A woman is killed in a hit and run On the quiet evening of April 20, 1999, Bessie Selek, a 41-year-old female, was walking along Route 202 near the town line of Waterboro and Lyman, Maine. Not far from her own home, she was struck by a passing vehicle that fled the scene, leaving her to die on the side of the road. The initial investigation pointed towards a fatal hit-and-run accident.
Suspicion soon fell upon Bessie's live-in boyfriend, Raymond Wood.
Their relationship was known to be volatile, marked by a history of domestic violence and abuse. Friends and colleagues of Bessie had witnessed her with black eyes and bruises. Court records revealed that Bessie had previously had Raymond arrested for assault and had attempted to file a protection from abuse order against him, though the order was ultimately denied when she left the courthouse before speaking with a judge. Just prior to her death, Bessie had reportedly grown fearful of Raymond.
Maine State Police detectives focused their investigation on Wood, and during an intense interrogation, he confessed to the crime. Initially charged with manslaughter, the charge against Wood was upgraded to murder two days into the investigation, suggesting authorities believed the act was intentional. Despite his confession, Raymond Wood pleaded not guilty to the murder charge.
As the case proceeded, the evidence did not easily align with the confession that investigators had obtained. A judge was critical of the interrogation tactics used by the Maine State Police detectives and ultimately threw out Raymond Wood's confession. Lacking sufficient evidence to proceed with prosecution, the charges against him were dropped. To this day, the death of Bessie Selek remains an unsolved homicide, and the case is still open.
