Episode 126: Ardeth Wood – Bite-Sized Crime

A graduate student goes on a midday bike ride and doesn’t come back, sparking one of the largest manhunts in Canada. What happened to Ardeth Wood?

Episode Media

Ardeth Mary Margaret Wood *(Post Media)*

Composite sketch released by police *(Ottawa Citizen)*

Christopher Myers arrested in North Bay *(Ottawa Citizen)*

Ardeth’s Tree in Ottawa *(Find a Grave)*

Episode Sources

Episode Transcript

Welcome back to Bite-Sized Crime. This week I’m bringing you a case that I came across while researching the story of Jennifer Teague, which I covered in last week’s episode. This episode discusses sensitive topics, so listener discretion is advised.

Ardeth Mary Margaret Wood grew up in the Canadian capital of Ottawa with her parents Brenden and Catherine and her two younger brothers, Colum and Crispin. Ardeth was a quiet child who loved to read and study. From a young age, everyone saw how brilliant Ardeth was, so it was no surprise when she excelled in school. After graduating from Pearson Catholic High School in 1994, Ardeth went on to study history and philosophy at Carleton University, where she earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She loved learning and had dreams of becoming a professor of philosophy.

In the summer of 2003, 27-year-old Ardeth was thriving. She was pursuing a PhD in philosophy at the University of Waterloo and worked as co-editor of the school’s philosophy graduate student journal. Her friends were impressed by her work ethic and how well she managed the stress of school.

If anything bothered Ardeth, it was being nearly 6 hours away from her family in Ottawa. The Wood family was very close, and it was hard for Ardeth not to see her parents and brothers as often as she used to. She had a two-week break coming up, so she made plans to spend the time in Ottawa at her parents’ house.

Ardeth’s time with her family was exactly what she needed to relax and refresh before the fall semester began. On the morning of August 6, 2003, Ardeth got up early to go jogging before the summer day got too warm, making sure to be quiet as she moved around the house so as not to wake anyone. When she returned from her jog, she made a strawberry marshmallow dessert and put it in the fridge for later.

Around noon, Ardeth decided she wanted to go for a bike ride down by Aviation Parkway. She and her mother Catherine had made plans to go shopping that afternoon, but Ardeth wanted to get in a ride before it started raining. Promising her mother that she would be back in an hour and half so they could go shopping, Ardeth grabbed her brother’s black Peugeot bicycle and a red bike helmet and headed out.

At 1:30, the rain that had been threatening for hours suddenly came down in a summer storm. Catherine wondered if her daughter had gotten caught in the downpour and had sought shelter along the bike trails. But even after the storm eased, Ardeth didn’t come home. Catherine tried not to worry, but as the hours ticked by, she couldn’t ignore the sinking feeling in her gut. She called her husband and sons and told them what was going on. They immediately went out looking for Ardeth, thinking that they would find her somewhere in the park – after all, she and her brothers had biked these trails dozens of times. But as the sun began to set and there was still no sign of Ardeth, they knew they needed more help. They contacted the Ottawa Police Service and reported Ardeth missing.

Knowing that they couldn’t wait for police resources to be deployed, Ardeth’s family began making calls, gathering friends and family members to search through the night, combing every inch of the bike trails where Ardeth might have traveled. By the time police launched an official search on August 7th, Ardeth had been missing for over 24 hours.

In spite of, or perhaps because of this delay, Ottawa Police pulled out all the stops, setting up a command post at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum which sat in the middle of the extensive trail system that ran along the Ottawa River. They called in reinforcements from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the National Capital Commission, both of which regularly patrolled the waterway. They notified local hospitals, train stations, and taxi drivers, asking everyone to look out for anyone matching Ardeth’s description.

By August 9th, the search for Ardeth Wood had become one of the largest search efforts in Ottawa’s history. Day after day, hundreds of volunteers joined police and military officers in scouring the Ottawa River trails which extended from Rockcliffe to Hiawatha Park. Ardeth’s picture was circulated in the local media, missing posters hung in store windows and on telephone poles throughout the city. Hundreds of tips poured into the police hotline, and detectives began combing through every lead.

