Parents of pregnant 22-year-old found dead in Michigan accused of cutting baby out of her womb: ‘Evil personified’
The parents of a pregnant woman who disappeared just weeks before her due date have been charged with murdering both her and her unborn child in Michigan.
Rebecca Park, 22, was reported missing on Nov. 3 while 38 weeks pregnant. Her body was discovered in the Manistee National Forest on Nov. 25. When authorities recovered her body, Park was no longer pregnant, and her baby was missing. Officials later confirmed that the baby had also died, though they did not release further details, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Park’s biological mother and stepfather, 40-year-old Cortney Bartholomew and 47-year-old Bradly Bartholomew, are now accused of murdering her. Wexford County Prosecutor Johanna Carey said the couple, who did not raise Park, brought her to their home, forced her into a car, and drove her to the woods, where they allegedly stabbed her and removed her unborn baby from her womb. Carey said both Park and her baby died as a result of the attack.
“This is, frankly, evil personified,” Carey said at the couple’s arraignment.
On the same day Park’s body was found, her fiancé, 43-year-old Richard Lee Falor, was arrested on an unrelated methamphetamine distribution charge. He pleaded not guilty on Dec. 2. Park’s sister, 21-year-old Kimberly Park, was also arrested on Nov. 26 and charged with tampering with evidence, lying to police during a violent crime investigation, and filing a false report of a felony.
According to authorities, Kimberly Park told police that their stepfather struck Rebecca, causing a seizure, and then took her body away—claims investigators say were false. When Park was first reported missing, Falor told 9&10 News that she had been picked up in a black sedan with tinted windows while at her mother’s home. Falor said Park had received about $2,000 from a family inheritance that day, and her phone was later found on a roadside near her mother’s house.
At the arraignment, Stacey Davis, Bradly Bartholomew’s estranged sister, said the couple had previously struggled to conceive. “I’m here for Rebecca and her baby. I’m not here for my brother,” Davis said.
Although Cortney Bartholomew was Park’s biological mother, Rebecca and her siblings had been adopted and raised by Stephanie Park and her husband. Stephanie Park told 9&10 News, “[Rebecca] deserves to be remembered as the sweet girl that she was when she was younger.”
Both Cortney and Bradly Bartholomew were denied bond. Cortney’s attorney cited her disability while requesting lower bond and home confinement.
The couple faces multiple charges, including first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder, torture in a place of confinement, conspiracy to commit torture, assault of a pregnant woman intending to cause miscarriage or stillbirth, conspiracy to commit that assault, unlawful imprisonment, and moving a dead body.
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