Police say Woody’s Tavern owner Ann Woodward was killed by a patron after closing time
Cigarette butts and bar glasses showed where Ann Woodward, the co-owner of Woody’s Tavern, sat next to someone around closing time on a Friday night in 1973.
The following morning, the 46-year-old mother was discovered by her husband—robbed, assaulted and strangled on the floor of her bar.
Moab police and sheriff’s officials identified dozens of men who had been at the bar and collected evidence, but they were never able to conclusively identify her killer.
“They wanted to solve it. All the evidence was there,” said present-day Moab Police Department Detective Jeremy Drexler in a conversation with the Moab Sun News, “but they just didn’t have the technology at the time to solve this case beyond a doubt.”
Drexler said that Douglas K. Chudomelka, a local mine worker, had been identified as a suspect by police early in the investigation after a girlfriend reported that he had confessed to the murder. However, the woman retracted her statement. Recently renewed investigations have identified Chudomelka as the perpetrator.
“They wanted to identify that person who sat next to Ann in the worst way,” Drexler said. “You can see from the original case notes that they were really hoping that fingerprints on the bar glasses would identify him.”
However, the glasses sent to the FBI came back inconclusive.
“Investigators were stuck,” Drexler said, “and there wasn’t a good way forward. But they laid the groundwork for the case to be solved now.”
Drexler took on the case, researching it with the encouragement of then-Moab Police Chief Jared Garcia and current Chief Lex Bell.
Finally, he worked with Grand County Sheriff’s Department officials to find evidence that had been in storage for decades, not knowing exactly what had been kept and what condition they would find it in.
“It really was a great interdepartmental effort,” Drexler said. “It took us nine minutes to find the evidence and that was it.”
Finding the boxes containing stored evidence was “truly amazing,” he said.
“We found these boxes in a store room, and they were absolutely pristine,” Drexler said. “We opened one box and saw that it was Ann’s clothing.”
“I knew right then: we’re going to get him.”
Officials sent evidence, including Woodward’s clothing and Chudomelka’s hair sample, to be tested for DNA with advanced techniques at the state crime lab.
DNA was recovered from inside Woodward’s pant leg, which Drexler said was the murder weapon, and matched to Chudomelka.
“I truly believe that had this case been presented to jury [today], he would have been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt for the murder of Ann Woodward,” Grand County Attorney Stephen Stocks said at a press conference.
Chudomelka moved on from Moab after the murder and passed away in Nebraska in 2002.
Officials said they will enter Chudomelka’s DNA into the CODIS system—a network of local, state, and national databases of DNA profiles from convicted offenders—after the case is officially closed, allowing law enforcement agencies across the country to check for his possible involvement in any open cold cases.
“I hope there aren’t any more murders out there,” Drexler said, “but it’s so important to know.”
Drexler said that some additional testing is ongoing. A full presentation of all results will be held when the case is formally closed.
