Dateline: Secrets Uncovered is examining the murder of Susan Woods by Joseph Scott Hatley in the small town of Stephenville, Texas.
In July 1987, the remains of 30-year-old Susan were discovered at her home, submerged in her bathtub. She had been dead for several days and was raped and asphyxiated before she was put underwater.
The cops and Susan’s family were instantly suspicious of her estranged husband, Michael Woods.
The couple were going through a difficult divorce at the time, and he had left a vulgar tape recording and handwritten notes accusing her of destroying their marriage.
Woods insisted he was innocent and that he’d been in Indiana at the time of the murder. The police found a fingerprint at the scene, but it didn’t match Woods.
The husband continued to face suspicion for 20 years and endured continuous police scrutiny and a lawsuit from Susan’s family.
Fingerprints and DNA led to Joseph Hatley arrest for Susan Woods murder
The case was revived in 2006 by cold case detectives, and one of the first things they did was to retest DNA originally found at the crime scene using modern technology. The DNA didn’t match Woods, which helped officially clear him of rape and murder.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelThe cops decided to run the fingerprint through the national database and finally got a hit. The print matched to Hatley.
In 1987, the cops didn’t have 21-year-old Hatley’s prints, but in 1988, he was arrested for armed robbery in Las Vegas when his prints were uploaded to the system.
Twenty years after Susan’s murder, Hatley finally pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 30 years. Susan had actually known Hatley through a relative, and he had attended her funeral.
Much to the horror of Susan’s family, he was released 11 years later. However, a couple of years later, he passed away from cancer in his trailer.
Joseph Hatley left writings about killing Susan Woods
At the time of Hatley’s arrest, the police asked him why he had killed Susan, and he responded with only vague answers, claiming he was in a “drunken fog.” However, following his death, it was discovered that the killer had written notes referencing the murder.
Hatley claimed in his writings that Susan had been flirting with him, so he went to her house and “overstepped my bounds,” causing her to slap him. The killer said he then raped her and suffocated her with a pillow.
He wrote, “My God, I had become a monster… She was alive. I could have stopped, but I didn’t.”
Hatley claimed that as a boy, he had been abused by his mother and had tried to kill her. He wrote that after the incident with his mother, he had “found a new drug, fear.”
The case received a lot of attention in the media due to the rarity of such a violent crime in this quiet community and the length of time it took to solve the murder. The murder has previously featured on On The Case With Paula Zahn on Investigation Discovery.
Dateline: Secrets Uncovered airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Oxygen.