21-year-old Bethany Decker disappeared on January 29th, 2011. While charges have been laid, one question still remains – where is Bethany?
Bethany Anne Littlejohn was born on May 13th, 1989, in Fredericksburg, Virginia. She was a bright student, and had aspirations for a thriving career. In order to achieve this, she enrolled in George Mason University, in Fairfax, while working full-time as a waitress.
While in school, Bethany met fellow classmate, and Army National Guardsman, Emile Decker. The couple soon got engaged, and sped up the marriage plans upon discovering that Bethany was pregnant. In 2009, Bethany and Emile married, and welcomed the birth of their son.
However, it wasn’t all sunshine and daisies for the couple. Emile was often away for training, and was deployed for months at a time to Afghanistan. While her husband was away, Bethany enlisted the help of her in-laws, who lived in Columbia, Maryland, to care for her son while she attended school, and worked at an Italian restaurant in Centreville.
While working at the restaurant, Bethany met an older man, Ronald Roldan. Bethany’s marriage was strained, and she found Roldan charming. It wasn’t long before the two became intimate, and began having a relationship.
In 2010, Bethany moved out of her marital home, and into her own apartment in Ashburn, Virginia. While it’s unclear whether or not Roldan had actually moved in with Bethany, it seemed that he spent a lot of time in the Ashburn apartment. He had a hold on Bethany, and he didn’t want to let go.
Bethany confided in her family that she found Roldan to be controlling, obsessive, possessive, and mentally, emotionally, and physically abusive. Long gone were the days of charm and affection.
He would demand that Bethany send him photos of her wherever she was, to show him whom she was with. He also once followed her when she went to visit her parents. Roldan parked outside of the house, and watched Bethany’s movements from inside.
Bethany also disclosed to her family of an incident wherein he threw her across the room into a wall. Another incident that Bethany spoke of detailed a time where, during a fight, Roldan threatened to but Bethany open with her car keys.
Bethany’s parents were troubled, and began formulating a plan to get Bethany out of her abusive relationship. However, this plan was made all the more complicated when Bethany discovered at the end of 2010 that she was pregnant.
It seemed that Bethany may have wanted to work through the difficulties in her marriage. When Emile returned on leave in January of 2011, the couple took a trip to Hawaii. This may have been both an attempt to work on her marriage, and to escape Roldan.
When they returned on January 28th, 2011, Bethany and Emile spent the night in Maryland with Emile’s parents. The following morning, January 29th, 2011, Emile stated that Bethany had received text messages on her phone, and became distraught. She left to return to her Ashburn apartment, and promised to see Emile off at the airport when he was due to return to Afghanistan.
Later that afternoon, Bethany placed a call to her employer, asking about her work schedule while at the apartment with Roldan. She left soon after, with Roldan assuming she’d left for work. Bethany was never seen again.
On February 2nd, 2011, Emile hoped to see Bethany at the airport. She wasn’t there. Emile assumed that their trip to Hawaii had been a bust, and their marriage was truly over.
Friends and family tried to keep in touch with Bethany as best they could, but it wasn’t all that unusual for them not to hear from her for days, sometimes weeks, at a time. She was raising a toddler, with help, attending classes at George Mason University, and worked a full-time job – all while pregnant, and trying to leave an abusive relationship and save her marriage. Bethany had a lot on her plate.
As February went on, Bethany’s friends grew more and more concerned. They contacted her mother, Kim Nelson, and asked about where Bethany might be. Some of her friends had received strange Facebook messages from her, and they were concerned.
The exact content of those messages remains unknown, but those who received them continue to be adamant that the messages absolutely did not come from Bethany. They didn’t read like she’d written them, as they were written very poorly, and did not match her style at all.
One friend went so far as to pose trick questions to “Bethany”, hoping the person posing as her would be caught out. Those messages went unanswered; the imposter refused to take the bait.
Kim grew more and more frantic. By February 19th, 2011, she asked her parents, Bethany’s grandparents, to go check on her. They lived near Ashburn, and could get to Bethany quick if she was in trouble.
Bethany’s grandparents noted that Bethany’s vehicle was outside of her apartment, but it was parked at a strange angle. They also noticed that one of the tires was flat, and the vehicle was incredibly dusty. The last time they’d driven by Bethany’s apartment, a week earlier, her car had not been in that condition.
Concerned, they knocked on her door, hoping to hear from someone – anyone – who may know where Bethany was. No answer came. Bethany’s grandparents called the Loudoun County police department, and filed a missing person’s report.
Police discovered that Bethany had not used her bank accounts, cards, or her phone since January 29th. The last anyone was said to have heard from her was when she called her boss at the restaurant, asking after he work schedule. She hadn’t turned up for work, nor had she attended any of her classes.
Police also discovered the “love triangle” that Bethany was in, and soon focused on both her husband, and her boyfriend.
Through the Criminal Investigation Command division of the Army, police got in touch with Emile while he was on deployment, and asked him about the last time he’d seen Bethany. Emile was later able to return to the United States for a formal interview, where he took a polygraph test.
When police looked for Roldan, they found that he’d moved out of the Ashburn apartment shortly after Bethany disappeared, as the lease had expired. He returned to his mother’s home, in Centreville. When police asked about the last time he’d seen Bethany, he told them that he assumed she’d returned to live with her family.
