Gwendolyn Graham (born August 6, 1963) and Cathy Wood (born March 7, 1962) are American serial killers convicted of killing five elderly women in Walker, Michigan, a suburb of Grand Rapids, in the 1980s. They committed their crimes in the Alpine Manor nursing home, where they both worked as nurse's aides.
The two women met at the Alpine Manor nursing home shortly after Graham had moved to Michigan from Texas. They quickly became friends, and then lovers, in 1986. Two years later they both were facing murder charges for allegedly smothering five elderly patients as part of a ""love bond"".
The details of the murders came almost entirely from accounts to criminal justice authorities by Wood, whose murder charges were reduced by a plea agreement so she could testify against Graham in Graham's trial for first-degree murder. However, Wood's accounts and her self-portrayal as Graham's pawn were later brought into serious question by award-winning journalist Lowell Cauffiel in his 1992 true crime book, Forever and Five Days.
According to Wood's account, in January 1987, Graham entered the room of a woman who had Alzheimer's disease and smothered her with a washcloth as Wood acted as her lookout. The woman was too incapacitated to fight back, and thus became the pair's first victim. The woman's death appeared to be natural, so an autopsy wasn't performed. Wood claimed Graham murdered the patient to ""relieve her tension."" Each felt that the secret of the murder would prevent the other partner from leaving, thus cementing their bond.
Over the next few months, Graham murdered four more Alpine Manor patients, Wood alleged. Many of the victims, whose ages ranged from 65 to 97, were incapacitated and suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Wood testified that the couple turned the selection of victims into a game, first trying to choose their victims by their initials to spell M-U-R-D-E. But when that became difficult, they began counting each murder as a ""day,"" as in the phrase, ""I will love you for forever and a day."" A poem by Wood to Graham, and introduced in the trial, concluded, ""You'll be mine forever and five days."" Wood also testified that Graham took souvenirs from the victims, keeping them to relive the deaths. However, no such souvenirs were ever discovered by police. Wood also portrayed Graham as being sexually, physically and emotionally dominant in their relationship.
The couple eventually broke up when Graham began dating another female nursing aide who also worked at Alpine Manor. Graham then moved to Texas with the woman and began work in a hospital taking care of infants.
The murder investigation began in 1988 after Wood's ex-husband, whom she had told about the murders, went to the police. Detectives for the Walker Police Department extensively questioned Cathy Wood in a series of interviews. She incrementally leaked out her version of the homicides, portraying Graham as the mastermind and hands-on killer.
