Episode 419: Dana Woods

0:00First degree. First degree. First degree. First degree. The first degree. Get on the news. Get on the K-grade. Get on the K-grade. Get on the K-grade. Get on the K-grade. Get on the K-grade. He sings, they're supposed to have a movie. It's not real life. And we got stopped by a cop in the K-grade. And we got stopped by a cop in the K-grade. We just thought it was weird like like, peeping the car, asking what we were doing, and then they let us go. And then the next day we saw the news where her and her friends body were found. But the most, you know, the most corner police apartment or the Berkeley County Sheriff's Department. I call it out. I was like, oh my god. I'm so excited to be back on all of the roads. They were looking for the perpetrator.

1:02Welcome to the first degree of the True Crime podcast that you might end up on. My name is Jack Vanick. I'm sitting here with Alexis Linkletter. It's another week. It's another hump day. You know, hope that you're holding on tight. Hope things are going well for you in your small bubble. Yes, that's all we can do right now. It's just protect our small bubble. We're going to have a lot of us in the tangible world. We were never meant to see videos of natural disasters or anything like that. So we got to just keep going the best we can. Absolutely. And if you consider us part of your own little personal bubble, what you should, because we love you so much, you know what you can do? You can have more of us every single week by joining the Underground. The Underground is where all of our premium content lives. You get a brand new episode every single week and we get to cover cases that we want to down there because there are no rules. And then we have, I don't know, hundreds of backlogged episodes at this point. So we would love to have you down there. We really would.

2:02We really would. And you can join through the Apple Podcast app. You can subscribe right there. Or you can subscribe through Patreon and link your Spotify. And coming soon to YouTube. But not yet. I don't know. Maybe by the time you're listening. But soon, we're working on it. We're really working on it. All right. Well, I think that that's enough of that. So should we turn on the lights? Yes. And turn up the anxiety. Because this could be you. We like to think terrible things happen somewhere else. Somewhere far away from our homes, our jobs, and our everyday routines. It's comforting to believe that tragedy has a certain distance from the public. And it's a very important thing to do. And to do it. We like to think terrible things happen somewhere else. Somewhere far away from our homes, our jobs, and our everyday routines. It's comforting to believe that tragedy has a certain distance from us. But that distance can disappear in an instant.

3:03You can go about an ordinary day without knowing something horrific isn't folding just out of sight. And you may not realize how close you were until it's already over. Two young women whose lives were cut short on an ordinary summer night. And the people around them who were left to confront a terrifying reality. That the unthinkable wasn't somewhere far away. It was much closer to home than anyone ever could have imagined. Today's case begins in August 26th, 2012. It was a Sunday in the star sign of Virgo. Top songs in the charts included Whistle by Flo Rida, Lights by Ellie Golding, and Call Me Maybe by Carly Ray Jepsen. Movies dominating the box office that week were the expendables too, Perinormon, and the Born Legacy. Also, the nation was mourning the loss of Neil Armstrong who had just passed away the day prior at the age of 82. In the setting for today's case is Monks Corner, South Carolina. A small town in Berkeley County

4:03located in South Carolina's Low Country, with a population of about 13,000 people. And if the Low Country sounds familiar, it's a location that's been discussed extensively in true crime. As it was also the setting for the Alex Murdock case. It was founded in 1728 as a trading post, and eventually grew to include taverns, lodges, and other structures before evolving into a town. And by 2012, the area had become known for offering outdoor activities including hiking, boating, fishing, and horseback riding. Our first grade for today's case is Alex, who grew up near Monks Corner in Berkeley County. So I went to school in, uh, so where I went to with her was Boulder Bluff Elementary, which is in Gruse Creek. Um, it's like a suburb ish city outside of Charleston, South Carolina. It's maybe 20-ish minutes from there, probably 30s now, traffic, but usually about 20 minutes.

5:04And while attending elementary school, she was a classmate of another young girl deemed Dina Woods. So I went to elementary school with her, and I know that she was raised by her grandmother. She was very quiet, super nice, but like very sweet, very kind, like you could ask her for help on anything, you know, like kids kind of like scatter when they put you in groups and stuff like that. She would literally like go to any group, she didn't have any particular favorites that she wanted to do. Looking back, Alex has some really nice memories of Dina. And I remember her grandmother being super nice too, and like very protective, and then she started living with her grandmother. My mom really enjoyed her grandmother, especially she was very nice. I remember going to one of her birthday parties and ones. And when I was in third grade. So it should have been that eight. And it was either her eighth or ninth birthday party. Like I knew that she kind of grew up a little bit more sheltered. Like her grandmother didn't really like let her go to other people's houses very often. Just because she didn't want like that things that happened,

