Detectives investigating naked woman's deadly stabbing make disturbing find

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Houston police are now working two deaths after a husband and wife were found five days apart. Police are still investigating but relatives think they have the answers.

Houston police found themselves back where they started.

"We'll treat it as a homicide," Houston police Sgt. Anthony Turner said.

Last Wednesday a woman's nude body was found stabbed in a ditch. Days later she was identified as Paula Contreras. She lived right across the street. Her husband had reported her missing after the body was found, and over the weekend, he seemed distant.

"He didn't want to deal with the funeral or anything he wanted my aunts to take care of everything," Contreras' niece Columba Centeno said.

On Monday morning, relatives say Ramon Contreras acted strangely on the phone and asked someone else to get to the couple's three children to school. When no one answered at the home, they called police. Relatives say they found him hanging in the garage and now everything makes sense.

"I think her husband killed her," Centeno said.

But what doesn't make sense is why.

"Whenever she was with us, she seemed happy always happy," Centeno said.

Other family members did notice some tension and that Ramon was tough on the children. They have now lost both parents.

"I don't even have words for that," Centeno said.

HPD still has two open investigations, starting with Paula's murder.

"We're still searching for the suspect or suspects, and if it leads to him being a suspect ... in her murder," Turner said.