They started getting reports that a man had been approaching women in the park around the same time that Ardeth disappeared. Staff Sgt. Monique Ackland told reporters, “He was on his bike and he would approach them, and try to intercept these women and engage them in conversation. We can’t speculate on this, but these people had enough happen to them for the red flags to go up.” She encouraged anyone who had encountered this man to contact the police.

On August 10th, four days into the official search, police divers recovered a black bicycle from the muddy waters of Green’s Creek, not far from where it meets the Ottawa River. Detectives were able to match the bike’s serial number to the one that Ardeth had been riding.

Ardeth’s family was notified of the discovery right away. Her brother Colum told the Ottawa Citizen that they were trying to remain hopeful, to not jump to conclusions. “On one side, it’s terrifying that they found her bike in that situation, but it’s also hopeful because now we have something to go with. It’s a clue to finding her. It’s not her standing there around the next corner, but we hope it’s a method to get there. I want them to find something else now. Maybe forensics will find something so we can get some sort of a connection to other evidence.”

In the end, they wouldn’t have to wait very long. On August 11th, an RCMP search dog discovered the remains of Ardeth Wood. She was naked and covered with brush, lying near the edge of the creek, not far from where her bicycle had been pulled from the water the day before. An autopsy would later reveal that Ardeth had died by drowning. Her body was too decomposed to determine whether she had any defensive wounds.

The day after Ardeth was found, Ottawa police released a sketch of the man they believed was responsible for her death – the same man multiple witnesses had reported seeing in the park. They described him as a white man in his early 20s with sandy-colored hair and a muscular build who was approaching women and making inappropriate advances. At a press conference, Chief Vince Bevan said, “Ardeth Wood met with foul play, and we are treating this individual as a suspect in her disappearance… The focus now needs to be on putting a name to that individual.”

Chief Bevan also spoke of the community’s reaction to Ardeth’s murder. “We should all be shocked. We’ve all regarded this as a very safe community. You know in your own experience that youth and women have felt free to cycle, to jog and live their lives without the fear of something like this happening. This is a shock to all of us.”

While Ardeth’s family prepared for her funeral, investigators turned their attention to finding her killer. The release of the composite sketch generated thousands of tips, and each one was carefully analyzed. Detectives knocked on doors and questioned as many people as they could, hoping for a break in the case.

Forensic teams continued to work at the creek bed, not wanting to miss any piece of evidence. Ardeth’s clothes were still missing, but there could be other clues in the swampy area. They searched for footprints, tire tracks, fibers, and fluids – anything that might lead to their suspect. Hundreds of items were collected, everything from candy wrappers to cigarette butts. But the heavy rains and muddy waters where Ardeth was found seemed to be working against them as they analyzed the scene. Finding Ardeth’s killer would be an uphill battle.

From the beginning, detectives felt that Ardeth’s murder had been a sexually motivated crime. They began looking into possible links with other similar crimes in the area. In the city of Gatineau, just across the river in Quebec, police had been dealing with a series of unsolved rapes in the neighborhood of Aylmer. From July to October of 2002, an unknown male attacked multiple young women between the ages of 17-19, all in wooded areas that were known to be dark and secluded. The man would hide in the woods and attack his victims from behind. After Ardeth was killed, Gatineau police reached out to detectives in Ottawa to see if they could make any connections, but there wasn’t a clear link that they could find.

Investigators continued to sift through the thousands of phone calls coming into the tipline. Multiple witnesses stated that they had seen a man similar to the composite sketch in the same area as Ardeth right around the time she disappeared. From the tips, detectives compiled a list of more than 200 men they believed could be the killer. One by one, they interviewed as many as they could, clearing the ones that didn’t fit the profile.

In September, police released new information to the public, hoping to generate more specific leads. In a press conference, Staff Sgt. Randy Wisker said that investigators believed Ardeth’s killer had been lurking in the area for months, approaching women on the bike path and trying to lure them to more secluded spots. Ottawa police released a list of 24 sightings of this man, beginning in June of 2003 and becoming more frequent as the days went on. In the week leading up to Ardeth’s murder, the man had been spotted on the bike path 19 times. The final sighting on the list was the day after Ardeth was killed. Investigators believed the man had returned to the scene, perhaps to recover something he had left behind or just to reassure himself that no one would find his victim. Staff Sgt. Wisker told reporters, “We’re confident in these sightings. We would not put this information out if we didn’t have confidence in the authenticity.”

