Foodnetwork.comMore grisly details revealed in the investigation into the deaths of former Food Network Star contestant Cristie Schoen Codd and her husband, Joseph Codd.
At a press conference today, Bumcombe County Sheriff Van Duncan told reporters that the man arrested in connection with the couple's murder admitted to storing and destroying the victims' bodies after he hit and killed Joseph with the victim's own truck. There has been no official word yet as to how Cristie, who was pregnant, died.
A search warrant also released Friday and posted by the Asheville Citizen-Times states that suspect Robert Jason Owens admitted to killing Codd and that the remains of both husband and wife were at his home in Leicester, N.C., at least partially in a woodstove.
Duncan said that they believe the Codds died on March 12. Christie's father filed a missing persons' report and, on March 15, Sheriff's Office investigators determined that a break-in had occurred at the couple's home.
A witness "said someone had come out and in a very suspicious way had left things in a dumpster," Duncan told reporters, explaining how Owens first became a suspect. "We were able to locate items [from the bags] that we know belonged to Cristie Codd."
Owens, a contractor who had done work for the Codds in the past, was charged with murder on Monday after his home was searched and human remains (which have still yet to be officially identified as the Codds) were found on the property. Also according to the newly released warrants, it was Owens' wife who first told deputies how Joseph died.
District Attorney Todd Williams said that would not decide whether to seek the death penalty or not against Owens until the investigation was complete. Owens is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and the murder of an unborn child, as well as larceny and breaking-and-entering.