Man Charged With Murder 5 Years After Wife's Death

Joseph Jones' wife, Nicole Tessa, went missing from the family's home in Patchogue, NY, in December 2010. On Friday, police arrested Jones on a charge of second-degree murder. The 33-year-old is due to be arraigned Monday, WNBC reports. Police declined to say what led them to arrest Jones, or why it took more than five years, reports CBS New York. "I'm just so happy, finally justice is going to be served," Tessa's sister tells News 12. But Jones' girlfriend of three years, Melinda Oblatore, says Jones is innocent, adding that they live together with her children and he has never been violent. "I'm bipolar," she says. "I've gotten violent for him, and he just stood there. He's not this person."

Jones has admitted that he and his wife argued on Dec. 17, 2010, the night she disappeared, telling WNBC at the time that "I left, and she left, and when I came back she wasn't here." Jones filed a missing persons report, and Tessa's body was found four days later in a wooded area near the couple's home. Jones had said that his wife had left angrily before. But she would always bring her anti-seizure medicine and eventually return to their son, who was 3 at the time. “I just want you to come home," Jones pleaded in 2010. “Please, honey. I love you, I miss you, just come home.” (More Patchogue, New York stories.)