Jehovah’s Witness killed wife to collect on insurance

Life & healing after leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses…

20 August 2009

6 Comments
Author: Moxie
Tags: JW murder's wife

A Murrieta man accused of beating his wife to death so he could collect $1.3 million from life insurance policies was “drowning in debt” and appears to have done Internet research on murder methods, the prosecution argued Wednesday during the trial’s opening statements in a French Valley courtroom.

Kelle Lee Jarka, 40, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Isabelle Jarka, 40, his wife of nearly two decades and the mother of his two children, one of whom was still an infant at the time of the killing.

Jarka’s defense attorney, Erin Kirkpatrick, portrayed him as a caring friend and father and devout Jehovah’s Witness who loved his wife and had spent his younger years helping to build churches. Kirkpatrick suggested that Jarka took out the insurance policies because he and his wife had been rattled by the recent death of a close family friend.

According to police, Jarka said he came home after running some errands on the morning of April 28, 2008, to find his house broken into and his wife bludgeoned to death. Police say Jarka killed her and staged the break-in.

Prosecutor Burke Strunsky said Jarka is “preoccupied with money, status and image” and executed a “well-researched but sloppily executed murder.”

The burglary, according to Strunsky, was “transparently staged,” with valuable items such as a laptop and a wad of cash left behind and drawers removed and neatly stacked.

On a laptop that prosecutors say was used almost exclusively by Jarka investigators found records of incriminating-sounding Internet searches, including “poisons that cause instant death” and “how to medically suffocate” and “when to remarry after death,” Strunsky said.

On the morning Isabelle Jarka was found dead, a church elder had spent hours at their home discussing the couple’s marital problems and had not left until about 4 a.m., Strunsky said.

Forensic evidence suggests that Isabelle Jarka likely was lying in bed asleep when the first blow was struck and that the killer appears to have followed her, continuing to strike her in the head, as she struggled across the bedroom floor.

Isabelle’s mother, Tina Canchola, who lived across the street, described on the witness stand how her agitated son-in-law came to her door that morning talking to a 911 dispatcher on his cell phone and carrying his infant son. Canchola, realizing something was wrong, ran across the street and into the Jarka home where she found her daughter, face down in a pool of blood.

Canchola wept as she explained how she got down on her knees next to her daughter.

“I start touching her legs, her back, her hair,” she said.

“Isabelle, answer me,” Canchola repeated to her daughter. “She couldn’t … She was already dead.”

Reach Sarah Burge at 951-375-3736 or sburge@PE.com

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6 Comments »

Gilbert said:

My heart goes out to Isabelle. Geez, if she’s my wife, I would stay a JW!

# 26 August 2009 at 11:56 am

joe said:

Hi sir Ithink that some people are forced to joinjw under some sever circomstancec.may be they are not aware of what they are doing.I see that we are so responsible to show to them the facts.we must stay near those people to tell them the truth.This is our responsibility of realm believers0.

# 2 October 2009 at 3:16 pm

Autumn said:

Hi Joe. No one is forced to be a JW. It’s a decision we all have the right to make. It depends on whether or not you want to know the Truth and believe it. I am saddened for Isabelle and her family. As a believer myself, I know that she will be missed but will be rejoined with her brothers and sisters on the Paradise. May God Bless all of you.

# 23 November 2009 at 11:23 am

SONSON said:

hi everybody, knowing that guy was never a jeh witness. he pretends to be but unfortunately for his wife she’s gone. if she was faithful herself she’ll live again and never die.

# 23 November 2009 at 6:55 pm

rae said:

The truth will come out on what happened, my heart goes out to the family of Isabelle. No one knows trulu what is in our hearts and minds.
Only God knows what really happened, If the husband is telling the truth or is not telling the truth, he being a JW knows the consequenses. And that alone should means alot to him (IF) he is a believer.
He knows what the Bible says about killing someone.
As for Isabelle, she is at rest, and is in the hands of God.

As to Joe, there are Millions of JW”s, and are not puppets as to be forced to join anything, people are of free will, and do whatever they choose to do or join.
I think these people do extensive study, research, and prayer before making a decision in anything they do.
I hope you can one day talk to one and see for yourself the individuality of each JW.

I am sure Isabelle has many friends that will miss her, and look forward to seeing her again.

Isabelle will rest in peace.

# 23 November 2009 at 11:56 pm

Job said:

Joe is right. Alot of people are misled from the truth.

Yes, we have our own free will to chose whose God we want to serve but the truth. Every religion has its own bad testimonies. God will not judge the religion.. It’s the person that the Lord Jesus will deal with in the end. ‘Its by grace we are saved and not of works so that no one can boast’ in the judgement day.

# 12 April 2010 at 9:31 pm