Arlington senior citizen confesses to killing 72-year-old wife

GRANBURY, Texas - Granbury police say a 72-year-old man confessed to murdering his 72-year-old wife.

Officers say they found him with the woman's body in a Granbury neighborhood. They're from Arlington, but she had been staying in Granbury.

Joseph Scala is being held in the Hood County Jail. Residents say Granbury is not known for murders. Police say the case is as bizarre as it is disturbing.

Granbury police say they got a 911 call just before 11 a.m. Thursday morning about a man carrying or dragging a woman’s body and loading her into a vehicle.

Sgt. Chris Brichetto described the scene as officers arrived at the Granbury home inside a gated community.

"She was laying next to the vehicle. He was kind of trying to catch his breath,” he said. “That is what was reported to me. They asked what happened. He said, ‘I suffocated her.’”

Scala is now charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Betty. Police say the couple is from Arlington.

“She was staying out here with a friend. He was not,” said Brichetto. “So he drove out here today, apparently for that reason."

"Dragging her out the middle of the daytime is just unimaginable to me,” said neighbor Billy Lee.

Lee did not know the Scalas nor did he know anything about what was going on. But he did take pictures of the crime scene across the street from his home.

"It's just unbelievable,” he said. “I've got my grandkids here that I'm raising. And there's kids all over the neighborhood. There's retired people. There's working folks."

"Any incident like this is bizarre,” said Brichetto. “It just adds to it when it's a husband and wife."

At the time of the murder, police say Betty was the only one there. The homeowners were at work and their children at school.

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office says it will determine the cause of death first thing Friday morning.