Cristie Schoen, Pregnant ‘Food Network Star,’ Found Murdered With Husband

Devastating news out of Buncombe County, North Carolina: Cristie Schoen Codd, who you may remember as a contestant on Season 8 of the cooking competition Food Network Star, was found murdered with her husband. She was five months pregnant.

An arrest has already been made in the case: 34-year-old Robert Jason Owens was taken into policy custody on Monday (March 16). According to arrest warrants, Owens murdered the budding family on Thursday, March 12, after he broke into their Leicester home and stole a laptop, jewelry and a Glock handgun estimated to be worth $1,500. The couple had been reported missing by family members since Sunday.

Owens, who reportedly lived down the road, had been hired as a contractor to work on the Codds' house. He has been formally charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of murder of an unborn child, breaking and entering and larceny. The killer is also suspected in the disappearance of 18-year-old Zebb Quinn in 2000. If convicted in that case, he faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

Owens made his first court appearance related to the Codd case on March 17, but he is due to appear again on April 7.

"Our thoughts go out to Cristie's family and friends during this difficult time," a Food Network spokesperson told Us Weekly.

Schoen Codd was the first contestant to be eliminated on her season of Food Network Star in 2012.

"She was an amazing, amazing, lovely woman," producer Julie Helton recalled in the Asheville Citizen-Times. "She was a phenomenal cook, and she always invited people over to have dinner and taste some good Southern food. She made some of the most amazing birthday cakes, and her laugh was contagious. Just the two of them together were just so happy and loving. They were just amazing friends."

Cristie had since become a caterer for film sets, and had worked on Terminator. The star of that movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger, tweeted his condolences to her family on Tuesday (March 17).

Her husband, J.T. Codd, worked as a key grip. Both were expected to start new jobs on Sunday, March 17, but sadly never made it there.