A city man reportedly waited 13 days after killing his wife to set her apartment on fire in hopes of destroying her body.

In the meantime, police believe Denny Winner Sr., 44, destroyed evidence, visited Lynette Winner's body and explained away her whereabouts to friends and family - even though her disappearance included the Thanksgiving holiday.

"People were missing her," City Police Chief Tim Fennell said Wednesday of Lynette, a 36-year-old mother of three. "But her disappearance was explained away by his stories."

Winner's deceit was reportedly forced to an end on Dec. 3 because he knew some of his wife's friends were searching for her and planned to visit her 200 Columbia St. apartment, said state police Cpl. Ray Melder.

Winner, who earlier denied involvement in his wife's death to the Eagle as well as during televised news broadcasts, allegedly confessed the killing to state police.

Court records say Winner told police he stabbed his wife to death during a heated argument Nov. 20 and set her apartment on fire Dec. 3.

On Wednesday, Winner was charged with homicide, arson, burglary, causing or risking a catastrophe and abuse of a corpse.

City District Justice Pete Shaffer ordered Winner to wait for trial in the Butler County Prison without bond. A preliminary hearing is set for Monday.

Police are not saying why the couple argued the night of Lynette's death."He offered reasons for the fight," Melder said. "But we are checking to see if there is validity to the reasons he gave."Married since July 1997, the Winners had signs of problems only one other time. In 1999, Lynette filed for court protection against her husband. But the protect from abuse order was dismissed shortly after it was filed.City police say they have not been called to the Winner home for domestic violence reports since.For reasons police are not revealing, the couple split up in October, and Lynette rented her own apartment in November.She left the couple's children with her husband at his 117 Mercer St. home.Melder said police believe Denny and Lynette Winner had been seeing each other in the days leading up to her death.But police do not believe the couple went out the night of her death. Nor do they believe the couple was drinking or using drugs that night.Police are not yet sure if Winner was an invited guest in his wife's apartment, where she reportedly lived alone.Winner allegedly told police that sometime between 6 p.m. and midnight, he and Lynette got into a fight in her upstairs bathroom.There are "hints" that Lynette fought back, Melder said.Blood stains and splatters in the upstairs bedroom and bathroom tell of the "dynamics" of the couple's argument, Melder said.But Winner, in turn, reportedly told police he stabbed his wife in the chest seven times with a knife. Autopsy results indicate at least three of the blows went into Lynette's heart.Authorities would not say how a knife got to be in the bathroom or where it went afterward.In the days following Lynette's death, Winner, who is unemployed, visited Lynette's apartment multiple times to clean up evidence and visit his wife, Melder said. Allegedly, a 3-foot section of Lynette's carpet was removed.But Winner's explanation of his wife's whereabouts to her boss at a cleaning company and to her friends and family apparently were inconsistent and growing thin.

Melder said a number of Lynette's friends had reason to believe she would be in her house Dec. 3 and planned to visit.So early that morning, Winner reportedly broke in one last time.He dragged his wife's corpse out of the bathroom, down the stairs, through the kitchen and into the living room, according to court records. There, he covered her with newspaper and a mattress, then lit the pile on fire.Witnesses said there was also a continuous line of toilet paper from the bathroom to the top of the stairs, where intermittent sheets went down the steps.A neighbor spotted smoke in the duplex and called 911 at 3:30 a.m.State police assert the fire risked a catastrophe because it was set near the Mon-D-Aid cleaning company, which sells and delivers flammable cleaning products. The tenant in the apartment adjoining Lynette's was hospitalized and not home the night of the fire.After city firefighters doused the small, smoky blaze, they found Lynette's body under the mattress against a wall.But she was burned so badly they couldn't even tell she was a woman. It took several days and dental records to identify her.Fennell on Wednesday thanked state police for their help in the investigation, which included numerous interviews as well as searches of Lynette's house and the Winners' computer and telephone records.Winner himself was interviewed several times before he confessed, police said.State Police Cpl. Cheryl Mihalski said after Winner's arrest, Children and Youth Services were asked to care for the couple's children.The couple has a 10-year-old son. Lynette has two daughters, ages 17 and 14, to a different father. And Winner has a 15-year-old daughter to a different mother.