Woman in Utah arrested faking her own murder in order to spite her husband

A woman in Utah was fighting with her husband, so she impersonated him and told someone that he had murdered her.

What's the story?

According to the Deseret News, Rebbecca Spring Nielson was arguing with her husband, Shaun Dudley, late on Monday at their Bluffdale, Utah home. According to police, at 2 a.m., she took her husband's phone and sent text messages to another, unidentified woman. Posing as Dudley, she claimed to have shot and killed Nielson. When the woman expressed alarm, Nielson repeated (still posing as Dudley) that Nielson had been shot and was no longer breathing.

As might be expected, the woman called 911. Nielson (as Dudley) even texted "yes" when the woman asked if she should have an ambulance go to their house. Police from four departments responded to what they thought was a murder and surrounded the house.

But when officers were attempting to make contact with Dudley, they found Nielson alive and well. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that she approached police and identified herself.

According to Dudley, the two had gotten into an argument at around 10 p.m. on monday, and they had left the house taking his phone. The Salt Lake Tribune said that Nielson later admitted to police that it had been her who had sent the text messages, and that she had "wanted to see how the [woman] would respond." She had apparently been curious about whether this other woman would try to assist Dudley in "covering up the crime." She also thought that Dudley had been unfaithful, presumably with this other woman.

She also allegedly smashed Dudley's computer before leaving the house.

The couple had not even been married for a year. Nielson was booked into the Utah County Jail on charges of falsely reporting an emergency and criminal mischief.