Maywood Confidential: The Unsolved Murder of Police Officer Tom Wood
Most cop murders get solved. But nearly six years after Maywood police officer Tom Wood was gunned down, the killer is still at large and the investigation is in shambles. Who murdered him and why aren’t the only nagging questions
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Tom and Helene Wood with their children at Disney World in 2002
The night of October 23, 2006, was unseasonably cold, in the 30s, with a dusting of snow in some areas. At 10:49, with just 11 minutes left until the end of his shift, Tom Wood responded to one last dispatch: an unspecified problem around a storefront parking lot near South Fifth Avenue and Madison Street.
Robert Welch, then a Maywood police officer who was in a separate car, responded to the call too. Finding no signs of trouble, Welch headed back to the station. Wood, with Daro in back, kept driving along Fifth Avenue. “I assumed he was going home,” says Welch.
Instead, Wood swung by the intersection of Sixth Avenue and Erie Street, the same residential block where hours earlier he had been dispatched on a drug traffic call. He pulled over near a battered two-story house, at 319 North Sixth Avenue, with a reputation among cops for gang and drug trouble. Police sources indicate that he ran the license plate of a white Pontiac Grand Prix parked in front. He called Maywood police dispatch at least twice shortly after 11 o’clock. According to law enforcement sources, around that time, for unknown reasons, he also called a woman who was dating an admitted Maywood gang member.
Investigators generally agree that Wood was in his SUV, talking through his partially opened window to someone in the street—likely someone he knew—who then opened fire. A man who lives a few houses away, Robert Novak, recalls hearing shots around 11:15. Novak says he went outside barefoot to see what happened and ran over to Wood’s SUV.
Novak had plenty of experience with emergencies; he had been a Maywood cop until 1997, when he left the department following unspecified complaints. Novak says that he found Wood’s bullet-riddled body slumped in the driver’s seat. The taillights indicated that the SUV was not in park; Wood’s foot was still on the brake. Novak says he reached inside and shifted the vehicle into park to prevent it from rolling. Daro was in the back, unharmed. Over $600 was later found on Wood’s body, so robbery was considered unlikely.
The first Maywood cops arrived almost immediately. Inexplicably, they allowed Novak to linger in the area for a while, sources say. “I helped them look for evidence,” Novak admits. “I made coffee.”
But Novak quickly became a suspect, and not just because of his presence on the scene. It turned out he had had previous run-ins with Wood that prompted him to complain to Wood’s bosses. And records show that the police were at Novak’s home 81 times since 1999, on calls ranging from disputes with neighbors to domestic troubles; Wood was among the officers who responded to these often-contentious calls.
Within hours of Wood’s killing, say police sources, Novak was handcuffed, questioned extensively, and polygraphed. His house was searched, his skin tested was for gunshot residue, and his .380 handgun was checked to see if it was the murder weapon.
The gun wasn’t a match. And while tests found gunshot residue on Novak’s body, there was a plausible explanation: He had reached into Wood’s SUV, which had residue everywhere. And the polygraph? Novak says investigators told him that he had failed, but he suspects they were just trying to trick him into confessing. (He was never charged, and officials say he is no longer a suspect.)
If allowing a potential suspect to linger at a crime scene was a serious error in judgment, the errors were just beginning. The scene “was just chaos,” according to one police officer who was there. Maywood officers, without a warrant, kicked in the door of a home on the block and conducted a search while terrified occupants cowered. Ultimately, the police department apologized.
Photograph: Courtesy of Wood Family
This article appears in the September 2012 issue of Chicago magazine.
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At what point does IDLE get really involved? Isn't the wife and family of a police officer who was known to be a "good cop" and gave his life being a good cop worth the effort?
Amen! Way to go BGA! So the truth unfolds. It's about time the civilians of Maywood adhere the truth. They are entitled to that. Evidently, the Yarbrough’s and several others pay to play. Sadly, they propose no support to their very own people whereas relieving your own people out of the slums appears not of interest or concern. What an embarrassing disgrace. BTW- Leave the police department out it! After reading these articles, tragically those poor officers risk their lives everyday for the suffering that you “defiant elected officials” continue to breed/produce. A dog is by far more loyal and that’s without training. These articles remind me of the Hurricane Katrina whereas the citizens of Louisiana “The Super Dome” became trapped with no help or relief for several days. In Maywood’s case- for several years. The citizens of Maywood are in a dome with no economical relief. With years to come these articles conclude how Maywood’s “defiant elected officials” will continue benefitting themselves by abusing their powers of the community. Instead of making officers drive trustees to the airport for security purposes as shown on the news a few months ago (I guess defiant officials some how some way became famous celebrities overnight) what they should have been doing was setting up a fundraiser for Tom Wood’s Reward instead of taking trips that regard unrelated business matters. Six long years have gone by and not one of these village individuals processed a thought of compassion in the behalf of Tom Wood to accumulate funds for the sake of their fallen officer. Here comes the BGA in 2012 and now they want to put on their performance gear.
Another Maywood Resident.......
Thank you Chicago Magazine and BGA / Fox for the coverage. There are those in the town who have said they did not care for it because it displayed the town's dirty laundry. It's an attitude that seems to plague towns where the leadership is black and to a lesser degree Hispanic. I say hog wash! Corruption where ever it exists, regardless of color, needs and should be rooted out.
