Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Hubby's 'PROS & CONS' LIST TO 'KEEP' PREGNANT WIFE Found After She is Found Dead

Episode Date: June 28, 2022

Missouri husband Beau Rothwell, 29, reports his pregnant wife missing. Her car is found abandoned just a mile from home. Rothwell tells police he last saw Jennifer Rothwell, 28, that morning as she left for work.  Days later, Jennifer Rothwell's body is found in a wooded area along Highway 61 near Troy. An autopsy stated that she suffered blunt force trauma to the head. The day after Jennifer Rothwell went missing, Beau Rothwell is arrested.  Police believe he killed his wife — who was six weeks pregnant — sometime on November 11.  Search warrants alleged that Jennifer Rothwell used the internet to search, “What to do if your husband is upset you are pregnant.” The same documents also stated that Beau Rothwell cleaned up some blood and left a small window to the garage open, despite freezing temperatures, to “dissipate the odor.”  Beau Rothwell reportedly told authorities where his pregnant wife’s remains were located. Turns out Beau Rothwell was having an affair and made a pro/con list on whether to stay in the marriage.   Joining Nancy Grace Today: Matthew Mangino - Criminal Defense Attorney (New Castle, PA), Former District Attorney (Lawrence County), Former Parole Board Member, Author: "The Executioner's Toll", Twitter: @MatthewTMangino, MattMangino.com Dr. Bethany Marshall - Psychoanalyst (Beverly Hills, CA), DrBethanyMarshall.com, New Netflix show: 'Bling Empire' (Beverly Hills) Dr. Tim Gallagher - Medical Examiner State of Florida PathcareMed.com, Lecturer: University of Florida Medical School Forensic Medicine, Founder/Host: International Forensic Medicine Death Investigation Conference John Guard - Chief Deputy – Pitt County Sheriff’s Office (Greenville, NC), Specializes in Investigating Domestic Violence Cases Kristy Mazurek - Emmy Award-winning Investigative Reporter, President: "Successful Strategies"  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A gorgeous 28-year-old mom-to-be vanishes seemingly into thin air. What happened to Jennifer? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. First of all, take a listen to this.

Beau and Jennifer's romance begins while they are both studying engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia. In 2015, they say, I do, and move to St. Louis for work. Jennifer Rothwell is a chemical engineer at MECS Inc. in Chesterfield. Bo Rothwell works at Ambitech, now called Zachary Engineering in the St. Louis area. Soon, the couple turns their eyes on becoming parents. And just one year later, they get the good news. A baby is on the way. It sounds like a dream come true. And it is. It's what everyone wants, the American dream,

a beautiful home, a lovely family, a baby finally on the way, awesome careers in front of them. And then somehow in the midst of all this happiness, she disappears. Her family, her parents, her husband devastated. Take a listen to Robert Townsend, KSDK. I talked to Jennifer Rothwell's parents on the phone. Now they didn't want to go on camera. Their big concern is just hearing from their daughter. I'm going to step back and you can see right now, St. Louis County police, they are here sitting in two vehicles on Rothwell Street. They blocked off this street. In the background there where that light is on at the porch, officers are going in and outside this house.

We believe that they are searching in and out of this house. Again, the family's house here off Northwinds Drive in West St. Louis County. That all has been happening in the last few minutes. Again, officers, detectives, they look to be going inside this house searching for possible evidence, I believe, in connection with this woman's disappearance. Again, this is what I know. Jennifer Rothwell is 28 years old and married. She's five foot six inches tall. She has long, light brown hair, curly hair.

She weighs about 150 pounds. Now, she was last seen leaving her West St. Louis County house yesterday morning. And six weeks pregnant. With me, an all-star panel. But let me first go to Christy Missouri, joining us, Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter. Christy, thank you for being with us. Now, this took place in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Tell me about that. It's a lovely family-oriented community. Neighbors know everybody else.

So for this woman to just vanish in thin air without a trace was very unnerving to her neighbors. So is it apartments? Are they single-dwelling homes? Oh, they're homes. No, this is a lovely little suburbia. It's utopia. What were their jobs, Christy Mazur? Where did they work?

