One family’s Thanksgiving celebration took a tragic turn after a man from New Mexico killed his wife and dismembered her body.

Family members found Karlan Denio, 62, lying in bed with his wife Connie Denio’s body in a pool of blood on their bedroom floor. They called the police, who took Mr. Denio into custody Thursday afternoon.

According to the police, they charged him with an open murder count in the first degree for his wife’s death.

Connie Denio had arranged to host Thanksgiving dinner, and everyone was supposed to come to their home at around 1 pm. Her family last heard from her the previous day at 5:30 pm as she made arrangements for the celebrations in their group chat.

Denio’s brother, Darin Denio, was the first to arrive for Thanksgiving dinner at the couple’s home. He got into Albuquerque from out of town and was perplexed when he tried to enter the house but found it locked. He tried to call his brother and sister-in-law but got no answer, so he called his sister to tell her about the weird situation at their host’s house.

Tami Pacheco, Denio’s sister, immediately called 911 after speaking to her brother, asking the Albuquerque Police Department to do a welfare check on the house and its occupants. Unfortunately, the situation would soon get worse.

The dispatchers told Pacheco that the police were not allowed to force their way into the house, prompting the two to find their way into the home.

Darin drove to his sister’s house to pick her up, and when they returned to the Denio home, they decided to unhinge the garage door to gain access to the house after multiple knocks on windows and doors went unanswered.

Shortly after the two went inside the home, the police received a second 911 call. This time, they had to show up at the house.

Police found Karlan Denio lying in bed, with his dead wife’s body on the floor near the bed. Police said they found Connie Denio in the bedroom, “dismembered and disemboweled.” They also found the suspect with several cuts on his neck and legs.

Pacheco told law enforcement officers it was dark when she and Darin entered the house. They found their brother lying in bed with their sister-in-law’s lifeless body on the floor.

According to a criminal complaint, Pacheco said that Denio looked at her, and at that point, she backed out of the bedroom, quickly went outside, and called the police a second time.

A next-door neighbor of the couple, Rick Cordova, described them as friendly, saying he would not have expected such a tragedy to befall the family.

Relatives informed the police that doctors had diagnosed Denio with frontotemporal dementia in 2020. The disease usually manifests in periods of extreme personality changes and other mental health issues, including a predisposition to criminal violations and sociopathic behavior.