New book examines Jackson murder

Ever since Joshua Allen Wolf fatally shot his grandmother Carol Lindley as she watched television in their Jackson home on May 6, 2000, the lingering question has been why?

Why would the boy, then 16, take the life of the woman who had raised him?

A new book on the crime and its aftermath comes no closer to answering that question.

Carol Guy, the author of "A Picture Perfect Kid -- The Story Behind the Carol Lindley/Joshua Wolf Murder Case," said she struggled for some time before deciding to pursue the project. But as a friend and former employee of Lindley's at a hospital in Columbus, Ohio, Guy said she ultimately felt compelled to move forward.

"I knew it would be very time-consuming and take an emotional toll," Guy said. "But I started looking through the material and decided it was a story worth telling."

Wolf and Lindley had moved to Jackson from Ohio just weeks before the crime.

The book, which came out in February, is published by Zumaya Publications of British Columbia. It can be ordered on the Web through www.zumayapublications.com or www.amazon.com. Local bookstores can also special order the paperback.

Guy draws on court and police records as well as interviews with Lindley's family, police investigators and Cape Girardeau Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle.

Interviews grandson

She also elicited the cooperation of Wolf, who is serving two concurrent life sentences at the Farmington Correctional Center for first-degree murder and armed criminal action.

During Wolf's April 2001 trial, Swingle theorized greed led the crime, claiming Lindley had refused to buy Wolf an all-terrain vehicle and satellite television hookup. However, the evidence supporting that motive was thin.

In her correspondence with Wolf, Guy said he denied that was the reason but offered no real insight as to what was.

"With Joshua you have to understand some of his statements can be taken with a grain of salt," Guy said.

Two days after killing Lindley, Wolf attempted to burn down their house to cover up the crime. Upon interrogation by police later that night, he confessed.

He pleaded innocent by reason of mental defect at trial. Expert psychiatric witnesses testifying for both sides offered contradictory conclusions. Swingle argued that Wolf's claim of mental illness was an act.

Though conceding that Wolf had a difficult childhood before going to live with Lindley and her husband, who paid for the boy's defense, Guy said she too questions the veracity of the mental illness claim.

"My personal opinion was he thought he could get away with it, and if he couldn't get away with it, grandpa would buy his way out of it," Guy said.

A state appeals court upheld Wolf's convictions in October. He will never be eligible for parole.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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