Mark Woodworth says he’s at peace now. and interviewed witnesses in Chillicothe, following up on leads that authorities had hardly touched. He combed through local gun-registration records and found at least 200 people in Livingston County who owned the same model of pistol that prosecutors tied to the crime. Thomeczek won’t declare Woodworth innocent but says he’s stunned that the local justice system thought there was enough to arrest, try and twice convict him. Livingston County Sheriff Steve Cox agrees. Cox was a rookie Chillicothe police officer the night of the homicide. In 2000, Cox was elected sheriff. Soon after, he reopened the investigation. “I’m not here trying to walk in the door and immediately piss off judges and prosecutors, but this has weighed on my mind for years,” he says. Cox’s subsequent examination has convinced him not only of the shoddiness of the initial homicide investigation but also of Woodworth’s innocence. Cox also says he has enough probable cause to arrest another suspect if the state would drop its case against Woodworth. He won’t name the suspect.
I
n mid-November, Rhonda Robertson Oesch visited her mother’s grave at St. Columban Cemetery, not far from the farmhouse where her family lived and her mother died. Oesch’s mind wandered to Mark Woodworth. The latest Missouri Court of Appeals ruling, affirming a trial judge’s order to throw out ballistic evidence in the case, was handed down on November 12, 2013, the day before the 23rd anniversary of her mother’s death. That weekend, her washing machine had broken, and Oesch went to a Chillicothe laundromat. She washed her family’s clothes across from a woman wearing a “Mark Woodworth Innocence Project” T-shirt. The sight brought Oesch back to the night when she raced up the basement stairs to find
her mother’s body. For Oesch, Chillicothe has morphed into a town that celebrates her mother’s killer. “It’s like he’s a freaking hero now,” she says. Oesch sees a justice system eroding, letting a convicted murderer loose on a technicality if he fights long and hard enough. Oesch and her family remain convinced that prosecutors got it right. Oesch references inconsistent statements that Woodworth gave to authorities early on about how often he visited the Robertson home and shed. “Innocent people don’t lie,” she says. She says the bullet taken from her father’s liver will again send Woodworth to prison “if my mother can get a fair trial.” The outpouring of support and sympathy that the Robertsons received in the months after the slaying has disappeared. She wants to tell Woodworth’s supporters to shut up and just let the case play out in court. “All these people weren’t at my house that night,” she says. “I almost wish it was a cold case sometimes,” she says. Then, she says, the family wouldn’t have to relive this. They could try to move on.
L I V E D J • N E W S O U N D S Y S T E M • PA R T Y L I G H T I N G
9 : 30 pm-1 am
SAT & SUN
Ward ParkWa y Lanes
1523 W 89th St, Kansas City, MO • 816.363.2700 • wardparkwaylanes.com
withiends fr pitch.com > Restaurants > Restaurant Guide Dogs World of FUN
’t have Wow! I dona cage?! to stay in
A
prison guard walked up to Woodworth’s jail cell and handed him some shabby clothes — oversized jeans, a Carhartt T-shirt that hung loosely on his shoulders and some ill-fitting sneakers — on the morning of February 15, 2013. Hours later, guards drove Woodworth 50 miles from the Daviess/DeKalb Regional Jail in Pattonsburg to the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office, where family members brought him clothes that fit. Woodworth put on a blue button-up shirt and pressed slacks. After posting a $50,000 bond — raised mostly by his supporters — Woodworth was greeted by a crowd of more than 200 outside the Sheriff’s Office. The Robertsons stayed indoors most of the day, hoping to avoid the festivities. The Woodworth family Christmas tree was still in the living room when he returned home later that day. His parents gave him more than a decade’s worth of presents that they had kept stashed in his old bedroom. Nieces and nephews helped tear through the packages and sang him Christmas carols. Standing in his basement bedroom in late October, Woodworth eyed a framed photograph on the nightstand next to his bed. The picture shows Woodworth and his fiancée at the Kansas City Chiefs’ spring-training camp in April. The two have yet to set a wedding date. Woodworth is trying to forget the murder indictment that has haunted him since 1993. He hopes that the system will soon be done with him. “I’m actually kind of at peace with everything,” he says. “I really would like to think it’s over with. For me, at least.”
E-mail feedback@pitch.com
1220 W. 31 st St. Kansas City, MO 816.931.5822
You’re saying I can run and play?!
Your attacker has trained and is mentally prepared to meet you ....
ARE YOU READY TO MEET HIM? LEARN SELF-DEFENSE FOR REAL PEOPLE 5725 Nieman Rd Shawnee, KS 913.248.3288 | shesapistol.com
DAYCARE $12/Day BOARDING $17/Night & GROOMING
MON–FRI: 6:30am–5:45pm • SAT–SUN: 9:30am–3pm dogsworldoffun.com
L IV E BAN DS AT
from 9:00pm - Midnight | www.missionbowl.com Celebrating 55 Years 1958-2013
Do you want to play at Mission Bowl?
February 1
The Good Sam Club Band
February 8 Blind Date February 15 The Fade Aways February 22 Send your info to: Nerva bwmissionbowl@yahoo.com
5399 Martway Mission, KS • 913.432.7000 pitch.com
january 9-15, 2014
the pitch
9