MIDDLETOWN, Ohio (Court TV/Scripps News Cincinnati) — An Ohio woman has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder and dismemberment of her husband.
Bonnie Marie Vaughan, 59, was sentenced May 4 after pleading guilty to murder, tampering with evidence, and gross abuse of a corpse, according to a press release.
This Sept. 2022 booking photo provided by the Warren County Sheriff’s Office shows Bonnie Vaughan. (Warren County Sheriff’s Office)
Her guilty plea came nearly one month after a judge declared her competent for trial following a court-ordered forensic psychological evaluation.
Vaughan fatally shot her husband, 55-year-old Jeffrey Fellman, on Sept. 19, 2022. The next day, she enlisted the help of her daughter’s boyfriend, John Havens, to dismember the remains.
Police responded to Vaughan’s home after Havens reportedly walked into the Middletown Police Department and confessed to dismembering a body. Fellman’s remains were discovered in a trash can in the garage.
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Havens also pleaded guilty on Thursday to tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony, and gross abuse of a corpse, a fifth degree felony. He is set to be sentenced at a later date.
Both Vaughan and Havens have been in jail since their arrests. At their indictments last fall, Fornshell said the police’s investigation turned up evidence that Vaughan planned to kill her husband.
WCPO, an E.W. Scripps Company, contributed to this report.
