Sheriff: Man shot wife in head, confessed to burying her in basement

Published 9:38 am Monday, April 4, 2016

WELCH, W. Va. – A West Virginia man is charged with murder after police say he confessed to shooting his wife of 17 years during an argument and burying her body in the basement beneath their home. 

Woody Alfred Wood Jr., 35, was arrested Saturday and charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Rebecca Wood.

According to a complaint filed by Deputy R.L. Blevins of the McDowell County Sheriff’s Department, Wood was fighting with his wife on or about March 30.

“As a result of the altercation Rebecca Wood was shot in the head, resulting in the death of Rebecca Wood,” Blevins said in the report.

According to investigators, Wood then buried his wife in the basement of their home in English, a small southern West Virginia community near the Virginia border. 

Sheriff Martin West said Monday that the investigation began when Rebecca Wood’s mother called his chief field deputy, who lives in the English vicinity and knows many of the people there, and told him her daughter was missing.

The mother said her son-in-law, Woody Wood Jr., was acting “a little strange and different.” She also said her daughter called her frequently, but she had stopped receiving those phone calls.

When deputies went to the home to investigate, Wood fled into the nearby forest, West said. Woody Wood Jr.’s mother and stepfather later brought him to the McDowell County Magistrate Court, where he turned himself in.

Blevins interviewed Wood, who then confessed to the murder of his wife, West said. Wood then described where she could be found in his basement. Local authorities waited until the West Virginia State Police Mobile Forensics Team arrived to search basement.

West said the case was still under investigation, and a motive was not yet known. 

“And everyone said when you saw one, you saw the other,” West said of the couple.

“I’m proud of our deputies,” West said. “I was proud of their diligence and checking every lead that we got.”

Wood is currently being held without a bond. He was arraigned Saturday before Magistrate Richard VanDyke. A circuit court judge must set bond in murder cases. A preliminary hearing had not yet been scheduled Monday.

Jordan writes for the Bluefield, West Virginia Daily Telegraph.