In late September, local news outlets reported on a fugitive named James Martin Griffin, a convicted sex offender who was on the run and believed to be hiding in Ottawa. His picture circulated in the papers and led to a flurry of tips, mostly from women who had encountered him and from witnesses who believed he matched the description of Ardeth’s killer. Thankfully, Griffin was captured and arrested not long after, and though police couldn’t definitively connect him to Ardeth’s case, he was added to the list of possible suspects.

Months passed, and as the one-year anniversary of Ardeth’s murder approached, investigators were trying everything they could think of to narrow down their list of suspects. Chief Bevan asked the city to bring the reward for information up to $50,000, hoping that the money would move someone to make the call they were waiting for.

At a press conference, police revealed a photograph of a pair of sunglasses that had been left at the crime scene, sunglasses that could have been worn by the killer. Although the sunglasses were cheap and generic, the style was distinctive and could trigger someone’s memory. Staff Sgt. Wisker told reporters, “It’s our intention today to provide at least some more detail that may help somebody make up their mind as to who this person is.”

Police also announced that they were looking to speak with a man who had called the tip line two days after Ardeth disappeared. The man spoke for only a few seconds before hanging up, but according to police, what he said was very specific and very valuable. They were able to track the call to a phone booth, but the only surveillance footage they could find showed a grainy image of a person with short hair wearing a white coat. Police asked the individual to call the tip line again so they could get more information.

Sadly, time continued to pass, and the case was no closer to being solved. In August of 2004, Ardeth’s friends and family members gathered at the Green’s Creek Bridge for a candlelight vigil. Catherine Wood told the Ottawa Citizen that they were taking comfort in their memories of Ardeth. “We’ve come to accept it more with each passing month. I’ve thought of her all year, but right now with the interviews it’s all sort of rushing together. A year means something to us.”

One year turned into two, and still, Ardeth’s killer had not been found. Staff Sgt. Wisker told the Ottawa Citizen that they were slowly chipping away at their suspect list. “Of the number we have left, there are several that we’ve been unable to eliminate that match a lot of the criteria that we’re looking for. Certainly, we’re being very careful with them.”

Then, in September of 2005, Jennifer Teague went missing in the Ottawa suburb of Barrhaven. When her body was found two weeks later, the similarities to Ardeth’s case couldn’t be overlooked. Could their killer be one and the same?

Ottawa police continued to track down suspects, eliminating as many as possible, while also adding more to the list as tips came in. Then, in May of 2006, they got a break.

Three hundred kilometers west in North Bay, Ontario, police received a report of an attempted rape. A woman told police that as she was walking home from work late at night, a man had approached her and asked if she wanted company. When she said no and began walking faster, the man said he was from Ottawa and asked for directions. He kept following her until suddenly, he grabbed her from behind and dragged her into the bushes. Thankfully, a neighbor heard her screams and rushed outside, waving a shovel in the air. The attacker fled the scene, and the woman was taken to the hospital where she gave police a description of her assailant.

Through their investigation, North Bay police identified the woman’s attacker as 25-year-old Christopher Myers, an Ottawa native who had recently been living in a North Bay hotel. Detective Constable Noel Coulas reached out to the Ottawa Police Service to request a picture of Myers and see if he had any criminal record in the city. When the information was sent over, Constable Coulas was struck by the similarity of Myers’ picture and the sketch of Ardeth Wood’s killer that he had recently been given at an intelligence conference.

Something in him knew that this wasn’t just a coincidence. He later told the Ottawa Citizen, “It wasn’t a sense of, ‘Just maybe I’ve got something here’, it was a feeling of ‘If I don’t pass on this information and this guy was responsible for the Ardeth Wood homicide, that would be a real tragedy.’”

