A Utah woman has been arrested on murder charges after she told a confidential informant that she shot her estranged husband in his sleep and buried him in a shallow grave, but did not reveal the location, police said.
Jennifer Gledhill, 41, of Cottonwood Heights, was arrested Wednesday and is being jailed in Salt Lake County without bail, according to court records.
Police said the body of Matthew Johnson, 51, had not been found as of Thursday.
On Sept. 28, six days after Gledhill “openly admitted” to killing Johnson, an informant told police the Utah National Guard was shot late Sept. 20 or early Sept. 21, according to police records.
The informant said Gledhill shot Johnson in her bed, buried her body and removed and destroyed items from the house to cover up the crime.
A search of the home found bloodstains on the carpet under the bed, bloodstains on the bed frame, and evidence of bleached walls.
Gledhill also had a new mattress, according to documents supporting the arrest.
Johnson has not had contact with anyone since Sept. 20 and did not report to work on Sept. 23, officials said. Investigators believe he is dead.
Other court records show the couple was going through a contentious divorce and custody battle over their three children.
Mr Gledhill had obtained a temporary protection order against Mr Johnson in late August, but the shooting occurred after a court judge viewed a video of the altercation filmed by Mr Gledhill and reviewed text message exchanges between the two. The permanent order was dismissed on September 16, a few days before the incident.
Commissioner Russell Minas determined that no abuse occurred. Minas said Grehill was similarly confrontational and that seeking a restraining order appeared to have been a “litigation tactic” in her pending divorce, which she filed in July.
“The actions of the parties over the past few months are indicative of a highly dysfunctional marriage that brought out the worst in the parties, and that a divorce case should have been filed long before the current situation was reached. “This clearly suggests,” Minas wrote.
Gledhill's attorney for the restraining order and divorce case declined to comment Thursday. Court records do not list an attorney for her.
