Insets from left: Cortney Bartholomew, Brad Bartholomew (Wexford County Sheriff”s Office) and Rebecca Park (Missaukee County Sheriffs Office via WPBN).
As a pregnant Rebecca Park sat on the ground of a Michigan nature trail suffering from stab wounds to her back, her mother told her to lie back.
“Your baby is gonna die,” 40-year-old Cortney Bartholomew told her 22-year-old daughter, according to a probable cause arrest affidavit provided to Traverse City-based NBC affiliate WPBN and Cheboygan-based ABC affiliate WTOM.
With Bartholomew’s husband holding a knife to Park’s throat, she cut her daughter’s stomach and removed the baby boy who was not breathing. The suspect’s husband, 47-year-old Bradly Bartholomew, then allegedly slit Park’s throat. In total, she was stabbed more than a dozen times, the affidavit stated.
Cortney and Bradly Bartholomew took the baby to their truck and tied Park to the back of the vehicle, cops wrote. They then allegedly drove the truck some 20 feet down a bank with Park’s body behind. Per cops, the Bartholomews then covered Park’s body with some leaves and drove back to their home where they tried to perform CPR on the baby.
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Once those attempts failed, Bradly Bartholomew placed the baby’s body in a cooler and drove to a nearby dumpster where he discarded the remains, according to the affidavit.
This all occurred on the evening of Nov. 3 in Wexford County, which is in Northern Michigan. Park, who was 38 weeks pregnant, was reported missing the next day. On Nov. 25, searchers found her body near the hiking trail in the Manistee National Forest in Boon Township – a tiny municipality located roughly 35 miles due south of Traverse City. The trail where the body was found is roughly 2.5 miles from the Bartholomew home.
Authorities have yet to recover the baby’s remains.
Cops arrested the Bartholomews on Dec. 1 on charges including murder, torture, conspiracy to commit torture and assault on a pregnant person. The nearly 20-page arrest affidavit released Monday shows the Bartholomews initially denied involvement before pointing the finger at each other.
Cortney Bartholomew claimed she wasn’t there and said her husband admitted to her that he killed Park.
“I slit her f—ing throat, b— deserved it,” she claimed her husband told her.
She asserted her husband killed the victim because Park’s boyfriend turned Bradly Bartholomew in to police last year for not registering as a sex offender. But cops told Cortney Bartholomew that would not be a motive to cut out the baby.
Confronted with the facts, Cortney Bartholomew allegedly fessed up to her involvement. She lured Park to her husband’s truck and he held a knife to her throat and forced her inside, the affidavit stated.
Bradly Bartholomew told cops his wife cut Park’s infant from her stomach because she wanted another baby to raise on her own. In addition to the Bartholomews, Park’s fiance and sister face drug and tampering charges.
During a bond hearing on Dec. 2, prosecutors unveiled the horrifying facts of Park’s demise.
“This is a case of premeditated torture and murder,” said Wexford County Prosecutor Johanna Carey, according to a courtroom report from MLive. “These two individuals created a plan, conducted research. Mr. Bartholomew brought Rebecca to their home, forced her into another vehicle and took her into the woods where they stabbed her, forced her to lie on the ground while they cut her baby out, ultimately caused her death and the death of the baby.”
Added Carey: “This is frankly evil personified.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, Rebecca Park was last seen alive getting into a vehicle by her adoptive mother outside of her home near Cadillac on Nov. 3 after she had just received $2,000 in an inheritance.
After cops found Park’s body, her fiance, Richard Falor, 43, was arrested on multiple drug charges. Then, during the early morning hours of Nov. 26, the missing woman’s sister, Kimberly Park, 21, was arrested on charges related to her sister’s disappearance.
Falor stands accused of two counts of delivering methamphetamine. Kimberly Park is charged with one count each of tampering with evidence in a criminal case, lying to a police officer during a violent crime investigation, and filing a false report of a felony.
During an arraignment, the sister’s bond was set at $750,000, while the fiance’s bond was set at $1 million. Both defendants were deemed threats to the community and flight risks, according to a courtroom report by Kalamazoo-based CBS affiliate WWMT.
But then, citing national media attention, 84th District Court Judge Corey Wiggins quickly shut down broadcast of the proceedings, according to Traverse City-based NBC affiliate WPBN and Cheboygan-based ABC affiliate WTOM, which collectively broadcast as UpNorthLive.
“Kimberly Park, ladies and gentlemen, people in the court, media, and those on livestream,” the judge said, according to a courtroom report by WJBK. “The court has an ethical duty to ensure that the defendants in these cases can have a fair trial. The court is well aware of the publicity this case has received across the country. In order to protect the defendants’ interests in this case, the court is going to take the court off of livestream.”
While the motive remains unclear, family members have been devastated by the pregnant woman’s death and want justice.
“I’m heartbroken, crushed,” Rebecca Park’s adoptive mother told WWMT after the cascade of recent events. “I have to remain strong. I have three children, little bitties that do not understand any of it. We have been, as a family, preparing for this outcome. Not quite as gruesome as this outcome. But preparing for this outcome.”
Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report
