Quynh Chau, who runs a nonprofit called The Source of Hope, told WFAA 8 that
Christine Woo had recently contacted her and seemed depressed. She said
the mother had promised to attend an event to help the homeless but
didn’t show up.
'She
cried out to us and I could hear that in the sense of her voice,' Chau
told News 8 hours before SUV was found. 'I wish so much that I could do
something to reach out to her.'
The
Woos took their kids to 7 Notes each Saturday, where Christine would
take Lauren for piano lessons while Brandon would accompany Nathan and
Leah to baby and toddler classes.
'She just loved her kids,' 7 Notes director Eileen Tan said. 'The whole family was into it.'
Tan described Christine Woo's enthusiasm for Lauren's piano lessons as 'gung ho' in an interview with CBS DFW Friday.
But
Tan's executive assistant, Chardé Carbonell, said that Christine Woo's
enthusiasm had waned dramatically since the kids enrolled in December.
She
said the mom had talked to her on the phone for weeks gathering
information before enrolling the children, but the parents' visits
became inconsistent, and they would ask to 'take a break' or skip
lessons.
'She seemed overwhelmed,' Carbonell said.
But husband Brandon Woo, speaking to CBS DFW on Thursday
while his wife was still missing, insisted there were no problems with
their marriage and that she had no reason to run away from home.
'She’s a loving mother, a great wife. She’s the most stable person you could ever meet,' he said.
He also told WFAA, 'She's like a lioness, she would fight for her kids, she would never hurt her kids at all.'
And in another conversation with the station,
he said: 'She’s the rock of the family. She’s the most level head. I’m
the one who gets emotional, always worried about finances or this and
that. She’s the one that says, "We’ll figure it out."'
He
also said that she was in 'good spirits and good health' when he saw
her Monday morning and that he didn't know anything was wrong until he
got home from work.
'I
kissed them goodbye as I always do, went out the door like I always do,
come home that day and they were gone. Not there,' he told Fox.
'Got
to the house, no kids, no wife, so I’m thinking, "OK they may be out at
the playground, shopping, somewhere," so I give her a call, call her
cellphone. Cellphone rings in the other room,' he told NBC5.
He told WFAA that
Christine had left the house secured, without packing suitcases or even
taking a bottle for their baby. 'She had every reason to come home,' he
told the station.
Christine
Woo's body was found in her SUV in the parking lot of a SuperTarget
department store in the Dallas suburb of McKinney about 6:30 pm on
Thursday.
Police
spokesman Jeff Inmon says an autopsy will be conducted to determine how
the woman died, though there were no signs of trauma on her body,
according to the Dallas News.
Information is expected to be released by the Collin County Medical Examiner next week.
Her
three children were alive but suffering from extreme dehydration, and
also a severe body rash from sitting in their own filth for days, CBS
DFW said Friday.
The
station also said one-year-old Leah was in critical condition. All
three were taken to the Children’s Medical Center in Plano.
Brandon
Woo had reported his wife and children missing on Tuesday afternoon,
mistakenly believing that missing persons could not be reported for 24
hours.
He had received text messages saying that Christine Woo had used her credit card at a Walgreens near her home.
She
was also seen on security footage at Walgreen's, and she and her
children were later spotted on video at a McDonald's just across the
road from the lot where her body was found.
Police
said earlier in the week that the family does not have a history of
problems nor did Woo have any known medical or mental issues.
The Dallas
Morning News spoke to friends and neighbors of the family, who said
Brandon Woo is a quiet man and the 'breadwinner' of the home.
Conversely,
Carol Woo was described as an outgoing woman who would help out people
in the community, and had recently started attending a women's Bible
study at Stonebriar Community Church.
'She was a very lovely person and a sweet soul,' Elle Bonner, who lives next door to the family, told the paper.
The
death of Woo hit the Frisco community hard. 'We are doing all we know
how to do right now - a lot of prayer, tons of prayer,' Carol Spencer of
Stonebriar told CBS DFW.
She
added that the church had sent Sunday school teachers to the hospital
to be available for the children and their father. 'We’re doing all we
can for this family. Such a sad situation for all of us. Our hearts are
just broken.'
Brandon
Woo released a statement through the Plano Children’s Medical Center
that read, 'Thank you for your thoughts and concern for the well-being
of my family.
'We request that everyone please respect our privacy as we focus on healing.'
The
Dallas News reported that Christine Woo, née Nguyen, was a
Vietnamese-American from San Antonio who graduated from Texas A&M
University in 1999 with a business degree.
She
and her husband owned a home in the city for eight years until they
sold it in 2014 and moved into a 3,350-square-foot home in a
family-friendly neighborhood near McSpedden Elementary School in Frisco.
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