Murder weapon was found in the attic of the home the couple shared in the
She said he stabbed her at least five times, hitting several ribs and leaving a pool of blood on the floor of Elizabeth Sullivan’s bedroom. Lindberg showed jurors the knife that Matthew Sullivan used to stab his wife. The murder weapon was in the attic over his bedroom.” “He had lots of motives, he had the means, he had the opportunity,” Lindberg said. On that first day of trial, Matthew Sullivan sat silently, looking down at the desk in front of him as Deputy District Attorney Jill Lindberg described how his “whirlwind romance” with the victim quickly turned to domestic violence, and eventually, murder.Ī potential motive, according to prosecutors during opening statements, was an extra-marital affair that Elizabeth Sullivan was having, and that Matthew Sullivan learned of about a month before his wife’s disappearance. 21, 2020, with opening statements and testimony from the loved ones of Elizabeth Sullivan.
#Dateline episodes 2021 trial
Matthew Sullivan’s murder trial began on Feb. 21, 2020, and, in March, a jury found him guilty of Elizabeth Sullivan’s murder. As details of Elizabeth Sullivan’s disappearance and death emerged, a judge ruled Matthew Sullivan would stand trial for her murder. Significant court proceedings began one year later, with Matthew Sullivan’s preliminary hearing in February 2019. He was extradited to San Diego and eventually booked into the George Bailey Detention Facility in early February 2018, where he remained through his court proceedings. Matthew Sullivan was identified as the suspect in his wife's murder and was arrested outside his home in Wyoming, Delaware, on Jan. The San Diego District Attorney's Office believes Elizabeth Sullivan's body had been “hidden somewhere” before it was disposed of in the bay. Year-and-a-half before police could link Sullivan to her killing.
Week before SDPD investigators would be able to positively identify her – and another It was also the same day Matthew Sullivan was moving from San Diego to Maryland with his new girlfriend, a fact that prosecutors said was no coincidence.ĭue to the decomposition of Elizabeth Sullivan’s body, it would be another That day – nearly two years after she vanished – the body of Elizabeth Sullivan was found floating in San Diego Bay, about a half-mile from the home that the couple once shared with their daughters. He almost got away with it but his final attempt to hide the body at the bottom of the bay failed," the judge said before handing down his sentence.īut a grim breakthrough came on Oct.
"The jury verdict and the evidence at trial makes clear that Matthew Sullivan brutally murdered his wife, methodically cleaned up the messy murder site and then hid the body for years. He doesn't feel one iota of sorrow for what he did. "He thinks he could've gotten a different verdict apparently. "There is clearly no remorse from the defendant," the prosecutor said. The prosecutor harshly criticized Matthew Sullivan's statement as she asked a judge to sentence him to 16 years to life in prison without the possibility of probation. "I thoroughly believe their testimony would've thoroughly changed the verdict in this trial." "The only issue I had about trial was I believe I was not allowed to call in relevant witnesses to my defense," he said. Matthew Sullivan decided to make his own statement, but did not address the crime he's accused of or his wife and instead chose to call out what he felt were problems with his trial. "But a longer sentence won’t make the pain go away, nor will my recanting of sorrow I have gone through these past six years make this man feel differently than he does now.” "This man killed my dear friend and you can imagine how this affected me," Caracter said. A masked Matthew Sullivan sat expressionless while friends and family spoke about his wife who "was loved by many" at his sentencing on March 12, 2021.Įlizabeth Sullivan's friend, Nathan Caracter, spoke directly to Matthew Sullivan when he said that his wife did not hate him.
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