6:04just very protective of her grandchild. After elementary school, Alex lost touch with Dina. And then we went to separate schools after middle school. I can't remember exactly where she went. Somewhere in most corners. So probably like Berkeley middle and then Berkeley high. As the years went by, and they ended up in different schools, Alex and Dina grew apart as people tend to do. But they did stay connected through social media. If I was to see her like put something on like her social media or whatever, usually I was like interact or like it or whatever. Just because I was happy she was doing well. But they kind of looked like she was like kind of finding some independence after high school. And like during and stuff like that. Like getting more I think like. I guess responsibility for her grandmother. So it seemed like she was having a good time, a good life. It was shortly after high school that Alex would have a bizarre experience that would lead her back to Dina in a way that nobody could have ever seen coming. But my first job out of high school.

7:04I work at the Applebee's. That's in months corner. And I remember I was leaving work at a closing shift. I got off at like two thirty in the morning. And I took a detour road. I had to drop a friend off. So I was dropping her off and then going home after that. And we got stopped by a cop like having like a roadblock kind of situation, which was weird because it's like very burl. Area. So originally I had turned around. Because I was like, oh, that looks rough. I'm not going through there. Because I had never gotten stopped by a police officer. So I was kind of freaked out. Where did you get off at the end of the street? I was like, oh, that's really another cop was on at the other end of the street. With no lights on and they flagged us. They're like, what are you doing? And I was like, oh, I'm just taking my friend home, we just finished work. Normally we would cut through this road, but we saw the police blockade, so we thought the road was closed. But I thought it was like a DIY stop or something. But I was eighteen and 11 and 11 and up to drink. So I was like, it's not worried about that. I just didn't want to like get like scared by the cops because I didn't really like cops very much.

8:04And they're like, oh, okay, can you prove that you just got off work. And so me and the girl were like, oh, we have our cashout receipt from when we locked out with like what we made tonight. Can we show you that at as time stamp on it? He's like, yeah, that's fine. So we showed him and he's like, all right, you guys can go. So we're like, that's weird. Like, and he, he did ask if we could present like a phone number for them to call and verify that we work the entire time. But I don't think that they were that serious about it because we were both like 18 year old kids, like and girls. The next morning, she thought more about the strange encounter with the police. And my manager the next day, like I asked him if he got a call and he was like, no, what are you talking about? I was like, oh, I gave them the restaurant number to verify that me and her were at work the whole night because we got stopped at the cops. And he was like, that's weird. But no, I haven't gotten the call yet. I don't know what I do. Like, you were here the whole time. I was working. So we're like, okay, cool. We're not in trouble if they do call.

9:07And as the day went on, Alex learned why she was actually stopped that night. She came across an article that reported that a body had been found in the woods near the rural road where the cops had stopped her. But even more shocking, the body had belonged to Dana Woods, her old friend from elementary school. I didn't really thank too much of it. And so I saw the news article and I was like, oh my god, like I went to school with her because it's kind of like a very rural area so you can literally dump a body there and probably get away with it. Like, there's so much like landscape. And so being the other group, we're like, okay, I that's true. They were like stopping every car to see if they were girls in the car for who they were looking for. Now, not only was that encounter with law enforcement haunting, but there was also palpable fear that there could be a killer on the loose. So I went to my dad and I was like, dad, do you remember Dana that I went to elementary school with? And he said, yeah, I remember her. Why? What's up? And I said, I saw on the news that her body was

10:09found with and she was murdered. And he's like, I need you to call me when you get to work, when you're leaving work and when you get home. He's like, she was literally like found mile, like a few miles from where you work. So I need to know when you get there, when you leave and when you get home. I was like, all right, that's fine. Like no worries. And he's like until like whoever's caught you are to be on your like ice alert. Like you don't get in the car with anybody you don't know. You don't talk to any of your strange customers. None of that. Don't even tell them your real name if you don't want to. Like, I heard that's fine. You know, you're good. The community was left wondering, how is it that such a horrific thing could happen to Dana? But he was kind of like shocked because he knew that she was like a nice girl, very innocent. Like wasn't the type to like go out party like stuff like that. Like he that that was not the type of girl he thought would be killed. Alex and really the entire community was left reeling and trying to understand what happened. How is it that a kind, sweet person like Dana became a victim

11:15of a homicide. Who did this? And why? And was it killer living among them in this small town? To answer these questions and more, you know the drill. We gotta go back. Prior to the discovery of Dana's remains, she'd already been reported missing by her mom. And the police were working to put together her final movements to figure out what had happened and who could be responsible for taking her life. They were facing mounting pressure because on the night that Dana had been murdered, she hadn't been alone. One of her closest friends, 22-year-old June Gary had been with her. That night, which was on August 26th, Dana had time off from her job as a pizza john's delivery driver. She was also studying to become a paralegal at Trident Technical College, but her next semester hadn't started yet. So, she planned on enjoying a rare free night by hanging out with her friend, June Gary.

