Breakthrough in a Chilling Cold Case: Bethany Anne Decker Mystery Unraveled
Breakthrough in a Chilling Cold Case: Bethany Anne Decker Mystery Unraveled
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00:00 Before we begin today's video, we just wanted to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for helping us reach 500,000 subscribers.
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00:24 Almost three years ago when we first started our channel, we looked into several unsolved cases as part of a compilation episode.
00:41 As you know, we really try to keep on top of all the cases we cover, provide updates, and see them through to the end if they're ongoing.
00:51 One case we looked at all that time ago has had significant updates and progression.
00:55 It has gone from being an unsolved disappearance to a solved case.
00:59 As a nod to where we started all that time ago, we wanted to take another look at it, expand on it, and cover it in a much more in-depth way.
01:08 This is the case of Bethany Ann Decker.
01:12 Today's episode takes us to Ashburn in Virginia.
01:19 Home to 21-year-old Bethany Ann Decker.
01:24 Bethany's mother Kim said her daughter was just simply a joy to be around.
01:29 Always upbeat and had been smiling since the day she was born.
01:33 She had two younger siblings who said she was the leader of the pack.
01:37 Confident, encouraging, and supportive.
01:41 After years of excelling in school, she was accepted into George Mason University, hoping to gain a degree in global and economic change.
01:49 One of her roommates said she could put off an essay until the night before, write it in an hour, and come out with an A*.
01:56 She was very intelligent, she recalled.
01:59 It was in her freshman year that Bethany met Emil Decker, a cadet in the Reserve Officers Training Corps who was set to join the Army National Guard.
02:09 Emil was a hopeless romantic, and Bethany's family said she could mention the smallest, most seemingly insignificant thing just once, and he would remember it and try and act on it.
02:19 Bethany's family adored him, and he fit right in as if they'd been together their whole lives.
02:25 After a couple of years of dating, Emil proposed.
02:28 No sooner had they got engaged, Bethany found out she was pregnant.
02:34 The young couple were so excited to start their family and life together, and although the baby had come sooner than maybe planned, the pregnancy was a welcomed surprise.
02:42 They called their baby boy Kai.
02:45 Although, family and friends said the stress of a newborn baby, on top of having little money to support them, soon set in.
03:00 While Emil started training with the Army National Guard unit, Bethany, who was still studying at George Mason, took up a part-time job in a restaurant to get some more money.
03:09 The stress only mounted further when Emil started prepping to be deployed to Afghanistan.
03:17 Between both their families helping out, the pair were just about coping.
03:22 But knowing Emil would soon be away for long periods of time was hard for Bethany to deal with.
03:29 She said she felt like the pair were drifting apart, and they were living in two completely separate worlds.
03:34 She told Emil she worried they had rushed into things and should have taken more time to plan.
03:39 Some sources say at this point, they decided to try a separation and take a break.
03:44 Emil was upset, but wanted to give Bethany what she needed.
03:56 With the country, Bethany moved into a new apartment so she could be closer to her job and pick up as many shifts as possible.
04:02 One day at the restaurant, things would take a massive shift, which changed the course of everything.
04:11 Bethany met 31-year-old Ronald Roldan, who was originally from Bolivia.
04:19 Before long, the pair were involved in a romantic relationship. Bethany told friends she was lonely and isolated, with Emil being overseas for such long periods of time.
04:28 And, despite her friends' reservations, Ronald soon moved into Bethany's apartment.
04:33 Her best friend Sarah said she was shocked and warned her against it, but she ultimately wanted to see Bethany happy, and Bethany was going to do what she wanted to anyway.
04:45 She and Emil were still separated and communication was dwindling, but he could sense something was going on.
04:51 The relationship with Ronald was bad from the get-go. He was controlling, jealous and violent, and everyone saw it in him.
05:00 Kim said she was frightened, hearing horror stories about what was going on inside the apartment.
05:05 She even suspected that Ronald had hurt Kai, as Kai not only seemed scared of him, but he had a black eye on one occasion.
05:13 The story they were told was that a friend was watching him and he fell backwards off of a chair, but Bethany's family were not so sure.
05:19 They also found out that Ronald had phoned Kai's daycare and pretended to be Emil.
05:24 Fortunately, the daycare could tell something was wrong and nothing happened, but this resulted in them setting up a code to use over the phone so they knew not to answer to Ronald if he called again.
05:38 Ronald would text and call constantly, asking to see proof of where she was and who she was with.
05:44 He would even follow her to houses she said she was going to, just to make sure she actually was, and then he would sit and wait for her outside until she left.
05:53 Bethany was now in a very bad situation and decided to come clean and tell Emil everything, saying she knew she had made a mistake.
06:02 Emil still wanted to make things work, saying his family was his priority. He said he could tell that something had been wrong for many months, as she was now working about six days a week and barely talking to him, and when she did communicate, she was distant and not present.
06:16 Bethany and Emil decided to go on holiday when he was home on leave, to try and patch things up.
06:22 Their marriage was hanging by a thread at this point, and the situation was messy to say the least.
06:29 She was telling her mother and friends that the situation with Ronald was now so bad, she needed to either get him out somehow, or leave the apartment herself in secret.
06:38 She and Kim started working on a plan to make this happen.
06:42 As 2010 came to an end, Emil sent a sweet message to his young family.
06:51 "My name is Marcellus Decker and I'm stationed at Morales, Fraser, and I just want to give a lovely shout out to my wife who lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and to my son, Kai. I love you and I miss you very much. Have a Merry Christmas."
07:04 In mid-January 2011, he was granted leave and the pair decided they would still go on holiday together.
07:13 As Bethany met him at the airport, it was clear there was another issue to contend with.
07:20 Bethany was pregnant again, and Ronald was the father.
07:24 Emil said he wasn't angry and still wanted the holiday in Hawaii to go ahead.
07:31 He said, "I'd been overseas and it was a completely different world. Coming back to the United States I was just happy to be home, to be alive, to be with my family, that anything else in the whole entire world really did not matter to me at all."
07:46 It was definitely a make or break trip, and by all accounts they did have a lovely time in Hawaii.
07:52 It was the most they'd seen each other, laughed together and just talked in ages.
07:57 It felt like things could start to get back on track.
08:09 When Emil and Bethany got back on the 28th of January, Bethany visited her grandma.
08:14 They had a nice afternoon making pizza and talking about the trip, but her grandma said she could tell there were more stories than Bethany was sharing.
08:21 She was so young with so much going on, and everything was clearly getting on top of her.
08:27 Bethany later confided that she was drowning in stress, guilt and sadness, and it was the lowest she had felt in her whole life.
08:36 Later that night Emil joined them for dinner, where the crisis talks continued.
08:40 Without warning, Bethany's phone started to go off.
08:44 She grabbed her things and rushed out, saying they didn't understand what was going to happen to her if she didn't go home.
08:51 Emil was due back in just a few days, and although the break had been good for them, it still wasn't clear how things would be once he left.
08:59 Bethany drove back to her apartment as Emil packed up, ready to fly out on the 2nd of February.
09:05 The plan was she would meet him at the airport to see him off, telling him "I will always be there, no matter what".
09:12 On February 2nd, Emil arrived at the airport hoping to see Bethany there, but she didn't turn up.
09:28 He called her restaurant, and they said she hadn't been into work for the last few days.
09:35 Before he boarded, he called around Bethany's family to give them the heads up that something seemed wrong.
09:42 Regardless of any issues the pair ever had, Bethany was always at the airport to see him go.
09:48 Over the next few days, friends and family tried to make contact with Bethany, but she didn't answer her phone once.
09:56 Bethany's mother Kim then received a few strange phone calls, which remain undisclosed,
10:02 and Bethany's friend Sarah got some Facebook messages that stood out immediately.
10:06 She logged in and saw that Bethany was online.
10:09 Having not heard from her in a while, she started up a chat in Messenger.
10:14 She said she knew right away it was not Bethany sending the messages back.
10:19 The English was broken, words were misspelled, and basic things she would have been able to answer, she couldn't.
