Dateline on NBC is a show that really doesn’t need an introduction. Since its first show in 1992, it has been a mainstay of the newsmagazine genre. It has a large archive of in-depth investigative journalism that covers both real-life mysteries and criminal cases. More importantly, though, it looks at new topics with the same determination every week, which keeps people coming back for more. So, of course, its most recent episode, “Secrets by the Bay,” which is about the murder and disappearance of Elizabeth Sullivan in 2014, is the same. Now, if you want to know more about what happened, we’ve got you covered.
How Did Elizabeth Sullivan Die?
Elizabeth Ricks Sullivan seemed to have a good life with her husband, Matthew Scott Sullivan, and their two daughters in the Point Loma neighbourhood of San Diego, California. She was 32 years old. But as time went on, it became clear that the truth was very different. On the night of October 13, 2014, Elizabeth called a friend in Virginia, her home state, and then abruptly hung up. She was never seen or heard from again. One of her other friends tried to get in touch with her the next day, but was unable to do so. But the investigations that followed at first turned up nothing.
In the months that followed, Elizabeth’s husband, Matthew, said that he thought his wife had left their Navy housing at Liberty Station on her own free will and left the family. He kept saying that all he wanted to know was if she was okay, even if that meant she had started a new life, but this didn’t get him anywhere either. Then, on October 4, 2016, almost two years after she disappeared from her home, Elizabeth’s dead body was found in the San Diego Bay. Her autopsy showed that she had been killed by being hit and stabbed in 2014. She had broken bones in her face and had been stabbed at least five times.
Who Killed Elizabeth Sullivan?
When Elizabeth Ricks Sullivan went missing, the police found out that her marriage wasn’t as perfect as it seemed. Not only did Matthew start getting long overseas assignments, but the relationship between him and his wife had also gotten so bad that they were sleeping on different floors of their townhouse. Elizabeth even joined Tinder, an online dating site, and started a new relationship, but she didn’t say she was married and had two kids. Matthew was upset about this, which is understandable, but there is also something to be said about the claims that he hurt his wife.
Also, Elizabeth met with a divorce lawyer on October 13, 2014, and she didn’t leave until she had set up another appointment for the next morning. She didn’t show up, though. Then, since she didn’t get along with her in-laws either, she planned to get a restraining order to keep them out of their three-story townhome as well. Aside from this, the first sign that Matthew was involved in his wife’s disappearance was that he bought a high-pressure carpet cleaner at Home Depot on the day she was reported missing.
When asked about it, Matthew said that Elizabeth had a habit of cutting herself on the surface to feel better. He said that he had found her in the past cutting her arm with a piece of broken mirror glass, sleeping in a park near their house, and taking drugs. When Elizabeth’s body and cause of death were found, detectives went back to their house and searched it even more thoroughly. They found her blood on an old rug and on a knife that was hidden in the attic. Still, Matthew explained it the same way.
Even so, the timing of it was also strange. On the day Elizabeth’s remains were found, professional movers were helping Matthew, who had just gotten out of the Navy and had a new baby with his girlfriend, pack and move to the East Coast. Investigators later found out that he had kept his wife in a small home freezer for two years and then dumped her into the bay as a last attempt to hide what he had done. Matthew was charged and arrested for Elizabeth’s murder on January 31, 2018, at his new home in Wyoming, Delaware. There was a lot of evidence against him.
Matthew has been a suspect since 2016, when a sharp knife was found in the attic. In early 2018, he was sent to California because the knife was found to be the murder weapon. It was also covered in his DNA. When he went on trial for the same crime in February 2020, the prosecutors said that he brutally killed his wife in their home while their two children were in the next room because he found out that Elizabeth was having an affair and planning to leave him for good. There was also the possibility that she would take their kids and the money in the account they shared.
Matthew’s defence relied heavily on statements from witnesses and the claims above about Elizabeth’s “strange” behaviour. In March of the same year, after about a day and a half of deliberation, a San Diego Superior Court jury found him guilty of one count of second-degree murder in connection with his wife’s disappearance and death. Matthew Scott Sullivan got the right sentence a year later.
