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Officially one hour until your favorite

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Better hurts some ice cream for the two part finale.

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is starting, the world is

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term supply. For

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True Crime Chronicles, I'm Will Johnson. Many

0:33

of you have been listening to the show for years

0:35

now and we've got some news to pass along.

0:37

This episode, the one hundred seventieth

0:39

episode of True Crime Chronicles is our final

0:42

episode of the show. After

0:44

more than three years, we're moving on and, of

0:46

course, wanted to let all of our loyal listeners

0:48

know how much we appreciate the support

0:51

and feedback over the past several years,

0:53

and a huge thanks to all of the reporters,

0:55

anchors and producers from our partner

0:57

stations who've given us so much of their

0:59

time for these cases. In the meantime,

1:01

if you haven't already checked out Vault Studios

1:03

full lineup of shows including Bardstown

1:06

and beyond Bardstown, anything you say

1:08

urged to kill and intent to

1:10

text McIver case just to name a few.

1:12

Again, for myself and Reed Redman and everyone

1:14

at Vault Studios, thank you for listening.

1:16

And with that, our final episode we

1:19

go to Northwest Arkansas along the Missouri

1:21

Arkansas border to tell you about the

1:23

case of a young mother who went missing in late

1:25

October of this year. This episode

1:27

contains graphic details and is meant for

1:29

mature listeners only. With sad

1:31

news, we report something

1:35

over my career. This is one of the most horrific

1:38

cases that I had been personally involved with.

1:40

I was terrified to walk home when I first

1:42

heard that the police were looking for them and they're

1:44

from Jane and they're from here in this

1:46

area. I was in the middle before

1:49

I got the headline saying they were caught I was

1:51

a little bit about to call my friend and be like, hey,

1:53

I'll give you gas. I need you to pick me up. I

1:55

I don't feel safe in our small town anymore.

1:59

In early November, KFSM

2:02

Channel five and Fort Smith Arkansas reported

2:04

on the case of a missing thirty three year old

2:06

pregnant mother. We start

2:08

tonight with new development missing for more

2:10

than twenty four

2:11

hours. Yeah. Tonight, the Beyonce of a missing

2:13

pregnant woman is pleading for

2:15

answers. Ashley Bush went missing

2:17

on Monday, October thirty first, Her

2:20

fiance Josh Willis had planned to meet up

2:22

with her that afternoon after

2:24

dropping her off that morning to meet with a woman

2:26

named Lucy about a job opportunity. It

2:28

would be her second meeting with Lucy.

2:30

So

2:30

our first reporting on this case was

2:32

with her fiance, Josh Willis.

2:35

Erica

2:35

Thomas, is the evening anchor at Channel five.

2:37

And

2:37

he was just kind of telling us the background

2:40

about Ashley and how she

2:42

had been thirty

2:43

one weeks pregnant. and

2:45

was having complications with her pregnancy, so

2:47

she wasn't able to work. And that's why

2:49

she had been searching for work

2:51

that

2:52

she could do from home. Ashley first

2:54

connected with Lucy Barrows online

2:56

in a Facebook group. Lucy

2:58

indicated that she had baby supplies to

3:00

donate in a possible jump for Ashley.

3:02

They made plans to meet According

3:04

to our conversations

3:05

with Josh,

3:07

because of those complications with her pregnancy,

3:10

that's why she was looking for that job.

3:12

So the first time that Ashley and

3:14

Amber met

3:15

face to face according to

3:17

Ashley's fiancee was on October

3:20

28th for that first potential job

3:22

opening. They went to the Rabbit library.

3:24

We're told to have that interview

3:27

just handed actually a bunch of paperwork and told her

3:29

that they were gonna email her

3:31

and and wait for

3:32

the boss to contact her for another interview.

3:35

That's second interview with Lucy was

3:37

Monday, October thirty first, the day Ashley

3:39

would disappear. Willis dropped

3:41

her off in the morning at a convenience store in

3:43

May's Arkansas, and then returned

3:45

that afternoon to pick her up. Our

3:47

information about that day, Halloween,

3:50

came from multiple different sources, first we did

3:52

an interview with Joshua Willis, who's

3:54

the fiancee of Ashley Bush.

3:56

And he told us that he dropped her off

3:58

at that gas station in

3:59

Mayesville on the morning of October

4:02

thirty first, and that he was scheduled to pick

4:04

her up around eight o'clock that day.

