A Missouri woman has received a dual life sentence for her role in the murder of a pregnant woman from Arkansas and for her disturbing actions that followed, including the attempt to misrepresent the deceased woman’s fetus as her own stillborn child.

Amber Waterman, a 44-year-old resident of Pineville, Missouri, was sentenced on Tuesday, with the ruling indicating that she will not be eligible for parole. She had entered a guilty plea earlier in July to charges of kidnapping that resulted in death and the unlawful termination of a pregnancy.

In her plea agreement, Waterman confessed to using a fictitious name to engage with Ashley Bush, a 33-year-old pregnant woman from Siloam Springs, Arkansas, via Facebook. At the time of their interaction, Bush was around 31 weeks into her pregnancy.

According to federal prosecutors, Waterman arranged to meet Bush at a local convenience store in Arkansas on October 31, 2022, under the pretense of assisting her in finding employment. However, instead of helping her, Waterman drove Bush to her residence in Pineville.

Shortly thereafter, emergency services were alerted to a report of an unresponsive infant at a store in Pineville, where the baby was later declared dead. Initially, Waterman claimed she had delivered the child in a truck while trying to get to the hospital, but she eventually admitted that the baby belonged to Bush.

An autopsy revealed that Bush died from penetrating trauma to the torso, while her unborn child, Valkyrie Willis, tragically passed away in utero, as confirmed by the prosecution.

Additionally, Waterman’s husband, Jamie Waterman, also 44, pleaded guilty on the same day to a charge of being an accessory after the fact in the kidnapping that led to the death. He was implicated in actions such as helping to cover up the crime, which included wrapping Bush’s body in a tarp, incinerating it, and relocating the remains to a different site.