10:26 Sarah called Kim and told her her suspicions.
10:31 Emil also got an email from Bethany's account, and he too said he didn't believe his wife had typed it.
10:37 By this point, Kim had received messages from four different people,
10:41 all saying they thought Bethany's Facebook account had been hacked into.
10:45 Bethany's grandparents live closer to Bethany than Kim, so they decided to drive over to her complex.
10:52 They found Bethany's car parked outside. It was at an odd angle, with a flat tyre.
11:00 This was even more odd because no one had seen her car there before this point.
11:04 It seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
11:06 They knocked on the door, but the silence was deafening.
11:10 They called 911 on February 19th and reported her missing.
11:15 Bethany's family said it was not unusual for her to go several days without talking to anyone or replying,
11:21 and before they all knew it, it was three weeks later.
11:25 Given the fact she hadn't seen or spoken to anyone during this time, as well as being pregnant,
11:30 authorities did not miss a beat and moved quickly, concerned they had already lost a lot of time.
11:36 A quick search of her phone, credit and debit cards showed they had not been accessed since January 29th.
11:43 She hadn't shown up to any of her classes, she hadn't checked herself into any of the nearby hospitals,
11:50 she hadn't gone into work, and given the fact her passport was at home, she hadn't left the country either.
11:55 When police went to her apartment, they determined there were no signs of any forced entry or a struggle,
12:02 and nothing appeared to be glaringly out of place.
12:05 Her belongings were all still there, indicating she hadn't packed up to go anywhere either.
12:10 There was nothing inside her car that indicated foul play, or pointed to where she might have gone.
12:17 It was now the first week of March, and detectives decided to hold a press conference.
12:22 Divers were searching the waters, canine units were around the fields, and the FBI were brought in too.
12:29 Police were getting leads, but they were going nowhere. None of these tips came to anything.
12:36 It seemed that the last person to have seen Bethany given the timeline they knew was Emil.
12:42 He was granted permission to fly home and help with the investigation.
12:46 He voluntarily took a polygraph test and underwent hours of interrogation,
12:50 answering everything twice over, and was completely supportive of everything the police needed.
12:56 He said he had absolutely nothing to do with Bethany being missing,
13:00 and even despite all their issues, his mind was racing and he was deeply concerned.
13:05 He said he understood why he was being looked at so closely.
13:09 He happened to leave the country around the same time she went missing,
13:13 and had just found out she was pregnant with another man's child,
13:16 but he said he let the police ask everything they needed to, no matter how painful the questions were,
13:21 so they could rule him out and he could start helping.
13:24 All of his movements in between the 28th of January and the 2nd of February were all accounted for as well.
13:30 Authorities had to consider the possibility that given all of her stresses,
13:35 she had just wanted a total break, and had dipped off the radar.
13:40 Going this long without talking to her mother and grandmother, and without seeing Kai,
13:44 was definitely not the Bethany they knew.
13:47 The police were still treating her disappearance as a missing persons case, and not anything more sinister.
13:53 They didn't identify anyone as a suspect, calling it premature,
13:57 and saying they wanted to encourage the public to keep looking for her, without putting anything into their heads.
14:03 There was, however, one more person they needed to talk to, Ronald Roldan.
14:09 He was no longer living in the apartment, and they had found him at his parents' house.
14:13 He told them he had moved out recently, as the relationship had come to an end.
14:17 His story actually informed the detectives that he was the last person to see her.
14:23 Whereas Emil had last seen her on the 28th of January, Ronald said he saw her on the afternoon of January the 29th.
14:30 He said she was in the apartment, and she seemed her usual self.
14:35 He was quickly corroborated by the manager, who said that she had called in just after 2pm on January 29th,
14:40 to get her next shifts for the week.
14:42 She also confirmed her shift for that night, but she never showed up to work it.
14:47 Ronald said he hadn't reported her disappearance, as now the relationship was over,
14:51 he naturally just hadn't had any communication with her to even realise she was missing.
15:00 ATM records showed that he left Bethany's apartment the afternoon she was last seen,
15:04 and made a withdrawal from his bank at 4.26pm.
