On January 29, 2011, Bethany Anne Decker (née Littlejohn;[1] born May 13, 1989) left her grandparents' home and returned to her apartment in Ashburn, Virginia.

While Decker did not show up at her job or classes she took at nearby George Mason University, her absence was not noted for another three weeks as messages to her friends, purportedly from her, continued to be posted on her Facebook account.

Roldan, a Bolivian national with a criminal record,[3] was arrested in North Carolina in 2015 and charged with the attempted murder of another girlfriend after he shot her during an incident in 2014; he has not said anything about the Decker case.

[9] A native of Fredericksburg, Virginia, Bethany Decker attended George Mason University (GMU) in Fairfax after graduating high school.

[3] While working at an Italian restaurant in Centreville, Virginia, Decker met Roldan, a Bolivian immigrant,[11] then around 30 years old,[12] and began an extramarital affair with him.

During that day, Decker called her employer to confirm her work schedule for the coming week, the last known contact she has had with anyone other than Emile or Roldan.

But due to her busy life, balancing her classes in what was to be her final semester at GMU with a full-time job, they had gotten used to not hearing from her for several days at a time, so they were not worried as February 2011 began without any news from her.

Investigators found that Decker had not used her bank accounts or cell phone since the last day she was seen, nor had she reported to work or attended her classes.

[1] They initially focused on Emile and Roldan, since both of them might have had a motive to harm Decker due to the love triangle they were involved in.

With the help of the Army's Criminal Investigation Command (CID), they were able to reach Emile at his remote post in Afghanistan and talk to him on the phone.

[13] Roldan had moved out of the apartment shortly after Decker's disappearance, since the lease had expired,[16] and gone to live with his mother in Centreville.

[7] But investigators became more interested in him when they learned that he had a prior criminal record, including one arrest for identity theft and later convictions for public intoxication and destruction of property after a 2006 incident where he smashed a woman's car window.

[13] No record was ever found suggesting that Decker had given birth by her expected due date later that summer,[1] although the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office distributed to the public pictures of what she might look like near the end of a pregnancy.

"My client remains hopeful and prays daily that Bethany will come home," said Andi Geloo on his behalf.

"[19] In late 2012, the Investigation Discovery channel series Disappeared visited the area to produce a segment on the case.

Producers interviewed Decker's friends and family, newspaper reporters who had covered the story, and law enforcement.

[20] One of the journalists interviewed speculated that the show was interested in the case because Decker was pregnant at the time of her disappearance, and involved in a love triangle, "so there are a couple of ways this could go."

In response, Geloo repeated that Roldan had answered all questions he was asked during the original investigation and was innocent of any crime that may have been committed.

[22] Detectives from Loudoun County visited Roldan in jail to ask if he was now interested in speaking with them about Bethany's disappearance again; he referred them to his attorney.

Shortly afterwards, Willoughby appeared on an episode of Dr. Phil devoted to the Decker case, and she said that Roldan had told her, during their fight the previous November, he could "make people disappear.

He could serve the full sentence if he commits another crime or violates other conditions, including to have no contact with members of Decker's family, during a 25-year suspension period.