On the evening of May 28, 1986, a quiet street in Fort Worth, Texas, became the scene of a brutal and senseless crime that ended the life of Jewel Woods. A 51-year-old female who had dedicated years to caring for others as a nurse, Jewel was attacked just outside the sanctuary of her own home. The sudden violence of her death sent a shockwave of grief through her family and community, a pain that would linger for decades, compounded by the later discovery that her killer was a man responsible
for a string of similar atrocities.
The attack was swift and savage. Curtis Don Brown, a man who would later be known as the "Bandit" serial killer, ambushed Jewel near her east Fort Worth apartment. He dragged her to a nearby patch of tall weeds, where he raped and bludgeoned her to death. The randomness of the act was terrifying, a stark reminder of the city's vulnerability during a period marked by fear over a series of unsolved murders of women.
By a stroke of chance, police officers who were in the area on an unrelated matter spotted Brown fleeing the scene. He was out of breath and sweating, having run nearly a mile. When they stopped him, they found him in possession of two purses, one of which contained Jewel Woods's identification. Her body, nude from the waist down, was discovered the following morning. Brown was arrested and charged with her murder.
In 1989, Curtis Don Brown pleaded guilty to the murder of Jewel Woods and was sentenced to life in prison. For Jewel's family, the sentence brought a measure of justice, but it was a justice that felt incomplete. Her son, Gregg Woods, later expressed his disappointment with the plea deal, which allowed for concurrent sentences and the possibility of parole after just seven years. The family was left with the enduring pain of their loss and the fear that their mother's killer might one day walk free.
For nearly two decades, the murder of Jewel Woods was seen as a tragic but solved case. That perception shattered in 2005. A new prison policy required inmates to submit DNA samples, and Brown's profile was entered into a national database. The results were immediate and chilling: his DNA was a match for evidence collected from two unsolved homicides from 1985. The victims were 29-year-old Terece Gregory, who was found shot in the Trinity River, and 18-year-old Sharyn Kills Back, who was found strangled in a storm drain.
The DNA link exposed Curtis Don Brown as a serial killer, a predator who had terrorized the Dallas-Fort Worth area between 1985 and 1986. Investigators now suspect he may have been responsible for as many as 18 murders. In 2009, to avoid the death penalty, Brown pleaded guilty to the capital murders of Gregory and Kills Back. He was given two additional life sentences, this time without the possibility of parole, ensuring he would die in prison.
The new convictions brought a complex wave of emotions for the families of his victims. For Gregg Woods, it was a confirmation of a long-held belief that Brown had other victims. "For the past three years my heart has gone out to both the Gregory family and the Kills Back family," he said in 2009. "Today it is being extended to the surviving family members of his other unknown victims." While the new plea deal couldn't erase the pain of his mother's murder, it brought a final, certain end to the story. Gregg called the outcome "a big improvement over what was accomplished in 1986," as it guaranteed that the man who had inflicted so much suffering would never again be free. Curtis Don Brown is serving multiple life sentences in a Texas prison.