4:06

And

4:06

he told us that the last time he heard from

4:09

her was

4:09

when he got a text her saying that she

4:11

was ingrouted and that he could come to

4:13

the gas station and that that could be in store

4:15

and come pick them up. He

4:17

told us that he saw

4:19

her and the woman he

4:21

knew as Lucy,

4:24

drive by them without

4:25

stopping. He

4:27

says that Lucy looked at

4:29

him and just kept driving.

4:31

All I saw was her and the

4:34

the lady she rode

4:36

with both past

4:38

me and neither one of them stopped.

4:40

The woman that she was riding with, the

4:42

driver looked right at me and

4:44

kept going. So

4:45

he says he saw both Amber and

4:47

Ashley in that truck before it headed

4:49

north on Highway forty three out of town,

4:51

and that's when he

4:52

he was concerned

4:54

for his fiance because that was

4:56

the last time he says he heard from her

4:58

and saw her rather. Willis was unable

5:00

to catch up with a pickup truck, and he spent

5:02

the day searching and trying to reach his pregnant

5:04

fiance. Right. All night long,

5:06

calling her, texting her, everything trying

5:08

to get her to answer, come to find

5:10

out also today, the

5:13

company that Ashley was supposed to work

5:15

for doesn't

5:17

even know the lady she was with. And

5:19

to whoever's water, just please let

5:21

her go. We

5:23

don't have much. We've got all we've got

5:25

is our family. That's

5:28

all we've got. We just want her own.

5:30

If you see her, please contact

5:33

your local PD immediately

5:36

to get her home safely for

5:38

her kids to actually be able to hold her again.

5:41

Investigators asked for people living in the

5:43

area to check their video doorbells to see

5:45

if they caught anything that may be helpful to

5:47

them. They say time is of the essence

5:49

in cases like this. We have

5:51

had some development in

5:54

this case So we are

5:56

very hopeful. But again, we still

5:58

want any information that anybody does have.

5:59

If they've seen her, seen the

6:01

vehicle, with the sensitivity of

6:03

this case,

6:03

we don't want certain information obviously to

6:05

be shared. So

6:07

that's why we're just asking everybody to

6:09

just please keep sending

6:10

us anything that you do have. And

6:13

then one of the first leads in the case turned

6:15

out to be Ashley's cell phone. So

6:17

according to one of the Benton County Sheriff's

6:19

Office detectives, he

6:21

spoke with a man

6:23

who says that they saw

6:25

a man throw a cell

6:27

phone from the window of a vehicle

6:29

on Highway forty three And

6:32

so what we don't know is

6:34

whether they

6:35

came back around who was in that truck

6:37

at that point, but the time frame

6:39

of that. But it appears that Josh

6:42

saw Amber and Ashley together

6:44

around three o'clock and later that evening,

6:47

there was a man in that truck and they threw

6:49

a cell phone out a

6:49

few hours late. Josh Willis himself

6:52

was able to help lead investigators to her

6:54

phone by the side of the road. Benton County

6:56

Sheriff's Office detectives were

6:57

with Josh Willis on Tuesday,

6:59

November first. in the Mayesville

7:02

area, and that he told

7:04

them that he had found Ashley's phone

7:06

on the side of the highway. And

7:07

so he actually brought with detectives to that

7:10

location where the phone was found and

7:12

was able to get into the phone with the

7:14

password and the

7:16

detectives were able to take the phone to sheriff's

7:18

office to look through it more.

7:19

That's where they were able to

7:22

find that Facebook account under the name

7:24

Lucy because Josh was able to them

7:26

about that information and

7:28

about the communications that

7:30

Ashley had been having with this

7:32

person named Lucy Burrows on Facebook.

7:35

And

7:35

according to the criminal complaint, it even

7:38

talks about a public post on

7:39

the account that said, I have a bunch of baby

7:41

items, if any jobs to

7:42

be need them coming from Lucy.

7:45

But at that point, Lucy Barrels was the

7:47

only name they had for the woman who'd met up with

7:49

Ashley and offered her a job. they

7:52

kept digging. And with some help, they were able

7:54

to connect the Facebook account to a

7:56

woman named Amber Waterman who lived

7:58

just over the Arkansas border in

7:59

vineville, Missouri with her husband, Jamie.

8:02

According

8:02

to that federal criminal complaint, the

8:04

detectives with the Benton County Sheriff's Office

8:06

had reached out to Facebook and

8:08

we're able to find out kind of

8:10

that technical information and

8:13

identify that that IP address went

8:15

back to the department's home

8:18

and that it was connected and

8:20

registered to T Mobile.

