00:00A pregnant woman was found dead in northern Michigan woods just days before she was due
00:04to give birth, but her baby was nowhere to be found.
00:08In a horrifying turn of events, her biological mother and her stepfather have been charged
00:13with executing a vile and blood-curdling plot, allegedly cutting her unborn baby out of her
00:18womb and leaving her for dead.
00:2122-year-old Rebecca Park was found dead in the Manistee National Forest on November 25th,
00:26weeks after she vanished on November 3rd, when she was 38 weeks pregnant.
00:31Prosecutors allege that when her body was discovered, the baby had been cut out of her as authorities
00:35began frantically searching for her unborn child.
00:38On Monday, November 1st, Rebecca Park's biological mother, 40-year-old Courtney Bartholomew, and
00:44her stepfather, 47-year-old Bradley Bartholomew, were arrested.
00:48They are now charged with planning and performing her gruesome torture and murder.
00:53At the Bartholomew's arraignment on Tuesday, Wexford County Prosecutor Johanna Carey described
00:58the chilling allegations.
01:00Ms. Bartholomew brought Rebecca to their home.
01:03They forced her into another vehicle and took her into the woods where they stabbed her,
01:09forced her to lie on the ground while they cut her baby out of her, ultimately causing
01:13her death and the death of the baby.
01:15Carey went on to call the harrowing ordeal evil personified.
01:19This case involves a truly horrific homicide, in which a young woman and her unborn child
01:24endured unimaginable suffering at the hands of the defendants, she also said in a statement.
01:30At the arraignment, Stacey Davis, Bradley Bartholomew's estranged sister, told 9 in 10 News that her
01:36brother and Courtney Bartholomew had previously attempted to have a baby but struggled to conceive.
01:42The same night Park's body was discovered, authorities arrested her fiancé, 43-year-old
01:46Richard Lee Fowler, as well as her sister, 21-year-old Kimberly Park, early the next morning
01:52around 1 a.m.
01:54Fowler was arrested and charged with distributing methamphetamine, while Kimberly was arrested
01:58and charged with tampering with evidence in a criminal case, lying to a police officer
02:03during a violent criminal investigation, and filing a false report of a felony.
02:09At Kimberly's arraignment, detectives alleged that she lied to police when she claimed their
02:12stepfather had struck her sister, quote, in the head, causing a seizure and then took
02:17her body away, according to a felony complaint obtained by 9 in 10 News.
02:23While Park was still missing, her fiancé told the outlet that she was gifted roughly $2,000
02:27from a family inheritance the day of her disappearance.
02:31He added that her phone was later found on the side of a road near her mother's home,
02:35where he claimed she was last seen being picked up in a black sedan with tinted windows.
02:41Becca told her, said, hold on, I got somebody picked me up.
02:44This is just something I gotta do, I'm sorry.
02:46A black sedan car pulled up.
02:49Becca got out of the car, out of her mom's car, and got in a black sedan, and nobody's
02:54heard from her since.
02:55Courtney and Bradley Bartholomew face identical charges, including first-degree premeditated
03:00murder, felony murder, torture in a place of confinement, conspiracy to commit torture,
03:06assault of a pregnant woman with the intention to cause miscarriage or stillbirth, unlawful
03:10imprisonment, and moving a dead body.
03:13Courtney Bartholomew was Rebecca Park's biological mother, but the slain mom was adopted and raised
03:18by Stephanie Park and her husband from the age of one, along with her siblings.
03:24She is survived by two boys, ages three and two, who remain in Stephanie's care.
03:29According to her fiancé, Rebecca Park was due to give birth on November 18th.
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