According to reporting by Chris Spargo of People, 22-year-old Rebecca Park vanished just before midnight on Nov. 3 after leaving her biological mother’s Michigan home.
She was heavily pregnant and just three days away from her due date when she disappeared.
Spargo reports that Rebecca’s body was discovered weeks later, on Nov. 25, a few miles from that same home, shoved down an embankment and covered in leaves.
By then, she was dead. Her unborn baby boy was gone too.
What happened in those missing hours is now laid out in chilling detail in court affidavits reviewed by People and in video reporting by UpNorthLive journalist Tony Lundy.
Those documents, Spargo explains, describe Rebecca’s own mother and stepfather allegedly admitting to playing central roles in the torture, killing, and mutilation of their pregnant daughter.
A Mother’s Alleged Confession
Spargo reports that 40-year-old Cortney Bartholomew – Rebecca’s biological mother – initially denied any involvement when questioned by the Wexford County Sheriff’s Office.
Her story, however, changed once investigators confronted her with cell phone evidence placing her at the location where Rebecca’s body was found on the night of the murder.
In a second interview, Spargo writes, Cortney allegedly admitted to using a scalpel to cut the fetus out of Rebecca’s womb.
According to the probable cause affidavit obtained by People, Cortney claimed she did this to “save the baby’s life” and give the child to Rebecca’s fiancé, 43-year-old Richard “Rich” Falor.
Spargo reports that Cortney also told investigators that the child she cut from Rebecca’s body was not Rich’s – but her husband’s.
The affidavit says Cortney alleged that her husband, 47-year-old Bradly Bartholomew, was the father of his stepdaughter’s unborn baby.
“Brad said it was his,” Cortney allegedly told officials, according to Spargo’s reporting.
That allegation turned an already shocking case into something even darker: a murder investigation tangled up with incest, affairs, and revenge.
Affairs, Jealousy, and a Web of Motive
Spargo reports that the family’s relationships were already deeply complicated.
Both Cortney and Rebecca’s sister Kimberly, 21, allegedly told investigators that they had previously had affairs with Rebecca’s fiancé, Rich Falor.
So prosecutors are now looking at a situation where, according to Spargo’s summary of the affidavit, Rebecca was:
- Pregnant with a baby her mom says was fathered by her stepfather;
- Engaged to a man who allegedly had slept with both her mother and her sister;
- And surrounded by adults trading accusations of betrayal and retaliation.
Spargo notes that Cortney, in her version of events, also tried to shift blame to Bradly.
She allegedly claimed that Bradly forced Rebecca into a car, drove her into the woods, and repeatedly stabbed her before Cortney began cutting the baby boy out of her womb.
In Spargo’s reporting, Cortney told investigators that Rebecca was still conscious while she was being cut open, and that Bradly held a knife to her throat during the procedure.
Later, Spargo writes, Bradly told authorities that Cortney was the mastermind, allegedly driven by a desire for more children and frustrated that they couldn’t adopt because he was a registered sex offender.
Both spouses, in other words, are now pointing at each other – while prosecutors say they planned and carried out a joint act of “premeditated torture and murder.”
“Evil Personified,” Prosecutor Says
Video reporting by UpNorthLive’s Tony Lundy, who has been in the Wexford County courtroom and obtained key documents, captures how prosecutors are describing the case.
In a segment also carried by The National Desk, Lundy shows Wexford County Prosecutor Johanna Carey laying out the state’s theory of the crime before a packed courtroom.
Carey told the judge that Cortney and Bradly “brought Rebecca Park to their home,” then “forced her into a vehicle and took her into the woods where they stabbed her, forced her to lie on the ground while they cut her baby out of her, ultimately causing her death and the death of the baby.”
Spargo reports that Carey later described the killing as “evil personified” during a bail hearing, calling it a “case of premeditated torture and murder.”
She alleged, according to Spargo, that the Bartholomews “created a plan” and “conducted research” beforehand.
Lundy’s video report notes that the courtroom was full of family, friends, and community members who had previously searched for Rebecca when she was missing.
Many of them, Lundy says, left that hearing “heartbroken” after hearing the graphic details of what Rebecca is alleged to have suffered.
Carey asked the court to show “no leniency,” and Lundy reports that the judge agreed, ordering Cortney and Bradly held without bond and barred from communicating with each other from jail.
The Baby’s Final Moments and a Body Thrown Away
Both Spargo’s article and Lundy’s reporting focus heavily on what allegedly happened to Rebecca’s unborn son.
Spargo writes that Cortney told investigators the baby was not breathing when she cut him out.
In his video, Lundy says probable cause documents show Cortney admitted that Rebecca was conscious during the cutting, with Bradly holding a knife to her throat.
