A Utah mom allegedly texted her dad saying she needed significant financial help days before she allegedly shot and killed her husband as he slept, according to reports.
“I need 13K by Friday,” Jennifer Gledhill texted her father on Sept. 18, ABC 4 reported, citing an unsealed search warrant and court documents.
Gledhill, 42, sent the message to her father, Thomas Ray Gledhill, three days before investigators believe she killed her husband, National Guardsman Matthew Johnson, in the master bedroom of their Cottonwood Heights home — about 15 miles outside of downtown Salt Lake City.
Thomas then allegedly sent her $1,000 through Venmo on the same day she requested the money, according to the court documents.
It’s unclear why Gledhill needed the money or what the funds were for.
Warrants were issued to search Gledhill, her father, and her mother, Rosalie Christianson Gledhill’s Venmo accounts, ABC 4 reported.
Investigators also obtained search warrants to review records of Gledhill’s USAA and Chase Bank accounts and “all accounts pertaining to Thomas Gledhill.”
Thomas, 71, and Rosalie, 67, were arrested in October — days after her daughter was charged with murder — on four felony counts of first-degree obstruction of justice for allegedly helping their daughter clean up the crime scene.
The couple allegedly helped Gledhill clean her home after investigators suspect she fatally shot her husband. Witnesses also placed the elderly couple at her house for over five hours around the time of the killing.
Court documents show that Gledhill received a new mattress soon after the suspected killing, and her mother allegedly admitted to investigators to buying it for her through Amazon, ABC 4 reported.
Thomas told investigators that he did not enter the master bedroom while at her home.
Rosalie also told authorities they were only at their daughter’s residence for an hour while Thomas said he didn’t remember the details of the day.
Following Johnson’s death, the mom of three allegedly disposed of his body and reported him missing on Sept. 28 — eight days after detectives believe he was killed.
Johnson’s body has still not been found.
The documents state that data from Gledhill’s cell phone record shows she only contacted her father after Johnson was reported missing, KUTV reported.
“Based on the evidence and statements made by Jennifer and Thomas, [an officer with the police department] determined Thomas is involved in assisting his daughter, Jennifer, with the disposal of evidence and information leading to the disappearance of Matthew Johnson,” the documents state.
Thomas and Rosalie have not been charged with Johnson’s murder.
The cold-blooded killing allegedly came after a night of drunken sex during which Gledhill admitted to sleeping with another man, according to investigators.
The alleged killing was brought to light after a man came forward and told cops he’d had “an extramarital affair” with Gledhill and that she confessed to him about the gruesome murder, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said in a statement in October.
Her alleged lover — who has not been named — claimed Gledhill told him her husband had confronted her on Sept. 20 and “yelled at her because he knew she had been sleeping with someone else.”
“The defendant told the informant that she shot Mr. Johnson [the next day] as he slept in their bed,” the statement said.
“She told the informant that she put Mr. Johnson’s body into a rooftop storage container, slid him down the stairs of their home, and loaded his body into the back of their minivan.”
Gledhill “then took her husband’s body north, dug a hole, and buried him in a shallow grave,” the DA added of her alleged lover’s info.
Prosecutors believe the alleged murderer then smashed Johnson’s phone, drove his truck to a different part of the neighborhood, and brought her car to a car wash.
She was caught on surveillance cameras “thoroughly” cleaning out the car after the alleged killing and police tracked her phone’s GPS data to the exact spot where the truck was later found.
Gledhill was arrested on Oct. 2 and pleaded not guilty to murder. Her trial has been set for December 2025.
Court records revealed the couple was going through a contentious divorce and custody battle over their three children, who are 11, 7, and 5 years old. Gledhill had gotten a temporary restraining order against Johnson in late August
She has been ordered to have no contact with her kids.
