A Florida man who challenged police to “find the body” in his Boynton Beach home was arrested Saturday when his wife’s remains were found in his backyard.

The victim, Mary Stella Gomez-Mullet, was reported missing Feb. 20, when a friend called to tell police she’d last spoken to her by phone two days earlier. The friend later revealed she had overheard Gomez-Mullet yelling, “No, no, no Roberto!” and calling out her friend’s name before the call disconnected, according to a police report obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel and local news station WPTV. When she tried to call back, the phone went straight to voicemail.

That same day, police received a report of a bloody handbag located less than a mile from Colon’s home. Family members later confirmed the items, including a crucifix strung on a white rosary chain, belonged to Gomez-Mullet. According to the police report, “all family members and friends were adamant that something must have happened to Gomez.”

Boynton Beach Police Department

Gomez-Mullet, 45, and Colon, 66, were married in January at the Delray Beach courthouse, according to WPTV. Colon described the marriage to detectives as a sort of quid pro quo arrangement, in which Gomez-Mullet received U.S. citizenship in exchange for taking care of Colon’s mother, who has dementia.

Apparently, however, the arrangement had started to disintegrate. Colon accused Gomez-Mullet of defrauding his mother out of several thousands of dollars, and told police they were arguing about it when she came to his house on Feb. 18. (Her friend later told police that Gomez-Mullet went to Colon’s house to drop off the items he claimed she stole and cut contact with him.) Colon claimed he left the house to go to a doctor’s appointment, and when he returned, Gomez-Mullet was gone.

When detectives arrived at Colon’s apartment Feb. 24 for a follow-up interview, they found most of his text messages and call history had been deleted, according to the police report. They also observed several red markings on his front door, and what looked like blood splatter on the floor, walls, window, and even ceiling of his workshop. Colon claimed the blood splatter in his workshop must have come from his dog; it was later confirmed to be human.

Two days later, when detectives arrived to search his apartment, Colon was combative, challenging them to “find the body, find the body.” According to the police report, he described his workshop as an “abattoir,” or a place where animals are butchered, and his wife as a “piece of shit bitch.” As the detectives were leaving he smirked and told them, “At least you didn’t find a body at my house.”

But detectives were back on March 5 to arrest Colon—not for the murder of his wife, but for possession of marijuana found in his apartment during the previous search. Two days earlier, a source had informed police that she heard Colon and Gomez-Mullet arguing weeks before, and that Colon threatened to strangle her to death and bury her in his backyard.

Sure enough, when detectives swept Colon’s apartment again, they found human remains in the backyard, which were positively identified on Friday as those of Gomez-Mullet.

Colon was transported to the Boynton Beach Police Department for processing, but not before detectives overheard him telling a friend: “There’s one thing they can’t do, they can’t put what’s his name, Humpty Dumpty back together again.”

Colon was booked into the main Palm Beach County jail Friday on a charge of first-degree murder. An attorney for Colon could not immediately be identified.