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Computer CEO Arrested for 1992 Murder of Laurie Houts
Third time was the charm in connecting a jealous roommate with the murder of a young career woman.
Authorities in Santa Clara have announced they have finally found sufficient forensic evidence to arrest a man who had already been the prime suspect in a 1992 murder twice before.
Laurie Houts was a 25-year-old computer engineer at Adobe and a pioneer for women in her field when she was found dead in her car on September 5th 1992.
A passerby discovered her body in Mountain View around a mile from where she worked, with the rope that had been used to strangle her still around her neck. Laurie’s footprints on the inside of her windshield indicated the struggle she had put up, but her purse lay untouched and police suspected the murder had been committed by someone she knew.
John Kevin Woodward, who was the roommate of Laurie’s boyfriend at the time, rapidly fell under suspicion from police. He had no alibi for the night of the murder and, according to CBS, had developed unrequited feelings for her boyfriend and his friend.
Furthermore, when investigators recorded a phone call between the two men and got the roommate to ask Woodward outright if he had killed Laurie, he seemed more interested…
