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Brandon Woodruff /// Part 1 /// 435

November 16, 2023 / 51:18

This episode of True Crime Garage covers the case of Brandon Woodruff, who was convicted of murdering his parents, Dennis and Norma Woodruff, in Roy City, Texas, in 2005. The discussion includes Brandon's claims of innocence, family dynamics, financial troubles, and the timeline of events leading up to the murders.

Brandon Woodruff, now 31, asserts he did not kill his parents and describes them as loving individuals. He expresses a desire for justice and hopes to reunite with his family. The episode highlights the brutal nature of the crime, with both parents found dead in their home.

The hosts discuss the background of the Woodruff family, including Brandon's relationship with his sister Charla and their parents. They explore the family's financial difficulties, including significant credit card debt and the purchase of a new home.

Key events leading to the discovery of the murders are detailed, including Brandon's activities over the weekend before the crime and his interactions with friends. The timeline of phone calls and the eventual wellness check by family members are also examined.

The episode concludes with the investigation's findings and the implications of Brandon's lifestyle choices on the case. The hosts reflect on the complexities of the family dynamics and the tragic outcome of the Woodruff case.

TLDR

Brandon Woodruff claims innocence in his parents' brutal murder, discussing family dynamics and financial troubles leading to the crime.

Episode

51:18
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[Music] % [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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00:01:53
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on keep the suds of flowing your move all right that's enough of the business everybody gather
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around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime [Music] my name is Brandon Woodruff I'm 31 years
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old I was arrested for capital murder in the deaths of my parents Norman Dennis Woodruff and I did not commit this crime
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I'm innocent and I really hope that people that are watching this if you will just know anything at all I hope
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that you'll know that I did not kill my parents parents I would never even hurt them they were really really good people
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to me they raised me well they loved me unconditionally no matter what they always would um be there for me they had
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they had a love for me and my sister and our whole family of an unconditional love no matter what it was I got a
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grandmother that really loves me she's behind me I just want all of y'all to know that I did not kill my parents I
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just want y'all to know that my parents were very very good people they were very very well liked they did not
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deserve what happened to them they did not deserve to be taken away from me to be taken away from my
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sister to be taken away from our family they should still be here to this day and the real people that really did this
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should be in prisoned and not me I really think the investigators should really look at this case I think that
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they should re-evaluate it and look at possible other people because right now they're getting away with with what
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they've done I would just want to thank everybody watching I want to thank any help that I could get further my cause
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to prove my innocence I really really really hope one day to be able to get to hug my grandmother to be with my family
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where I should be I really hope that justice prevails [Music] the state of Texas says Brandon Dale
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Woodruff murdered his parents Dennis and Norma Woodruff inside their home in Roy
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City Texas on or about October 16th 2015 both Dennis and Norma died as a result of gunshot wounds and multiple
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stack wounds the murders were brutal and the crime scene of course not a pretty one but before we get into the
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investigation let's give some very necessary background information Dennis and Norma were high school sweethearts
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they both grew up in Tex Arana that's on the Texas Arkansas border the two married about a year after they
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graduated from high school this was way back in 1982 so they were married for over 20
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years before their death and they were described by others as best friends and very
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ly both went on to earn a degree from Southern Arkansas University Dennis in electrical engineering and Norma in
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accounting after college they moved out to the lake hubard area just about 25 mil Northeast of Dallas Texas where the
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two both got good jobs putting their schooling to work and they started a family their firstborn was a daughter
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Charla Annette Woodruff born in August of 1985 and then a son Brandon Dale Woodruff in September of
