Jeremiah Duncan is now jailed on two murder counts after serious burns delayed proceedings in the deaths of Heaven Wood and their son.
PEORIA, Ill. — A father hospitalized for more than a month after the deaths of his son and the child’s mother has been transferred to the Peoria County Jail, allowing a double-murder prosecution delayed by his serious burns to move into a new phase of court proceedings.
Jeremiah J. Duncan, 24, is accused of fatally shooting 20-year-old Heaven Wood and starting a vehicle fire that killed their 2-year-old son, KJ Duncan-Wood, on Sept. 25. Duncan was initially charged only in Wood’s death, but a grand jury later added a first-degree murder count involving KJ. After Duncan left a Rockford burn unit on Oct. 30, prosecutors sought to keep him jailed while the case proceeds. A judge granted that request Nov. 2 after a hearing that revealed new details about the evidence and also exposed a key defense argument: that the vehicle fire may not have been deliberately set.
The prosecution reached that point only after several weeks in which Duncan’s physical condition repeatedly interrupted the court schedule. He suffered serious burns during the events surrounding the deaths and remained in law-enforcement custody while receiving hospital treatment. At an early October hearing, his lawyer reported that Duncan was sedated and expected to undergo surgery. The court postponed proceedings rather than move ahead while he was medically unable to participate normally. Later hearings were also adjusted as his recovery continued, even while investigators and prosecutors developed the case outside the courtroom.
During that medical delay, the charges themselves changed. Peoria County prosecutors first accused Duncan of first-degree murder in Wood’s death after investigators said she was found with multiple gunshot wounds at her home. At that time, authorities were still investigating the death of KJ, who had been discovered in a burning vehicle nearby. On Oct. 13, State’s Attorney Jodi Hoos announced that a grand jury had returned an additional first-degree murder indictment accusing Duncan of causing the fire that killed the toddler. From that point forward, the case became a two-count murder prosecution involving two alleged methods and two related scenes.
The events began with a call about a vehicle fire shortly after 6 a.m. Sept. 25 in the Royal Oaks Estates area near West Peoria. Deputies arriving on Yorkshire connected the vehicle to a nearby residence and conducted a welfare check. They found Wood suffering from gunshot wounds. She was taken to OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. Two other children at the home were unharmed. Firefighters extinguished the burning vehicle and found KJ inside. The child was pronounced dead at the scene.
Peoria County Coroner Jamie Harwood later said Wood had died from multiple gunshot wounds. KJ’s autopsy showed severe smoke inhalation from the fire, and Harwood said the child likely died soon after the blaze began. Sheriff Chris Watkins described the deaths as connected to domestic violence. Authorities then searched for Duncan, eventually locating him around midday near Molleck Drive and Oak Crest Drive. Watkins said Duncan had a knife when police and deputies took him into custody. His burns were serious enough that he was sent directly into medical care, beginning the long hospital period that complicated the early criminal proceedings.
By the time Duncan was healthy enough to leave the hospital, investigators had assembled evidence that prosecutors presented at his detention hearing. The State’s Attorney’s Office said Wood’s cellphone contained a recording from the morning of the killings. Prosecutors described a conversation in which Wood tells Duncan to leave or she will call police. A struggle can then be heard, followed by three gunshots, according to the state’s account. Deputies also recovered a revolver containing three spent rounds and a pair of burned pants. Those details were presented as pieces of the prosecution’s larger reconstruction, not as findings of guilt by a jury.
The fire scene produced a different set of evidence and a major dispute. Prosecutors said investigators found a burned gas canister on the passenger-side floor of the vehicle. Witnesses reported seeing a man who appeared partially on fire running from the car, and authorities obtained surveillance footage that they say showed the vehicle burning from inside. The state contends Duncan intentionally started that fire with KJ inside. His attorney offered another possibility at the detention hearing, saying Duncan was a mechanic who kept gasoline in the passenger area and arguing that an accidental blaze had not been ruled out. That disagreement is likely to be central to the murder charge involving the toddler.
The legal relationship between Duncan and Wood before Sept. 25 has also become part of the prosecution’s presentation. Wood obtained an emergency order of protection against Duncan on Sept. 15. Prosecutors said the order was served shortly afterward. On Sept. 18, 19 and 20, Duncan asked the Peoria County Sheriff’s Office to provide deputies during custody exchanges with Wood. No such request was made on the morning of the deaths. Because deputies had participated in the earlier exchanges, prosecutors said one responding officer recognized the vehicle linked to Wood’s home after being dispatched to the fire.
Those facts do not themselves prove either murder allegation, but prosecutors relied on the sequence when arguing that Duncan should remain detained. The state portrayed the protection order, the recorded confrontation and the physical evidence as parts of a single case arising from an ongoing domestic conflict. The defense sought Duncan’s release with electronic monitoring and proposed that he stay with relatives, emphasizing his need for continued care after his burn injuries. Duncan appeared remotely at the Nov. 2 hearing and was using a wheelchair, according to local reporting.
The judge rejected the request for release and ordered Duncan to remain jailed. That ruling concerns his custody before trial, not whether he is guilty. The distinction is particularly important because the parties have already identified at least one major factual dispute. Prosecutors say the gasoline evidence and other circumstances show that the fire was deliberately set. The defense says there is an alternative explanation for why gasoline was in the vehicle and argues that accidental ignition remains possible. If the case goes to trial, prosecutors will bear the burden of proving the charged conduct beyond a reasonable doubt.
The detention hearing also marked a significant change from the earliest public reporting on the case. Immediately after the deaths, authorities knew Wood had been shot, KJ had died in a fire and Duncan had been arrested with serious burns. They had not yet publicly accused him of murdering the child, and officials said the origin of the fire remained under investigation. Over the following weeks, the grand-jury indictment and newly described evidence allowed prosecutors to advance a more specific theory: that Duncan shot Wood, moved through the area associated with the vehicle and intentionally caused the blaze that killed KJ. The defense has not accepted that full reconstruction.
Important questions still await resolution in court. Publicly released information does not provide a complete forensic report on the revolver, a full transcript of Wood’s cellphone recording or a comprehensive fire-investigation report explaining the precise ignition sequence. Authorities also have not publicly reconstructed every movement between the home, vehicle and location where Duncan was arrested. Those gaps should not be filled by assumption. The available record supports the allegations prosecutors have filed, while the contested parts of that record remain subject to evidence rules, cross-examination and defense challenges.
The progression of the case illustrates how Duncan’s injuries changed the timing without stopping the investigation. While he was sedated, undergoing treatment and unable to participate in regular hearings, prosecutors obtained the additional murder indictment and investigators continued processing evidence. Once he was discharged Oct. 30, the custody question returned to the forefront, leading to the Nov. 2 hearing and the order keeping him in jail. Prosecutors have said that convictions on both murder counts could carry a mandatory life sentence, but no sentence is possible unless Duncan is first convicted.
After weeks in which Duncan’s burn treatment repeatedly delayed proceedings, the court can now address the two murder charges with him housed at the Peoria County Jail. The defense has already challenged a central part of the state’s reconstruction, signaling that the vehicle fire will be a major point of dispute. Duncan remains jailed under the detention order while the criminal case moves through pretrial proceedings.
Author note: Last updated November 9, 2026.