'It's been long enough': Victims' families anxious as 'Desert Killer' execution date nears
The execution of serial killer David Leonard Wood will end a nearly 40-year saga for nine El Paso families, but the victims' survivors will continue to cope with pain, heartbreak and three unsettling questions.
"I tell people hold your breath for 37 seconds, because I have been holding mine for 37 years," said Marcia Fulton, the mother of 15-year-old Desiree Wheatley who was killed by Wood.
Wood, known as the "Desert Killer," is set to be executed after 5 p.m. Thursday, March 13, at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Huntsville Unit prison. The execution could be postponed as Wood and his attorney continue to fight in court to save his life.
The execution comes 37 years and six months since the first victim was found buried in a shallow grave in September 1987 in Northeast El Paso. Wood has been connected to the serial murders of nine victims between 12 to 24 years old in 1987 and 1988.
More: Killer still on death row 30 years after murder of Desiree Wheatley, five women in El Paso
The bodies of Desiree, Rosa Maria Casio, 24, Ivy Susanna Williams, 23, Karen Baker, 20, Angelica Frausto, 17, and Dawn Marie Smith, 14, were found in shallow graves in a desert area in Northeast El Paso. Some had been stabbed, others strangled and some raped.
Two other girls and a woman — Marjorie Knox, 14, Cheryl Vasquez-Dismukes, 19, and Melissa Alaniz, who would have turned 13 a week after her kidnapping — were never found.
"It's been very painful for my mom because she holds out hope that she is still alive," said Yolanda Alaniz, Melissa's sister. "She doesn't want to believe that she's one of the victims."
All of the victims had one thing in common — they were reportedly last seen alive with Wood or had a connection to him. Wood, a native of Tom Green County, which includes San Angelo, dropped out of Parkland High School in ninth grade and worked as an auto mechanic for some time. He had an affinity for motorcycles.
Wood, 67, may take the locations of the missing victims' bodies to his own grave.
'I've done everything I could to prove my innocence ... I've given enough body specimens from every part of my body on multiple times to create 15 crime scenes," Wood told USA TODAY in a jailhouse interview at the Allan B. Polunsky Unit prison in Livingston, Texas. "Believe me, there's nothing I haven't done to cooperate, to show I had nothing to do with this case.
More: 'I'm angry': Death Row inmate David Leonard Wood says he's innocent as execution nears
Desiree Wheatley, called Desi by her family, was a caring, innocent girl with a bright future, her mother said.
"She was a very interesting young lady," Fulton said. "She could have done some amazing things if she had lived. She was very honest and open. One day she came home from school and said, 'Mom, what does gullible mean?' I said, 'Well, it means you believe what people tell you.' And she said, 'Well, I was voted most gullible at school today.'
"Next year she comes back from a different school and she says, 'Mom, I was voted most gullible again,'" Fulton said as she laughed. "She was not as gullible as much as she was so trusting. And that's what I think got her into this much trouble."
Desiree was celebrating the last day of school June 2, 1987, at a friend's house. Wearing a T-shirt signed by all her classmates, Desiree left the celebration and walked home with a group of friends.
Desiree and her friends went to a Circle K convenience store on Rushing Drive — a few blocks from her home near Veterans Park in Northeast El Paso. The group then separated.
Desiree got into a tan-colored truck driven by Wood, several witnesses told police. This was the last time Desiree was seen alive.
"They turned around and said goodbye to each other," Fulton said. "When her friend turned around to say goodbye again, she saw a pickup truck stop where Desi was and then saw Desi get in. That was David Leonard Wood's truck."
More: 'Desert Killer' David Leonard Wood to be executed nearly 40 years after murder spree
Desiree was supposed to be home by 9:30 p.m., but after not arriving by 10 p.m., her family knew something was wrong.
'We called all her friends to see where she was and they said they left at 9 p.m., which would have put her at home by 9:30,' Fulton said. 'I called the police immediately and, of course, they were saying, it was the last day of school and they were partying. I told them, 'She's missing, she did not come home.'
'And they go, 'Well, she could have run away.' And I said, 'No, we weren't having any problems. I said, 'You never call for a curfew extension, so you can run away.''
Months went by with no information on Desiree. Fulton found out her daughter's body was found Oct. 20, 1987, in a shallow grave in a desert area along the 12000 block of McCombs Street about five miles from her home.
"It was five months," Fulton said. "Every time the phone rang, I'd almost hit the ceiling hoping it was her or the police telling me they found her. Not knowing was bad, but knowing wasn't any better."
