On the evening of April 20, 1999, a woman was walking alone along Route 202 in Waterboro, Maine. The driver of a passing vehicle struck her, but did not stop to help, leaving behind only a single tiremark and some broken pieces of plastic from the vehicle's front end. The woman lay injured and unconscious on the side of the road. She died before help could arrive.

Police investigators soon arrested the victim's live-in boyfriend, Raymond Wood. He told the detectives that he and the victim had gotten into an argument at their home on the night of the collision. The had both left the house, she on foot, and he driving a van, headed in opposite directions on Route 202.

The Interrogation and Confession

Over the course of several hours, the police questioned Wood about his actions the previous night. He repeatedly stated that he had simply driven the van to a near-by convenience store, and had no idea that his girlfriend had been struck and killed.

After a while, the detectives began to give Wood information about the crime they believe he commited. They told him details about evidence found on the van, including hairs that they say came from the victim. They told him that this evidence proved that he must have done it.

Eventually Wood himself believed that he was responsible for his girlfriend's death. He told the police that he must have done it but simply didn't remember because he blocked it out of his memory. The police encouraged Wood to give a detailed confession of the crime, assuring him that if it was just an accident, he would not be in much trouble.

To read a portion of this interrogation and confession, click HERE.

The Evidence

Wood was charged with murder and denied bail. The evidence leveled against him consisted of his alleged confession, the damage to the van he had been driving, the debris left at the site of the collision, and biological material (blood, hair) found on the van.

At this point, Wood's defense attorney contacted MTC Forensics to examine the physical evidence. One of MTC's initial findings was that the fragments of black plastic found at the crime scene could not have come from the suspect's van. Investigators claimed that these were pieces of the van's mud flap, which had broken during the collision. Analysis by MTC showed that the type of plastic found at the scene was rigid and translucent, while the mud flaps of the suspect's van were made of a flexible, opaque material. Furthermore, MTC's analysis of the fragments found at the scene showed that many of them fit together. Piecing the fragments together revealed that a foot-long portion of a "bug shield" had been broken off of the vehicle that struck the woman. Wood's van never had a bug shield.

The hairs and specks of blood found on the bumper and underside of the vehicle were assumed by investigators to have come from the victim. This was sufficient evidence to charge Wood with the crime, but closer analysis showed this assumption to be wrong. Laboratory tests performed by the State Crime Lab showed that the hair and blood removed from the van were not the victim's. In fact, they weren't even from a human. They had come from an animal.

Examination of the van by MTC Forensics found that the van did not have any of the damage that is typically found in pedestrian impact cases. In addition, braking tests of the van showed that two front brakes of the vehicle consistently locked up simultaneously, leaving two skid marks of equal length. At the crime scene, only one skid mark was found, showing that the vehicle must have had brakes that locked up unevenly.

Confronted with these findings, the prosecutors were forced to admit that they had not a single piece of physical evidence linking Wood with the crime. The final blow to the State's case came when the judge declared that Wood's confession was not admissible in court. The State finally dropped the charges against Wood after he had spent a year in jail waiting for his trial.

Whoever committed this crime has still not been found. Several witnesses who were near the scene of the collision reported seeing a dark-colored older model SUV type vehicle, or possibly a pickup truck with a cargo cap, with one headlight out. There is a strong possibility that this is the vehicle involved.

If you have any information about this crime, please contact the Maine State Police 1-800-482-0730.

Scene of the fatal pedestrian hit-and-run.