Police believe Staten Island career criminal Anthony Lopez strangled his 26-year-old wife or girlfriend before rolling her topless body through Mariners Harbor on a metal cart Friday morning.

lopezThat’s when a police officer approached Lopez, 31, near a home on Post Lane and Lopez allegedly dumped the cart and took off, leaving the partially wrapped, topless body of Obiamika Aduba behind, SILive.com reports.

“Everyone was asleep in my house and then detectives knocked on the front door around 7 and woke us up,” said Supreme Coleman, who lives at the home where the body was dumped. “We didn’t even know what was going on in the front.”

Coleman said the cart contained a plastic bag, suitcase, rope, blanket and the body.

“The body was dangling off the cart,” he said. “He had stuff on top of the body – trying to camouflage it.”

Another area resident, Cherise Taylor, told NBC New York she knows Lopez and he never caused problems in the neighborhood before. She also witnessed Aduba’s body on the cart.

“Half naked, half dressed,” she said. “This don’t make no sense, this is not that type of black. This is not that type of neighborhood.”

Taylor said Lopez usually kept to himself.

“He just walks around,” she said. “Don’t bother nobody. Everyone’s got their issues.”

Lopez escaped police for nearly a day before he was arrested Saturday morning in a manhunt that involved wanted posters, dogs and helicopters. Police told the Associated Press he was taken into custody in East Harlem. Lopez, who was initially spotted with dreadlocks, shaved his head in an attempt to hide his identity.

“The deceased is a longtime girlfriend,” assistant district attorney Brooke Baranoski said at Lopez’s arraignment Sunday, according to the New York Daily News. “The defense and the deceased have a long history of violence in the past.”

Police believe Lopez strangled Aduba before attempting to dispose of her body. Police allege he called his brother and confessed to killing the woman.

Lopez’s criminal history involves 52 previous arrests for a variety of crimes, from drugs to grand larceny to criminal contempt, Metro.com reports.

Aduba, who Metro.com claims is Lopez’s wife, had previously been arrested 19 times.

Police led Lopez from the 121st Precinct stationhouse in Graniteville to an awaiting police care around 10 p.m. Saturday in a white hooded cloth suit and yellow bags on his feet, SILive.com reports.

“A horde of media members, including about six news vehicles and a dozen reporters and photographers, were outside of the 121st Precinct stationhouse to get a glimpse of him,” according to the news site.

At Lopez’s arraignment, he pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder and concealing a corpse. His attorney told the judge Lopez was suffering from drug withdrawal and pleaded with the court to issue methadone, though it’s unclear whether the judge granted the request.

“He’s in distress,” defense attorney Philip Ohene said.