Missouri woman charged with capital murder in killings of pregnant woman and baby

BENTONVILLE — Prosecutors have formally charged a Missouri woman in the killing of a pregnant woman and her baby and intend to seek the death penalty.

Amber Dawn Waterman is charged with two counts of capital murder and kidnapping. The criminal information was filed Thursday in Benton County Circuit Court.

The case is assigned to Judge Robin Green.

Waterman and her husband, Jamie, both 42, were arrested last week on federal charges in the kidnapping of Ashley Bush, 33, of Maysville.

Benton County prosecutors didn’t file any charges against Jamie Waterman.

Amber Waterman is scheduled to appear Nov. 21 in Green’s court.

Benton County Prosecuting Attorney Nathan Smith said he filed the murder and kidnapping charges after consulting with Bush’s family.

His office filed notice of two aggravating factors for seeking the death penalty: The crime was committed in a manner in which Amber Waterman created a great risk of death to a person other than the victim or that she caused the death of more than one person in the same criminal episode, and the murder was committed against a person Waterman knew or reasonably should have known was especially vulnerable to the attack because the person was 12 years of age or younger, according to court documents.

Smith said while multiple jurisdictions could competently prosecute the case, he decided to go forward after meeting with the family.

“They supported the decision to seek the death penalty, which is currently easier to do at the state level, and asked me to prosecute the case in Benton County so that they would not be burdened with out-of-state travel,” Smith said. “I informed our federal partners of this decision and offered to be helpful in any federal prosecutions however I can.”

Charges beyond the federal kidnapping charge have not been filed against Jamie Waterman because the evidence has not revealed he participated in a crime in Arkansas, Smith said.

The Watermans are being held at the Greene County jail in Springfield, Mo.

Bush, who was 31 weeks pregnant, was last seen in the passenger seat of an older, tan pickup Oct. 31 at the intersection of Arkansas 72 and Arkansas 43 in Maysville, according to a Nov. 1 post on the Benton County sheriff’s office Facebook page.

Her body was found last week in Missouri. The body of her baby — Valkyrie Grace Willis — was found in a different location in Missouri, according to court documents.

Amber Waterman told a Benton County sheriff’s detective she spent Oct. 31 with her son and her husband’s cousin’s daughter, according to an affidavit related to the case.

She claimed she went into labor that afternoon and drove to meet an ambulance at a store in McDonald County, Mo., according to the affidavit. She told the detective she had a stillborn child, the affidavit says.

Jamie Waterman said his wife called him at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 31 and told him she was having a miscarriage. He returned home and drove her to meet the ambulance, the affidavit says.

Amber Waterman posted on Facebook on Sept. 6 photographs of two sonogram images with the message, “I need some encouragement guys. The closer time get the more doubt I can do this alone.”

She is accused in the federal case of kidnapping and abducting Bush for the purpose and benefit of claiming Bush’s child as her own, according to court documents. Jamie Waterman is accused of being an accomplice in the kidnapping resulting in death.

Bush and Amber Waterman met online, Smith said.

The driver of the pickup was a white woman in her 40s with shoulder-length brown hair who said her name was “Lucy,” according to the sheriff’s office Facebook post.

Authorities said they suspect Amber Waterman was “Lucy.”

Authorities seized a tan Chevrolet pickup from the couple after seeing what was possibly blood in the vehicle, according to the affidavit. Jamie Waterman said he assumed the blood came from his wife as a result of her pregnancy complications, the affidavit says.

Jamie Waterman reported his wife told him after detectives left the residence at 5 a.m. Nov. 2 that she had killed Bush, then changed her story to say “Lucy” had killed her, according to the affidavit.

Jamie Waterman said his wife led him to Bush’s body, which was face down next to a boat near their house and covered with a blue tarp, the affidavit says.

He said his wife removed a ring from Bush’s finger, then rolled her body onto the tarp, according to the affidavit. He said he dragged the body to a fire pit behind their residence, and his wife asked him to get the gasoline, the affidavit says.

Jamie Waterman said he brought oil and his wife set the tarp on fire and poured the oil over Bush’s body, the affidavit says. He said his wife collected wood to throw on the fire, and he dragged a small sofa next to it and believes his wife put it in the fire, the affidavit says.

Jamie Waterman said he got another tarp, and his wife rolled the burned body into it, the affidavit says. They then put the body in his blue GMC pickup, drove a short distance away and hid the body, it says.

Jamie Waterman later led authorities to Bush’s charred body, according to the affidavit. FBI agents found a charred human hand and bone fragments in a burn pit behind the residence, the affidavit says.

Smith previously said Bush had been shot. He declined to comment on whether the baby had been removed from Bush’s body.