A bitter husband and ex-Marine drove some seven hours from Virginia to western New York to murder his wife's secret lover outside the man's home and then hid out for nearly a week in a national park, authorities said.
A U.S. Marshals fugitive task force nabbed Anthony Taglianetti near Shenandoah National Park on Friday after a nationwide manhunt for the suspected killer of Clymer, N.Y., schools superintendent Keith Reed Jr.
Taglianetti was pulled over after local deputies recognized his car from the feds’ description, and a handgun was found in the car, authorities said.
Reed was found shot to death on Sept. 24 a few hundred feet from his home in Clymer, which is some two hours south of Buffalo, according to local reports.
Police believed he was murdered the previous Friday, Sept. 21, and his body remained outside for three days.
Taglianetti, 42, of Woodbridge, Va., made the 350-mile trip and pumped three shots into the 51-year-old educator because he thought Reed was sleeping with his wife, from whom he was separated, The Associated Press reported.
Taglianetti flew into a murderous rage after finding some racy texts sent from Reed to his wife, Mary Jenks Taglianetti, western New York television station WIVB reported.
Two days after a K9 unit found Reid's body, Jenks Taglianetti called the Chautauqua County Sheriff's office and said, "I think my husband did it," the station reported.
She was under police protection, authorities said.
"He came in on Tuesday, had shaved his head, and his face looked like he had been in a cat fight," an unnamed co-worker told the Post-Journal.
"He looked like he hadn't shaved in two or three days and maybe slept in his clothes."
The co-worker said Taglianetti was feared in the office and other workers knew he kept weapons in his car.
"If you had walked in here two weeks ago and asked which person in the office would do something like (murder), we all would have pointed at him," the co-worker told the newspaper.
"Every one of us told our spouses, 'If we don't come home from work someday, (Anthony) did it.'"