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Man arrested after driving wife's body to SDPD headquarters

A San Diego man who drove the body of a woman he described as his wife to San Diego Police Department's downtown headquarters early Tuesday was a suspect in her death, police said.

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A Bay Terraces man who drove the body of a woman believed to be his wife to downtown San Diego police headquarters early Tuesday -- possibly following a failed murder-suicide attempt -- was later arrested on suspicion of killing her, authorities reported.

Americus Deorenday, 44, flagged down officers in front of the station at 1401 Broadway shortly after 1:30 a.m., Lt. Jorge Duran said. He led them to a nearby parked 2004 Ford F150 truck, in which they found the dead woman lying on a back seat, near a small amount of what appeared to be blood.

A hose was extending out of the exhaust pipe of the vehicle into a back window of the cab.

Deorenday seemed calm, according to Duran, who declined to disclose what the suspect told officers about the death of the woman. The county Medical Examiner's Office took custody of the body for identification and autopsy purposes.

Homicide detectives questioned Deorenday for about four hours before arresting him, the lieutenant said. He was booked into San Diego Central Jail in the early afternoon on suspicion of murder and was being held without bail pending arraignment, tentatively scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

The block of 14th Street, north of E Street, where the suspect parked the yellow pickup was closed to through traffic into the late morning to allow for the investigation.

Deorenday and his estranged wife were involved in a custody dispute over their three children, according to neighbors.

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