Wife said blood on pajamas was from goose bite. Now she’s charged with murder, cops say

Judith Ann Jarvis called for help in August 1987 reporting that she and her husband had gotten into a fight, according to Pennsylvania State Police. She said she was scared, adding that he was breaking things in their house.

When state troopers arrived about 35 minutes later at 12:47 a.m. on Aug. 10, they said they found the wife outside her Millerstown home. She said she’d hadn’t been inside since calling for police.

The troopers tried calling for her husband, Carl Jarvis, but were unable to get him to respond, according to a probable cause statement. They went inside, finding him naked and on the floor between a bed and bedroom wall.

Carl Jarvis had been shot in the back of his head and was pronounced dead at 12:54 a.m. that morning, police said. A revolver was found on the bed, and he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.13.

Now decades later, Judith Jarvis has been charged with murder in the death of her husband, according to a Dec. 13 news release.

An investigation into the cold case “determined that the death could not have been the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” the Perry County District Attorney’s Office said in the release. “This determination was based on the physical evidence, including new DNA analysis, and the conclusions of forensic pathologists who have reviewed the case.”

During the early investigation, authorities found blood stains on a sleeve of the blue and white pajamas Judith Jarvis was wearing that night, police said. She said it “would probably be hers from a goose bite.”

But a test in 1987 found that the blood was from a human with type “O” blood, officials said, the same blood type as Carl Jarvis. Judith Jarvis told investigators her blood type is A.

A forensic pathologist found that the gunshot wound’s damage to Carl Jarvis’ brain would have made him collapse immediately, police said in the affidavit. The doctor said “it would be essentially impossible for the victim to shoot himself in the manner in which the body was found.”

No charges were filed, though, leaving the case unsolved, according to the news release.

With new technology available, in October 2020, investigators resubmitted the blue pajamas to the Pennsylvania State Police Laboratory along with a hair from Carl Jarvis for a DNA analysis.

The blood on Judith Jarvis’ pajama sleeves was a match for her husband’s DNA, authorities said.

Investigators interviewed Judith Jarvis in January 2021, and she again said the blood was from a goose bite, according to the affidavit, “but further stated that the bite didn’t really bleed and was more just bruised.”

She denied the blood could have been her husband’s, officials said. She said nobody was bleeding before she called police and said she didn’t see his body until after police got to their home.

“Judith Jarvis had no explanation as to how Carl Jarvis’ blood got on her sleeve and maintained that she had no contact with (his) body,” officials said. “When it was suggested that it was virtually impossible for blood transfer to occur between her and the victim, Judith Jarvis agreed ‘absolutely.’”

Authorities said she “adamantly denied” shooting her husband in self-defense or otherwise, and she was “almost 100%” certain nobody else was in the house with them at the time he was killed.

In 2022, investigators sought another review by a forensic pathologist, who also agreed Carl Jarvis was killed, officials said.

Given the blood stains, that Carl Jarvis could not have shot himself and the fact that the Jarvis’ were the only two people in the home, police requested an arrest warrant for Judith Jarvis.

She is now charged with murder in the cold case.

“I would like to thank the Pennsylvania State Police for their dedication to solving every crime in Perry County and the Commonwealth,” District Attorney Lauren C. Eichelberger said in a release. “It gives me great courage that we’ll continue to find answers to cases like this, particular with the use of more advanced technology.”

Millerstown is about 30 miles northwest of Harrisburg.

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