AUSTIN – Neighbors of a woman charged with intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault describe her as a caring person who would do anything for anyone. However, some of them feared that one day she might get involved in the kind of situation she found herself in Sunday night.
Linda Woodman, 59, a former pediatric nurse, is accused of getting involved in three separate hit and run crashes on Guadalupe near 30th Street around 7 p.m. Sunday. The crashes left a man dead and a woman in the hospital.
“You don't want to hear that your neighbor, or anybody for that matter, but especially your neighbor, and on top of that somebody killed and somebody injured. It's just depressing,” said Cecil, one of Linda Woodman’s neighbors.
Cecil also told KVUE that Woodman helped him out on several occasions.
“She bought me a computer, and she shouldn't have done it but she did, and she sometimes would give me money when I would do her lawn for free because she's helped me out before,” he added.
Witnesses say Woodman was heading southbound on Guadalupe near 30th when she first clipped a car while driving somewhere between 40 and 45 miles an hour. Those same witnesses saw Woodman then head into northbound traffic where she hit 61-year-old Dik Van Meerten. He died at the scene in front of the Wheatsville Co-op.
Austin police say another woman, 21-year-old Sarah Parker, was also hit by Woodman. Parker now has a fractured jaw, a fractured shoulder and a fractured leg. Her ear was almost severed.
Woodman continued driving after hitting the two people and crashed into a business sign at a dry cleaners on 30th and Guadalupe, creating a two-block path of destruction.
“It was probably moving about 40 to 45 miles per hour at least, and it didn't seem to slow down at all,” said witness Ian Gerg.
A couple of Linda Woodman’s neighbors told KVUE News off camera that they’ve seen her under the influence of something on several occasions. In fact, one neighbor says she had to take Woodman’s keys from her more than once.
Austin police told KVUE Monday evening that they believe Woodman was high on medication.
“I never saw her come out of the car slurring her words. I never saw that, but I did a couple of times when she was in the house, and the words were kind of slurry. I didn't know what was going on,” added Cecil.
As of Monday night, Linda Woodman was still in the Travis County Jail with a bond totaling $55,000.
