The case of the recent murder of Bonnie Woodring by her husband John “Woody” Woodring at the REACH battered women’s shelter in Sylva came to an abrupt and unsatisfying end days ago when police officers found the body of Woodring, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, in a houseboat at Fontana Lake.A note was found near Woodring’s body that apologized and explained that he hoped he would meet his late wife in heaven. Clutching a picture of the woman he had murdered to his chest, Woodring ended his own life.Though the details of Woodring’s life after the September 18 shooting have gone to the grave with him, he did leave several clues as to the activities that led to his demise.Shortly after the shooting, Woodring stole a neighbor’s Honda Civic and fled the state. A short time later, the Honda was found abandoned behind a bus station in Knoxville, Tennessee.Woodring didn’t stay outside of North Carolina for long, however, as made evident by the discovery of a stolen church van within walking distance of Fontana Lake, where Woodring owned a houseboat; “The Love Shack.”From there, it is suspected that Woodring was living in the forest off of stolen food, clothing, and propane from houseboats that had been reported as being broken into in the area.The combination of sobriety, the approaching winter, and the national manhunt that would have inevitably led to his capture all contributed to his final, desperate decision to commit suicide.
