Missouri Killer Grabbed Hailey Owens ‘Like a Rag Doll,’ Witnesses Tell Police

Posted on | February 19, 2014 | 83 Comments

Craig Michael Wood, 45, has been charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping in the death of 10-year-old Hailey Owens, whose abduction Tuesday led to an “Amber Alert” that rallied the community of Springfield, Missouri:

According to the probable cause statement in the case, Carlos and Michelle Edwards were in the open garage of their home Tuesday afternoon about 4:45 when they saw a young girl with a cellphone in her hand walk by, westbound on Lombard.
The couple witnessed a tan Ford Ranger driving eastbound stop near the girl, and heard the driver ask where “Springfield Street” was.
Michelle Edwards said the girl . . . turned to walk away from the vehicle before the driver opened the door to the vehicle and said, “Hey come here a minute.”
Owens took a step or two toward the truck before “the male then lunged out of the vehicle, grabbed the girl with his left hand and threw her into the truck ‘like a rag doll,’” the probable cause statement said.
The suspect then fled the scene quickly.

With a description of the vehicle and a tag number, police moved quickly, but not quickly enough to save Hailey:

Authorities believe Wood . . . abducted her from a Springfield street in the daylight hours Tuesday, took her to the basement of his home and shot her in the back of her head.
There was also evidence that her wrists had been tied, according to the probable cause statement used to file charges. . . .
Authorities said Owens, 10, was found in two garbage bags inside a plastic storage tote. The entire basement allegedly smelled of bleach.
Also found in the basement, the statement says, was a spent .22 caliber shell casing.

The scariest part of the story? The girl’s killer had been employed by the Springfield public school system since 1998.

Category: Crime, Missouri

Comments

83 Responses to “Missouri Killer Grabbed Hailey Owens ‘Like a Rag Doll,’ Witnesses Tell Police”

sarah wells
February 20th, 2014 @ 1:11 pm

Id like to know why there was any delay at all with such specific information about the abduction.
sarah wells
February 20th, 2014 @ 1:12 pm

There has to be more, if not in the criminal justice system, in personal dealings. Someone knew this man wasn’t right.
RS
February 20th, 2014 @ 1:17 pm

You are correct. I was thinking Greek and wrote Latin. Luther’s translation and the KJV used it.
sarah wells
February 20th, 2014 @ 1:19 pm

This is just horrifying: “As she came near, Wood pulled her into his truck while a neighbor unsuccessfully attempted to pull Hailey back.” http://guardianlv.com/2014/02/missouri-k-8-school-coach-craig-michael-wood-charged-with-murder-of-girl/
sarah wells
February 20th, 2014 @ 1:21 pm

His teaching bio: “Craig Michael Wood was a seventh-grade football coach and an assistant
coach for boys’ basketball at Pleasant View School and also worked as a
teacher’s aide supervising students serving in-school suspensions.”

I do not believe. DO NOT BELIEVE there were never complaints about him.
sarah wells
February 20th, 2014 @ 1:43 pm

Observations of a parent:

“Everybody that went to school. He was the iss teacher and walked
around. he subbed in multiple classes and then our whole football team.”

“My
son had minimal contact with him. He said he just would not get a good
vibe off of him. Creeped him out,” says Marretta Gunder.

Gunder says she got the same feeling her son did after she saw Wood in the school hallway one day.

“Grabbing himself and his private area. He wouldn’t smile. He acted odd,” says Gunder.

“I
think he had some problems in his head. But I do think that he was a
good guy, especially as a football coach,” says Waussman.

http://www.kspr.com/news/local/who-is-craig-michael-wood/21051620_24567774
Quartermaster
February 20th, 2014 @ 1:58 pm

My youngest brother proposed a “Piranha Court.” After the sentence was passed the condemned would be escorted to a door leading to a platform that terminated above a tank of starving Piranha and pushed in.
We were a blood thirsty lot in our teen years.
Quartermaster
February 20th, 2014 @ 2:02 pm

The KJV actually leaned very heavily on the Geneva Bible. some of the margin of the Geneva Bible made it into the text of the KJV. There are also some pretty blatant mistranslations in the KJV. We at least know the problems well.
I would prefer a bible translated from the Byzantine Text of 1907 for the NT and from the LXX for the OT. The closest you can get to that is the Orthodox Study Bible which uses the NKJV for the NT and the LXX for the OT. I’m strongly considering buying a copy as some of the Masoretic has problems and doesn’t make sense. Chuck Missler has a series on the Bible where he goes into problems like that. You can get it from You Tube.
Socialism: Organized Evil
February 20th, 2014 @ 2:16 pm

Absolutely.
K-Bob
February 20th, 2014 @ 2:31 pm

Amen.