They were engineers. So these are learned people making very good salaries, upper-level income. So these are meticulous people. That's why when she went missing, it was so out of the ordinary because both of these people separately and as a couple had every moment of their day documented with a calendar. Oh, my goodness. To Dr. Bethany Marshall joining me, high profile psychoanalyst joining us out of LA. She is the star of a new Netflix show, Bling Empire, and you can find her at drbethanymarshall.com. Dr. Bethany, the reason I'm asking about the area is the first thing you want to do is look at the area if it has a high

crime rate. Have there been a string of break-ins? I don't know if you remember, Jackie, look this up for me. I recently covered a pastor's wife who was pregnant, who was the victim of a home invasion. And her other baby was home at the time. I think it was like a two-year-old son was home. And of course, all the suspicion went on the pastor, the young pastor at first, because he had been at the gym. And you know, have you never noticed how many husbands are at the gym suddenly when their wife goes missing or fishing like Scott Peterson? They're very rarely at work where they punch the clock and everybody can see them. So it led to suspicion on the pastor. And the next thing you know, it came out that there had been several burglaries in the neighborhood. Did you find it,

Jack? Amanda Blackburn in Annapolis. That's right. Amanda Blackburn. Now I remember exactly. Amanda Blackburn, just beautiful. I can see her face right in front of me. And everyone was questioning the pastor because of his early morning gym trip. It turned out to be this group of burglars.

And they wouldn't even get very much. They'd get like a tv or a dvd player they broke into her home and i think the door was unlocked bethany as i recall and murdered her so she wouldn't be a witness awful so that's why i'm saying what kind of an area is it high crime low crime but i also find it interesting what Christy Mazurk said, that these two, I'm talking about Jennifer and husband Beau, they're about to have their baby, young and love, the whole thing. They're so meticulous.

It's very rare that you see in a low crime area, someone just go missing. Now, if she left the area on her way to work or on her way to the grocery store, that changes the whole scenario. But you don't see a lot of people just vanish when they're the kind of person that has day and date, you know, every hour accounted for. Nancy, this is a beautiful young woman, a high level professional. She is an engineer. She works in a business or in a company with many other people. And one of the first things I would wonder is had somebody fallen in love with

her? Was somebody obsessed with her? Did she have a stalker? Somebody who is making advances to her or wanting to spend time with her. I think that's the first thing I would look at. Who are her friendships? What's going on in her computer? Who did she spend time with? The second thing is this. She's pregnant.

What do you think? She's going out to bars. Six weeks. Six weeks. That's still pregnant. She's not. She's not showing. You do know I threw up every single day of my pregnancy

starting at about some guy every day i have news for you nancy some like some guy who's stalking her who has a crush on her is not going to care that she's throwing up every day okay thank you for that visual but you know what you said you said something really interesting let me throw this to matthew mangino joining us High profile criminal defense attorney out of Newcastle, Pennsylvania, former district attorney in Lawrence County. And the reason I emphasize that is you cannot be the district attorney or an assistant district attorney without trying a lot of cases. He knows his way around the courtroom. Former parole board member. I don't like that one bit parole. Author of The Executioner's Toll. You can find them at mattmangino.com. Matthew, when she said, when Dr. Bethany said,

they're highly trained, highly learned engineers. That is a very exact science. And Bethany also said she works with a lot of people, which is true for engineers. In my mind, I thought she works with a lot of men. That's true. That's a male-dominated occupation. And when you work with a lot of men, that heightens the likelihood that one of them is going to get a crush on you. Well, yeah, that's certainly a possibility. And that's something that I'm sure the police would consider immediately upon learning of her disappearance. Obviously, we know

