Terry Wood’s wife Roxanne Wood was murdered in her home and her killer, Patrick Wayne Gilham, was arrested 35 years after. Her story explored below.
Tragic Roxanne was found dead in the home in Niles Township, Michigan, that she shared with her husband Terry Wood.
The couple had enjoyed a night at a nearby bowling alley with pals in February 1987 and had driven separately to the venue.
But Roxanne fatefully arrived home first – seeing Terry arrive at the property a short time later to find his wife with her throat cut.
Officials believe she was sexually assaulted, slashed with her own filet knife and battered with a frying pan by the depraved killer.
Patrick Wayne Gilham, 67, had evaded authorities for decades before DNA evidence came to light and he was convicted of her murder.
Who was Roxanne Wood?
Roxanne Leigh Wood was a 30-year-old woman who lived in Niles, Michigan.
She was married to Terry Wood.
The last moments they spent together was on February 20th, 1987 after they both attended a night of bowling.
Roxanne Wood, 30, was found dead in her Niles home. The case remained unsolved for decades until after 35 years that her killer was found.
What happened to Roxanne Wood?
A mysterious murder case once deemed unsolvable has been cracked after a speck of DNA evidence was investigated by one of the US’s top experts.
Roxanne Wood was discovered brutally murdered and sexually assaulted inside her Michigan home in 1987.
Her killer was uncovered decades later by top investigative genetic genealogist Gabriella Vargas who was able to trace back her family history to 1797.
The horrific crime took place after Roxanne and her husband Terry were bowling with friends in their small hometown of Niles.
Roxanne kissed her husband goodnight and headed home early to get some rest before work the next day while Terry stayed later to keep the fun going.
When Terry got home 45 minutes later, he saw specks of blood leading toward the kitchen.
It was in that room that he witnessed his wife dead and bleeding profusely from her neck, CBS’s 48 Hours reports.
A haunting 911 call captured the shock and horror that Terry experienced as he phoned officials for help.
“My wife’s been murdered,” he told officials before calling his sister-in-law and giving her the tragic news.
Members of the small town immediately shifted the blame to the husband, even though multiple witnesses said he was at the bowling alley.
Authorities determined that the suspect broke into the home, sexually assaulted Roxanne, beat her with a frying pan, and slit her throat with a kitchen knife.
He left a tiny bit of DNA evidence at the scene, but the sample was too small to make any conclusions.
Over a decade later, the sample was uploaded to a national criminal DNA information repository, but no matches were found.
However, the results did confirm that Terry wasn’t guilty of the murder.
The case went cold again until 2020 when investigators employed the help of a group of students at Western Michigan University to digitize the case files.
Students sifted through 3,500 pages of documents and added all of the information to a database that police could quickly search through.
Around that same time, investigators looked to test the DNA again with newfound technology.
They reached out to Identifinders International which specializes in tracing back genetic genealogy for answers.
“We found out there was, what I would call, a gnat’s eyebrow of DNA left,” said Colleen Fitzpatrick, president and founder of Identifinders.
“About three percent of what we normally use. That was the lowest amount of DNA we’ve ever had to work with to solve a case. It really did feel impossible.”
After 10 months with no leads, the company decided to reach out to the talented Gabriella Vargas, a mom in California who happens to be on of the most skilled investigative genetic genealogists in the country.
“I said, ‘Well, why don’t you let me look at it,” said Vargas, who worked as a consultant for Identifinders.
“I concluded that I did not stand with the others. I believed that this case was extremely solvable. And I believed that I could solve it.”
By using GEDmatch, Vargas was able to create a family tree of Roxanne’s killer that went back to 1797.
“Essentially what we’re looking for amongst these matches are where they connect to each other. And it led me to a union couple,” said Vargas.
She found that this couple, who were born in the 1920s, had three sons. Two of which were discarded as potential suspects while the third was found to have a criminal history.
How was Roxanne Wood’s murderer caught?
Her spouse was immediately suspected – despite having an airtight alibi – before the case eventually went cold.
After 35 years of the murder of Roxanne, officials identified the suspect as Patrick Gilham, and secretly captured a discarded cigarette butt to check their DNA profile.
He initially claimed he had no memory of murdering Roxanne and that only a “monster” could commit such a heinous crime.
They found it was a match, and arrested him on February 2022.
Identifiers International said in a statement that the case was a “landmark in the use of forensic genetic genealogy (FGG) as the decades-old DNA sample used to identify Roxanne’s assailant was very low level and highly degraded, representing the contents of only a few cells of his body.”
Vargas, who cracked the cold case in just four days, said it has spurred her on to continue her groundbreaking work.
She said: “It’s an honor to be able to work these cases to bring justice to these victims and closure to these families.
“And I will never stop. If anything, I’m more determined now to solve as many cases as I can.”
In late March, Gilham pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and agreed to a minimum sentence of 23 years in prison.
“It’s an honor to be able to work these cases to bring justice to these victims and closure to these families,” said Vargas. “And I will never stop. If anything, I’m more determined now to solve as many cases as I can.”
Before Roxanne’s death, her killer Patrick Gilham had a dark criminal past
Sick Gilham had been walking the streets as a free man for over 30 years, hiding his horrific secret and dodging police.
His crimes only caught up with him in 2020 when students in Western Michigan University’s Cold Case Program aided detectives.
But it was the 67-year-old’s chequered criminal history that proved the pivotal piece to solving the puzzle.
The killer had a criminal history and had even served time for unlawful deviant conduct.
Roxanne’s case is set to be highlighted on Saturday’s episode of 48 Hours, which premieres at 8pm EST.