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In 1999, Robert “Bob” Wood and his two children, 16-year old Teresa Wood and 11-year old Christopher Wood lived in Newman Lake, Washington. Bob worked for Crown West Realty and made a salary well over $100,000 a year.
On February 9th, 1999, 16-year old Teresa Wood, Bob’s older daughter headed out of the house a little after 8:00 a.m. for school. Soon after, Bob left for work around 8:20 a.m., which left 11-year old Christopher at home.
Shortly after 8:30 a.m., Bob Wood’s neighbors call 9-1-1 to report a massive house fire coming from the Wood residence. Teresa is confirmed to be at school, but no one knows where Christopher is. Neighbors call Bob, who returns home nearly 2 hours later around 10:30 a.m.
Bob Wood suggests to police that his young son, Christopher, may have started the house fire and ran off.
The day after the fire at the Wood’s home, Christopher’s Dallas Cowboys backpack is discovered 15 miles away from the house along the side of the road. There is still no sign of 11-year old Christopher anywhere. Until the following morning.
Police discovered Christopher’s body in a snow bank over 50 miles away from the house. His body appeared to have been dumped there because investigators found no evidence of a struggle and the snow was undistributed around the body.
Police now have an arson and homicide to investigate.
Christopher’s autopsy revealed ligature marks around his neck and the cause of death was strangulation. Importantly, there was no evidence on his clothes or body that he had started the first at his father’s house. He also had vomit covering his shirt.
Local sex offenders were quickly ruled out as possible suspects because Christopher’s death didn’t fit the MO of a sex offender.
The police shift their attention to Christopher’s father, Bob, who arrived home over 2 hours after learning about the fire. They also learn that Bob was in a lot of debt and owed over $125,000 and he had been fired from his real estate job just one month prior. Bob was fired for allegedly embezzling over $100,000 from the company.
After talking to Bob’s ex-wife, Jolynne Wood, police learned that Bob had 3 life insurance policies, totaling $80,000, on his son, Christopher. Conveniently, copies of the life insurance were removed from the house prior to the fire.
Bob Wood dropped off a camera to have photos developed at a pharmacy on February 11th. The photos were images taken inside the house before the fire started, and images taken of the same spots of the house after the fire.
Did Bob take these photos because he knew the fire was going to happen?
Crime scene technicians searched Bob Wood’s garage; an area of the house undamaged by the fire. Technicians discovered stomach contents, or vomit, on the fender of one of Bob’s cars. Although vomit does not contain DNA, forensic scientists are able to test the makeup of the contents.
Underneath a forensic microscope, scientists discovered small vegetative fragments, pieces of oat, and other starchy grains. The sample was removed from the microscope and placed with a mixture of potassium iodine. When the iodine solution is applied to the vomit, the starches in the stomach contents will turn a purplish, bluish color, indicating a positive test result for the presence of starches. In this case, the potassium iodine test came back positive.
All ingredients that are common in breakfast CEREAL.
Inside Bob Wood’s home, police found a half-eaten box of Marshmallow Matey’s cereal. Cereal that 11-year old Christopher ate each and every single morning before school.
One of Bob’s trash cans was also missing from the home. Police discovered the missing trash can at a local car wash, the same car wash Bob took his pick-up truck. Forensic scientists scraped pieces of paint from the top of the trash can and analyzed it to the trash can at Bob’s home. The trash can at the car wash came back as an exact match to the trash can at the house. But even more troubling was what scientists found inside the trash can.
Inside the trash can, scientists used a scanning electron microscope to discover the same starchy stomach contents (vomit) inside the can.
This forensic evidence placed Christopher inside Bob Wood’s trash can and inside the pick-up truck.
Bob Wood was arrested and charged with setting fire to his own home and strangling his son, Christopher on February 26th, 1999. That same day, he was also charged with theft of $105,000 from Crown West Realty, the company he was fired from just the month before.
Police and prosecutors suspected Bob strangled his son, placed him inside the trash can and drove his body 50 miles away and dumped him in a snow bank. The motive was simple: Money. Bob Wood wanted to gain the life insurance policies on his son’s life to pay off his debt and continue living the “high life.”
Before Bob Wood could be held to answer for the murder of his son, he was found hanging in his jail cell. Bob Wood committed suicide.
Even if Bob Wood would have stood trial, the forensic evidence in the case would be nearly impossible to overcome. The identification of the stomach contents, containing freshly eaten cereal on Bob’s car and inside the trash can, placed Christopher inside Bob’s car and trash can. The paint analysis matched the trash can found at the car wash to the missing trash can at Bob’s residence.
Episode Sources:
Forensic Files Season 10, Episode 12
The Seattle Times
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