Gone in a Blink
There are an estimated 8 billion people in the world. In the US, approximately 2,300 people go missing every day. While some of those cases may be of their own accord, others are because of something far more sinister. Gone in a Blink is a true crime podcast that dives head first into the most mysterious and terrifying missing person cases in existence. Hosts Heather and Danielle take a deep look into some of the most horrific missing person cases that will leave you on the edge of your seat and absolutely terrified at just how fast a person can be Gone in a Blink.
Gone in a Blink
Unseen Evil: The Tragic Abduction of Hailey Owens
What if you witnessed a terrible crime and couldn't stop it? Join us as we recount the excruciatingly tragic case of 10-year-old Hailey Owens, whose life was brutally cut short on February 18, 2014. Hailey's abduction by Craig Wood, despite heroic efforts by eyewitnesses Carlos and Michelle Edwards, led to a frantic investigation and a heartbreaking conclusion. This episode takes you through the chilling timeline of that fateful day, the relentless hunt for her abductor, and the gut-wrenching discovery that left a community shattered.
We'll also explore Craig Michael Wood's troubling background and the shocking discrepancies that led to him working around children despite his dark inclinations. As we dissect the trial that ended in his death sentence, we also touch upon the arrest of Haley's stepfather for unrelated charges, casting an even darker shadow over this story. Hear about the community's emotional recovery, including the creation of Haley's Law and the dedication of Haley's Playground, as we honor Haley's memory and reflect on the enduring impact of her tragic story. Share your thoughts and personal stories with us, and join our discussion on this haunting case that continues to resonate deeply.
Credits:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Hailey_Owens
https://sgfcitizen.org/government/crime/murderer-of-hailey-owens-fights-death-sentence/
https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/crime/2019/02/10/hailey-owens-abduction-murder-springfield-missouri-5-years/2518034002/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6512813/Stepfather-slain-girl-sentenced-prison-child-porn.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/slain-missouri-girl-in-heaven-with-angel-wings/
Music:
Crime Trap by Muza Production
Left for Dead by Shadows and Echoes
Super Deep Grief by Samuel F. Johanns
Aurora by Beat Waves
Gone in a Blink is created by Heather Hicks and Danielle E.
Written and produced by Heather Hicks and hosted by Danielle E. and Heather Hicks.
Gone in a Blink theme: Crime Trap created and produced by Muzaproduction
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Thanks for joining us on the airwaves. And remember......Be Safe, Be Smart, and Try Not to Blink.
There's nothing more horrific than the murder of a child, that type of innocence that's stolen from a form of personified evil that knows no boundaries and instead uses a child's innocence for their own sick and twisted pleasure, only to quite literally throw them away when they are done. How can one's life be that meaningless to another human being, especially the life of an innocent child? At just 10 years old, 4th grader, haley Owens was playing with Barbies and filling her room with stuffed animals and making friendship bracelets with her friends. She made plans to go over to her friend's house that afternoon, but evil, the one with no boundaries, the one with the sick and twisted fantasy, would be stalking her, waiting for just the right moment to grab what was never his to take. This is the case of 10-year-old Haley Owens, and this is Gone in a Blink. Hey, true crime fans, I'm your host, heather, and welcome to episode 24 of Gone in a Blink. Today we are covering a case out of Springfield, missouri. Today we are talking about the tragic murder of 10-year-old Haley Owens. I do want to warn you that this case may be hard for some listeners to hear, as the events that unfolded in this case are nothing short of horrific. Listener, discretion is advised is advised.
Speaker 1:Haley Owens was born on August 18, 2003 in Springfield, missouri, to parents Stacey Barfield and Ryan Owens. At the time of her disappearance, haley was a fourth grader at Westport Elementary and was described by her mother as always smiling and always eager to help anyone she could. She loved helping her mother babysit and was really great with little kids. On the afternoon of February 18, 2014, haley asked her mother if she could walk to her best friend's house, and that was located less than two blocks from her home. Haley's mother, stacy, decided that since it was only a short distance from their home, what could it hurt? So she let her go. Haley played with her friend and then, around 5 pm, she made her way home.
