Transcript
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Daphne (Podcast Host) (1:32)
What is going on? True crime fans? I'm your host Daphne. It is just me today. A lot of you guys probably hopefully listen to the episode that we came out with yesterday. It is the major major update on the Rebecca park case that we covered last week. Like we have so much more this week than we did last. So if you guys were invested in that case as much as Heath and I were, go check it out. But if you did listen then you know that Heath has kind of been having a sinus thing going on so he is not well enough to be in the studio with us today. But I have an all new case for you guys that we can dive into together. So thank you for tuning in today and keeping me company in the studio. And without further ado, this is episode 563 of Going West. So let's get into it. Sam. In November of 2005, a 21 year old dancer was found brutally slain in her New York City apartment. She was ambitious, talented and chasing her dream of dancing on Broadway. But few knew the obsession, jealousy and betrayal she faced off stage. And soon police would find there was more than one person with a motive to kill her. This is the murder of Catherine Woods. Catherine Elizabeth woods was born to parents Donna and John woods In June of 1984, growing up in Worthington, Ohio, which is a northern suburb of Columbus, alongside younger siblings John and Victoria. From a young age, her life revolved around music and performing, as her dad, John, was a music professor and the marching band leader at Ohio State University, located just north of downtown Columbus. And Catherine discovered that she too, had a passion for performing when she started dancing at just three years old. So as she got older, she started dancing competitively and became very skilled in ballet, jazz, tap, and modern. But her ultimate goal was to dance in Broadway musicals. She took her art very seriously from a young age, and by the time she graduated high school in 2002, she knew she was ready to move to New York City and start auditioning. In fact, she graduated in January, six months early, so she could get a jump on the rest of her peers. Well, four months later, in May of 2002, Catherine headed to the city for kind of a trial run after finding a roommate online. But this would quickly prove to be a really bad situation. So at this point, you know, she graduated early. So Catherine is only 17 years old, and the guy that she found who was looking to fill this room in his apartment was in his mid-30s, and the apartment was in Brooklyn. But during the short amount of time that Catherine was living with this man, he cornered her and raped her inside the apartment. So she ended up reporting this assault, and the man was actually arrested, but the charges were eventually dropped after Catherine chose not to testify against him. But Catherine was as tenacious as ever. She did not let this stop her from heading back to the city that she knew she belonged in. So two months after her assault in July of 2002, she moved to Manhattan after finding a one bedroom apartment on the Upper east side that really fit her needs. Her parents really hoped that she would attend school first, even emphasizing that Ohio State, of course, where her dad taught, had an excellent dance program. But Catherine refused. She was kind of afraid that if she stopped for four years and went to school, that she would kind of fall behind the people that she was competing with in dance. Like, she really just wanted to get herself out there and start auditioning right away, which that is such a struggle in this field and one similar that you have to kind of like, strike while the iron is hot, while you're really young. So she felt like an immense amount of pressure regarding that. But despite prioritizing her professional life, she found herself falling in love. That summer, while out at a bar with friends on a visit home, Catherine met 20 year old David Hahn, who was actually a rapper. They met through mutual friends and he went by the name City270. So he was kind of like more of an aspiring rap artist. He had big dreams of heading to New York as well, but for the time being, he was in Ohio, she was in New York. Obviously there's a bit of distance between them, but they made it work until eventually, By September of 2002, David moved out there to be with her. They squeezed into her modest apartment, as many people in New York City do, and for a while, their relationship seemed to be the ideal fit for both of them. David totally worshipped Catherine, but, you know, in a good way. Like, he did things that she needed while she crammed multiple jobs and auditions and dance classes into her schedule. And in turn, Catherine gave David that love and stability that he had lacked at home because David had grown up in foster care after being removed from his mother's home when she was arrested for drugs, solicitation and child endangerment. Catherine's friends described David as a sweet and simple guy, and he was a calming presence to balance Catherine's bubbly, high energy kind of go getter Persona. But before long, the pressures of living in a city that can be as suffocating as it is rewarding kind of started to get to both of them. David really struggled to find work and therefore really couldn't contribute, while Catherine worked as a children's dance teacher and a receptionist at a spa. So for two whole years of their relationship, she fully supported him while he attempted to kind of get his rap career off the ground. Though David did eventually secure a