Lundy reports that Cortney told investigators she tried to tie off the umbilical cord “the best she could.”
According to Lundy, investigators say Bradly later led them to the area in the woods where this all happened and told them he never heard the baby cry and believed the child never took a breath.
Spargo reports that, after the cutting, the fetus was placed in a cooler, then in a trash bag, and thrown into a dumpster.
Lundy’s on-air report adds that Bradly told police he and Cortney put the baby’s body in a GFL garbage tote at a house north of their residence.
Meanwhile, Spargo writes, Cortney texted her sister before the murder claiming she had “given birth” to a baby that was in the neonatal intensive care unit.
She later texted that this supposed baby had died shortly after the death of Rebecca’s child.
Investigators now say, according to Spargo, that those messages appear to have been part of a false narrative built around the murder.
Rebecca’s body, Spargo reports, was shoved down an embankment and covered with leaves.
Lundy notes that she was found on Nov. 25 by a volunteer searcher, after weeks of community searches in and around the Manistee Forest.
One volunteer, Calob Kozlowski, told Lundy during earlier search coverage that having someone “ripped from you… really tears at my heart” and that he wanted to bring closure to Rebecca and her family.
What no one searching knew at that point, Lundy now says, is that Rebecca had already been dead since Nov. 3.
Lured With a Promise and Left for Dead
Spargo reports that investigators believe Cortney lured Rebecca to her home that night by sending her a photo of an $18,000 check.
She allegedly told Rebecca the money was part of an inheritance from her grandmother.
Instead of a financial gift and a safe visit with family, prosecutors now say Rebecca was pulled into a planned attack.
Spargo notes that court records show Bradly had previously been reported for violating terms of his release as a convicted sex offender.
According to Cortney’s version of events, as described by Spargo, Bradly killed Rebecca partly out of retaliation against Rich Falor, who allegedly reported that violation.
Spargo also reports that Cortney claimed Bradly had talked months earlier about wanting to cut the baby out of Rebecca’s womb in front of Rich.
Whether that conversation happened as she described it will be tested in court, but it shows the level of premeditation she is now alleging against her husband.
From the outside, it’s hard not to see this as a swirl of control, jealousy, and rage focused on a young woman who had no real power in the situation.
Rebecca was pulled between a biological mother she barely knew growing up, a stepfather with a sex-offender history, and a fiancé whose own relationships in the family were, at best, chaotic.
Charges, Co-Defendants, and a Long Road to Justice
Spargo reports that Cortney and Bradly now each face an enormous list of charges:
- First-degree murder
- Felony murder
- Torture
- Conspiracy to commit torture
- Assault on a pregnant individual causing miscarriage or stillbirth
- Conspiracy to commit that assault
Each of those six counts carries a potential life sentence, Spargo notes.
They are also each charged, he reports, with unlawful imprisonment and removal of a dead body.
Lundy’s video coverage confirms that the couple appeared in court on eight charges each and that both are being held without bond.
Rebecca’s half-sister Kimberly faces her own set of charges, according to Spargo: tampering with evidence, lying to a police officer, and filing a false report.
Her bail was reduced from $750,000 to $5,000, and she is currently on house arrest.
Lundy reports that probable cause conferences for Cortney and Bradly have already been delayed at least once because discovery was not ready.
The couple is expected back in court for further proceedings, and Lundy notes that his newsroom plans to continue covering those hearings.
Both Spargo and Lundy emphasize that public defenders representing Cortney, Bradly, and Kimberly did not respond to requests for comment.
For now, all three are presumed innocent until proven guilty, even as the details in the affidavits are almost unbearable to read.
A Case That Redefines “Horrific”
When Prosecutor Johanna Carey called this case “evil personified,” as quoted by both Spargo and Lundy, it didn’t sound like courtroom theatrics.
It sounded like a simple description of what investigators say they found in the woods and in those text messages, interviews, and phone records.
At the center of it all is a 22-year-old woman who agreed to visit her biological mother and never came home, and a baby who, if the affidavits are correct, never even had the chance to take a breath.
However the trials play out, what’s left behind for the community – the volunteers who searched, the relatives who sat in that packed courtroom, and anyone who hears this story – is the sense that this is one of those crimes that pushes beyond the usual words.
Even “horrific” doesn’t quite cover it.
Mark grew up in the heart of Texas, where tornadoes and extreme weather were a part of life. His early experiences sparked a fascination with emergency preparedness and homesteading. A father of three, Mark is dedicated to teaching families how to be self-sufficient, with a focus on food storage, DIY projects, and energy independence. His writing empowers everyday people to take small steps toward greater self-reliance without feeling overwhelmed.