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1986 Dennis lovingly most times simply referred to the children as the girl or the boy in the mid90s the Woodruff
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family stayed in the same area but purchased and moved into a nice ranch style three-bedroom brick home sitting
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on a little more than 2 acres of land they had a decent sized out building that they called the barn I think it
00:08:06
looks a little more like an unattached garage it seems like a fair statement to say that a sibling rivalry developed at
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a fairly young age and later when questioned by police Charla and Brandon would give differing opinions of what
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they thought of each other and their relationship as big sister and slightly younger brother Brandon's sounds a
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little more polite and seems to take the Live and Let Live approach where on the
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other hand it seems like Charla had some um some disagreements and some grudges held against her brother their mother
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Norma was the outdoorsy type she grew up on a ranch and did the ranch type things
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which meant raising animals working the land and getting her hands dirty Dennis seemed to prefer indoor activities both
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Charla and Brandon were involved with 4 and Future Farmers of America and well let's face it it's not just the kids
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when you're talking about something so involved as 4 and FFA it's really the whole family that is involved but
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Brandon really seemed to have a natural ability and talent for raising and taking care of animals and yes Captain
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they were equestrians or as we like to call it here in the garage they are horsee so when it came to horses or
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animals in general many have said Brandon has a gift for working with animals as Brandon got older he became a
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cowboy always outside riding horses beb or out on the barn working when he was about 16 he got a job at a local Feed
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Store where he was not only very hardworking but also also very well-liked at high school he ran with a
00:10:02
group of kids that were referred to as the [ __ ] kickers other dudes that were involved in 4 Future Farmers of America
00:10:11
raising livestock and dressing like Cowboys yeah better to be called the [ __ ] kickers than the [ __ ] lickers the
00:10:18
guys he hung around with the most were Mike Etherington Joe Hagman and Dusty Perry who mostly went by the nickname of
00:10:25
Perry it seems like Brandon's parents didn't care for Mike as there were some local rumors that he was someone that
00:10:34
was kind of up to no good but never really caught for anything Brandon was outgoing both he and Charla were
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attention Seekers and Brandon at times could be a bit of a showoff his senior year he was voted by his classmates as
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the student with the most school spirit now we mentioned the differences in opinion between Charla and Brandon
00:10:56
regarding their sister brother relationship ship but there was also a very difference in opinions with the
00:11:03
relationship each had with their parents Charla says she had a lot of problems with her parents growing up and that her
00:11:10
father Dennis had a real bad temper and sometimes discipline bordered on almost abuse right Brandon says yes they were
00:11:21
disciplined like most children would be but that Not only was Charla's description not his experience he said
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says Charla is a drama queen and dramatically overstating the family situation if there was trouble in the
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home growing up it may have stemmed from Charla there is an incident when the parents called police because she
00:11:45
physically attacked her father and it sounds like she was quite physical with Brandon at times as well friends of
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Dennis and Norma called Charla a problem child now I do want to point something out here and I'm not super clear on the
00:12:03
details of this and I don't think that they are necessary but Charla was abused when she was young the abuse did not
00:12:11
come from Mom or Dad it was sexual abuse so drama queen or Problem Child whatever
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these labels mean right keep in mind that she was a victim and there's a great deal of trauma involved and often
00:12:26
with sex abuse especially at a young age there's a lot of confusion and that has
00:12:32
to be even more difficult to deal with all of that as you're becoming a woman well just the punishment from your
00:12:39
father maybe the son is able to take the punishment a little bit more maybe she was not going to stand for that so when
00:12:48
they go well she was violent with the father I'd like to know what context that was in because if he was trying to
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discipline her would she really be violent towards him or would she really just def defending herself Charla
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attempted suicide in her teen years uh this incident involved a gun now thank God the gun did not go off for whatever
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reason now for Texas folk the Woodruff were not much for guns and it looks like at the time of the young lady's suicide
