Background: Jennifer Gledhill appears in court in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Feb. 7. 2025 (YouTube/KSL). Inset: Matthew Johnson (Cottonwood Heights Police Department).
Shocking details have been revealed in the murder case against a Utah wife and mother of three who allegedly killed her National Guardsman husband after he accused her of cheating on him.
Jennifer Gledhill, 42, stands accused of nine felonies, including murder in the first degree, five counts of second-degree obstruction of justice, one count of second-degree possession with intent to distribute, one count of third-degree desecration of a human body, and one count of third-degree witness tampering, according to the Salt Lake County District Attorney”s Office.
The accused killer was arrested in early October 2024.
From the beginning, prosecutors alleged she was charged based on her own recorded confession to a man first described as a confidential informant. Days later, that man was revealed to be Gledhill’s own lover – the third side in the love triangle that seems to have set in motion the late September 2024 death of Matthew Johnson, 51.
Now, law enforcement has released what, exactly, Gledhill allegedly told the man she was sleeping with about the crime.
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On Sept. 20, 2024, Johnson came home to angrily confront his wife about the affair, according to prosecutors. Then, after midnight on Sept. 21, 2024, Gledhill allegedly used a 9 mm pistol to shoot her husband in the head as he slept in their bed.
On the night of Sept. 22, 2024, Gledhill went to her paramour’s home and told him what she had done, in detail, prosecutors alleged.
“She told the informant that she put Mr. Johnson’s body into a rooftop storage container, slid him down the stairs of their home, and loaded his body into the back of their minivan,” prosecutors wrote in a press release announcing the charges against the accused murderess.
Gledhill then allegedly “smashed” Johnson’s phone and ditched his truck in a nearby neighborhood. Next, she drove his body “north” and buried him in a shallow grave, according to prosecutors. The other man is said to have noticed bruises on Gledhill’s body during this initial conversation; she allegedly told him she got the bruises while burying her husband’s body and cleaning the house to rid it of evidence.
That first confession scared the other man, according to law enforcement. So, during a future discussion, he was prepared, prosecutors said, according to a recent report by People Magazine.
In a follow-up phone call, which he recorded, the lover said he was afraid of her. This expressed fear prompted a chilling response from Gledhill, law enforcement alleged.
“Wow, if you think I could even hurt a fly,” she allegedly said. “Like he just, he is, he’s not a person. He wasn’t a person anymore. He wasn’t Matt.”
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On Sept. 28, 2024, Gledhill reported Johnson missing.
Meanwhile, the lover had been collecting a trove of evidence – screenshots and the audio of the phone call – to supply to authorities.
On Oct. 2, 2024, Gledhill was arrested.
Days after that, the woman’s parents, Thomas Gledhill, 71, and Rosalie Gledhill, 68, were arrested and charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly assisting their daughter after the fact by cleaning the home and purchasing a new mattress to replace the one where the victim was killed.
The alleged removal of evidence did not inure to the defendants’ favor.
During a subsequent search of the residence in Cottonwood Heights – a small city and suburb of Salt Lake City – investigators allegedly discovered blood on three bed slats and a “large blood-stained spot in the master bedroom carpet underneath the bed,” according to a probable cause affidavit.
“Matthew Johnson is not missing,” Salt Lake County Deputy District Attorney Emily Paulos said during a Feb. 28, 2025, court hearing. “Matthew Johnson was murdered by the defendant.”
David Harris, Matt Naham, and Jerry Lambe contributed to this report.