from news accounts that they're searching the home, which is the first place that they're going to look when someone comes up missing, as you mentioned earlier, the preacher, you know, unfortunately, they're going to look to people who have close contact with her. They're going to look to the husband immediately just to make sure that that that there's some basis for not looking further at him. They want to eliminate the husband first thing, first of all, you know, but but they're but they're looking in the home. So we know that there might be some information there that they're interested in. And I think that's where they're going to find out her every move. These two have been married for four years and she's last seen alive that morning leaving for her job as a chemical engineer. Straight out to John Gard joining us, Chief Deputy with Pitt County Sheriff's Office in Greenville, who specializes in cases just like this one. You know, Jennifer Rothwell,

it strikes me how organized she was with every hour accounted for. Like when you look in your iPhone at the calendar, she had it so meticulously arranged. So it should have been easy for police to figure out where she would have been at the time she went missing, John Garb, because isn't all of that saved in the cloud? Absolutely, Nancy. And that's one of the first things we're going to do in any case that begins maybe as a missing person. You're going to examine that digital footprint. And, you know, there's a lot of legs that go off that footprint, connect to other people and other information,

and you're just going to run that information down and see where it takes you. It sounds like the police did what we normally do in cases like that and did a really, really good job learning a lot in hindsight, as I'm sure the investigators worked in the case saw, you know, firsthand. But there was a lot of planning, not only, you know, in her daily life and what Jennifer did. She certainly lived by a calendar. So what I'm trying to say, Dr. Bethany Marshall, and, you know, for Pete's sake, people, I'm a JD, not a DDS. I don't know how to pull a tooth, but I'll try it one more time. Bethany, I'm about to declare you a hostile witness

because you know what we're talking about, but I can't get the answer out of you. So I'm now going to have to cross-examine you. I'm sorry. Dr. Bethany, isn't it true that at no time has it ever been alleged Jennifer Rothwell was, let's just say, a drug addict? Yes, no. It has not been alleged. So no. And isn't it true she's never been suspected of being a prostitute or an escort? True. Isn't it true she worked regular hours?

She was very dependable and was never late to work. Yes, no. Absolutely, yes. True. Isn't it true she worked regular hours? She was very dependable and was never late to work. Yes. No. Absolutely. Yes. True. So the point is that this was not a person that is prone to high risk behavior. She's not out on the corner hooking. She's not going into bad areas trying to score a rock, a crack. She's not into any nefarious activity. She has a very regular schedule, and she's six weeks pregnant. And she's happy about it. She's not trying to figure out, how am I going to get rid of this baby? Can I drop it off at the fire station? She's coming home at night and reading What to Expect When You're Expecting. That's who we're talking about, Dr. Bethany. And she lives in a nice neighborhood,

you know, in these types of neighborhoods. I already said that. I said that. And now you're saying it again, now that I've declared you a hostile witness. So long story short, the fact that this woman just drops off the map, it's very, very uncommon. Not only that, we think she even took the same route back and forth to work every day. Take a listen to our friends at CrimeOnline.com. Jennifer Rothwell was last seen leaving her West St. Louis County home. Bo Rothwell says Jennifer left for work at 620 that morning. As Bo Rothwell begins getting ready for his own day, Jennifer Rothwell calls four times, but Bo misses the calls. Rothwell texts his wife during the day,

but there's no replies. Rothwell reports Jennifer as missing. Over the next few days, Bo, along with other family, friends, and co-workers, begin to search the community, putting up missing person signs and begging for information about Jennifer. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Another thing I'm learning about Jennifer is that she has never needed space. I have a lot of friends that go on girls weekends as they call it. These are grown women. They're not little girls. They go on girls weekends and it sounds like a lot of fun. I want to be with the twins. I don't want to leave the twins. But this woman never went out with her friends. She didn't go away for weekends. She

didn't suddenly announce, I need space and disappear for a day or two to get some air. That's not her. And that is one of the things that have her parents and her family so upset that this is out of character. I mean, the car, as I recall, was a Hyundai Sonata, right, Christy Mazurek? Correct. And a pretty common car. So I'm just wondering if they had NAV in that car, navigational tracking, which I love. John Gard, Chief Deputy, Pitt County Sheriff's Office, NAV systems in cars, they're a huge benefit to police,

but when you get somebody that may have a used car or an older car, no good. And this one is a 2011 Hyundai Sonata. Yeah, I'm thinking that's a little older and would not come with the GPS and I have full time. So the only thing I can think of right now, if they're really trying to piece together where her car went, is the case of Missing Connecticut Mama 5 Jennifer Dulos. Her husband, no doubt in my mind, Fotis Dulos, was having an affair with the girlfriend, Michelle Traconis. And I have no doubt in my mind that he murdered her. She's not missing. She's dead. But what police did in an effort to find her, they got every ring doorbell, every business, every resident surveillance video, red light cam, stop cam, bridge cam, toll cam, everything.

They even got a camera. This is amazing. When a public bus opened its doors, the camera caught the husband going by in the vehicle. Then he, of course, takes the murder car to the car wash to have the car detailed, even changing out the back seats. Didn't really help because his wife's blood and hair was found on the seats. Long story short, we can work wonders with surveillance video, but not with the nav system in this car. But speaking of the car, suddenly we get a break in the case in the search for Jennifer Rothwell. Take a listen to our friends at Crime Online. Jennifer Rothwell's car is found the same day she is reported missing, a little over a mile from her home. Around 9.30, the 2011 Hyundai Sonata is found on the side of a busy intersection.

It did not appear to have been in a crash and was otherwise drivable, so the police tagged the vehicle as abandoned. After the owner was identified, Jennifer's phone was found inside. Okay, she didn't make it very far, did she? Just about a mile from her home. About 9.30 a.m., her Sonata's found on the side of a busy intersection. It had not been in a crash. It was not on empty. It did not have a flat tire.

What does that mean? Let me go out to you, Matthew Mangino. Was she forced off the road? There's not a mark on her car. Why did she pull over? Did she suddenly get sick? Was she nauseous from being pregnant? I mean, what is that telling you?

The car is found about a mile away. Well, that's really a concern. And I think that it changes the focus of the investigation. At first, you're thinking about a person who is missing. Maybe there's some reason she went someplace and you're trying to figure that out as quickly as you can. But now you find her car alongside the road. That changes the dynamics of this investigation. Now it appears that something sinister may have happened here. And again, this is where I think you begin to grab videotape that you can from neighboring businesses. You said it was a busy intersection. You start looking at all

those possibilities of gaining additional information. But I think that finding this car a mile away without any damage or it's not incapacitated in some way, but it does point to something nefarious. Very nefarious. Nancy, do you remember that case? I was just going to go to you. Go ahead, Dr. Bethany. Remember the case we covered years ago where there was a college student coming home late at night from a party at her college, and the car was found on the side of the road, and they found some kind of surveillance.

Yes, that a group of boys had forced her off the road just before she was going over a bridge, and that was the only clue they had. I mean, I'm not saying that's the same in this case, but when a single woman's car is found on the side of the road, I sometimes wonder, I mean, have you ever had somebody scary follow you in your car? I have a number of times in mine and it's very frightening. You try to find the nearest police station. You try to fumble for your cell phone. But I would wonder, you know, if there's any surveillance, any footage that shows that there was somebody who tried to force her off the road. Well, this is also another interesting fact about a car being found, not flat, not empty, not banged up, no crash.

It was also at a busy intersection. So you would think if someone was going to kidnap her, steal her away or force her in or out of a car, it would have been spotted. But we have no witness. I know it was early in the morning, but people are up and about on the interstate, heading to airports, heading to work like she was at six o'clock in the morning. What can we learn from this car? Take a listen to Robert Townsend, KSDK. Creve Coeur police located a car not far from this house the same day near the intersection of Olive and Fifi Road. Flyers of the missing woman are posted right now inside several businesses in this very neighborhood. Police also tell us Rothwell's family and friends usually talk to her every day, but again, they have not heard from this

woman since jennifer left home early yesterday morning and that's why they filed a missing person's report police say rothwell's husband all of her relatives and family members they spent the day talking to them they just want to know where this woman is again police tell us this young lady has never disappeared before back here live again you see a very active scene in this neighborhood. St. Louis County Police right here sitting in two vehicles. They are also asking anyone who sees Jennifer Rothwell to call St. Louis County Police immediately. As the search intensifies, of course, focus turns to the husband. But he, Bo Rothwell, is the one that called 911. And so often when

husbands are suspected in a wife's disappearance or even murder, they're not the ones that call 911. I mean, look at Barry Morphew. He didn't call 911. He called his daughters to call a neighbor. And I think the neighbor is the one that called 911. It goes on and on. As I recall in Scott Peterson, her parents called 911, not him. Another issue cops are going to have is, let me understand this, Christy Mazurik joining us. She's last seen at 6.30 a.m. and he, the husband, does call 911, but isn't it at nearly 10 o'clock at night when he calls 911? Correct, when she doesn't return from work. Now, mind you, flashback to what he said earlier in the day, she leaves for work,

he misses a few phone calls from her and she never responds to his phone call. So that huge gap of time of these missed phone calls in the morning, he waits until 10 p.m. to finally say something's wrong here. I haven't heard from my wife in over 12 hours. Well, another thing, I don't think that she normally gets home at 10 o'clock at night for more. For sure. Because if she's going in at 630, especially in light of her being pregnant, he waited until nearly 10 o'clock at night for more. For sure. Because if she's going in at 6.30, especially in light of her being pregnant, he waited until nearly 10 o'clock at night.

That still is not damning. But it was enough for her family to be concerned because she spoke to them on a daily basis. So when dinner time rolled around that day and they hadn't heard from Jennifer, when they questioned Bo, he said, well, I tried calling her this morning. She hasn't answered her phone. That started putting up some concerns.

When you hit a wall, I always start over again. Matthew Mangino, a high profile lawyer out of Newcastle, former district attorney. Once you follow all your leads and you're going nowhere, you start all over again with the scenario, with the witnesses, with the ring cams, with the nav system, with the phone calls, with the texts. And of course, you look at the husband. But I would look not only at the morning she was last seen, I would look at the days leading up to that, would you? Well, yeah, there's no question about that.

I think you're exactly right. Once you've gone through what appear to be the obvious options here, you go back to the beginning. In the beginning, in investigations like this, is looking at the husband. And you want to now get more information about the husband. You want to find out what he was doing in the days leading up to her disappearance. Exactly. And you're right. You want to see his phone. You want to see who he's been in contact with, who he's been talking to, who he's been messaging. And, you know, so this this investigation in this short period of time has gone full circle. Let's go back to the beginning and let's be more thorough about what transpired prior to her disappearance. Then we find out that he is quite the neat neck. That's always a concern

to me when your wife goes missing and suddenly you're out buying bleach. Take a listen to our cut eight, our friends at Fox 2. Bo Rothwell told officers he last saw his wife at 6 20 a.m. at their home when she reportedly left for work. Minutes later, he missed four phone calls from her. Police found the victim's phone in her car abandoned on the side of the road near Olive and Fifi. Meanwhile, investigators noted Bo's pickup at their home about a mile away had a strong odor of bleach that seeped from the truck bed. A small window to the garage was open despite the cold temperatures. Dr. Tim Gallagher, renowned medical examiner for the entire state of Florida. You can find him at pathcaremed.com,

a lecturer, University of Florida School of Medicine, and founder host of the International Forensic Medicine Death Investigation Conference. Dr. Gallagher, why bleach? I mean, it's almost cliche where you see the killer in line at Walmart buying bleach. These cops get six feet from the husband's truck and they smell bleach. What is in bleach that hurts your nose? Well, bleach actually is chlorine bleach and chlorine is a gas. It's a very reactive gas and that it'll react with proteins. It'll react with bodily fluids and it'll react with tissue, you know, that's present in your nose. And when it does come in contact, it will ignite the nerve endings and it will radiate pain from your nose all up through your face. So another thing I wanted to point out

now that I got a chance, again, is to say places like Walmart, Target, you know, their surveillance system, you know, we kind of frown upon these large big box stores, but we've caught a lot of criminals using the surveillance and photography system present, you know, at the registers at Walmart and places like Target. Who frowns on big box stores? Little box stores. Ah, you're right, because I don't. I'm telling you, last minute, a couple of weeks ago,

twins finally got to go on their school trip after years of not getting to go because of COVID. Of course, we didn't have a digicam. We went everywhere. And guess who saved us? Walmart. Two digital cameras. And they were cheap and they were awesome. So I don't want to hear any shade on Target or Walmart. Not working here, Dr. Tim Gallagher. I don't know what rarefied circles you run in, but that's not true for the rest of us. So chlorine, is that, did you say chlorine is what's in bleach that hurts your nose? Right. Chlorine is a gas that is dissolved in a fluid, which is then called bleach, but it evaporates very quickly out of the fluid and it goes into your nose, reacts with the tissue and

ignites the nerve endings. That's what causes the pain. You know, a lot of people think that bleach alone can get rid of DNA. That's absolutely not true. You need something like muriatic acid, like black swan, if you really want to do the job right. But I mean, you can smell bleach a mile away. Hey, that just made me think of something, Dr. Tim Gallagher. Remember in the Morphew case where everybody went into his hotel room and said it smelled like chlorine? Would that have been possibly bleach and not chlorine from a swimming pool? Most likely, if you just smell it in one room and not all of the rooms, most likely it is bleach that is centralized in that one location. You do know I could listen to you talk all day long, but getting back on track. So we've got the husband cleaning out his truck bed with bleach and he's even opened the garage window,

left it cracked open. What? To dissipate the odor. Odor of what? But then we find out about a list. You know, Dr. Bethany Marshall, there's such thing as being too organized. Take a listen to our cut nine. Our friends at Fox to Bo Rothwell's list of pros and cons about his mistress. Rothwell wrote it on a work notebook dated five months before the murder. Pluses indicating the pros like better sex life, more respect, fresh start. Then he wrote, is the cost too high? Under cons indicated by a minus sign, half my assets, money, trust is shaken, tainted, my family disappointment, and take on her kid with his

probs. The list did not mention killing anyone. Wow. Chrissy Mazurek, a list made out of pros and cons, whether he should keep the wife or get rid of her. Do you remember those old Geritol commercials that would run during Lawrence Welk where the husband at the end would say, I think I'll keep her. Even as a little girl, that just rubbed me the wrong way, but I didn't know why. He made a list of pros and cons about keeping his wife or what? Trading marriage or mistress. Can we talk about the mistress? What did you just say? Go ahead. I'm listening. Marriage or mistress, because that list really puts investigators on the trajectory, looking further into his phone, who he was talking to, how long he was talking to them and what exactly he was saying. And then they uncover this whole sordid affair he was having with another woman and some very eye-opening text messages to this woman just

before Jennifer goes missing. Okay, wait, tell me about the text messages. Well, as we were saying, he was debating marriage or mistress. He claims he was feeling guilty about having this affair and wanted to come clean to his wife. So he and his mistress start texting back and forth and he said, well, we have three options. Option one is to end things altogether and stop chatting. Option two, I'll admit the affair to Jennifer and get a divorce. Option three, because now Jennifer's pregnant and he knows this, see if a miscarriage or quote something happens, in which case Bo would leave Jennifer for her. And it's that comment or something happens that police focus on. So now we learn not only did he make a pro and con list to Dr. Bethany Marshall very quickly. I would hate to think that you could reduce a marriage and a pregnancy down

to a pros and cons list. Marriage or mistress, you know what's missing out of this list is his emotions towards either one of these two women. There's nothing about his wife being beautiful. What about the unborn child? The unborn child is not really mentioned. His family, anything emotional about the people in his life, he does mention loss of respect, but that's very self-referential and it just has all to do with him. There's nothing about loving or being attached to anybody else but himself. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace Guys, as it continues on, there is another big break in the case. Take a listen to our friends at KSDK.

St. Louis County Police tells me that today they went back to the area that they were last night, hoping that the daylight can help them find any new sort of evidence. St. Louis County Police Chief John Belmar says the rain made it even harder to search. This major operation was off the roadway of US-61, just north of KK. But after six hours of looking, they found the body of a white adult female at 1115 last night along US-61 near Quiver River State Park. They believe it is Jennifer Rothwell's body. The body has been found, Dr. Tim Gallagher, a medical examiner for the state of Florida, out in the elements. Many days have passed. How will that affect making an ID of her

and determining COD, cause of death? Well, it shouldn't really impact the cause of death too much. Most likely, you know, if she was killed via a sharp blow or a bullet wound or a knife, that will be preserved, you know, whether or not the body is decomposed or not. But identifying her through dental records or through other medical records should be fairly straightforward if she does have existing medical records. And I believe it was mentioned that she was six weeks pregnant. So a recovery of the fetus and then dating the fetus to six weeks could also assist in positively identifying her. Facebook messages between the husband and his girlfriend show he was very upset when he discovered she was pregnant. Take a listen to our friends at KMOV. He and Jennifer meeting at the University of Missouri,

later getting married, struggling to have children, and then his affair. When she told him she was pregnant, he said it was an awkward moment. Rothwell said, I had mixed feelings. I wanted to be a dad a long time, but I was having an affair. He said he felt guilty about the affair. And on November 11th, Rothwell said, my plan was to tell her about the affair, throw myself on her mercy and hope for the best. Rothwell said he and Jennifer were sitting in the kitchen of their home when he confessed his affair and gave this account of their exchange. I'm really sorry, but I'm having an affair. How dare you? Expletive. He claims she shoved him and then said, keep your mystery. Expletive. I've got someone to. Is this even mine? It doesn't mind. The baby's probably not yours. Who is it? It doesn't matter. At least he can get me pregnant. OK, that sounds like a lot of BS to me. John Gard, chief deputy, Pitt County Sheriff's Office.

It sounds to me like he's trying to place blame on Jennifer and somehow drag her through the mud. He's clearly having an affair. He's been thinking of pros and cons to stay in the marriage or get rid of his wife. And now, even after her body has been found, she's been stripped naked. Her head is covered with a plastic bag. She's been stripped naked. Her head is covered with a plastic bag. She's been tied up, I guess, to make this look like a stranger did it. He's now trying to stay. Oh, it wasn't my baby. Well, we can figure that out from the postmortem. You're exactly right. And I think a theme that you brought up, Nancy, and what we're hearing

is just the selfishness. I mean, did this in fact happen? I mean, I'm right there with you on that. I mean, again, this line of thinking or him saying occurred only benefits one person, which is him, you know, kind of a common theme theme he does put a lot of time into a lot of activities post-crime. I can jump in about this. You know, in domestic homicide and domestic abuse situations, when you interview the man, notoriously, they have little to no idea of what's really going through the woman's mind. No idea. They mischaracterize their partners all the time and they mischaracterize them in a negative direction. And so, yeah, he's trying to cover up the crime, but he's also really a disturbed, toxic, abusive individual who probably had no idea what his wife was thinking all throughout

the marriage. Nancy, and if I can jump in, police did figure out what Jennifer Rothwell was thinking all throughout the marriage. Nancy, and if I can jump in, police did figure out what Jennifer Rothwell was thinking just days before she went missing. Remember, her phone was found in the abandoned car. And one of her most recent Google searches was, what to do if your husband is upset you are pregnant. That should have led them to hone in on him immediately. Isn't it true, Dr. Bethany, that the number one cause of death amongst pregnant women is homicide? It's not high blood pressure. It's not a heart attack.

It's not eclampsia. It's homicide. That's right. Because when the father of the unborn baby finds out the woman is pregnant, often there's a lot of conflicting emotions, such as how much is it going to cost to have this baby? Am I going to have to share the love of my wife

with this unborn baby? What is this going to do to my life? Uh-oh, I'm having an affair. And is this baby going to interfere with the time and resources necessary for carrying out the affair? So yes, it is the leading cause of death in pregnant women. Well, once this guy starts talking, he really lets it rip. Take a listen to Our Cut 12, our friends at KMOV. Rothwell says he was standing behind Jennifer and hit her on the right temple with a mallet, then followed her as she stumbled toward the garage. In the heat of the moment, I hit her

again. I think I cracked her skull and she fell down the stairs. He said she was unresponsive. I couldn't tell if she was deceased. But instead of calling 911 for an ambulance, Rothwell said he went into panic mode and started cleaning up. Every fiber in my body was saying, do something or I die. After killing Jennifer, I thought I had to clean this up and hide what I'd done. He said after cleaning up the blood, he loaded her body in the back of his pickup and drove without knowing where he was going. Eventually pulled off the side of the road on Highway 61 near Troy and put her body 20 to 25 feet off the road and covered it with twigs and leaves. And that's not all. He just can't stop talking.

Take a listen to Hourcut 13. He admitted parking her car along Olive Boulevard as part of a scheme to claim she'd gone missing and said he knew it was wrong to deceive her friends but felt like he had to keep up the facade. So get this, on cross-examination, Bro Wathwell admitted that he was still in almost daily contact with the woman he was having an affair with. In fact, multiple times a day. I spoke with an alternate juror who the judge said was no longer needed and allowed to go home.

She said if she was in the jury room, she would vote for guilty of first-degree murder. In fact, she said, quote, he's guilty as hell. And listen to what we now learn he did to his pregnant wife's body, then making up this lie about the baby belonging to another man. Take a listen to our cut 14 KMOV. The Facebook messages between Bo Rothwell and his girlfriend showed that he was very upset when he found out that his wife was pregnant. This afternoon, detectives presented evidence that there had been a bloody, violent confrontation in the basement of the couple's home. Prosecutors have said that 28-year-old Jennifer Rothwell's skull was crushed.

Her body found dumped along Highway 61 near Troy. Her clothes had been removed. She was bound with duct tape and had a plastic bag over her head. In testimony this afternoon, the lead detective testified about conducting a search at the couple's home. He said there was no sign of forced entry into the home and that in the basement, detectives found reddish circle staining in the carpet and indentions in the wall. During the search of the home, detectives removed basement carpet and carpet padding and showed the stained items to the jury today. It just breaks my heart that this woman, this poor woman, Jennifer Rothwell, expecting her first child, was online looking at a website forum called Husband Doesn't

Care, First Pregnancy Forums, What to Expect. It's just, she was all alone in the world. Her husband texting and sleeping with another woman, even after she goes missing. In other words, he killed her. He's still carrying on the relationship with the mistress. And I noticed when he speaks to detectives, he refers to the body. I mean, Dr. Tim Gallagher, that was a lot of staging he did post-mortem, stripping her nude after he beat her dead in the head, zip-tying her wrists, putting a plastic bag over her head, hiding her body. That's a lot of staging, Dr. Gallagher. Well, it is. And it's kind of easy to see why he did wrap the head as we had in other cases before when there is a head injury, a severe open skull fracture. It bleeds very heavily. We know that the heart keeps pumping the blood through the wound and it creates a lot of bleeding,

more so than you would ever expect. Maybe he was trying to hide that evidence and prevent her from continuing to bleed as he transports her. Well, the alternate juror was right on. Take a listen to our cut 16, our friends at KMOV. The jury took only three hours and 20 minutes to reach their verdict tonight. And when they read it out loud, the courtroom erupted with emotion. Jennifer Rothwell's friends and family say they feel a sense of relief and justice. It's a conviction the state was confident Bo Rothwell would receive. came out in testimony was the defendant said with the second hit that he thought she was trying to stop her from getting away. And right there you have deliberation.

During Bo's testimony early Thursday, he said, it has haunted me every day since. Bo Rothwell was charged with first degree murder, tampering with evidence for trying to clean up the crime scene and abandoning Jennifer's body near Troy, Missouri. Then around 6.30 Thursday, Rothwell was found guilty on all counts, hanging his head in dismay. But throughout the rest of the courtroom,

a sense of relief and justice flooded Jennifer's friends and family. They will live forever without her. No prison term will be enough of a punishment for this husband, so cold, so callous.F-E, or 1-800-799-7233. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.