Catherine May Wood

Case details

Catherine May Wood was an American caregiver who worked at the Alpine Manor Nursing Home in Walker, Michigan. She was the immediate superior of Gwendolyn Graham, and the two women were lesbian partners.

Catherine May Wood pleaded guilty. She was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison in September 1989.

People

• Catherine May Wood — nurses aide; co-defendant; pleaded guilty; convicted of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder; served as a lookout for her lover during the killings.
• Gwendolyn Graham — nurse’s aide at Alpine Manor; co-defendant; convicted of multiple counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder; sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

The offence

Gwendolyn Graham and Catherine May Wood killed elderly female patients at the nursing home where they both worked as nurse's aides. They targeted victims at Alpine Manor over a three-month period in early 1987.

They practised sexual asphyxia, and they used the killings as part of their sexual activities, washing victims as part of postmortem routine and then going to an empty room for sex while memories were fresh. They also took items from victims as souvenirs, including an anklet or a handkerchief, a broach, and a set of dentures.

They selected victims so that the victims’ initials collectively spelled “M-U-R-D-E-R.” They attempted to post Wood as a lookout while Graham suffocated victims by smothering them with a washcloth pressed across the nose and mouth.

In the period after Wood transferred to a different shift and Graham left Michigan for Texas, Wood later confessed to her husband. The confession occurred after Graham told Wood that she wanted to “take one of the babies and smash it up against a window.”

Victims

The investigation pursued five victims. The names included:

• Marguerite Chambers, age 60
• Edith Cole, age 89
• Myrtle Luce, age 95
• Mae Mason, age 79
• Belle Burkhard, age 74

The source also described other suspicious deaths at Alpine Manor and stated that there were eight possible victims identified before police ended up pursuing five.

Investigation and arrest

Wood’s ex-husband was told about the killings, and he informed police. Police began investigating based on his statements.

The first victim was exhumed on November 30, 1988, nearly a year after burial, and the coffin was taken to Kent County Morgue for examination. Eight possible victims were identified, but police ended up pursuing five.

Wood was arrested in December 1988 and held without bond in Grand Rapids on charges of killing victims Cook and Chambers. In Texas, a $1 million bond was sufficient to keep Gwendolyn Graham in jail.

A brief extradition fight occurred, and Graham waived the legalities and returned to face charges on her own volition.

In December 1989, Graham was arrested in her hometown of Tyler, Texas, though she maintained that the claims were made as a joke to scare her coworkers.

Trial

Wood plea-bargained for a reduced sentence and testified against Graham. Wood claimed that it was Graham who planned and carried out the killings while she served as a lookout or distracted supervisors.

The source described that jurors deliberated and convicted Graham on multiple counts.

Wood told the court her role as lookout when Graham suffocated the women.

Four prosecution witnesses testified against Graham at trial, and Wood emerged as the state’s star witness overnight.

Quotes

Catherine Wood’s statement to the court included:

"When she was killing people at Alpine and I didnt do any-thing, Wood told the court, that was bad enough. But when she would call me and say how she wanted to smash a baby, I had to stop her somehow. I knew she was working in a hospital there. She said she wanted to take one of the babies and smash it up against a window. I had to do something. I didnt care about myself any more."

Sentencing

Wood pleaded guilty.

Appeals

No appeal information was included for Wood.

Outcome

Wood was convicted of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder and received sentences of 20 years on each count.

Aftermath

Wood was incarcerated in a minimum security Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, Florida, and was expected to be released on June 6, 2021.

Parole eligibility and denials were described:

• Wood was eligible for parole since March 2, 2005.
• The Michigan Department of Corrections denied parole repeatedly, with one reported denial on March 12, 2012 as the seventh consecutive time, and the next parole eligibility was reported as two years later.