A Bergen County grand jury recently indicted a Lodi NJ man on murder charges.

The 47-year-old suspect is accused of murdering his estranged wife in May 2014. According to prosecutors in the case, the suspect fatally stabbed his 39-year-old wife at the couple’s residence.

The suspect and the victim were reportedly in the process of going through a divorce at the time of the killing.

Sometime after the victim was stabbed, the suspect allegedly took the couple’s sons out of school by using a fake dental appointment as an excuse and drove them to South Carolina. Thankfully, the two children were unharmed as a result of the alleged kidnapping.

Law enforcement conducted a manhunt and tracked down the suspect near his father’s house in South Carolina after just one day. He later waived extradition and was returned to New Jersey.

Now the suspect has been formally indicted on homicide charges. A Bergen County grand jury handed down the indictment, which means that the suspect will face a trial in Bergen County Superior Court in Hackensack, New Jersey.

In addition to indicting the suspect on the murder charges, the grand jury also indicted the suspect for possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawfully removing his children with the purpose of facilitating a crime or his flight.

If the suspect is ultimately convicted on the murder charges, he faces a potential life sentence. That’s because first degree murder is the most serious criminal offense in the New Jersey Criminal Code. Although first degree felonies typically carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in NJ State Prison, murder is punishable by life imprisonment.

The defendant is currently being held at the Bergen County Jail in lieu of a $3 million bail amount.

For more information about this case, access the NJ.com article entitled “Lodi Man Indicted for Wife’s Murder, Report Says.”