Melissa Alaniz, 12, the youngest of the victims, had previously run away from home, but came back two days later. Police attempted to make Melissa sound like a rebellious child, but she was the opposite, her sister Yolanda Alaniz said.
Melissa's age has been reported as being 13, but Yolanda Alaniz said Melissa was actually 12 — a week away from turning 13.
"She was so young," Melissa's mother Alicia Alaniz said. "She was just a very sweet girl. This is very painful for me. There is not a day that doesn't go by and I don't think about her. I pray every day for her."
Melissa asked for permission from a family member to go to a Circle K convenience store on March 7, 1987. She never returned home.
More: Murdered, missing women tied to serial killer David Leonard Wood
'I worked at a bingo hall and I came home around midnight and my mom said that Melissa hadn't come home," Yolanda Alaniz said. "At first I said, 'Oh, mom, she'll be home. Don't worry, don't worry.''
Melissa's disappearance came months after Wood was released from prison, serving seven years of a 20-year sentence for the sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl. Wood was released on parole Jan. 15, 1987.
'I get upset because this happened in March and Wood got out from prison not even a few months earlier,' Yolanda Alaniz said. 'I don't even remember the police talking to me or asking me any questions. We were pretty much on our own. There was really nothing we could do.'
El Paso police initially treated Melissa's disappearance as a runaway case. The Alaniz family said there are no signs pointing to a runaway case. Melissa took no clothes or belongings with her, and she was not upset with her family.
'They didn't take it seriously," Yolanda Alaniz said. "As far as they were concerned, she was just a runaway.'
It wasn't until Desiree's body was found that Melissa's case got more attention. Melissa and Desiree both attended H.E. Charles Middle School.
'I think that if they would've taken it seriously about Melissa, I think this wouldn't have happened with the other young ladies, and it really makes me upset,' Yolanda Alaniz said.
El Paso police first mentioned the possibility of a serial killer in El Paso on Oct. 22, 1987 — the day before two more bodies were found.
"There's no need for undue alarm or panic, concern, yes," said John Scagno, the El Paso Police Department chief at the time.
Melissa, Desiree and the other girls' cases were connected by police because of the similarity of the circumstances of each disappearance.
'Melissa is still missing,' Yolanda Alaniz said. 'They linked the cases because of the similarity. But Melissa is still missing. I just hope we find Melissa and the other girls who are still missing.
'You're always going to have hope, but after all these years, she hasn't come home. She took nothing with her. The similarities of it all with the other cases, with the witnesses coming forward, it kind of all makes sense. But you will always have hope.'
Wood is currently being held on death row at the Allan B. Polunsky Unit state prison in Livingston, Texas. He will be moved to the Huntsville Unit prison March 12, the day before the execution.
Wheatley is planning on attending the execution. This is the second time an execution date has been set for Wood. He was set to die by lethal injection on Aug. 20, 2009, but he was granted a stay by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals — just 24 hours before the lethal drugs were to flow through his body.
"I'm ready," she said. "I'm more than ready for this to happen because it already got stopped once. I'm like, 'No, we're not going to stop this again.' I'm really still holding my breath because I don't know for sure if it will go through or he'll get another stay. I'm hoping not. "It's been long enough now that they should have had everything they need to make sure that he is the right person. And I'm sure he is."
The Alaniz family is not planning to attend the execution.
"I don't know that I'd want to be a part of seeing him," Yolanda Alaniz said. "That's not what I'm really interested in. I am not interested in seeing him being executed. I just want answers.'
Yolanda Alaniz said the only thing she has to say to Wood is to ask to provide her family with information on what happened to Melissa.
"I would tell him there's a God that loves him, that loves Melissa, that loves these other young ladies," Yolanda Alaniz said. "Life doesn't end here. Life goes beyond this world. I would plead with him to please tell us the truth. I would show him a picture. I would show him pictures and ask him to tell us the truth. We just want to know the truth."
The sister of Marjorie Knox, who went missing Feb. 14, 1987, and still has not been found, said the execution will not bring any healing to her family. Marjorie, of Chaparral, New Mexico, went missing after attending a Valentine's Day party at Veterans Park in El Paso.
"How could it bring closure?" Cheryl Knox Price asked. "Quite frankly, how could it bring closure if we don't have any answers? He's going to be executed on March 13th and he won't say anything because he's still maintaining his innocence."
Aaron Martinez covers the criminal justice system for the El Paso Times. He may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com or on X/Twitter @AMartinezEPT.
Times reporter Trish Long contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: David Wood faces execution decades after killing El Paso women, girls
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