Bay Area CEO Arrested and Charged With 1992 Murder

Bay Area Tech CEO John Kevin Woodward was taken into police custody at New York City’s JFK airport Saturday for the 1992 murder of Laurie Houts in Mountain View, California.

Woodward, 58, is the president and CEO of Readytech, an online training company. He will be arraigned once he returns to Santa Clara County in the company of Mountain View detectives.

According to a news release by the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office, Woodward was unsuccessfully tried for Houts’s murder twice in the late 1990s. A judge dismissed the case for insufficient evidence after a jury could not reach a verdict following the second trial. He swiftly moved to Amsterdam following the trial.

Houts was a 25-year-old computer engineer when she was found in her car with a rope around her neck only a mile from her workplace. Footprints were found on the windshield, signaling a struggle. At the time, Houts was dating Woodward’s roommate and was allegedly jealous of their relationship.

Through new developments in DNA technology, the Mountain View Police Department was able to determine a definitive link to Woodward.

Woodward is currently held in a New York jail without bail awaiting extradition to California.