position working at the front desk for a high rise apartment building. But by that point, the damage was done and Catherine was feeling resentful of having to float the cost for his lifestyle and her own. You know, doing that for two years, she just got sick of it, and it really affected their relationship. So by the fall of 2005, their relationship was on the outs and she actually asked him to move out of the apartment. And he did, instead staying with a friend while continuing to work his security job at that front desk. But after only about two weeks, Catherine, who felt guilty and missed the companionship that David offered her, asked if he wanted to move back in. Only this time as just friends and roommates instead, instead of as her boyfriend. So David happily moved back in and stayed on the couch. Thankfully, Catherine had found a job that put her in a better financial situation as well. But she concealed this news from most of her friends and family, hoping to Spare herself from judgment, because Catherine had started dancing at two different gentlemen's clubs, Privilege, located in Chelsea, and Flash Dancers, which is in Midtown. But she told her parents and siblings that she had been hired at a restaurant, knowing that the money that she was getting from the gentleman's clubs was helping her immensely. And she just, she didn't want that judgment, but she didn't want to quit these jobs. They were doing so much for her financially because at just 20, she was able to work only a handful of days a week and fully support herself, as well as pay for her own dance classes, her own voice lessons, and even a membership at an Equinox gym, which is not cheap. You know, this was a luxury for her to be able to go to this gym. But just being a member there changed her life forever. Because it was there at Equinox that Catherine met a man named Paul Cortez, who was four years her senior in August of 2004. So she's about 20 at this point, he's about 24. And with her relationship waning, you know, her and David are on the outs. Katherine was growing restless. She really wanted to entertain other romantic prospects. She was ready to be in a relationship again. And Paul had approached her in the gym in an attempt to sell her a personal training package. But instead, they hit it off romantically. Catherine was instantly taken with Paul, who seemed to be able to offer everything that David couldn't. So now let's get a little bit more into Paul's background. He is a major player in today's story, so he's motivated. He's a self starter, seemingly because he was the product of an impoverished single parent household in the Bronx. And his mom, Yvette, struggled to care for Paul and his two siblings. So he had a lot of motivation to make his life work and take care of himself. But Paul, at the same time, growing up in this type of situation, Paul actually exhibited such academic prowess that he was awarded a scholarship to the prestigious and private Poly Prep Country Day High School in Brooklyn. He was also somewhat of a wrestling and theater prodigy, which his school quickly took notice of. After spending his freshman year on the wrestling team, he pivoted his extracurricular focus to acting and wound up landing lead roles in all of his school's plays and musicals. But this was kind of tough for him to get there every day from the Bronx. He had a four hour daily commute, which included multiple buses and trains, all while he's a teenager. So he really stuck it out and ended up graduating with honors in 1999. He was then awarded yet another Full Ride scholarship, this time as a theater major to Boston University. And after graduating in 2003, he moved back to New York City to start auditioning. So, like Catherine, he held down multiple jobs. He was working at a yoga studio. He was personal training at Equinox, which obviously connected him to Catherine. And he was also singing in a band called Monolith. So Catherine, again, she was instantly taken by his charm, his charisma, his confidence. And they started dating. And he fell for Catherine quickly, too, and loved showing her off to his family and friends. But Catherine would soon find out that he had a possessive and jealous side and that he did not approve of her job or her living situation. Initially, Paul feigned concern about her work. It wasn't that he didn't like that she worked there at the two gentlemen's clubs. He just didn't like that she was potentially in danger there due to the nature of sex work. So he would frequently meet her at the club at all hours of the night in order to safely escort her home. Not so bad. She has a man who cares about her. But it seemed to come off more and more judgy as time went on. And then regarding the fact that she lived with her ex boyfriend, David, you know, understandably that would upset him too. But he didn't approach this normally by having a conversation with Catherine or both Catherine and David to kind of sort it out. He showed up unannounced at her apartment to confront David personally. Almost like he wanted to get into a fight, which David was not down for. He told Paul outright he was not going to get into it with him about Catherine. So this made Catherine really uncomfortable. She decided that she couldn't handle all of this controlling behavior that was coming from Paul. So she broke it off. And in response, in this weird act of revenge, Paul called her parents back in Ohio and told them how she was making her money not at a restaurant, but at two gentlemen's clubs, which obviously she had been keeping private from them. He also told them that she