According to federal investigators, a Missouri lady has entered a guilty plea to the deadly kidnapping of a pregnant woman as part of an abortive scheme to claim the victim’s child as her own.
According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri, Amber Waterman acknowledged on Tuesday that she killed Ashley Bush on October 31, 2022, when she was thirty-one weeks pregnant with Valkyrie Grace Willis.
According to the statement, Waterman, 44, entered the plea in relation to two counts of kidnapping that resulted in death. In November 2022, Waterman was charged with Bush’s murder. She was indicted in relation to Valkyrie’s death seven months later.
According to the statement, Waterman acknowledged using Facebook to trick Bush, 33, into moving from Arkansas to Missouri by using a fictitious name and a phony job offer.
According to the statement, they first met at a library in Arkansas three days before Bush passed away. On October 31, just before noon, Bush and Waterman met at a convenience shop in Maysville, Arkansas. Authorities have stated that Waterman went by “Lucy” when she introduced herself, and she promised to take Bush to see a supervisor.
First responders were called to a store in a nearby Missouri town at five o’clock that day after Waterman claimed to have given birth in her truck while traveling to the hospital, according to the statement.
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According to earlier reports, Waterman informed detectives that the infant was stillborn. The statement claimed that the child was indeed Bush’s. Bush died from “penetrating trauma to the torso,” according to an autopsy report.
Prior to this, Benton County Prosecuting Attorney Nathan Smith informed media that Bush’s and her baby’s remains were discovered in separate places.
Authorities have stated that Bush’s body was thought to have been burned in a fire pit, citing Jamie Waterman, Waterman’s husband. Jamie Waterman was accused of helping his wife abduct people and keeping her from being apprehended on one count. Whether he has entered a plea is unclear.
U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore stated in a statement that Amber Waterman’s guilty plea guarantees that she will be held responsible. According to Moore, she must serve a mandatory life sentence without the chance of release.
