Crime News
Family murder in Royse City gets probed by SundanceTV True Crime show
True Crime host Hilarie Burton Morgan
A family murder that took place in Royse City in 2005 is the subect of an episode of True Crime Story: It Couldn't Happen Here, airing on SundanceTV on October 13 at 9 pm.
Hosted by Hilarie Burton Morgan, the segment looks at the murder of Dennis and Norma Woodruff, who were found shot dead and with stab wounds at their Royse City home in 2005.
The police focused in on their son Brandon, who was charged, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2009.
Brandon has maintained his innocence, stating that bias and homophobia played a role in his conviction, and sought an appeal in 2010.
The murders were the subject of a 2018 book, called Railroaded: The Homophobic Prosecution of Brandon Woodruff for His Parents’ Murders, written by retired lawyer Phillip Crawford, Jr which alleges that the investigation, prosecution, and conviction were homophobic and unjust.
They were also the focus of a May 2022 episode of ABC's 20/20.
In a series of tweets about the show, Burton Morgan hints that there is evidence that was overlooked.
"In 2005, Brandon Woodruff was a freshman in college - in the process of coming out- when his parents were murdered," she tweets. "Tomorrow night, we cover the story of how law enforcement focused on him. They said, 'If you could lie about your sexuality, you could lie about killing your parents.' To this day, Brandon sits in prison while the state refuses to test DNA evidence found at the scene that could exonerate him."
True Crime debuted on AMC Network's SundanceTV in 2021 and became their biggest series of the year. The franchise examines true crime stories with the goal of shedding light on overlooked or unjust cases, from two perspectives:
It Couldn’t Happen Here, hosted by Hilarie Burton Morgan (One Tree Hill, The Walking Dead, Friday Night in with The Morgans) looks at crimes in small towns.
Indefensible, hosted by Jena Friedman (Borat 2, The Daily Show), which will debut on October 27, looks at cases through a sardonic filter.
