On December 9, 2022, 32-year-old Shawnda Nicole Wood, a mother of three, was found deceased in her Waldorf, Maryland, home from a single gunshot wound to the back of her head. The tragic discovery was made after her husband, Travis Edward Paschal Wood, 33 at the time, went to the Charles County Sheriff's Office with his cousin and requested a welfare check at his own residence on Tawny Drive.
He reportedly told an investigator he had been suicidal the previous night and asked for a lawyer but offered no further details.
Upon entering the unlocked home, officers found Shawnda Wood in the couple's bed. A silver and black handgun, later confirmed to be registered to Travis Wood and bearing his DNA, was also found on the bed. The investigation that followed painted a grim picture of the preceding hours. The evening before, the couple had been out for dinner and shopping with their three young daughters. After putting the children to bed, they went to a hookah lounge, returning home at approximately 2 a.m. An argument reportedly ensued after Shawnda confronted her husband about urinating on the floor, during which she told him to be out of the house by the weekend.
The investigation revealed that while his wife was asleep, Travis Wood retrieved his firearm and shot her. The following morning, at around 8:30 a.m., he woke their daughters, telling them not to disturb their mother before taking them to his mother's house. After spending a few hours at the family home, he returned to his mother's residence and confessed to the murder. He then went back to the house on Tawny Drive for a period before ultimately going to the police station to request the welfare check.
Travis Wood was arrested on the same day his wife's body was discovered and charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, first-degree assault, second-degree assault, and a firearms violation. He was held without bond at the Charles County Detention Center. In October 2025, following a four-day trial, a Charles County jury found Travis Wood, then 36, guilty of first-degree murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence. On January 8, 2026, he was sentenced to life in prison plus an additional 15 years for the murder of his wife.
