POLICE WORK DONE WELL, BUT STORY STILL ENDS SADLY

The passing of Thanksgiving and with it our grateful recognition of the good things life brings us recalls at least one rather grim bit of recent history, a crime story that found an unwelcome place in local holiday lore. The Cape Girardeau County murder of Kenneth Wood on Thanksgiving Day 1983 kept law enforcement personnel busy on what is usually a quiet day for crime. If there is a silver lining to be found in this story, and that is an audacious presumption where a killing is concerned, it is that the system for catching and punishing the offenders worked to a full measure.

Wood's link to the area was only that he passed through in earning a living. A 60-year-old truck driver from Wisconsin, Wood stopped his rig near the northern county line to inspect a damaged tire. The three people who stopped their car along with Wood were responsible for the damage; Ray Lloyd Bibb Jr., Curtis Cutts and Melissa Wagner had shot the tire with the intention of hijacking the truck. Bibb shot Wood in the back of the head, got the help of Cutts in dragging the man into nearby woods and fired two more shots to ensure the trucker's death. The truck, its load of aluminum and the assailants were far from the scene by the time the body was discovered.

What followed were the results of excellent police preparation, able investigation and favorable happenstance. The Major Case Squad, comprised of members of several county law enforcement agencies, descended on the crime scene immediately and combed it for clues. The shell casing from a bullet used was discovered and traced to a store where Bibb had purchased it. The police work was remarkable in its speed and thoroughness. Arrests were made a week after the crime.

The Major Case Squad proved itself a viable and valuable unit on that day, infusing considerable manpower on a crime scene promptly and gathering evidence that proved critical to solving the case. Following this was an expert reconstruction of the killing by investigators and vigorous prosecutorial action. All three involved in the murder remain behind bars; while Cutts and Wagner may one day be paroled, Bibb will likely never see freedom again.

The murder of Kenneth Wood remains tragic and senseless. In no way does the penalty assessed to three misguided young people make up for the death of a productive citizen, a family man doing his job alone and far from home. These stories are, sadly, too frequent. And while the authorities did their job in masterful fashion, and maybe gave other potential killers a reason to pause as their fingers were on the trigger, there is little room for a happy ending to this story.