UNSUNG HERO AWARD
Boyd Underwood
Retired Investigator, Orange County District Attorney’s Office
Boyd Underwood started his law enforcement career on August 13, 1964, at the Anaheim Police Department (APD). After eight years of working as a Patrol Officer and Detective, Boyd left APD and continued his law enforcement career at the Orange County District Attorney’s (DA) Office, where he worked as an Investigator for the next 23 years. Boyd Underwood retired in 1995 and continued to work as a “960” (part-time) employee in the same position for the DA’s Office until May 2009.
Boyd Underwood worked in the Orange County DA’s TracKRS Unit and was assigned to the APD homicide detail, where he reviewed cold cases and documented evidence to be examined and leads to be followed up on by detectives. Boyd acted as an early cold case unit when there was none. In 2000, Boyd was asked to look into the homicide of a wife and mother who was brutally murdered in her residence. Her husband, Gregory Mordick, was a person of interest, but the case became cold soon after the January 1983 murder of his wife, Katherine Mordick.
Boyd Underwood worked this case piece by piece, along with his other duties in the DA’s Office, before DNA and other evidence found by Boyd led to the arrest of Gregory Mordick in 2008. After Boyd permanently retired in 2009, he continued to assist Orange County DDA Dan Wagner by appearing as the Case Investigator in the second trial of Mordick, who was found guilty of murdering his wife in October 2010. Boyd Underwood was featured in a Dateline story about this case in March 2011. Boyd Underwood not only dedicated 45 years of his life to law enforcement, he gave many hours and years after his retirement to fulfill his obligation to Katherine Murdock’s family, 27 years after Gregory Mordick stole her life. Boyd Underwood is the model all law enforcement professionals should follow in their career paths and is truly an unsung hero.
