dealer, and that some of his victims sold drugs for him.

Though medical professionals described Wood as dysfunctional, others say his physical appearance provided him with a robust social life.

"Girls loved him and he loved girls," said Erika Dismukes, mother-in-law of Cheryl Vasquez-Dismukes. "He was good-looking and women were attracted to him."

Wood lived with a girlfriend in 1987, while El Paso's murder count escalated. A dancer in clubs, she would eventually testify at his murder trial.

Another woman, a prostitute and drug addict, helped build the state's case against Wood. In 1987, she accused Wood of tying her to a tree and sexually assaulting her in the Northeast desert, between Dyer and McCombs. This gave police a way to take one of their prime suspects in the serial killings off the streets.

Found guilty of the sexual assault in March 1988, Wood was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

By then, Wood knew he was a suspect in the desert killings. He said he was a victim of false accusations.

"You're never going to see me say, 'Hey, I'm the guy,' for the simple fact of my pride. I'm not going to confess to something I didn't do," he said.

While incarcerated, he married Valerie Ann Trader in May 1988. He divorced her three years later. As far as anyone knows, Wood never fathered any children.

In 1990, Wood filed a lawsuit against El Paso police, accusing them of harassment and making him an "escape goat" because they could not solve the murders. His suit went nowhere, as he was tried and convicted of six of the murders.

During a recess in Wood's murder trial, Dolph Quijano, one of two defense lawyers, told the judge Wood needed a sedative because he was coming "unglued" over testimony he disagreed with.

But when Wood had the chance to take an oath and dispute what witnesses had said, he stayed silent, declining to testify.

Diana Washington Valdez may be reached at dvaldez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6140.




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Decades old search continues for missing girl from Chaparral
By Diana Washington Valdez For the Sun-News
Posted: 02/15/2010 12:00:00 AM MST

Click photo to enlarge
Alicia Alaniz holds a flier showing her daughter, Melissa... (Victor Calzada / El Paso Times)

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EL PASO - A cold case detective in New Mexico is looking into the disappearance of Marjorie Knox, a 14-year-old who vanished in 1987.

Mike Ulsh, an investigator with the Do-a Ana County Sheriff's office in Las Cruces, met earlier this month with El Paso detectives to review their file on the missing girl.

Although Knox lived in Chaparral, N.M., El Paso police long suspected she may have met with danger while in El Paso. They also believed convicted serial killer David Leonard Wood may have possessed helpful information.

"We are interested in talking to anyone who may have information about Marjorie's disappearance, including Wood," Ulsh said. "We are willing to do anything we can to resolve the case."

Knox was the first in a string of young women who disappeared in 1987, and who were linked to Wood or to his murdered victims.

Melissa Alaniz, 13, and Cheryl Lynn Vasquez-Dismukes, 19, who lived in Northeast El Paso, also vanished in 1987. Relatives said they never saw or heard from the two young missing women again.

El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said the missing girls are part of the police department's cold cases. Since then, except for their families, they have been all but forgotten.

Knox was last seen on Feb. 14, 1987, a Sunday, after attending a Valentine's Day party at Veterans Park in the Northeast. The park has sports fields, a library, gym, swimming pool and recreation center.

Witnesses said then that they saw a man who resembled Wood pull up in a small
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truck at the park and talk to Knox. The trail went cold after that.

Police also said someone saw Knox walking at 3 a.m. on Chaparral Street in Chaparral, N.M., a road that is pitch black at that hour.

If Wood knows anything, he has never revealed it to authorities.

The state paroled him on Jan. 15, 1987, after he served seven years of two concurrent 20-year sentences for rape. His victims were girls of 13 and 19. Both crimes occurred in Northeast El Paso.

Grand jurors later indicted him in the killings of six young women in 1987. Their bodies were buried in shallow graves in the Northeast desert.

Wood, 52, denied killing anyone. He also denied being in Chaparral.

Authorities said his victims were Dawn Smith, 14; Angelica Frausto, 17; Karen Baker, 20; Rosa Maria "Janet" Casio, 24; Desiree Wheatley, 15; and Ivy Susanna Williams, 23.

Ricardo Segovia, a former Do-a Ana County sheriff's investigator, said then investigators were working on the assumption that Knox may have met the same end as the others.

Segovia, who is now a federal officer, said Wood had lived in Chaparral "off and on." Other residents in the rural community said Wood stayed with a father and his son until they threw him out.

"He didn't live close (to Knox), but he was seen with her on several occasions," Segovia said.

According to police reports, the 14-year-old Smith also lived in Chaparral for a short time with a man and a woman who socialized with Wood.

Wheatley lived in Chaparral before her family moved to El Paso. She rode a Gadsden district school bus with Knox.

