Michael Blagg: Murder Conviction, 2018 Retrial, and Missing Abby

Michael Blagg is a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot and Colorado manufacturing manager who was twice convicted of murdering his wife, Jennifer Blagg, in their Grand Junction home on November 13, 2001. Their six-year-old daughter, Abigail “Abby” Blagg, disappeared the same night and has never been found. Blagg, now 60, is serving life without the possibility of parole at the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility in Cañon City.¹

He has never been charged in connection with Abby’s disappearance. His convictions relate only to Jennifer’s death.²

What Happened on November 13, 2001

Blagg called police that day to report Jennifer, 34, and Abby, 6, missing from the family’s home in the Redlands area of Grand Junction. He said he had come home from work to find them gone and a pool of blood in the master bedroom. Officers found belongings strewn across the bedroom floor and a large bloodstain at the head of the mattress.³⁴ Forensic testing that December confirmed the blood was Jennifer’s.

Blagg had been operations manager at Ametek Dixson, a manufacturing plant in Grand Junction, since the family relocated from South Carolina.⁵

How Investigators Found Jennifer’s Body

A ground search in April 2002 drew nearly 200 daily volunteers across a 45-mile radius and turned up nothing. The case shifted when a coworker, Shawn Wallace, told investigators that on the day the family was reported missing, Blagg had been pushing a cart of boxes and trash through the plant and told Wallace to “go away” when offered help. Investigators found the task strange for an operations manager.⁶

Crews began searching the Mesa County landfill in May 2002, tracking the specific vein of waste linked to Ametek Dixson with GPS measurements taken by County Surveyor Frank Kochevar. On June 4, 2002, searchers found Jennifer’s body wrapped in a tent similar to one the family owned. A dismembered leg was found the following day. An autopsy determined she died of a gunshot wound to the head.⁷³

Investigators sifted through roughly 7,000 tons of trash over nearly seven more weeks looking for Abby. She was not there.³

Blagg had left Colorado for Georgia shortly after the landfill search began. Hours after dental records confirmed the body was Jennifer’s, officers arrested him in Georgia on a first-degree murder charge.³

The Prosecution’s Theory of Motive

Prosecutors argued Blagg shot Jennifer in the head as she slept, staged the home to resemble a burglary, and used the family van to move her body to the workplace dumpster.⁸

Motive evidence pointed to a controlling marriage under strain. Investigators found thousands of hardcore pornographic images on the family computer; when confronted, Blagg said Jennifer had downloaded them for “educational purposes” so she could “serve her husband.” A friend recalled Jennifer displaying “absolute panic” at the prospect of Michael arriving home to find visitors, and shortly before the disappearance Jennifer told a friend she and Abby wanted to visit without Michael.⁹ An employee at Colorado Legal Services told investigators that Jennifer had come in days before her disappearance to report abuse and say she wanted to end the marriage.¹⁰ The arrest affidavit also noted Blagg’s frequent use of an escort service.³

Former FBI profiler Ron Walker testified that the evidence pointed to a “staged domestic homicide” committed by someone who knew Jennifer intimately.¹¹ Blagg owned a gun similar to the murder weapon, the family van appeared to have been used to move the body, and Jennifer’s remains were surrounded by trash from his office and wrapped in a tent like one he owned.¹

The 2004 Conviction

Blagg went to trial in March 2004 at the Mesa County Justice Center, facing first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse, and two counts of theft. The defense argued no weapon had been found, no motive established, and an intruder had broken in. Blagg did not testify. After 12 hours of deliberation, the jury convicted him on all counts. The judge imposed life without parole, with concurrent sentences of three months to three years on the remaining charges.³¹

Why the Conviction Was Thrown Out

Ten years later, the conviction fell apart because of a juror. Defense attorneys discovered that Grand Junction juror Marilyn Charlesworth had answered “no” during selection when asked whether she or someone close to her had been involved in domestic violence, whether she had been the victim of a violent crime, and whether she had past involvement in a criminal case. Charlesworth had in fact initiated at least two criminal prosecutions against intimate partners and obtained multiple restraining orders, with reports of being threatened with death, physically assaulted, and struck in the head with a beer can.¹²

Domestic violence had been central to the prosecution’s case. Chief Judge David Bottger concluded that Charlesworth had been “motivated to lie” to serve on the jury and vacated the conviction in June 2014, ordering a new trial. Charlesworth was later convicted of criminal contempt.¹³¹²

The 2018 Retrial and Second Conviction

Because of publicity on Colorado’s Western Slope, the retrial moved to the Jefferson County Courthouse in Golden, opening in late February 2018 before Judge Tamara Russell.¹⁴

This time Blagg took the stand, telling the jury he did not kill Jennifer and that “I loved her with all my heart.” Prosecutors told jurors he “stood over his wife’s head, covered it and shot her in the face,” then staged the home and disposed of her body in the Ametek Dixson trash compactor.⁸

The defense again pointed to a stranger, citing hair found in the couple’s bed that did not belong to either Blagg. Defense attorneys also tried to present evidence about Philip Bruinsma, a convicted child predator imprisoned in Montana whose property contained a list of missing girls that included Jennifer and Abby. Judge Russell excluded that evidence, calling the connection “too thin.”¹⁵¹⁴

On April 5, 2018, after several days of deliberation, jurors found Blagg guilty of first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse, theft of office supplies, and filing a false insurance claim over his wife’s jewelry. He was sentenced on April 9 to life without parole.¹⁶

The Appeal

Blagg’s public defender appealed to the Colorado Court of Appeals, arguing the trial court had allowed evidence from an unlawful search of the home, admitted expert testimony that opined on his guilt, excluded evidence of an alternative suspect, and restricted his testimony while permitting improper cross-examination. A three-judge panel rejected all four claims and upheld the conviction, citing “extensive evidence of his guilt,” including the staged crime scene, the use of the family van, the tent-wrapped body in the landfill, and Blagg’s out-of-character loading of the workplace dumpster.¹¹⁷

Abby Blagg Is Still Missing

Abigail Jo Blagg, born March 21, 1995, was six years old when she and her mother were last seen at their home on the afternoon of November 12, 2001. Despite the landfill search and years of investigation, her body has never been recovered. Her case remains open with the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office and is listed with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and NamUs.²¹⁸

Where Michael Blagg Is Now

Blagg, 60, is incarcerated at the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility in Cañon City. His convictions for first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse, theft, and a crime of violence stand after the Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed the verdict.¹

1
Mesa County. Court Upholds Blagg Murder Conviction
2
Colorado Cold Case. Abby Blagg Case Detail
3
CBS News Colorado. Timeline of Michael Blagg Murder Trials
4
KKCO 11 News. Jury in Michael Blagg Trial Sees More Evidence
5
9News. Defense Expert Testifies at Blagg Trial
6
9News. Murder Trial Focuses on Michael Blagg’s Demeanor
7
9News. Prosecutors Say Jennifer Blagg’s Body Was With Trash From Her Husband’s Office
8
CBS News Colorado. Jury Verdict in Michael Blagg Retrial
9
Oxygen. Why Did Michael Blagg Murder His Wife Jennifer
10
Charley Project. Abby Jo Blagg
11
Grand Junction Sentinel. Expert Witnesses Punctuate Retrial of Blagg Murder
12
Grand Junction Sentinel. 10 Days, $10,000 Fine for Contempt in Blagg Trial
13
Grand Junction Sentinel. Ex-Blagg Juror Fights Charge of Contempt
14
Grand Junction Sentinel. Blagg Retrial No. 2 Story of 2018
15
9News. Did Michael Blagg Kill His Wife, or Was It a Child Predator
16
CBS News. Colorado Man Gets Life Without Parole After Second Conviction
17
Grand Junction Sentinel. Court Upholds Blagg Murder Conviction
18
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Abby Jo Blagg Missing Poster