A Colorado man accused of killing his wife in a plunge off a Wyoming mountain road after searching “cliffs near me” has returned to Wyoming to face a murder charge, with a $5 million cash-only bond set and his case advancing to district court.
Forrest Jay Wood, 46, waived a preliminary hearing scheduled for Wednesday in Carbon County Circuit Court, allowing the case to proceed to district court without a preliminary hearing on the prosecution’s evidence.
When Cowboy State Daily last reported on the case, Wood was being held in Colorado after his Sept. 22 arrest in Fort Collins. He made his initial appearance in Carbon County on Oct. 12.
He faces charges of first-degree murder, failure to render aid and having an open container. Court records list John J. Learned and Jeremy William Meerkreebs as his attorneys.
The case stems from a June 3 crash on French Creek Road near Saratoga, where investigators say Wood’s Chevrolet Silverado accelerated to 57 mph without braking before leaving the road with his wife, 44-year-old Virginia Lynne Wood, inside.
Virginia survived the initial crash but needed immediate medical treatment, Carbon County Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Joel Robertson wrote in an arrest affidavit.
Nobody found the couple until June 5.
By then, Virginia was dead beneath a bush downhill from the truck. Wood was alive farther down the slope.
Investigators found evidence that his phone had been accessed after the crash, but no calls for help were made.
When they later confronted Wood with data showing 99% throttle before the crash, he couldn’t explain it.
“I don't know, we were happy. I don't know. I really don't know. I'm sorry. I wish I knew,” Robertson quoted him as saying.
Familiar Route
Wood told investigators the trip was supposed to give him and Virginia time to talk about their troubled marriage.
He had returned from a business trip June 2, and the couple stayed at a Loveland hotel before driving into Wyoming the next day. Wood said they talked about their family and relationship along the way, listening to music that Virginia turned up when a song she liked came on.
The route was familiar to him. Wood said he is from Laramie and knew the French Creek area from hunting.
He had even walked the hillside where the pickup crashed.
“Defendant stated that he had walked that hill before hunting and it was very steep,” Robertson wrote.
Wood described stopping at a pullout he called the “Spur,” where he parked during hunting trips. He said Virginia had been there once or twice.
They talked about their grandson, a friend who had died and whether Wood would move back into their home, the affidavit says.
Wood told investigators Virginia wanted him to stay in the room they used as an office. He said he wanted to return but needed a few days to think.
Both cried, he said, but neither became angry.
“Defendant said that they were both very calm and that it was the best conversation they had in three months,” Robertson wrote.
Phone-location data showed a part of the drive Wood hadn’t described.
Before parking at the pullout, his phone traveled to the area where the truck would later leave the road. It then doubled back to the pullout, where it stayed about 2½ hours before the crash, Robertson wrote.
Wood had told investigators about stopping to talk. He hadn’t mentioned his earlier trip to the crash area and back.
Insurance And Searches
The day before the crash, Wood’s phone showed searches for “cliffs near me,” “scenic overlook near me” and “am i going to die soon,” the affidavit says.
There were also searches for “what type of life insurance do I have through work.”
On June 3, the searches included “do term life insurances have suicide clauses,” along with cars that had gone off cliffs near Laramie, Medicine Bow and Estes Park.
During his July interview, Wood told investigators he and Virginia had life insurance through his employer. He believed each was covered for $50,000, Robertson wrote.
The affidavit also documents searches involving hydroxyzine and its dangers June 2, followed by searches for ketamine June 3. Robertson reported finding hydroxyzine prescribed to Wood in the vehicle.
Virginia’s toxicology results showed alcohol but no other intoxicants.
The phone searches were one part of an investigation that also examined surveillance footage, the truck’s recorded crash data and the couple’s movements before they reached the mountain road.
Gas station footage from June 3 showed Wood and Virginia holding hands and dancing behind the pickup in Fort Collins. He hugged her, and they walked into the store smiling.
A Loveland detective reported that neither appeared distressed in the footage he reviewed. He also found no prior Loveland police contacts involving domestic violence or disturbances between them and no divorce filing in the court system he checked.
Five Seconds
The pickup’s computer recorded what happened in the seconds before it struck the ground.
Five seconds before the first impact, the truck was traveling 44 mph with the throttle at 99%, Wyoming Highway Patrol Lt. Jason Sawdon found.
