Maryland State Police charged a man with killing his wife after police say they found holes in his story that a carjacker stabbed her to death on the New Jersey Turnpike.
Ryan Holness, 28, was taken into custody late Friday in the murder of 26-year-old Serika Dunkley Holness, whose body was discovered on the side of a rural Eastern Shore road earlier in the day.
The husband had told police the couple had been carjacked on a stop to get gas as they made their way home to Maryland from a visit to relatives in Brooklyn, New York City.
But authorities told FOX 5 in New York that Holness made the story up. State police said information provided by Holness throughout the day did not match that given by witnesses and evidence found at the scene.
Holness, of Lexington Park, was charged with first- and second-degree murder and was being held pending a bond hearing, said state police, who were still searching for the couple's car.
Holness claimed he was bound with duct tape and worked for hours to free himself, FOX 5 reported. Police said he told them he tried to flag down passing motorists but was unable to get anyone to stop and help.
Police said the husband told officers he was forced to drive to the Crumpton area in Kent County, where the carjacker forced him out of the car, and bound his hands and feet. Holness said his wife tried to escape but the carjacker ran her down and killed her before driving away, state police said.
The husband, who was wounded when police arrived, told officers he freed himself after several hours, unsuccessfully tried to flag down motorists and eventually called 911 about 6 a.m. from a nearby home.
Police found the wife's body a few minutes' walk away from that house. An autopsy was being performed.
Click here for more on this story from MyFOXNY.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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