Speaker 1:Nearby residents, carlos and Michelle Edwards, were outside in their garage after finishing up some yard work when they saw Haley walk by Soon. After they spotted a gold Ford Ranger that had seemed to circle the block several times before finally pulling over near the couple's driveway, the man driving the truck called out to Haley, asking her for directions. As Haley began to walk closer to the truck, the man grabbed her, threw her into the truck and then sped away, and Carlos and Michelle had witnessed this entire thing, and while Michelle wrote down the license plate number, carlos took off after the truck on foot and another neighbor who also witnessed the incident, jumped in his vehicle and tried to follow the gold truck. Unfortunately, neither Carlos nor the other neighbor were able to catch up to the man. Everything happened so incredibly fast that by the time the neighbor jumped in his vehicle and began chasing the truck, the truck was already five to six cars ahead of him, making it impossible at that point for him to catch up. Making it impossible at that point for him to catch up. Carlos ran after the truck until he was blocked by a drainage ditch. Michelle called 911 with a perfect description of the truck, the man driving it and the license plate info which Michelle can still, to this day, recite, and I'm sure that this is something that will stay with her for the rest of her life. Carlos started knocking on doors around the neighborhood in an attempt to find Haley's parents. Both men still deal with the guilt of not being able to stop this unspeakable act from happening. However, both are considered heroes for their quick actions and being willing to step in and try to save Haley.
Speaker 1:Michelle's quick actions led officers to track the license plate info to the home of Jim and Regina Wood in Ashgrove, which is approximately 21.5 miles northwest of Springfield. The Woods told police that their son, craig Wood, was the main driver of the Gold Ford Ranger. Officers raced to Craig Wood's tiny home on Stanford Street. It had only been just a few hours since the abduction. In a February 2019 article published by the News Leader published by the News Leader, officer Eric Reese remembers that fateful night of February 18, 2014 like it was yesterday. It was Reese's first night as a patrol lieutenant for the Springfield PD. Michelle Edwards' 911 call came in and Reese was sent to Haley's home on Lombard Street. So in an article by the Newsleader, lieutenant Reese recalls quote I spent five years working crimes against children, so I know that when you have a stranger abduction, you usually have no more than 90 minutes to recover the child before they're usually murdered. So we knew the clock was ticking, unquote.
Speaker 1:Officers began searching the entire area around Haley's house and interviewing neighbors. Meanwhile, detectives, including Lieutenant Reese, raced over to the home of Craig Wood Around 8.30 pm. Officers were waiting outside. When Wood pulled into the driveway, he was immediately arrested and thrown into the back of a patrol car while detectives went inside the house. Detectives entered the home through an open back door to perform what they refer to as a safety sweep, and this is basically an attempt to see if they could find Haley alive inside the home. When they realized that Haley was not responding as they called out for her, officers located a set of stairs just inside the back door leading down into an unfinished basement. There was a big fan blowing down there and the smell of bleach was unbelievably overwhelming. As they slowly began their descent down the stairs, they continue to call out for Haley. Once they neared the bottom of the stairs, they could see three Rubbermaid storage totes in the middle of the basement floor. Lieutenant Reese recalls quote there were these three perfectly stacked Rubbermaid tubs right in the middle of the floor, only one probably being big enough for Haley to fit in. Obviously, it stood out because everything else was wet and they really weren't. Unquote. In the same article by Newsleader Reese recalls that officers were then faced with a very difficult decision Do they look inside their tubs to check if Haley's body was inside, or do they back out of the house and obtain a search warrant? Okay, reese is quoted as saying quote we had a debate in the room, the CIS homicide sergeant decided that we back out because if she was in there she was obviously not going to be alive. So we better wait and get a search warrant and make it clean and do it the right way, versus having an issue later on. Unquote.
Speaker 1:Early the following morning, haley's parents and the entire Springfield community's worst fears came true. Haley's body was found inside two garbage bags stuffed inside a plastic tub in the basement of Craig Woods' home. She had been tortured, raped and shot in the back of the head. Marks were also found on her wrists, which was a clear indication that she had been tied up. Police later obtained video surveillance footage of Craig Wood dumping clothing that belonged to Haley in a dumpster. Surveillance footage was also obtained from an area Walmart store where he was seen buying two bottles of bleach.
