California Navy veteran who killed and froze wife, then dumped body in bay, sentenced

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A Navy veteran was sentenced Friday to 16 years to life in prison for murdering his estranged wife and hiding her body in a freezer for nearly two years before dumping her corpse into San Diego Bay, according to reports.

Matthew Sullivan, 36, was sentenced in a San Diego courtroom for second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Elizabeth Sullivan.

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The 32-year-old mom of two daughters vanished mysteriously in October 2014 from the San Diego home she shared with the rest of her family.

"The jury verdict and the evidence at trial made it clear that Matthew Sullivan brutally murdered his wife, methodically cleaned up the messy murder site, and then hid the body for years," Superior Court Judge Albert Harutunian III, who presided over the trial, said at the sentencing on Friday. "He almost got away with it, but his final attempt to hide the body at the bottom of the bay failed."

Prosecutor Jill Lindberg told jurors during opening statements at the trial that Sullivan may have stabbed his wife five times after learning she was having an affair, then hid her body until he had to remove it because he was moving to the East Coast.

Sullivan, who was convicted last year, was living in Delaware when he was arrested in 2018.

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Matthew Sullivan, 36, right, was sentenced in a San Diego courtroom for second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Elizabeth Sullivan, left. (Facebook/File)

Lindberg reiterated on Friday that Sullivan had "murdered his wife in their home as their children were in the other room."

"He made her look like the person who had abandoned her family, when that was not the case and he knew it," Lindberg said.

She added Sullivan had allowed his girls to "twist in the wind and wonder what had happened to" Elizabeth.

In October 2016, her decomposing body was found floating in the bay about a half-mile from the home.

Investigators later found blood under her bedroom carpet and a knife in the attic.

Sullivan served eight years in the Navy, and was honorably discharged in 2016 with the rank of petty officer. His deployments overseas included duty in the Middle East.

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At his sentencing, Sullivan noted that he would not have been found guilty if he had better defense witnesses to testify.

"I firmly believe their testimony would have changed the verdict in this trial," he said.

Lindberg replied: "There is clearly no remorse on the defendant's part. He thinks he could have gotten a different verdict."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.