GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Families of five people slain in a series of nursing home deaths in 1987 are upset that a judicial ruling will mean the release of one of two killers.

Catherine Wood, 57, could be released as early as Nov. 5 after Kent County Circuit Court Judge Joseph Rossi ruled Wednesday, Oct. 16 that he could find no abuse in discretion in the Michigan Parole Board decision to parole her.

“I’m very upset about the whole thing. She is a psychopathic, I believe,” said Janice Hunderman, whose mother became the first victim of Wood and Gwendolyn Graham in 1987 at the Alpine Manor nursing home in Walker.

Wood admitted to helping her co-worker and lover, nursing aide Gwendolyn Gail Graham, smother and kill the patients. Wood said her role in the killings was to act as a lookout or divert attention while Graham killed the incapacitated patients. The killings were intended to bind their love.

Graham was convicted of first-degree murder and is serving a life sentence. Wood pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and sentenced to 20-40 years prison.

Wood had served 29 years in 2018 when the parole board granted her release, although it was temporarily blocked by victims’ relatives in an appeal. She would have been released in June 2021 regardless because of credit for good behavior and time served awaiting trial.

Hunderman said she’s worried Wood could hurt someone else in the future. She described her as a “serial killer.”

“She has manipulated people from the get-go,” she said. “And she will manipulate somebody into helping her do what she wants done.”

Hunderman said she’s worried about her own family’s safety as well, because she and others opposed the release. She might beef up her home’s security.

“I’m petrified,” she said.

In a judicial opinion released Tuesday, Oct. 16, Rossi noted that the parole board added conditions to Wood’s parole after he asked for further explanation about the 2018 decision.

The conditions prevent Wood from being employed in a nursing home, health care facility or child care facility “where there are medically or physically vulnerable adults or children.”

While Rossi said he would have preferred a more detailed plan for her reentry into society and a more credible psychological examination, he said the Court of Appeals “deemed the existing documents adequate.”

Wood is expected to live with a sister in South Carolina once released.