Man accused of murder goes free By GREGORY KESICH Blethen i Maine Newspapers SACO — Raymond Wood said he is finally free to go for a walk change the channel on his TV set and start mourning the death of his girlfriend Bessie Selek the woman ne was acc ago i accused of murdering a year “I really haven’t had the chance to really deal with it” Wood said Wednesday less than 24 hours after his release from jaiL “My whole life has been a jumble around this case I’m letting the emotions come on skrwly The most important person in my life has been taken away from me” 1 Witnesses say Selek 41 was hit and killed by truck or sport utility vehicle April 20 1999 while walking along a dark stretch of Route 202 Wood’s defenders say it was a hit-and-run accident but Selek’s family and others still believe it was Wood behind the wheeL “I’m not happy” said Selek’s mother Helen Caron of Chicopee Mass “How can you let out a man after he has done something like this? He was where he belonged” This week prosecutors dropped the case against Wood 38 saying they had too little evidence to prove his guilt Last month Superior Court Justice Robert E Crowley nadthrowi I thrown out incriminating statements that Wood made when state police detectives interrogated him In a strongly worded ruling Crow- Sf said detectives had browbeaten ood into confessing The interrogation Crowley said was fundamentally unfair S Matthew Stewart who supervised the two detectives who questioned Wood said the case is still open and new charges could be brought against Wood if more evidence is developed Wood interviewed at his lawyer’s Office said that by focusing on him police and prosecutors have let the guilty person go free He is offering a $10000 rewara for information leading to her real killer's arrest Wood said he and Selek moved to Maine in 1994 because they thought they would be safe here The couple lived in Providence RL where Wood managed a jewelry shop One day he saw someone shot in the street A few weeks later Selek was mugged Their relationship was often troubled Wood was summonsed for domestic assault twice Selek also accused him of abuse when she revoked the bail she had posted for him and she once applied for a protection order which was never granted because she did not follow through Selek was also cited for assaulting Wood and she was twice charged with filing a false public alarm after making accusations of abuse against Wood Wood denies that he ever hit Selek He said she was an alcoholic who would drink until she blacked out Selek had been battered by a former husband and when she was drinking she sometimes accused Wood of abuse “When she blacked out I became her ex-husband” Wood said “I have never hit a woman in my life” ‘ On April 20 1999 Wood came home early from his job at Chem-Clean a furniture refinishing shop in Alfred About 4 pm a friend dropped Selek at her house Wood said Selek started drinking beer and the two argued about a $169 electric bUL “I kept telling her don’t worry about it she kept drinking and she was getting over the edge” Wood said he left the house in frustration and went back to work where he spent the night At 11:30 the next morning York County Chief Deputy Maurice Ouellette came to the shop and told him he was under arrest for an unrelated charge Ouellette took him to an interview room and asked him questions about his girlfriend About an hour into the questioning Wood asked vriw he was being questioned about Selek The officer screamed that she was dead “It wasn’t put to me lightly I was destroyed” Wood said “It was emotional confusion they just kept pounding me with questions” Ouellette' said he caught Wood in several Ues Wood said at first that he had been home all night and then finally admitted that the two were fighting when he left the house Given the couple’s history Ouellette was convinced he found the killer Two state police detectives were called and began questioning Wood They took turns being friendly and touji They told him they had proof that the van he was driving had killed Selek which was “It wasn’t put to me not true They re- mflvH a tahla lightly I was destroyed It was emotional confusion they just kept pounding me with questions” moved a table Wood was sitting behind and pulled their chairs next to his “They told me they had positive DNA proof They told me they had eye witnesses” Wood said “I was in tears I was broken down They convinced me I was involved” Wood said he was frightened “When you have two cops weighing well over 200 pounds 6-3 6-4 standing over you with guns I was a little intimidated I was told xtell us what we want to hear or else’ I was told xtell us it was an accident and we’ll get out of your hair’ “ Ten years earlier Wood suffered a skull fracture in a motorcycle accident Wood said the detectives convinced him he could have run Selek over and not remembered it Joseph Wrobleski was appointed to defend Wood when he made his first appearance in court two days after Selek’s death He soon saw holes in the evidence Witnesses described a dark colored SUV with a broken headlight not the copper colored van with two working lights that Wood drove Fragments of a plastic grill found around the body did not come from the Chem-Clean van and there was a 40-foot skid mark near the body indicating that whoever hit her was trying to stop Six months later state's DNA tests could not positively identity the blood and tissue found on the van as human let alone Selek’s Timothy Kupferschmid a senior DNA analyst for the Maine State Police crime laboratory said the results do not necessarily mean that the blood wasn’t Selek’s He said blood samples can deteriorate quickly if they are exposed to the elements aim the underside at a van is “not a friendly environment” Wood said the blood did not test positive because it was not human A day before his arrest he said he ran over a possum with the van All that was left of the state's case were Wood’s statements which Wrobleski was able to convince a judge to disallow Prosecutors had to drop the charges Wood said he is not sure what he will do now but he would like to stay in Maine “Bessie and I had some dreams together and I still feel obli-'' gated to them” he said “In some ways she Is still with me”