A man seen wheeling his wife’s dead body on a dolly through a Staten Island neighborhood was charged Saturday with murder, authorities said.
Anthony Lopez was spotted early Friday morning carting the body along Post Lane in Mariner's Harbor. He ran away when police pulled up, dumping his wife's body in the grass.
Police nabbed him just before 11 a.m. Saturday after receiving a tip that he was seen in East Harlem. He gave up after a brief foot chase.
Lopez, 31, had changed his appearance by shaving his head, police said.
Later in the day, police charged Lopez, a Bronx resident, with second-degree murder and concealment of a human corpse, authorities said.
There was no indication that he has a lawyer who could comment on his behalf.
Law enforcement sources said there was evidence of trauma on the body of Lopez's wife, who has been identified as 26-year-old Aduba Obiamaka.
Local
Investigators told NBC 4 New York that they suspect Lopez strangled his common-law wife and was attempting to dispose of the body.
The sight of Lopez wheeling the body along the street was alarming, neighbors said.
Cherise Taylor said she was disturbed when she saw the woman's body steps from her front window.
"Half naked, half dressed," said Cherise Taylor. "This don't make no sense, this is not that type of block. This is not that type of neighborhood.
Lopez had been arrested more than 50 times between 2000 and 2016 on charges including robbery, larceny, assault and drug crimes, police sources said.
Taylor said she knows Lopez and that he lives in the area.
"He just walks around," she said. "Don't bother nobody. Everyone's got their issues."