Before she vanished, Knox was living with her family on Byrum Street in Chaparral. She was 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighed 115 pounds, had brown eyes and brown hair.

Her father, James Knox, who died two years ago, circulated a flier offering a $500 reward. The flier said she may have bleached her hair blond and may have been pregnant.

The last thing the Knox family knew was that Marjorie had gone to a friend's house in Chaparral.

Friends and relatives described Knox as a playful and active girl who liked horses and sports.

"She always liked swinging in trees when she was smaller," her father once said.

At least one of her close friends in Chaparral believes she is still alive. But police need proof before they can rule out an accident or foul play, and be able to close out the case.

Ideally, Ulsh said, police try to obtain a DNA sample from close relatives of the missing persons. The sample can be used to match it to someone who later turns up alive; it also can be used to match to unidentified or unclaimed remains.

Ulsh said Knox was removed from the National Crime Information Center database in 1994, but he does not know why. NCIC is a 24-hour criminal justice index available to law enforcement. It includes a list of about 100,000 missing persons.

"Sometimes people are removed because they reach the age of majority (adulthood) and are found and indicate that they do not want to come forward," Ulsh said. "We did not find any documentation to indicate why this happened in her case. As far as we're concerned, we have not accounted for Marjorie."

Knox would have turned 21 years old in 1994.

Melissa Alaniz

Alicia Alaniz, Melissa Alaniz's mother, said she has wondered every single day what became of her daughter.

"I've called the El Paso police to ask about the status of the investigation, but no one calls me back," she said. "The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children calls me from time to time to ask about Melissa. The center recently provided me with an age-progression picture of her."

The Texas Department of Public Safety Missing Persons Clearinghouse also carries Melissa Alaniz on its list, along with her picture.

She was wearing a black Iron Maiden T-shirt, jeans and sneakers the day she left her house on March 7, 1987, to play video games at a neighborhood convenience store off Rushing. She was 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighed 105 pounds, and had brown eyes and brown hair.

Two weeks before - only about a week after Knox was reported missing - Alaniz had run away after a family argument. She returned home after two days.

Alicia Alaniz pulled out several keepsakes, including a colorful hand-written thank-you card from Melissa. A remodeling project had given her a spacious room.

"I'm just hoping that someone out there who knows something will come forward," Alicia Alaniz said.

The Alaniz family lived near Desiree Wheatley's home on Tiber, and both Alicia Alaniz and Wheatley's mom, Marcia Fulton, worked at Rockwell Industries. James Knox, Marjorie's father, also worked for Rockwell.

Wheatley and Alaniz attended H.E. Charles Middle School in Northeast El Paso, and had friends in common. A police report said they once argued.

Wood lived in the same neighborhood near both girls.

Jessica Leeah Srader, a former school chum of Melissa's, said kids from the neighborhood often met at the Alaniz house to play and socialize.

"We used to dress up like rock stars - I think we were really into Heart at the time - we played 'Never' all the time," said Srader, 38, now an assistant state attorney general in Alaska. "We would try to dress like Ann and Nancy Wilson. We would put on some spandex, lots of makeup and tease up our hair. We used lots of Aqua Net."

Michelle "Missie" Gall, 38, another former El Pasoan who knew Alaniz, said the girl's disappearance shocked and frightened everyone.

"I remember her mother and brother going up and down the block looking for her," Gall said. "She was a happy-go-lucky girl. I still don't have a clue as far as what happened to her. I would like to think that maybe she ran away and is alive somewhere today."

Paul Strelzin, former principal of H.E. Charles Middle School, said campus staff had to chase Wood away several times.

"Wood would be parked in a van in a school no-parking zone," Strelzin said. "One of the cheerleaders told us she saw him hanging out near the campus many times, and that Wood had gotten in trouble before with her sister."

Retired detective John Guerrero, who worked on the police task force that investigated the 1987 murders and disappearances, said Wood used a van belonging to someone else to take pictures of young girls at the school.

Back then, Wood also owned a red Harley-Davidson motorcycle and drove a small, beige Nissan truck. He claimed that people probably confused him with someone else who looked like him and had similar vehicles.

Guerrero said Wood was the main police suspect in the three unsolved disappearances.

After Wood's arrest in October 1987, the series of disappearances and murders of young women in Northeast El Paso came to a halt.

He appealed his 1993 death sentence for the capital murder conviction, alleging in court documents that he is mentally retarded. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2002 outlawed executions of mentally retarded convicts.

Vasquez-Dismukes

Vasquez-Dismukes, 19, vanished June 28, 1987, after buying cigarettes for a friend at a Circle K store at McCombs and Sarah Anne. She was seen talking to Wood that day in the store parking lot.

