A North Carolina man has pleaded guilty to murdering a former Food Network contestant, her husband and their unborn child, whose dismembered remains were discovered burned in a wood stove near their property.
Robert Jason Owens admitted Friday in state superior court that he killed Cristie Schoen Codd, a chef who once competed on the reality television show Food Network Star. He also admitted to killing her husband, Joseph Codd, and the couple's unborn daughter, Skylar, the Citizen-Times reported.
Owens told investigators he killed Cristie and J.T. Codd in March 2015. According to the Citizen-Times, Owens said he accidentally ran over the couple as they tried to move their car out of a ditch, first hitting his car's accelerator and ramming them, then backing over them.
He then hauled their bodies into their house, where he dismembered them with a reciprocating saw and placed their parts into plastic bags, he reportedly told investigators. From there, he took the remains to a wood stove at a mobile home on his property and burned them, according to the Citizen-Times. He told police he moved the couple's cars and sold their belongings to make it look like a robbery, WSPA reported.
Under the plea deal, Owens, 37, will avoid the death penalty and instead serve a minimum of 59 and a half years in prison, according to local media. Prosecutors said family members of the Codds had approved the agreement.