By Cassidy Friedman
The Times-News
TWIN FALLS, Idaho — In a murder case that’s chock full of odd players who bear bizarre connections to each other and Magic Valley law enforcement, add Bobbi E. Woolsey’s name to the list.
Woolsey, 30, was charged Friday afternoon in Twin Falls County court with accessory to a felony on allegations that she knew about a plot to kill Dale Miller, 18, whose body was found in a barrel Sept. 12 in a Twin Falls garage, and lied–to police about it in interviews. An affidavit suggests the behavior was “an attempt to fabricate an alibi for her ex-lover.”
The document never identifies the ex-lover.
Woolsey is the latest of three defendants charged in the Miller murder, and as with the others, details in the affidavit are sparse and only call up more questions.
Employed at a local gas station and living at Valley House, Woolsey was completing probation for a possession of a controlled substance conviction when she was arrested on a warrant.
Magistrate Roger Harris set her bond Friday at $50,000 and added her name to the list of suspects in the horrible crime that rattled the town, helping make Twin Falls the murder capital of Idaho in 2007.
Woolsey said she understood her rights and cried at the defendant’s table.
County Prosecutor Grant Loebs declined to identify the “ex-lover” whom Woolsey is charged with protecting.
John McElhiney, who was a confidential informant for a Blaine County narcotics unit, and his friend Cameron Watts have both been charged with first-degree murder. McElhiney’s girlfriend, Rachel Madrid, faces no charges in connection to Miller’s death after she provided statements to police that helped establish probable cause against the two men.
Friends of Miller say he was experimenting with meth and had recently made some new friends. Neighbors told the Times-News in September that Madrid’s home, where the body was discovered, was a drug house.
On Sept. 4, Miller made three calls to police, calls that did not add up to a clear call for help, the prosecutor said. After the discovery of Miller’s body, a city dispatcher was placed on administrative leave.
Detectives questioned Woolsey on Sept. 14 after the discovery of Miller’s body while she was in the Mini-Cassia jail, according to an affidavit. Detectives re-questioned her April 23 at the Twin Falls Police Department, the affidavit says.
In the second interview, “Woolsey gave me numerous contradictions from her original interview,” wrote veteran Twin Falls Police Detective Chris Fullmer. “I believe the contradictions Ms. Woolsey has related in her second interview” - which were not detailed, either in the affidavit or in court Friday - “are to establish a false alibi â€- for one of the participants in the homicide.”
County Deputy Public Defender Robin Weeks, arguing for a $5,000 bond, argued that although the murder was serious, the charges against her client border on a misdemeanor.
“She’s only alleged to have said something untrue to police officers,” Weeks said. That’s “very similar to a misdemeanor â€- providing misinformation to a police officer.”
The crime she was charged with, however, is punishable by up to five years in prison.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 6.
Copyright 2008 The Times-News