A man who killed his pregnant wife with a mallet sent chilling messages to his lover before the brutal attack.
Beau Rothwell was yesterday found guilty of murdering 28-year-old Jennifer Rothwell at a court in St Louis in the US.
Rothwell, 31, had admitted to killing his wife in Missouri on November 11, 2019 and covering up the crime but claimed the attack happened in a "red haze" of rage.
The jury, however, decided it was pre-meditated and he was convicted of first degree murder.
The court heard that while investigating, police went through phone records and discovered an unknown number belonging to a woman Rothwell was having an affair with.
She came forward after seeing news reports about Jennifer going missing and later provided detectives with messages exchanged between herself and Rothwell.
After learning his wife was pregnant, Rothwell got in touch with his lover, saying: "I can't focus or do anything productive. I'm in panic mode Lol. Jennifer took a pregnancy test and it came back positive."
He also sent her three 'options' for the future - one was they stop talking to each other, another that he tells his wife about the affair and they divorce, while the third was to wait and see if she miscarriages or something else happened.
One message said: “Part of me wants this pregnancy to not work out.”
While another read: “If there is a miscarriage or something I’ll leave her after that and be with you.”
Prosecutors argued that the "something" could indicate he was thinking of murdering her.
But this was strongly denied by the defense.
Rothwell told the court that he and his wife - who was six weeks into her pregnancy when she died - had argued at their home about his affair.
He said he struck his wife in the head from behind with a mallet, then followed her as she tried to escape towards the garage door. It was then he struck the fatal blow.
“In the heat of everything, I hit her again,” Rothwell told the jury. “I believe I cracked her skull, she fell unconscious and fell down the stairs.”
He insisted he had never planned to kill Jennifer, but said his wife got angry after he refused to tell her who his mistress was.
He said she told him she could keep his "mystery bitch" and claimed the pregnancy was the result of an affair with another man.
After the murder, Rothwell tried to clean up the crime scene, buying bleach and paper towels to clean the house.
He drove her body an hour north where he left it in the woods, having previously wrapped a plastic bag around her head with duct tape and removed her clothes.
He said he got the idea to take off her clothes from TV crime shows about hiding evidence.
Police found a number of bottles of bleach inside the Rothwell home as well as a wet, blood-stained carpet. DNA evidence confirmed the blood belonged to Jennifer Rothwell.
Rothwell will be sentenced on July 8.
