A Michigan couple accused of murdering their pregnant daughter and cutting her baby from her womb allegedly placed the fetus in a blue lunch cooler and tossed it in the trash, according to newly released probable cause affidavits.
The disturbing detail is among new information disclosed this week in court documents filed in court in Wexford County, where a sheriff’s deputy testified under oath about the horrific slaying of 22-year-old Rebecca Park and her unborn child.
Park, who was 38 weeks pregnant, was last seen on November 3. Her disappearance prompted a massive community search in Wexford County. On November 25, her remains were found in Manistee National Forest, near Boon, Michigan. The baby’s body was not with her.
Cortney Bartholomew, 40, Park’s biological mother, and Bradly Bartholomew, 47, her stepfather, told investigators multiple, shifting accounts of how Park was killed and how her baby was removed from her body, at times blaming each other, before both were charged in the case.
Prosecutors allege the couple lured Park to their home in Boon on November 3 before driving her into the woods behind the house, where they are accused of forcing her to the ground, stabbing her to death and slicing her open to remove the baby from her womb.
According to the affidavits obtained by the Detroit Free Press, the couple each accused multiple other people in Park’s disappearance during interviews with authorities before and after her body was discovered.
Text messages cited in the documents also show that Cortney Bartholomew told her sister on October 28, days before Park was reported missing, that she had given birth to a premature baby boy named Ashton Lee Bartholomew who was in the NICU in Grand Rapids. On November 3, the day investigators believe Park was killed, Cortney Bartholomew texted again, claiming the baby had died.
After learning investigators were treating the case as a homicide and that each spouse was accusing the other, Cortney Bartholomew eventually partially admitted involvement.
She first claimed her husband told her, “I slit her fucking throat, b**** deserved it,” according to the affidavit.
Later, she said her husband carried out the killing and brought the baby back to the house.
“Brad took her, he brought the baby back, I tried, I didn’t, I couldn’t, I tried, I tried to save my grandson,” she told detectives while crying, according to the affidavit.
Bradly Bartholomew told detectives it was his wife who first placed the baby in a garbage bag and then into the cooler, and that the baby’s body was later disposed of near a property where logging had recently occurred.
Cortney Bartholomew is accused of later admitting to cutting the baby from Park’s womb with a hunting knife, claiming it was an attempt to save him, but denied stabbing Park.
She told detectives her husband said of the baby: “Oh, I stuck him in a cooler, stuck him in a trash bag, threw him in the trash.” The hunting knife, she said, was later disposed of in a dumpster in Cadillac.
Wexford County Prosecutor Johanna Carey told the court on December 2 that the couple researched how to carry out the killing and created a plan before carrying it out. But the couple had also offered dueling explanations about the motive.
Cortney Bartholomew told detectives her husband planned the killing as part of a revenge plot against Park’s fiancé, who she said triggered a sex offender registry investigation that sent Bradly Bartholomew back to jail.
Bradly Bartholomew told detectives his wife was driven by jealousy and desire for the unborn child, saying, “Cortney was mad because Rebecca was always bad mouthing her and wouldn’t give her a chance to be a mom,” and that “Cortney wanted the baby for herself.”
He told investigators he did not believe the baby was alive after being removed from his mother and never heard him cry. After unsuccessful attempts at CPR, he accused his wife of saying, “The b**** killed my baby,” referring to Park.
Stephanie Park, Rebecca Park’s adoptive mother, told the Free Press her daughter was lured to the home by Cortney Bartholomew with the promise of inheritance money on November 3.
Cortney Bartholomew initially told investigators an unknown friend picked Park up that night. She later suggested an “older man,” then Park’s fiancé, and later multiple others as possible suspects.
Bradly Bartholomew initially denied being home that night, though search warrant data from his phone contradicted that claim, police said. He later told investigators that Park’s sister discussed needing to get Rebecca “out of the picture,” then claimed the sister later admitted to killing her – an account detectives did not corroborate.
Both Cortney Bartholomew and Bradly Bartholomew face multiple charges, including first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder, torture, unlawful imprisonment, conspiracy, assault of a pregnant woman with intent to cause miscarriage or stillbirth, and moving a dead body.