15:07 He then returned to the apartment after getting a text from his ex-girlfriend Danielle,
15:11 with whom he shared two children.
15:13 Ronald sent two messages to Bethany, one at 4.01pm, and one at 4.31pm,
15:18 to tell her he would be staying with his children at their apartment.
15:22 But it was confirmed that after Bethany contacted work at 2.08pm, her phone had no activity.
15:29 Whether these messages were received is still unknown,
15:31 but it appeared he had been trying to get hold of her.
15:35 Danielle said she did drop the children with him at about 4.30pm,
15:40 and Ronald told her he wasn't sure if Bethany would be coming back,
15:43 as the couple had had a fight and she'd taken off.
15:46 When Danielle returned a few days later,
15:48 Ronald told her he hadn't seen or heard from Bethany since that day.
15:52 A search warrant was now issued for his apartment, but this turned up nothing.
15:58 His computer, phone and hard drives were all seized, but they drew a blank here as well.
16:03 A quick background check on Ronald found he did have history with the police,
16:07 but at this point there was absolutely nothing to link him to Bethany's disappearance.
16:12 Given the fact that detectives now knew he was the last person to see her,
16:17 he was considered a person of interest, but not a suspect.
16:21 Bethany's story was now national news,
16:25 and it was even more intriguing for journalists when it got out that she had been married to a man
16:29 that they had interviewed, and was having a baby with another man,
16:32 who was now a potential person of interest.
16:35 I want to go to Pat Brown, criminal profiler and author of The Profiler.
16:39 Pat, as always, great to see you.
16:41 Pat, something's not right here.
16:44 I mean, theoretically she could have run off and then, you know, decided to slowly reappear,
16:49 but, you know, I don't know. That's why they can't say yet whether she's missing or she's dead.
16:54 I don't blame law enforcement for not giving up too much information,
16:57 because there are so many, so many questions yet to be asked.
17:01 May 2011 would be the month Bethany was due to give birth,
17:13 and detectives issued another press release,
17:16 contacting hospitals to see if she had checked in anywhere.
17:19 Again, they were met with silence.
17:23 The months would soon turn into years, and time was slipping by.
17:28 Police were still no further forward than when they had started.
17:34 But in May 2012, a new detective was assigned to the case,
17:39 and the family said they were hopefully fresh eyes that could help them.
17:43 On this particular year, what would have been Bethany's 23rd birthday,
17:47 coincided with Mother's Day,
17:49 and family and friends gathered to spread awareness and share stories.
17:52 Emile and Kai were also in attendance.
17:54 Kim even connected with the Harrington family,
17:57 who lost their daughter Morgan in 2009,
18:00 a case we actually covered on the channel a while ago.
18:03 They cut a big cake for Bethany, made in her favourite colour, orange.
18:09 In late 2012, Investigation Discovery aired an episode of their show Disappeared,
18:13 dedicated to Bethany's case,
18:15 which gave it more attention, but still no answers.
18:19 As time continued to pass, the tips and leads became few and far between.
18:24 The show was a bit of a mystery,
18:27 and there were no clear answers to the questions.
18:30 The show was a bit of a mystery,
18:33 and there were no clear answers to the questions.
18:37 The tips and leads became few and far between,
18:39 and focuses on other investigations had to take priority.
18:42 Emile eventually filed for divorce from Bethany,
18:45 and was given sole custody of their son Kai.
18:48 Everything remained pretty quiet, until November 2014,
18:53 when a completely separate 911 call would shine a whole new light on the case.
19:06 On the 12th of November 2014,
19:08 police in North Carolina responded to a shocking call.
19:12 It was almost 2am, and it appeared to be a very serious domestic incident.
19:17 A woman called Vicky said she had shot her boyfriend twice in self-defence when he had attacked her.
19:22 Out of nowhere he had walked up behind her,
19:25 grabbed her by her hair, and snapped her neck,
19:28 breaking it in two places.
19:30 He then started punching and biting her.
19:34 Despite being in what must have been immense pain,
19:36 Vicky managed to grab her gun and shoot him twice.
