Susan Woods, a 30-year-old woman found murdered in her Stephenville, TX home in July 1987, was killed by an acquaintance named Joseph Scott Hatley. The case went unsolved for nearly 20 years while suspicion fell on her estranged husband. It was finally cracked in 2006 after a cold-case detective pulled DNA from cigarette butts at the scene and matched a fingerprint through the FBI’s national database.
What Happened in July 1987
Susan Woods worked at a sandpaper factory in Stephenville, a small town southwest of Fort Worth. She lived alone in a rental bungalow near Central Elementary while waiting for a divorce from her husband, Michael Woods.1Texas Monthly. Susan Woods Stephenville Murder Hidden Killer
When she missed two days of work, her supervisor called her father, Bonner Joe Atkins. He went to the house and found her body in the bathroom. She was nude, draped over the bathtub with her head submerged in water and her hands tied behind her back with a tank top.2Oxygen. Joseph Scott Hatley Killed Susan Woods in Her Texas Home Investigators determined the killer had tried to kill her in multiple ways: smothering her with a pillow, strangling her with an electrical cord, and drowning her.3Texan News. The 1987 Murder of Susan Woods, a Stephenville Sweetheart
The living room looked like Susan had been entertaining someone she knew. A television was still running. Snacks and an open can of Coke sat out, and six cigarette butts filled an ashtray. Susan did not smoke. Investigators lifted fingerprints from the bathroom sink, mirror, and bathtub, but 1987 technology could not match them to anyone in a database.2Oxygen. Joseph Scott Hatley Killed Susan Woods in Her Texas Home
Why Suspicion Fell on Michael Woods
Investigators and the community quickly focused on Michael Woods. The couple had separated earlier in 1987 after a volatile argument, and Michael had moved to Indianapolis to live with his brother. He had also left behind vulgar tape recordings and handwritten notes berating Susan and blaming her for the end of the marriage.4ABC News. How Did He Become a Monster? Convicted Killer’s Thoughts From the Grave
He was uncooperative. He refused to return to Texas for questioning and told police he would provide fingerprints only in Indiana. When Stephenville officers and a Texas Ranger showed up at his Indiana home, he brandished a firearm.5Texas Monthly. Stephenville Episode 2: Michael Indianapolis police allegedly pressured him to sign a confession; he refused. Eventually investigators got his prints after watching him hold a yard sale that included items they believed had been Susan’s. They executed a search warrant, found a marijuana roach in a relative’s purse, and used the arrest to collect his fingerprints.
The prints did not match the ones at the crime scene, and no physical evidence tied him to the murder. Even so, in 1989 Susan’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against him to claim an $11,000 life insurance policy, which had doubled to roughly $20,000 because of the manner of death. Michael did not appear in court. The judge found him liable and awarded $700,000 plus interest.5Texas Monthly. Stephenville Episode 2: Michael
Michael lived under the cloud for nearly 20 years. He later described a “constant state of fear” and said he suffered from depression. “After I left, I kind of felt like she got murdered because I wasn’t there to take care of her,” he told ABC News.4ABC News. How Did He Become a Monster? Convicted Killer’s Thoughts From the Grave
How the Cold Case Was Solved
The case sat dormant until 2005, when a friend of Michael Woods emailed the Stephenville Police Department asking about its status. The chief and the Erath County district attorney assigned Lieutenant Don Miller to review it along with two other cold cases.6Texas Monthly. Stephenville Episode 3: Don
Miller worked with tools that had not existed in 1987. He sent the six cigarette butts from the living room to a crime lab, which extracted a male DNA profile. He then obtained a buccal swab from Michael Woods, who by this point was willing to cooperate. The DNA did not match. Michael was officially cleared.4ABC News. How Did He Become a Monster? Convicted Killer’s Thoughts From the Grave
The real breakthrough came through fingerprints. The Texas Department of Public Safety had just gained access to the FBI’s national fingerprint database. In May 2006, Miller traveled to Austin and submitted the unidentified prints from Susan’s bathtub and a Coke can. The system returned a name: Joseph Scott Hatley, whose prints had entered the system after a 1988 armed robbery arrest in Las Vegas.6Texas Monthly. Stephenville Episode 3: Don
Who Joseph Scott Hatley Was
Hatley knew Susan Woods. They moved in the same social circles in Stephenville and crossed paths at local bars and parties.7Texas Monthly. Stephenville Episode 6: Hatley After the killing, he stayed in town. He attended her funeral. He kept socializing. He even discussed the murder at a birthday party while knowing he was the one who had done it.
