Cody Virgin thought he was heading toward an exciting first date with a woman he had met online. Instead, as the 25-year-old Arizona corrections officer drove into the desert for a bonfire, he unknowingly entered a deadly mystery.
“If I had known what was about to happen, I would have done everything I could to stop him and say, ‘Don’t go out there,’” Virgin’s cousin, Conner Day, said during an Oct. 18 episode of Oxygen’s Catfish Murders. “But we didn’t know.”
On Jan. 31, 2017—the day after Virgin left for the date—Border Patrol agents discovered his red Dodge Dart deserted in the Arizona wilderness. The area showed signs of a struggle, including two sets of tire tracks, some of which appeared to have been deliberately covered, as well as footprints and holes in the ground containing what investigators believed could be blood.
Virgin was missing, so detectives turned to Day for information about his final known conversations and movements.
Day told investigators that Virgin had been communicating on Facebook with a woman named Paige Woods. “He showed me her profile on his phone,” Day recalled.
Virgin had kept the planned meeting from Nataly Felix, his live-in partner of about a year.
“He asked me to cover for him,” Day said. “I told him, ‘I’ve got you, Cousin. If she asks, I’ll lie for you.’”
That secret arrangement initially raised suspicions about whether Felix might have known more about Virgin’s disappearance than she revealed.
“Had she discovered that Cody might be unfaithful? Did she know he was seeing other women behind her back?” Patrick Johnson, Bureau Chief of the Major Offender Bureau at the Pinal County Attorney’s Office, asked on Catfish Murders. “And if so, did that create a motive?”
Police interviewed Felix, who agreed to come in and brought Day with her. During that conversation, she learned that the story Virgin’s family had been given about his plans was false.
“It was extremely nerve-racking,” Day said. “I had to tell Nataly, ‘I’m sorry, but Cody did something last night that he didn’t want you to know about.’”
Felix, however, was confused by the secrecy. She already knew about Woods because she and Virgin were in an open relationship. Felix said Woods had even contacted her on Facebook to make sure she understood that she and Virgin were not exclusive.
“I know about you,” Felix told Woods. “You’re not a concern for me.”
Felix was eventually cleared after investigators confirmed that she had been at work when Virgin disappeared. Attention then shifted to Woods, who was believed to be the last person to see him alive.
Detectives examined Woods’ Facebook profile, which at first seemed convincing. It showed a large circle of friends, listed her as living in Casa Grande and stated that she worked for a humane society. But investigators soon found an important inconsistency.
“When law enforcement contacted the humane society, staff said they had no record of anyone named Paige Woods working there,” Johnson explained. “That was a major red flag.”
When police asked Felix whether anyone might want to harm Virgin, she identified her former husband, Will Randolph.
Who Is William Randolph?
Felix said Randolph had become jealous after she began dating Virgin and had started harassing him.
Investigators pursued the lead and questioned Randolph. His interview, however, produced little evidence. He appeared to have moved forward, working as a delivery driver in Arizona City and dating someone new.
Randolph said he had spent the night Virgin disappeared driving through the desert, stopping at a bar and returning home around midnight. Detectives compared the tires on his truck with the tracks found near Virgin’s abandoned car, but the tread patterns did not match.
Randolph did, however, know Virgin’s mystery date. He said he knew Woods from church and that the pair had briefly chatted over Facebook.
Meanwhile, Day messaged Woods for answers—and that’s when the mystery deepened.
“All of a sudden, the profile changed to a completely different name,” Day said. “The photos were all removed as well.”
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Felix checked Woods’ profile, too—now under the name Brittany James—and took a screenshot. “The next thing you know,” she said, “the profile is deleted.”
Investigators then retrieved the Facebook profile records and its associated phone number.
“When law enforcement ran that number,” retired Pinal County Sheriff’s Detective Shawn Wilson said, “it belonged to Randolph.”
William Randolph Arrested for Cody Virgin’s Murder
Investigators brought Randolph back in for questioning—and this time, he admitted to posing as Woods.
“The Facebook page was kind of me being stupid,” Randolph told police in a recorded interview. “Decided to just f–k with him.”
Randolph insisted he had no problem with Virgin but wanted to send him on a wild goose chase in the desert.
“It’s creepy, it’s dark, it’s in the middle of nowhere,” he told police. “Maybe he’ll get stuck and be screwed. I guess he ended up going out there.”
Randolph then said that on the night of Jan. 30, he was at a friend’s house, though he couldn’t remember the person’s name or address.
But his own family had doubts.
His sister told investigators that their mother was concerned that Randolph may have been involved with Virgin’s disappearance.
“William’s mom said that William left that night with wood in his truck, a gun, a backpack and a shovel,” Wilson said. “She was very suspicious because William had bleached his truck.”
Randolph was arrested in connection with Virgin’s disappearance—but now Randolph’s truck was missing too.
Then came a flow of new leads.
One of Randolph’s friends volunteered that Randolph had parked his truck at her home. Another reported that Randolph had asked him to store a set of off-road tires. A tire shop owner also recalled that Randolph had brought his truck in to replace his working tires, a visit surveillance footage later confirmed.
Randolph’s cell phone data was also revealing. On the night in question, his location had converged with Virgin’s before Virgin’s phone disappeared from the network and Randolph drove home.
When authorities searched the desert area, they found Virgin’s charred remains next to a cactus, still wearing his Marvel jacket and a Spider-Man watch, a gift from Felix.
An autopsy revealed that Virgin was killed by a shotgun blast to the back of his head before his body was burned.
When authorities searched Randolph’s home, they uncovered a pair of bloody shoes, the soles of which matched prints at the crime scene. The off-road tires that Randolph gave to his friend were determined to match the tracks at the crime scene. Testing also traced the blood on Randolph’s shoes, his truck and at the crime scene, to Virgin’s DNA
As prosecutors sought the death penalty, Randolph continued to deny involvement and refused a plea offer, to the frustration of Virgin’s family.
“We all wanted to see the end,” Day said. “We wanted to see William get the lethal injection and die.”
But Randolph never saw the inside of an execution chamber.
In June 2024, several months before his trial, Randolph pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison.