Bethany Anne Decker

Decker, circa 2011; Decker's tattoo; Ronald Roldan

  • Missing Since 01/29/2011
  • Missing From Loudoun County, Virginia
  • Classification Endangered Missing
  • Sex Female
  • Race White
  • Date of Birth 05/13/1989 (34)
  • Age 21 years old
  • Height and Weight 5'0, 130 pounds
  • Medical Conditions Decker was about four to five months pregnant at the time of her disappearance; her due date was August 7, 2011.
  • Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Decker has a small tattoo on her left ankle. A photo of the tattoo is posted with this case summary. Decker's ears are pierced. Her maiden name is Littlejohn.

Details of Disappearance

Decker was last seen in Loudoun County, Virginia on January 29, 2011. She lived in an apartment on Orchard Grass Terrace in Ashburn, Virginia.

Her husband was on leave from military duty in Afghanistan that month. They had been married about eighteen months and had a one-year-old son, who lived with Decker's parents. The couple took a vacation in Hawaii just before Decker's disappearance and returned to Virginia on January 28.

Decker's husband returned to Afghanistan on February 4. She wasn't at the airport to see him off, which is uncharacteristic of her, but she and her husband had been having marital problems and her loved ones thought perhaps this was why she didn't say goodbye to him.

Her family reported her missing on February 19, after their numerous attempts to contact her were unsuccessful and they realized someone was impersonating her on her Facebook account. By then she'd been missing for approximately three weeks. Decker's car was found parked in her garage after her disappearance. There hasn't been any activity on her bank accounts, email or cellular phone since she went missing.

She hasn't gone to work at the Carrabba's Italian Grill in Centreville, Virginia or attended classes at George Mason University, where she was a senior majoring in global and economic change. She also left behind her passport and identification. After her disappearance, someone posing as her used her Facebook account to send messages to her friends.

Decker was dating Ronald Roldan at the time of her disappearance. They had been living together for two months and he was the last person to see her, and he was the father of her unborn child. Decker's family said she'd told them he was controlling and abusive, and that he'd threatened to "cut her open."

In March 2015, Roldan was charged with the attempted murder of another girlfriend; he brutally beat her and shot her three times, and she broke her neck and lost an eye. In 2016, he pleaded guilty to reduced felony charges of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and assault inflicting serious bodily injury in that case, and was sentenced to six to eight years in prison. He was expected to be deported to his native Bolivia after his release in November 2020.

Late that month, only the day before Roldan's projected release date, authorities announced they were charging him with abduction in Decker's case. A photo of Roldan is posted with this case summary. In December, Roldan was additionally charged with second-degree murder in her case.

In February 2023, Rolan pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and admitted to causing Decker's death. He said they got into an argument, he pushed her, and she fell and struck her head and died. He didn't calll 911, but instead put her body into a Christmas tree disposal bag and dumped it in their apartment complex's trash compactor.

He was sentenced to forty years in prison, with 27 1/2 of those years suspended. He will serve twelve and a half years, with five more years on probation after his release.

Since Decker went missing, there's no activity on her bank or email accounts or her cellular phone, no evidence that she left the country and no records indicating she's given birth. Her husband has since returned from Afghanistan and taken custody of their child. Foul play is suspected in her disappearance due to the circumstances involved.

Updated 6 times since October 12, 2004. Last updated March 5, 2023; details of disappearance updated.