Two Ottawa police officers happened to be at the North Bay police station that day, and Constable Coulas told them of his suspicions. They immediately passed it onto the detectives in charge of Ardeth’s case, and suddenly, everything clicked. They had what they needed to connect Christopher Myers to Ardeth Wood.

Myers had been on Ottawa detectives’ radar since the beginning of the investigation, when an anonymous tipster, someone police believed was a social worker, told Crime Stoppers that they thought Christopher Myers could be Ardeth’s killer. Of course, Myers was one of thousands of potential suspects, and he didn’t have a history of assault, at least not on paper. Myers’ only arrests had been for trafficking drugs and making threats. They didn’t have reason to move him to the top of the suspect list, until now.

The more investigators learned about Christopher Myers, the more they felt he could very well be the killer they were hunting. Myers had grown up in an abusive home, experiencing more violence in his toddler years than most people experience in a lifetime. At age 4, he was removed from the home and adopted by a family in Ottawa, but the trauma stayed with him. He began seeing a child psychologist at the age of 8 and was eventually diagnosed with multiple conditions, including fetal alcohol syndrome, pervasive development disorder, and schizoid personality disorder. At age 12, his adoptive family turned him over to the Children’s Aid Society, hoping that someone would be able to help him, but Myers was in and out of foster homes until eventually he ended up living on the street. He spent the first few years of his adulthood couch surfing or living in shared apartments, working temp jobs and pulling in disability checks.

In August of 2003, Myers was working as a dishwasher in Byward Market. At night, he would ride his bike around the city. He told his roommates that he couldn’t sleep, but detectives believed he was preparing his hunting grounds, looking for the best places to attack his victims. After he killed Ardeth on August 6th, Myers suddenly stopped going to work and had his girlfriend pick up his final check. While police were searching for him, Myers committed more sexual assaults around Ottawa and Gatineau before eventually moving west to North Bay.

On May 14, 2005, Christopher Myers was arrested for the assault in North Bay. While in custody, Ottawa Detective Sgt. Martin Graham questioned Myers about Ardeth’s murder. During the 7-hour interview, Myers admitted to encountering Ardeth along the bike path. He claimed that they had walked down toward the creek together so they could fool around, but another girl followed them and startled Ardeth, causing her to fall into the water. Myers said that he left her there at first, but when he eventually went back to save her, it was too late. He moved her body onto the banks of the creek and left the scene. Sitting in the interrogation room, Myers drew a map of the scene, marking the spots where he had met Ardeth on the bike path and where she had fallen in the creek.

But when Sgt. Graham told Myers that he would be charged with murdering Ardeth, Myers recanted his story, claiming that he had made the whole thing up. He had heard about Ardeth’s murder on the news and was just trying to mess with the detective. Police tried to take Myers to Green’s Creek to have him reenact the crime scene, but he changed his mind and refused to show them anything.

Myers stayed in the custody of North Bay police while Ottawa detectives continued to investigate, wanting to make their case against him as strong as possible. Over the next five months, detectives were able to connect Myers to four more sexual assaults, although they suspected he was responsible for many more.

Finally, on October 21, 2005, Christopher Myers was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ardeth Wood. A judge ruled that he would stand trial for that crime as well as the four assaults.

Of course, justice moves slowly. In January of 2008, after two years of trudging through the court system, Myers took a plea deal, pleading guilty to second-degree murder and guilty to three of the four sexual assaults. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 10 years.

In court, the judge read an agreed statement of facts, which included Myers’ confession that he had attacked Ardeth on the bike path and drowned her in the creek. The Wood family was allowed to share their victim impact statements, in which they spoke of how Ardeth’s absence in their lives affected them every day. Her father shared about the darkness of grief that surrounded them, while her mother called Ardeth’s life “beautiful, unique, [and] unrepeatable.”

In the years since Ardeth’s life was tragically taken in an act of violence, her family and community have worked to keep her memory alive. Scholarships were established in her name at both Carleton University and the University of Waterloo. In Ottawa, a bike patrol program was founded to protect citizens along the city’s pathways. And a giant oak tree at the Dominion Arboretum in Ottawa was dedicated to Ardeth with a plaque that reads, “Her death touched the heart of a city.”