CRUMPTON - — CRUMPTON - - A man who initially said his wife was fatally stabbed by a carjacker who forced them to drive to the Eastern Shore has been charged in her killing, Maryland State Police said.
Ryan D. Holness, 28, of the 4800 block of Spinnaker Court in Lexington Park, has been charged with first- and second-degree murder in the death of his wife, Serika Dunkley Holness, 26, of the same address, said state police spokesman Greg Shipley.
State police said information provided by Holness throughout the day did not match that provided by witnesses and evidence found at the scene.
Holness was to be taken before a court commissioner in Kent County late Friday night for a bond hearing.
He told investigators that he and his wife, who also owned a home in Brooklyn, N.Y., had departed for Lexington Park at 9 p.m. Thursday.
While stopped for gas on the New Jersey Turnpike, he told police, an armed man forced his way into their car.
Police said the husband told troopers he was forced to drive to the Crumpton area in Kent County, where the carjacker forced him out of the car on Route 290 about four miles north of U.S. 301 and bound his hands and feet.
The body of Ms. Holness was found by police lying in a field alongside Route 290 about 6 a.m. with knife wounds to her upper body. The area is a sparsely populated Eastern Shore road, where houses sit a quarter-mile apart.
Holness told police his wife tried to escape then but the carjacker ran her down and killed her, Shipley said.
Holness said the man, who was armed with a knife and gun, drove away about 1:30 a.m. in the couple's blue Honda Accord with Virginia registration 876-718 or KDZ-1408.
The husband, who was wounded when police arrived, told officers he freed himself after several hours, unsuccessfully tried to flag down motorists for help and eventually called 911 about 6 a.m. from a nearby home.
Police found his wife's body a few minutes' walk away from that house.
The husband was treated at Chester River Hospital Center in Chestertown for cuts on his arm and a cracked rib. An autopsy will be performed on his wife's body.
New York City police, New Jersey State Police and Kent County Sheriff's Office are also investigating, Shipley said.
