Moab Police Department officials announced that they’ve identified the killer of Ann Hammer Woodward, who was murdered after closing the bar at Woody’s Tavern in 1973.
“Evidence collected at that scene by the Grand County Sheriff’s Office, and additional evidence collected by a Moab Police Department [d]etective conducting the investigation in the following days, was recently re-evaluated and sent for DNA testing,” a media advisory released today advised.
DNA was identified on items collected and “has allowed us to positively identify who killed Ann, and put together details of the event that were previously unknown and never released to the media.”
Woodward and her husband, Leslie H. “Woody” Woodward, owned Woody’s Tavern, where Woodward was found strangled after failing to return home after closing the bar. Money was taken from the business and Woodward appeared to have been sexually assaulted. The Moab Police Department reopened the case in 2006.
Details of the case and Woodward’s killer will be released by authorities at a press conference on June 28. The Moab Sun News will cover the release live.
This announcement is based on a media advisory and will be followed up with a full story.