I am left with the thought: is this due to political influence, racism or class, that authorities such as Judy Bar Topinka and Anita Alvarez are not compelled to do their jobs? Their offices seem to be unconcerned about the long suffering plight of a majority - minority municipality. If this were River Forest or No. Riverside (their towns) would they tolerate this type of abuse, neglect and illegal behavior?! You show me a town where crime exists and I will show you a town where the police are crooks and the administration is corrupt!
• Who allows the president of a town to vote on an economic development project (e.g.; the grocery store and the Baptist Retirement Home) that personally benefits him and his family?!
• Who allows a trustee of a town to vote on police fire and pension issues when they personally benefit?!
• In a town of 24,000, why is there a law firm paid in the millions of dollars?
• The people of the town voted to consolidate all parks into the existing Maywood Park District (separate tax district) and to convey all buildings and land immediately; 4 years and waiting!
• $1million dollars later we still have an unfinished Park District Building with no indication when, if ever, it will be open!
• How does a local HUD sponsored housing agency (with board members appointed by the Mayor of the Village of Maywood) guilty of corruption, resulting in the termination of the Executive Director for thousands of dollars in theft, still exist and not be taken over by HUD?!
• Why has there been no annual report regarding the use of Tiff Funds?
The hard working citizens of this town deserve better.
I agree sloppiness and poor judgement have marred the current
office holders' accomplishments in Maywood in recent years, but ask any reasonable long-term Maywoodian and you will hear how much worse it was before 2005.
I moved to Maywood in April, 2005, the same month H. Yarbrough became mayor. He and the more engaged trustees (they haven't all been particularly effortful) have improved the village by:
(1) Systematically getting rid of do-nothing or problematic cops through the Maywood Police Board. Firing the very deficient male
police chief of that era helped here.
(2) Cooperating with and supporting Maywood CeaseFire, which brought down shockingly high murder rates, which peaked in 2003 at ~20, according to ABC TV.
(3) Demolishing structures which would cost too much to restore or
were unsound, paving streets, installing new lighting, etc.
Since I walk to Maywood from Forest Park (where I now live) two to three times a week, I can see the differences, even down to loitering and littering. I'm more inclined to believe in the veracity of specific documentation supporting accusations, rather
than the merely anecdotal.
This article's content was not up to my standards: often too vague, apocryphal, emphasizing points not of the highest priority in solving a struggling community's real and continuing problems.
Let's employ more scrutiny of Stone Park and Melrose Park, nearby villages which long have been deemed corrupt, and not only focus on Maywood.
Meanwhile, I applaud the BGA under Andy Shaw for being far more active than it was previously: shining a light on public bodies has always been necessary.
Amber Ladeira
After hearing so much about this article and finally reading it, I find myself wondering what the focus or objective of this piece is. It is unclear what Robert Herguth and Dane Placko hoped to accomplish in writing it. Are they attempting to express outrage for the killing of a police officer? Because if they are, then several of the implications about said officer muddy the waters.
Are the authors intending to engender sympathy for the widow, who was clearly wronged by the murder of her husband? Because if that is the case, the references to psychics are somewhat confusing.
Is the point of the article to indict the Maywood police department? Because the chief of police presiding at the time of the killing and during the investigation is long gone and blaming the current police chief for the sins of his predecessor doesn't make much sense.
Maybe the point of the article is to notify the residents of Maywood that there are problems in government in their town. But if that is the case, Robert Herguth and Dane Placko are a little late, because I defy them to find anyone who has lived here for a minute who couldn't educate them on that point.
So, as a reader, I am at a loss as to what was to be achieved by writing this article. But as a Maywood resident one thing I am clear on is that beating up on Maywood has become trendy in the local press. As if we are the only town in Illinois with an unsolved murder on the books or questionable politics.
And that is what I am really struggling to understand. I was raised to believe that the press in this country existed for the greater good of the people. That the freedoms and protections granted them in our Constitution were there to allow them to uncover truth and inform the populace. But when Chicago Magazine publishes an article of this caliber, that is all over the place, that quotes a former police officer who was dismissed amid murder and drug allegations without even mentioning that fact and makes a mockery of the very victims of the crime they purport to expose, I have to wonder what the state of journalism has come to.
If Chicago magazine wants to help the people of Maywood or show any guts whatsoever, why don't they do a story on what Maywood has to offer in the real estate market, a topic it frequently covers. While Maywood is far from perfect, it is actually a wonderful place to live, close to mass transit, the Eisenhower expressway, O'Hare airport and only 15-30 minutes from downtown depending on traffic. The housing stock here is excellent; many of the homes in our town are built of materials that would be extremely cost prohibitive today and are of historical and architectural significance. Not to mention that due to the devastating effects of predatory lending on minority communities, many of those homes are in foreclosure and can be purchased for less than $50,000. Home buyers could live mortgage free in the friendliest community that I have ever lived in. A place where you know your neighbors, they actually speak to you and if you need to speak with the Mayor, you can.
But let's be realistic, that kind of reporting isn't sensational. That kind of reporting could actually help solve the problems of a struggling, hopeful community instead of kicking it in the teeth.