A WIFE has been arrested for her husband's murder 35 years after she escaped scrutiny with a bizarre lie involving a goose bite.

Judith Jarvis, now 75, was under fire following the 1987 death of her husband Carl - her creative thinking set Pennsylvania police on a decades-long investigation.

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The black widow was arrested and charged on Tuesday after newfound DNA evidence linked her to the crime, Perry County District Attorney Lauren Eichelberger announced at a press conference.

Judith called cops to their home right after midnight on August 10, 1987, to report an argument between the two, an affidavit reveals.

She said that her husband had shot himself, according to the documents.

Officials arrived to discover 42-year-old Carl R Jarvis dead from a gunshot wound inside their Millerstown home, state police said.

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Police found blood on the right sleeve of Judith's pajamas, which she said was her own from a goose bite.

Investigators would later learn the blood actually came from Jarvis, who was mercilessly shot in the back of the head.

NIGHT OF THE KILLING

Pennsylvania state police found Judith outside the home when they responded to her call.

She said that she fled the home out of fear due to her husband "breaking things."

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Authorities said that they were the only two home that night.

Carl's naked body was discovered between a bed and wall in the bedroom on the western side of the house.

Officials later determined that he was struck in the back of the head by a .22-caliber revolver with a two-inch trigger guard that was found at the scene.

"Carl Jarvis would not have been capable of walking or performing any voluntary/directional movement following that brain trauma," police said in the affidavit, according to Penn Live.

"Doctor Mihalakis [an Allentown forensic pathologist] concluded that it would be essentially impossible for the victim to shoot himself in the manner in which the body was found."

An autopsy also confirmed that Jarvis had a 0.13 percent BAC at the time of his death.

However, police were unable to find enough evidence to press charges.

INVESTIGATION LAUNCHED

Judith claimed that the blood found on her pajamas belonged to herself after she suffered the goose attack.

The Pennsylvania State Police Laboratory identified the blood as type O - the same type as Carl's.

While this didn't lead to any charges, investigators held on to the pajamas as the case grew cold.

In 2019, the case was reassigned to troopers Kyle Tobin and Trisha Campbell, who decided to resubmit the blood sample for analysis and compare it to one of Carl's hairs.

The DNA was a match, confirming the carnage wasn't due to a rogue fowl.

A forensic pathologist was approached by police with the bombshell update.

The expert confirmed that Carl's cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head and ruled it was a homicide.

"I would like to thank the Pennsylvania State Police for their dedication to solving every crime in Perry County and the Commonwealth," said Eichelberger on Tuesday.

"It gives me courage that we'll continue to find answers to cases like this, particularly with the use of more advanced technology."

Carl's obituary states that he was an Army sergeant who fought in Vietnam. He was survived by his parents, two brothers, and two sisters.

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Judith has been taken into custody on a murder charge and arraigned in court. She is currently being held in Cumberland County Prison on no bail.

Eichelberger confirmed that this is a death penalty case.