Murder of Jersey Bridgeman

Jersey Dianne Bridgeman (November 14, 2006 – November 20, 2012) was a 6-year-old girl who was abducted from her Bentonville, Arkansas home in November, 2012, and later found murdered. Her case garnered considerable international media attention in the US and Europe, and spurred debates about child protection in part due to the prior convictions and lengthy sentences for the perpetrators of aggravated child abuse against her, involving a high-profile trial, and the especially heinous nature of that abuse and circumstances surrounding her subsequent abduction and murder. Jersey Bridgeman was born and grew up in the city of Bentonville, Arkansas, widely known as the seat of the American Walmart retail chain. Following her parents’ divorce, her father and stepmother, David and Jana Bridgeman, began to chain her to a dresser in an apparent bid to stop her from wandering at night and, per their statements, getting into medication. The case generated profound public concern and outrage, leading to their incarceration after both pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, permitting abuse, and endangering the welfare of a minor, with David and Jana Bridgeman sentenced to 18 and 12 years in prison, respectively. Jersey was then placed in her mother DesaRae's custody and was frequently tended to by a neighbor, Zachary Holly (born October 8, 1984), and his wife, who served as babysitters. They tended to Jersey and her younger sister on the night of November 19, 2012, helping her mother to place the girls in bed after she arrived home late from work. The next morning, DesaRae reported that Jersey was missing, calling on the Hollys for help. Later that day, her daughter was found in a vacant home in the same neighborhood; her body was naked, and she had been raped and suffocated, apparently strangled by her pajama bottoms. Holly was questioned in the wake of Jersey's abduction and noted to be cooperative, providing a DNA sample and his clothes from the day of Jersey's disappearance.