CROSSETT — Family and friends gathered at Donna Woodberry’s Crossett home Friday morning to share memories of the woman wellknown in the community for her open heart and vivaciouspersonality, while lawmen continued the search for her killers.
Authorities say Woodberry, 58, was abducted Thursday from the carport of her Texas Street home by two unknown black men, and her car was used shortly afterward to fleea robbery at the First National Bank of Crossett’s North Crossett branch.
Woodberry’s body was found on Hidden Acres Road. Her car, a pewter 2003 Nissan Altima, was found at Faith Ministries Church’s gravel parking lot on West PierceStreet in Crossett, a few blocks away from the bank.
On Friday morning, Crossett Police Chief Tommy Sturgeon said he and other officers were canvassing neighborhoods for evidence.
Sturgeon said that in his 24 years in Crossett, he’s had towork only eight murders.
“Everybody is upset,” Sturgeon added. “Nothing like this is supposed to happen in a small town.”
Woodberry’s three daughters - Felishia Johnson, Donna “Teresa” Bowman andLaShanda Waters - and her son, Johnny Mac Brown Jr., spent Friday hugging friends and accepting condolences.
Johnson, Woodberry’s eldest daughter, said her mother loved to joke with friends.
She would visit a friend’s house for a meal, finish her entire plate of food and then say, “I didn’t like it,” Johnson said. “That was nasty,” she said her mother would add before cracking a big smile and laughing heartily.
Whenever one of Woodberry’s children, or anyone else, tried to pull a fast one on her in return, she would say, “My name is Donna, not Dummy” - letting the trickster know he was caught.
“She was always saying that,” Johnson said.
Johnson also recalled how her mother was always honest, as well, even brutally so.
“Whatever she was thinking, she said,” Johnson said. “She didn’t hold anything back.”
Woodberry, who friends often called “Jackie,” lived on Texas Street with her longtime boyfriend, Cedric Black,and her granddaughter, Destiny.
Destiny, 13, said her grandmother could always make her laugh and smile, even when she didn’t want to. Her grandmother would always cheer her on at basketball games and attend her track meets.
“And she loved jewelry - the real stuff,” Destiny said while looking at Woodberry’s dresser, covered with knickknacks and personal items.
Then Destiny picked up a silver cross she had given Woodberry one Christmas. “She really liked crosses.”
Woodberry had a specific routine, her family said. She would attend classes to get her General Educational Development degree about 8 a.m. and get home in time to watch The Young and the Restless, one of her favorite TV shows.
“Young and the Restless or the Lifetime Movie Network - those were the only two channels this TV was ever on,” said Bowman, Woodberry’s youngest daughter.
Then, about 5 or 6 p.m., Woodberry was off to visit her friends and people in the community, her family said.
Johnson was visiting a friend Thursday when she happened to hear her mother’s name and address read aloud on a police scanner.
She raced to her mother’s house and called her cell, but all of her calls went straight to voice mail.
During that time, North Crossett residents William Pippen and his wife, Liz, said, several police officers were working along Hidden Acres Road, where Woodberry’s body was found.
Pippen said he and a neighbor used binoculars to watch officials work the scene from down the street. He said he saw a black woman wearing white pants lying on her side on the ground, her legs hunched close to her chest.
Eventually, Johnson found out from the police that her mother had been taken to Ashley County Memorial Hospital. Johnson gathered her two sisters and rushed there.
Once at the hospital about 10:20 a.m., police wouldn’t let Johnson or her siblings see their mother.
Instead, an officer with a large camera around his neck met them and showed them a photo of her body.
One of her sisters threw her phone at the wall, and her brother had to be taken to adifferent room.
On Friday, Johnson repeated the words that came flying out:
“Not my mom. Not my mom.
“How, why? Homicide? Robbery?
“Not my mom.”
Bowman said, “I can never accept my momma passing. I just want justice so I can have peace.”
A tip led investigators to Lonoke County on Friday to see whether three escaped inmates who were later caught could have been involved, but the information led to no arrests.
By Friday evening, investigators were calling the Woodberry case a “whodunit” and hoping for the public’s help.
As Lt. Ron Stayton of the Arkansas State Police put it, “These folks are bad boys, and they need to be caught.”’
State police have asked that anyone with information about the men wanted in the killing and robbery call the Troop F headquarters at (870) 226-3713, or the Ashley County sheriff’s office at (870) 853-2040.
Information for this article was contributed by Ginny LaRoe and Mike Linn of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 07/03/2010