19:39 He then snatched the gun off her and shot her three times, once in the head.
19:44 She still managed to crawl out of the house all the way to a neighbour's home.
19:48 Her neighbour locked the doors, grabbed his gun and called 911.
19:52 Vicky's boyfriend was none other than Ronald Roldan.
19:58 He was arrested and charged with attempted murder,
20:02 although much to Vicky's anger the attempted murder charge was dropped as he entered a plea deal.
20:06 He was sentenced to a minimum of six years, and after completing his sentence,
20:12 he was scheduled to be transferred into the custody of US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement,
20:16 who would start the process of deporting him back to Bolivia.
20:20 Vicky told authorities that Ronald had said he could make people disappear.
20:24 A friend had even called Vicky and said that she had seen a Nancy Grace episode about Bethany's case,
20:31 which named Ronald as a person of interest.
20:33 Vicky confronted him and said his reaction terrified her.
20:37 She knew something was wrong, but he now knew that she knew about Bethany,
20:41 and she said the violence had escalated since that point.
20:44 Vicky said if he was ever let out of prison, he would either come back to kill her, or kill someone else.
20:50 He was clearly a very dangerous and violent individual,
20:53 and given everything Vicky had told them, he needed to be looked at once again in relation to Bethany's case.
21:00 A dramatic twist in a local cold case tonight.
21:02 That's right. This development could finally give local investigators the evidence that they need
21:06 to bring charges against a person of interest in the disappearance of a young mother.
21:10 Decker's then-boyfriend was arrested in November for attempted murder of his new girlfriend.
21:16 That woman tells the DailyMail.com Ronald Roldan told her things,
21:21 which could implicate him in Decker's disappearance.
21:24 Investigators combed the area near Bethany Decker's home,
21:28 and found a house near Bethany Decker's Ashburn apartment four years ago.
21:31 They never found the 21-year-old.
21:34 The young mother and wife of a soldier in Afghanistan was five months pregnant when she vanished.
21:38 It's so hard not knowing anything and not being able to reach her.
21:41 Decker and her husband had problems, and while he was overseas, she became involved with Ronald Roldan.
21:48 After Decker disappeared, there was no activity on her credit cards or bank accounts.
21:54 Roldan, a waiter at the time, became a person of interest, but never charged.
21:59 He moved to North Carolina, where last November, at the home of his new girlfriend,
22:04 Roldan allegedly went into a rage and viciously beat the woman.
22:08 Loudoun County Sheriff's detectives have interviewed Roldan in North Carolina,
22:12 where he is behind bars awaiting trial at this point.
22:15 Despite the revelations from Roldan's alleged victim,
22:19 he remains a person of interest in the Bethany Decker disappearance.
22:23 I've seen the look in his face when he came back at me the second time that evening to kill me.
22:29 And he was smiling.
22:32 So I do believe that he cannot control it.
22:36 It's what he does. He kills things.
22:38 He violently beat me. He broke my neck in two places.
22:42 He left bite marks all over my back.
22:45 He choked me out twice. He was suffocating me.
22:48 And then the gunfight started.
22:51 He just told me that he can make people disappear,
22:53 and that I'd better be quiet and I'd better not go to the police.
22:56 That's what he told me, standing in my living room,
23:00 leaning up against the sliding glass doors.
23:03 I think he was just making himself clear.
23:06 Vicky went on to tell her story on Dr. Phil.
23:10 She had lost an eye because of him, her neck had been broken in two places,
23:14 and she was facing financial ruin due to the cost of the medical bills.
23:19 But she was determined to keep telling her story,
23:21 and help the police build their case.
23:23 She contacted Kim personally to tell her everything she knew and offer her support.
23:28 The pair would strike up a close friendship,
23:31 meeting for the first time on an episode of True Crime Daily.
23:34 Hi!
23:36 I'm so glad to meet you.
23:38 You too.
23:40 You are so amazing.
23:45 Thanks.
23:48 Detectives also found out that before he was seeing Vicky,
23:50 Ronald was dating a waitress called April.