She was 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighed 105 pounds and had blondish hair. She was wearing new blue jeans, a white T-shirt with cartoon characters on it and high-top tennis shoes.

She had worked at a fast-food restaurant on Dyer Street and at the Matador Plastics factory, also in Northeast El Paso. Friends said men found her attractive and charming.

A manager at the eatery saw Wood talk to Vasquez-Dismukes once and warned her to stay away from him.

Her brother, Pete Vasquez, said his family would like to end the anguish and find out what happened to her. Not knowing has taken a toll on their mother and the other siblings.

"We loved Cheryl very much," he said.

The Vasquez family prefers not to discuss Cheryl's short marriage by proxy to Robert Dismukes. Dismukes' mother, Erika Dismukes, and sister, Mona Dismukes, defend Wood to this day.

Robert Dismukes was in prison for burglary and attempted murder of a woman. In 1982, when he was 18, Dismukes was part of a large group arrested in more than 30 break-ins in Northeast El Paso.

Relatives of Vasquez-Dismukes said they did not know why Cheryl married Robert Dismukes. One of the speculations was that he may have sought her help to prevent U.S. authorities from deporting him. She disappeared a week after the proxy marriage.

Erika Dismukes said people have seen Cheryl alive but has not offered any proof. She also said her son lives and works as a trucker in Germany.

Diana Washington Valdez writes for the El Paso Times, a member of the Texas New Mexico Newspapers Partnership and may be reached at dvaldez@elpasotimes.com; (915) 546-6140.
http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_14403257
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Marjorie Knox
Missing since February 14, 1987 from El Paso, Texas
Classification: Endangered Missing



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Vital Statistics

Age at Time of Disappearance: 14 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'3"; 115 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Brown hair; brown eyes. She may have bleached her hair blond.
Medical: Possible pregnancy.


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Circumstances of Disappearance
Marjorie Knox was last seen while visiting friends in El Paso, after attending a Valentine's Day party at Veterans Park in the Northeast. She lived in Chaparral, New Mexico.
Her disappearance may be linked to the disappearances of several young women in the El Paso area the same year. Foul play is suspected.



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Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

El Paso Police Department
915-832-4400

Source Information:
Las Cruces Sun-News

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2898dftx.html
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Chaparral girl seen speaking to David Leonard Wood hours before disappearance, still missing 25 years later
by Diana Washington Valdez \ El Paso Timeselpasotimes.com
Posted: 02/14/2012 12:00:00 AM MST



Cold case detectives have not given up on finding out what happened to Marjorie Knox, a 14-year-old girl who went missing on Valentine's Day 25 years ago.

One of her closest friends last saw Knox walking to her home along an unpaved road in Chaparral, N.M..

For a quarter of a century, her disappearance on Feb. 14, 1987, has baffled friends and relatives.

Two years ago, veteran detectives with the Doña Ana Country Sheriff's Department picked up her case, which seemingly had fallen through cracks after it was turned over to El Paso police who were investigating a string of murders and disappearances of young girls in El Paso that same year.

"We are still investigating Marjorie Knox's disappearance," said Kelly Jameson, spokeswoman for the cold case detectives in Las Cruces. "It is an active case, and we welcome any tips or leads."

A relative of Knox's, who did not wish to be quoted, shared an age-progressed photograph of the girl that shows what she might look like today.

Death row inmate David Leonard Wood was a prime suspect in the disappearances of Knox and two other teenagers in El Paso who are still missing.

Wood was sentenced to death for the deaths of six other young women in Northeast El Paso in 1987. Their bodies were found in shallow graves between El Paso and Chaparral, near what is now the Painted Dunes Golf Course.

Wood denied killing anyone and is appealing his death sentence by claiming he is mentally retarded. Lawyers for the state and defense
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are supposed to submit their final arguments by next month, so that the judge presiding over the post-conviction proceeding can make his recommendation to the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals.

"Wood is intelligent and he knows what he's doing," said Jerry Ybarra, a retired El Paso detective who along with others investigated the notorious "desert deaths."

"We believed he was responsible for the three young women who are missing: Marjorie Knox, Cheryl Vasquez and Melissa Alaniz."

Knox was just under 5 feet, 3 inches tall and weighed around 115 pounds. Most of Wood's victims were petite and young.

"We suspected that Wood had other burial grounds for his victims, but we never found the others who are missing," Ybarra said. "I feel very bad about that. We followed many leads, including one involving satanic rituals, and we spent a lot of hours searching in the desert.

"We didn't have technology to help us back then. Cell phones were just beginning, and we had to bring cadaver dogs from out of town."

Chris Espinoza, a friend of Knox's, said he remembers her as a fun-loving girl who liked to ride horses and climb trees.

