Cindy Wood:1982, Michigan City, Indiana

    

   Cindy Wood was born to Barbara and Ronald Ruetz August 16th, 1960. She went to Elston High School in Michigan City, Indiana.

  She married Timothy Wood on the 21st of October, 1977. The couple had a son named Clinton the following year. They were also blessed with a daughter named Kelly.  

  In 1982 she was working as a secretary at Dan’s Body Shop. She had worked there only about 6 weeks.

  She lived at 532 Holliday Street in Michigan City. 

  Cindy was last seen at 1 a.m. Saturday morning February 20th, 1982. Her family must have been expecting her home because they notified police that she was missing at 3 a.m. 

  Cindy’s purse was found at 8:00 a.m. on Poplar Street near Madison which is about 7 blocks southwest of her home. Was she walking home from somewhere? A logical route from her work to her home would take her along Poplar Street. Did her workplace stay open that late in those days? If they did towing then that seems possible. Or was she maybe walking home from a friend’s house? 

  The church she regularly attended was near her work and she could have been walking home from there.  That date was not a holiday.  It was ordinary time on the liturgical calendar so it doesn’t seem very likely that she had attended a special late evening Mass. 

  Sometime after she was last seen at 1 a.m. someone abducted Cindy. It may or may not have happened where her purse was found on Poplar. Cindy’s  purse could have been tossed there later by the assailant. 

  Cindy was found near the railroad tracks on the gravel road that leads to what used to be the Martin Marietta Excavating Company on Saturday, February the 20th at about 2:30 p.m. The business there goes by another name now.  It’s just off Washington Park Boulevard and less than a mile Northeast of Cindy's home. She had slashes to her neck that caused her to bleed to death.  There was very little blood found at the site of her body. That would indicate that she was murdered elsewhere.

   Where could a person slash a young woman’s throat and not be noticed? It’s February so if the perpetrator wanted to sexually assault her then he probably would not want to be out in the cold. So, did he do this in a car or a van? That seems messy and difficult. Did he have a home with no one around or a basement maybe? Who was this guy? 

  Was the purse relatively clean or did it have blood on it? If it was bloody, was it tossed after she was killed? If it was clean did she drop it when he abducted her? 

   

   I think one person they might have looked at was John Lee Shippen.  In 1983 he was sentenced to 28 years for a rape he committed back in 1981 while he worked as a doorman at a bar. He carjacked a woman in the parking lot and brutalized her saying he had killed before and would kill again. He was free to go anywhere and everywhere while awaiting trial for two years. 

  John Lee Shippen was the last person to be seen with Dawn Marie VanMeter. She was sexually assaulted and murdered on August 25th, 1982. No charges were filed in that case and it is also currently unsolved. 

  Shippen appealed his conviction in 1985 but that was not successful.  If he served his full sentence he would have been released in 2011 at the age of 56. He is not currently incarcerated in Indiana that I can find.  Shippen also does not come up in searches of obituaries. So, he’s still out there. In 2025 he would be 70 years old. 

   But Shippen is not connected to Cindy Wood’s murder. My first guess there was wrong, it seems. 

   In 2006 Billy Ray Ashley confessed to killing Cindy Wood.  He saw her walking and offered her a ride.  (I tend to doubt that he offered her a ride and she just hopped in. I think he abducted her where her purse was found.) He began demanding sex and they struggled.  He slashed her neck in the car and also… cut his hand.  He drove her to the site off Washington Park Boulevard and dumped her body there. 

  He went to the hospital that night/morning for stitches for the cut on his hand. If only the hospital staff had seen the news the next day about Cindy.  Someone might have put 2 and 2 together.  It’s very common for a perpetrator to cut themselves while stabbing or slashing someone else. 

   Serial killer Bruce Lindahl cut his own thigh, severing his femoral artery, while stabbing another man and bled out and died there on top of his deceased victim in 1981. 

  Billy Ray Ashley had never been connected to the murder of Cindy Wood before.  His confession was corroborated by details he supplied about the crime. His girlfriend from the time also stated that his car had a considerable amount of blood in it at the time. 

   How and why did Billy Ray Ashley come to confess? It came up somehow after his arrest for attempting to murder a 63 year old woman in 2002. He was sentenced to 65 years in prison. According to the Indiana Incarcerated Database Billy Ray Ashley is deceased. 

   Between 1982 and 2002 how many other women did he attack and murder?  What about before 1982? Billy Ray Ashley wasn’t on my radar before but he sure is now. 

   Cindy Wood was so young. She had a husband and two very young children. She missed out on her whole life.  She would probably be enjoying her grandchildren by now if she had been allowed to live. Her family deserved to have her with them. She should still be here. 

   Rest in peace Cindy Wood.