Toddler's death brings neighborhood acrimony

August 16, 2005

KATE KELLY/Frontiersman reporter

When 18-month-old George "Georgie" Woodbury IV died in his Big Lake driveway about one year ago, the tragic accident destroyed the paradise of not only his parents, but the man the parents believe is responsible for his death - Troy R. Huls - despite a grand jury's decision not to charge him.

It's not just that the case has cost Huls financially, but it has haunted him so relentlessly he has lost 42 pounds and is now traveling aimlessly in a motor home because he can't bear being in his old neighborhood any longer, Huls said Monday.

"I grew up in that neighborhood. This has destroyed me totally," Huls, 39, said Monday of the toddler's death and the parents' reaction to it. "I want to know what really happened that day, and I want George and Kim Woodbury to come to some kind of healing. I do not want to attack them."

Huls, who lived next door to the Woodburys for six years until they accused him of driving his 2002 Dodge three-quarter-ton pickup over their son July 25 of last year, has been under assault from the Woodburys for the past year, according to friends of Huls who contacted the Frontiersman after seeing a recent story about the Woodburys' wrongful-death suit against Huls.

In the lawsuit, which is scheduled to go to trial in December, the Woodburys argued that because Huls was impaired from partying late the night before, he did not exercise enough caution when backing out of their driveway after Kim Woodbury left her son unattended "for 15 seconds" while she took a cell phone into the house to hand to her husband.

Although there was another car in the driveway at the time of the

accident, Huls was the only person police investigated after the incident because his truck had been parked in the same spot where the boy's body was found.

Huls claimed then and still maintains he did not know Georgie was near the vehicle when he was backing out and never felt anything unusual under his tires at the time. Investigations of his truck - which was impounded after Huls drove from Big Lake to Valley Hospital's emergency room on the day Georgie died - did not find the boy's blood on the tires or undercarriage, according to case documents.

A recent grand jury concluded there was not enough evidence against Huls to indict him for the death, which has led the Woodburys on a mission to change the way forensic evidence is tested and classified. They believe blood and urine tests done on Huls after the accident would have shown him to be impaired enough to drive over their son's body without even realizing it.

"It was clear that the reason there were no charges against Troy is because of state law and the way they're written," George Woodbury III said Monday. "There is no way to determine the amount of drugs in someone's system, so they chose not to indict him."

Huls admitted Monday that he did smoke marijuana and ingest a small amount of hallucinogenic mushrooms about nine hours before the accident, but he argued he was not impaired in any way when he went to the Woodburys' home that afternoon to borrow some hydraulic fluid for his front-end loader.

Huls' friends, one of whom is also a neighbor of the Woodburys, claim the Woodburys have conducted a smear campaign against him, even going so far as to write in dust on the back of their truck, "TROY HULS KILLED OUR SON."

Longtime Huls friend and fellow realtor Doyle Currier said he was with Huls the day he drove back to his vandalized home to pick up some of his belongings and that Mr. Woodbury approached his vehicle and threw a flyer requesting donations for Georgie's funeral into the passenger window. Currier said Woodbury also threatened Huls' life at that point.

Friends of Huls also claim the Woodburys had a habit of allowing their son to roam free without supervision in front of their home at 131 Woodbury Drive and that they are the ones who should be held responsible for his death - not Huls.

"The big crime is that the Woodburys were allowed to have another kid," Huls friend James Pankowski said recently in a phone call to the Frontiersman. "I just hope they watch this one better than they watched the other one."

Neighbor Candace Rennie said last week she had seen Georgie alone in front of the house - and even in the street - more than once.

"Several times he's been out by himself," Rennie said. "I've never even once left my 18-month-old out there alone. I was totally blown away when I heard about this."

Woodbury said angrily Monday that July 25, 2004, was the only time they had ever left Georgie outside alone - and it was for only 15 seconds. He also said that they have not waged war against Huls by posting flyers against him in public places, as some of Huls' friends have claimed.

"We never had anything printed up that said anything slanderous about Troy," Woodbury said Monday between expletives. He did not address the question of whether he had written something about Huls in dirt on their truck.

"I'm the one being stared at and given the evil eye. This is bull—-."

Woodbury referred to the Rennies as "trailer trash weekend people" and said he and his wife do not feel responsible for their son's death in any way.

"We never beat ourselves up for it because we weren't responsible for it - Troy was," Woodbury said. "I've lost my son and the state of Alaska is not going to hold him accountable."

Huls said Monday he doesn't know for sure if he's the one who ran over Georgie, but he has grieved from the day it happened and just wants some healing to begin.

"This is a lose-lose situation. It's a nightmare," said Huls, who walked away from two homes he had paid off just to get out of the Big Lake area. "The only thing we know for sure is a child's life has ended, and it's the saddest thing in the world."

Contact Kate Kelly at

352-2284.