I do think it’s time to bring back the old punishment of “being hung in chains.”
K-Bob
February 20th, 2014 @ 2:36 pm

This troll is not worth the time. Next he’ll be claiming he rode over on the Mayflower.
K-Bob
February 20th, 2014 @ 2:43 pm

I think he was claiming I had the fifteen followers. I’m not sure how he came up with that number since I rarely participate in social media. I would have thought I only had the usual one or two automatic ones you get when you sign up.
Art Deco
February 20th, 2014 @ 2:46 pm

What do you have against bachelors? Sometimes living alone is a better offer than the stock-in-trade of the women you meet.
Art Deco
February 20th, 2014 @ 2:48 pm

So far, the school employees the reporters have tracked down have offered no insights. He came to work, he coached sports, he proctored detention, he went home at the end of the day. Maybe something will turn up.
Art Deco
February 20th, 2014 @ 2:50 pm

Waal, you’ve just disqualified 60% of my contemporaries from proctoring study hall and coaching sports. Mary Jane all over the place in ’79.
Art Deco
February 20th, 2014 @ 2:51 pm

What happens to you if it turns out there were no complaints?
Art Deco
February 20th, 2014 @ 3:00 pm

You’re straining Sarah. Lot’s of people ‘creep out’ callow youths, including some of their own peers (99% of whom are harmless).

I had a teacher in junior high school with some odd ticks, including that one. Nothing really the matter with him; he just was not cognizant of appearances.
Zohydro
February 20th, 2014 @ 3:02 pm

I note that He said that in a reply to you, but I believe He had TOM’s core commentariat in mind when He made that snotty, insulting remark…
rmnixondeceased
February 20th, 2014 @ 3:20 pm

The OSB is my version … but then, I think you suspected that already …
K-Bob
February 20th, 2014 @ 3:25 pm

Yeah, it was a little disconnected. He definitely called everyone a “special snowflake” for commenting here, in an earlier thread.
sarah wells
February 20th, 2014 @ 4:09 pm

No I’m not. In hindsight, obviously he’s a damaged human being not right in the head. What people brushed off they will now remember.

The clues necessarily were there all along. Odd duck adult employee who grabs his privates in the hall of a high school – that private grabbbing was a warning sign.
sarah wells
February 20th, 2014 @ 4:15 pm

Something should happen?
sarah wells
February 20th, 2014 @ 4:16 pm

The persons creeped out happened to be not just that boy, but his adult parent.
Art Deco
February 20th, 2014 @ 4:22 pm

You fancy you can have infallable foresight. Likely not so.
cmdr358
February 20th, 2014 @ 5:21 pm

Or rowed over.

If he’s going to go over the top with it he may as well go high.
cmdr358
February 20th, 2014 @ 5:27 pm

If this guy was a member of the teachers union then nothing, and I do mean nothing, much shorter than this atrocity would’ve removed him from his job.
K-Bob
February 20th, 2014 @ 6:08 pm

Good idea! “I was one of fifty Nubian galley slaves on the Mayflower”

That way you can offend everyone in one go.
cmdr358
February 20th, 2014 @ 6:21 pm

Let’s leave this guy out of the conversation for a minute.
I’ve been reading this blog daily for about a year now and recognize and appreciate your thoughtful comments and opinions. But…

Are you saying that person who has never been married is a loser?
At what age have you decided that this label applies?
If a guy decides at a late age to just go ahead and marry some gal because it finally seems to be time, is the loser label immediately lifted?

Baffling…
Dana
February 20th, 2014 @ 6:45 pm

Well, guess what: I have absolutely no problem, no problem at all, with disqualifying 60% of your contemporaries.

Now, my position was that the gentleman in question should have been disqualified because he had the actual conviction on is record — I consider that to be sufficient proof for disqualification — and that wouldn’t disqualify 60% of your contemporaries, because not everybody got busted, but if all of the pot smokers had gotten busted, then yes, disqualify them all.
Dana
February 20th, 2014 @ 6:52 pm

Our society is based — or at least used to be based — on normal and accepted patterns of behavior, and getting married and settling down was absolutely expected of every decent person; those who did not were regarded as odd, at best, and downright abnormal by many.

And I hold to that societal norm! That was our way of life for generations, and it was the way of life in every civilized society of which we have any knowledge, because that is what works best for society as a whole. I believe that everyone has a right not to settle down, not to marry, but I, in turn, have the right to view such people as not the best for our society.

One thing you will find about me: I do say exactly what I think.
Quartermaster
February 20th, 2014 @ 7:50 pm

For some strange reason I did suspect that. Can’t think of any reason why either. 🙂
ChrisDavis2011
February 21st, 2014 @ 12:22 am

RS – I would really check out a reading comprehension course.

ALL of my comments give credit solely to the Father.

But since you do know so much about the amazing hidden works in the Culture War, please do expound your greatness.

I would love to learn of all the good works that are mysteriously being done in the secret “bat” cave of you and your loyal supporters.

When I give you a tangible example of a courageous group of soldiers for God, you don’t even bother to discuss it. Abolish Human Abortion has done incredible work by the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Armor of Christ, yet you won’t even acknowledge how Christ has worked through them.

As to the 15 followers comment, it was directed at you as your disqus account has 15 followers.

You will not find me criticizing the good works of RSM, my gripe rests with the lack of action from self described “conservative activists”.

Churches are another matter entirely, they generally spend more money on grounds maintenance than they do on any single ministry of the church.

Sad but true.
ChrisDavis2011
February 21st, 2014 @ 12:23 am

My point exactly on the KJV.