Episode 165: Terrence Woods, Jr.

When a young filmmaker disappears in the middle of the Idaho wilderness, the investigation brings more questions than answers. What happened to Terrence Woods, Jr.?

Episode Media

Terrence Shemel Woods, Jr. *(Idaho News)*

Terrence Sr. and Terrence Jr. *(Oxygen)*

Location where Terrence disappeared on October 5, 2018 *(Google Maps)*

Episode Sources

Episode Transcript

Welcome back to Bite-Sized Crime. This week I’m bringing you a missing persons case that is full of questions and no clear answers. This episode discusses sensitive topics, so listener discretion is advised.

Terrence Woods, Jr. grew up in Prince George’s County, Maryland, just outside the city limits of Washington, D.C. From the beginning, Terrence was a happy, outgoing child who loved the outdoors and dreamed of adventure.

Terrence was also smart and driven. He loved to read and had big dreams of someday becoming a film producer. He graduated from Flowers High School in 2009 and headed off to the University of Maryland to study broadcast journalism. There, he made an impression on his fellow students and professors, who described him as dedicated and disciplined, full of talent and a passion for visual storytelling.

After graduating in 2013, Terrence moved to England, where he earned a master’s degree in international relations from Richmond American University London. He started picking up freelance work as a production assistant, working on shows like The Voice UK and BBC One’s Saving Africa’s Elephants. Soon he was traveling the world, working on location and having experiences he never even dreamed of.

In 2018, Terrence headed back to the United States, moving in with his father in Maryland. But it wasn’t long before he was on the road again. In London, Terrence had worked as a researcher for Raw TV, a UK-based production company. Now, they had offered him a contract to work as a production assistant on a new documentary show called Gold Rush: Dave Turin’s Lost Mine. Terrence was excited for the opportunity – they would be filming in the Rocky Mountain wilderness for several weeks, following the show’s host as he searched abandoned gold mines.

On September 30, 2018, Terrence Sr. dropped his son off at Reagan Washington National Airport in D.C. They said their goodbyes, and Terrence promised to call when he landed. Several hours later, he did, saying he was going to meet up with the rest of the crew. They would be filming in Montana for a few days before heading to Idaho.

On October 4th, Terrence texted his dad to let him know that they had wrapped up the Montana shoot and that he had made it safely to his hotel in Grangeville, Idaho. A few hours later, just before midnight, he called his dad to check in, even though it was 3 in the morning in Maryland. Terrence Sr. recalled telling his son that he had to work in the morning, and asking if he was okay, which he said he was. Terrence Sr. told his son that he would call him later and went back to sleep.

The next morning, just after 8:30 Maryland time, Terrence Sr. received a text from his son. “I’ll be coming home on the 10th now dad.” It was a surprising update, since Terrence was supposed to be filming for several more weeks. But he didn’t offer any explanation, and his dad didn’t think too much of it. He had no idea that it would be the last contact he would have with his son.

Just after 5:30pm on Friday, October 5th, a call came into the Idaho County Sheriff’s 911 dispatch center. Terrence Woods was missing.

When deputies arrived at the scene, they spoke to members of the Raw TV production crew who recounted the day’s events. They had been filming at Penman Mine, an abandoned gold mine in the Orogrande area of the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest. They had just finished for the day when Terrence said he was going to use the bathroom. Suddenly, he dropped his two-way radio in the dirt and took off running. Other crew members shouted for him to stop as he approached a steep cliff, but Terrence kept going, running down the mountain and disappearing into the thick forest. A few crew members tried to follow him, but the terrain was rough, and they lost track of him quickly.

When deputies asked why Terrence would take off running, no one knew. They said that he had been unusually quiet that day, and the person who had called 911 told the dispatcher that Terrence had recently been having a hard time emotionally. But they hadn’t expected him to disappear into the woods like that.

By this time, the sun was setting, and it was too dark to safely start a search. Deputies agreed to come back in the morning with reinforcements.

On October 6th, teams from the Idaho County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Forest Service, and Clearwater County Back Country Rescue spread out over the area near Penman Mine, searching on ATVs where they could and doing aerial searches with helicopters using infrared technology. They talked to local hunters in case anyone had seen any signs of Terrence. Search dogs tried to follow his scent through the woods, but there was no trace of him.

