Drexel A. Woody, Kidnapping and Murder, KS, 2014

A Fort Riley soldier has admitted to his role in the savage 2014 kidnapping and murder of Amanda Clemons, a 24-year-old Junction City woman who was beaten, extorted, and ultimately thrown from a bridge before having her throat slit. Drexel A. Woody, 26, pleaded guilty in federal court today to one count of kidnapping resulting in death, marking a grim milestone in a case that exposed the violent underbelly of central Kansas’s military corridor.

On February 7, 2014, Woody and four co-defendants lured Clemons—known to them as a prostitute—to a Junction City hotel under false pretenses. What followed was not a dispute, but a calculated act of vengeance. The group abducted her, beat her savagely in retaliation for comments she made on social media, and demanded $300. When she couldn’t produce the cash, they moved her to another hotel, then to Woody’s residence on Fort Riley, where the torture continued.

While at Woody’s home, Clemons was briefly allowed to call her young son and her mother. It was that call that sealed the group’s fate. Her mother heard fear in her voice and alerted Junction City Police. When officers called back, the defendants listened on speakerphone, panicked, and rushed Clemons to a remote bridge in Geary County. There, they resumed the beating and attacked her with a knife. Clemons, desperate, jumped—plummeting 15 feet, shattering her ankle on impact.

But survival was not part of their plan. The group found her in the snow, dragged her back, and slit her throat. Her body was discovered weeks later, frozen and broken, in a rural stretch of Geary County. The crime scene told a story of pure malice—no robbery, no heat-of-the-moment rage, just cold-blooded execution for words posted online.

Woody now awaits sentencing on January 30, facing up to life in federal prison. He is not alone in the dock. Co-defendants still awaiting trial include Larry L. Anderson, 27, of Manhattan, Kan.; Marryssa M. Middleton, 25, of Fort Riley; Shantrell D. Woody, 27, of Fort Riley, formerly an active-duty service member; and Christopher Pugh, 32, of Junction City. All are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall credited a sprawling network of local and federal agencies—the Junction City Police Department, Grandview Plaza Police, Geary County Sheriff’s Office, Riley County Police, Fort Riley CID, and the FBI—for cracking the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tony Mattivi and Jared Maag, along with Geary County Attorney Steven Opat, are prosecuting. The indictment stands as a stark warning: vengeance has a federal price.