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A mile from the Michigan synagogue Samantha Woll had run for the past year, a trail of blood led police to the horrific scene where her lifeless body was found outside her home.
The stabbing of the beloved president of Isaac Agree Downtown synagogue on October 21, 2023, shocked the local community and city officials who remembered her as a beacon of light in the community seeking to build bridges between Jews and Muslims.
Woll’s murder immediately raised speculation about whether it was some type of antisemitic retaliation amid the Israel-Hamas conflict that began on October 7, though police quickly knocked down that theory.
A month later, Woll’s former boyfriend was taken into custody, but then released three days later without charge. The man, who was not named by police, had made a hysterical call to 911 and allegedly admitted to police that he believed he might have killed Woll but couldn’t remember it.
“I had motive and opportunity and I don’t know what the third one is but I probably had that, too,” he sobbed to officers in a video shown to jurors in July.
The man, who was being treated for depression, was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony at a trial six months later, where he testified that he had no role in Woll’s death and that he made the call while experiencing delusions and a panic attack.
“I believe now it was an adverse reaction to a medication,” he said.
Woll’s sister, Monica Rosen, said she told police soon after the slaying that another man had been stalking Woll.
But she later testified that she was in shock at the time and “had no basis to use those words.”
“My sister was the epitome of good. She had no enemies to my knowledge,” Rosen said.
A major breakthrough came on December 10 after a different man, identified as Michael Manuel Jackson-Bolanos was arrested. He was accused of stabbing Woll at least eight times as he carried out car robberies in her neighborhood.
But at his trial six months later, Jackson-Bolanos, 29, told the court that he was tugging on car doors at 4 a.m. to try to find unlocked vehicles when he saw Woll’s body.
“I didn’t shake the body,” he said. “I just checked the neck — no air, no breath or nothing. Once I realized I just touched a dead person I just grabbed the bag and I left.”
Jackson-Bolanos, who has past criminal convictions, said he feared calling police because he didn’t want to explain what he was doing in the middle of the night.
“When I realized she was dead I wanted nothing to do with the entire situation,” he told the jury.
“I’m a Black guy in the middle of the night breaking into cars and I found myself standing in front of a dead white woman. That doesn’t look good at all.”
His testimony was a dramatic moment in a trial that had mostly centered on circumstantial evidence. Police said Jackson-Bolanos’ jacket had spots of Woll’s blood. While there is video of him walking in the area, there’s no evidence of him being inside her home.
Now a jury is deciding: is Jackson-Bolanos a killer?
On Friday, after three days of deliberations, jurors were deadlocked. The judge told jurors to return on Monday, July 15, to resume deliberations.
Night of the murder
Woll was president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, which she had led since 2022.
Besides her work for the synagogue, Woll had worked for Democratic U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin and on the political campaign of state Attorney General Dana Nessel.
Woll was last seen attending a wedding on the evening of October 20, 2023. She left shortly after midnight. Just hours later, around 6:30 a.m., police responded to a report of a person lying on the ground unresponsive outside Woll’s home.
She had been stabbed multiple times inside her home but investigators believe she then stumbled outside the house and eventually collapsed on the sidewalk.
Investigators found that the door to the home “was ajar and unlocked, and a significant amount of blood was inside.”
Detroit Police Chief James White told reporters in December that investigators became aware of Jackson-Bolanos in the few weeks before and were “able to link him to a number of larcenies.”
They reviewed countless hours of video and other evidence before arresting Jackson-Bolanos on December 10.
Jackson-Bolanos was charged with first-degree murder, felony murder, home invasion and lying to a police officer. He later testified at his trial that he had nothing to do with Woll’s murder, but admitted he had lied to police during initial questioning.
Jackson-Bolanos previously spent two years on probation after being convicted of receiving and concealing a stolen motor vehicle in 2019, and four years in prison for a similar offense in 2013, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.
The Trial
“There’s only two people who can tell you exactly what happened inside her home,” Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Ryan Elsey said during closing arguments during Jackson-Bolanos’ month-long trial in July.
“One of the voices is the defendant. He is a liar. He has absolutely no credibility and his lies tell you that he’s guilty,” Elsey said. “The other voice is Samantha.”
Elsey implored jurors to reject Jackson-Bolanos’s testimony.
Jackson-Bolanos has repeatedly denied any role in her slaying and told jurors earlier in the trial that police had the wrong man. He said he checked for a pulse, but did not kill her.
“Don’t believe him,” Elsey told the jurors.
Elsey said Jackson-Bolanos changed his story multiple times, lied to police about seeing her body and touching her body, and fled the scene because he didn’t want to get caught.
“This individual never wanted to be found,” he said, adding that all the evidence points to Jackson-Bolanos, including Woll’s blood on his jacket and a pocket knife found in the jacket.
“Imagine the horror of Samantha’s last moments,” Elsey said. “He decided to subdue her and got the heck out of there.”
While the prosecution maintained Jackson-Bolanos murdered Woll during a home invasion, then fled because he didn’t want to get caught, Jackson-Bolano’s defense attorney Brian Brown argued this was not the case as he showed the jury a photo of evidence found at the scene including Woll’s purse, laptop, keys and cash.
“If this was a robbery, this would not have been in this picture. It would have been taken,” Brown said. “You don’t take someone’s purse? Money? Credit cards?”
Brown argued during closing arguments that police arrested the wrong man in Woll’s killing, which he claimed was personal as he acted out the brutal scene in the courtroom, pretending to be the killer repeatedly stabbing Woll in the back of the head.
“This is a crime of passion,” Brown said. “We’re not saying he’s an angel. But he’s not a murderer.”
Brown told the court that he was aware of his client’s criminal history regarding robbery but that this was a very different type of crime.
“We know he was hitting cars. We know he has a history. If he wanted to steal her car, the key is right there. Laptops. Credit cards. Money. Nothing is taken,” he said.
“This is not a robbery,” Brown added. “They did not come to rob her. They came to kill her.”
Brown asked the jury to consider Woll’s ex-boyfriend and argued that the man was not thoroughly investigated by police.
“It was not a thorough investigation,” Brown said. “Stones were left unturned. I think they deep-down have reservations about (the ex-boyfriend) recanting.”
“Michael Jackson-Bolanos had absolutely nothing to do with this murder … nor did he ever go inside of Samantha Woll’s house,” he said, adding that there is “not a shred of evidence.”
As for the blood on his client’s jacket, Brown said it’s from when Brown checked for her pulse on her neck.
After two hours, Brown implored the jury to find Jackson-Bolanos not guilty.
“I have a good idea who did it,” he added, but refused to say who, only stating that it wasn’t his client. “He’s innocent,” Brown said.
The loss of Sam
More than 1,000 people attended Woll’s funeral, the Detroit Free Press reported, and was remembered by loved ones as a leader who worked to unite people through her interfaith work.
“Sam did more for our community, our state, our world, our lives in her short time here on Earth than most will ever accomplish in 1,000 lifetimes,” AG Nessel said in her eulogy, according to The New York Times.
“You sent hearts to cheer people up and let them know you’re thinking of them — because you cared,” her sister Woll Rosen said at the funeral, revealing that a friend of her late sister had received flowers from her on the day of her death, according to The New York Post.
“That was you, Sam,” Woll Rosen added.
“You didn’t even ask. You just sent flowers and signed 10 other people’s names because you knew it would make the receiver happy — and the others would have wanted to say happy birthday if they knew it was your birthday.”
