Chief Medical Examiner
B.S. in Chemistry, New York University; M.D. Rutgers University
Special Skills: Medical Doctor
Marital Status: Married
The eldest of six children, Woods watched over her four brothers and sister. Her parents worked long hours and numerous jobs trying to keep the family above poverty. Such a duty ruined any chance for a social life, but that wa of no consequence to Woods: all the friends she needed were under one roof.
Her only complaint was the cleanliness of the house. Being compulsively neat, she needed the house to be in perfect order. She would even scold her parents for leaving clothes around. So with her passing for caring and attention to detail, it came as no surprise to her family when Woods announced she wanted to be a doctor, even though she was only 12 at the time.
While working on her MD, Woods kept to herself, becoming one of the top students of her class. She was always eager to return home, until her first day of residency, when she met her husband-to-be.
Woods was close to finishing her residency, her wedding was in the works, and she was already getting promising offers to pursue after graduation. Everything was as she dreamed, until she read a patient's chart and caught a surgeon's mistake. He was one of the most distinguished doctors in the city, so she thought he couldn't be wrong. Already having been reprimanded for trying to correct her superiors, Woods didn't speak up. The patient died on the operating table, and the surgeon made sure that Woods carried the blame.
Woods was able to salvage her degree, but the surgeon made sure she could not practice in the city she called home. Though her family and hew husband supported her, for the first time in her life, she doubted herself.
Unable to find a position, Woods took a part-time job with the New York Coroner's office. At first she felt this was a step beneath her, but it wasn't long before she realized the work suited her: she was able to spend time alone, bring chaos into order, and, most importantly, she grew to understand that these dead vicitims needed her to speak for them.
When the county of Miami-Dade approached her to head up their new state-of-the-art facility, it was a difficult decision to make. It meant moving away from her family. But her husband and children, Janie and Bryan, as did her family, agreed that the people in Miami needed her. People have been confished by her bedside manner with the dead, but to Woods they are her patients and they have come to her because they still have a story to tell.
