Left: Jennifer Gledhill cries in court on Oct. 21, 2024, as she learns she cannot contact her children (KUTV/YouTube). Matthew Johnson in a missing person photo (Cottonwood Heights Police Department).
The mother and father of a 41-year-old Utah woman accused of shooting her national guardsman husband in the head as he slept in bed at home have themselves been arrested and charged in the connection with the murder case, this after prosecutors said publicly that they ordered a new mattress off of Amazon to help replace the one where the victim was killed.
Jennifer Gledhill’s 71-year-old father Thomas Gledhill and 67-year-old mother Rosalie Gledhill are accused of obstructing justice. Investigators claim that the evidence shows they helped clean up the crime scene where 51-year-old Matthew Johnson was killed, lied about how long they were at the house, helped buy the new mattress and had it delivered to their home, and even wiped data from a phone, local CBS affiliate KUTV reported.
As lead defendant Gledhill appeared in court by Zoom earlier this week, 3rd District Commissioner Todd Olsen first mentioned that prosecutors asked for a no-contact order to be issued to protect the defendant and Johnson’s three children — 11, 7, and 5 years old. When it was Deputy Salt Lake County Attorney Shantelle Argyle’s turn to speak, prosecutors noted that there have already been some “obstruction” issues.
Though not identified as alleged victims in the protective order, prosecutors said “there is some concern about some obstruction that has been alleged to have already occurred and involvement with the children specifically.”
“They will be likely witnesses in this matter,” Argyle said.
Gledhill’s defense attorney responded that a protective order wasn’t necessary because his client is in custody without bail in the first-degree murder case and any potential contact with her kids would be supervised.
The state countered that the allegations in the probable cause affidavit showed that Gledhill was a threat to the safety and the community more broadly. In addition, there’s a risk that allowing contact would open the door to potential tampering with “likely witnesses” against her, the state argued.
In the end, Olsen signed a temporary order barring Gledhill from contacting her children — or having someone else get in touch with them for her — whether in person, by phone, or electronically.
“Okay,” Gledhill said and sobbed, as Olsen spelled out the prohibitions.
Authorities have said that Gledhill, who filed for divorce from Johnson in July, reported Johnson missing to the Cottonwood Heights Police Department on Sept. 28 — one week after he was allegedly killed. She’s accused of admitting what she had done when speaking with an informant, a man with whom she was apparently carrying on an affair.
“Johnson was shot while on the mattress inside the master bedroom of their home in Cottonwood Heights. Jennifer also told the CI she had removed the body of Johnson and had relocated his remains to a shallow grave at an undisclosed location. Jennifer Gledhill also told the CI she had been removing items from the home and destroying them to cover up this crime,” an affidavit of probable cause reportedly said, adding that there appeared to be “significant clean up […] including bleaching walls, and using carpet cleaning supplies.”
That man told cops that Gledhill came over to his house on Sept. 22 and told him how her husband had come home on Sept. 20 and “yelled at her because he knew she had been sleeping with someone else,” prosecutors claim. She allegedly told her lover that the next day, on Sept. 21, she shot Johnson as he slept in their bed.
“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.
Gledhill allegedly “smashed” Johnson’s phone and ditched his truck in a nearby neighborhood. She then drove his body “north” and buried him in a shallow grave, according to prosecutors. The informant noticed bruises on Gledhill’s body; she allegedly told him she got them while burying her husband’s body and cleaning the house. The victim’s body has yet to be found.
Prior to their Thursday obstruction arrests, prosecutors had also said Gledhill’s parents were at the crime scene and that their residence was also under investigation.
Gledhill’s parents allegedly claimed they bought a new mattress on Amazon at their daughter’s request and had it delivered to their home, then went over to their daughter’s residence for around an hour on Sept. 24.
Prosecutors said that a watchful neighbor flatly contradicted the claim that the visit was short. The witness added that the parents were cleaning inside the house.
“A neighbor told police that on September 24, 2024, she saw the defendant’s parents in the defendant’s house cleaning; they did not leave the house until 11 p.m,” prosecutors said. “When police confronted the defendants’ parents about them being at the defendant’s home on September 24, 2024, her mother said she was only there for an hour.”
Meanwhile, Gledhill’s father was allegedly aware that an “incident” had “happened” in the bedroom.
“The defendant’s father said he didn’t remember details of the day except that he had been at the defendant’s house for a short period of time. Detectives confronted the defendant’s father about how long he was at the house and if he went into the master bedroom, and he responded, ‘I did not go in where the incident happened,”” prosecutors said.
When investigators searched the parents’ home, authorities said they found a green and tan Glock 19x box wrapped in a baby’s onesie in a tote bag in a bedroom where Gledhill would sleep. The gun wasn’t there but prosecutors believed the box contained the murder weapon.
David Harris contributed to this report.
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