Ezra McCandless claims he acted in self-defense in ex’s murder case

A man called 911 in Menomonie, Wisconsin, on March 22, 2018, after a frantic, bloodied woman ran to his front door saying she had been attacked in the woods. She had defensive wounds and cuts on her hands and thighs.

“It’s just strange. “It’s bizarre,” former Dunn Co. Sheriff’s Sergeant Todd Kurtzhals continued Caughtairs Sundays at 6/5c on Oxygen. “But the distinctive wound she had that stood out the most was the word ‘boy’ engraved on her arm.”

The 20-year-old told police her name was Monica Karlen, although she legally changed her name to Ezra McCandless. In the hospital, she kept asking about 33-year-old Jason Mengel. She eventually told officers her ex-boyfriend, 24-year-old Alex Woodworth, attacked her and she fought back. But parts of her story didn’t add up — forcing officials to figure out what really happened in those Wisconsin woods.

“I guess I wonder if maybe she staged this crime scene,” Kurtzhals said. “And she gave herself these superficial cuts to make it look like Alex had attacked her.”

Ezra McCandless’ complicated relationship with Alex Woodworth and Jason Mengel

Police began investigating Ezra McCandless’s relationship with the two men she had mentioned since her attack: Alex Woodworth and Jason Mengel. When she was 19, she met Mengel in a café in Eau Claire. They eventually moved in together, but after a pregnancy and an abortion, their relationship fell apart. That’s when she started talking to Alex Woodworth, a barista at her favorite coffee shop. This friendship turned into a relationship.

“Jason finds out about this through text messages he discovers,” said Jeff Truesdell, a former crime reporter at PEOPLE magazine, on Caught. “And that leads to Ezra and Jason breaking up.”

That breakup happened just a month before McCandless said she was attacked. Mengel had an alibi for the attack, but mentioned to police that McCandless had just broken up with Woodworth. The three still saw each other often at the cafe, and on the day of the attack Mengel encountered Candless there, where he told officers she was upset and was looking for Woodworth.

“When she left there, her behavior was such that Jason Mengel became very concerned for her safety and the safety of everyone who was near Ezra at the time,” Eau Claire Police Lt. Mark Pieper continued Caught. “She didn’t behave herself.”

Mengel told police that he even followed McCandless to Woodworth’s house and watched her go in to talk to him. With Woodworth now missing, it meant McCandless was the last to see him.

The police find Alex Woodworth brutally killed in the forest

Police pursued the field and woods where Ezra McCandless said she was attacked and found her car. Shoes, blankets and other items were thrown outside the car. Alex Woodworth’s bloodied body was found hanging from the rear driver’s door.

“I have seen many terrible things, but I was not prepared for what I saw in this special place,” Kurtzhals said. “There was a lot of blood around the vehicle and some inside the vehicle. I observed him being stabbed multiple times, including having his neck slashed.”

McCandless told police she and Woodworth were driving there to talk when the car got stuck. She then said he attacked her with a knife.

“Alex, according to her, said, ‘I deserve this.’ “I want one last time,” Kurtzhals said.

Explaining the carving on her arm, McCandless, who considered herself genderqueer, said he also called her “he.”

“And he used to call me ‘boy’ and things like that,” she told police during an interview. “He started carving ‘boy’ on my arm. He started cutting my pants and stuff and I didn’t know what to do and it was really scary.”

But police said the wounds she suffered did not match what she described.

“If you look at Ezra’s injuries, the injuries on her hands where she supposedly grabbed the blade, they are superficial. There are scratches,” said Eau Claire Police Officer Ryan Prock Caught. “If someone actually grabs a knife blade, their hand will be cut wide open.”

McCandless eventually admitted that he hadn’t carved “boy” on her arm – she had done it herself. There were other gaps in her self-defense claims.

“Some of the wounds were caused postmortem,” Pieper said. “They were inflicted on Alex after he died.”

“She stayed and stabbed him 16 times,” Prock added. “So the evidence does not support the claim of self-defense.”

Why did Ezra McCandless kill Alex Woodworth?

Although police believed that Ezra McCandless had murdered Alex Woodworth, they did not know why until they learned that she had turned to Woodworth before the attack to help her get back together with Mengel.

“She wanted Alex to reach out to Jason and say whatever happened didn’t matter. It was an accident,” Prock said. “But I don’t think Alex wanted to say that because for him it wasn’t an accident.”

Her desire to have a relationship with Mengel again was clear in her phone records.

“The day before Alex was murdered, she sent over 600 messages to Jason, begging to get back together with him during that period,” Prock said. “She said everything she could to look like a victim. She thought Jason might try to get back together with her if she was a victim.”

Police and prosecutors argued she lured Woodworth into the woods to lure him into a trap to claim she had been attacked.

“She can go back to Jason and say, ‘Look, I told you so.’ He tried to sexually assault me. I did my best to fight him off. “I told you all along that he was the bad guy,” Kurtzhals said. “And maybe he would take her back.”

Her trial began in October 2019, in which she claimed on the witness stand that it was self-defense and that she had been attacked. A jury found her guilty of murder. Ezra McCandless was sentenced to life in prison but is eligible for parole in 2070 at age 72.

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