Murder in Woodstock

Gruesome Crime Scene

From studying the scene, detectives quickly determined that Judy had been murdered. This wasn't a case of a car accident gone horribly wrong. Looking at her body, the way in which it was positioned, investigators noticed she had been "beaten about the head, her hands were tied behind her back and the rope was also wrapped around her neck and tied around her ankles ... [with] black tape ... observed on the end of the rope with which [she] was bound."

"There appeared to be no rhyme or reason why her killer had tied her up the way he did," one investigator told me later. In light of locating Judy Nilan's tied up body, investigators began asking themselves questions: Was she too bloody to carry up the stairs? Was her killer afraid to get blood on himself? It made no sense, really, in the scope of what the investigators knew. If it had been an accident (if Judy had been accidentally struck by a car), and someone was trying conceal her body, why would he go to the trouble of tying her up and taping her body? The scene was horrific. Blood all over the place. An accidental hit by a vehicle could not have caused such savage, brutal injuries.

"She was beaten really, really badly," one investigator later told me.

Another problem soon emerged within the investigation itself. GPS readings indicated that the pagoda was located so far from the main Spinney house that it was actually in another town, not to mention another state: Southbridge, Massachusetts.