Inset: Ashley Bush (Benton County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Amber Waterman (McDonald County Detention Center).
A 44-year-old woman from Missouri admitted this week to kidnapping and killing a 33-year-old pregnant woman from Arkansas and her unborn child in a botched scheme to steal the mother-to-be’s baby and “claim” the unborn child as her own.
Amber Waterman appeared in federal court in Missouri on Tuesday where she formally pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping resulting in death and one count of causing the death of a child in utero in the 2022 slaying of 33-year-old Ashley Bush and unborn Valkyrie Willis, authorities announced.
“This horrific crime resulted in the tragic deaths of two innocent victims,” U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri Teresa Moore said in a statement. “Today’s guilty plea holds this defendant accountable for her actions and ensures that justice will be served. She is now subject to a mandatory sentence of life in federal prison without parole.”
Waterman’s husband, Jaime Waterman, has also been charged in Bush’s death. He is facing one federal count of being an accessory after the fact to kidnapping resulting in death. Prosecutors allege that he assisted his wife in covering up the crime despite knowing she had kidnapped and killed Bush. His trial is currently scheduled to begin on Oct. 21.
Jamie Waterman (McDonald County Detention Center).
According to a news release from federal prosecutors, Amber Waterman admitted to kidnapping Bush from Maysville and transporting her to Pineville, both of which are in Arkansas, resulting in the death of Bush and Valkyrie.
Waterman used a false name — “Lucy” — to contact Bush via Facebook while the victim was 31 weeks pregnant. Waterman pretended to help Bush get a job by pretending she had an opportunity the victim could fill. That interaction prompted an in-person “job interview” between the two women on Oct. 28, 2022, at a public library in Gravette, Arkansas, where Waterman offered Bush a work-from-home position for a company based out of Arkansas.
“On Oct. 31, 2022, at roughly 11:45 a.m., Bush met Waterman at the Handi-Stop convenience store in Maysville,” prosecutors wrote in the release. “Under the pretext that Waterman was taking her to meet a supervisor to further discuss employment, Bush got into a truck driven by Waterman.”
Waterman then kidnapped Bush and drove the pregnant woman to the Waterman residence in Pineville.
“At about 5 p.m. on Oct. 31, 2022, first responders reported to the Longview store in Pineville for an emergency call of a baby who was not breathing,” the release states. “Waterman admitted that she claimed to first responders that she had given birth to the child in the truck while on the way to the hospital. But in reality, she admitted, the child was Bush’s child, who died in utero, as a result of Waterman’s kidnapping that resulted in the death of Bush.”
A subsequent autopsy determined that Bush’s manner of death was a homicide and the cause of death was “penetrating trauma of the torso.” Authorities say that Waterman shot and killed Bush, then used a knife to try and remove the unborn child from her uterus. Waterman also attempted to burn Bush’s body.
Federal law mandates that Waterman be sentenced to life without parole in a federal prison. Waterman is currently scheduled to appear for her sentencing hearing on Oct. 15, 2024.
Joshua Robinson, the prosecuting attorney for Benton County, Arkansas, has already stated that he intends to prosecute Waterman in state court and seek the death penalty. She is charged with two counts of capital murder and one count of kidnapping in Benton County.
However, federal authorities have refused to give prosecutors from Benton County access to Waterman, according to a report from the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Robinson said he continues to fight for capital punishment at the behest of Bush’s family.
“We let the U.S. attorney’s office know pretty quickly, ‘If you all get the approval to seek death row, we’ll back off. We’ll dismiss our case as long as somebody can do what the family wants,’” Bush said last month in an interview with Fort Smith, Arkansas ABC affiliate KHBS. “We never believed that the United States attorney general would approve that. He is outwardly opposed to the death penalty, and I understand that. We just kind of had what we thought was a realistic viewpoint of how that would play out, and that’s how it played out.”
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