Mother Accused of Killing Pregnant Daughter Allegedly Had Affair With Victim's Fiancé
Bombshell testimony revealed a prior sexual relationship between the accused mother and the father of the unborn child.
A Michigan mother, Cortney Bartholomew, 41, accused of murdering her pregnant daughter and extracting the unborn child, allegedly maintained a sexual relationship with the victim's fiancé, Richard Falor, the father of the deceased baby. Bartholomew and her husband, Bradley Bartholomew, 48, appeared in court for a preliminary hearing regarding charges of first-degree murder, torture, and assault of a pregnant individual resulting in death.
Falor testified that his relationship with Cortney Bartholomew spanned from April 2023 to September 2023, concluding one month before he began dating her daughter, Rebecca Park, in October of the same year. According to WWTV, Falor stated that Cortney Bartholomew had expressed a desire for another child, despite claiming she was physically unable to have more. Falor is the father of the baby Park was carrying.
Rebecca Park, who was 39 weeks pregnant, was discovered deceased on November 25 in the Huron Manistee National Forest, near her mother's residence in Boon Township. She had been reported missing three weeks prior, and her baby was not found at the scene.
Falor recounted that on the evening before Park vanished, her water broke. He was being driven with Park towards the hospital when Cortney Bartholomew allegedly attempted to intercept their vehicle. The group proceeded to the hospital, where Park was discharged without delivering the baby. Prosecutors contend that Park was murdered the following night after Cortney Bartholomew lured her to the family home with the promise of an inheritance check, as detailed in a probable cause affidavit.
Text messages presented in court showed exchanges between Falor and Cortney Bartholomew shortly after Park went missing. Cortney Bartholomew claimed in these messages to have given Park $2,000 from an inheritance. Falor testified that Park never returned home after meeting with her mother and that he never saw any inheritance money.
The couple is accused of a plot that involved bringing their daughter into their home, forcing her into a vehicle, and driving her to a wooded area behind the residence where she was allegedly killed. Prosecutors allege the couple then extracted the unborn child from Park.