Murder in Woodstock

Skid Marks

Trooper Michael Robinson, as he was walking back to his cruiser, noticed "skid marks," he wrote in his report, leading up to where he found the bloody receipt and blood droplets in the snow. In light of the fresh-looking blood, what did the skid marks mean? After a quick measurement, it was clear that the marks were about forty feet long. They were definitive and had just been made on the road. Whatever happened had occurred within the past 24 hours.

In such a densely populated area, with herds of deer and other animals wandering about freely, it wasn't out of the question to think that the person who had caused those skid marks with his or her vehicle could have come upon a deer and struck it. This would answer to the blood. But the headband? How did it fit into a possible accident with an animal? Was it even Judy Nilan's?

By 11:33 p.m., the first witness had come forward after police canvassed the neighborhood asking questions. A man said he had seen Judy earlier that day. He was a neighbor who lived on English Neighborhood Road. He said that between "4:20 and 4:30 p.m., while he was returning to his residence," Trooper Gregory Trahan's report noted, "traveling north on Redhead Hill Road ... [he] saw a woman who he recognized as Judy Nilan jogging towards him heading south."

If Judy left her house and jogged south on English Neighborhood Road, she would have taken a right onto Redhead Hill Road, traveled a short distance west, then headed north up Brickyard Road, where she would have taken a right back onto English Neighborhood Road to complete a full circle.

The neighbor told police, when they asked him how he could be sure it was Judy, that he and Judy "exchanged waves," adding, "She was wearing a yellow nylon type wind suit, black gloves and possibly a black colored hat."