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Taken By a Travelling Salesman: Who Killed Daniel Wood?
One of Maine’s oldest cold cases is still shrouded in mystery.
It was summer 1954, and 12-year-old Daniel Wood — Danny or simply Junior to his family — was desperate to get a part-time job. He had been pestering his parents for weeks, and they had finally agreed to let him do some work picking beans at a nearby farm when the harvesting season rolled around.
In the meantime, the blond-haired little boy passed the school break playing sports with his friends and, in particular, fishing in the watering holes that surrounded his home town of Gray, Maine.
Fishing was what he intended to do on July 22nd 1954. He picked up his rod and tackle and told his mother he was going out with a pal of his who lived just a short distance away. However, a fateful change of plan would cost little Danny his life — and spark a murder mystery that still endures to this day.
Last known movements
Danny’s mother heard her son leave the house while she was still occupied with two of her other kids, and not long afterwards she heard something slightly more unusual: a car door slamming somewhere out on the road.
At a time when fewer people had their own cars, this wasn’t typical, but Mrs Wood…
