The Rosemary Christensen murder case is the 1999 killing of a Belleair, Florida real estate agent by her husband, Robert Glenn Temple, that went unsolved for nine years because the only witness — Temple’s girlfriend, who had helped bury the body — stayed silent, and the attorney she confided in was bound by privilege. The case broke open in 2008 when the girlfriend, Lesley Stewart, finally agreed to lead investigators to Christensen’s remains along the Suwannee River. Temple was charged with first-degree murder, convicted at trial in 2011, sentenced to life in prison, and died behind bars in 2018.
Who Rosemary Christensen Was
Rosemary Anne Christensen was born in Ringwood, Victoria, Australia, and was the ex-wife of a diplomat. Her two sons, Radinck and Oliver Van Vollenhoven, lived in the Netherlands. By the late 1990s she had settled in Pinellas County, Florida, where she worked as a real estate agent at a Century 21 office on Indian Rocks Beach.1Tampa Bay Times. Sons Fear Worst but Hope for Best She was in her early forties and married to Robert Glenn Temple.
Temple had a violent record. In 1975, he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in California for the beating death of an 18-month-old child, the child of a girlfriend at the time, and served five years in prison.2NBC News. Missing Florida Woman’s Body Found After Nine Years He had been arrested for domestic abuse against Christensen before they married; she pressed charges and later withdrew them. Co-workers said she sometimes arrived at the office with bruises she tried to hide. Friends described Temple as intensely jealous, calling the office repeatedly and showing up uninvited when she met friends for lunch.
The 1999 Disappearance
Christensen last emailed her sons on August 21, 1999. On August 26, she failed to show up at work or at a company beach party, which co-workers said was completely out of character.3Charley Project. Rosemary Anne Christensen Friends who went to the couple’s Belleair condo found the drapes drawn, Christensen’s car and Temple’s motorcycle in place, and her cell phone left on the counter, which she never did.
Temple told detectives the couple were “swingers” and suggested Christensen had run off with a man she met on a swinger website. He wept to reporters: “I love my wife, I just want her back. I couldn’t do anything to harm her.”4WTSP. 1999 Disappearance Solved, Husband Charged With Murder Investigators later found that the condo’s carpet had been cut out, the walls repainted, and a list of cleaning supplies consistent with scrubbing a homicide scene.2NBC News. Missing Florida Woman’s Body Found After Nine Years Without a body or a cooperating witness, the case stalled. Christensen’s sons flew to Tampa that September to publicly reject Temple’s story and search for their mother, but no new leads emerged.5Tampa Bay Times. Defending Their Mother’s Honor
The Lawyer Who Knew
What the public did not learn until 2008 was that within days of Christensen’s disappearance, Temple and his 22-year-old girlfriend, Lesley Stewart, had jointly consulted Clearwater attorney Denis de Vlaming. De Vlaming identified a conflict of interest, kept Temple as his client, and referred Stewart to a separate lawyer, Jay Hebert.6The Ledger. Secret of Murder Has Haunted Lawyer
Stewart told Hebert that Temple had killed Christensen and that she had helped him clean up and bury the body. By her account, Temple summoned her to the condo, where she found Christensen dead in a pool of blood with stab wounds. He told her it had been an accident during a struggle and warned that no one would believe him given his criminal past. The two wrapped the body in a plastic storage container, sealed it with duct tape, and buried it on property owned by Stewart’s father near the Suwannee River in Gilchrist County.7Gainesville Sun. Body Found Along Suwannee Is That of Pinellas Woman Missing Since ’99 They scattered Christensen’s belongings in dumpsters.
Hebert urged Stewart to go to the police. She refused and left Florida with Temple, eventually settling in Redding, California. That left Hebert knowing where a murder victim was buried and legally forbidden to say so, even anonymously. Bobbi Flowers, a professor at Stetson University College of Law, said Hebert could have been disbarred for revealing what his client told him. Florida ethics rules require a lawyer to alert authorities only about a crime that will occur in the future; because the killing had already happened, no exception applied.8Tampa Bay Times. Secret of Woman’s 1999 Murder Haunted Lawyer
Hebert, who also taught legal ethics at Stetson, later called it “probably the most difficult case I’ve had to wrestle with” in nearly two decades of criminal law practice. For years he drove past a billboard soliciting tips in Christensen’s case on his way to work.9ABA Journal. Client Who Told Lawyer in 1999 She Buried Body Now Tells Authorities Pinellas County detective Michael Bailey, who had worked the case, said he held no grudge: “He just couldn’t. If he could have given us some linkage, he would have.”6The Ledger. Secret of Murder Has Haunted Lawyer
How the Case Broke Open
In the summer of 2008, Stewart broke away from Temple and traveled to a family reunion in Washington State. She contacted Hebert and told him Temple had recently threatened to kill her and her daughter. This time, she wanted to talk.2NBC News. Missing Florida Woman’s Body Found After Nine Years
Hebert negotiated an immunity agreement with prosecutors. Stewart had to provide truthful information, lead investigators to the body, and avoid any evidence tying her to the killing itself.9ABA Journal. Client Who Told Lawyer in 1999 She Buried Body Now Tells Authorities She directed investigators to an isolated spot south of County Road 344 along the Suwannee River.
On September 8, 2008, a forensic team used ground probes to locate a buried object. They uncovered a plastic storage container roughly 18 inches tall and 35 inches long, wrapped in duct tape and buried upside down. Inside was Christensen’s body, in a fetal position and wearing a nightgown, with trauma to her upper body. She was identified through dental records.7Gainesville Sun. Body Found Along Suwannee Is That of Pinellas Woman Missing Since ’99
Two days later, on September 10, 2008, Robert Glenn Temple was charged with first-degree murder. He was already in custody in California on unrelated assault charges.4WTSP. 1999 Disappearance Solved, Husband Charged With Murder Stewart was not charged.
Trial, Conviction, and Death in Prison
Temple was extradited to Florida in 2008.10WFLA. Notorious Tampa Bay Killer Dies in Prison His trial took place in 2011, when he was 61, and he chose to represent himself.
Stewart was the prosecution’s central witness. She testified that she had found Christensen’s body in a pool of blood at the Belleair condo in August 1999 and that Temple had persuaded her to help clean the apartment and bury the body, warning her that police would blame her. “I don’t like re-living this,” she told the jury.11Tampa Bay Times. Son Testifies at Murder Trial Christensen’s younger son, Oliver Van Vollenhoven, also testified, confronting Temple directly and asking why he showed no remorse.
Temple offered the jury a different account. He claimed Christensen had attacked him with a knife and was accidentally cut during the struggle, echoing what he had told Stewart in 1999.11Tampa Bay Times. Son Testifies at Murder Trial In a separate statement he had given investigators after his arrest, he blamed Stewart for the killing and said he had only helped cover it up because his criminal record would make him a suspect anyway.2NBC News. Missing Florida Woman’s Body Found After Nine Years The jury convicted him. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Temple died in prison on December 11, 2018. He had been in poor health since his extradition. WFLA reporter Mark Douglas, who had conducted jailhouse interviews with him over the years, said Temple continued to maintain his innocence in letters from prison.10WFLA. Notorious Tampa Bay Killer Dies in Prison