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attempt that there was only one gun owned by the family and immediately after this event and very intelligently
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of this good man and father Dennis gets rid of the gun you can't have that situation in the house when it's putting
00:13:38
people in harm right so the wood Ruffs had some money troubles and so did Brandon as an adult
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and it's important as we will see this is the reason that Brandon's parents were in the process of moving during the
00:13:55
time when the double homicide was committed Brandon was in his first semester of college he is attending
00:14:03
abalene Christian University or ACU for short and ACU is not cheap and the school itself has quite strict rules as
00:14:15
well Brandon is supposed to like even let's say they don't have class on the weekend right classes Monday through
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Friday if he is going to leave campus he has to have have his parents call in and
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get a approved dismissal from campus so it's not like a normal campus where you can
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just come and go as you please yeah a lot of the colleges as you know Captain they don't even care if you show up to
00:14:41
the classes as long as you pay nobody really cares what's going on here they had very strict rules as to curfew and
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things that you typically may not see on most college campuses because of this look most kids
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when they're 18 19 pretty irresponsible and when you first get out on your own away from Mom and Dad you might be
00:15:05
exploring who you are or out partying a little too much Brandon was missing and failing a lot of his classes now Brandon
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nobody argues this he is a smart guy so it's not an intelligence thing I think it's more likely that it's a lack of
00:15:22
maturity on Brandon's part yeah or lack of effort right he's failing and dropping class
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because he's choosing not to attend these classes MH he's often leaving whether it be excused approved or not
00:15:39
for the weekend and there's a there's a club that he likes to go to that is all ages it's like 18 and up so I guess not
00:15:47
all ages but 18 and up on Sunday nights and on Wednesdays he and his friends are
00:15:54
typically going to this club late on Sunday nights party until the we hours of the
00:16:01
morning and he's therefore missing a lot of his Monday classes and he's getting in trouble for not being on campus the
00:16:09
way that this works Captain is after he misses several classes they drop him from the class right and he's probably
00:16:17
not telling his parents CU then his parents would expect him to come home but he wants to go out and party with
00:16:22
his friends and when we say party the word party has a weird you know definition depending on on who you ask
00:16:29
part a right yeah the captain and the colonel usually that means probably a good not just hanging out with friends
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but a good amount of drinking going on drugs yeah whatever hookers not so much but anyway the the story here is that
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Brandon does not seem to be much of a drinker and he's definitely not into drugs so when we say party he's out
00:16:55
dancing and that sort of thing so is it because he's going out partying I mean he's not spending money on boo so you
00:17:02
said he had money troubles yeah I don't know an 18 or 19 year old that doesn't but right I'll
00:17:10
give you the skinny of it so what they or whomever is calling money troubles this is what I could find in September
00:17:17
of 2005 Brandon got a city card with a limit of $2,500 on the card he maxed it out in
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one week then later that same month he got a Capital One card with a $1,000 limit and
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maxed it out in less than two weeks okay question for what's in your wallet do we
00:17:41
have context for any of this because I think my first credit card was $1,500 and it was maxed out the first
00:17:50
day I used it but I was buying school books yeah these were not school books that were purchased it looks to me like
00:17:57
a lot of this was was clothing electronics and um restaurants he was known to be fairly generous with his
00:18:07
friends often offering to pay well it's pretty easy to be generous when it's not
00:18:12
your money right and that that's where I think some of this stems from it's you know it's nice to be generous but he's
00:18:20
really just being frivolous with the with these uh credit cards again abalene Christian University is expensive it's
00:18:29
not cheap how's he going there well he has some help from his parents he has a $500 scholarship that he earned from
00:18:39
4H and he has $7,500 in student loans he gets a $1,300 tuition refund this is because he's missing the
00:18:51
classes so they dropped him from those classes they're nice enough to say all right we're going to refund some of your
00:18:58
money since you're not taking those classes anymore again this was $1,300 he spent
00:19:05
all300 of that cash rather than giving it to his parents and it seems that this caused some kind of feud between him and
00:19:14
his father Dennis so that that's where I would go and say okay that's money trouble to me
00:19:23
then the weird thing about the scholarship and this is something that we should note is that the $500 4
00:19:29
scholarship seemed to cause a bit of a feud between Norma his mother Brandon's mother and Norma
00:19:37