8:22

And that IP address was assigned

8:24

to Jamie

8:24

water and that, of course, is coming from that

8:27

criminal complaint. So they were able to connect that

8:28

back through data from Meta. On

8:31

Tuesday, November first, the day after Ashley

8:33

disappeared, detectives showed up the home of

8:35

Amber and Jamie Waterman. And they actually

8:37

let them search the home and

8:39

the truck that had matched the description of

8:41

the one that Bush was last seen in based on

8:43

the information we had from prosecutors at the

8:46

time. And that's

8:48

when

8:48

according to our report, detectives actually

8:50

asked for Amber phone and she told

8:52

them she had lost it. She also

8:54

told them that she was the only one who had access

8:56

to that truck that was at the home.

8:58

At that point, according

9:00

to the story that we've

9:01

reported, Amber told detectives that

9:04

she did not know Ashley Bush,

9:06

And when asked

9:08

about the name Lucy Burrows, that

9:10

Amber said she had previously worked

9:13

with

9:13

Lucy at Walmart, but they weren't

9:16

close. those details coming from the

9:18

criminal complaint. But as

9:20

investigators would later learn Monday had been

9:22

a seemingly traumatic day for Amber

9:24

Waterman and her husband, called

9:26

911 saying she'd gone into labor and

9:28

had delivered a stillborn child that

9:30

evening. Watermen traveled to meet an ambulance

9:32

at a store in McDonald County, Missouri where

9:34

they met up with paramedics. but they

9:36

were unable to revive the child.

9:38

Amber refused medical treatment and the

9:40

baby was taken to a funeral home run by

9:42

the McDonald County coroner, BJ

9:44

Goodwin.

9:44

The Mcdonald County Corner also

9:47

owns the local funeral home.

9:49

So he had said to them that,

9:51

you know, you guys could come on by later this week

9:53

and

9:53

weekend plan of service for

9:55

this baby because his understanding at the

9:57

time was that it was in fact her child.

10:00

Investigators were turned to the waterman's home the

10:02

next morning, Wednesday, November second,

10:04

for a follow-up interview with the couple.

10:06

Later that day, the waterman's appeared at

10:08

the funeral home for memorial service

10:10

for the child.

10:11

They had memorial service

10:13

planned for this stillborn baby

10:15

that Amber had claimed as her own

10:17

scheduled for that afternoon. And

10:19

that is when Amber

10:21

and Jamie and a

10:23

few people showed up for that service

10:25

and

10:25

add that service is when

10:27

McDonald

10:28

County Corner and the Benton County

10:31

Corner both sat down with the water

10:33

bins. And they had a conversation

10:35

about the baby and about the

10:37

Benton

10:37

County Corner wanting DNA

10:39

of the baby. And that's

10:41

where everything kind of can't do ahead.

10:43

According to the coroner, Amber started

10:45

asking questions about the autopsy

10:47

and DNA testing and why it was needed.

10:49

She wanted to know

10:52

why, but then the tears

10:54

kinda dried up And

10:58

her next question was, will there be

11:00

DNA testing? And

11:02

Daniel

11:04

and I both looked at one another and

11:06

we knew that we

11:09

had her at this point. that there was

11:11

something definitely wrong. And that's

11:13

when he said Jamie was there. And

11:15

at that point, he got up and ran out of

11:17

the funeral home. And according to the corner.

11:19

He says, that's because he

11:22

knew that they knew at that

11:24

point, and the coroner said at that point

11:26

everything was closing in on them.

11:28

The

11:28

next day, November third detectives returned to the

11:31

waterman's home where they found blood stains

11:33

inside the pickup truck driven by Amber.

11:35

And Jamie decided to start

11:37

talking. saying that Amber told him the

11:39

previous day what had happened to Ashley Bush.

11:41

That's when Amber told

11:44

Jamie that she

11:45

had been the one to kill

11:48

Ashley, and then

11:50

changed her story to say that

11:51

Lucy had killed Ashley

11:53

according to the criminal complaint. So

11:55

it was Wednesday morning around six

11:58

thirty that the two of them went

12:00

outside.

12:00

And according

12:01

to that criminal complaint, Amber led

12:03

Jamie to Ashley's body.

12:05

and it was lying face

12:08

down next to a boat on their

12:10

property covered in a blue tarp.

