Husband who stabbed wife to death then buried her in garden seized by police

In a moment of desperation, mason Jose Carlos Martins Esperidiao cut up his body to bury it because "the body did not fit in the small space that 'he had to bury in the yard'

Claudia Goncalves de Moura whose body was found buried (

Image: Newsflash)

A husband who stabbed his wife to death then buried her cut-up corpse in the garden has been arrested by police.

Builder Jose Carlos Martins Esperidiao is accused of slashing his wife's neck with a knife, then cutting up her corpse and burying her in the garden of the family home, local media reported .

Esperidiao insisted his wife left the couple's home in Nova Iguaçu, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, to go to work one morning and never returned.

However, his story quickly fell apart when his in-laws realized he still had his wife's cell phone.

Police then quickly found her mutilated remains more than a week later on July 12.

Victim Claudia Goncalves de Moura, 51, had been missing since July 4 (

Picture:

news flash)

Victim Claudia Goncalves de Moura, 51, had been missing since July 4, following a violent argument with her husband Martins Esperidiao.

Claudia - a carer for retirees - hadn't shown up for work and her cell phone was off, so her employers sounded the alarm.

Martins Esperidiao was arrested and taken to the police station, where he confessed to the murder, saying he had a fight with his wife after finding out she had cheated on him.

He also claimed that she threatened him with a knife before the two started fighting over the blade.

Martins Esperidiao said the struggle ended with the death of his wife and, in a moment of desperation, he cut up her body for burial because "the body would not fit in the small space that he had to bury in the yard".< /p>