Janet March ruled dead, focus turns to husband: Notorious Nashville
A Nashville attorney was found civilly liable in January 2000 for the death of his artist wife, after she disappeared from their Forest Hills home.
A judge ruled Janet March was dead (even though her body had not been found) and Perry March owed her parents and children $113.5 million in damages for her wrongful death.
The bombshell headlines didn't stop there.
Perry March defied a court order and took his and Janet's elementary school-aged children to live in Illinois. Then, he took the children to a tiny town in Mexico, trying to keep them away from their maternal grandparents, Carolyn and Larry Levine.
Then in June 2000, the grandparents hit back. They got a court order in the United States and got their grandchildren out of Mexico by picking them up from a schoolyard, which a Mexican court would later find illegal.
Welcome to the March murder case.
One headline: March says wife had cocaine problem
Another headline: Grandparents charged with kidnapping
And another: In Sad But Compelling March Tale, More Twists
Arguably, the March case was the most sensational true crime story in the history of Nashville. There were rumors that Perry March had an affair, that Janet March wanted a divorce and that Perry's father was involved in her disappearance. There were rumors Perry March rolled his wife's body in a carpet and kept it in the Forest Hills house for a time before dumping it.
Janet March's body still has never been found.
There were legal fights over millions of dollars in court fees. There were lawsuits and counter lawsuits.
In 2003, the wrongful death judgment was overturned. The Levines, who had taken the children home to Nashville from Mexico, were ordered to give them back to Perry March.
Did the bombshells end there?
No.
In 2004, a Nashville grand jury indicted Perry March in the murder, his first criminal charge in the eight years since Janet March went missing. He was arrested in Mexico (where he had remarried and was working as a financial consultant), he was extradited to Tennessee and the grandparents were given custody of the children.
An inmate in a Davidson County jail said Perry March asked him to kill his in-laws.
The bombshells kept coming.
In 2006, Arthur March, who is Perry's father, confessed to helping his son dump Janet March's body somewhere near Bowling Green, Kentucky. He was not able to lead police to the body. Arthur March agreed to testify against his son in return for a reduced sentence.
Ten years after Perry March said his wife had left him, he was convicted of her murder.
Not only was Perry March sentenced to 56 years for the second-degree murder of Janet March, he was also convicted of conspiracy to commit the murders of Larry and Carolyn Levine.
In December 2006, Arthur March died in federal custody before his sentence was imposed.
The story, however, will never die.
The Tennessean is publishing a Notorious Nashville story for each year from 2000-2024. Catch up on the series here.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Janet March went missing in 1996, Perry March said she left
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