12:12

That is when this

12:14

criminal complaint, it details how

12:16

Jamie helped drag the body on the tarp

12:18

to a fire pit behind their home,

12:21

and they burned the body

12:23

and then move the

12:24

body to a

12:26

shed behind the property or move got

12:28

a tarp from that shed behind the property

12:30

and then actually

12:31

put the body in the back of Jamie's

12:34

truck and

12:34

moved it to

12:36

an area just a short ways away

12:38

from their home. Jamie was asked if

12:40

he could show interviewers where the

12:42

body had been taken to, and he

12:44

agreed and led agents and detectives

12:46

to where he and

12:48

Amber had left the body according to the

12:50

criminal complaint, and that's where investigators

12:53

found human remains. And

12:54

so I believe that's what led

12:57

to arrest then was the discovery of

12:59

those human remains in the

13:01

burn pile behind their The

13:02

water bins were taken into custody, and at

13:04

a press conference, investigators shared

13:07

details of what they believed to take

13:09

in place. Thursday was a

13:09

third and that is the day that they

13:12

announced the news conference. So we had not

13:14

learned of the names Amber and Jamie

13:16

Waterman until that

13:16

Thursday afternoon when the Benton County

13:19

Sheriff's Office announced that it was

13:21

going to be having a press conference

13:22

and announcing an update in the Ashley Bush

13:24

case. And that's when the were

13:26

informed

13:26

about the arrest of Amber and Jamie.

13:29

Over my career, this is one of the most

13:31

horrific

13:32

cases that I have been personally involved

13:34

with. There's still an active

13:36

case. I'll put that out

13:38

first that we will be limited

13:40

to what details

13:43

that we can give because this is a

13:45

fluid working case at this moment. Sheriff's

13:48

Office on October thirty first started working

13:50

a case of a missing person,

13:53

Ashley Bush. So

13:56

sad news to report that we have found

13:59

Ashley Bush

13:59

the

14:01

who was murdered in our opinion.

14:04

We also have found her baby

14:07

Baughry Grace Willis, who's

14:10

deceased as well, was found in a

14:12

separate location. Won't be able to

14:14

get into sales of that. We do have two

14:16

people in custody. This has

14:18

been a joint case that we've been

14:20

working with the FBI, Mid County

14:22

Sheriff's Office. And McDonald

14:25

County, Missouri Sheriff's

14:27

Office. The few people they

14:29

have in custody right now are Amber

14:31

Waterman. in

14:33

Jamie Waterman, Jane

14:35

Missouri, who are currently being held on

14:37

kidnapping first degree charges We

14:40

expect further additional charges to

14:42

come, and I'll let Nathan

14:44

Smith speak on where

14:46

we're going with all that. Well, at this

14:48

point, law enforcement have reason to

14:50

believe that both of them were involved

14:52

in this crime. And

14:54

obviously, as the facts play out and the

14:56

investigation Chronicles. We'll

14:58

know the extent of that involvement for

15:00

both of them. But evidence is at

15:02

this point that there was reason to hold both of

15:04

them for for charges. And then

15:06

we found out that the Benton County

15:08

prosecutor here in Arkansas is

15:11

charging Amber with

15:12

two counts of capital murder

15:14

and one count of

15:15

kidnapping on state charges here

15:17

in Arkansas. On a

15:18

winter night in a small community near

15:21

Denver, Colorado, Jim Matthews arrived

15:23

home late. He expected to find his twelve

15:25

year old daughter who'd been dropped off

15:26

after a Christmas concert. But when

15:28

he called out,

15:29

hi, Janelle. The house was

15:31

eerily quiet. His daughter's

15:33

shoes were on the floor, but she was

15:35

gone. And it would be thirty five years

15:37

before she would be found dead.

15:39

After the discovery of Janelle Matthew's body

15:41

in twenty nineteen, the police turned their

15:43

attention to a man who had told law enforcement

15:46

years ago that he knew something.

15:48

but they dismissed him. The

15:49

man did seem

15:50

obsessed with the case, but is

15:53

that all he was a true crime

15:55

fanatic? or a killer. Now,

15:57

a jury will decide if Janelle's murderer

15:59

was

15:59

hiding in plain sight the entire time.

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17:24

In light

17:25

of the arrest and charges being filed, McDonald

17:27

County coroner B. J. Goodwin shared what he

17:29

believed had actually taken place on Monday

17:32

when Ashley Bush disappeared, and

17:34

Amber Waterman showed up to meet with

17:36

paramedics. And he says that

17:38

it was

17:38

obvious why he they wouldn't want EMS

17:40

to come out their property because according

17:43

to what

17:43

we know now in the criminal complaint,

17:46

Ashley's body was

17:46

out on the property. The coroner says

17:48

that

17:48

Amber refused any medical

17:51

treatment even though to

17:53

their

17:53

knowledge she had just had a baby. But what

17:55

the coroner says happened is that

17:58

she cut the baby

17:59

out of Ashley Bush and put the

18:01

placenta in her pants to make it

18:04

appear as if she had had that baby.

