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Michael Blagg was a Christian man who married Jennifer in 1991. The family settled in Simpsonville, South Carolina. They had a little child together named Abby, and everyone considered them to be a perfect Christian family. But everything changed when Jennifer and her daughter went missing on November 13, 2001.
Seven months later, in June 2002, Jennifer's body was found in a garbage dump. She had been shot to death. Her daughter Abby's body was never found. With the growing evidence, Michael was arrested and charged with lifetime imprisonment in 2004.
The case went to retrial in 2018, and he was found guilty again, after which he returned to the Colorado Department of Corrections in Canon City, Colorado, where he continues to serve lifetime imprisonment.
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The entire case behind Jennifer Blagg's murder is documented in Season 2, Episode 2 of Married to Evil on ID. The episode was titled Home Is Where the Nightmare Is, which first aired on Sunday, September 1, 2024.
What is the story of Jennifer and Michael Blagg
Jennifer was a young woman from a Christian family who went to study business at the National University in San Diego, California. She met Michael Blagg while he was stationed in Diego for the U.S. Navy. He was a Persian Gulf War veteran who worked as a helicopter pilot.
Jennifer found in Michael Blagg, a strong man who shared her faith in Christianity and could look after her and provide for the family. Marilyn Conway, one of their friends, described them as a fairytale couple. Michael's mother, Betsy, described the two as deeply in love.
One of Jennifer's friends, Teresa Wiedenman, said the couple looked perfect together. The two married in 1991, after which Michael retired from the Navy and became an engineer. The couple eventually relocated to Simpsonville, South Carolina, and the two had a little girl together whom they named Abby.
The couple soon found a community through the church and eventually devoted their dates to the faith. Michael was a guy who was protective of the family, as noted by her friends, but soon, they realized that it came to the point of over-possessiveness. Jennifer's friend, Eddie Melson, noted that she was often in fear of her husband and tried doing everything that wouldn't anger him.
She recalled when her friends were in the house, but Jennifer tried to get them out and clean it completely before her husband arrived. Michael found a job in Grand Junction, Colorado, and though Jennifer didn't want to move from their house in Simpsonville, she had no say.
The Reverend Art Blankenship, who met the family through the evangelical church community, described the family as very social. They described them to be a perfect photographic couple.
What happened to Jeniffer Blagg
On November 13, 2001, Michael Blagg called the police and reported that his wife and daughter had gone missing. He explained that he had gone to work early in the morning and had gone on to do the check-in calls during the day as usual.
However, Jennifer was not receiving any of the calls, so when he came back home early, at around 4 p.m., he found the house empty. He found the back door and window open, which was very unusual.
Michael described that what added to the panic was that there were large dark spots on the bed. When the authorities arrived, they found that there was blood on the bed, which DNA testing proved was Jennifer's blood. Shockingly, there were no stains on the walls, and there were no traces of dragging the bodies on the floor.
But surprisingly, when they did a luminol test on the van, they discovered blood stains on the door and inside. The authorities soon began to doubt that the scene had been staged. The story of a missing mother and daughter soon spread over the town of Grand Junction.
Detective Wayne Weyler from Mesa County Sheriff's Office, who was working on the case, reported that their initial suspicion of the case to be kidnapping was doubted as general kidnapping didn't involve so much bloodshed. They wanted the victims to stay alive, which in this case seemed highly suspicious. Michael Blagg denied having any part in the crime.
Jennifer's older brother David Loman spent hours looking for his sister and niece but found nothing. He was more worried because Jennifer usually shared almost everything with her elder brother. She had a call with him the day she went missing. The investigators did a massive search for the victims, but no body was found.
Suspicions started to grow around Michael Blagg
Surprising evidence came to light while searching the Blaggs' home. The investigators found Jenniger's journal, where she noted she had fought with her husband that day. When Michael was asked to clarify the incident, he denied remembering any such incident. While searching the dresser, the police also found another note written by Michael to her apologizing for his behavior.
Some unexpected information came to light when the investigators searched through the home computer, where they found pornographic images, which Michael Blaggs defended having downloaded to teach Jennifer better intimacy as they were brought up in very religious families. But in late November, he accepted that he was addicted to hardcore pornography.
Upon learning about the sudden disappearance, her friend Eddie Melson contacted the police, saying Jennifer asked Eddie if she and her daughter could meet at her house. When the police went to inquire about Michael, they found him in the bathtub with a slit wrist.
He had a photo of Abbey and Jennifer in front of him with a note saying he didn't kill them. Michael was soon rushed to the hospital and survived. In February 2002, he was brought back for questioning, where the police cross-examined him for over ten hours.
Seven months after Jennifer went missing, in June 2002, a shocking event came to light. The authorities detected the trash Michael dumped on the day of Jennifer and Abby's disappearance. The investigators went on a search of the landfill located in Grand Junction, Colorado. When they made a thorough search of the landfill using global positioning technology, they found Jennifer's decomposing body.
As per a CBS article posted on May 12, 2018, investigator Steve King, who was in the search, described it to be gruesome. When they found the bucket, Jennifer's carcass came out in pieces. Medical Examiner Dean Havlick reported the case to be a murder where Jennifer was shot to death.
Michael was soon arrested for murdering his wife, and he couldn't be charged with Abbey's disappearance as her body was never found. Michael Blaggs was put through a trial in March 2004, where he was found guilty of murdering his wife. Michael Blagg was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment.
Ever since, his attorneys and Michael's sister, Claire Peterson, have filed appeals but were rejected. According to an article posted by CBS News on June 12, 2014, Michael Blagg's trial was retaken into context. This was because one of the jurors was found misrepresenting the domestic violence history.
Michael Blaggs, at 55 years old, went through a retrial in February 2018, where no cameras were allowed in the court. The Jury led by Judge Tamara Russell found Michael Blaggs guilty of first-degree murder back again. He was returned to the Colorado Department of Corrections in Canon City, Colorado, for lifetime imprisonment, where he has been serving his imprisonment till now.
To know more details about Michael Blagg, watch Season 2 of Married to Evil on Amazon Prime Video.
