A Missouri man has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife.
Beau Rothwell, 31, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of his wife of four years, Jennifer Rothwell, 28, who was pregnant at the time.
Jennifer had looked up “what to do if your husband is upset you are pregnant” on her phone before going missing in 2019.
Beau Rothwell discovered her badly beaten body a week after she went missing.
Jennifer was six weeks pregnant when she was murdered.
Beau admitted to killing his wife at trial but claimed it was unintentional and happened during a heated argument about an affair he was having with another woman, in the hopes of being found guilty of a lesser manslaughter charge.
He testified that in November 2019, he hit his 28-year-old wife with a mallet. He admitted to hitting the back of her head with a mallet, sending her stumbling towards their house’s garage. He claimed to have followed her and continued to attack her, eventually killing her.
Rothwell then tried to conceal the murder. He went out and bought cleaning supplies, intending to bleach his late wife’s blood from the house. He drove her car to an intersection, abandoned it, and threw a blood-stained tarp and cleaning supplies in a nearby dumpster.
Rothwell claimed that in the aftermath of the murder, he went into “panic mode.”
He dumped her naked body in the woods off Highway 61, then reported her missing, texted her with concern, and joined a search party.
Prosecutors argued that the husband was a meticulous planner, pointing to texts he exchanged with another woman in the months leading up to the murder and a list of pros and cons he compiled on whether he should leave his wife.
He was also seen on camera buying cleaning supplies the day before Jennifer Rothwell went missing, according to police.
Beau Rothwell was convicted of first-degree murder and other lesser charges in April.
On Friday, July 8, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
