Cops: Husband's Pious Face Masked Killer Inside
Cops turn focus on husband after beating murder of his wife at home.
Nov. 19, 2009 — -- He was the Midwestern boy. She was the California girl. They met in Missouri, through church friends. For Kelle Jarka, it was love at first sight.
Isabelle Canchola would become his wife. In the end, he would be charged with her killing.
"We were young," said Jarka about their early times together. "We were about the same age. She liked to joke around ... very kind, considerate person, happy ... she liked to laugh. Loving person. Always concerned about others. And, of course, I thought she was beautiful."
Isabelle's older sister, Laura McGraw, and her husband, Paul, watched the connection grow.
"The major thing that brought her happiness was that Kelle accepted her family and became so close to her parents," said Laura McGraw.
Isabelle's family said she liked being pursued and gradually fell for Jarka's nice-guy ways. Jarka's family said he was good to her.
"Every time Isabelle said, 'Kelle, I need this,' or 'I want that,' he'd be like, 'OK, here, dear, here's the credit card,'" said Jarka's older sister, Aquilla Schafer. "And it was always, 'Where does she want to go out for dinner?' Because he always put her first in his life."
Bill Schafer, Jarka's brother-in-law, saw the same depth of commitment.
"He truly, absolutely loved her to death," Schafer said.
Click HERE to see video of Kelle Jarka's interrogation.
Isabelle and Kelle were not only devoted to one another: They were equally devoted to their church. The Jarkas were devout Jehovah's Witnesses. They attended services four or five days a week and knocked on doors preaching to strangers for up to 100 hours a month each. Kelle Jarka was an elder in the congregation.
"We are very dedicated to God," he told ABC News.
Nearly 20 years of marriage brought the Jarkas two children, a 12-year-old daughter, Allee, and a 6-month-old boy, Jadon. The family lived comfortably on Kelle's salary as a general contractor. They had a new house in the upscale Los Angeles suburb of Murrieta, a city with one of the lowest crime rates in the United States. They had two luxury cars, a pickup truck and, at a nearby marina, a 36-foot power boat.
Then, one spring morning last year, the pious, peaceful world of the Jarka family home was invaded in the worst of ways. In a 911 call April 28, Kelle Jarka sounded desperate.
"I'm reporting a robbery," Jarka, 39 at the time, said on a tape of the call.
It was 8:45 a.m. Jarka told the dispatcher he had returned from a coffee shop to find signs of a burglary at his home.
"I could hear the baby was crying," Jarka told ABC News. "I yelled out to Isabelle, you know, 'Isabelle, what's wrong with the baby?' and then as I proceeded up the stairs is when I found her. ... That's where I found Isabelle, lying on the landing, by the bedroom."
