David Leonard Wood

David Leonard Wood (born June 20, 1957), known as The Desert Killer, was convicted of raping and killing at least six girls and women in El Paso, Texas between May and August 1987, and later burying their bodies in the desert. He was sentenced to death, and was most recently scheduled to be executed on March 13, 2025, but his execution was postponed again. For four decades, Wood has denied he committed the crimes. His conviction is currently under review following a decision by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Biography David Leonard Wood was born on June 20, 1957, in San Angelo, Texas, the second of four children. In the 1960s, his father, Leo, moved the family to a luxurious neighborhood in El Paso, where he held an executive position with the El Paso Electric Company. While the family was considered well off, their private life was troublesome, as Wood's mother Betty, who had started showing signs of mental illness, began to frequently argue with his father. In turn, his father would beat him with a paddle whenever he misbehaved. Because of this, Wood resorted to doing manual labor and odd jobs to make a living for a few years.

According to his appeals, Wood is a member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas.

Early criminal activity On August 30, 1976, Wood was arrested on charges of indecency with a 12-year-old girl, for which he was convicted the following year and given a 5-year prison sentence. After serving approximately two years, he was granted parole and released on December 28, 1978.

Murders Disappearances Between February and August 1987, nine girls and women aged between 13 and 24 went missing in the El Paso area. The first of them was 14-year-old Marjorie Knox, who disappeared on February 14. She lived in Chaparral, New Mexico, a suburb of El Paso, but on that day, she had gone to the city to attend a Valentine's Day party in Veterans Park with friends. Three weeks later, on March 7, 13-year-old Melissa Alaniz also went missing.

On June 7, El Paso police received a report concerning the disappearance of 15-year-old Desiree Wheatley. During their investigation, several witnesses claimed that they had last seen her five days prior in the company of a man with numerous tattoos on his arms at a convenience store.

On June 28, 19-year-old Cheryl Lynn Vasquez-Dismukes, an employee at a local Whataburger, went missing in El Paso, after going to buy cigarettes at a Circle K. According to witnesses, she was last seen talking to a man in a pickup truck.

After finishing her testimony, Kelling indicated on a map the alleged location of the attack and was asked to look at five photographs of criminals convicted of similar crimes in the past. One of the men was Wood, whom she positively identified as her assailant.

On October 20, hikers accidentally discovered the remains of Wheatley and Smith, both of whom were buried in shallow graves close to one another and about 1.5 kilometers away from those of Casio and Baker. The location where they were found matched the area where Kelling testified that she had been attacked by Wood, making him a suspect in the murders.

After re-interviewing witnesses to the girls' disappearances, investigators learned that Casio had been seen in the company of Wood shortly before she vanished. Charles Lloyd, a witness in the Baker case, told them that Wood knew the victim and often gave her rides on his motorcycle, and on the day of her disappearance, Baker had gotten into a beige pickup truck that closely matched Wood's own vehicle. Friends and acquaintances of Smith also testified that she knew Wood, as they had repeatedly suggested that she go out with him. Based on these facts, Wood was arrested on charges of kidnapping and raping Kelling on October 23, 1987, to which he pleaded not guilty.

Two weeks later, another shallow grave was discovered not far from where Wheatley and Smith had been found, with the victim being identified as Frausto.

On March 14, 1988, a couple searching for aluminum cans in the desert stumbled upon the partially buried remains of a woman, located only a few hundred meters away from where the other victims had been found. Based on a comparison of X-rays and jaws, the woman was identified as 23-year-old Ivy Susanna Williams, a Colorado native who had moved to El Paso after getting married. Williams was last seen on May 30, but her disappearance was not reported by either family or friends. During interviews with acquaintances, police determined that she had worked as a dancer at a club and was affiliated with members of the biker subculture. Upon analyzing them, experts concluded that the lint found inside the bag matched the samples of lint found on the victims' clothing. As a convicted criminal, he admitted to analyzing methods of kidnapping and raping women without risking being arrested but claimed that he had not murdered anyone, saying that if he were to do that, he would have buried the bodies in a mountainous area where not even coyotes would find them. His original execution date was scheduled for August 20, 2009, but the day prior to that, it was postponed due to a legal appeal filed by his lawyers, who claimed that their client showed signs of mental disability. The execution of mentally disabled offenders was deemed unconstitutional following the ruling of Atkins v. Virginia by the Supreme Court in 2002. In addition, they demanded that documents concerning two acquaintances of Wood, Salvador Martinez and Edward Dean Barton, be unsealed, as both men had been considered as alternative suspects in the killings.

Following the denial of the post-conviction appeal, a new execution date was scheduled for March 13, 2025 by the 171st District Court of El Paso County, to be carried out in the Huntsville Unit death chamber. On March 11, however, his execution was stayed by the Court of Criminal Appeals with a 6–2 majority after a last-minute appeal by Wood's legal team. On July 30, the justices returned Wood's case to the trial court and ordered it to review his claims of innocence and ineffective representation. The court did not provide a reason for its decision. Retired Texas judge Dick Alcalá was appointed to hear Wood's appeal.

As of March 2025, he remains on Texas' death row at the Allan B. Polunsky Unit in West Livingston.

Psychology

Dr. Thomas Allen diagnosed Wood as having antisocial personality disorder, describing him as “self-motivated [and] manipulative” and stating that “[The fact] that [Wood] volunteered to be questioned by the police is indicative of his arrogance, narcissism, and antisocial personality.” He further stated that “[Wood’s] social and interpersonal skills are impaired by his antisocial personality disorder and aggression.”

In the media and culture Wood's murders were covered on an episode of the Oxygen true crime series Mark of a Killer, titled "Deaths in the Desert". , the New York Times and Serial Productions.