As police continue to look for a corpse, an affluent mother of three from Utah who is accused of shooting her husband dead while he was sleeping after a yelling argument over an alleged affair she was having showed up in court this month.
At the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City on February 6, 42-year-old Jennifer Gledhill entered a not guilty plea to murder and forfeited her right to a preliminary hearing.
Judge Adam Mow asked Gledhill, who was wearing a blue jail jumpsuit, black-framed glasses, and her hair tied back, to affirm that she had waived her right to the hearing.Investigators claim that Gledhill confessed to having intercourse with another guy during a night of intoxicated sex, which preceded the cold-blooded murder.
Eight days after the alleged murder, on September 28, the mother of three reportedly disposed of his remains and filed a missing person’s report.
But according to Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill’s October announcement, the suspected murder was made public after a man came forward and informed police that he had “an extramarital affair” with Gledhill and that she confessed to him about the horrific murder.
According to her unnamed alleged boyfriend, Gledhill informed him that on September 20, her husband, a member of the Utah National Guard, had confronted her and “yelled at her because he knew she had been sleeping with someone else.”
According to the statement, “the defendant told the informant that she shot Mr. Johnson [the next day] as he slept in their bed.”
“She told the informant that she put Mr. Johnson’s body into a rooftop storage container, slid him down the stairs of their home, and loaded his body into the back of their minivan.”
According to the DA’s information, Gledhill “then took her husband’s body north, dug a hole, and buried him in a shallow grave.”
The accused killer, according to the prosecution, then took Johnson’s car to a car wash, drove his truck to a separate area of the neighborhood, and broke her phone.
Following the alleged murder, she was seen on security footage “thoroughly” cleaning out the vehicle, and investigators were able to follow the GPS data on her phone to the precise location where the truck was eventually located.
His body has yet to be located by investigators.
According to the DA, Gledhill’s girlfriend gave authorities phone recordings and screenshots of messages.
“The informant said that he noticed bruises all over the defendant’s body, and when asked about them, the defendant said they were from moving Mr. Johnson’s body and cleaning their house,” according to the district attorney’s statement.
In addition, Gledhill faces felony drug charges, witness tampering, destruction of a human body, and five counts of second-degree felony obstruction of justice.
Police said they discovered bleach stains on the wall behind the bed and on the stairs, “reddish-brown spots” on the wall and bed frame, and a new mattress in the master bedroom while investigating the couple’s house.
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According to detectives, a Glock 19 box wrapped in a child’s onesie was discovered close to where Gledhill would sleep during a check of the couple’s house.
On September 24, a neighbor also reported seeing Gledhill’s parents assisting her with housework till nearly midnight.
Her father claimed he couldn’t recall the specifics of the day, and her mother told officials they had just been there for an hour.
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According to court documents, the couple was involved in a tense divorce and custody dispute over their three children, ages five, seven, and eleven.
In late August, Gledhill obtained a temporary restraining order against Johnson.
On September 16, the court rejected her request for a permanent measure after determining that he had not engaged in any abusive behavior. The next court date for the accused murderer is February 28.