23:53 She had pressed charges against him too when he pushed her down a flight of stairs,
23:57 spat on her and threw all her belongings outside.
24:00 He agreed to pay her $2,500, and the charges were eventually dropped.
24:06 Detectives working on Bethany's case made the journey over to his new prison to interview him again,
24:12 but he was verbally abusive, shouting and swearing at them, refusing to talk.
24:17 This only spurred them on more.
24:19 Through his lawyer, Ronald maintained he had nothing to do with Bethany's disappearance.
24:23 He said he was hopeful that Bethany would come home and was praying for her safe return.
24:28 ...mystery tonight now in Loudoun County, a young woman gone missing four years ago without a trace.
24:37 The newest twist, a bone-chilling letter from the woman arriving five years after she wrote it.
24:44 It's just one of many shocking turns in a case that continues to baffle detectives.
24:47 Bethany Decker penned a letter to her future self when she was 19 years old.
24:52 She wrote December 3rd of 2008.
24:54 All of her plans were right there in black and white.
24:57 Get married, have a child, start a career, go to Europe.
25:00 She signed it, "See you in five years, me."
25:04 She had lots of dreams of what her future would look like, and it was nothing like this.
25:09 She's really dropped off the face of the earth.
25:13 Loudoun County detectives immediately visited Rodin in jail.
25:16 He didn't really want to talk to me, so I just talked to him.
25:19 While detectives fear the worst, Bethany's mother hopes she's in hiding.
25:23 I pray that she's out there somewhere, that she got to a safe place.
25:27 The lawyer for Ronald Rodin, Decker's boyfriend, he wouldn't return her phone calls.
25:32 As for the husband, Emile Decker's attorney tells us he's willing to talk to detectives only if counsel is present.
25:38 I'm Jennifer Donnellan, ABC 7 News.
25:42 [Dramatic music]
25:46 In March 2019, investigators said there had now been positive movement in Bethany's case.
25:54 They didn't specify the development, but they did say it came after a search warrant of Bethany's Facebook account was finally issued and analysed.
26:02 The search warrant had been signed by Detective Michael Boone,
26:05 a man who was actually instrumental in solving the murders of Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington.
26:10 Morgan Harrington's family had become close to Kim, offering her a support system.
26:15 Over the next year and into 2020, things again went quiet,
26:20 and the police didn't share anything with the media, keeping all their cards close to their chests.
26:25 They were on the cusp of a huge break.
26:29 November 2020.
26:38 The news everyone had been waiting for, for almost a decade, finally broke.
26:43 Bethany Decker, missing since January 2011.
26:49 Now, after more than nine years, it appears police are about to close this controversial case.
26:57 In the works, the Loudoun County Sheriff has planned a long-distance arrest of Bethany's ex-boyfriend,
27:06 according to the prosecutor, the charge in the case will be abduction.
27:10 Now, upon his release from jail tomorrow in North Carolina,
27:14 Loudoun County Sheriff's plan to pick up Roald Dahn and bring him back to Virginia to be officially charged in the Bethany Decker case.
27:24 The information that had pushed this forward showed that Bethany and Ronald's individual Facebook accounts
27:32 were both accessed many times from the same IP address in the days around her disappearance.
27:37 Ronald Roald Dahn was finally arraigned on abduction charges,
27:42 and just one month later, the charge was upgraded to second-degree murder in the case of Bethany Ann Decker.
27:49 Prosecutors said the circumstantial evidence was very strong and it was a solid case.
27:55 Ronald's lawyers asked for bail, but the judge said there was no way.
28:00 He pleaded not guilty and his trial was scheduled to start in August 2021, but this was pushed back to February 2022.
28:08 The trial was then set back a final time when the County Sheriff's Office released a further 60,000 files against Ronald,
28:14 and his defense team needed more time to go through everything.
28:17 The new trial would be January 30th, 2023,
28:21 and this date would mark just a day after the 12-year anniversary of Bethany's disappearance.
28:29 Everyone now just had to sit, wait, and continue to be patient just a little bit longer.
28:34 However, no trial would commence.