12:18June was a single mother to a two-year-old little girl who was living with her parents. She had been working hard as a cashier at Walmart for the last six months. So, on her evening off, her parents offered to babysit so June could go have some fun with Dana. She went over to Dana's family home and while there, the two girls hung out together. Dana's mother recalled chatting with June about her starting to sell even products. It was just a chill night for the friends, but then it took a turn that nobody could have seen coming. While the two friends were hanging out that night, Dana had to run a quick errand. She said that she had to stop by her grandmother's house and June decided to just tag along. Then the two friends ran to get some food at McDonald's and just before midnight, at 11.51 pm, Dana called her mom to say that they were giving a ride to a friend, though she didn't say the friend's name. It gets later and later, and Dana's mom, Jennifer, starts calling her daughter but can't reach her at all. Jennifer knew Dana was

13:19planning to come home soon, and June's parents knew that she would never just leave her daughter for that long. Not being able to reach Dana was getting more and more concerning for Jennifer. She kept calling the girls, but neither of them picked up. By 5am the next morning, their phones were going straight to voicemail as if somebody had turned them off. So once the police were involved in looking into the incident, everybody was looking for these girls, including Dana and June's families. They're also just scouring every corner of this area looking for them. And June's father, Charles and his son-in-law were actually driving around when they spotted Dana's white Chevy Metro, and it was driving north on Highway 52. Now this is a big moment because for a second, there's just a glimmer of hope that maybe this could be some misunderstanding. Maybe Dana and June were totally perfectly fine. But then, June's dad realized that Dana wasn't behind the wheel of her car and neither was June. The driver was a man,

14:23and the driver was a man that Charles, June's dad, recognized, a guy named Caleb, Matt Locke. He later told the post in career, we knew for sure it was Caleb. We saw that long face of his. June's father tried to chase the car down, but they lost sight of it once the car turned on Highway 401, heading towards Cordesville. This was a big what the fuck moment. And suddenly, there were questions about whether Caleb was involved in the disappearance of Dana and June. None of this made sense to June's family though. They knew Caleb, but because he and June dated in middle school, and they had known him since he was a kid. So how the hell was he involved in any of this? Obviously, this new information led to a much more focused search. They're obviously still looking for Dana's car, and the man allegedly spotted driving it. And you know what? They would find Dana's car, but not in the condition they hoped to find it in. Later that day, a man who was walking in the Frances Marion National Forest on the way to a

15:26fishing hole stumbled across a burnt out white Chevy Metro. The car was Dana's and it had been set on fire. A forensic search of the area where Dana's car was found in sued. And then 75 yards away, their worst fears were confirmed. They found Dana and she had been shot in the head. Dana and June's families were horrified. And the questions and confusion over how and why this happened were expanding. If Caleb was involved in this, why did he do it? None of it made sense. And of course, where was June? Was she okay? Was she with Caleb? Nobody knew at all. So the searches for June continued and intensified and her family clung to hope that maybe just maybe June had been spared. So the search for her expanded past the immediate area of where Dana's car was found and searches were conducted all throughout Berkeley County. While in tier searchers joined law

16:26enforcement, dog handlers and horseback riders, they combed through the forest in diverse scanned bodies of water too. And still, June's family was clinging to the hope that she could be found alive. But sadly, on Wednesday, August 29, 2012, June's body was discovered in another part of Frances Marion Forest. And then the bits of all of this are first degree Alex drove near the search efforts. They were looking for the perpetrator because we, based on when we got stopped, their bodies were already found. So I think that they were like posting up on all of the roads in Monks Corner because or the bodies weren't found and they were trying to find the girls. They were found in the Frances Marion Forest, which is like, it's kind of huge, but it is in Berkeley County, probably maybe like 30 minutes from the Monks Corner area. I thought that they were