Etherington the mother of Mike Errington who was once Brandon's friend I don't know the details of why there was this
00:19:47
feud between the two of them over this $500 scholarship maybe Mrs Errington thought her son was supposed to be
00:19:55
getting it or deserved it more than Brandon I don't know but that is what has been reported now Dennis and Norma
00:20:03
Woodruff they had money troubles of their own now they made pretty good money together they made about
00:20:10
$125,000 a year but they had $300,000 in credit card debt so they sought the help of a credit counselor
00:20:21
and September of 2005 Dennis and Norma bought a doublewide manufactured home at 5545 County Road 2648 in Roy City
00:20:35
Texas this was at the advice of their credit counselor and this makes a lot of financial sense because their home where
00:20:44
they were currently living before making this purchase was in Heath Texas and they were spending about $1,400 a month
00:20:53
plus the property tax for that home the double wide was was only $500 a month plus the property taxes as well but
00:21:03
given the area of the double wide the property tax was much much less there than in Heath taxes but as far as the
00:21:12
credit card debt goes his parents have tons of credit card debth it's not maybe something that they sat down and taught
00:21:19
him how to be bad with credit cards but it's something that he obviously saw his
00:21:24
parents do and so that's probably another reason why it wasn't that big of a deal to
00:21:30
him yeah this is something he may or may not have known anything about I find growing up my own personal experience
00:21:39
has been when I got to be like in my 30s I have friends complain my man my parents are way in debt and you had no
00:21:46
idea growing up right you just think that everybody's parents makes really they make good money and they make good
00:21:53
spending decisions it sounds like with their spending with Dennis and Norma what most of the friends and family say
00:22:01
is they were all about being good parents and trying to give their kids whatever the kids needed or wanted and
00:22:09
so it's generally thought that they spent a lot of this money on their children raising them and this is credit
00:22:17
card debt too it's a slippery slope man like you start getting a little bit behind or you get high interest and that
00:22:25
debt really starts to pile up very very quickly and then at some point it's like you don't want to even pay for it
00:22:32
cuz you know you're not even paying for that item anymore you're just paying for
00:22:36
interest so this double wide is going to save them quite a bit of money every single month so it's a very smart move
00:22:46
financially but it's also not like a penalty it you know they're not being they're not putting themselves in
00:22:53
financial jail here Norma was kind of looking forward Ward to this move because the property at the new place
00:23:02
would be on 5 acres of land and plus they own horses and they're boarded somewhere else so by having this extra
00:23:09
land they they'll be able to board their own horses which should save them quite
00:23:13
a bit of money yes so this this whole move and everything makes a lot of sense now we did fail to set up one very
00:23:23
important thing in this case maybe it's important maybe it's not to me but for the storytelling purposes there are a
00:23:32
lot of people that will tell you that Brandon was convicted simply because he is a gay man he lived most of his life
00:23:42
up until sometime in high school where he was not openly gay he had girlfriends he hung out with these [ __ ] kicker guys
00:23:52
he was referred to as a cowboy well when he starts to change his lifestyle a little bit or realize who he
00:24:01
is the [ __ ] kicker buddies don't take too kindly to Brandon's new lifestyle and we'll get more into this
00:24:12
as we go but it's important to know that from now on and now that he's in college
00:24:19
we kind of have two things going on here Captain some will say that Brandon was leaving that Brandon was living too
00:24:27
lives that one was this secret gay life where from what I could see yeah it appears that he had two sets of friends
00:24:37
and that he was doing two sets of activities that were different from one another but I don't know that I would
00:24:45
say so much that he had a secret life right it actually appears to me that he's in the process of coming out and
00:24:53
he's kind of doing it casually and maybe slowly he's still still a very young man
00:24:58
probably still figuring out who he is and what he wants out of his life Brandon is though weird about the
00:25:07
new house I did find this to be quite strange this was something that he had stated he didn't like the location of
00:25:14
the new house and he didn't like the double wide house itself he is on record having told family and friends that he
00:25:23
would never spend a single night in that house he wasn't planning on ever living
00:25:29
there in fact he would never spend a single night in the new place at the time of the homicide here
00:25:36
Captain the Woodruff still have both properties they have the new property that they recently purchased and they
00:25:44
have their home their old home in Heath they are moving from one house to the other the Woodruff are the Woodruff
00:25:52
are staying the night at the new house night after night slowly moving in they're plan is once they're out of the
00:26:00
house in Heath that they will either sell it or rent it out oh and maybe he just felt bad for his parents and
00:26:06
thought it was a little bit of a downgrade from what they were used to I think that he thought that it was
00:26:12
Hillbilly is that it was a double wide in what he referred to as hickville out in the middle of nowhere mhm and he's
00:26:21
now becoming more of this big city kid he's spending his weekends in Dallas out clubbing with this other set of friends
00:26:31
the thing that we have to keep in mind and one thing that is very important to this case is knowing that they still
00:26:37
