Update May 28, 2011:

BIBB COUNTY, Alabama — The husband of a Bibb County woman shot to death 12 years ago in Brierfield has been charged with killing her, authorities said today.

William Jody Byrd was taken into custody at his place of employment without incident Friday, according to a news release from the district attorney’s office in the Fourth Judicial Circuit, which covers Bibb County.

It’s been over 12 years since the mild February evening when Desta Dodson-Byrd’s husband found her dead in their driveway. The 29-year-old former beauty queen had been shot once in the head outside their home in the rural eastern Bibb County, AL community of Brierfield. Investigators have never made an arrest.
In the years since her death, questions about who killed Dodson-Byrd have plagued her friends and family.
Dodson-Byrd had been home sick from her job with the Social Security Administration the day she was killed. She was last seen picking up a prescription to help with nausea the afternoon of Feb. 25, 1999.
Jody Byrd, who she had known in high school and dated for five years before they married in 1993, was the last person to speak with her. He told investigators that he talked with her on the phone around 6 p.m., before he arrived home from his job working for UPS.
He arrived at the home they had built to find her dead from a single bullet from her husband’s .22-caliber rifle, investigators said.
Investigators with the Alabama Bureau of Investigation never made an arrest. Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Martha Earnhardt said there have been no recent developments in the case, adding that she could not provide details because the case is still open.
Dodson-Byrd grew up in Forrestdale and graduated from Minor High School 1987. She was the youngest child in her family and remained close to them after she married. She socialized mostly with her family, taking trips in their camper or water-skiing at Lake Logan Martin.
She worked for the Social Security Administration and volunteered for the Humane Society. She loved dogs and had a Siberian husky named Dakota.
She was a fan of the band Def Leppard and often traveled to attend their concerts. She can be seen in the front row of the crowds in at least two of their music videos.
Her parents, Ronnie and Vonciel Dodson, who now live in Calera, were on a trip to Mississippi with Ronnie’s sister and her husband the day Dodson-Byrd was killed.
Vonciel Dodson talked to her daughter on the phone several times the day before the shooting and heard the news of her death the day after their daughter was found. They drove to the house, where they found the lunch she had made for the next day still on the kitchen counter.
The Dodsons say they are grateful that their daughter’s friends still care about finding her killer and hope that person will eventually be brought to justice.
These is a $30,000 Reward for an arrest and conviction in her murder.
Contact Info: Alabama Bureau of Investigation (ABI) 205-553-5531

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 6th, 2011 at 3:47 pm and is filed under Alabama, Unsolved Murder. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.