Christopher Wood Was Drowning in Debt. He Murdered His Wife and Three Children Instead.

 

Christopher Wood Murdered His Wife and Three Children, Then Killed Himself

Francie Billotti-Wood was 33 years old.

Her sons, Chandler and Gavin, were 5 and 4. Her daughter, Fiona, was only 2.

On April 18, 2009, all four were found dead inside their Middletown, Maryland, home.

Their husband and father, Christopher Alan Wood, had killed them.

Investigators determined that Wood used a handgun and a knife to murder Francie and their three young children before killing himself.

Three children who should have been worrying about kindergarten, toys, bedtime stories, and what was for breakfast instead died at the hands of the person responsible for protecting them.

Investigators found suicide notes in which Wood wrote about the family's financial problems. They reportedly had approximately $460,000 in debt, much of it involving credit cards and two mortgages.

He was also reportedly struggling with depression.

Those things are part of the history of the case.

They are not an excuse for murder.

Debt did not kill Francie.

Financial pressure did not kill Chandler, Gavin, and Fiona.

Christopher Wood did.

Whatever crisis he believed he was facing, his wife and children were separate human beings with lives that belonged to them. They deserved the opportunity to survive the difficult chapter he decided none of them would be allowed to survive.

Francie. Chandler. Gavin. Fiona.

Say their names.

Because family annihilators too often become the center of the stories they created through violence.

The Accountability Archive exists to put the people they killed back at the center.