Judge Albert Harutunian lll has sentenced the former navy sailor 16 years to life in prison for murdering his wife in 2014.
What We Know:
- The accused, Matthew Sullivan, has been found guilty for murdering his wife, hiding her body in a freezer, and then dumping it in San Diego Bay before skipping town. Sullivan was in navy service for eight years and was honorably discharged in 2016. Sullivan never reported his wife missing, but a friend noticed her disappearance. Nathan Caracter reported Elizabeth Sullivan missing in October 2014.
- Elizabeth’s last known sighting was near an airport in 2014, one week after being reported missing. In a statement to People magazine, Matthew expressed that he wanted his children to see their mother again. Elizabeth’s body was finally discovered two years later in San Diego bay. Matthew murdered his wife because she allegedly had an affair, planned to leave him and take their two children with her.
- According to police records, Matthew placed a call to 911 on the same day Elizabeth had vanished. He called authorities to make claims that his wife was going to frame him and have him arrested. The couple had previously called 911 several times in the past over domestic violence accusations. In 2018, investigators obtained a homicide warrant for Matthew’s arrest, and he was arrested at his new home in Delaware.
- After his arrest in 2018, Sullivan was extradited to San Diego to begin court proceedings. The Jurors in court discussed the case for about a day and a half before reaching a verdict. Sullivan was cleared of first-degree murder but was still charged with second-degree murder.
- “The jury verdict and the evidence at trial made it clear that Matthew Sullivan brutally murdered his wife, methodically cleaned up the messy murder site, and then hid the body for years,” Judge Albert Harutunian explained. “He almost got away with it, but his final attempt to hide the body at the bottom of the bay failed.”
It appears as though Elizabeth’s friends and family may finally receive justice for the person they cared about and whose life was brutally discarded and taken from them.
