A judge declared a mistrial for an accused murderer because jurors heard through video that he failed a polygraph test, contrary to a ruling to omit such evidence from court.
Prosecutors in Broward County, Florida, must start over in showing that Joseph Edward Traeger, 55, killed his estranged wife, Jeneen Ann Catanzaro, 50, according to Miami NBC affiliate WTVJ.
“On the afternoon of November 28, 2023, the State published State’s Exhibit 41, which contained five videos,” the defense wrote in a motion filed Tuesday. “The second segment of the videos on State’s 41 (Disc 8) depicts a conversation between Det. Haggard and Mr. Treager. At the 8:12 mark, Det. Haggard says to Mr. Traeger: ‘then you failed a polygraph.’ This was clearly heard by the jury.”
Cops said Traeger killed his estranged wife, Jeneen Ann Catanzaro, 50, and successfully hid her body.
Joseph Traeger murdered his estranged wife, Jeneen Catanzaro, police said. (Screenshot of the residence: WPLG; mug shot of Traeger: Broward County Sheriff’s Office; image of Catanzaro: City of Sunrise Police Department)
Investigators allegedly got a confession after he told them shifting stories about what happened to his wife, who went missing at the end of November 2018. According to documents, Traeger claimed he had moved back into their home. Married for 10 and a half years, they were having marital problems because of his heroin addiction and financial problems. He reported her missing on Dec. 2, 2018.
“I’m not the cop-calling type,” Traeger said in documents when asked why he waited to report Catanzaro’s disappearance.
Detectives noted the defendant’s history, including a 1997 conviction for physically abusing another woman, his ex-wife. Charges included attempted murder for choking her.
A close friend of Catanzaro described helping her on Nov. 3, 2018, after Traeger attacked the victim by chest bumping her, causing her to fall on the front porch and suffer a large cut above her left eye, according to documents.
Catanzaro filed a separate domestic battery complaint against Traeger on June 22, 2018, saying they argued, and he pushed her down a flight of stairs, injuring her shoulder, police said.
A close friend told cops that on Nov. 3, 2018, she was walking her dog past Catanzaro’s home when she saw the victim sitting on the porch with blood all over her face, documents stated. At the time, Catanzaro said Traeger attacked her after they argued over his heroin use.
According to Traeger, Catanzaro had told him to move out in the last week of October 2018 because of their constant fighting, and at her request, he moved back in on Nov. 28, 2018.
He said after he last saw his wife, he tried to call her over the following three days, but it went directly to voicemail.
Catanzaro left him her debit card to use, he claimed in documents. Traeger said he used his wife’s debit card at a gas station and supermarket because he did not have money in his debit account.
According to Traeger, his wife frequented two gyms. But the owner of those gyms said she had last attended on Nov. 27, 2018.
Investigators determined through surveillance footage that Catanzaro last arrived home at 6:54 p.m. on Nov. 27, 2018. She never left the residence. Video showed Traeger arrived there the following day at 8:09 a.m., cops said.
According to police, he lied to them by claiming he last saw Catanzaro at 7 a.m. on Nov. 29.
Catanzaro’s father contradicted Traeger. The dad described arriving at the home at 8:55 a.m. on Nov. 29 and that his daughter was not home when he arrived. He said Traeger told him that she left the home at 7:30 a.m. Surveillance footage showed Traeger left that morning at 6:57 a.m.
Traeger claimed to police he spoke to the father on Nov. 30, 2018, and that the dad said the mother knew Catanzaro’s whereabouts.
The parents, however, said this never happened.
Trager’s stepfather said he had been speaking for Catanzaro for more than a month, warning her of Traeger’s violent behavior, according to the arrest affidavit.
“He stated that he was one hundred percent certain that Joseph had killed Jeneen,” authorities wrote.
Traeger later told police he had lied, but documents indicate this did not end his shifting tales. He said he arrived at the home on Nov. 28, 2018, at around 8:30 a.m. He claimed Catanzaro invited him inside. He took a shower, went downstairs, and found Catanzaro lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor.
According to documents, Traeger claimed his wife had suffered a seizure and fell on the kitchen floor, causing her to strike her head and bleed out.
Panicked in light of his 1997 conviction for attempted murder, he did not call the cops out of fear they’d blame him based on his history. He allegedly put his wife in three large black trash bags and into a garbage bin for pick up. When one of the bags ripped, he put the remains and the blooded paper towels he used for cleaning into the other two bags, he allegedly said in documents.
Police said surveillance footage appeared to confirm his story that he took the trash out and circled the block in his car to ensure there was no issue with the trash being picked up. A police dog alerted to human remains on an ash pile consistent with a Nov. 28, 2018 dump at a landfill, cops said. But her remains have not been found.
Traeger later changed his story again, saying he lied about how he found her. According to documents, he maintained that he took the shower that morning, but that he then asked Catanzaro to let him back home. Catanzaro said no, and when she picked up a phone to call 911 because he refused to leave, he snapped and grabbed her to try to take the phone, he allegedly said in documents.
He said he put his hand on her mouth to stop her from yelling and from the neighbors hearing. Seeing a knife on the kitchen counter, he grabbed it and stabbed her once in the back of the head at the base of the skull, he allegedly said.
She died instantly after the knife “easily” went into her neck, he allegedly said in documents. She bled profusely, and he panicked, cleaning up the crime scene, discarding the body in garbage bags, and putting the knife in the dishwasher, the document alleged.
“Mr. Traeger stated he then disposed of the knife in a dumpster at an unknown restaurant,” police wrote.
Traeger admitted the phone calls and texts he sent Catanzaro after Nov. 28 were an attempt to make it seem like he had nothing to do with her murder, documents alleged.
According to cops, he put a note on the kitchen counter after the murder, thanking her for allowing him to move back into the home.
Charges against Traeger are murder in the second degree, tampering with physical evidence, and false information to law enforcement during the investigation. A court hearing is scheduled for Jan. 3.
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