On a seemingly ordinary Friday, June 25, 2010, 47-year-old Bonnie Woodward completed her shift at the Eunice C. Smith Nursing Home in Alton, Illinois, and vanished. A dedicated employee of 27 years and a grandmother of five, her disappearance was immediately out of character. Co-workers observed her engaged in what appeared to be a heated conversation with an unidentified man in the parking lot. She was then seen leaving with this man in his vehicle, a silver or gray 2000-2005 Chevrolet Malibu, abandoning her own red Chevrolet Avalanche with the windows down. Her purse, phone, and other personal items were not left in her truck, suggesting she took them with her. When she failed to show up for work and her boyfriend couldn't reach her, a missing persons report was filed, launching an investigation into her perplexing disappearance.
The initial investigation revealed a complex web of circumstances centered around Bonnie's teenage stepdaughter. Just weeks before Bonnie went missing, her stepdaughter had run away from home. Authorities soon discovered she had been staying with a man named Roger W. Carroll and his family. Carroll became a person of interest when his fingerprints were found on Bonnie's abandoned truck. Despite this, and searches of his property, no charges were filed directly related to Bonnie's disappearance at that time, and the case eventually went cold. For years, Bonnie's family lived in a state of painful uncertainty, holding vigils and pleading for information, but the silence surrounding her whereabouts was deafening.
A significant break in the case finally came nearly eight years later, in April 2018. The reopening of the investigation was reportedly triggered by new information, including crucial testimony from Roger Carroll's own son. His son, who was a teenager at the time of Bonnie's disappearance, provided a harrowing account of the events that transpired on Carroll's property the day she was last seen. He testified to hearing gunshots and being forced by his father to help destroy evidence by burning Bonnie's body in a large fire that burned through the night. This testimony led investigators back to Carroll's property, where a more targeted search uncovered human remains, which were later identified as Bonnie Woodward's. Following this discovery, Roger W. Carroll was charged with first-degree murder and concealing a homicide. In March 2020, a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, bringing a long-awaited resolution to a case that had haunted a community for a decade.
Last Seen: Jun 25, 2010
