FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A Fort Lauderdale man is behind bars after he stabbed his wife to death and starved their dog, authorities said.
According to an arrest report, police went to Jeffrey Thacker's home at 2019 NE 14th Court last Tuesday after someone called the police station asking that officers conduct a well-being check for Thacker's wife.
Officers said they had been to the couple's home at least four times since Feb. 28, but had been unable to make contact with the couple.
An officer knocked on the front door of the home Tuesday and again received no answer.
Police said the officer walked to the rear of the home and smelled what he believed to be a decomposing body.
The officer walked back to the front of the home and saw Thacker, 65, walking around the home with what appeared to be blood on his clothes, the report said.
Police said Thacker eventually came to the door and said, "I killed her. I stabbed her with a pair of scissors."
Police said Thacker had a cut on his left arm and a bleeding cut on his chest, near his right nipple.
Thacker told officers that he took the scissors from his wife after she stabbed him and made a slashing motion from left to right to demonstrate how he killed her, the report said.
He claimed she told him: "Live or die," and hit him "really hard in the lower back," police said.
Police said they found the woman's body in their bedroom.
Police said Thacker claimed that she had been dead since before Valentine's Day and told them their dog was dead, too.
"It was a rescue dog -- a Dalmatian. Quiet, never barked -- very gentle dog," one neighbor said. "She used to walk him by here and we would talk. She was the only one to walk the dog. He never came out of the house except to wander around and drink."
After obtaining a search warrant, authorities said they found the dog dead under a bed in a closed back bedroom.
A necropsy performed at Coral Springs Animal Hospital determined that the dog died from starvation. Veterinarians suspect that the dog had been without food or water for between two weeks and a month.
An autopsy determined that Thacker's wife had died as a result of multiple stab wounds.
The medical examiner said she had been stabbed 25 times and had at least 10 stab wounds on his hands and arms, consistent with defensive wounds.
The medical examiner said the woman also had stab wounds to her chest and head. She is believed to have been dead for several days to weeks before her body was found.