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On Saturday, 58-year-old tech CEO John Kevin Woodward was arrested for the 1992 murder of Laurie Houts, the girlfriend of Woodward's then roommate.
People News reported that Woodward, the president and CEO of Readytech, was arrested on Saturday at JFK airport in New York, where he arrived from Amsterdam. After his arrest, the Netherlands-based CEO was charged with the strangulation murder of Laurie Houts, a then 25-year-old computer engineer.
Woodward had been tried twice for the murder in the late '90s, but the case was dropped after the judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence. Authorities claim that Woodward was identified as a suspect because he was jealous of Houts since he had romantic feelings for his roommate.
If convicted, John Kevin Woodward could face life in prison
How was John Kevin Woodwards charged for the murder of Laurie Houts?
In September 1992, authorities recovered the body of Laurie Houts from her car. She was strangulated and left in a remote area near Mountain View, California, where she worked. While John Woodward's fingerprints were located on the car, authorities could not prove that he was inside the vehicle.
Woodward, however, had always been a suspect in the case, owing to his unrequited feelings for his roommate, which might have triggered him to kill Houts.
The Santa Clara DA office wrote in a statement:
"(John Kevin Woodward) was openly jealous (of Laurie Houts), having developed an unrequited romantic attachment to his roommate, her boyfriend."
According to CNN, despite the fact that the cold case was dismissed back then, in 2020, authorities reviewed the evidence once again, finding further links to Woodward.
The Mountain View Police Department said in a statement:
"Over 80 latent fingerprints that were also collected at the time of Laurie's death were re-examined by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Identification Unit, which resulted in even more fingerprints matching Woodward."
Sgt. David Fisher of the Mountain View Police said that revisiting the case was a challenge, but advancements in DNA technology had uncovered new evidence which had helped them file charges.
District Attorney Jeff Rosen also discussed the lengths they had gone to in order to solve the two-decade-old case.
He said:
"I want Ms. Houts' family and friends to know that we never gave up on her. Neither time nor distance will stop us from finding out the truth and seeking justice."
As per CNN, Woodward is currently awaiting extradition from New York to California. He is being held without bail.
