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The El Paso Desert Murders



The El Paso Desert Murders was a series of 6 homicides, along with one living victim.  All of the murder victims were female prostitutes aged 14-28.  Judith Brown, the final victim and a living witness, was kidnapped and sexually assaulted.  Her statement was not only critical in getting David Wood into prison, but also in the eventual solving of the murders.  Wood’s name came up as a suspect with the El Paso Police Department during the course of each of the murder investigations.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have enough the proof needed to link him to the murders.  Wood was already in prison, due to the sexual assault of Judith Brown.  Brown gave a very detailed account of the night she was kidnapped and assaulted, including street names of places where Wood drove her and assaulted her.  Police were able to solve the murders by using this living witness to link the sexual assault site with burial sites of the murder victims, along with forensic evidence from the sexual assault compared to forensic evidence from each burial site.  Wood also bragged to cell mates about the murders he committed.  All of this evidence helped solve the case and convict Wood of the murders (Keppel & Birnes).






Works Cited
Keppel, Robert D., and William J. Birnes. The Psychology of Serial Killer Investigations The Grisly Business Unit. Academic Press, 2003.

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