On March 22, 2018, Alex Woodworth was stabbed 16 times in the head, neck, groin and torso in Ezra McCandless' car in Spring Brook, Wisconsin. McCandless was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2020 for the murder.
Murder
On March 22, 2018, McCandless turned up unannounced and saw
ex-boyfriend Jason Mengel at Racy D'Lenes Coffee Lounge in Eau Claire. She was
seen on the coffee shop's security footage. Mengel later mentioned that
McCandless had seemed agitated. McCandless left the coffee shop and went to
visit Woodworth at his house, as she claimed she had some items to return to
him. Mengel said that he felt there was something odd about the way she was
acting and things she had said.
Mengel rode his bike to Woodworth’s house in an attempt to
find McCandless and spotted her 2003 Chevy Impala outside, the car's engine
still running. While waiting for McCandless, he was seen outside pacing back
and forth by a passerby, who thought it looked suspicious and phoned the
police. After waiting for around 45 minutes, Mengel went inside the house
without knocking. He stated that he found McCandless and Woodworth in the
middle of a conversation. He walked back outside to wait for them to finish
talking and was met by the Eau Claire police. Mengel explained to the officers
that he was there because he was concerned about McCandless, as “she was not acting like herself”. In
police dash cam footage, an officer can then be seen speaking to Woodworth
outside of his house, who is standing next to McCandless’s car. McCandless was
sitting in her car in the driver’s seat, but is not visible in the video. At about
1:05 pm, satisfied that there was not a problem, the officers and Mengel left.
This was the last time he saw Woodworth alive.
A few hours later, about 4:15 pm, McCandless knocked on the
door of dairy farmer Don Sipple, in Spring Brook, near Eau Claire. She was
covered in mud, blood and bruises, and barefoot. She asked for a doctor,
claiming she was a victim of an assault.
She was taken to a local hospital, where she asked for Jason
Mengel. She initially told officers, paramedics and hospital staff that she
could not remember what had happened.
Detectives were unable to find Woodworth that night. The
next day while searching around the dairy farm, officers saw footprints in the
mud on the ground. They then found Woodworth's body hanging out of the back of
McCandless’s 2003 Chevy Impala on a dirt road, near the farmhouse. He had
suffered 16 stab wounds to his head, neck, groin and torso. The car was stuck in
the dirt.
Arrest and trial
Two weeks after Alex Woodworth was found dead, on April 6,
2018, McCandless was arrested and charged with first-degree intentional
homicide.
The trial started on October 15, 2019, at the Dunn County
Judicial Center, 18 months after the stabbing. At the trial, the prosecution
highlighted the inconsistencies in McCandless’s stories and the crime scene.
She was unable to recall what had happened when first interviewed, and told
officers and paramedics that arrived at the farm that she could not remember.
In a recorded interview, after Dunn County officers told her that they had
found her car and Alex’s body, she eventually said that he had attacked her,
and said she had not been able to get it out of her head. She claimed he had
also carved ‘BOY’ into her arm, which
she later admitted was her own doing. She changed her story of the attack from
when she was first interviewed, to the trial. She initially stated “And I cut my hand, because I kept trying to
grab him. And then I finally got free, and I finally got the knife away from
him”. She later said at the trial, “I
decided then to knee him in the groin, and he drops the knife at that point.
Instantly, I grab the knife. I started stabbing him anywhere and everywhere I
could”. McCandless claimed that Woodworth had attacked her in the back seat
of her car, however most of the blood evidence at the scene was found outside
of the car. In an interview, prior to Alex’s body being found, she had said
that the incident happened at Owen Park, in Eau Claire, which the prosecution
says was to direct authorities away from the real scene.
The knife used to kill Woodworth was confirmed to be from
McCandless’s father’s house. Her father, Joshane, stated at the trial he had
previously given his daughter knives.
Dr. Tillotson, who had treated McCandless in the ER and
assessed her injuries, testified that her knife wounds appeared to have the
characteristics of self-inflicted wounds. He also said she had trouble
recalling what had happened, and had asked for Jason Mengel.
McCandless took Woodworth’s phone when she left the scene.
The prosecution alleged this was to leave him no means of being able to contact
anyone, had he been able to. They also said McCandless had stabbed Woodworth in
hopes of preventing him getting in the way of her rekindling her relationship
with Mengel.
The defense claimed that Woodworth was angry that McCandless
did not want to be with him. Her defense attorney stated that she was fighting
for her life after Woodworth forced himself upon her, and then attacked her.
She testified that she had stabbed him in self-defense, and
she just wanted to try and get away.
Conviction and
sentencing
On November 1, 2019, McCandless was convicted of first
degree intentional homicide in the stabbing death of 24-year-old Woodworth. She
was held at Dunn County Jail in Menomonie, Wisconsin, until her sentencing
date.
On February 7, 2020, McCandless was sentenced to life in
prison, with eligibility for parole after 50 years, for the first-degree
intentional homicide of Alex Woodworth. McCandless’s mother, Roselenna
Gunelson, pleaded with the court to grant her daughter the possibility to
petition for parole after 20 years. Woodworth’s aunt, Crystal Hall, said in her
impact statement at the sentencing, “throughout
the trial we never saw any sign of sadness, shame, compassion, or the slight
bit of remorse for what you had done”.
She is currently incarcerated at Taycheedah Correctional
Institution in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
Ezra McCandless
Ezra J. McCandless was born October 6, 1997 to 14-year-old
Roselenna Gunelson, in Stanley, Wisconsin. Her name at birth was Monica Kay.
Her biological father was not a part of her life. Her mother’s partner, Joshane
Karlen, adopted McCandless when she was four years old. They divorced when Ezra
was 12 years old, but she continued to have a close relationship with her
adoptive father. During high school, she decided to try out different names and
pronouns. She then legally changed her name to Ezra McCandless. She chose
McCandless after Chris McCandless, whose life is the subject of the book and
film Into The Wild. After she dropped out of college she moved to the city of
Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Towards the end of summer 2017, she met Jason Mengel, a
33-year-old National Guard medic. The two embarked on a romantic relationship
and moved in together in August 2017. Around the same time, McCandless met
23-year-old barista and substitute teacher Alex Woodworth at a coffee house.
In early fall 2017, she found out she was pregnant with
Mengel’s child. She drove to Minneapolis to have an abortion, and had the
procedure done on October 6, 2017, which was also her birthday. Not long after,
she began a secret romantic relationship with Woodworth.
In mid-February 2018, while Mengel was away on two weeks of
National Guard duty, McCandless moved back to her mother's house in Stanley,
Wisconsin. When he returned, the pair would meet at hotels. During one of the
hotel stays, Mengel read messages on McCandless’s phone and found out about her
relationships with both Woodworth and Mr. J Hansen, accusing Hansen of sexual
assault. Mengel confronted both Hansen and Woodworth. The three men had a
public argument at a coffee shop in Eau Claire.
McCandless blamed Woodworth for the ending of her
relationship with Mengel. On February 24, 2018, McCandless sent a text message
to Woodworth telling him to not talk to her ever again. McCandless continued to
talk with Mengel. She sent him journals in which she expressed her upset at
having betrayed him. She had wanted to deliver them to him herself, but he refused,
and asked her to send them by other means.
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