Rebecca Park, a 22‑year‑old who was 38 weeks pregnant, is believed to have been taken by her biological parents and slain in the woods of Michigan, according to authorities. The girl disappeared on November 3, and her body was discovered in the Manistee National Forest on November 25. When rescuers found her, she was no longer pregnant, and no trace of the baby had been located. The Detroit Free Press has confirmed that the infant is also dead, though no further details have been released.
The police are charging Cortney Bartholomew, Rebecca’s mother, and her husband Bradly Bartholomew, who was 47 at the time, with murder. Prosecutor Johanna Carey said the couple allegedly drove the 22‑year‑old to the forest, forced her into a vehicle, and then carried out a brutal act in which they stabbed her and removed her unborn child from her womb. Carey told the court, “This is, frankly, evil personified.” She added that the disembowelment killed both mother and baby.
On the same day Rebecca’s body was found, her fiancé, Richard Lee Falor, 43, was taken into custody for a separate drug charge – the distribution of methamphetamine – and has pleaded not guilty as of December 2.
Republic: Rebecca’s older sister, Kimberly Park, aged 21, was also arrested on November 26. She faces multiple counts, including tampering with evidence, making false statements to police, and filing a false felony report. In her arraignment, detectives alleged that she misled investigators about what happened to her sister, claiming that the stepfather had struck Rebecca “in the head, causing a seizure, and then took her body away.”
When Rebecca was first reported missing, Falor told 9and10 News that she had been picked up from her mother’s house in a tinted sedan. He added that the young woman had received about $2,000 from a family inheritance that day, and her phone was later found abandoned on a roadside near her mother’s residence. Falor said he, Cortney, and Kimberly were all calling hospitals to confirm that Rebecca and his son were safe.
Rebecca was scheduled to give birth on November 18; Falor claimed she was already one centimeter dilated the day before she went missing.
At her arraignment, Stacey Davis, Bradly’s estranged sister, informed the outlet that both she and Cortney had previously struggled to have a baby. She described being there “for the sake of Rebecca and her baby,” adding, “I’m not here for my brother.”
Rebecca’s biological mother, Cortney Bartholomew, and Rebecca’s siblings had been raised and adopted by Stephanie Park and her husband after Cortney’s disappearance. “Rebecca deserves to be remembered as the sweet girl that she was when she was younger,” Stephanie told 9&10 News.
Both Cortney and Bradly were denied bail, and Cortney’s lawyer noted that she was disabled and sought a lower bond and home confinement. The charges against the couple are almost identical: first‑degree pre‑meditated murder, felony murder, torture while in confinement, conspiracy to commit torture, assault of a pregnant woman with intent to cause miscarriage or stillbirth, conspiracy to commit that assault, unlawful imprisonment, and moving a dead body.
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