Matthew Sullivan Sentencing San Diego Killing of Elizabeth Sullivan – NBC 7 San Diego

A former U.S. Navy man responsible for the mysterious disappearance and killing of his wife in San Diego more than 6 years ago is expected to finally learn his fate Friday.

Matthew Sullivan, now 36, is scheduled to be sentenced at 1:30 p.m. for first-degree murder in the stabbing of his wife, Elizabeth Sullivan, 32. She was the mother of the couple’s two daughters.

The case of the Sullivans first gripped San Diego six years ago – in October 2014 – when Elizabeth Sullivan suddenly vanished. Nearly two years to the date of her disappearance, her decomposing body was found floating in San Diego Bay, about a half-mile from the home the couple once shared with their daughters. She had been stabbed to death.

Matthew Sullivan was identified as the suspect in his wife’s slaying. He was arrested in late January 2018 at his home in Delaware and extradited to San Diego. He was booked into jail on Feb. 9, 2018.

His trial began on Feb. 21, 2020, and, in March, a jury found him guilty of Elizabeth Sullivan’s murder.

The Disappearance & Killing of Elizabeth Sullivan

Elizabeth
Sullivan was reported missing on Oct. 14, 2014.

She was last seen one day earlier near San Diego’s Liberty Station, where she lived with her family. A text message sent on Oct. 13, 2014, was the last contact Elizabeth Sullivan had with loved ones before her phone was turned off.

San Diego police searched for the missing Navy wife and mother for two years, to no avail. Day by day, week by week, the case grew cold as her family pleaded for her safe return.

But a grim breakthrough came on Oct. 6, 2016.

That day – nearly two years after she vanished – the body of Elizabeth Sullivan was found floating in San Diego Bay, near her home. It was also the same day Matthew Sullivan was moving from San Diego to Maryland with his new girlfriend, a fact that prosecutors said was no coincidence.

Due to the decomposition of Elizabeth Sullivan’s body, it would be another
week before SDPD investigators would be able to positively identify her – and another
year-and-a-half before police could link Sullivan to her killing.

The San Diego District Attorney’s Office believes Elizabeth Sullivan’s body
had been “hidden somewhere” before it was disposed of in the bay.

Matthew Sullivan was arrested outside his home in Wyoming, Delaware, on Jan.
31, 2018. He was extradited to San Diego and eventually booked into the George
Bailey Detention Facility in early February, where he remained until he could
face his first-degree murder charge.

Significant court proceedings began one year later, with Matthew Sullivan’s preliminary hearing in February 2019. As details of Elizabeth Sullivan’s disappearance and death emerged, a judge ruled Matthew Sullivan would stand trial for her murder.

The Murder Trial

Matthew Sullivan’s murder trial began on Feb. 21, 2020, with opening statements and testimony from the loved ones of Elizabeth Sullivan.

On that first day of trial, Matthew Sullivan sat silently, looking down at the desk in front of him as Deputy Defense Attorney Jill Lindberg described how his “whirlwind romance” with the victim quickly turned to domestic violence, and eventually, murder.

A potential motive, according to prosecutors during opening statements, was an extra-marital affair that Elizabeth Sullivan was having, and that Matthew Sullivan learned of about a month before his wife’s disappearance.

“He had lots of motives, he had the means, he had the opportunity,” Lindberg said. “The crime scene was in her bedroom. The murder weapon was in the attic over his bedroom.”

Lindberg showed jurors the knife that Matthew Sullivan used to stab his wife. She said he stabbed her at least five times, hitting several ribs and leaving a pool of blood on the floor of Elizabeth Sullivan’s bedroom.

The
murder weapon was found in the attic of the home the couple shared in the
Liberty Station area, after Matthew Sullivan moved out.

Matthew Sullivan’s defense attorney, Marcus Dubose, painted the defendant as
a man attempting to hold on to a wife that was pulling away, turning towards a
self-destructive lifestyle.

Dubose argued that blood found in Elizabeth Sullivan’s bedroom was from a wound that the Navy wife inflicted on herself during a tumultuous time in the couple’s lives. According to police reports obtained by NBC 7, there was a history of domestic violence in the couple’s marriage and they had been arguing over custody of their two young daughters and child support.

You can read all of the details of the disappearance of Elizabeth Sullivan in our timeline here.