17:26just like checking people for DUIs or something like that. Like I was like, okay, like, probably just checking people making sure I'm drunk, you know, whatever it is. And then see that like the very next day. Like I didn't think anything crazy was happening. Dana and June's loved ones were left in mourning after their lives were callously taken. But the community rallied around them with support. Local businesses held events like a car wash to raise money for funeral expenses. Two local banks also set up accounts in June and Dana's name for people to make donations. Meanwhile, the investigation into the murders were ongoing. And the police still hadn't located Caleb, but obviously at this point they suspected his involvement more than ever at this point because according to an affidavit, an unnamed witness had come forward to the Sheriff's Department. And they said they had spoken to Caleb and during that conversation, he had admitted to being involved in these murders. Detectives had been able to

18:29reach him early on by phone. And Caleb had agreed to come in for a scheduled interview on September 1st. But when he failed to show up, detectives ended up going to the house that Caleb shared with the mother of his children. When they knocked on the door of the house, his girlfriend answered, and while agents were talking to her, Caleb ran out a back door. Deputies later spotted him, changing clothes outside of a dollar store. When they tried to apprehend him, a chase ensued. So, gas, Caleb led them on a foot chase, and he ran through forests, crossed busy streets, and even hopped fences to run through backyards, all in an effort to evade the police. So, after pursuing him for two miles, officers were able to surround him in a subdivision, and he was finally taken into custody. He was charged with armed robbery, two counts of possession of a weapon during a violent crime, third degree arson, for Dana's car being burned, and two counts of murder.

19:42Dana's funeral was held first on the same day that Caleb was finally arrested, and on top of being an immense day of grief, it was also a huge day in the investigation. Three days later, Arthur Chavis, Caleb Matlock's cousin, turned himself in. Now, who is this guy? Well, he apparently was there. The night the murders occurred, and he admitted that to the police. He agreed to talk to them, and as a result, he too faced multiple charges, including two counts of murder. So, when he spoke to investigators, he just kind of told them everything, and with the information from Arthur, finally, all of the puzzle pieces about what happened that night were coming together. We told you that June and Caleb dated in middle school, and recently the two of them had gotten back in touch. In fact, Caleb's girlfriend and the mother of his children had actually broken up with him after discovering that he and June were texting about rekindling their romance.

20:45Right. And it's unclear as to whether or not that played a role in Caleb selecting Dana and June for what happened next. So, on the night of the murders, Dana and June picked up Caleb and Arthur. Now, this explains the unnamed friend that Dana mentioned to her mom on the phone that night. It seems that Dana didn't have a connection to Caleb. She just happened to be driving and hanging out with June that night. So, when the four of them met up, the guys basically lured Dana and June out to the Francis Marion National Forest off Highway 402 in Quartzville, which still is in Berkeley County. They got them out there under the guys that Caleb had lost his wallet there and needed help looking for it. However, they had much more twisted intentions of killing and robbing the girls. Once secluded in the forest, Dana and June were shot in the back of the head. Obviously, killing for robbery is senseless, no matter who it happens to or why it

21:49happens. But in this case, it's even more confusing. Like we said, Dana was a student with a part-time job and June was a single mom working as a cashier at Walmart. Neither of them exactly makes sense for being the targets of a violent robbery. Like a regular robbery is one thing awful, but like a robbery resulting in murder, like it makes no sense. June didn't even have her wallet on her that night, but the men did steal Dana's wallet. It's pretty unthinkable and unbelievable. But Dana had called her mom or her grandmother, one of the two, to say that her and June, her friend, were giving somebody a ride and that's when they never heard from her again. And they were shot both of them in the back of the head. So they robbed and shot them. And then the guy that did kill them was 24 or 25. So like just an idiot. After the killing, the two men left Dana at the scene.

22:53They put June's body in Dana's car and then drove 10 miles north. She was left in a heavily wooded location that the locals referred to as the black hole. Surprisingly, Caleb Matlock didn't have a criminal record before this, but Arthur Chavis did. He had been previously arrested for shoplifting back in 2007. Then in April of 2011, he was arrested and convicted for third-degree burglary. During that incident, Chavis and some friends broke into a house and stole chainsaws and a generator. While there, they also cooked themselves food and rented four adult movies on the home satellite dish account. Chavis was eventually sentenced to 18 months probation and 60 hours of community service. He had been on probation when Dana and June were murdered. And even though these are concerning crimes, it's hard to believe that you would go from things like burglary and shoplifting and make the jump to murder. And apparently like people who knew these guys

