A retrial is underway for Joseph Traeger, a Sunrise man accused of killing his estranged wife after Thanksgiving five years ago, getting rid of her body in the household trash, and lying to police detectives investigating her disappearance.
Broward Circuit Judge Ernest Kollra was forced to order a mistrial in the case last November because prosecutors played a recording for the jury that had not been properly edited. Jurors learned that the defendant had failed a polygraph test early in the investigation. Those tests are inadmissible in court.
This time around, there’s been no such error.
Traeger first told police that he had no idea where the victim, Jeneen Ann Catanzaro, went after she was last seen by family members. He then said he found her dead in her home after he came out of a shower, and 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 home.
Catanzaro’s body was never recovered and police believe it was incinerated with the household trash. Traeger told detectives that he made calls and sent text messages from her phone after she was dead to give the impression she was still alive, reports say. He also left a note on the kitchen counter thanking her for letting him back into their home after a fight.
Prosecutors will continue presenting their case on Wednesday.
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-304-5256.