Just days before Christmas in 2003, Jerry Don Humphrey was found dead in his bed, three gunshot wounds to the head ending his life while the holiday season crept quietly toward Christmas morning.

It would take more than two decades for the case to come full circle.

On Monday, Dec. 22 — exactly 22 years after Humphrey’s death — Texas authorities arrested his wife, Jody Johnston, now 51, charging her with capital murder in connection with the killing, according to the Stafford Police Department.

“After more than two decades, and on the 22nd anniversary of a Christmas Cold Case, detectives have made an arrest in a capital murder investigation,” police said in a statement.

Humphrey, 40 at the time of his death, ran a vehicle repossession business with Johnston, his wife of ten years. According to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by PEOPLE, he was discovered unresponsive in his bedroom on Dec. 22, 2003, with three gunshot wounds to the head.

The grim discovery was made after Johnston asked her father, John Dewitt Gray, to wake her husband. Gray called 911 at 3:21 p.m., initially suspecting the home may have been burglarized.

Gray told detectives he got along well with his son-in-law but described Humphrey as “really bad to his daughter,” alleging that Humphrey physically abused Johnston. According to the affidavit, a family friend told investigators that Johnston had confided just days before the killing that Humphrey had “beaten her up again.”

The friend further claimed Johnston said the only way out of the marriage was “in a body bag,” a phrase she allegedly said Humphrey had repeated to her multiple times.

The case did not remain dormant all those years. In March 2020, police arrested Angel Amescua Jr., a former employee Humphrey had fired, charging him in connection with the killing. Amescua has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is scheduled to begin April 7, 2026, according to court records.

Investigators continued working the case, ultimately leading them back to Johnston. The affidavit alleges that in 2003 she employed Amescua or another unknown individual to murder Humphrey “for remuneration or the promise of remuneration,” specifically money belonging to her.

According to the affidavit, Amescua’s former girlfriend told detectives that he and Johnston were “close” at the time.

Financial details also raised red flags. Johnston told authorities she and her husband had no life insurance policies beyond a single $100,000 policy tied to a business loan. Investigators later discovered four separate policies naming Johnston as the beneficiary, totaling nearly $400,000, the affidavit alleges.

Johnston was ordered held on a $750,000 bond. It is unclear whether she has retained an attorney to speak on her behalf. She is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 2, 2026.

Amescua’s attorney could not be reached for comment.

For a family, a community, and investigators who carried the case through decades of unanswered questions, the arrest marks the end of a long winter — one that began just days before Christmas, with a man found dead in his bed and a mystery that refused to stay buried.