Ky. Mom Who Texted 'I Am Very Scared' Has Vanished, and Professor Husband Is Charged with Murder

A Kentucky mother who was reported missing last fall is now presumed dead, and her husband has been arrested on charges of murder and evidence tampering.

A statement from the Richmond Police on Glenn Jackson’s Friday arrest confirms authorities have yet to locate Ella Diebolt Jackson, who is presumed dead.

The statement says police recently executed a search warrant at the couple’s home, including searches of Ella and Glenn’s vehicles. Authorities allege they uncovered “a significant amount” of Ella’s blood in the trunk of Glenn’s vehicle.

Ella, 48, was reported missing on October 22, 2019, by Glenn, 39.

Glenn allegedly told police he last saw his wife on October 20.

Glenn was charged Friday with murder-domestic violence and tampering with physical evidence, and remains in custody without bond.

The statement indicates the couple has a young son, who is 6.

According to the statement, investigators learned Ella had met with a “domestic violence advocate a few days before her disappearance.”

Detectives also allege they’ve found “several recordings that Mrs. Jackson secretly made of her and Mr. Jackson’s arguments.”

The statement adds: “Mrs. Jackson also told several individuals that she was afraid of Mr. Jackson, and if anything ever happened to her, her husband would be responsible.”

Glenn had been working as a senior lecturer in English at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond. He lost his position in February, according to the the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Ella’s ex-husband, Jason Hans, a professor of family sciences at the University of Kentucky, wrote on Facebook Friday he’d remained close friends with her after their divorce some 10 years ago.

He claims she began expressing concerns over her safety in 2015.

“The messages and rushed phone calls were all too regular in recent years: ‘I need your help,’ ‘I am very scared,’ ‘I am scared to the point of not being ok to get out of the bedroom to get a cup of milk or change my tampon,’ ‘I am being awakened at almost 3 in the morning and dragged through the house,’ ‘It is getting seriously scary I am very worried about my child and myself,'” Hans wrote.

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Hans wrote that Ella didn’t leave her husband because she didn’t want to leave their son with him. Hans also said Ella had met with a divorce attorney last fall.

“After years stuck in a cycle of violence, Ella had recently begun working in earnest with a lawyer on an exit plan,” Hans wrote, adding that he met her a year after his first wife was murdered. “Even as the emotional scars of our respective and all-too-recent histories continued to haunt us, Ella and I quickly developed a deep appreciation and love for one another. Although neither of us necessarily needed to be rescued, it’s difficult to characterize our experience together as anything less than a mutual rescue.”

Hans wrote that he had obtained guardianship of the couple’s son.

Glenn has yet to enter pleas to the charges against him, and information about his attorney was unavailable Monday.