Crime & Safety

Body Under Shed Identified as Christine Jarrett

The body discovered Wednesday on Claire Drive has been confirmed as the Elkridge woman missing for 21 years, said the Howard County Police Department.

 

The body of Christine Ann Jarrett, who disappeared from her Elkridge home in January 1991, has been found, said Howard County police on Friday.

"The remains in Elkridge late Wednesday have been confirmed by the medical examiner as those of Christine Jarrett through dental records," said the Howard County Police Department in a statement issued April 20.

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Her husband, Robert Jarrett, was and is being held at Howard County Detention Center without bond.

Police said the cause of death is pending.

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The husband and wife lived with their two boys on Claire Drive when she disappeared more than 21 years ago.

“She was very fun, very vivacious, full of life,” Cindy Fryer, the Jarretts' next-door neighbor, told WJZ.

Another friend described her in similar fashion. Christine Jarrett was a "'decent friend, good mother, and devoted wife and homemaker'" who had a "'sense of humor...and venting personality,'" wrote Marcia Lynn Niedhardt, in case files from the '90s obtained by the Howard County Times.

Robert Jarrett reported Christine missing Jan. 5, 1991. She was last seen Jan. 3, and her husband told police that she walked off, according to charging documents. Court records show he obtained a death certificate for her in 1997 and was divorced from her through the courts in 1993.

Howard County investigators after Robert Jarrett's estranged second wife allowed police to search a shed in the backyard of their property at 6050 Claire Dr. in Elkridge.

Police said in an April 19 statement that but did not have evidence until this week.

A court date has not been set for Robert Jarrett.

Sources close to the family told WJZ that memorial arrangements for Christine Jarrett are pending.

This article was updated to include additional details about Christine Jarrett at 8:27 p.m.


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