While teams searched, Terrence Sr. was getting the call no parent ever wants to receive. The show’s producer had found his phone number and reached out to tell him that Terrence was missing. He told Dateline, “At 7:40 Saturday morning, I got a phone call. And they told me that my son went off a cliff. They said on the 4th, they made it to Idaho, allegedly. And they said they went out to dinner… And then the next day, on the 5th, they claimed that morning he was acting strange, and he had an anxiety attack.”

But Terrence didn’t have a history of anxiety or panic attacks or any other mental health issues. He had always been even-keeled and very professional on set. This story didn’t sit well with Terrence Sr.

As the search for Terrence continued, his parents flew from Maryland to Idaho to meet with investigators. At the sheriff’s department, they spoke with Raw TV producer Simon Gee, who had been on set and witnessed Terrence running into the woods. According to Terrence’s parents, they were shocked when Gee told them that he had been looking forward to working with Terrence but was disappointed by his work, saying that Terrence hadn’t lived up to his expectations. Gee said that Terrence was always distracted and struggled with basic tasks on set.

Aside from the insensitivity of the comments, it was especially surprising considering that Terrence had always received glowing reports from all of his previous employers. One of his professors and mentors in London told Dateline that Terrence was the type of employee producers dreamed of. “It didn’t matter where I recommended Terrence for, very quickly I’d get a note from someone wherever he was working that would be very much of the, ‘He’s amazing.’ ‘Terrence is incredible.’ ‘The team love him.’ ‘He’s got so much initiative.’”

Frustrated and hurt by Simon Gee’s comments, Terrence’s parents asked if they could speak with the other crew members who were on the set that day. But they were told that everyone had moved on to the next shoot. According to Terrence Sr., they wouldn’t even tell them the names of the other crew, so they couldn’t reach out to them independently. They later learned that investigators hadn’t done follow-up interviews or performed background checks on the people present at the scene. All they had was the initial report.

For a week, crews searched the Idaho wilderness, hampered by the rough terrain as well as rain and snow. The only possible clue they found as to Terrence’s whereabouts was what appeared to be tracks where he may have slid down the side of the cliff towards the road at the bottom. They couldn’t prove the tracks had been made by Terrence, but it opened a new avenue of investigation. Had Terrence hitched a ride with someone once he reached the road, maybe something he had prearranged?

But Sheriff Doug Giddings told Dateline that his deputies spoke to residents who lived on the mountain, and no one had seen any vehicles that night. Terrence hadn’t knocked on anyone’s doors and hadn’t been seen wandering around anyone’s property. It was as if he had just vanished into thin air.

Unfortunately, the biggest dangers in the forest weren’t human. Sheriff Giddings told Dateline, “We got rivers and steep mountains and cliffs and bears and cougars. There’s so many things that could have happened to him… You could make up any wild story that’s possible – because anything is possible.”

There was also the possibility that Terrence had fallen into a mine shaft. There are dozens of abandoned mines in the area where the crew was filming; depending on how far Terrence had run, he could have easily fallen into one of the mines without anyone noticing, and finding him would be nearly impossible.

On October 11th, the sheriff’s office announced that they were suspending the search for Terrence Woods. After seven long days, they hadn’t found any valuable clues in the surrounding landscape. Terrence’s parents were devastated by the news. His mother Valerie told KLEW, “I want him to come home. I want him to know that we love him. Your family misses you.”

Even though the search was ending, Terrence’s family wasn’t giving up. They were convinced that there was more to the story. Valerie told the Washington Post, “For him to just run off in the middle of nowhere with no phone service and no one he knows out there is very, very odd. It makes no sense.”

Terrence Sr. told Dateline that he didn’t believe the version of events he had been fed, especially from people who didn’t truly know his son. “Everything is word of mouth. Everything about my son’s whole disappearance is word of mouth with people out there that he knew… from the 30th up until the day he disappeared.”

As the days and weeks passed, there was less and less hope that Terrence would be found. His bank accounts and credit cards hadn’t been touched, and there was no activity on his phone. Terrence’s family hired a private investigator to help with the search, but they weren’t able to turn up any new leads. The family was left with so many unanswered questions.

There are many theories about what happened to Terrence. Some believe that he had a mental break and ran into the woods without considering the danger. It would have been easy for him to become disoriented, especially as darkness fell. He could have been injured or attacked by wildlife, and freezing temperatures wouldn’t have helped his situation.