have both of these properties they're in the process of moving yet they are staying in the new place now Brandon is
00:26:44
helping them from time to time when he's not away at College he will help them move things from the heath house to the
00:26:50
new house but when he is helping Mom and Dad he is often crashing and sleeping at
00:26:58
the heath house they still have some animals there he's helping to take care of them as well but this is really a
00:27:05
slow moving process of filling up Norma's truck or Brandon's truck and one load at a time moving to the new home we
00:27:14
also have to keep in mind too both of their children Charla and Brandon are both off to college at this point so
00:27:23
they're kind of downsizing their empty nesters for the first time in their [Music]
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all right we're back cheers mates and for those who do not like to drink just shake your booty a little bit Shake Your
00:30:12
Booty a little bit well we went through a lot of the events that were going on in August and September of
00:30:20
2005 on Tuesday October 18th 2005 at about 400 p.m. and Norma Woodruff they would be found dead having been murdered
00:30:31
inside their home in Roy City Texas let's go through the events that lead up to that horrific Discovery to see who
00:30:41
might be responsible for the double homicide or the very least who should be on the suspect list right on the weekend
00:30:51
of Friday October 14th Brandon will be on an approved leave from from the ACU campus for the entirety of the weekend
00:31:01
this is his father Dennis called in said hey my son wants to come home for the weekend and the college approved this
00:31:10
leave he will need to be back in time for whatever classes he may have scheduled for Monday Brandon drives an
00:31:18
older Dodge pickup truck and this detail is quite important to the case as well on this Friday Brandon gives a to a
00:31:27
fellow student that he does not know very well his name is Robert Robert is going to Denton for the weekend this is
00:31:37
a suburb of Dallas so not entirely out of the way for Brandon Brandon dropped Robert off at his girlfriend's place in
00:31:46
Denton on Friday night fairly late the deal was Brandon would pick Robert up at this same location on Sunday evening and
00:31:56
then the two of them would go back to ACU to the campus Brandon spent most of Saturday helping out a longtime friend
00:32:05
her name is Morgan Lee Morgan Lee it said was Brandon's one-time girlfriend the two stayed very good
00:32:16
friends after the relationship was over that night he hung out until the we hours of the morning with some of his
00:32:24
Club friends again we are on Saturday Sunday Brandon wakes up he is at the heath house remember he said he won't
00:32:34
stay at the new place right now even though he won't stay the night at his parents new place he does go over there
00:32:41
and he helps with things like unpacking and getting the new place all set up a little after 6:00
00:32:49
p.m. Dennis Woodruff picked up a pizza for the three of them for dinner that Sunday night this is brand Brandon and
00:32:57
his parents Dennis and Norma they're going to have dinner at the new place after dinner Brandon left the new
00:33:06
house and drove his Dodge truck to the horse stables to drop off some medication for one of Norma's horses he
00:33:15
then drove to the family's Heath house and that was because he says he has permission to drive his mother's truck
00:33:25
okay the parents have three vehicles I have a description of two of them one of them is a big fancy newer
00:33:35
Silverado Chevy truck it's got leather interior it sounds like it's fully loaded they also have a Toyota Camry and
00:33:44
then the Third vehicle I do not have a description for but two of the vehicles are at the new house and this big fancy
00:33:51
nice Silverado is at the old Heath house his Dodge truck is not in great working order it's an
00:33:59
older truck with a lot of miles like 140 or 150,000 miles on it because he's been having some trouble
00:34:09
with the vehicle with his vehicle he says he was given permission by his parents to drive out to the heath house
00:34:16
take care of the animals there leave his truck and take the nice Silverado back to the college campus and keep it for a
00:34:24
few days while his father Dennis figured out what is wrong with his Dodge truck so Brandon is on his way to drop off the
00:34:32
medication to the horses and I'm assuming here captain that this next event takes place after that medication
00:34:41
is dropped off so at 7:36 p.m. Brandon calls his mother this is according to phone
00:34:50
records there was some a message that he needed to relay regarding her horse or or one of her horses that's why I'm
00:34:59
assuming that this is after he dropped off the medication for the horse to the stable yeah from there Brandon has about
00:35:07
a 30 minute drive to the heath house I've seen this listed as short as 23 minutes and as long as 30 minutes the
00:35:19
problem for Brandon will become that his timeline does not match up with some of the other
00:35:28
people's statements in regards to his timeline meaning that there's some minutes and maybe hours that he is
00:35:36
unaccounted for to give him the benefit of the doubt I am going to use the longer time frames that are listed for
00:35:46
all of these events okay so we will say we'll go with the longest one that has been stated that it's about a 30 minute
00:35:55
drive from the the stable to the heath house where he has the family's animals to take care of it's also been stated
00:36:06
that they estimated that this task of taking care of the animals feeding them letting them out and such at the heath
00:36:13
house would require about a half an hour to take care of all of these animals we don't know what time Brandon
00:36:22
left the heath house in the Silverado that's always been in question and that in part is why Brandon is sitting in a
00:36:31
prison cell today right now remember Robert the schoolmate that Brandon was scheduled to pick up on that Sunday M