18:06

The criminal complaint and

18:08

the coroner both

18:10

alleged that Jamie didn't know

18:12

about any of this until Amber

18:14

confessed to him and showed

18:16

him the body. that

18:17

his involvement would not have happened

18:20

until he

18:21

saw Ashley's body and

18:23

helped Amber burn it.

18:24

Goodwin also shared that Amber and Jamie appeared to

18:26

have a troubled marriage. He told

18:29

us that

18:30

when EMS

18:31

crews were on seen

18:33

with them on that Monday night that

18:36

Amber

18:38

told them who Jamie was, that

18:40

he was,

18:41

her husband, that he was

18:43

planning on divorcing her. So

18:46

the coroner says

18:47

that for the last few years, she had been

18:49

telling him that she was pregnant but then

18:52

kept miscarrying and the coroner's

18:53

thoughts were that he believed

18:56

Amber needed this baby to

18:58

keep JB in the marriage. The

19:00

woman investigator say his FONSIBLE

19:02

FOR LURING A Pregnant Benton County

19:04

WOMEN ON FACEBOOK, KIDNAPPING AND

19:06

THEN KILLING HER APPEARED IN FEDERAL

19:08

HORT TODAY. Reporter:

19:09

THE U. S. ATTORNEY SAYING THEY BELIEVE

19:11

AMBER WATERMAN COMMITTED THE CRIMES IN AN

19:13

ATTEMPT TO KEEP THE UNBOURNED BABY AS

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HER OWN.

19:16

there's evil in our world. And

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this is a safe place to live,

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but that doesn't mean evil can't happen

19:23

here. you know, you should

19:25

always be diligent and make sure

19:27

that you're taking care of your loved

19:29

ones and yourself and meeting strangers

19:31

that you've met online at

19:33

any ANY ASSPECT IS DANGERS. I THINK THERE

19:35

WAS A LOT OF DISCUSSION IN THE

19:37

COMMUNITY AND EVEN IN THE NEWS

19:38

ROOM OF what

19:41

happened?

19:41

And then how could

19:42

this happen? It's pretty

19:46

unnerving

19:46

to think about possibilities when

19:49

you read through these criminal complaints and

19:51

you listen to

19:52

what the coroner had to say. And

19:54

of course, all of these are accusations

19:57

and allegations but these are the kinds

19:59

of details that you

19:59

don't hear of every single day. And

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when we spoke to the corner, you know,

20:04

he called her a cold

20:06

blooded killer and

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don't say that every

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day, especially in the line of work he's

20:11

in. My

20:12

whole adult life has been centered

20:15

around death. but never

20:18

never seen

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so

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much wickedness and evil.

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and that's only way to describe it.

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Well, Ashley

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Bush leaves behind three

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children, her fiancee and many

20:31

grieving family and friends just

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a

20:33

few months ago, I was in her condition,

20:35

I was pregnant as well. So

20:37

I think it it

20:39

it hits home a little

20:41

harder because, you know, I go

20:43

home and and rock my baby and

20:46

just think about how she should be here doing

20:48

the same. But out more of love and

20:50

support that they have received. It

20:53

it's what's getting them through this and

20:56

it Even though evil

20:58

is in the midst

20:59

of of all of us, the

21:02

love and support, the

21:05

good, outweighs the evil. she

21:07

leaves a very kind

21:10

and gentle legacy behind in

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her children. You can tell

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how doting and and caring she was

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by the way her children behave

21:19

and and who they are.

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On November sixteenth, the watermans

21:22

were indicted by federal grand jury for their alleged role in the

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kidnapping and murder of Ashley Bush. Amber

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and her husband Jamie were charged in a

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two count indictment

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Amber is charged with one count of kidnapping

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resulting in death, and Jaime is

21:35

charged as an accessory. The indictment

21:37

alleges that Amber Waterman kidnapped

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Ashley Bush in order ACLAIM HER UNBORN BABY

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AS HER OWN. THE ADIEMENT

21:43

ALLEGES THAT JAMIE WAS AN ACCESSARY BECAUSE HE

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TRIED TO HELP HIS