A Michigan man has been charged with killing his wife more than four decades ago in Wisconsin, even though her body has never been found.

Law enforcement agents from Wisconsin and Michigan arrested 82-year-old Richard Gale Pierce on Thursday this week, in his hometown of Cheboygan, Michigan.

A criminal complaint charges Pierce with killing 35-year-old Carol Jean Pierce, in Sturgeon Bay in September 1975 after claiming that she had left him.

According to a criminal complaint, Pierce had the opportunity to kill his wife under motives including monetary gain.

The complaint outlines a likely abusive nine-year marriage.

Pierce is charged with first-degree murder and disinterment of the dead and he is being held at Cheboygan County Jail, pending his return to Wisconsin.