Jessica Edwards: 30-Year-Old Missing Connecticut Mother Found Dead In Woods; Husband Held
Jessica Edwards, a 30-year-old mother in Hartford, Connecticut was killed on Mother’s Day on May 9, 2021. Her body was found a week later in a wooded area. Her husband has been arrested.
Just after Mother’s Day, a day when moms should be getting the royal treatment, Jessica Edwards disappeared.
The 30-year-old mother who had just given birth seven months prior had seemingly vanished from her Hartford, Connecticut-area condominium.
Her family looked for her far and wide. Her husband posted desperate pleas on social media begging for his wife to be found safe.
“My heart is broken right now, shattered and my emotions all mixed up. Please please please, wherever you are come back safely,” Tahj Hutchinson, 22, wrote May 12 on Facebook two days after Edwards was reported missing.
But law enforcement says Hutchinson knew good and well where his wife was.
According to a 17-page affidavit detailing a police investigation into the case, Hutchinson had a physical altercation with Lewis, allegedly pinning her down with his knee until she was no longer breathing, according to the Hartford Courant.
Investigators had long grew suspicious of Hutchinson who they described as “unemotional” when reporting his wife’s disappearance.
Edwards’ family also had their doubts about his story: When her family arrived at her home to talk to Hutchinson about where to locate Edwards, court records indicate that he was seen loading something in his backseat and covering it with a blanket. Instead of taking to the family, he does off.
Hours later, he would show up at the Hartford Police Station to report his wife as missing. Curiously, he was barefoot.
With the help of the family, Detectives began to strengthen their case that Hutchinson had something to do with his wife’s disappearance.
They soon found out that Edwards had filled out divorce papers but had not filed them.
Police ultimately used phone records to place him in some deep woods the same night he said his wife vanished.
In those same woods, police found Edwards badly decomposed body.
“We narrowed in on a pretty good timeline for him leading up to her being reported missing,” Sgt. Mark Cleverdon told the CT Post. “This data put him in the area for a period of time. We were pretty confident when we found the location data that this was where we were going to find Jessica.”
Soon Hutchinson confessed to killing Edwards after a volatile Mother’s Day. He said after a day of arguing, their confrontations turned physical. At one point, she grabbed a knife and they fell on the floor wrestling for it.
Court documents reveal that he told police that he picked said he picked a "random GPS" and dragged Edwards' body into the woods, NBC Connecticut reports.
Hutchinson was arrested Friday night and charged with first-degree manslaughter. A murder charge may also be forthcoming, pending the final results of an autopsy.
Edwards’ family, who tirelessly searched for her based on information Hutchinson told them, had petitioned a judge to revoke the bail of the accused.
“TJ should be denied bail the same way he denied the truth when he said Jessica got into a car with someone he never saw before,” the family wrote in a statement to the court. “TJ should be denied bail the same way Jessica’s baby boy is now denied the chance to grow up with his beautiful mother.”
The judge in the case has increased the Hutchinson’s bond to $1 million.