Girlfriend of businessman Bob Bashara says he told her he was a widower... three years BEFORE his wife was found murdered in her Mercedes

By Daily Mail Reporter

Published: 18:31 EST, 21 May 2012 | Updated: 18:32 EST, 21 May 2012

Detroit businessman Bob Bashara, whose wife was found murdered in her Mercedes SUV, told his longtime girlfriend that he was a widower the first time they met.

In her first public interview, Rachel Gillett admitted to being Bashara's mistress for three years, but says he lied to her about his relationship with his wife Jane and said he was planning to divorce her.

For the last eight months of their relationship, Ms Gillett says, Bashara claimed he had divorced Jane, until she saw him talking to TV crews about how much he loved his murdered wife.

'Lies': Rachel Gillett says her lover, Bob Bashara, told her he was planning to leave his wife throughout the course of her three-year relationship with him

Committed: Ms Gillett said she believed Bashara's promises that he was leaving his wife and that they lived separate lives

'For the last eight months of our relationship, I thought he was finally divorced,' Ms Gillett told WDIV-TV in Detroit.

'We looked for a house. We went many places in Grosse Pointe and in the area. I never tried to hide my relationship. My friends, my family, my coworkers all knew of Bob as my boyfriend. This was a relationship that I thought was mutual. '

RELATED ARTICLES

• Previous
• 1
• Next

• Woman charged with boyfriend's murder after 'deliberately hitting him TWICE with her car during argument' The feud continues: Robert Kennedy Jr to take kids to Florida as wife's family exclude him from private...

Share this article

Mrs Bashara was reported missing from her home in the wealthy Detroit suburb of Grosse Poine Park, Michigan, on July 24.

The next day, police found her strangled to death behind the wheel of her luxury SUV, with bruises all over her body and broken fingernails that indicated she had put up a fight.

Double life: Bashara maintains that he and Jane were happily married and that she knew about his girlfriend

Joe Gentz, a handyman who helped Bob Bashara with odd jobs, has been charged with the murder after admitting he killed Mrs Bashara. However, he also claims he was a hired hitman simply carrying out Bob Bashara's orders.

Bob Bashara denies that accusation. Police have long said he is a person of interest, but have never charged him in his wife's death.

Ms Gillett says he met Bashara online an that when they began seeing each other, he told her he was a widower and raising his teenage daughter by himself.

As the relationship continued, Bashara admitted he had a wife but continued to string Ms Gillett along and tell her he was going to leave his wife for her.

'Plot': Joe Gentz, who is charged with murdering Mrs Bashara, claims her husband put her up to the assassination

In previous interviews, Bashara said he never intended to divorce Mrs Bashara and that she knew about his mistress and his other sexual predilections.

He also reportedly frequented a BDSM sex dungeon, outfitted with whips and chains, in the basement of a restaurant near his home.

Ms Gillett has shunned her relationship with Bashara since his murdered.

She recently took out a protective order against him, saying she feared she could suffer the same fate.

She also apologized to Mrs Bashara's family and the couple's children for the affair. 

'I want to offer my deepest sympathies and condolences and prayers to the members of Jane's family who actually really loved her,' she told the TV station.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3IpbCmmZmhe6S7ja6iaKaVrMBwrdGtoJyklWJ%2FcoCWcWhsZ3Kkr26OwKyfmqqRqHqotdGlnauhlaOxbp7AnJ%2BepF18tq24xK2rZquRrsBuwM6lm2avmZm8uLHRZq6inpViura%2Bw56pnpxencGuuA%3D%3D