Christopher Wolfenbarger (Law&Crime).

A Georgia man leaned back in his wheelchair and breathed a sigh of relief after a jury acquitted Friday for the 1998 murder of his wife.

After just two hours of deliberation, a jury in Fulton County acquitted Christopher Wolfenbarger of the murder of his wife, Melissa Wolfenbarger. Charges were brought against him the previous year by a task force that was convinced it had sufficient evidence to prove his guilt.

The last known contact Melissa had with her family was on Thanksgiving in 1998. Concerns arose when she failed to attend her mother’s birthday celebration a few months later. In April 1999, investigators discovered a severed head inside a black trash bag at Christopher’s workplace in Atlanta, and additional remains were found about a month afterward.

Initially, these remains were mistakenly identified as belonging to a missing man. It wasn’t until 2003 that they were correctly identified as Melissa’s. This breakthrough came after her father, Carl Patton, was arrested and connected to the series of 1970s killings known as the Flint River Murders, for which he is currently serving a life sentence.

Authorities suspect the murder took place between December 10, 1998, and April 29, 1999. During questioning, Christopher claimed he thought his wife had relocated to California to start anew and has consistently declared his innocence.

“Yeah, I have a criminal history. But I’m not a murderer,” he told Dateline in 2021.

Nonetheless, prosecutors argued that he was responsible due to their troubled relationship. Melissa’s sister recounted an incident from the summer before her disappearance, where Christopher reportedly assaulted Melissa and dragged her by her hair along a sidewalk.

By being acquitted, the defendant avoided a life sentence.