Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder and assault. Reader discretion is advised.
Susan Woods’ killer, Joseph Scott Hatley, was brought to justice nearly twenty years after the brutal 1987 rape and murder. Cold case detectives used fingerprints and other DNA evidence to implicate him in the crime in 2006, as per Plainview Herald. He reportedly knew the victim through a relative.
In 2007, he entered a plea deal for a 30-year prison sentence but got an early release in 2018 after serving only 11 years. A couple of years later, in 2021, Joseph Scott Hatley, who had been diagnosed with bladder cancer, was found dead in his trailer home. The 56-year-old’s landlord found his dead body.
ABC 20/20 will revisit Susan Woods’ decades-old murder by Joseph Scott Hatley in Stephenville, Texas. The upcoming episode titled ‘There Is A Monster In Me’ will air on the network this Friday, January 19, 2024, at 9 p.m. ET.
How was Susan Woods’ killer, Joseph Scott Hatley, caught?
A decades-long investigation into Susan Woods’ murder case began when her father, Joe Atkins, found her dead in the bathtub. The incident occurred in 1987 in Stephenville, Texas. Joe found her body in a bathtub filled with water, as per Texas Monthly. The medical examiner confirmed that the killer had raped and sodomized the victim and also tried to strangle as the red line across her throat suggested.
Detectives found fingerprints and palmprints in the bathroom as well as cigarette butts in the living room. They believe that the killer had possibly left his prints and DNA behind at the crime scene. However, DNA analysis was years away, and despite having physical evidence, there was a lack of leads. The only potential suspect at the time was Susan’s estranged husband, Michael Woods. The couple were in the middle of a divorce back then.
The Cinemaholic reported that while detectives suspected Michael’s involvement, they did not have solid evidence to implicate him. Susan’s best friend, Cindy Hayes, claimed that Michael had left the victim with a cassette. This cassette reportedly had a recording of Michael saying offensive and cruel things about Susan, her family, and her friends. Nonetheless, the case went cold due to insufficient evidence against him.
According to Texas Monthly, cold case detectives reopened the case nearly 20 years later and found the DNA from the cigarette butts did not match Michael Woods. Finally, in May 2006, they uploaded the fingerprints from the crime scene to the FBI’s electronic national fingerprint database. The prints were a match to Joseph Scott Hatley, who knew Susan Woods through a relative.
What happened to Joseph Scott Hatley?
Plainview Herald reported that since Susan Woods’ murder, Joseph Scott Hatley had been convicted of robbery in a different state. His arrest cleared Michale Woods, who was a suspect for years in the cold case. Then, in 2007, the accused entered a plea deal and received a 30-year prison sentence. As part of the deal, Joseph had agreed to testify against a cellmate in the Stephenville jail.
In 2017, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer and got an early release from prison the following year on good behavior. He had only served 11 years for the rape and murder of Susan Woods. In 2021, Joseph Scott Hatley’s landlord found him dead on the floor of his trailer home. The 56-year-old had been living in an RV park outside Abilene at the time.
ABC 20/20’s episode on Susan Woods’ murder airs on January 19, 2024.
