The woman accused of firing the fatal bullet that killed Indian Head ranch victim Jacob Millison was his own cancer-ridden, 70 lb, 68-year-old mother, DailyMail.com has learned.
And the seriously ill, 5ft tall woman claims she dragged her son’s body through the house and dumped it in a pile of manure, she told police.
‘I had come-alongs on him and I got him outside and I put him in a bucket and I took it over and I moved a bunch of manure and I put him in the manure pile,’ Deborah Rudibaugh said, according to court papers obtained by DailyMail.com.
She hid the body, because she knew ‘I’d go to jail for the rest of my life and I wanted at least some time to live.’ She said she had less than five years to live.
But investigators believe her daughter Stephanie Jackson, 33, helped in the murder as Rudibaugh would not have been strong enough to move the body.
Jacob Millison, 29, was shot and killed while he slept at the family ranch in Parlin, Colorado in 2015
Millison’s mother, Deborah Rudibaugh, 68, who was arrested on Friday, confessed to police that she killed her own son, dragged his body through the house, and then dumped it in a pile of manure. She said she planned to leave a note in a lock box explaining how she had killed her son, so it could be discovered after her death
Rudibaugh’s daughter, Stephanie Jackson, 33, was also arrested because police believe she helped in the murder because her mother would not have been strong enough to move the body. Jackson’s husband David (right) 34, has been charged with being an accessory to murder
The alleged murder has come to light nearly three years after Millison, 29, went missing from his home in tiny Parlin, Colorado. His family did not report him missing for months. But friends told cops they thought he had been killed, leading to an investigation that has lasted nearly three years and consumed hundreds of police manhours.
Now Millison mother, sister and brother-in-law have all been charged in connection with his death.
More than two years after the shooting, Rudibaugh finally confessed to shooting her son in the top of his head as he slept at the family ranch — which contains the locally famous Indian Head Rock, a natural formation that resembles the head of a native American — early in the morning of May 16, 2015.
She says she had suffered years of abuse at his hands, but police believe fights about who would inherit the 700-acre ranch worth millions of dollars were behind the killing.
In her interviews with police, Rudibaugh claimed she had thrown the murder weapon, a .357 Ladysmith revolver into the Blue Mesa Reservoir — but police actually found it in her bedroom.
Rudibaugh and daughter Jackson are both charged with first degree murder in the case that has rocked remote Gunnison County, high up in the Rockies, a four-hour drive southwest of Denver.
Jackson’s husband, David, 34, has been charged with being an accessory to murder and was due to make his first appearance in court on Wednesday afternoon. All three face additional charges of tampering with a body, concealing death, and abusing a corpse.
They are being held in Gunnison County Jail. Rudibaugh is held without bond, her daughter on $500,000 bond and her son-in-law on $100,000 bond.
Rudibaugh claimed she suffered years of abuse at the hands of her son but police believe fights about who would inherit the 700-acre ranch worth millions of dollars were behind the killing
Rudibaugh inherited the ranch when her second husband Rudy Rudibaugh died in 2009. In her will she planned to leave the ranch to her son and stepson Shane Rudibaugh after her daughter and son-in-law moved away to live in Denver
Rudibaugh and daughter Jackson are both charged with first degree murder in the case that has rocked remote Gunnison County, high up in the Rockies, a four-hour drive southwest of Denver
Stephanie Jackson was arrested on Wednesday last week, her mother on Friday as she drove to Grand Junction, Colorado, and David Jackson on Tuesday. Gunnison County Sheriff Rick Besecker told DailyMail.com they had arrested them separately in a strategic move.
He said the case has taken so long to come to court because of problems identifying the body they discovered buried seven feet deep beneath a corral close to the ranch house.
The reason was that Millison had apparently never been to a dentist in his entire life and so they could not check dental records, Besecker revealed exclusively to DailyMail.com. Police checked not only throughout Colorado but also in New Mexico where his father Ray Millison now lives.
‘It was months before we could get a positive identification,’ Besecker said. ‘We did not anticipate that.’
Rudibaugh inherited the ranch when her second husband Rudy Rudibaugh died in 2009. In her will she planned to leave the ranch to her son and stepson Shane Rudibaugh as the Jacksons had moved away to live in Denver and her husband had given them $30,000 to buy a house. She later amended the will to include Stephanie.
But when Millison told her he wanted to go on a trip to California and Nevada to pursue his martial arts she snapped. She also got angry because he borrowed her books — including How to Disappear Without Trace, The Anarchist’s Cookbook and How to Build Bombs. She did not explain why she owned those books.
Gunnison County Sheriff said the case had taken so long to come to court because of problems identifying Millison’s body body they discovered buried seven feet deep beneath a corral close to the ranch house. He is pictured above
Millison’s friend Max Matheny (left) told DailyMail.com that it is ‘completely absurd’ to suggest that Millison (pictured center) took drugs or was violent
The mother admitted to shooting her son at the family ranch — which contains the locally famous Indian Head Rock, a natural formation that resembles the head of a native American — early in the morning of May 16, 2015
When he disappeared, Rudibaugh initially told police her son used cocaine and magic mushrooms and grew marijuana before it was legal in Colorado. ‘I figure he got in over his head with something and is either in witness protection or in hiding or dead.’
She said Millison demanded a ‘princess-like relationship’ with her. ‘In other words, Mom’s supposed to do all the work and do all the laundry and do all this and he’s supposed to do whatever he dang well pleases — and I wasn’t good with that kind of relationship.
‘I wanted him to grow up,’ she said.
But her stories kept changing. In her second interview she claimed her son had a temper and she had ‘holes in the walls’ to prove it, but she added: ‘We never got physical. The most he ever did was throw things.’
But in a third interview she claimed her son had sat on her chest with his arm and fingers round her throat threatening to kill her. It got so bad, she said, that she had weapons under her mattress.
‘I wrote up the will different and then he found the will and then he hit me and held me under water in the irrigation ditch and then he told me I was going to change the will and he was going to get everything and then he didn’t come home for a couple of days…and I thought, yeah, I hope he never, never comes back.’
She later told police she hoped they didn’t find the body because then she would have to pay to have it cremated.
When she finally admitted to shooting him as he slept at 2am, she added: ‘But if I shot him in self-defense while he was asleep because I was afraid what would happen when he woke up again, that’s not self-defense.’
She said her son had changed when he started doing mixed martial arts. He ‘was becoming extremely aggressive towards me. He wanted the ranch. He wanted the ranch himself, only his ranch.
County Sheriff Rick Besecker told DailyMail.com that the case took so long to come to court because of problems identifying the body since Millison did not have dental records
‘He did not want to share anything with anybody else, not with Shane, not with Stephanie. He hated Stephanie. Sibling rivalry had gone beyond everything. He went berserk and there’s a hole in the wall where he put his fist through it.’
Two days before she killed him, Rudibaugh claimed her son had again sat on her until she passed out. ‘And then I woke up, he was sitting there with a club, a stick, a piece of wood. It was for the fire. He said that nobody would ever miss me.’
After she put the body in the manure, Rudibaugh, who worked at an assisted living facility, claimed she washed it with bleach and burned his mattress and blankets.
She said she planned to leave a note in a lock box explaining how she had killed her son, so it could be discovered after her death.
Police found evidence of friction in the family. In 2013 Millison took out a restraining order against David Jackson after a fight about where he had dumped a pile of snow. ‘He threatened to kill me,’ Millison said at the time.
Police found evidence of friction in the family, particularly between Millison and his sister Stephanie (pictured) who claimed her younger brother was ‘trying to ruin my life’
The following year Stephanie Jackson posted online a short essay entitled ‘My younger brother is trying to ruin my life.’
In it, she wrote: ‘My younger brother and I have never really gotten along. We fought like crazy people as children and have kept our distance from each other in adulthood.’ She said that for two years they all lived at the ranch and she and her brother ‘never spoke.’
‘Every now and then he would mess with one of my vehicles or do something to intentionally make my husband angry.’
And then in 2015 she sent an instant message to a friend saying her brother had threatened to burn her possessions.
And two days after her brother was killed, Jackson posted on Facebook: ‘Big things are happening for the Jackson family this year.’ When a friend asked her if she was expecting a second child, she replied: I’m going to go ahead and sau ,uch better things than being pregnant.’
The following day she posted: Have you ever been woken up with such awesome news you wanted to run out screaming.’ her closest friend Sheane Sparks replied: No more jake??? Only news wirth (sic) screaming.’
Millison’s friend Max Matheny told DailyMail.com that it is ‘completely absurd’ to suggest that he took drugs or was violent. ‘He looked after himself. He would go to the gym regularly and then come round to my house and hang out.
‘He did not have a temper,’ added Matheny, 28. ‘The Jake I knew was very calm and collected, a very nice guy. He was not a violent person at all and never was.’
Matheny was one of a group of friends who got concerned when Millison went missing. ‘He suddenly wasn’t showing up any more. For the first few days it wasn’t a huge concern but then it started to become pretty out of the ordinary and we thought maybe something was up.’
‘He had told me that if anything ever happened to him it would be his family that did it. It was a bit of a joke but there was definitely something behind it. I know he wasn’t fond of any of them.’
Eventually the friends went to the police to report their suspicions. Matheny said initially local cops did not appear to take the case too seriously and believes it has taken too long for arrests to be made.
‘I realize nothing can bring Jake back, but I certainly hope justice is done,’ he said.