It accelerated to 57 mph roughly 1½ seconds before impact. The accelerator was released in the final second, but the brakes remained off throughout the recording.
As the road curved left, the Silverado went off the right side and became airborne. It struck an old two-track road more than 13 feet below the roadway, gouging the ground with its front undercarriage before continuing downhill.
Investigators identified five major ground impacts, including a collision with a boulder.
Both front seats registered occupants wearing seat belts, and the initial impact triggered airbags and seat-belt restraints. Although the truck’s rollover sensors activated, the physical evidence showed it remained upright, the affidavit says.
Wood told investigators he remembered laughing with Virginia before the crash, then waking up in a hospital.
He reported severe head trauma and injuries to his kidneys and liver, and said he remembered little of the rescue beyond briefly being in a helicopter.
He did not know what caused the crash.
Clean Socks
The investigation also focused on what happened after the truck came to rest.
Robertson found no evidence either person had been thrown from the pickup. Both seat belts showed signs of use, and Virginia had injuries consistent with wearing hers.
Yet she was found about 50 yards downhill from the truck, without drag marks leading to her body.
The visible portions of her socks did not show any dirt or debris Robertson would have expected if she had walked there.
“Instead, it is likely that Decedent was carried to the area where her body was found,” he wrote.
Inside the pickup, blood patterns led Robertson to conclude the rear seat was folded up after the crash. Blood on a suitcase also suggested it was moved and opened afterward, with items potentially accessed.
“There was another suitcase with the Decedent’s items in it, but it was not accessed,” Robertson wrote.
Wood was wearing a sweater when rescuers found him. Surveillance footage had last shown him in a T-shirt and jeans.
His personal phone remained powered on from June 3 through its recovery June 5. Robertson found information indicating it had been accessed June 4, but neither Wood’s personal nor work phone showed outgoing calls or attempted calls after the morning of June 3.
Movement In The Brush
The first call for help came from a couple leaving their cabin June 5.
As they drove toward the French Creek overlook, the woman spotted the truck in the sunlight below the road. The couple tried to reach it but couldn’t get down the steep terrain.
They drove to Ryan Park to find cellphone service and called 911.
Robertson followed them to the scene, about 9.2 miles from the French Creek turnoff.
The truck sat roughly 75 yards below the road. Its driver’s door was open, the airbags had deployed and nobody was inside.
Robertson found a bloodied suitcase, a cooler containing Miller Lite and an open beer can in the cup holder nearest the driver’s seat.
The truck shifted beneath him as he searched it, and he got out.
Deputies later found Virginia beneath a bush. An EMS worker spotted movement in the vegetation farther down the slope and found Wood alive.
Wood told the worker he had been driving and the woman was his passenger.
When Robertson reached him, Wood gave a different account.
He said two other men had been in the pickup, then changed that to one. Asked where the man was, he pointed west and said he was “over there in his house.”
Wood thought he was in Loveland, Colorado. He couldn’t identify the woman who had been with him and denied she was his wife, Robertson wrote.
“I then determined that Defendant was either not being honest or was very disoriented and I did not ask him any other questions,” the detective wrote.
Rescuers carried Wood to an ambulance at the bottom of the canyon. He was taken to Saratoga and flown to Casper.
Coroner Findings
Virginia’s autopsy documented multiple broken ribs and extensive chest injuries. Forensic pathologist Dr. Randall E. Frost concluded she most likely died from blunt-force injuries to her torso caused by the crash.
Carbon County Coroner Brittany Nyman classified the death as a homicide.
Nyman told investigators the injuries would not have killed Virginia immediately. Both lungs had collapsed, and she would have suffocated within a couple of hours without treatment, the affidavit says.
Robertson wrote that she “would have survived the initial crash but would have needed immediate medical care to survive.”
Roads ran above and below the wreck and could have been reached to seek assistance, he wrote. Neither Virginia nor Wood was found on or near a road.
A longtime friend told investigators Virginia had been discussing separation and a move to California. The friend offered her a place to stay rent-free while she worked and saved money.
Wood, however, told investigators during his July interview that both spouses wanted their relationship to continue.
He eventually asked for an attorney, and the interview ended.
His case now moves to Carbon County District Court following his waiver of the preliminary hearing.
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
