A 44-year-old Missouri woman will spend the rest of her life in prison for kidnapping and killing a 33-year-old pregnant lady and her unborn child in Arkansas as part of a failed attempt to steal the mother-to-be’s baby and “claim” it as her own.
According to records acquired by Law&Crime, U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough sentenced Amber Waterman to two consecutive life sentences in a federal detention prison for the 2022 murders of 33-year-old Ashley Bush and her unborn daughter, Valkyrie Willis. There is no chance of parole in the federal prison system.
In July, Waterman formally pled guilty to one count of kidnapping that resulted in death and one count of causing the death of an unborn child.
Waterman’s spouse, Jamie Waterman, has also been accused of Bush’s death. He is charged with one federal count of being an accomplice after the fact of kidnapping resulting in death. Prosecutors claim he supported his wife in concealing the crime while knowing she had kidnapped and murdered Bush.
Jaime Waterman appeared in court on Tuesday afternoon and altered his plea to guilty, court records show, less than a week before his trial was set to begin.
As previously reported, Amber Waterman acknowledged kidnapping Bush from Maysville and taking her to Pineville, both in Arkansas, where Bush and Valkyrie died.
Amber Waterman used the alias “Lucy” to contact Bush on Facebook when the victim was 31 weeks pregnant. She feigned to assist Bush in finding work by claiming to have an opening that the victim might fill. That encounter drove the two women to meet in person for a “job interview” on October 28, 2022, in a public library in Gravette, Arkansas, where Amber Waterman offered Bush a work-from-home position for an Arkansas-based corporation.
“On Oct. 31, 2022, at roughly 11:45 a.m., Bush met Waterman at the Handi-Stop convenience store in Maysville,” federal authorities noted in a news 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.”
Amber Waterman abducted Bush and drove her to her home 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,” according to prosecutors. “Waterman admitted that she told first responders that she gave birth to the child in the truck on the way to the hospital.” But, in actuality, she acknowledged, the infant was Bush’s child, who died in utero as a result of Waterman’s kidnapping, which led to Bush’s murder.
A second autopsy revealed that Bush’s death was a homicide with “penetrating trauma of the torso.” Authorities say Amber Waterman shot and killed Bush before attempting to take the unborn kid from her uterus with a knife. She also tried to burn Bush’s body.
Joshua Robinson, the prosecuting attorney for Benton County, Arkansas, indicated in July that he would prosecute Waterman in state court and pursue the death sentence. Waterman faces two counts of capital murder and one count of kidnapping in Benton County.