Murder of Kacie Woody

Kacie Woody
A smiling young preteen/teen girl with long, wavy brown hair and wearing a light blue striped shirt
Undated school portrait of Kacie
Born(1989-10-17)October 17, 1989
Little Rock, Arkansas, United States
DiedDecember 4, 2002(2002-12-04) (aged 13)
Conway, Arkansas, United States
Cause of deathGunshot wound to the head
Body discoveredDecember 4, 2002
Resting placeSouth Crossroads Church Cemetery, Rose Bud, Arkansas[1]
EducationGreenbrier Middle School
OccupationStudent
Known forVictim of catfishing and murder by an online predator
WebsiteMemorial website

Kacie Rene Woody (October 17, 1989 – December 4, 2002) was an American teenager from Holland, Arkansas, who was lured, abducted, and murdered by 47-year-old David Leslie Fuller[2] from La Mesa, California. She had met Fuller, who claimed to be a 17-year-old named Dave Fagen living in San Diego,[3] in a Yahoo! Messenger Christian chat room for teens. Fuller traveled to Arkansas and abducted Kacie from her home on the night of December 3, 2002. The next day, the bodies of both Kacie and Fuller were found in the rear of a minivan inside a storage unit in Conway; Fuller had shot himself as law enforcement closed in on the unit.[4]

Kacie's case is possibly the first well-documented case of a pedophile using the Internet to groom, abduct, and murder a victim,[citation needed] being featured on the Investigation Discovery documentary shows Web of Lies[5] and Man with a Van,[6] and the podcast Crime Junkie. After Kacie's murder, her friends and family founded the Kacie Woody Foundation to educate parents and children about the dangers associated with the Internet.

  1. ^ "Kacie Woody obituary". Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  2. ^ "David Fuller obituary". Legacy.com. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  3. ^ Frye, Cathy (December 17, 2003). "Caught in the Web part IV: But not forgotten". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  4. ^ Wiese, Kelly (December 6, 2002). "Ark. Police Find Girl, Man Dead in Unit". Associated Press. Conway, Arkansas. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
  5. ^ Investigation Discovery (January 15, 2014). "Web of Lies: Age, Sex, Location". Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  6. ^ Investigation Discovery (February 20, 2020). "Man With a Van: Catfish Killer". Retrieved December 9, 2021.