Questions Remain in Woman's Death, but Husband Is Charged

The way Ryan D. Holness told it, he and his wife had stopped to get gas off the New Jersey Turnpike on Thursday when they were approached by a stranger carrying a gun and wearing a mask. The man forced the St. Mary's County couple to drive to Maryland's Eastern Shore, Holness told police, where the assailant killed Holness's wife and left the husband bound with duct tape on the side of the road.

It was a harrowing tale, fit for a true crime novel. Problem is, police said, virtually none of it was true.

On Friday, less than 24 hours after Holness relayed his story to investigators, police charged the 28-year-old with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, 26-year-old Serika Holness. When, where and why he killed her is unclear, said Greg Shipley, a spokesman for the Maryland State Police, which investigated the case in Kent County. What is clear is that physical evidence and witness accounts did not jibe with the story Holness offered, Shipley said.

Holness and his wife were returning from Brooklyn, N.Y., on Thursday night after visiting relatives, and at some point, the couple pulled off at a rest stop, Shipley said. But that, he added, "is pretty much where the truth ends in this story."

The Holnesses lived in Lexington Park, and he was an air traffic controller at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, authorities said. He was a petty officer 2nd class in the Navy and had worked at the air station since November 2007, said John Romer, a base spokesman.

Holness contacted police about 6 a.m. Friday, after he made his way to a home in the 10000 block of Route 290 in the Crumpton area and told a resident to call 911. When police arrived, Holness told them he and his wife were returning from New York and were carjacked at a rest stop between turnpike exits 8A and 8. He said the carjacker -- whom he described as wearing a ski mask, gloves and a black hooded sweat shirt -- forced him to drive to Crumpton, about 120 miles away.

There, according to Holness, the assailant forced the couple out of the car and attacked Serika Holness as she tried to run away. Holness told police the carjacker bound his hands and feet with duct tape, then fled in his leased blue 2007 Honda Accord. Holness said he managed to free himself and walk to the nearby house.

Police later found Serika Holness, with apparent stab wounds to her upper body, in a field along the southbound side of Route 290. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators recovered duct tape, Shipley said, but also found the wife's pocketbook, with credit cards still inside, an indication she had not been robbed.

According to state police, Ryan Holness had stab wounds to his arm and might have fractured a rib, possibly indicating a struggle between him and his wife. They also found text messages between Holness and a woman he described as his girlfriend, at least one of which suggested he was planning to divorce his wife, according to media reports.

Police recovered Holness's Honda late Friday in the 600 block of I Street NW in the District, Shipley said. It is unclear how it got there, he said.

Holness was being held at the Kent County Detention Center.