Murder in Woodstock

The (Big) Bird House

As Detective Marty Graham and his partner were tracking down Scott Deojay, other troopers obtained maps and land records from the Town of Woodstock, as well as GPS readings they had taken themselves. It was important to get a clear picture of the Carroll Spinney estate and its relation to what they were now calling a crime scene on Redhead Hill Road. Spinney's name was also on that receipt. It wasn't much of a lead, but checking out the Spinney property was certainly somewhere to begin.

More importantly, looking at all the information, knowing that Deojay worked for Spinney, it wasn't out of the question to think that if Deojay had accidentally hit Judy, he might have driven back to the Spinney property, which was located about 1.5 miles from the crime scene on Redhead Hill Road. If he had, there was the potential he had left some sort of evidence on the property.

The gated entrance to Spinney's estate

Even though he was in another country, Carroll Spinney had no problem allowing the state police onto his property to have a look. The state police had cleared Spinney entirely from any involvement. It was impossible, in fact, that he (or anyone living in his household) could have had anything to do with Judy's disappearance—they were on vacation.

As the state police went through the Spinney estate, one of the troopers noticed something odd. There was an "access road" on the property, set off by an immense stone archway, which led to a right-hand turn off the main driveway leading into the property—a fork in the road, if you will. "We believe," one investigator later told me, "Scott Deojay built the archway—he was that good at what he did." The road led to the far west end (rear) of the property, heading toward a thickly settled wooded area. For investigators it was a challenge just to get around the property without falling; the frozen snow on the grounds made the entire estate as slick as an ice rink.