Another theory is that Terrence had been planning to skip town and start a new life. Perhaps when he called his dad in the middle of the night, he had wanted to say goodbye. According to Deadline, Terrence had emailed Raw TV producers before he disappeared to say that he was leaving the job early so he could be with his mother while she had surgery for an unspecified health issue. But Valerie wasn’t having surgery – had Terrence just used that excuse to cover his tracks? Maybe he had arranged for someone to pick him up at the bottom of the mountain so he could disappear from his life. Of course, if Terrence had wanted to do that, there were certainly safer and more convenient ways to pull it off.

Terrence’s parents believe that Raw TV is covering up something more sinister. Terrence Sr. has told multiple news outlets that he isn’t convinced that his son even made it to Idaho. However, Terrence did text his father that he had made it to the hotel in Grangeville, and he posted pictures on his private Instagram account just hours before he disappeared with the caption, “Idaho”. I think Terrence Sr.’s belief is rooted in the fact that Raw TV has strongly pushed a mental illness narrative from day one, and Terrence’s family doesn’t buy it.

In the transcript of the 911 call from the day Terrence disappeared, the caller said, “Terrence has been having a really hard time emotionally and had a mental breakdown earlier today.” They also said that they had to detain him during an anxiety attack. But according to VICE, the caller was not even a member of the film crew and retracted their statement when Terrence’s family confronted them weeks later.

The family believes that Terrence wasn’t happy working with the Raw TV crew and that he was being mistreated, possibly because he was the only Black crew member. Sheriff Giddings told Deadline that when speaking with the producers, he got the impression that everyone thought Terrence was a little strange and that they weren’t happy with his work. “He came into the group late and there were questions about some of his behaviors, but nothing that was blown up as big as what [the family] tried to make out of it. We determined that he wasn’t happy there and there were several people who weren’t happy with him.”

This is in direct contrast to what Terrence’s previous coworkers have said about him and his work ethic. His friend Cassandra told Deadline, “It doesn’t make sense when I hear people say that he struggled with his mental health or that he didn’t live up to expectations. I spent six months on a TV production course with him and he always exceeded expectations and never ever showed signs of having any mental health problems.”

Terrence’s family also believes that Terrence may have stumbled across something that caused him to feel the need to escape, and that it’s being covered up. Terrence Sr. told the Atlanta Black Star, “I think my son saw something, heard something, and didn’t want to be a part of it, and when he created the story that he had to leave, unfortunately, that wasn’t going to be possible.”

As Terrence’s story has spread, there have been multiple former employees that have spoken up about the workplace culture at Raw TV. Some have mentioned a toxic environment that is not welcoming of newcomers, which could have contributed to Terrence possibly feeling isolated and unsupported. Of course, Raw TV has denied all allegations and has stated that they are supportive of the investigation into Terrence’s disappearance.

As of this recording, Terrence is still missing. His family has done all they can to keep his story alive, but the pain of having a child disappear is unimaginable. Terrence Sr. told Deadline, “It eats me up every day. With death you get closure and you can heal, but with the unknown, you know nothing. All you can do is pray and have faith.”

Terrence’s case is still open, but not active. The Idaho County Sheriff’s Office told VICE that they were still following up on new information, even though there is very little to find. “[We] do not have anyone actively searching for him. There’s no specific amount of time a missing person case remains active. It remains open as long as the person is missing, but is closed regarding man hours spent searching when we have done all we can do.”

In spite of this, Terrence Sr. told Oxygen that he is not giving up searching for his son. “I want justice, I want to find the truth out, whatever happened to him, that’s what I need to know. I’m going to find the truth out one way or another.”

Terrence Shamel Woods, Jr. was last seen on October 5, 2018, near the Penman Mine in the Orogrande area of the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest. He was wearing black cargo pants and a light brown sweatshirt. He is described as an African-American male with black hair and brown eyes. He stands 5’9” tall and has a tattoo of a black oval on the inside of his left wrist. At the time of his disappearance, Terrence was 26 years old. He would be 34 today.

If you have any information about the disappearance or current whereabouts of Terrence Woods, Jr., please contact the Idaho County Sheriff’s Office at 208-983-1100.

And if you or someone you know is struggling with mental health or emotional distress, contact the 988 Lifeline to talk to someone who cares. Call or text 988 from any cell phone, or chat with a counselor online at 988lifeline.org. Help is available 24/7.