Who is Readytech CEO John Kevin Woodward and why was he arrested?

JOHN Kevin Woodward was tried twice in the 1992 killing of his roommate’s girlfriend.

However, it was not until July 9, 2022, that the Readytech CEO was finally arrested and charged with Laurie Houts’ murder after a recent DNA breakthrough.

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Who is Readytech CEO John Kevin Woodward?

John Kevin Woodward is the CEO of ReadyTech, an online training company.

The 58-year-old is said to have been living in the Netherlands.

He is believed to have traveled back to the US on vacation and for other personal reasons, Sgt David Fisher of MVPD’s Crimes Against Persons Unit told ABC7 News.

Why was John Kevin Woodward arrested?

The tech CEO was arrested on July 9, and charged with murder in connection to a 30-year-old California cold case.

He was reportedly taken into custody at New York’s JFK airport after he arrived from Amsterdam on Saturday.

Back in September 1992, his roommate’s girlfriend’s body was found in her car with a rope around her neck about a mile from her workplace in Mountain View, California.

Officials said DNA on a rope led them to Woodward, with the help of improvements in technology over the years.

“The biggest hurdle from those cases was being able to find new evidence,” Sgt Fisher said.

“Since then, these advancements have really given the district attorney the ability to file charges here.”

According to a news release by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office on Monday, Woodward’s footprints were found on the inside of her windshield, a sign of struggle, but was “tried twice unsuccessfully in the late 1990’s for the murder of Laurie Houts, a 25-year-old computer engineer.”

Woodward was “openly jealous of Ms. Houts, having developed an unrequited romantic attachment to his roommate, her boyfriend,” according to Investigators.

If convicted, he faces life in prison, according to the DA’s office. He is being held without bail in New York while he awaits extradition to California.

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What is ReadyTech?

ReadyTech is an online training company that started in 1993 in Oakland, California.

The company has instructors based around the US and Europe.

According to their website: “Our goal is to build solutions that continue to solve real world training delivery problems, e.g. how does the instructor know when and if remote students have successfully completed all the labs? Or how can a single instructor handle questions from a class of 30 or 40 students?

“Every time we approach a problem we think about it from the point of view of the instructor, student, and training manager. Then we design the best solution technically possible.”

ReadyTech called Woodward’s arrest a “jolt to all of us,” in a July 12 statement.

“We have the utmost empathy for the families involved,” it said. “ReadyTech will draw upon the strength of our long-time leadership team to support our employees, our customers and our business during this time.”