Acting on a tip, authorities were preparing to search Deborah Rudibaugh’s 7-11 Ranch in the shadow of Indian Head Rock near Parlin last July when they offered the woman one
Acting on a tip, authorities were preparing to search Deborah Rudibaugh’s 7-11 Ranch in the shadow of Indian Head Rock near Parlin last July when they offered the woman one last chance to divulge the location of her son’s suspected remains.
With five cadaver dogs preparing to sniff every corner of the sprawling property east of Gunnison, the small, frail woman caved in — revealing a story of how she shot and killed her son, Jake Millison, while he slept, and acted alone in disposing of the body.
That much is reflected in an affidavit in support of an arrest warrant for Rudibaugh, 68, whose account paints a picture of Millison as threatening and physically abusive. But that characterization only emerged after her confession, prior to which she never mentioned abuse on the part of her son. Additionally, numerous discrepancies are noted in accounts relayed to authorities by Rudibaugh, suggesting that she did not act alone.
In total, three members of Millison’s family have been arrested over the course of the last week, accused of a bevy of crimes related to the man’s death. Rudibaugh is accused of first-degree murder after deliberation. Millison’s sister, Stephanie Jackson, 33, is accused of first-degree murder and accessory to murder, and her husband, David Jackson, also is charged with accessory to murder.
Additionally, the Jacksons and Rudibaugh are charged with tampering with a deceased human body, concealing a death and other crimes.
Millison was reported missing in May 2015 after friends were unable to locate him. Despite Rudibaugh’s confession, more than seven months passed before her arrest Friday, March 2.
“Just because somebody confesses, you have to continue to investigate to corroborate that,” said Gunnison County Undersheriff Mark Mykol.
Millison’s remains uncovered
Millison was 6 and Stephanie Jackson was 7 when Rudibaugh and her ex-husband, Ray Millison divorced. In 1993, Rudibaugh remarried Rudy Rudibaugh and moved to her new husband’s 7-11 Ranch with her two young children.
Rudy Rudibaugh died in 2009, leaving the property to his wife. At that time, only Deb Rudibaugh and Millison were living at the ranch. The years that ensued, according to Rudibaugh, were tumultuous between her and her son — particularly relating to his residence at, and the future of, the 7-11.
“Yeah, his dad had talked him into the fact that once the ranch was his or his and Steph’s, he was set for life and he wouldn’t have to ever work again and Jake took that to heart,” Rudibaugh told authorities of her ex-husband, who lives in New Mexico.
According to the affidavit, investigators believe that Jake was murdered in the early morning hours on or about May 16, 2015. Days later, friends visited the ranch after they were unable to reach Millison, inquiring about his whereabouts. Rudibaugh reportedly told them her son went on a trip to Nevada “to train MMA” and would be back in a week.
In the months that followed, Rudibaugh maintained that her son left the ranch “spur of the moment.” Friends say it wasn’t like Millison to up and leave. But Rudibaugh told the Times in 2015 that her relationship with her son began to change when he started practicing martial arts — specifically Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
After confessing July 17 of last year, Rudibaugh reportedly showed investigators where Millison was buried in a corral on the ranch. Authorities uncovered his remains, wrapped in plastic and duct tape.
An autopsy performed on July 20, 2017 showed the cause of death to be a “non exiting gunshot wound of the head” and manner of death “homicide,” according to the affidavit.
‘He would hold me and sit on me’
With Rudibaugh’s confession came the story of threats and abuse by Millison. She said she felt like a “crash test dummy with his mixed martial arts thing, the various ways he would hold me and sit on me and stuff.”
Additionally, Rudibaugh had indicated in prior interviews that Millison became involved in drugs, fell in with dangerous people, began selling firearms and studying to make bombs. She said her son’s threatening behavior led her to keep weapons under her pillow.
On the night she said she killed Millison, he had come “back in drunk.” Friends, however, say Millison rarely drank. Nonetheless, Rudibaugh said she approached Millison in his bed and “took a gun and shot him in the top of the head.”
Rudibaugh detailed an elaborate means of moving her son’s body by herself — using an ATV, a winch, come-alongs, ropes, chains and “Yankee ingenuity.” However, investigators seemed to cast doubt on the feasibility of the setup — in part because Rudibaugh was only a week removed from gallbladder surgery. Also, she reportedly suffers from Stage 4 breast cancer that has spread throughout her body.
Rudibaugh said she first moved Millison’s body to the manure pile, where it remained for about a year before she moved it to the corral.
Yet, over time, numerous contradictions and discrepancies emerged in Rudibaugh’s story. She reportedly told authorities that the gun she used — a stainless steel, Smith & Wesson “Lady Smith” .357 caliber revolver — she later threw into Blue Mesa Reservoir. Investigators found a weapon of the same description during a search of the home.
A Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) forensic report confirmed that the bullet that killed Millison was fired from the found Smith & Wesson revolver. Subsequent testing found DNA belonging to Rudibaugh was on the handgun, while the same test was inconclusive for Stephanie Jackson.
Future of ranch in question
Additionally, during an interview last June, Rudibaugh said she had planned to leave the ranch to Shane, the son of her deceased husband, her daughter and Millison when she died. Stephanie Jackson’s and Shane’s inclusion in her will, Rudibaugh said, angered Millison.
She also said that the day after Millison disappeared, she “tore up” her will and made a new one — excluding Millison from the document. However, during the search of the home, a CBI agent found a signed will in the file cabinet dated April 27, 2015 — weeks before Millison’s suspected death — that leaves the ranch to only Stephanie Jackson.
Court records indicate that when subjected to a polygraph last August — and asked whether she shot her brother, planned to shoot him and helped move his body — Stephanie Jackson answered “no” to each question. The results showed she was “not being truthful,” according to CBI.
Millison and his sister rarely got along, Rudibaugh acknowledged, and the same was true of Millison and his sister’s husband.
Court records show that on January 31, 2013 Millison sought a restraining order against David Jackson but never followed through with the procedure to see it enacted.
Yet, during an interview of David Jackson at the Gunnison County Sheriff’s Office this past January, Jackson recounted an argument with his wife two years prior that resulted in Stephanie firing a round from a handgun into the floor of the ranch’s lodge. When authorities asked David who killed Millison at that time, he said he didn’t know, but suspected his wife.
“Honestly after this and all of that, I have a strong feeling it could have been Steph,” David Jackson said, according to an affidavit in support of an arrest warrant for his wife. “I really get a hunch it was Steph, but I’m not positive.”
Rudibaugh remains in Gunnison County jail without bond. As of press time, Stephanie Jackson also was being held on a $500,000 bond and David Jackson on $100,000.
On Oct. 18, 2015, Stephanie Jackson made a social media post that reiterated much of the story told by her mother of Millison leaving the ranch in May 2015 without saying much about his plans for where he was going.
“I see siblings that like each other and I am a little envious of it,” she wrote, adding that “just because we don’t like each other doesn’t mean I want him dead. … And it doesn’t mean that I have anything to do with his disappearance.”
(Will Shoemaker can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or editor@gunnisontimes.com .)
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