28:38 It has been more than 10 years since Bethany Decker disappeared from her Ashburn home.
28:43 Her body has never been found, and her former boyfriend pled guilty to her murder.
28:47 Roald Dahn was convicted and sent to prison in North Carolina in 2016,
28:51 buying the Loudon Sheriff's Office more time for its investigation,
28:55 and when he was released in November of 2020, he was charged with Bethany Decker's murder.
29:01 On Thursday, he pleaded guilty.
29:04 The details of that agreement under seal until his sentencing.
29:08 Willoughby's reaction to the plea?
29:10 A feeling of relief and thankfulness.
29:14 It helps me to realize that maybe God used me in this crazy way
29:20 to make sure that Bethany got her peace.
29:26 Roald Dahn faces up to 40 years in prison when he's sentenced to...
29:30 In August 2022, 41-year-old Ronald Roald Dahn pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
29:35 As part of his plea agreement, he was asked to say what had happened that day.
29:39 Ronald claimed they had got into an argument in the apartment, and he pushed her.
29:44 She fell and hit her head on the windowsill and died instantly.
29:47 Too scared to call 911, he put her body into a large bag
29:51 and dumped her into the trash compactor at the complex.
29:56 He still denied using her Facebook account and maintained his story of it being accidental, and he panicked.
30:01 Given his history of abuse and violence, police and experts doubt his claims of it being unintentional and a total accident,
30:08 and his denial of accessing her accounts had also long been proven to be false.
30:13 In February 2023, Ronald was given 12 and a half years.
30:18 He was actually sentenced to 40 years, which was the maximum,
30:23 however all but 12 and a half were suspended due to his plea deal.
30:26 He could still serve more time if he commits another crime or violates the conditions of his release.
30:32 12 years and a month of them waking up every day and not knowing, is Bethany coming back?
30:41 Hundreds of individuals have worked tirelessly in search of any evidence or information
30:48 that would bring Bethany's killer to justice, and today, justice has been achieved.
30:53 Roldan only pled guilty in November, but it wasn't until two weeks ago when he confessed to detectives
30:58 how she died as part of his plea agreement.
31:01 And it was quite tragic for us to go from missing to murdered in just a sentence.
31:06 I can't tell you how hard it was knowing that when we had our last Christmas,
31:11 that that would be the last one, or the night before Bethany was murdered,
31:17 she called me and she said, "Mom, I love you," is the last thing she told me.
31:21 Bethany was an inspiration to me from when she was born, with her smiles, with her encouragement, with her love.
31:27 Tonight, Roldan will have to serve more than 12 years in prison,
31:30 but family says it still does not bring closure, but a painful reminder of how a loved one is still gone.
31:35 She was not, and will never be forgotten. May she rest in peace.
31:39 Once he is released, he must be under supervision for five years,
31:44 and instructed not to contact any of Decker's family members.
31:47 Through all the hearings, Kim and Vicky sat together and watched as he was sentenced.
31:53 Bethany's family said they were angry that he will only be in prison a few months longer than they had spent searching for her,
31:59 but they said they were grateful they finally had some sort of closure.
32:03 So many lives have been affected by this case, and it was a long and painful wait for answers.
32:13 To this day, Bethany's remains have never been found, and police feel it is unlikely they ever will be.
32:19 Kim said all she can do is keep Bethany's memory alive and encourage people to be vocal,
32:24 and tell loved ones you care about them, because you just never know what will happen.
32:29 She continues to work with Help Save the Next Girl,
32:33 a national non-profit organisation founded by Morgan Harrington's parents in her honour.
32:39 It's a way of educating and spreading awareness by talking about safety and violence prevention.
32:43 She said, "The night before Bethany was murdered, she called me and said, 'Mum, I love you.'
32:49 That was the last thing she said.
32:51 So I just want to encourage each and every one of you to not take for granted tomorrow,
32:55 and to really make sure that you are talking to your loved ones,
32:58 that you're letting people know how much you care, and not wait for the tomorrow, which may never be."
33:04 Thank you all for tuning in, and we hope you found this video interesting.
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