"I will always remember the way she was," said Espinoza, who saw Knox at her home late at night hours before she vanished.

The evening of Feb. 13 was supposed to include another party at a friend's home in Chaparral. The Knox family also had plans for a family party later on Feb. 14. Knox told friends she had to get home to help with her family's Valentine's Day festivities.

Knox's father, James Knox, told police in 1987 that his daughter may have been pregnant. The family heard this as a rumor from her friends, but the relatives were not able to confirm it.

After Espinoza and other friends left Knox, the girl ended up at the home of Docia Merritt, another friend who lived on Chaparral Drive.

Merritt's mother, Carolyn Kobilus, said Knox's disappearance deeply affected many people.

"When I got home that night from work, Docia wanted to take the car to give Marjorie a ride home," Kobilus said. "I wouldn't let her use the car because the last time I let her do that she had run the car into a ditch. It was cold that night, and Docia walked Marjorie to the corner. That was the last time we saw her."

It was around 2 a.m. on Feb. 14, and it would have taken Knox from 15 to 20 minutes to walk to her home on Byrum. But to get there, she had to walk down an unpaved road without any lighting. She never made it home.

Witnesses told police that earlier on Feb. 13, Knox was at a Valentine's Day party in Veterans Park in Northeast El Paso. Wood, who lived near the park, was seen talking to Knox from his truck. Witnesses also told police that Wood stayed for a short time with a family in Chaparral after he got out of prison in January 1987.

Knox's father and one of her brothers, Tony Knox, died before they could learn anything more about her disappearance. The rest of the girl's relatives moved away from Chaparral, a small community in Southern New Mexico that straddles two counties and has no public transportation.

One of the first things the Doña Ana County cold case detectives did was to enter Knox back into the National Crime Information Center database, a 24-hour criminal justice index available to law enforcement. It includes a list of about 100,000 missing persons.

Jameson said any who has information about Knox's disappearance is encouraged to call the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Department's cold case unit at 575-525-1911.

Diana Washington Valdez may be reached at dvaldez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6140.
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Killer David Leonard Wood awaits judge's decision: Defense has until March for closing arguments
Diana Washington Valdez \ El Paso Timeselpasotimes.com
Posted: 12/12/2011 09:44:51 AM MST



It may be months before Judge Bert Richardson issues a recommendation on the mental retardation appeal for serial killer David Leonard Wood.

After Wood's hearing wrapped up last week, the judge gave the state and the defense until March to submit their closing arguments in writing.

The judge will review them before he submits his findings to the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals.

Even if the judge finds that Wood, who is on death row, is not mentally retarded, the defense can appeal further to the federal courts.

During the recent hearing, Wood's defense sought to pick apart the testimony of Thomas Allen, a forensic psychologist and state witness who testified that Wood is not mentally retarded.

A jury in Dallas convicted Wood in 1992 of the murders of six girls and young women in 1987 whose bodies were found buried in shallow graves in Northeast El Paso desert, near the present Painted Dunes Golf Course. The victims were Desiree Wheatley, Angelica Frausto, Susanna Ivy Williams, Rosa Maria Casio, Karen Baker and Dawn Smith.

Wood denies the charges.

Marcia Fulton, Wheatley's mother, attended the recent hearings in El Paso, and has followed all of Wood's proceedings closely for more than 20 years.

"There was nothing I heard from the testimony or that I've read that indicates to me that he is mentally retarded," Fulton said. "I am also certain that he killed my daughter and those other five girls."

Wood was also a police suspect in the 1987 disappearances of
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Cheryl Vasquez, Melissa Alaniz and Marjorie Knox. Their relatives said they were hoping Wood would provide any information he had about them. Wood has not said anything about those girls.

According to police reports, Wood was seen talking to Knox and Vasquez before they turned up missing.

Wood was scheduled to be executed in 2009.

He filed an appeal arguing that he was mentally retarded, and the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals stayed the execution to give him time to prove his case.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 in another case that it is unconstitutional to execute mentally retarded people.

During the recent hearings, Richardson's court got glimpses of Wood's life in prison.

Wood corresponds regularly with relatives and friends and with pen pals in other countries. He also uses the prison's email system for inmates, reads books and subscribes to magazines.

He writes fairly detailed letters that shows he keeps up with current events and understands enough about legal matters to give others advice.

The court has not decided on how to proceed with Wood's motion for the state to conduct DNA tests on evidence collected in his 1992 capital murder trial. The defense has argued that it's possible the DNA tests could exonerate Wood.

Richardson left open the possibility of another hearing to be held in El Paso to resolve that matter.

Wood was transported back to the state prison in Livingston, Texas.

Diana Washington Valdez may be reached at dvaldez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6140.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_19526578?source=pkg
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