Inset: Journee McGrew (Duval County Jail). Background: Cross Creek Apartments, where McGrew allegedly beat a man to death last week (Google Maps).
A 21-year-old woman in Florida has been arrested for allegedly killing a 41-year-old man, beating him to death with a hammer and leaving a note on his body for authorities to find. Journee McGrew was taken into custody last week and charged with one count of second-degree murder and one count of altering, concealing, or destroying physical evidence in the slaying of Waduta Woodley, court records show.
According to a probable cause affidavit, deputies with the Jacksonville Sheriff”s Office at about 3:36 a.m. on July 2 responded to the Cross Creek Apartments in the 1400 block of Manotak Avenue regarding reports of “a dispute.”
Upon arriving at the address, first responders said they located the victim — later identified as Woodley — lying behind a stairwell in front of apartment 207 with “blunt force injuries to the head and face.” The scene was gruesome and also included an unexpected clue — a note that investigators say was written by Woodley’s killer.
“Large pools of blood were under the victim and copious amounts of blood were observed on the walls and ground outside of apartment 207,” the affidavit states. “There was also a white sheet of paper lying on the victim’s chest that read, ‘PEDO Touches Children’ written with a green highlighter.”
Paramedics pronounced the victim dead on the scene and McGrew, who lives in apartment 207, was detained and transported to police headquarters to be interviewed along with her father and brother.
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While executing a search warrant on McGrew’s apartment, detectives allegedly found bloody footprints leading from the front door to the bathroom. In the bathroom, investigators said they recovered a metal hammer with blood on the handle. Bloody clothes and shoes were also collected from McGrew’s home as well as a “pink notebook with loose paper, and one green highlighter.”
McGrew’s father and brother said they went to McGrew’s apartment after they discovered that she had been trying to contact her mother via phone. While driving to her home, the father said he spoke to McGrew, who told him that Woodley had been at her home earlier that evening and “demanded that she have sex with him.”
“When she rejected him, he grabbed her, and she struck him with a hammer,” the affidavit states. “[McGrew’s father] asked her if Woodley was injured, and she said, ‘I think he’s dead, Daddy.’ [McGrew’s father] said he told McGrew to hang up the phone and call 911. After hanging up, [McGrew’s father] called 911 and requested that police respond to McGrew’s residence regarding a battery.”
In a post-Miranda interview, McGrew claimed that Woodley had been “sexually grooming her since she was eight years old and sexually battered her multiple times.” However, at about 10 p.m. the previous evening, police said McGrew messaged Woodley, saying she had been “fantasizing about him sexually and regretted ever treating him poorly.” She then invited him to her apartment “to spend time with him and have sex,” according to the affidavit.
Woodley came to her home and the two went to “multiple nearby stores,” arriving back at McGrew’s at about 1 a.m., police wrote. Shortly after the two started drinking alcohol, McGrew said Woodley began to “pressure” her to have sex with him and she asked him to leave. Before walking Woodley to the door, McGrew said she grabbed a hammer out of her closet and hid it behind her back.
At the threshold of the door, Woodley allegedly wrapped McGrew in his arms in a way that she described as “not forceful, but aggressive.” The affidavit says McGrew “pushed him away,” but the remainder of the narrative is largely redacted.
McGrew is currently being held in the Duval County Jail without bond, records show. She is scheduled to appear in court for her arraignment on July 24, 2025.
