SOLVEDListenNiles Charter Township, Michigan · 1980s
Murder of Roxanne Wood
Roxanne Wood was killed in her Niles Township home in 1987, and forensic genealogy led to a second-degree murder conviction 35 years later.
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What happened
Todd Stermer died on January 7, 2007, after a fire at the family home near Lawrence, Michigan. A forensic pathologist determined that thermal injuries and smoke inhalation caused his death. Prosecutors alleged that Todd's wife, Linda Kay Stermer, set him and the house on fire and struck him with a vehicle after he escaped outside. Linda maintained that the fire was accidental and that she struck Todd unintentionally while trying to leave for help.
Authorities arrested Linda in June 2009 and charged her with premeditated murder and felony murder during arson. A jury convicted her of felony murder in 2010, and she received life imprisonment without parole. That judgment was later set aside. In 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld a conditional writ of habeas corpus granting Linda a new trial. The majority found that prosecutorial misconduct and trial counsel's failure to object deprived her of a fair trial; it also criticized counsel's failure to consult a fire expert.
Michigan prosecuted the case again in 2025. At the retrial, the prosecution continued to argue that Linda deliberately used gasoline to burn Todd and then drove over him. The defense continued to present the death as an accident and challenged the fire investigation. On April 11, 2025, the new jury found Linda guilty of both first-degree premeditated murder and felony murder after deliberating for roughly seven hours. The retrial verdict, rather than the overturned 2010 judgment, is the controlling conviction summarized here.
On May 19, 2025, Van Buren County Circuit Judge Kathleen Brickley sentenced Linda Stermer to life in prison without parole. She appealed the new judgment in Michigan Court of Appeals docket 376888. After earlier briefing extensions, a July 7, 2026 order granted the defense until September 1, 2026, to file the appellant's brief and warned that the matter could otherwise be placed on the involuntary-dismissal docket. The 2025 conviction remains in force, but the appeal is pending and the judgment should not be described as final.
