This Sunday I’m profiling Colleen Wood, selected by Kat. Colleen, who had bright blonde hair and looked younger than her 53 years, disappeared without a trace December 2000, shortly before she was supposed to embark on a sailing trip around the world with her boyfriend. Her family reported her missing in April. Colleen’s boyfriend said they got into a fight and she simply left him, taking all her belongings.
It all sounds fairly pedestrian, but becomes quite suspicious when you consider the fact that somebody, whom authorities don’t believe was Colleen, withdrew $38,000 from her bank accounts in the months after her disappearance. I should also note that Colleen’s boyfriend, John Paul, had a checkered past including convictions for drug smuggling and shooting someone. Apparently Colleen was unaware of this.
John Paul has a Wikipedia entry of his own due to his fame as a race car driver; the entry mentions Colleen’s disappearance. (It cites her Charley Project entry as a source, actually.) He apparently took off on his around-the-world trip without her in 2001 and dropped out of sight. He may be living in Thailand. The authorities have stopped short of naming him a suspect in Colleen’s case, but they do want to question him.
Of course, Paul’s previous criminal record doesn’t mean he was involved in Colleen Wood’s disappearance, and it’s worth looking at other people who might have been desperate enough to harm her for her money. It would appear Mr. Paul is or was a wealthy man; would he have committed murder for $38,000? Perhaps he is telling the truth and she really did leave him, and something else happened to her after that. But in any case, I highly doubt she’s still alive.
The Charley Project Blog 