Having fought for his country in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, North E. Woodall eventually retired from the Army and settled into a quiet life at home on Dayton’s West Side.
It was there, in a tragic twist of fate, that the 85-year-old former Green Beret was struck on the head and died during an invasion of his Walton Avenue home on the evening of Monday, July 27, 2009.
The front door had been kicked in and a drawer where Woodall was known to keep money ransacked. DNA and fingerprints were collected from the scene, and, a year later, Woodall’s driver’s license was found in a Xenia parking lot.
Still, the case went cold.
Now, 15 years later, the Dayton Police Department and the attorney general’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation are teaming up to take a fresh look at the homicide in the hope that technological advances and new clues from the public yield justice for Woodall and his family.
To that end, the office of Attorney General Dave Yost produced a short video about the case,
distributing the link statewide on Nov. 11 to coincide with Veterans Day.
“The military has an ethos that you don’t leave a teammate behind,” Yost says. “We’re hoping that someone remembers something — they heard something or saw something — and will reach out to help us get justice for this American hero.”
The grandson of a slave, Woodall grew up in Mississippi. He was drafted into the Army in 1945 and became a paratrooper in an all-black unit, eventually rising to the rank of sergeant major. Twice he was awarded the Silver Star, a combat medal honoring gallantry in action. He retired in 1968 after seeing action in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
With his wife and six children, Woodall relocated to Dayton. He lived for decades in the Walton Avenue home, alone for the last several years after his wife passed. His neighbors loved him. Thirteen of them even trusted him to hold their Social Security money and parcel it out to them as needed to ensure they wouldn’t run dry before their next monthly check was issued.
Dayton police believe word got out to the wrong person that Woodall kept large amounts of cash in his pocket and in a bedroom dresser.
On the night of his murder, family members dropped by for a visit, leaving about 9:30. When a neighbor came to check on him about 11:30, she found the front door forced open and Woodall lying bloodied and unconscious on the living-room floor. His left front pants pocket had been pulled out and a dresser drawer rifled.
“We have no doubt this was a very well-orchestrated assault and robbery, and it’s imperative for our community that that we actually solve this case,” said Maj. Brian Johns of the Dayton PD. “For a decorated veteran of three wars to come home and be killed in his living room by a cowardly assailant, we just can’t have that.”
A profile has been developed from the DNA collected at the crime scene and entered into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, although no matches have been made yet.
“Maybe the profile has nothing to do with the actual homicide,” said Hallie Dreyer, DNA Lab manager for BCI. “But it puts together another piece of the puzzle that could give us some information. It's a matter of looking back into the circumstances to find persons of interest — persons who could have come into contact with our victim, who could have left DNA behind to provide an investigative lead that investigators can follow up on.”
Authorities are convinced that someone out there knows something about this case.
“The passage of time changes loyalties — it changes perspectives,” Yost said. “We all change as we get older. So somebody who might not have been willing to talk earlier might want to clear their conscience now. Also, sometimes science leads us in directions that weren’t known 15 years ago, and I'm frankly hoping that we might see some kind of breakthrough with technology here as well. But at the end of the day, we haven't broken this case yet. We haven't solved it, and it deserves to be solved.”
Tips about the case can be called in to 855-BCI-OHIO (855-224-6446).