had been doing sex work and acting in pornographic films. But there is no evidence that either of those are true. But it certainly shows what a petty piece of shit he is that he's trying to get back at her by possibly destroying her relationship with her parents. Right. And just to show you how much her parents did not approve of this, her dad, John, was so rattled by these allegations that he flew to New York City to check on her and make sure she was okay, which only made Katherine angry, explaining to her dad that Paul was nothing more than a spiteful ex, and just to disregard everything Paul had told him on the phone, despite part of it being true. But their breakup didn't last long because Catherine found herself unable to resist his allure. And by the time David moved out in the fall of 2005, she was seeing Paul once again. She actually continued to see both men casually now that she's living alone, but prioritized her career. Though one of them would decide that this was not enough. So late November 2005. Remember, this is a little over a year after she even met Paul. Shortly after David moved out, Thanksgiving is approaching, and Paul actually asked Catherine to spend it with his family in his childhood home in the Bronx. So he is serious enough about Catherine that he says, even though we're dating casually, we've known each other for a year. You know, of a casual, more casual relationship throughout most of that period of time. He wants her to meet the family, but it was close by, so then she wouldn't have to go to Ohio to see her family. But she decided she didn't want to do either of those things. She politely declined Paul's invitation, opting to spend a quiet day at home with David in New York instead. So even though she and David were no longer technically together, they're not roommates. They were still really close friends, who are sometimes friends with benefits, but mostly just very, very good friends. And they really enjoyed having that. Now, the day Catherine was murdered was the Sunday following Thanksgiving. So after Paul went home to his family, after Catherine and David spend the day together. And we don't know exactly when it happened, but at some point that November or so, David actually moved back in. So this is casual. He's still kind of floating around. But Catherine had not told this to Paul. So on the day that Catherine was murdered, again the Sunday following Thanksgiving, she left David at home, sleeping off the overnight shift that he had worked and headed to church with a friend. That afternoon, she was getting ready for a shift at one of her clubs, and David offered to drive her. While on the way, they chatted while she did her hair and makeup, and they wound up having sex before he headed out to pick up the car from where he had left it overnight. So this happens the day that Catherine was killed. So she was very much still seeing David. David then returned to the apartment building and pulled up outside, calling Catherine's cell phone to let her know that he was downstairs. When she didn't answer, he left his flashers on and went to the building's intercom to buzz up to the apartment. When she again didn't answer, he started up to their second story apartment to find her. Meanwhile, Catherine's next door neighbors reported hearing screams coming from her apartment sometime between 5:45 and 6pm but at the time, she was actually still on the phone with a friend. Per her cell phone records, that call concluded at 6:03pm so her neighbors probably confused the time for earlier than it really was. A more realistic timeline was that of her upstairs neighbor who said he heard dogs barking, screaming and furniture being shuffled around. Looking at the clock, he noted it was 6:18pm so only 15 minutes after she got off the phone with her friend. When David headed into the apartment building to check on Catherine upstairs, he was surprised to be met with a neighbor who said that the black lab that David had been watching for somebody in the apartment building that he worked for had fled from Catherine's apartment and was running free in the street, which would obviously suggest that someone left the door open. Thankfully, this neighbor chased the dog down the street and brought him back inside. So David's kind of thinking, why was the door open? Why is Catherine not answering? What's going on? So he enters her apartment and sees his own dog, which was a chihuahua sleeping on the couch. So it seems at first glance that everything is okay. But all was not calm because David instantly noticed clear signs of a struggle. And then he spotted blood alongside Catherine's motionless body. So he ran to her side. He's calling out her name, but she wasn't reacting naturally. Many questioned how her assailant could have gotten into the apartment. But David unfortunately had left the front door unlocked when he headed out to pick up his car. And many residents of their building complained that the front gate and front door of her walk up apartment building were frequently broken. So someone definitely could have gotten in. In a Frenzy, David called 911 while he tried to wake her gently by tugging at the back of her shirt. But tragically, Catherine was already gone. The aftermath of Catherine's murder was shocking and gruesome. And there had clearly been a major struggle because her bed, which was mounted on wheels by the way, was pushed against her bedroom door. Blood spatters coated the walls around her and she was left on the floor in a puddle of her own blood as Catherine had been stabbed 20 times and her throat had been SL.