Matthew Sullivan, 35, was found guilty of second-degree murder for stabbing his wife, 32-year-old Elizabeth Sullivan, to death
A jury has found a former U.S. Navy service member guilty of murdering his wife after her body was found in San Diego Bay in 2016.
Matthew Sullivan, 35, was found guilty of second-degree murder for stabbing his wife, 32-year-old Elizabeth Sullivan, to death.
Her body was found two years after she disappeared in October 2014.
She vanished just half a mile from the home the couple shared with their two young daughters.
The trial revealed possible motives for Sullivan’s murder including allegations of an extra-marital affair that his wife had just a month before her disappearance.
‘He had lots of motives, he had the means, he had the opportunity,’ Deputy Defense Attorney Jill Lindberg said. ‘The crime scene was in her bedroom. The murder weapon was in the attic over his bedroom.’
31-year-old Elizabeth Ricks Sullivan (pictured left and right), was a Navy wife and mother who went missing in October 2014. Her body was pulled from the San Diego Bay in October 2016
The couple are pictures here with one of their daughters while Elizabeth was pregnant with their second
Lindberg showed how Matthew Sullivan stab his wife at least five times in her torso with injuries that left a pool of blood on the floor of her third-floor bedroom according to NBC San Diego.
Sullivan’s defense attorney Marcus Dubose portrayed his client as a man ‘attempting to hold on to a wife that was pulling away, turning towards a self-destructive lifestyle.’
He argued that blood found in the bedroom was from a self-inflicted wound made by Elizabeth Sullivan while the couple was having a ‘tumultuous time’ in their personal lives.
Police reports seen by NBC detail how the couple had a marriage with a history of domestic violence.
The couple had been arguing over custody of their two young daughters and child support.
Sullivan’s body was found floating in the San Diego Bay (detectives pictured at the scene) two years after she had been reported missing
Sullivan, the wife of a U.S. Navy servicemen Matthew Sullivan and a mother of two young girls, was last seen near her Point Loma home on the night of October 13, 2014 near Liberty Station
She was reported missing four days after her disappearance by her husband. Sullivan pictured above while pregnant with one of her daughters
Sullivan, the wife of a U.S. Navy servicemen Matthew Sullivan was last seen near her Point Loma home on the night of October 13, 2014 near Liberty Station in San Diego.
The last contact friends or family reportedly had from her was a text message that she had sent that day.
She was reported missing four days later on October 17, 2014 by her husband and her car was found at her home, police said.
Two days later, she was reportedly spotted near the soccer fields at Liberty Station, according to NBC 7.
Police confirmed a second sighting of her near the San Diego International Airport and Midway area on October 21, 2014.
As detectives searched for Sullivan, her husband spoke to People magazine in November 2014 and noted the couple were having marital troubles at the time.
He said he was letting his wife have her space but said she had never been gone longer than overnight.
In October 2016, authorities confirmed they had pulled a woman’s body from the water near Liberty Station NTC Park
The badly decomposed body was found by a passerby in a channel near the shoreline
‘The girls need their mom,’ Matthew told People at the time.
‘She’s never been gone this long. She’s been with them their whole lives, while I was at work or on deployment… she was always there.’
That same month, her father Edward Ricks pleaded for information about his missing daughter and begged for her safe return.
Her relatives enlisted the help of a private detective, set up social media pages and a Gofundme page dedicated to search efforts and distributed missing person fliers during the time of her disappearance.
The case eventually went cold after months of searching and no leads.
It wasn’t until almost two years later when Matthew Sullivan was moving to the East Coast, on October 6, 2016, when authorities confirmed they pulled a woman’s body from the water near Liberty Station NTC Park.
The badly decomposed body was found by a passerby in a channel near the shoreline.
It took another week before San Diego police could identify her body, and another year-and-a-half until they were able to link Matthew Sullivan to her death.
The District Attorney’s Office believes Elizabeth’ body had been hidden somewhere before it was then dumped in the bay.
Sullivan was finally taken into custody on January 31, 2018 and extradited to San Diego where he remained after being charged with murder
Video courtesy of CBS San Diego