Speaker 1:The entire Springfield community was in absolute shock at this point. In the hours since Haley's abduction, she had become everyone's daughter. Everyone, both inside and outside the parameters of Springfield, missouri, were grieving for this little girl. In the days following Haley's abduction, her yard became a makeshift memorial. In the days following Haley's abduction, her yard became a makeshift memorial, having been created for Haley by the many grieving citizens who came to offer their condolences and leave stuffed animals or candles.
Speaker 1:A longtime Springfield resident and music promoter, joe Bridges, had participated in the search efforts before Haley's body had been discovered. After Haley's body was found, bridges decided that he needed to do something for the people that were in so much pain over the news of her death, so he created a Facebook event for friends and family to honor Haley by orchestrating a small candlelight march that following Saturday. The turnout was absolutely astonishing. There were more than 3,000 people signed up to attend the event, and that was way more than Bridges had anticipated. There was only one group of uninvited guests who threatened to protest the march, and it was that of an antagonistic group that some may have heard of called the Westboro Baptist Church, and, for those of our listeners who may not be familiar with them, they are basically a group of haters that call themselves a quote unquote church, who go to funerals and candlelight vigils and concerts and anything any kind of gathering and concerts and anything, any kind of gathering, basically and they protest against the event, no matter what the event is. They spread hate in the name of their so-called church, and they pretty much threatened to do that with the vigil to honor young Haley Owens. So it just so happened that when it came time to leave their hotel to head out to the protest, they were unable to make it out of the parking lot of the hotel due to a tow truck who had stalled right inside the entrance. Nobody could get in, nobody could get out. So it seems this type of thing happens a lot in response to the Westboro Baptist Church's threats when they threat to protest events such as these, and basically the community definitely steps up and protects its own against these type of evil.
Speaker 1:So on the other side of this horrific tragedy was Jim Wood, the father of murderer Craig Wood. Jim was in total disbelief that his son could commit such a heinous act and of course he didn't want to believe that his son was capable of something like this. So in the beginning Craig lied to his father, telling him that the police had it all wrong and that he was innocent, and blah, blah, blah. But Jim knew better and he could see it in his eyes that his son had done the unthinkable. So who is Craig Wood?
Speaker 1:As much as I would rather talk about the victim in this case and who she was, it is important to go into the murderer's background and discuss what drove him to commit such a crime and what kind of access he may have had to Haley and or other children. So Craig Michael Wood was 49 years old when he abducted Haley. He worked as a paraprofessional at an elementary school in the Springfield area and had worked for 16 years as a youth football coach at Pleasant View Middle School. He was also in charge of supervising student suspensions and also worked as a teacher's aide as well as a substitute teacher. So basically he spent a lot of time around children, too much time around children. So Wood did have a criminal record dating back to 1990 when he pled guilty of being found with a controlled substance and then he was just fined $100 for that. And then in 2001, he was convicted of stealing wildlife, which was a misdemeanor, and I didn't find anything mentioning what exactly that entailed. But other than those two offenses, there is nothing that shows that Craig Wood had ever been convicted of anything having to do with being inappropriate with children, and he wasn't on any kind of sex offender registry. So I find this very strange Haley was an absolute stranger to him, and the fact that he was a school district employee and had worked with so many kids, completely shocked the town of Springfield to its core. I'm having a lot of trouble, though, believing that a crime such as this was his first, his first murder and his first sexual encounter with a child, and that's putting it mildly, because what he did to that poor little girl was absolutely horrific, to say the least. Police did discover more than a dozen firearms at his residence, along with child pornography. Among the items found were stories he had written involving sexual fantasies with 13-year-old girls and, even more disturbing if you can even get more disturbing officers discovered four pictures of young female students who attended the same school where Wood had been employed. There were no reports that I have found that any of those photos were of Haley.
