FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A missing Sunrise woman's husband has confessed to killing her and dumping her body in a trash bin, police said.
Joseph Traeger was arrested Friday on charges of murder, tampering with physical evidence and knowingly giving false information to law enforcement.
According to an arrest report, the mother of Jeneen Ann Catanzaro reported her missing Dec. 2. Traeger told detectives he last saw his wife Nov. 29, before he left to go to work, authorities said.
Traeger told detectives he "wasn't the cop-calling type" when asked why he didn't report his wife missing sooner, authorities said.
According to the report, Traeger told police he had been married to Catanzaro for 10 and a half years, but they were having marital problems because of his heroin addiction and financial issues.
Authorities said he initially claimed that he went to his wife's home Nov. 28. Police said he told them he was taking a shower and then went downstairs, where he found Catanzaro lying in a pool of blood.
Traeger claimed he believed that his wife had a seizure and fell onto the kitchen floor, causing her to injure her head, the report stated.
According to the arrest report, Traeger claimed he panicked and placed his wife's body in three large trash bags and then placed her body into the trash bin for pickup. He circled the neighborhood until the garbage bin was emptied and then went to a casino for the remainder of the day, authorities said.
Detectives also spoke to numerous friends and relatives, who said that Traeger had been violent toward Catanzaro in the past.
"She was a very good person. She was very kind. She was very sweet," Catanzaro's neighbor, Jessica Scholtz, said.
Police said Traeger's stepfather also told them that Traeger had been convicted of attempted murder in 1997. He said Traeger strangled and raped his ex-wife when she tried to leave him, the report stated.
According to the arrest report, Traeger's stepfather told detectives that he warned Catanzaro of his stepson's violent tendencies and told her never to be alone with him and to divorce him. He said he also made her contact him every morning when she woke up so he would know she was alive.
Authorities said Traeger contacted a detective Thursday and asked to come to the Sunrise Police Department, where he confessed to killing his wife because he became enraged when she refused to allow him to move back.
Police said Traeger claimed that Catanzaro grabbed the phone to call 911 because he refused to leave, at which time he grabbed the phone from her, forced her onto the kitchen floor and placed his hand over her mouth to keep her quiet.
Police said he claimed that he didn't want neighbors to hear her screaming.
He then saw a knife on the kitchen counter, grabbed it and stabbed his wife one time in the back of the head, at the base of the skull, authorities said.
Police said Traeger claimed that Catanzaro died instantly.
He said he washed the knife in the dishwasher and then threw it out in a dumpster of an unknown restaurant, authorities said.
It's unclear whether authorities have found Catanzaro's body.
Traeger is being held without bond.