Jerseyville man found guilty in 2010 cold case murder of Alton woman
A Jerseyville man has been found guilty in the cold case murder of an Alton woman in 2010.
A Jersey County jury convicted Roger W. Carroll, 54, on Monday in the death of 47-year-old Bonnie Woodward, a news release from the Madison County State’s Attorney’s Office stated.
According to testimony at the trial, Carroll and his 16-year-old son were driving back to their rural home in Jersey County on June 25, 2010, when they passed the Eunice C. Smith Nursing Home in Alton, where Woodward was an employee.
“Good, she’s working today,” Carroll’s son said he heard his father say as they drove past and saw Woodward’s truck in the parking lot. Woodward was the stepmother of the son’s former girlfriend, who the Carrolls had taken in when she ran away from home.
The next day, a missing person report was issued for Woodward after her boyfriend had not heard from her and she did not show up to work, the release stated. Despite a description of Carroll from Woodward’s coworkers who saw him in the parking lot, eight of Carroll’s fingerprints on Woodward’s truck and Carroll’s brother-in-law telling police he suspected Carroll was involved in her disappearance after seeing the description in the missing persons report, Carroll denied ever being around Woodward’s truck or in Alton the day she went missing.
According to prosecutors, Carroll methodically researched Woodward’s work schedule and knew she would be off work at 3 p.m. Later that afternoon, Carroll’s son told police he heard eight to nine gunshots before watching his father drag a body across their muddy yard.
Carroll’s son said his father forced him to start a fire to burn Woodward’s body and destroy her phone with a hammer before also throwing it into the fire, the release stated.
On April 12, 2018, Carroll was charged with three counts of first-degree murder in Jersey County. According to the release, the case was re-opened after Carroll’s son testified before the Madison County Grand Jury that he had lived for eight years with knowledge of the actions his father had forced him to participate in.
Carroll’s son admitted to the grand jury that his father had told him to mow over the grass where Woodward’s body was left and that his father told him to shovel and disperse of her ashes. The release stated that the investigation quickly progressed once Illinois State Police Crime Scene experts were able to recover and identify 25 of Woodward’s bone fragments in Carroll’s yard along with a shell casing from the gun used to kill Woodward.
The case was prosecuted by Jersey County State’s Attorney Ben Goetten, Madison County Assistant State’s Attorney Crystal Uhe and Special Prosecutor Jennifer Mudge.
“Bonnie was a two-time cancer survivor, mother of four, and caretaker at Eunice Smith,” Uhe said in the release. “Her life was cut short by the inhumane, monstrous actions of Roger Carroll.”
“After nearly 10 years of pain and uncertainty, the Woodward family can now rest knowing that the person responsible for Bonnie’s disappearance and murder will meet his fate at sentencing,” Goetten said.
Caroll’s sentencing is set for April 23 at 9 a.m. in the Jersey County Courthouse.
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