KNOXVILLE, Tenn.-
A car police say was stolen by a man accused of pushing his way into a North Carolina domestic violence shelter and shooting his wife to death has been found in a Tennessee bus station parking lot, authorities said Tuesday.
Investigators confirmed that the abandoned 2006 Honda Civic was the car John “Woody” Woodring, 35, allegedly stole last week from a neighbor in Sylva, N.C., about 116 miles east of Knoxville.
Woodring has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, and was already wanted on domestic violence charges after allegedly violating a protective order and trying to strangle her at her home Sept. 14.
Bonnie Woodring, 48, moved into the shelter after that attack. In court records, she said her husband “keeps tabs on where I am 24/7” and had threatened her 13-year-old son from a previous relationship.
On Sept. 18, her husband, armed with a shotgun, pushed past a staff worker who was leaving the shelter for the night, then shot his wife in the kitchen, investigators said.
The getaway car was parked at the bus station for four or five days before a security officer called police Monday night to check its history and discovered it was connected to what has become a national manhunt for Woodring, Knoxville Police spokesman Darrell DeBusk said.
Authorities did not know if Woodring fled on a bus, DeBusk said. Investigators remained in Knoxville Tuesday trying to pick up Woodring’s trail.
“They are just trying to find any leads or anything else here in town. He could still be around this area,” DeBusk said.
Woodring is considered armed and dangerous, authorities have said.
Knoxville police impounded the car but did not examine its contents, DeBusk said. That will be done back in North Carolina, where the car was shipped Tuesday.
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