John Jefferson
Left: Vidor Wegner (Maury County Sheriff’s Office). Right: Ariel Nevills (Obituary).
An Indiana man is behind bars in Tennessee for murdering his girlfriend and their unborn child, police in the Volunteer State say.
Vidol Wegner, 29, currently stands accused of two counts of murder in the first degree and one count of felony murder, according to a press release issued by the Spring Hill Police Department.
The alleged killer is the person who called 911 dispatch, police say.
The defendant requested a welfare check on Ariel Nicole Nevills, 30. When law enforcement arrived at the scene, they found the woman “had sustained fatal wounds.” She was seven months pregnant at the time.
Details about the slaying have come from various court documents — and even directly from a local media interview with Wegner himself.
The defendant allegedly initially admitted to strangling Nevills with “both hands around the neck and his forearm,” according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Nashville-based NBC affiliate WSMV.
Wegner “did admit to murdering his girlfriend” and “stated that he strangled Nevills two different ways,” according to a warrant filed in a Maury County Court and obtained by news website Williamson Scene.
Police also, however, said Nevills suffered stab wounds, according to Nashville-based Fox and The CW affiliate WZTV.
The killing occurred at a house on Gale Lane in Spring Hill — a medium-sized city located roughly 30 miles south of Nashville, which sits in both Maury and Williamson counties. The defendant was first detained by Roberts County Sheriff’s Office deputies and then transferred to Spring Hill police.
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In a jailhouse interview with Nashville-based ABC affiliate WKRN, Wegner offered his own recollection of the fatal events. In the ensuing discussion, the defendant appears to hedge, vacillate, and give confusing, vague, or even contradictory answers.
Reporter Andy Cordan asked: “Did you kill her?”
“I…what did I do?” Wegner answered — before taking a long pause and looking down.
Then the alleged killer resumed: “No, dude, I didn’t. She did it to herself. I told her this is the way. I had a beautiful future set up for us. She wanted to act crazy. She chose this. It didn’t have to be this way.”
The reporter followed up: “So were you mad that she got pregnant?”
To which Wegner replied: “Listen, when I started that relationship, I told her, ‘If we get pregnant, are we going to do something about it?’ She said, ‘Yeah.’ She found out 10 weeks in; she said, ‘I want to keep it.’ I’m like, ‘Didn’t we have that conversation? I’m not doing this.’ She said, ‘Yeah.””
Cordan pressed: “Are you missing her at all and missing, perhaps, even getting a chance to meet that little baby?”
Wegner replied: “Listen, I loved her. I would have took care of her, the baby; I would have took care of her siblings that she wanted to take with us. I would have done all of that.”
Both Wegner and Nevills worked as millwrights — mechanics who repair heavy machinery. The dead woman had four siblings who she provided for and previously served in the Army Reserve.
The defendant referenced the details of Nevills’ life when speaking with the local news reporter.
“She was stable, she was calm,” he said. “I liked that, you know what I mean? She took care of me, it was peace, and then she gets pregnant and everything changes.”
When Cordan asked the alleged killer if he had any remorse, Wegner answered in the affirmative.
“I got plenty of remorse, man,” he said. “It didn’t have to happen this way. She wants to be crazy. I told her, ‘If you didn’t like the plan, we could’ve changed it. We could have figured it out.’”
Police allege Wegner killed Nevills when he found out she was pregnant. Asked to account for the law enforcement narrative by the WKRN reporter, the defendant said: “That’s now how it went.”
“Then set me straight,” Cordan pushed.
Wegner said: “I’m protecting my legacy, I’m abiding by the Constitution, I’m not doing anything wrong. There is no way for me to get her to be held accountable for what she’s doing. We had an agreement. Why did she go back on that?”
The defendant is being detained without bond in the Maury County Jail. His next court date is slated for Feb. 3.
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