A young mother from Virginia named Bethany Decker vanished on January 29, 2011, while expecting her second child. Her family had been waiting for answers for years, but until 2020, no one had made a confession, leaving her awful end a mystery and raising further concerns. The main suspect in Decker’s killing was Ronald Roldan, who was serving time for assaulting his fiancée in the past. Her corpse was never found, despite long-standing suspicions on the part of the police, and Roldan had never been prosecuted. Roldan admitted to murdering Decker in early 2021 after a protracted questioning with the main investigator and prosecutor. He got a 12-and-a-half-year sentence and the option to enter a guilty plea to second-degree murder in return for his confession.
Roldan’s confession has been called into question, nevertheless, by recent disclosures. Authorities suspect that he misled them when he claimed the death was an accident. The main detective is shown questioning Roldan in the confessional video, pointing out contradictions and speculating that he could have strangled Decker. Authorities were not happy with the interview, despite Decker’s mother’s backing for the plea agreement in the hopes of learning the truth.
On the day that Decker vanished, Roldan said that he had an argument with her and gave her a little shove in their shared flat. He said that Decker fell and struck her head on a windowsill, but the investigators could find no proof to support this claim. According to the authorities, she may have been choked to death by Roldan.
Concerns over the messages posted from Decker’s Facebook account following her disappearance were also raised by Roldan’s confession. The notes, which stated that Decker was okay and needed some time away, didn’t seem to fit her writing style. Significantly, authorities learned that these texts came from a device that shared Roldan’s IP address.
Prosecutors thought that Roldan’s confession could be true in part, despite the questions surrounding his story. Decker had travelled to Hawaii with her husband just before she vanished, hoping to get away from her tumultuous relationship with Roldan, who had became violent and domineering.
Although portions of Roldan’s confession made sense, Decker’s family didn’t believe her, with her mother raising worries about the confession’s seeming disrespect for human life.
A special arrangement was made over the course of the court processes. In exchange for serving 12 ½ years in jail, Roldan consented to give Decker’s family a debriefing during which they may interrogate him about the circumstances surrounding Decker’s death. As part of the arrangement, officials could not, however, independently confirm the veracity of Roldan’s story. In the end, Decker’s family received clarifications on what transpired with her body, and her husband was cleared. After serving his time in jail, Ronald Roldan will be deported to Bolivia, leaving unanswered questions regarding the terrible case of Bethany Decker.
