Murder of Kacie Woody

Kacie was born on October 17, 1989 at Baptist Medical Center in Little Rock, Arkansas to Rick and Kristie Woody and two brothers, Austin and Tim. She suffered from meconium aspiration syndrome and spent the first weeks of her life in the NICU. After returning to the hospital a few more times in early infancy Kacie didn't have any more lung problems.[6]

On June 19, 1997, when Kacie was 7 years old, Kristie was killed in a car accident when the car collided with a horse that ran into the road while the family was on their way home from Tim's baseball game.[7]

In 2002 Kacie lived in Holland, Arkansas with Rick, Tim and Tim's friend Eric Betts. Her maternal aunt, Teresa Paul, lived on the same street.[8] Kacie was a student at Greenbrier Middle School and a member of the band, choir and gifted and talented programs.[1]

The Woody home was in a rural area and due to many outgoing calls being long-distance, Rick allowed Kacie to use instant messaging on the computer to keep in touch with her friends. She eventually started using chat rooms to meet new friends, and on either New Year's Eve 2001 (according to Web of Lies) or in the summer of 2002 (according to the written documentary Caught in the Web), Kacie befriended a 17-year-old boy named David "Dave" Fagen in a Yahoo chat room.[3] The photo on Dave's profile was of a "surfer dude"-type attractive young man; he claimed to love surfing and the beach, and the two bonded quickly and began to chat often. Kacie eventually told Dave about the loss of her mother, and Dave told her that his aunt, who also happened to live in Arkansas, was recently in a car wreck and now comatose, and wasn't expected to live much longer.

Kacie told her family and friends about Dave. Her friends were fearful over Kacie's gullibility and warned her about becoming close to people that she hadn't met in person. Her father, Rick, stated during his Web of Lies interview that at the time he knew Kacie was talking to boys over the Internet but wasn't very afraid as long as he knew she was at home and that the boys were elsewhere.[4] But when Kacie eventually told him that Dave was turning 18, Rick told her that he was too old for her and to stop talking to him. After Kacie told Dave this they started talking over the phone instead despite the long-distance call issue. Around this time she also met a 14-year-old boy named Scott, from Alpharetta, Georgia, in a chat room. He claimed to love football and wrestling, and the photo on his profile was of a young teen boy in a football uniform. Kacie and Scott became a couple on October 3, 2002.

On the morning of December 3, 2002, while Kacie was at school her friend Sam noticed that Kacie had the photo from Scott’s profile in her locker. When Sam asked Kacie how she got the photo, she told her that Scott had mailed it to her. Alarmed, Sam warned Kacie again about giving her address to people that she’d never met in person, and told her that Scott "could be an 80-year-old rapist and that the photo could be of his grandson." Kacie became angry and didn’t take this warning seriously, and without her knowledge, Sam told the school counselor, Diana Keller, about how Kacie was giving out her phone number to strangers online. Keller later called Kacie into her office, where she warned her about the dangers of the Internet and told her not to meet any online friends in person without a parent present. Kacie responded that she only gave her phone number to people her father approved, which Sam disbelieved. Keller then called Sam to the office and left her and Kacie alone to talk, and the girls reconciled. When classes dismissed, Kacie asked Sam if she could spend the night at her house, and the latter declined. Kacie then asked her friend Jessica and then another friend, being turned down by both as well. She was not upset about the refusals, and told her friends "See ya!" before boarding the bus. Her friends found it unusual that Kacie asked about a sleepover on a school night.

That evening, Kacie was home alone while Tim was doing research at his college's library, Betts was at his electrician's class and Rick was on duty in nearby Greenbrier as a police officer. In addition, Paul was at her daughter's basketball game in Conway. Kacie was instant messaging with Scott on the computer while talking to Dave over the phone. Dave told Kacie that his aunt's condition was worsening and that he was driving to Arkansas to be by her side until she passed away. At 9:41 PM, Kacie's messages with Scott suddenly stopped. Scott quickly became concerned and continued to message Kacie in an attempt for her family or Betts to see and attempted to call her house, all to no avail.[8]

When Betts returned home at around 10:15 PM, he assumed that Kacie was in bed or out with family or friends and continued his normal activities. When Tim returned home and noticed that Kacie wasn't in bed, he called Rick, who raced home in his squad car. He noticed that the house showed signs of forced entry, Kacie's reading glasses that she used on the computer were damaged with a lens missing and her pet Yorkshire terrier George was limping. Rick called Kacie's friends, who didn't know her whereabouts, and eventually called for backup. Betts instant messaged with Scott and learned about Kacie's conversation with Dave and how she suddenly stopped responding to Scott's texts.[7]

The FBI, the Arkansas State police and every law enforcement agency in Faulkner County investigated Kacie's disappearance.[9] It was noticed that her coats and shoes were left behind, leading law enforcement to suspect an abduction. Her friends told law enforcement at Greenbrier Middle School about Scott and Dave. Law enforcement traced Scott's computer to his home in Alpharetta, and when FBI visited the property they discovered that he had given his true identity online and was at home when Kacie disappeared.

Investigators learned from Kacie's friends that Dave had told her he was en route to Arkansas at the time she disappeared. They launched a search for clues about him and at a nearby Motel 6 discovered a Buick Regal with a California license plate. Investigators learned that it belonged to a man named David Fuller, who had checked in December 2 and booked his stay for a week, requested no maid service and had complained to the staff about the Internet connection. When they searched his room they found camouflage clothing and that the bed hadn't been slept in.

After checking with a local car rental agency, law enforcement subpoenaed 47-year-old Fuller's paperwork and learned that his phone number matched one repeatedly dialed from the Woody home, that he'd rented a silver Dodge Caravan minivan and that his credit card had been charged by Guardsmart Storage (now StoreSmart Storage) in Conway. He was matched with "Dave" and at this point he was named a suspect in Kacie's disappearance.

Authorities arrived at Fuller's unit at Guardsmart during the late afternoon of December 4. The door was down but unlocked, and when it was lifted they noticed a silver minivan with its engine running inside. When Sgt. Jim Barrett began to enter, a single gunshot rang inside and law enforcement ran for cover and called for backup. When a SWAT team arrived around 8:00 PM, they stormed the unit.

David Fuller was found lying deceased on the floor behind the minivan along with the van's back seats, after having shot himself in the head. Barrett found Kacie's body lying supine in the back of the minivan, with her wrists and ankles chained to the four corners of the van's floor. She had been raped and shot in the head. Also found was a bottle of chloroform and a rag next to Kacie's head. A medical examiner concluded that Kacie had likely been unconscious from the chloroform from when she was abducted to when she was killed, which had occurred at an unknown time hours earlier.[10]

After Kacie's murder, her friends and family founded the Kacie Woody Foundation, a non-profit designed to teach parents and children about Internet safety.

One night in late 2002 sometime before Kacie's abduction, her friend Jessica was spending the night at the former's house when the girls heard strange sounds outside and inside the house, as if an intruder could have been around. The girls barricaded themselves inside Kacie's bedroom, and after this the noises stopped. In her Web of Lies interview Jessica stated that looking back maybe this could have been Fuller looking to abduct Kacie and possibly herself as well.

• Internet homicide
• Murder of Carly Ryan

• Kacie Woody Foundation