In writings found after his death, he mocked the Stephenville police as the “Keystone Kops” and marveled at how close he had been to the investigation the whole time.7Texas Monthly. Stephenville Episode 6: Hatley
The 1988 Assault That Could Have Solved It Sooner
Less than a year after Susan’s murder, a 15-year-old named Shannon Myers reported that Hatley, then in his early twenties, had raped her. In July 1988, when Myers was 16, he lured her to a roadside park and beat and raped her over six to eight hours. During the attack, he told her he had killed before. Myers immediately sought medical attention and a rape kit was administered.8Texas Monthly. Stephenville Episode 4: Shannon
The district attorney took the case to a grand jury. Hatley’s family hired a private investigator who attacked Myers’ reputation and used a legal loophole available at the time for sexual assault cases. The grand jury declined to indict. Police never arrested or fingerprinted Hatley in connection with the assault, and the Stephenville Police Department never connected her report to the Woods investigation.8Texas Monthly. Stephenville Episode 4: Shannon Had they done so, the case might have been solved decades earlier.
Even after Hatley later confessed, the assault on Myers could not be prosecuted. Erath County District Attorney Alan Nash explained the statute of limitations: “Back then, only homicide cases had no limitation. In the 1980s, there was a five-year limitation for sexual assault and a 10-year limitation for sexual assault of a child.”9Beneath the Surface News. Can the Man Who Confessed to Killing Susan Woods Face Additional Charges
After assaulting Myers, Hatley fled Stephenville for Las Vegas, where he committed armed robberies at a shoe store and a motel. The arrest that followed put his prints in the national system and served a 120-day sentence in a youth offender program. He eventually returned to Texas and later worked as a long-haul truck driver.7Texas Monthly. Stephenville Episode 6: Hatley
Arrest, Plea Deal, and Parole
Lt. Miller and his partner questioned Hatley in 2006. He consented to a DNA sample, which matched the cigarette butts from the crime scene.4ABC News. How Did He Become a Monster? Convicted Killer’s Thoughts From the Grave Investigators were simultaneously speaking with Hatley’s wife, who alleged repeated physical abuse. Those allegations contributed to his arrest.
A trial was scheduled for October 2007, and Hatley faced a potential life sentence. He took a plea deal instead, pleading guilty to murder in exchange for 30 years. Erath County District Attorney John Terrill prosecuted the case.10Plainview Herald. Man Sentenced to 30 Years in Woman’s 1987 Death As part of the deal, Hatley also agreed to testify against a cellmate.11Yahoo Entertainment. ABC 20/20: Where Susan
Because 1987 sentencing rules governed the case, Hatley became parole-eligible far sooner than a modern murder conviction would allow. He was released in 2018 after serving roughly 11 years.4ABC News. How Did He Become a Monster? Convicted Killer’s Thoughts From the Grave
The Confession Found After His Death
Hatley died of cancer in 2021 at age 56, alone in a trailer.12Newser. The Real Killer Signed the Guest Book at Her Funeral Around Christmas that year, a man in Abilene who had bought the trailer found roughly 200 pages of handwritten documents inside, along with photographs of retired Lt. Don Miller and newspaper clippings about Susan Woods and Shannon Myers. He called Miller to come get them.13Texas Monthly. Stephenville Episode 5: Scott
The writings read as a handwritten autobiography and confession. Hatley described a childhood marked by physical abuse at the hands of his mother, said he had experienced violent thoughts from a young age, and claimed he had once tried to kill her. He wrote that he had “become a monster” and a “walking demon” who had “found a new drug, fear.”4ABC News. How Did He Become a Monster? Convicted Killer’s Thoughts From the Grave
About the night he killed Susan, Hatley wrote that he went to her house believing she was flirting with him. After they talked, he said he “overstepped my bounds” and she slapped him. What followed, he claimed, was a blur, but he acknowledged that he “brutalized her” and suffocated her with a pillow. He added: “She was alive. I could have stopped, but I didn’t.” And: “I wish with all my heart that I could tell you I’ve mourned for what I’d done, but that would be a lie.”4ABC News. How Did He Become a Monster? Convicted Killer’s Thoughts From the Grave
The writings also confirmed his assault on Shannon Myers and the threats he made during it, validating what she had said for decades.4ABC News. How Did He Become a Monster? Convicted Killer’s Thoughts From the Grave
Lt. Miller has said publicly that he believes the known victims are only “a smidgen” of what Hatley did, pointing to his years driving long-haul trucking routes through the eastern United States and into Canada. Forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland said she was “certain he, along his trucking route, would’ve found opportunities to indulge in some kind of violence,” while acknowledging that whether he actually killed anyone else remained unclear.7Texas Monthly. Stephenville Episode 6: Hatley No other cases have been formally linked to him.