Wednesday 2 April 2014

The Murder of Rosemary Christenson

The killer of Rosemary was finally convicted in July of 2011, putting an end to a 12 year nightmare for her sons and friends, with the jailing of her husband Robert Glenn Temple.  He received life without parole.  The story began many years back when Rosemary and Temple began chatting online.  They met up and became a couple.  Rosemary divorced her then husband to be with Temple.  Her friends thought she was making a bad move, with deep reservations about Temple, who was making extravagant claims about his life.  It was in 1999 that Rosemary disappeared with Temple claiming that she decided to go off with a group of swingers.  He had also claimed that he and Rosemary had indulged in the swingers lifestyle, a claim ridiculed by everybody who knew her.  

    Before Rosemary had disappeared, Temple was carrying on with a young blonde named Lesley Stewart, which basically confirmed the misgivings of her friends. For a number of years, Temple was the prime suspect in the disappearance of Rosemary, but Police had no evidence to arrest him.  Lesley Stewart stayed with Temple for 8 years, having a daughter by him, but in 2008, she went to an attorney and told him everything she knew.  He was bound by the rules of client confidentiality and could not say anything about the case.  Eventually, he was able to talk to Police after Lesley told them her story.  Temple was arrested and charged with murder.  One of Rosemary`s closest friends said that Temple hated her guts because of what she thought of him.  She worked in the same office as Rosemary and told he frequently brought loads of flowers after arguments with her.  Temple told a tv crew he did not know who she was!  

    What Lesley Stewart did was lead Police to where Rosemary was buried.  She was buried in the sand beside the Suwannee River.  Now they finally had her body.  In court, Temple decided to defend himself and made a complete balls of it, failing completely to make any impression on the jury.  He admitted under cross-examination that Rosemary was buried.  When pressed by one of the prosecutors that he was a liar, Temple responded with "I misinformed them!"  He claimed he told a psychologist what really happened with Rosemary, and when pressed for the name of the doctor, he steadfastly refused!  Lesley Stewart said that she went to Temple`s condo in Belleair, Florida, where Rosemary was lying in a pool of blood.  Temple claimed she died accidentally in a struggle, after sneaking up behind him yielding a knife.  He then persuaded her to help him bury her, otherwise she would be a suspect and would be jailed.  He claimed that Stewart stabbed Rosemary during a struggle whilst they were both in his condo alone.

    He railed against the prosecution offering her total immunity in return for testimony against him.  The prosecutor reminded the jury that she would not face charges PROVIDING she told the whole truth and did not participate in the actual murder.  If evidence was found to say otherwise, then the deal would be off, and she would be charged.  The jury found him guilty, and that he was completely unbelievable, giving that he was changing the story, over and over.  He claimed he had been wrongly convicted by prosecution dirty tricks and a corrupt judge!  Also the real killer helped put him away!  A truly compulsive liar and sociopath is out of the way for good.

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