The indictment alleges that Amber Waterman kidnapped Ashley Bush between Oct. 31 and Nov. 2, 2022 in order to claim her unborn child as her own.
A Missouri woman indicted in the kidnapping and murder of a pregnant Arkansas woman faces a new charge for causing the unborn child's death.
A three-count superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury includes a new count that alleges Amber Waterman caused the death of a child in utero.
The indictment alleges that Waterman kidnapped Ashley Bush between Oct. 31 and Nov. 2, 2022 in order to claim her unborn child as her own.
That kidnapping, and the transportation of Bush from Arkansas to Missouri, resulted in her death, prosecutors allege.
McDonald County Sheriff Robert Everson said that paramedics intercepted Waterman as she and her husband were driving to a local hospital with Bush's child. Waterman claimed she had prematurely given birth, and even had the child's placenta in her pants.
Paramedics were unable to revive the baby, which Waterman claimed to be her own according to the sheriff.
Jamie Waterman is also charged with one count of being an accessory after the fact to kidnapping resulting in death.
The two both enter not guilty pleas to the charges presented in the initial indictment.
The indictment alleges that he assisted his wife "in order to hinder and prevent her apprehension, trial, and punishment, knowing she had committed the offense of kidnapping resulting in death."
Bush's burned body was discovered in Missouri just a few days after the kidnapping, a family member told Inside Edition Digital in an interview last year.
AMBER WATERMAN SUPERSEDING INDICTIMENT
Cousin Lainey Blackburn said that her family was devastated by the loss of Bush and the unborn baby she had named Valkyrie Grace Willis.
"The best way I know how to describe it is, it's like a nightmare you can't wake up from," Blackburn said at the time.
Bush was 31 weeks pregnant and had been diagnosed with gestational hypertension, her cousin said. She was trying to find a job she could perform at home, because she was the main earner in the home she shared with her fiancé, who is in ill health and unable to work.
"She went online to find a work-from-home job. She was going to do whatever she had to do to find a job," Blackburn said.
Online, Bush met "Lucy," who offered to help her find a job, according to prosecutors.
"Lucy" traveled to Arkansas to meet Bush in a public library, and a few days later, she had another meeting with Bush, this time under the guise of taking Ashley to an interview with her employer, prosecutors say.
The complaint claims that unbeknownst to Bush, "Lucy" was Waterman. The mom-of-three's body was discovered just a few days later.
