Victims
JoAnn Ulmer Bridges, 64
Christine Ulmer 84
From Bridges 2005 appeal: On December 27, 1997, the severely beaten body of appellant’s wife, JoAnn Bridges, was found in the Whigham, Georgia, home of her mother, a butcher knife lodged in her chest. Upstairs lay the body of appellant’s invalid mother-in-law, Christine Ulmer, her trachea cut open. Authorities soon determined the murders had occurred sometime after 10:00 p.m. the previous night. Although evidence initially indicated the murders may have been associated with a violent burglary, that theory was soon abandoned as no property appeared to be missing from the home.
When asked about his whereabouts on the night of the murders, appellant told investigators that he had been hunting near Opelika, Alabama, yet it was determined that he never checked into the hunting club where he claimed to have stayed.2 Appellant told authorities that he was in Alabama from approximately 3:00 p.m. on December 26th until 5:00 a.m. on December 27th, and that he had made no phone calls on the night of the 26th. However, cell phone records revealed that shortly after 10:00 p.m. on that night, appellant placed a cell phone call that originated within ten to twelve miles of Arlington, Georgia, which is located approximately forty miles northwest of the crime scene.
On the same day the murders were discovered, appellant asked JoAnn Bridges’ employer whether JoAnn had any financial benefits payable upon her death. Bridges later told his son-in-law that he was anxious to settle JoAnn’s estate because he “needed that money.” After his arrest and before trial, appellant asked a cellmate to kill two potential State witnesses and/or to assist appellant in crafting a false alibi. Moreover, investigators learned that shortly before the murders, appellant had begun an adulterous affair with Marcy Garvin, his previous wife, whom he asked to re-marry him. Appellant also asked a female friend to stage an adulterous scene with Garvin’s husband in order to make a divorce easier to obtain-and more lucrative-for Garvin.
At trial, three witnesses testified that after his arrest, appellant told them how he had killed his wife and mother-in-law. Cooper, who was incarcerated with appellant, testified that appellant told him he had cut one of the women’s throat and had beaten the other; that he had disposed of the murder weapons in the nearby Flint River; and that he was receiving more than $200,000 in insurance proceeds due to his wife’s death. Thomas, who also was incarcerated with appellant, testified that appellant told him he had killed his wife and mother-in-law with a “slapjack” 3 and a knife. Another fellow inmate, Smith, testified that appellant told him he had planned the hunting trip as a ruse, then went to his mother-in-law’s house where JoAnn admitted him inside; that appellant hit JoAnn in the head, then went upstairs and stabbed his mother-in-law; that appellant had staged the scene to look like a robbery; and that appellant would receive insurance proceeds for his wife’s death. Much of this information had not been made public by authorities at the time the witnesses learned of it.
Find-A-Grave: JoAnn Ulmer Bridges
Find-A-Grave: Audrey Christine Crew Ulmer
Double murder suspect arrested
South Georgia killer wants new trial
Roy Bridges v State of Georgia 2005 (conviction and sentence affirmed)
Roy Bridges v State of Georgia 2010 (conviction and sentence affirmed)
South Georgia killer wants new trial
New trial denied in Grady double homicide
The Ulmer-Bridges Murders