Search For Missing Mom Ends After 8-Year-Old Son Makes Admission To School Counselor

A 50-year-old Indiana man has pleaded guilty to the killing of his wife just hours after being formally charged with murder, bringing an abrupt turn to a case that unfolded over several weeks and began as a missing person report. Judson Keith Hoover admitted responsibility for the death of his 38-year-old wife, Rebecca Ruth Hoover, after investigators pieced together evidence that contradicted his initial actions following her disappearance.

Rebecca was last seen on August 2. The following day, Judson filed for divorce, a move authorities later said occurred after Rebecca was already dead. Concern grew when Rebecca’s mother reported her missing on August 4, prompting officers to conduct a welfare check at the family’s residence on St. Joseph Road. At the time, police found no trace of Rebecca inside the home.

The case took a disturbing turn when the couple’s eight-year-old son confided in a school counselor that he had witnessed his father kill his mother. Investigators later confirmed that Judson’s guilty plea was entered to prevent the child from being required to testify in court.

New Albany Police Chief Told Bailey described the escalation of the investigation following new information weeks after the initial report. Bailey stated: “Fast-forwarding to Aug. 27, our criminal investigators were alerted that Ms. Hoover’s disappearance may very well have been criminal in nature. Based on that information, our criminal investigators took everything into high gear and spent countless hours uncovering the facts of this case.”

Investigators conducted a forensic interview with a family member and executed search warrants at the Hoover home. That same day, Rebecca’s body was recovered, and Judson was taken into custody on suspicion of murder. Formal charges were filed shortly afterward, and he entered a guilty plea before the day ended.

What investigators uncovered next—from the child’s detailed account to physical evidence inside the home—would further define the scope and brutality of the crime.

As the investigation progressed, court records and forensic findings provided a clearer picture of what occurred inside the Hoover home. A probable cause affidavit detailed the child’s account of the violence he said he witnessed in the basement of the residence. The affidavit stated: “The child disclosed seeing his father stomp his mother in the head 20 times, wearing black boots, while she was lying on the ground next to a black refrigerator in the basement. The child also observed Judson Hoover punch Rebecca Hoover in the stomach with a set of keys in his hands, but she was unresponsive and did not move. The child observed blood coming from Rebecca Hoover’s head and left ear.”

On August 27, detectives spoke with Judson as he arrived to pick up his children from school. He consented to searches of the family home and vehicles. Inside the basement, investigators and crime scene technicians documented blood spatter at the bottom of the stairs, reinforcing the child’s account.

During his plea, Judson claimed he strangled Rebecca to death and initially left her body in the basement. However, the medical examiner later determined that Rebecca died from blunt force trauma to the head and torso, findings that aligned with the physical evidence and eyewitness description. Authorities also confirmed that her body had been mutilated, though Judson said he could not recall causing those injuries.

Surveillance footage from a storage facility added another critical layer to the case. Video showed Judson on August 4—minutes after police first visited the home—moving what appeared to be a body into storage. Additional footage captured him returning on August 28, one day after police questioned him, driving a rented Dodge Caravan and loading a 55-gallon container into the vehicle.

Judson later admitted transferring the container to a different storage unit on Strawberry Lane in Louisville. Rebecca’s body was ultimately recovered from that location.

The case concluded with Judson’s guilty plea, sparing his son from testifying and closing an investigation that exposed a calculated effort to conceal a violent crime.