Year In Review: Crime In Woodbury

From the outrageous to the tragic, there was plenty of crime news to go around Woodbury in 2011.

However, the crime story that garnered much of Woodbury’s attention this year wasn’t a crime at all.

In April, a Woodbury woman around Markgrafs Lake. Residents were in the days afterward.

But in August, and admitted it didn’t happen. Police decided against the woman, which led to some interesting discussions in the community.

Meanwhile, Patch took the opportunity this year to comb through FBI data to get a look at crime trends in the city over the past few years. The results show that over the past five years, though property crimes have fluctuated. Despite the relative safety within city limits, Public Safety Chief Lee Vague said he remains unsatisfied with the numbers.

"Overall I am pleased with the fact that the overall crime rate and calls for service is on a downward trend and has been for a couple of years," Vague told Patch. "But we're never happy; we're never satisfied. We always want to move the number down."

Those numbers are anecdotally reflected in the weekly police blotter, which we run each Saturday. It has become one of Woodbury Patch’s most popular features and gives residents a snapshot of the crime news in their neighborhood.

One big crime story in 2011 took place away from Woodbury. In October, authorities confirmed that in Arizona. Patch spoke with area experts about .

Closer to home, Woodbury experienced a in recent months, but police were .

Another incident in Woodbury involved a public official. Washington County Commissioner Bill Pulkrabek was at a Woodbury home on Memorial Day. He was ; his next court appearance is coming up early next year. Pulkrabek has .

The city trying to crack down on massage parlors that offer more than just massages led to a policy that now . One case against an , though police opted to protect the identity of an undercover officer in attempt to further a larger investigation.

A would-be “Dexter” killer from Woodbury was . Andrew Busskohl had planned to break into a stranger’s home and murder him.

It wasn’t always the tragedies that captured the city’s eye this year. Some of the more notable off-beat crime stories include: