Jury convicts Sunrise man accused of hiding the body of his wife after killing her
A Broward jury took less than an hour to find Joseph Traeger guilty of second-degree murder in a case that was complicated somewhat by the fact that the body of the victim, his estranged wife Jeneen Ann Catanzaro, has never been found.
It wasn’t just what Joseph Traeger said about the death of his estranged wife, Jeneen Ann Catanzaro, a prosecutor said Thursday. It was how he said it.
Assistant State Attorney Pascale Achille on Thursday played the confession video in which Traeger admitted stabbing Catanzaro. There was no hysteria. No emotion. He stabbed her in the back of the neck, he said calmly, showing no obvious signs of regret or remorse.
A Broward jury then took less than an hour to find Traeger guilty as charged of second-degree murder in a case that was complicated somewhat by the fact that the victim’s body has never been found. Traeger, 56, faces a maximum term of life in prison when he is sentenced May 2.
Although the jury also found Traeger guilty of tampering with physical evidence, Broward Circuit Judge Ernest Kollra decided Thursday that the evidence did not prove Traeger’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, a small consolation for the defense given the severity of the murder charge and the potential for a life sentence.
Traeger’s lawyer, assistant public defender Joseph Dewey, reminded jurors that the account Traeger gave of stabbing his wife was actually the third story he told police about what happened on Nov. 28, 2019.
The first story, told when the victim was reported missing, was that he did not know where Catanzaro was. Later, he told police that he found his wife dead of natural causes.
He said he got rid of the body because he was afraid he would be blamed for her death.
He finally told detectives he stabbed Catanzaro during a fight about his desire to move back in with her. He admitted to fatally stabbing the victim and using three garbage bags to conceal her body, leaving her in a trash can on the curb in front of their Sunrise home.
Catanzaro’s body was never recovered and police believe it was incinerated with the household trash.
Traeger argued that his client’s confession was not reliable and that there’s no evidence other than Traeger’s statement to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that he even killed her.
But his statement was enough for the jury.
Kollra ordered a routine investigation into Traeger’s criminal background and personal history to determine the most appropriate prison sentence.
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457. Follow him on Threads at @rafael.olmeda