PAWLING, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — A retired NYPD officer was charged Wednesday in the slaying of his wife in Lake Grove, Long Island.

Paul Leitgeb, 49, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of his wife, Tricia Odierna, 42, according to Suffolk County police.

Odierna was found dead on Thursday of last week in the couple’s home on Win Place in Lake Grove, police said. A nephew found the real estate attorney’s body in her bed.

Relatives said Odierna was the loving mother of 7-year-old twins — Alicia and Jake — and had also taken in three nephews after the death of one of her sisters.

Leitgeb – who worked as an NYPD Transit Officer from 1990 until 2011 and is now retired – vanished following the discovery of his wife’s body, police said.

Suffolk County detectives learned that Leitgeb was on a hiking trail in Pawling, Dutchess County, and searched the area with Metro-North police and the Dutchess County Sheriff’s Department. A New York State Police Canine Team found Leitgeb on the Appalachian Trail on Tuesday, and he injured himself in the wrist and throat, police said.

Leitgeb threatened to harm himself further and also threatened the officers before state troopers arrested him, police said. He was taken to Mid-Hudson Regional Hospital in Poughkeepsie for treatment of his injuries, police said.

Leitgeb was later transported back to Suffolk County, and was at an area hospital for treatment late Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Go Fund Me page has been set up by Odierna’s friend, Lauren Aichinger, to help with the kids’ expenses.

“She had her twins and her sister’s three boys and they were just her life, she did everything for them,” Aichinger said.