00:36:41
Brandon spoke with Robert around 6:00 saying that he would pick him up in a few hours the weird thing here Captain
00:36:49
is Brandon's already late it sounds like according to Robert that they had originally scheduled
00:36:57
Brandon to pick him up between five and six that day so we're already running late on picking up Robert right but he's
00:37:05
doing some errands for his parents so that makes sense yeah he may not have known that he needed to do all of these
00:37:11
tasks and then to top that off look Brandon loves this Silverado truck it's fully loaded it's a million times nicer
00:37:21
than his yeah he very likely did not know that his parents would be generous enough to let him borrow it for a couple
00:37:28
days while his truck that doesn't run so good would be out of commission one it's
00:37:32
a good reason to be a little late oh if I'm a little late I get a way better vehicle for the next week I'll take that
00:37:39
trade any day and again the Silverado is at the old house so there's no getting that vehicle without going to the old
00:37:45
house so you're you're right there lock step with me my friend where we can we can see the reasoning for him being late
00:37:53
at this time Rob Rob Bert calls Brandon around well not around I have the exact time
00:38:01
9:49 p.m. this is because Brandon was still not there yet to pick him up Brandon asked if Robert could catch a
00:38:10
ride and meet him at the Denny's this is not to get anything to eat it's just meet me in the parking lot
00:38:17
at the Denny's it's about a halfway point from where you are Robert and where I am we're already running late
00:38:24
this is going to save us some time around 11:00 11:00 p.m. Brandon is at the Denny's this is at
00:38:32
9009 skilman Road in North Texas again he's running late he's been running late all day long and now he's even later
00:38:40
than expected Robert says all right I met you at the Denny's but you were still late getting here what's the
00:38:47
problem Brandon says I'm late because I got lost that's as much detail as we have of of an explanation as to where
00:38:57
Brandon was right before going back to the college campus Brandon and now Robert who's riding
00:39:07
shotgun Brandon decides hey I want to go out this is Sunday night I go to these clubs that are all ages or 18 and up and
00:39:16
I have my group of friends that I go with Robert do you want to go out and go clubbing before we go back to the
00:39:22
college campus Robert agrees to do this and so now they going to go to a guy named Alex's place and he is in Plano
00:39:31
Texas and from there a group of guys including robbert and Brandon will go clubbing and they leave for the clubs a
00:39:38
touch after midnight according to everyone and they're back at campus by Monday morning Monday was a pretty typical day
00:39:46
for Brandon he hung out with his friends at College went to lunch with several of
00:39:52
them this is followed by Tuesday which again was typical both of these days normal days with the exception of a few
00:40:00
things one Brandon's sister Charla called him and said that she had been unable to get in touch with their
00:40:07
parents she is away at College as well she's a junior at Southern Arkansas University roughly a 3-hour drive from
00:40:15
the Royce city house she lives on campus in an apartment with some roommates she's in a sorority she's working a
00:40:22
part-time job busy girl and she's Got A Horse of Her Own that is boarded nearby her campus living situation mhm she's
00:40:33
calling and saying look I speak with our parents daily while away at school and I
00:40:39
haven't been able to get a hold of them this is on Monday Brandon tells her I'm supposed to have a call with
00:40:48
them sometime tonight so she's calling Brandon Monday evening been trying to get a hold of mom and dad since 11:00
00:40:56
p.m. the night before Sunday night right which is odd right she says it's even more odd because I not only do I speak
00:41:05
with them daily but this was a scheduled phone call right but you but we know that
00:41:11
they're moving and they're doing some stuff and at some point they have to get their horses moved so there is a lot on
00:41:17
the parents plate is it possible that they just fell asleep early not so weird that you can't get a hold of them during
00:41:23
the day because there'd be two different locations they could be at or obviously
00:41:29
work but come that second day you're going okay something's up here MH yeah and there's going to be some phone calls
00:41:37
that were made by the wood Ruffs and I mean the parents Norma and Dennis on Sunday night that will help us really
00:41:45
kind of hone in on what time frame we should be really looking at here but this scheduled call that was to be at
00:41:55
11:00 p.m. on Sunday the way that this works Captain is Charla was away visiting extended family on Sunday
00:42:05
evening she is at her grandmother's house this is Norma's mother her mom's mom while she's there and the
00:42:15
grandmother says this is right around 9900 p.m. she is on the phone with Norma with Charla's mom to which she says to
00:42:24
Charlotte would you like to speak to your mom I got her on the phone Charla says no I will call them
00:42:31
when I get home so that's the what I mean by the scheduled call of 11: p.m. that night
00:42:38
right Brandon tells Charla on Monday evening don't worry about not being able to get a hold of them as he is expecting
00:42:49
a phone call from Mom and Dad between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m. that night on Monday he says I'm sure it's nothing
00:42:58
I'll talk to them later tonight and after I get off the phone with Mom and Dad I'll give you a call so that way
00:43:04
Charla will know everything is all right she's just unable to get a hold of mom and dad for whatever reason right Charla
00:43:10
says that she never heard back from her brother that night he doesn't call her like he said he would that's suspicious
00:43:19
