Boy Tells School Counselor He Saw Father Kill Mother

Indiana man pleads guilty to murder
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 4, 2020 3:25 AM CDT
Cops: Boy, 8, Witnessed Mom's Brutal Murder
Judson Hoover.   (Floyd County Jail)

An Indiana man murdered his wife in front of one of their three young children and filed for divorce the next day, authorities say. Judson Keith Hoover, 50, was arrested after the child told a counselor at an elementary school that he had seen his father kill his mother in the basement of their home three weeks earlier, NBC reports. Police met Hoover when he arrived to pick up his children that day. He consented to a search of his residence in New Albany in southern Indiana, where blood splatter was found on the basement stairs. Surveillance footage showed Hoover moving a 55-gallon container from a storage unit in the city. Investigators later found the body of Rebecca Hoover, 38, in another storage unit across the river in Louisville, Kentucky.

Police believe Rebecca Hoover was murdered on Aug. 2. Judson Hoover filed for divorce the next day and was granted custody of the children, according to court records. Rebecca Hoover's mother reported her missing on Aug. 4. Hoover pleaded guilty to the murder Thursday. WLKY reports that he pleaded guilty partly because he didn't want his 8-year-son to have to testify. Authorities say the boy told the counselor that he had seen his father stomp on his mother's head and punch her with a set of keys in his hand. New Albany Police Chief Todd Bailey said investigators "put everything into high gear" after hearing about what the boy had told the counselor. "That took a lot of courage," he said, per the Louisville Courier-Journal. (More murder stories.)

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