ATLANTA — A judge denied bond on Tuesday for the husband of a missing woman whose body was found more than two decades ago.
Police said they finally had evidence to charge Christopher Wolfenbarger with the murder of his wife Melissa.
Channel 2 Action News has been covering this case since the beginning and was the only news station at the hearing on Tuesday.
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Wolfenbarger sat quietly in the Fulton County courtroom of Judge Rachel Krause as prosecutors laid out the case of why he should not get bond.
He is accused of the gruesome murder of his 21-year-old wife in late 1998.
The indictment against him says he inflicted homicidal violence on his wife.
Her family believes he dismembered her body and disposed of it in trash bags along Avon Avenue in Atlanta.
Wolfenbarger’s attorney argued that he was afraid and thought the officers who arrived on his property were a hit squad coming to kill him.
“I think the most reasonable understanding that the evidence that I’ve seen is that Mr. Wolfenberger was attempting to hide himself away and evade the detection of the police with the idea that he would avoid arrest and potentially flee,” Krause said. “And so for that reason, I am not going to reconsider my prior ruling that Mr. Wolfenbarger is not an appropriate candidate for bond.”
Melissa’s mother and sister were present in the courtroom.
“It was just relief and just being glad that he’s still going to be sitting in the Fulton County Jail where he should be,” Melissa’s sister Tina Patton told Channel 2.
Wolfenbarger was indicted for the murder of his wife last August.
He is set to be back in a Fulton County courtroom on May 5.
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