she says that she went out with some friends that Monday night and she does say that she kind of forgot about the
00:43:26
call from Brandon okay so it's possible that he called and she just didn't answer no I don't think that it is
00:43:32
because they've really track down a lot of the phone records or but what is he saying is he
00:43:39
saying he called and it's just not registered anywhere no it's I couldn't find it to
00:43:46
be registered anywhere I don't know that he said that he was going to call her those are Charla's words
00:43:53
right but she goes on to say she kind of forgot about the call but never heard from Brandon that night she goes out
00:44:00
with some friends again she's in college and she admits she went out and got pretty drunk that night when she gets
00:44:07
home that night she's now concerned she's like oh I still didn't hear from Mom and Dad and I didn't hear from
00:44:15
Brandon so a little buzzed or you know drunk as she put it she's kind of drunk dialing mom and dad at 2 or three in the
00:44:25
morning trying to get a hold of them she said she at this point didn't care if she woke them up or she didn't care that
00:44:32
she was drunk and they would probably know it you know from her calling it that that yeah I mean at that point who
00:44:39
cares and and your parents would understand like look I couldn't I couldn't get a hold of you I called my
00:44:43
brother he was going to try to get a hold of you I never heard from him I don't want to drive all the way out
00:44:48
there so I'm calling thanks for answering the phone go back to bed talk to you in the morning I couldn't get an
00:44:54
exact number here captain but it sounds like she called them three or four times
00:45:00
that night and sometime in the hours of 2:30 to 3 in the morning again no luck Mom and Dad don't
00:45:08
pick up the phone their phone system is something we should discuss as well because the way
00:45:14
that it sounds to me is that they have three numbers okay they each have a cell phone and the home the new house has a
00:45:22
telephone number as well from my understanding and they used a term for this and I failed to put it
00:45:29
in my notes but if you call let's say you call the house it will ring to all of their phones all right right or if
00:45:38
you call Mom it will ring to all of the phones and whoever picks up first yeah the ringings it's just call uh call
00:45:47
forwarding okay so that makes it even a little more strange Charla says and I'll
00:45:53
back her up on this I agree with her that it's diff she should have no problem getting a hold of mom and dad
00:45:59
with that type of phone setup and it sounds like the Woodruff had that mainly because they have two kids who knows
00:46:05
what they may need and when they may need it right so you're telling me that she tried to call them once when she was
00:46:12
drunk dialing like you say three or four times is Charla statement and I think there are some not that I think there
00:46:19
are phone records that back up that statement and she also called her brother and and he never got a hold of
00:46:25
them there right so now we're we're to Tuesday October 18th that morning Charla does not have
00:46:34
any classes scheduled so she's got the the day free she's going to spend a good deal of the morning trying to get a hold
00:46:41
of her parents she says that at some point around lunchtime she tries calling her
00:46:47
parents at their work this is when major fear sets in she learns that her parents who both had
00:46:55
good jobs and both were very professional people they were both absent from work a no-show at work both
00:47:03
missed work on Tuesday and both of them missed work on Monday as well and even more alarming neither of them notified
00:47:12
their employer that they would be absent Charla notifies her aunt of the situation now the aunt is Norma's sister
00:47:22
she's been trying to get a hold of Norma as well nobody can get a hold of these people yeah the aunt's name is Linda
00:47:29
Matthews and probably at this point you're probably thinking they should call well they should call a wellness
00:47:36
check with the police right so what we have going on here Captain is just that we have and
00:47:43
this is from some court documents so forgive me if it sounds a little legally uh Todd Williams told deputies
00:47:53
that on October 18th 2005 at approximately 3:15 in the afternoon he received a phone call from Linda
00:48:01
Matthews the sister of Norma Woodruff asking that he go by their residence and check the welfare of Norma Woodruff and
00:48:10
Dennis Woodruff Todd Williams stated that Linda Matthews had attempted to call her sister and never received an
00:48:17
answer when she called Todd Williams stated that he Todd Williams stated that Linda Matthews gave him normal
00:48:25
woodruff's address he asked his friend Ron Allan Merritt to travel to the house with him
00:48:34
he says that when they arrived at the house he found that all of the doors were secured and there was no answer at
00:48:42
the door when they knocked so Todd Williams calls Linda Matthews back and says hey all the doors and windows seem
00:48:49
to be secured there's Vehicles here I'm not getting an answer knocking on the door what do you want me to do she tells
00:48:58
them can you figure out a way to get inside the house he decides to get a chisel from
00:49:05
his truck and using the Chisel he pried the screen off of a window located on the north side of the residence near the
00:49:13
carport and then Pride open the window Todd Williams stated that he was able to gain entry into the residence and stated
00:49:22
that after gaining entry into said residence he walked through the kitchen and into the living room and found both
00:49:29
Norma Woodruff and Dennis Woodruff deceased he stated that he exited the residents and he called The Hunt County
00:49:39
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Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 90
    Most heartbreaking
  • 80
    Most shocking
  • 80
    Most controversial
  • 75
    Most intense

