ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, June 7, 1996 TAG: 9606070055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Below
A husband and wife found dead in their Southwest Roanoke apartment each suffered blows to the head, leading a medical examiner to conclude they could not have been victims of a murder-suicide.
Early Thursday, Malcolm Woody found his parents, Manfred and Wanda Woody, face down on their kitchen floor at 845 Day Ave. S.W. Police responded to the scene shortly after Malcolm Woody, age 17, called them at about 8:15 a.m.
Late Thursday, authorities were still unsure what type of weapon was used to cause the Woodys' injuries.
"When you have two people with head injuries ... they can't inflict those injuries" on each other, said Dr. William Massello, assistant deputy chief medical examiner.
Autopsies are expected to be completed today. Pending a determination of the cause of death, police would not discuss the details of their investigation. But they did say that robbery or burglary did not appear to be involved.
Police also said witnesses told them a "violent argument" had taken place in the area of the couple's apartment early Thursday. But there was no evidence of a struggle in the kitchen of the second-floor apartment. There were no signs of forced entry, although it was not uncommon for the Woodys to leave their door open, police said.
Manfred Woody, 59, was found near the refrigerator wearing street clothes. Wanda Woody, 42, was found near the kitchen table wearing a T-shirt, according to a source close to the case. Police found hot dogs and sauerkraut splattered on the refrigerator door and some of the kitchen cabinets. It appeared that Manfred Woody was fixing himself a meal when he was killed.
"Whatever did this has no morals and no love," said Shelby Butler, Wanda Woody's younger sister. "They didn't deserve this."
Manfred Woody was known to his friends by the nickname "Woody," the man who carried a cane, pepper spray in his pocket and a pistol stuffed into his belt. He was always there for some talk, a drink and a laugh, said his longtime friend and next-door neighbor Ellis Wilson. The two met in the Lansdowne Housing Development. Twenty years later, the two wound up next-door neighbors by coincidence.
Wilson last saw Woody just after 2 a.m. Thursday. They had finished having a couple of drinks and Wilson was walking home.
"He yelled, `What you doing? Come get a drink,''' Wilson said. But Wilson declined the invitation and went home instead.
Police said Malcolm Woody told them he slept through the night and woke up to find his parents dead sometime after 5 a.m. After the teen-ager discovered the bodies, he went to his 19-year-old brother's house on Highland Avenue Southwest.
When Jacqueline Newbill returned from her night shift just before 7 a.m. she noticed that Manfred Woody was not at his usual spot. For the past couple days he had been at his kitchen window to greet Newbill, who lives next door with Wilson.
"I was wondering why - it was so strange I didn't see him," she said. "He'd [usually] be standing at the kitchen window yelling, `How you doing?'''
Wanda Woody could often be found nearby washing her family's clothes before she went to work in the laundry room of Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
"She was a sweetie," Newbill said. "She was the type of person if she could do something for someone, she would."
The three-room apartment had been home to the Woody family for the past two years, according to neighbors and friends. Manfred Woody suffered from diabetes and was no longer able to earn a living pouring concrete. He built most of the sidewalks and curbs in Southwest Roanoke, Butler said. But now, he stayed close to home.
Friends said they never saw the couple argue. They had been together for nearly two decades. Recently, they had to make a decision between paying an insurance premium or their telephone bill, Butler said. They chose their medical coverage.
So Thursday morning, when Malcolm Woody needed to call for help, he went to his brother's home several blocks away.
Life for the Woodys was meager, but it was good, Butler said.
"For this to happen," Newbill said, "it's totally devastating to me."
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: PHILIP HOLMAN/Staff. 1. Gail Tangler, Wanda's sister,by CNBconsoles Wanda Woody's son after learning of the death of Wanda and
Manfred Woody. He was not the son who found the couple. 2. Members
of the Roanoke Police Department gather evidence. Wanda and Manfred
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