Karen Baker, a 20-year-old white woman and mother of three young children, disappeared on June 5, 1987, after being last seen at the Hawaiian Royale Motel on Dyer Street in El Paso, Texas. Witnesses reported that she had a date with a man named David Wood, a tall, thin, blonde man with tattoos. Some accounts described her leaving on a red motorcycle with him.
Her disappearance was initially investigated by the FBI due to suspicions from her mother that she may have been kidnapped and taken to Mexico.
On September 4, 1987, Karen Baker’s body was discovered in a shallow grave in the Northeast El Paso desert by a utility worker. Her remains were found approximately 50 feet from another grave containing the body of 24-year-old Rosa Maria Casio. Due to the advanced decomposition of Baker’s body, the medical examiner was unable to determine a definitive cause of death. It was estimated that she had been dead for three to six months. The proximity of the graves and the similar profiles of the victims led investigators to suspect a connection between the two cases.
Karen Baker was one of several young women who went missing in a three-mile radius of Northeast El Paso during the summer of 1987. Her death, along with the deaths of other women and girls found in shallow desert graves, was eventually linked to David Leonard Wood, a convicted sex offender who had been paroled earlier that year. Wood had a history of sexual assaults and was known to frequent the same areas where the victims were last seen.
Investigators built a case against Wood after multiple witnesses identified him as the last person seen with several of the victims. A surviving victim also came forward, recounting how Wood had raped and bound her in the desert before fleeing when he heard voices. She later identified him in a photo lineup. Forensic evidence, including fibers found in Wood’s vacuum cleaner bag, matched those recovered from one of the graves.
In 1990, David Leonard Wood was arrested and charged with the murders of six women, including Karen Baker. His trial began in 1992, and he was convicted and sentenced to death. As of recent reports, Wood remains on death row in Texas, with his execution delayed due to questions surrounding his mental competency. Authorities continue to suspect him in the disappearances of additional young women whose bodies have never been found.