This struck police as odd. They’d heard about his controlling behaviour, and the time he’d stalked Bethany all the way to her parents’ home. It seemed to them extremely unlikely that an abusive, possessive man like Roldan would simply leave Bethany alone when past actions had shown otherwise.
Police became more and more suspicious of Roldan the more they looked into him. They soon discovered that he had an extensive criminal record. He’d been arrested on one occasion for identity theft, and had convictions for public intoxication. However, a drunken fool does not a murderer make.
But in incident in 2006 caught their attention. Roldan had been arrested for destruction of property. He’d smashed open a woman’s car window. This, paired with Roldan’s inconsistent statements regarding Bethany’s vehicle, and his reasons for vacating the apartment raised a few red flags.
In March of 2011, police conducted a search of a field near Bethany’s apartment. They also served Roldan with a search warrant for his current residence. Investigators seized cell phones, a laptop, and some documents for further examination. However, no evidence presented itself from the search.
Feeling the heat, Roldan stopped cooperating with police, and stated that he would no longer speak to them without a lawyer present. Police had little choice but to let the matter go. However, they did describe Ronald Roldan as a person of interest in the disappearance of Bethany Decker.
Knowing that Bethany was pregnant, police circulated photos of her around hospitals around the time of her due date, hoping she may have come in to give birth. It has never been established whether or not Bethany gave birth to her child.
A year after Bethany’s disappearance, Roldan made a statement through his attorney saying that he had ‘complete confidence’ police were working hard on the case, he had fully cooperated, and that he hoped Bethany would come home.
Three years after Bethany’s disappearance, Kim Nelson challenged Roldan to do as the rest of Bethany’s friends and family had, and partake in a polygraph test. Through his attorney, Roldan responded that he had fully cooperated, and he was innocent.
Roldan’s reluctance to do everything in his power to fully clear his name of suspicion frustrated Bethany’s friends, family, and police alike.
In 2014, Roldan began a relationship with Vickey Willoughby. Vickey soon found Roldan to be controlling, possessive, obsessive, and abusive. She moved from Manassas, Virginia to Pinehurst, North Carolina in order to get away.
A few months later, Roldan found her. During an argument in November of 2014, Vickey grabbed a gun that she’d hidden in her living room to protect herself. She managed to shoot Roldan, but he continued to fight her. He eventually got hold of the gun, and shot Vickey three times.
Vickey and Roldan both survived the altercation. Roldan had shot Vickey in the head, resulting in the loss of one of her eyes. Police did not charge Vickey for the attack, as she was defending herself.
Ronald Roldan was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, assault on a female, and discharging a weapon in an occupied dwelling. He was held in prison on a $1 million bond.
When Loudoun County police heard about Roldan’s arrest, they paid him a visit, wondering if he’d changed his tune. Once again, when asked about Bethany’s disappearance, he referred police to his attorney.
In 2015, an additional charge of attempted murder was added to Roldan’s list of charges for the attack on Vickey. He stated through his attorney that he intended to plead not guilty.
In May of 2016, Roldan accepted a plea bargain for two felony assault charges. He was sentenced to six to eight years in prison. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency began planning Roldan’s deportation to his home country of Bolivia upon completion of his sentence. However, they would be somewhat thwarted.
On November 9th, 2020, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office arrested Ronald Roldan for the abduction of Bethany Decker. Roldan was transferred to the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center, where he was held without bond. (As far as research can tell, that is where he is still being held.)
The arrest warrant came about as the result of a probably cause statement filed by the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office. The statement hinged on the conflicting statements given to police by Roldan in the early days of the investigation.
Roldan told police that he had not seen Bethany after she’d left for work on January 29th, 2011. He also told police that he could not recall what she was wearing. Which is odd for a man who demanded photos from Bethany multiple times a day.
Roldan stated that he’d left the apartment to use an ATM machine, but returned shortly after when his ex-girlfriend texted him, asking him to mind their children. The ex-girlfriend dropped the children off at around 4:30 PM on January 29th, 2011, but did not see Bethany at the apartment.
When she picked up her children a few days later, she asked about Bethany’s whereabouts. Roldan told her that Bethany hadn’t returned. When she asked him about Bethany’s car being outside, Roldan couldn’t come up with an answer.
A separate search warrant also provided police with records from Facebook. Those records indicated that Bethany’s Facebook account was accessed from the same IP address as Roldan’s, starting from February 16th, 2011. It was around this time that Bethany’s friends and family began receiving strange messages from Bethany’s Facebook account. The records also indicated that both Facebook accounts were consistently accessed from this IP for several days.
Currently no details of the case have been disclosed as public record. Despite the fact that Bethany has never been found, a grand jury indicted Ronald Roldan of second-degree murder on December 14th, 2020.
Ronald Roldan may in custody in connection to Bethany’s disappearance, but this still does not answer one key question:
Where is Bethany Decker?
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Sources:
New details emerge in 2011 disappearance of Va. woman Bethany Decker; boyfriend arraigned – Neal Augenstein – wtpo News
Pregnant Va. Woman Vanished 9 Years Ago and Hasn’t Been Found – But Boyfriend Charged with Murder – Chris Harris – People
The Disappearance of Bethany Decker – True Case Files
The Trail Went Cold podcast – Episode 189 – Bethany Decker
Disappearance of Bethany Decker Wikipedia page