Joseph Edward Traeger stabs Jeneen Ann Catanzaro to death before dumping her body in the trash outside before going to a casino for the rest of the day.
A Florida man has been arrested after allegedly fatally stabbing his wife then dumping her body outside in the trash to be picked up by the garbage truck, according to cops.
Joseph Edward Traeger, 50, was arrested Thursday in connection to the murder of Jeneen Ann Catanzaro, his 50-year-old wife, at their Sunrise residence, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
Catanzaro was last seen alive Nov. 28, but not reported missing by her husband until four days later, officials said.
When asked why he didn’t immediately report her disappearance, Traeger told cops that he’s ‘not the cop-calling type.’
Prior to his arrest, Trager said he was ‘devastated’ that his wife of ten years was missing.
‘She meant the world to me, my wife. I have known her since… I was 10 years old. We have known each other 40 years,’ Traeger told via WFOR.
The missing woman’s body was discovered several miles away from the couple’s home at a landfill in Davie.
Traeger later confessed to police that he was arguing with his wife in their kitchen when he took a knife and stabbed her at the base of her skull.
He told investigators that he ‘panicked’ when he saw the blood, wrapped her body with three garbage bags then left her in a trash can on the curb. Once the trash was picked up, Traeger said he went to a casino for the rest of the day.
ABC News reported the husband stabbing his wife after the woman refused to let Traeger move back in to the couple’s home.
According to arrest documents, Traeger told police they were married for 10 years but were arguing over financial problems and faced ‘marital problems over the past year due to his heroin addiction’.
Prior to her murder, Catanzaro had filed two domestic battery reports against her husband this year.
Traeger’s stepfather told cops he’d been warning Catanzaro about Traeger’s ‘violent behavior’ for over a month. The stepfather told police ‘he made Jeneen promise to call every morning when she woke up so he would know that she was alive’.
Traeger faces charges of murder, knowingly giving false info to law enforcement and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.