Speaker 1:Wood's trial began October 30th 2017, and prosecutors decided undoubtedly to seek the death penalty. The defense tried to argue that while Woods did commit the crimes he was accused of, they had not been premeditated, but I wholeheartedly disagree with that. So they also claimed that Woods was using meth and that he had an addiction to porn, also claiming that Haley resembled Wood's ex girlfriend and that he had been incredibly distraught since the breakup. So, seriously, I feel like the defense was really reaching for straws with this. In my personal opinion, there is no excuse in the world that could defend what this monster did to Haley Owens. The defense even tried to argue that there was a conflict of interest in the case involving the judge because Judge Mountjoy was a member of the community, and that the judge considered the entire Springfield community to be a victim of Haley's murder. Again, the defense was just reaching for straws in this case, in my opinion. So apparently, though, the defense failed because on November 2nd 2017, a jury found Craig Wood guilty of first degree murder. However, the jury could not reach a unanimous decision for the death penalty, so the judge was left to decide on his sentence. Ultimately, on January 11th 2018, judge Thomas Mountjoy sentenced Craig Wood to death by lethal injection. According to an article in the Springfield Daily Citizen, missouri and Indiana are the only two states in which the judge has the authorization to sentence a person to death. Currently, craig Wood is sitting in the Greene County Jail trying to appeal his death sentence.
Speaker 1:Then, in a shocking twist, according to an article published December 19th 2017 by the Daily Mail, so this was before Craig Wood was handed his death sentence by the judge, jeff Barfield, who is Haley's stepfather, was arrested and charged with child pornography and sentenced to seven years in prison. His defense was that he wanted to see if there were any images of his stepdaughter that had been posted online after her murder. Claimed to be trying to help law enforcement by socializing with adults online who are attracted to underage kids in order to learn their true identities, and then hand that information over to law enforcement. Really, how in the hell can anyone do that? First of all, but especially after what had happened to his own stepdaughter, it really makes you question whether Haley may have been subjected to something by him before she was abducted. I want to make it clear, though he hasn't been convicted or accused of anything regarding Haley, and an investigator did tell the Daily Mail that Haley was not a victim of Barfield's crimes. However, it does really make you wonder, and his indictment does state that the crime started back in January of 2012. That was two years before Haley's abduction. There was also a claim by Barfield that he had accidentally uploaded child porn to a website while he was on meth. Uploaded child porn to a website while he was on meth Okay, first of all, how does that even happen? By accident, you would actually have had to have child pornography on your computer to be able to upload it quote unquote accidentally to a website. So that, in my opinion, is a bold-faced lie. Secondly, why is everyone on meth? Everyone is on meth. Everyone's using that as a defense. That seems to be a common denominator between Craig Wood's defense and now Jeff Barfield's defense.
Speaker 1:After the murder, haley's mother and Wood's father formed an unlikely bond, working together to form Haley's Law in 2019, a law that would speed up the Amber Alert system for missing children. People united from all over the country and beyond to honor Haley by leaving on their porch light and changing it to purple, which was one of Haley's favorite colors. A neighborhood park was later dedicated in memory of Haley. It is called Haley's Playground. Michelle and Carlos Edwards, however, still beat themselves up about it every day, wondering if they could have done more to save Haley. Michelle has since had to go on anti-anxiety medications and some days even had to call into work when the grief just became too much for her to bear. While Carlos and Michelle have considered moving to get away from the terrible images that haunts them every single day, they are consoled by the fact that Haley's family and much of the Springfield community consider them as heroes. If it wasn't for their quick response and taking action to identify the truck and license plate info, haley's killer may never have been caught. License plate info Haley's killer may never have been caught, leaving this evil monster to prey on another unsuspecting child.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to another episode of Gone in a Blink. This story was probably one of the most difficult cases to cover. The tragedy that unfolded that day and the pure evilness of this crime is just unfathomable to me. If you'd like to share your thoughts about this case or any of the cases we cover, please consider following us on any of our social media sites and I will post those links on our show notes. And if you have an idea for a case you'd like us to cover or you have a loved one who was murdered or missing, please drop us an email at goneinablinkpod at gmailcom. And last but not least, always remember be safe, be smart and try not to blink.
