Rumors, Lies and a Body Found After 21 Years in Elkridge: A Timeline of the Jarrett Case

The following is a timeline of the Robert Jarrett Jr., case. The Elkridge man was Christine Jarrett.

Jan. 3, 1991: In the last few hours of Jan. 3, 1991, Christine Jarrett reportedly had a dispute with her husband, according to the Doe Network, a volunteer group that helps law enforcement track missing persons. She was not seen after that.

Jan. 5, 1991: Robert Jarrett reported his wife missing, according to police.

2002: The case had gone cold until 2002 when Howard County Detective Daniel Lenick was assigned the missing person case. Lenick's interviews with neighbors and friends "drew further suspicion that Robert Jarrett was responsible for the disappearance of Christine Jarrett," according to charging documents.

April 17, 2012: Two officers spoke with Robert Jarrett’s wife at the time, with whom he had been having marital problems, and she agreed to let them search the premises of their Elkridge home, "specifically the shed located in the right rear part of the backyard," said court documents.

April 19, 2012: Police release this news: On April 18, they found the body of a woman buried in concrete under a shed behind an Elkridge home. Police said that they believed Christine Jarrett was killed 21 years ago and charged her husband, Robert Jarrett, who lives on Claire Drive in Elkridge, in her death. 

April 20, 2012: After Jarrett was arrested for first-degree murder, friends and neighbors talked about how the discovery of the remains confirmed their longheld fears that Christine Jarrett had been buried on the property where she lived on Claire Drive in Elkridge. Neighbors told Elkridge Patch that "all the kids said she was under there."

April 27, 2012: Robert Jarrett’s current wife, Martha Jarrett, files for divorce, saying that her husband had committed adultery, was living with another woman and had been “verbally and mentally” abusive, according to the Howard County Times.

July 5, 2012: In a court hearing, Bobby Jarrett, then 32, said the relationship between his parents, Christine and Robert Jarrett, was “pretty tumultuous." He was 10 when his mother disappeared.

April 10, 2013: The trial begins for Robert Jarrett, accused of murdering his wife and burying her body under a shed in their Elkridge back yard.

April 23, 2013: After hours of deliberation, a jury found Robert Jarrett Jr. guilty of second-degree murder in the death of his former wife, Christine Jarrett, the Baltimore Sun reported. Jurors did believe Jarrett killed his wife, though they did not think the act was premeditated, leading to the lesser second-degree murder conviction, according to WBAL.