23:55did not believe they were capable of something like this. Especially since the men knew June and Caleb even dated her back in the day. June's family, as you can imagine, was an absolute shock by the fact that her murderer was someone who would spend time in their house and with them when they were kids. Over the next two years, everybody was gearing up for the two men's trials. Caleb's was set to begin in the summer of 2014. However, just before jury selection was set to begin, he decided to change his plea to guilty. And during his plea hearing, Dana and June's family gave victim impact statements and addressed Caleb directly. Dana's mother said this, Why did you pick these girls? You knew we were searching for Dana and June, but you said nothing. You didn't just ruin your own lives. You have scarred the hearts of parents, grandparents, siblings, and friends. You've managed to make a community feel unsafe in their own backyards. Now, June's mom also spoke and said this of the time that she knew Caleb and allowed him into their

25:01home. You come to our house, we babysat you. You can't even tell us why you did this to June. I still have to live with my daughter asking where June is at, meaning her other daughter. You get to live your life while we work every day and pay for you to have three meals a day, lights while we are struggling to take care of a little girl that doesn't have her mother anymore. And of course, they're talking about June's daughter, their granddaughter. Then it was Caleb's turn to speak. He claimed that he wanted to avoid going to trial to spare the family from going through this anymore and he was ready to give them closure. He said this, Truth is, this eats me up inside. It always has. Sorry doesn't even cut it, but I am. I'm really sorry. I'm going to live the rest of my life and hell whether it's living or not. But this obviously did little to comfort the families and June's sister said this. You want to do the right thing. The right thing is you should have let her come home to us. You could have had that car.

26:01We could have replaced the car, but we can't replace her life. In the end, the judge sentenced Caleb to two 55-year sentences to run concurrently. And he must serve at least 85% of that time before a possible release. According to his inmate records, his projected release date is August 19, 2067. Arthur was set to testify against Caleb if he had gone to trial. Instead, he pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter, possession of a weapon during a violent crime in armed robbery. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison with credit for the time served and his projected release date as November of 2033. Even though the murder charges were dropped against Arthur, right, because he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, the girl's family is still very much considered Arthur to be as culpable for these killings as Caleb. Dana's mother said this. She gave a statement during his sentence saying too. She said, you might not have pulled the trigger that night,

27:05but you might as well have. Dana and June have all our hearts and memories as you slowly age in a jail cell. I hope for your safety, you've learned a lesson not to cover for someone who's done wrong. And throughout all of this, Alex was following everything to learn what had happened to our old friend from elementary school. I followed him to see what happened with the trial because I know that a lot of trials down here like go very haywire because our like Berkeley County police department is like not the best at playing things by the book or doing things that the way that they should, but the perpetrator, he did get 55 years and I was shocked that he didn't get death penalty. But as the very least, he'll be like 70 when he gets out if he doesn't get parole or anything. I don't foresee him getting parole. While all of this was so senseless, it had a huge impact on Alex as well as the community of Berkeley County. Not like this is waiting, but like

28:05wouldn't make like, get you choices and stuff. That's I really know you like I don't really trust you like that. I'm not giving a random person a ride in my car. I'm not being nice to anybody like unless I really really know you because you just never know. Because when you're this close to something, whether it's emotionally or physically like Alex, it does change your perspective on the world around you. For Alex, Dana's murder didn't just become a story she heard about on the news. She'd been close enough to it to a knowingly drive through the middle of the investigation in scene close enough to realize how easily it could have been her and close enough to still feel the weight of this horrific crime. Because sometimes the impact of a murder reaches far beyond the victims loved ones. It can reach the people who live nearby, drove those same roads and suddenly realize how near danger really was. That proximity can change the way someone trusts strangers and sees the world around them. Because sometimes proximity to violence doesn't mean witnessing it.

29:08It means discovering afterward just how close you really are. Well, huge thank you to Alex for being our first degree for today's episode. And if you are listening out there and you have a story to tell, please email us. Hello with thefirstagreapodcast.com. You can follow us on Instagram, join our Facebook page. We're talking true crime all the time. Join the underground if you want more first degree content. Join our book club if you want to read with us. And stick around tomorrow. We'll have a brand new episode of The Deep Dive Right in Your Feed. And remember, only you can prevent serial killers. And keep your friends close, but not that close. Shout out to Jared Monaco first-growing original music for the first degree, writing a research by Jessica Quaz, sources for this epa-ser-r, live-five news, ABC News 4, post-and-currier, WB-TW News 13, the Berkeley Observer, and South Carolina inmate records.

30:12And as always, our first degree guest is always our largest source.