Kacie Woody

**Kacie Rene Woody** (October 17, 1989 – December 4, 2002) was a 13-year-old girl from Arkansas who was abducted and murdered by a man she met online, 47-year-old David Fuller, in December 2002. Fuller had posed as a 17-year-old boy named David “Dave” Fagen online.

## Background

12-year-old Kacie had befriended Fuller, who gave the false identity of a 17-year-old boy named Dave Fagen, in a Yahoo Christian chat room for teens either on New Year’s Eve 2001 or in the summer of 2002 (accounts vary). She had lost her mother in a vehicular accident when she was 7, and told Dave the story. Dave, who was from California, told Kacie that he had an aunt who was comatose from a recent car accident and also happened to live in Arkansas. Kacie felt sympathy for him and related her feelings of losing a family member in a car accident.

Kacie's friends were concerned about her befriending and giving her phone number to people she only knew online, and one of them believed that Dave was older than he'd said he was, as he used outdated slang when they talked over the phone. Kacie's father was aware of the fact that she talked to boys online, but believed that she was safe as long as she was home and the boys were elsewhere. However, he became concerned when Kacie told him that Dave was turning 18, telling her that he was too old for her and to stop talking to him. Kacie disobeyed this, and began talking to Dave over the phone more frequently instead of through instant messaging.

## Case

On the night of December 3, 2002, Kacie was home alone as her father was on duty as a police officer, her brother was doing research at a college library and her brother’s live-in friend was at a night class. Her aunt, who lived on the same street nearby, was at her daughter’s basketball game. At the time Kacie was instant messaging on the computer with another online friend who lived in Georgia, and at 9:41 PM (time zone not specified), her messages with him suddenly stopped.

He’d quickly become concerned, and continued messaging Kacie trying to get her to return or one of her family members to see the messages, and emailed one of her school friends about the situation. When he tried calling her house no one answered. When Kacie’s brother later returned to the home he noticed Kacie’s disappearance and then called her father, who returned home and called for backup.

The FBI, the Arkansas state police and every law enforcement agency in Arkansas investigated Kacie’s disappearance. When they learned about Dave and the fact that he’d claimed to have an aunt in Arkansas, they began searching the area for anyone named David or with the initials D.F. from California. They saw a Buick Regal with a California license plate at a local Motel 6, and learned from motel management that it belonged to a man named David Fuller, who requested no maid service and repeatedly complained about the Internet connection. When they checked his room they saw that the bed hadn’t been slept in and that Fuller had brought camoflague clothing.

When law enforcement subpoenaed Fuller’s records, they learned that the phone number he’d registered with matched one repeatedly dialed from the Woody phone, that he’d rented a minivan and that his credit card had been used at GuardSmart Storage (now StoreSmart Self Storage) in Conway. “Dave Fagen” and David Fuller were confirmed to be the same person, and authorities now had a suspect in Kacie’s disappearance.

When investigators arrived at Fuller’s unit, the door was down but unlocked. When it was lifted a gunshot was fired from inside, and law enforcement called for backup. When a SWAT team arrived a few hours later, they stormed the storage unit and found Fuller lying behind the minivan, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Kacie, also deceased, lay supine in the rear of the minivan with her wrists and ankles chained to the corners of the van’s floor, after having been raped and shot in the head by Fuller. Investigators found a half-empty bottle of chloroform and a rag next to her head. A medical examiner learned that the chloroform was used to sedate Kacie and that she likely was unconscious from when she was abducted to when she was murdered.

After learning of Kacie’s murder, her family and friends founded the *Kacie Woody Foundation* in order to educate parents and children on the dangers of the Internet. Kacie is buried in Crossroads Cemetery in Rose Bud, Arkansas, next to her mother. Her story has been profiled on the TV shows *Web of Lies* and *Man With a Van*.

## News

*For news articles on Kacie Woody, see here*

## Popular media

### TV shows

* Age, Sex, Location • Web of Lies (2014)
* Catfish Killer • Man With a Van (2020)

### Podcasts

* MURDERED: Kacie Woody • Crime Junkie (2019)

### Other

* Caught in the Web • Cathy Frye, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (2003)

## Sources

* *Kacie Woody Foundation*
* *Caught in the Web*, a documentary on Kacie’s life and murder written by journalist Cathy Frye
* *Web of Lies* episode on Kacie’s story
* *Man With a Van* episode on Kacie’s story