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Report: Possible remains found of Food Network star

Report: Possible remains found of Food Network star

Investigators think they discovered human remains on the North Carolina property of a man who was charged with murder in connection with a missing pregnant Food Network star and her husband, police said Friday, according to NBC News.

Robert Jason Owens, 36, of Leicester, in western North Carolina, was charged Monday with two counts of felony first-degree murder and felony murder of an unborn child in connection with the deaths of Cristie Schoen Codd, 38, and Joseph T. Codd, 45.

Investigators wouldn’t say at the time whether the victims’ bodies had been discovered, and still couldn’t say for sure Friday. But Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan said during a news conference that a search of Owens’ property Monday turned up what police “believe” could be human remains in a wood stove. The possible remains are undergoing forensic analysis, Duncan said, but he wouldn’t say whether they were burned.

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(AP) ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Authorities have charged a North Carolina man with first-degree murder in the deaths of a former contestant from the TV show “Food Network Star,” her husband and their unborn child.

Robert Jason Owens is being held without bond in the deaths of Cristie Schoen Codd, 38, and Joseph “J.T.” Codd, 45, the Asheville Citizen-Times reported Wednesday (http://avlne.ws/1MGHPqo).

Cristie Codd was originally from Biloxi, Mississippi, and had worked as a movie-set caterer. She was a contestant on “Food Network Star” during its eighth season.

Owens, 36, did odd jobs for the couple at their home in the small mountain community of Leicester, Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan said. They were reported missing by family members on Sunday, after their cherished dogs were found alone in the house.

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Investigators wouldn’t disclose where or when the couple’s bodies were found, though search warrants in the case said they may have been killed Thursday.

A phone message seeking comment from Owens’ court-appointed lawyer, Assistant Capital Defender M. Victoria Jayne, was not returned.

In addition to the murder counts, Owens is charged with breaking and entering and larceny. According to investigators, Owens broke into the Codds’ home, stealing a laptop, jewelry and a Glock handgun.

Sheriff Duncan told the newspaper that Owens was the “primary suspect” 15 years ago in the disappearance of college student Zebb Quinn, whose body was never found.

The case, which remains open, is one of the region’s best-known unsolved crimes and was featured on the Investigation Discovery Channel show “Disappeared” in 2012.

Quinn vanished on the night of Jan. 2, 2000. A student at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, Quinn had gotten off work at the Hendersonville Road Walmart at 9 p.m. He planned to go look at a car for sale with a co-worker — Owens, who was 21 at the time.

Surveillance video recovered from a convenience store video showed Quinn and Owens buying sodas and driving away. It was the last time anyone is known to have seen the teen alive.

A judge later issued a search warrant authorizing officers to draw hair, blood and saliva samples from Owens. But with no body, police never had the evidence to charge Owens in Quinn’s disappearance, the newspaper reported.



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