Episode Highlights

  • Brandon Woodruff's Innocence Claim
    Brandon Woodruff insists he is innocent of the murder of his parents, expressing deep sorrow for their loss.
    “I did not kill my parents.”
    @ 04m 16s
    November 16, 2023
  • Brandon's Reluctance to Move
    Brandon expresses his disdain for the new house, stating he would never live there.
    “He would never spend a single night in that house.”
    @ 25m 23s
    November 16, 2023
  • The Day of the Homicide
    On October 18, 2005, Brandon's parents were found murdered in their home.
    “They would be found dead having been murdered inside their home.”
    @ 30m 31s
    November 16, 2023
  • Charla's Growing Concern
    Charla, Brandon's sister, becomes alarmed when she can't reach their parents.
    “It's even more odd because I speak with them daily.”
    @ 40m 41s
    November 16, 2023
  • A Disturbing Discovery
    Todd Williams finds Norma and Dennis Woodruff deceased after entering their home.
    “I found both Norma Woodruff and Dennis Woodruff deceased.”
    @ 49m 29s
    November 16, 2023

Episode Quotes

  • I did not kill my parents.
    Brandon Woodruff /// Part 1 /// 435
  • I really hope that justice prevails.
    Brandon Woodruff /// Part 1 /// 435
  • He's still figuring out who he is.
    Brandon Woodruff /// Part 1 /// 435
  • He's now becoming more of this big city kid.
    Brandon Woodruff /// Part 1 /// 435
  • This is going to save us some time.
    Brandon Woodruff /// Part 1 /// 435
  • I found both Norma Woodruff and Dennis Woodruff deceased.
    Brandon Woodruff /// Part 1 /// 435

Key Moments

  • Brandon's Innocence04:16
  • Coming Out Journey24:50
  • City Kid Transformation26:21
  • Late Night Errands36:41
  • Missing Parents46:52
  • Emergency Call47:59
  • Gaining Entry49:01
  • Tragic Findings49:29

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown