Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - WEALTHY UTAH MOM MAKES 'BIG PURCHASE' AFTER SPECIAL OPS HUBBY DISAPPEARS

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

Matthew Johnson serves in the military as a National Guardsman in the Special Ops Unit. He takes a brief leave of absence as the children return to school. On the day Johnson is set to return to work, his wife, Jennifer Gledhill, reports him missing. She tells police he should have been home from base hours earlier, but his phone is going straight to voicemail. It turns out Johnson never showed up to work that morning. Jennifer says she last saw him driving away from their home. The last time anyone other than Jennifer saw Johnson was three days before he was reported missing, at a neighborhood gas station. Neighbors recall seeing his truck and hearing him and Gledhill arguing late into the night. The next day, Johnson’s communication, even with his children, stopped entirely. As police search for him, they find his truck ten days later, parked less than a mile from a million-dollar home. The truck is locked and has gas in the tank. Nothing appears out of place inside, but none of Johnson’s belongings are found. Investigators begin processing the truck for evidence. Neighbors report last seeing the truck in his driveway the day he disappeared. During the investigation, police discover that Johnson and Gledhill were in the midst of a contentious divorce after ten years of marriage. Gledhill initiated the split in July, with proceedings set to be finalized by the end of October. She claims she is afraid of Johnson and says he had been violent toward her in the past. Cottonwood Heights police had visited the family’s home several times for domestic disputes. A temporary restraining order was issued, but Gledhill needed to prove abuse for a permanent one. She provided video and text messages as evidence in her fight for the permanent order. One video showed Johnson calmly cleaning up broken glass from a family photo. Court Commissioner Russell Minas denied the permanent order, ruling there was no evidence of abuse. He described the relationship as highly dysfunctional, with both parties equally confrontational, and noted that Gledhill did not seem afraid of Johnson. The commissioner suggested the restraining order request was a litigation tactic in the ongoing divorce. Five days after Johnson was reported missing, Cottonwood Heights police received a call from one of Gledhill’s friends. The friend claimed that Gledhill had called them before reporting Johnson missing, offering a very different story. According to the friend, Gledhill said she killed her husband and disposed of his body Joining Nancy Grace today:  Sgt. Gary Young - Cottonwood Heights Police Department Ray Guidice -  Atlanta Defense Attorney Dr. Chloe Carmichael – Clinical Psychologist, Women’s Health Magazine Advisory Board;’ Author: ‘Nervous Energy: Harness The Power of Your Anxiety;’ X: @DrChloe Toby Wolson – Forensic Consultant Specializing in DNA, Serology, and Bloodstain Pattern Analysis; Author: "Handbook of Bloodstain Pattern Analysis." out December 13 Jennifer Dzikowski - CrimeOnline Investigative Reporter   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Why, exactly why, does a gorgeous and wealthy Utah mom make a big purchase right after her special ops hubby seemingly disappears into thin air. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Trouble is unfolding in the quiet suburbs of Salt Lake City. U.S. National Guard soldier Matthew Johnson hasn't shown up for work, and his kids haven't heard from him for days. Where is Matthew Johnson hasn't shown up for work and his kids haven't heard from him for days.

Where is Matthew Johnson? The day Matthew Johnson is set to return to work, Jennifer Gledhill reports her husband missing. He should have been home from base hours ago and his phone is going straight to voicemail. As it turns out, Johnson never showed up to work that morning either. Jennifer says she last saw her husband pulling out of the driveway. Neighbors confirm they saw the husband's truck in the driveway. There's a lot of conflicting evidence in this case, but bottom line, where is this husband, a father, a special ops officer? Joining me in All-Star Panel to make sense of what we know right now.

As we go to air, he is still missing. Again, with me in All-Star Panel. But first, I want to go straight out to Jennifer Tsikowsky joining us, investigative reporter. Jennifer, thank you for being with us. This is some ritzy area where he goes missing, correct? Tell me about it. Cottonwood Heights, Utah is located just about 16 miles away from Salt Lake City. They lived in an extremely wealthy neighborhood, a million dollar home.

It's a, it's very uppity. I mean, something where, somewhere that you would never expect something like what is unfolding to happen. There is a massive search for the victim in this case, Matthew Johnson. Of course, when you've got a dad with a huge house note, three children, and every picture I see of them, they're all wearing designer clothes or driving fancy cars, the whole shebang. Joining me, Raymond Giudice, high profile lawyer out of the Atlanta jurisdiction. Raymond, very often when a guy goes missing like this, you know, they say, well, I'm going to go get a loaf of bread and they never come back. They just start a new life. And this guy is a special ops. Okay.

He knows how to disappear. Maybe he just got sick of her and paying for that huge. Have you seen the house? It's huge. And they've got that. He's got the wife, the designer clothes, the fancy cars, the pool, the works. And, you know, sometimes people just take a powder and leave nancy back in the 70s there's a book called run rabbit run and that was exactly the premise too much pressure too many car notes too

much house notes taxes insurance go to work every day chop wood on the weekend take the kids to soccer and this guy just says that's enough hey i'll be back as you said i'm gonna go to them to the quickie market and get a loaf of bread. And he just keeps running. That's not unusual. It's not unusual. You know, post-COVID, I think we all look back on the pressures that we're all under to obtain, you know, the brass ring of life when maybe living simply might be better. You know, Sergeant Gary Young is joining us, special guest today out of Cottonwood Heights, Utah. He is a sergeant there in the Cottonwood Heights Police Department.

Sergeant Young, I've got so many questions for you. But when we're saying deadbeat dad, I mean, I'd be running a 150-person arraignment calendar, all felonies, of course. And there would be a huge throng of people in the hall. Who were they? They would be the second wave of defendants coming in for deadbeat dad. There'd be just as many of them as there were of criminal defendants, criminals, murderers, rapists, child molesters, arsonists, the works, drug lords. I'm like, who are those guys?

Are they on the calendar? If so, they need to be in the courtroom. I'm going to bond forfeit them. And they're like, no, no, no. They're all the deadbeat dads. So when you get a dad that goes missing, my first thought would be deadbeat. Agree or disagree, Sergeant? Yeah, I would think that that'd be the easiest explanation if, you know, if someone just disappeared off the radar. You know, are

they trying to escape something? Are they having a stressful life? Are they going to go commit suicide? You know, who knows what would lead someone to go off the radar. Hold on, hold on, Sergeant Gary Young. Wait a minute. Suicide? Wait a minute. I find it much more often that the deadbeat dad leaves for his younger girlfriend. Okay? He's not going to commit suicide. He's dumping the family and the wife and the house and the payment and the cars and the college funds and the braces and the whole shebang from his thing. That is what I would immediately think. I would immediately think, oh, he's killed himself. Men leave home every day, thousands of them a day. And typically, yeah, I know women leave too, but typically the woman is left behind to raise the children, pay the bills, and somehow cobble it all back together again. So in this case, when you first hear, well, yeah, he's gone, did you immediately think suicide, left the country? What was your immediate thought?

Did you ever even consider he just got tired of paying all the bills? My original thought was that he's taking a break. I'm not sure how much stress he's going under. I thought he was just kind of going off the radar and we'd find him coming back in a few days, you know, a week at the most that he would be coming back. Okay, Sergeant, you do know I'm a crime victim and a former felony prosecutor and a fed before that. I'm on your side, okay? But here comes the rest of that sentence. Taking a break.

How? What? Huh? Taking a break from your family? What does take a break mean, Sergeant Gary Young? Well, in your context, I was saying escaping his situation. That's what I refer to as taking a break. I assumed that we would find him, you know, returning back home again. You'd indicated that he's escaping or felony abandonment. There were no indications that he was that type of person, that he would just abandon his family.

Now he's missing. He was reported as missing. And, you know, we put out a press release asking for the public's help to identify him, look for his truck. You know, if anyone has contact with him, to please have him return so we could, you know, close out the missing persons and reunite them with his family. To tell you the truth, I didn't think about felony abandonment when we took this call. You know, I'm glad to hear what you just said. Sergeant Gary Young is a special guest with us today. He is a sergeant in the Cottonwood

Heights PD. So you're telling me he had no history of taking breaks, as you euphemistically put it. No history of that. No history of not supporting his children ever. Nothing like that in this guy's history. Matthew Johnson, correct? Correct. Okay. That puts things in an entirely different light. Listen to this. As Cottonwood Heights police continue their exhaustive search for Matthew Johnson, a call goes out for the public's help in finding not only Matthew Johnson but his truck. Matthew is described as standing 5'9", weighing 178 pounds.

He has blue eyes and a shaved head. Johnson drives a maroon Dodge 1500 pickup. Okay, why does he need a 1500, Sergeant Young? Well, I have a pickup truck myself. We're in the West, and pickup trucks are a very good utility vehicle. You can go camping with them. You can drive in luxury. You know, they seat five to six people, and they're pretty decent trucks.

And when you think about pickups, the 1500 is the lower end of the pickup class. So I think it's a good family vehicle. It's just what a, you know, a strapping young man like Matthew Johnson would drive would be a pickup truck. That's my ideal truck. I was just wondering because I thought a Dodge 1500 was heavy duty. He is special ops. What exactly does that mean in this scenario? Why was he special ops?

What does that entail for him? He received training and I guess he was deployed several times overseas on the war on terror. Sergeant Young, question, what did you put in your plea to the public? I asked our local affiliates in the press if they would broadcast out that we're looking for a missing person for Matthew Johnson. I put out his description, where he's lasting at, the timeframe, and then what, you know, a recent photo and his picture of his truck, and then ask for the public's assistance if they've seen him or his truck,

or maybe he has a friend that is in contact with him that would be able to come forward and we would like to resolve that missing person. We'd like to make it a found person case. And so that's the information we put out. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. When was the last time this loving husband and father had been seen alive? Listen. The last time Matthew Johnson is seen by someone other than Jennifer Gledhill is three days before he's reported missing at a neighborhood gas station.

Neighbors say they remember seeing Johnson's truck in the driveway. The next day, Johnson's communications, even with his children, stop entirely. We're hearing a lot about the truck. Isn't it true, Sergeant Gary Young, that when you're looking for a missing person, you're also looking for their vehicle? Yes, no. I was saying yes. That's how they get to and from work. That's how they go about their daily lives and pursuits is they drive their personal vehicle.

And so ideally, he would be there with his vehicle. We just saw the same scenario in the case of two missing moms on their way to take children to a birthday party. There was an all out search for them until their vehicle was found on a remote country road with a pool of blood nearby and glass from the window. Their bodies later found stuffed into an ice chest and buried in a cow pasture, deep, deeply buried, and then covered with dirt and chunks of cement. What cracked that case? The discovery of the car. In this case, listen. Ten days after Matthew Johnson is reported missing, his truck is finally recovered. It's parked on the street not even a mile from his million-dollar home. The truck is locked with gas in the tank.

Inside the truck, nothing appears out of the ordinary, but cops do not find any more of Matthew's belongings. Investigators begin processing the truck for any evidence that would explain what happened to Johnson. Neighbors say they last saw the truck on the day Johnson went missing. Very curious. None of his belongings in his truck. Wouldn't you expect something? I mean, when you look in our minivan, you will probably find items belonging to the twins. You'll find dog treats. You will find old cups of tea in there. All sorts of indications that somebody has just driven the truck.

So Sergeant Gary Young joining us, Sergeant with the Cottonwood Heights PD, on the case of a missing husband and father. When you find the truck about a mile away from their million-dollar home. There's nothing in there that belongs to him? There was nothing in there that would indicate that he had been sleeping in his car or living in his car. And I have to correct that statement. It was about a block and a half, almost two blocks away from his house where the vehicle was located. And that aroused our suspicion. Then I'm very curious, Sergeant Young, if it's that close to the home, why did it take so long to find it?

The way it's positioned on the roadway, it's a cul-de-sac or a dead-end street. There's not a lot of traffic volume in there, and it was just parked in front of that, you know, in a residential neighborhood in a cul-de-sac or a dead-end. And so we didn't find that vehicle for several days. Joining me now is Toby Wilson. He's a forensic biologist. He's a bloodstain pattern analyst at No Slow Forensic Consultation, formerly with Miami-Dade PD. Can I tell you, never a lack of business for a forensics expert at Miami-Dade, okay? You can find him at noslowforensic.com, and he is an author of a book coming out December 13, which

is on my must-read list. I don't say that very often, Toby, called Handbook of Bloodstain Pattern Analysis. Now, that's going to be some good reading, Toby. Handbook of Bloodstain Pattern Analysis. But what I want to talk to you about right now, in light of your experience with the department's Forensic Services Bureau at Miami-Dade, if there had been foul play, Toby, what would you have expected to find in that Dodge 1500? Well, it depends where the foul play occurred. If it occurs in the truck, then we would process the truck looking for any evidence of biological materials, most likely blood, because it's not normal to find a lot of blood or that in a vehicle. You know, if you think the truck was used for transport, then the bed of the truck becomes

the area of high interest because it's easier to put a body in the bed of a pickup truck than it is in the cab. That's why it's so critical that forensics check out the bed. I mean, when you're talking about a vehicle to Raymond Giudice, just the importance of a vehicle cannot be emphasized enough. Just let me throw off one example. Top mom, Casey Anthony, the mom, the grandma opens the door. Okay. Cindy Anthony of her daughter, top mom, Casey Anthony's car and she goes whoa and she tells 9-1-1 it smells like a dead body okay that smell emanating from the trunk of top

mom's car and you know right you and I've been to a lot of murder scenes you never mistake that smell ever. So also in the trunk from which the dead body smell is emanating is found a hair of baby Kelly, two-year-old Kelly. Now it's identified through mitochondrial DNA, which you and I know means DNA of the mother specifically. That means that hair could only belong to three people. The grandmother, Cindy Anthony, the mother, Totmom Casey Anthony, or the baby, Kelly. It was not the grandmother because her hair had been dyed blonde. It was not the mother, Totmom, because her hair had also been treated. This was a pristine hair, no treatment whatsoever, a natural hair, a child's hair. It was Kelly's hair in the trunk that smelled like a dead body. Okay, that is why a vehicle is so important.

Agree, disagree? Totally agree. And also the positioning of the vehicle. In the case at bar, that pickup truck is close to the scene of the crime. That means somebody could have driven it there, hidden it, quote unquote, and walked back to the scene of the crime. Why not just drive it off and burn it like any self-respecting criminal would do. I don't disagree with that, but I also say that in a million dollar plus neighborhood, I'll bet there's a whole lot of ring security cameras facing out from all the homes in the cul-de-sac

that show that pick-em-up truck getting parked and somebody got out of the driver's seat. Okay, now you just said something very telling, Judy J. You said, leave the truck and walk back. So right there, you're saying walk back. It's got to be within walking distance. Why would you leave the truck right there? Okay.

Another, another issue. Hey, I'm sure you remember this. Like everybody on the panel, all you legal legals listening right now. Tara Grinstead. Oh, my stars. Beautiful high school teacher. Just got her master's. Beloved by all of her students.

Just disappears. Okay, how did that happen? In the tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny town in South Georgia. I remember going through her house with her mother, and it looked like a little jewelry box. It was perfectly appointed, beautifully decorated, all by hand, not some fancy interior designer. But I noticed that her bed in her bedroom was askew. Have you ever met one of those people? What do you call them? Dr. Chloe Carmichael, that everything has to be exactly in the right place. What is that? Anal compulsive? What is

that? It's an obsessive compulsive person. And they are often considered anal retentive as well. You just combined the terms. That's all. I did that. Okay. Hey, you're the shrink. I'm just a trial lawyer. That's why I have you to correct me. So obsessive compulsive. Yes. So in a case like that, when you see something totally out of the ordinary, here's this obsessive compulsive, perfectly neat. Every thing had to be in place and her bed was like pushed over. It was crooked in the room. And I looked at her mother. I said, why is her bed crooked? And she said, I don't know. I've never seen it like that before. Then I found out this. Sergeant Gary Young. I found out that Tara Grinstead also, her compulsion, she's a neat neck. She's not crazy. Extended to her car.

Have you ever met those people? Their car still smells new after like three years, still perfect. She was like that with her car. Her car, I believe it was white. There was mud all up both sides of her car. I'm like, whoa, okay, that's not right. That's not right. The seat, the driver's seat was way back. There's no way she could have even reached the gas pedal with the seat back that far. In this guy's car, Matthew Johnson, special ops hubby, where was his seat? When the vehicle was located and towed to our evidence processing, it was left in the same position it was found in. They haven't adjusted it.

A Dodge 1500 pickup truck hidden in plain sight. A special ops dad goes missing. Then we find out mommy makes a huge purchase. Where is the missing dad? Who are these people? Listen. Matthew Johnson, 51, and Jennifer Gluthill, 41, welcome three children, now 11, 7, and 5, during more than a decade of marriage. The family settles in Cottonwood Heights, a suburb of Salt Lake City, living in a home worth nearly a million dollars.

Matthew Johnson is still active military, serving as a National Guardsman in the Special Option Unit. Johnson takes a brief leave of absence while the children return to school. Cottonwood Heights PD searched for Matthew Johnson, aware of the fact that the couple is in the midst of a contentious divorce. Jennifer Gledhill initiated the split in July, with proceedings set to be finalized by the end of October. Gledhill says she is afraid of Johnson, claiming Johnson has been violent with her in the past. Really? So she claims he's been violent toward her in the past. But that is not what a judge said. Listen. Seven weeks after Jennifer Gledhill files for divorce, Gledhill files for a protective order

against Matthew Johnson. A temporary order is granted, but Gledhill files for divorce, Gledhill files for a protective order against Matthew Johnson. A temporary order is granted, but Gledhill must prove abuse at the hands of her husband for anything more permanent. After reviewing text messages and footage Gledhill taped of several altercations, a judge dismisses the order. The judge says the evidence shows Gledhill is equally confrontational and belittling and demeaning to her husband. OK, let's go to a lawyer that has handled plenty of similar disputes. Raymond Giudice, what does all of that mean? That is in civil court, not my arena. But I know this.

She goes for a TRO, temporary restraining order, and the judge won't do it. He will not extend that. He says the evidence shows that she is confrontational, not him. Nancy, the standard procedure is that when someone who feels they were abused goes to the courthouse in a civil court clerk's office, they apply for a temporary protective order, temporary restraining order, same thing. That is automatically granted right then and there with an emergency hearing set in front of a judge as quickly as possible, generally within a few days. That is the hearing that we're referencing where the judge took evidence from both sides, allegedly, reviewed text messages and some videotape and testimony,

and that judge found that there wasn't enough evidence to grant a permanent protective order, restraining order. And he dismissed the temporary restraining protective order against Matthew Johnson. Judy T.A., have you ever been in court and the lawyer for the other side introduces something and you're sitting there going, oh, my stars. That helps me. And it totally backfires. And that is why you better practice every in-court demonstration, have every prop, have every poster, every piece of evidence. I mean, do I have to say it doesn't fit? Oh, dear Lord in heaven. Talking about the Simpson glove. Okay. He put it over two fingers and went, okay, it won't fit. And what were they going to do?

Chris Darden wrestle him in court and make it go down over his hand. That said, never ever play anything or bring in evidence that you haven't tested yourself. self. Because when this wife, Jennifer Glitthill, brings in the video to show the judge why she should get the house and the money and the children and this TRO, like kick him out of the house, he goes, lady, that doesn't really help you. Listen to this. Video and text messages are gathered as proof in Glitthhill's fight for a permanent order. One video shows Johnson cleaning up glass from a broken family photo, his demeanor calm. Court Commissioner Russell Minus denied the permanent order, determining there was no abuse. He describes the couple's relationship as highly dysfunctional, adding both parties were equally confrontational and that Gledhill did not exhibit any fear of Johnson. The commissioner said the request for a restraining

order appears to be a litigation tactic in the pending divorce. Matthew Johnson has been missing five days when Cottonwood Heights PD gets a call from a friend of Jennifer Gledhill's. The friend claims Gledhill called before reporting Matthew missing, giving a very different version of events. A very different version of events. What? She changes her story. Oh, yes, she changes her story. And based on that very different version of events, the dominoes start falling. Yacking, talking, gossiping. Why did she call her friend and give a different version of events? What happens next?

Listen. Cottonwood Heights PD execute a search warrant at the couple's home. Cops confirmed the suspicion that Gladhill replaced the mattress in their master bedroom. The new one arriving three days after her husband's disappearance. Uh-oh, your husband goes missing and you order a new mattress. Dr. Chloe Carmichael, I find that very unusual. At a time when you need to be scouring the whole county trying to find your husband, pouring over credit cards and ATM transactions to try to find him.

She goes, wow, I've got a lumpy mattress. That doesn't make sense, Dr. Chloe. No, I would agree, Nancy. And moreover, if they had a pending divorce, then, you know, people are usually thinking more about trying to kind of get rid of things, not, you know, buy new things when there's likely going to be a move happening. Also, it sounds like maybe what psychologists call impression management, when a person goes out of their way to try to frame the other person as a victim, or rather frame the other person as the aggressor and frame themselves as the victim. So she's producing these videos and whatnot, but they don't actually show anything incriminating.

And there's a lack of any real evidence on her part of, you know, injuries or bruising or anything like that. I also find it unusual that she would not tell the police proactively if there had been some sort of a conflict, you know, if she was calling to make a second report about a conflict, why would she not have just told them everything she knew to say, look, we had a fight, maybe he ran away, please go try to find him. So the fact that she's withholding information and then changing her story and then possibly making, you know, private statements to somebody else, she's not appearing like a consistent witness here. Sergeant Gary Young joining us, Cottonwood Heights PD. Sergeant Young, I remember the horrible moment,

and it only lasted about five minutes max. I was in a giant baby's arouse, and I turned around, and I had my daughter was still standing there, but my son was gone. He was only two and a half, three. I picked her up like a football and started running, screaming bloody murder to lock the front doors and the back doors because my son was missing. I didn't think about ordering a new mattress in that moment. I didn't gather my things that I had already put in the cart for them and casually stroll up front and start checkout. Dr. Chloe was really calm in her answer, but I find that crazy odd that she,

while her husband is missing, orders a new mattress. That doesn't bother you? No, that would bother me because I've been married for 30 years. And if we make a purchase like a mattress, that's a husband and wife decision. And that may take a couple of days or visits because you're going to be a couple thousand dollars in a mattress. So that's not a normal everyday or spur of the moment, you know, President's Day mattress sale kind of thing, I would think that they would have spoken about it. It wouldn't take place during a crisis such as your missing husband. When you and your coworkers execute a search warrant, Sergeant Gary Young, what, if anything, did you find in the home?

Ideally, we're going to find, you know, physical evidence. If we're executing a warrant, we would like to have any evidence of the crime, hopefully blood or other bodily fluids. That would be the ideal situation that we would be able to find that. Isn't it true that blood was found on the slats beneath the knee mattress

and a large blood stain on the carpet below the bed. The room looked as if it had been meticulously cleaned, including bleaching the walls and trying to remove the stain out of the carpet. Yes, that is correct. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. crime stories with nancy grace toby wilson is joining me forensic biologist bloodstain pattern analyst at a no slow forensics consultation help me toby explain what we're saying well when there's signs of a cleanup which is the bleach and the cleaners, it should pique curiosity, especially in a bedroom. A bedroom, you know, there's so many things in there that will retain evidence.

The mattress is nothing more than a big sponge. So cleaning that is virtually impossible, in my opinion. I've never seen anyone successfully clean a mattress because you may get most of it off the surface, but there's going to be plenty inside. And then if there's enough blood, sufficient blood that it bleeds through the mattress and ends up down on the slats supporting it and the carpet underneath, again, you're working, trying to clean away something that's very porous. So the slats usually are wood. They're going to absorb the blood. So it's going to be difficult to get it out of the wood. But the carpet is the bigger factor. I've found in many of the cases where I've gone looking for a cleanup, carpeting is where we find

it because they may clean the surface so that you can't see the blood. But there's this pad under the carpet that acts like a sponge also. And you can just peel the blood, but there's this pad under the carpet that acts like a sponge also. And you can just peel the carpet back and find blood frequently weeks, if there's a large volume, weeks after the event that's still wet. So there's many places in this setting that would be potentially harboring blood cleanup. The other thing is, is that when people clean up crime scenes, they're not blood experts and they clean up what they visually see. They miss the small stuff. So when I go in to process a crime scene and look for blood, I'm using whatever methodology, usually visual, to lead me to the areas they've missed. So there's a lot of things here that would have applied. And the replacement of the mattress would be a key piece of interest because, you know, knowing that you're not going to get the blood out of that mattress, you know, you've got to replace it. It's just, especially with the volumes of

blood you're talking about here, if there was enough blood to bleed through and get to the areas under the mattress, that mattress had to be very saturated. Gledhill's friend recounts to police what Gledhill openly admitted the evening before reporting her husband missing. Gledhill shot Johnson in the head while he slept, then buried his body in a shallow grave. Gledhill revealed the approximate location of the grave, telling her friend she's trying to determine next steps. Next steps. Is that what it's called? OK, so, Ray, how does her gossiping to her friend fit into your scenario? Why did she have to call the friend and tell the whole thing?

And now she's trying to figure out next steps. Well, that certainly shows after death behavior. But what the defense of battered women syndrome is, is everything that leads up to the homicide is the homicide. But why? Why? Is there enough evidence of abuse sufficient that a judge and jury would say, we understand what she did? Her behavior after that, okay, that's a different argument. I don't think it's helpful. Don't get me wrong.

You would rather not have, as a defense lawyer, that kind of a text message and that friend who's going to testify for the state, obviously come into evidence. But you've got to come up with a defense unless you argue it was a third party, a burglar, somebody else or a lover. And I don't see anything right now that would support that as your primary defense. Okay. So bottom line, you got to go somewhere. What are you going to do? You've managed to get your husband's blood all over the slats under the bed. You're basically busted unless you want to blame it on the five-year-old for trying to do a cleanup of the carpet. You heard what Toby Wilson said.

When they go under that carpet, the Lord only knows what they're going to find under there. But this is not the first time we would see a wife meticulously planning a murder. Does the name Corey Richens ring a bell? Also known as Moscow Mule Mom? Listen. Police find Eric Richens dead on his bedroom floor. According to court documents, Richens and his wife, Corey, were celebrating a business accomplishment the night he died. Police say Corey claimed she made him, Eric, a Moscow mule, which he drank in the bedroom. They say Corey told authorities that she left to help one of their children and returned to the bed several hours later. It was then, they say, that she noticed Eric was cold to the touch and called

911. And then there's Emily Yu, the so-called Drano wife. Listen. Radiologist Jack Chen says he noticed a chemical taste in his drinks, so he set up a hidden camera in their kitchen, capturing video evidence of his wife, Yu Yu, allegedly taking Drano from under the sink and pouring it into his lemonade on three separate instances. A doctor diagnoses Chen with two stomach ulcers, gastritis, and esophagus inflammation. Hidden video is enough for cops, and the 45-year-old dermatologist is placed under arrest for trying to poison her husband. And what's so interesting about that case is this woman, who, as I recall, was a doctor herself, is caught on video. The husband gets suspicious when his stomach becomes inflamed

and he posts video cams all around the kitchen in the home. You see her on video going over to the kitchen cabinet and reaching in. He wisely set up a camera inside the kitchen cabinet. And you see her hand reach in and get the Drano and pull it out. And then she doctors his morning drink. Okay, Dr. Chloe Carmichael joining us, clinical psychologist. Explain what's happening in these scenarios. Yeah, well, especially with our current situation, I look at what psychologists call grandiosity.

So you had asked how it could be that she could think that she could just literally clean this up, you know, out of the carpet. And if it is true that indeed she took it into her own hands to just murder her husband, right there we have an element of grandiosity. And once you've done an act like that, or even are preparing to do an act like that, more than likely, unless you're a total psychopath, you would have what psychologists call hot cognition. So, you know, your mind is kind of supercharged and maybe you're not even thinking super clearly. And so that might be why, you know, she could do something like that without really thinking it through. But again, I'm looking at the grandiosity possibility, the idea that she would think that she could just, you know, make these videos and paint him a certain

way and paint herself a certain way, and then maybe potentially go murder him and confide in a friend and think it would never come back upon her. There's there's a real egoism there, if all of that is true. Jennifer Skosky joining me, investigative reporter. Jennifer, I'm always amazed that killers will speak to their compadres or cohorts, not even co-defendants and expect them to keep quiet. That's always been so bizarre to me that you murder someone in this case, murdering him in his sleep. So that's not self-defense telling friends about it,

expecting them to be in on your secret. Yes, Nancy, it's definitely a case of, that would be a great example of grandiosity, that she could do something like murder and then confide in a friend. And as you said, expect that the friend would just obey her instructions, you know, to keep this, you know,

murder confession quiet, essentially. That would definitely speak to a grandiosity or kind of a fuzzy connection with with reality and social norms and what she could expect from people. What about it, Jennifer Sklalsky? Now, just to me, just looking at all of this, who it sounds like your classic dumb killer. I mean, it seems that she just didn't think at all. I mean, who buys a new mattress after? Who goes to their friend and says, I did this, or confidential informant, as they're calling this person. Who does that? Nobody with a sane, normal mind is ever going to think they're going to get away with the way that Miss Jennifer has tried to do thus far.

And of course, I want you to take a look at the classic Black Widow. Dahlia DiPolito offers a hitman $7,000 to kill her husband. She sets up an alibi for herself in the early morning hours where she says she's going to the gym. The hitman would go in the home and kill her husband. Unbeknownst to her, of course, she has done a deal with an undercover surveillance officer.

This is her when LA law enforcement come to tell her her husband is dead. Little does she know this is all part of a sting. So watch Dahlia DiPolito. Watch out, Meryl Streep. She's coming for you. Is your husband, Michael? Okay. I'm sorry to tell you, ma'am. He's been killed. He's been killed, ma'am. I'm sorry. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Wood, PD. Where is the search? Where did she allegedly state she buried her husband? We are still looking for the deceased, and we weren't given a specific location. We have put out about 25 warrants now for cell phones, computer history, those kinds of information. We're still following up on all our leads, trying to get the best known location. I mean, it'd be a needle in a haystack to just randomly go drive around and look for a place. But we're still trying to narrow that down.

And several leads we've looked into that haven't been very fruitful. And so we're still exploiting that electronic information, trying to gain a better location on where we should focus our search. And where is Jennifer Gledhill now? Listen. Jennifer Gledhill is arrested outside her home nine days into the search for Matthew Johnson on suspicion of murder and tampering with evidence. The couple's three children have been placed in the care of a relative as Gledhill has been denied bail. Gledhill will remain in the Salt Lake County Jail due to fears she will further tamper with evidence or flee based on the comments

she made to her friend. If you know or think you know anything regarding the disappearance of this husband and father, special ops hubby Matthew Johnson, please dial 801-840-4000. Repeat, 801-840-4000. Nancy Grace signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.