Leavenworth ? A Lansing man has been charged with first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping in the death of his estranged wife last month.

Patricia Kruse Hicks, 37, of Olathe, disappeared April 19 and her body was found two days later in a pond west of Lansing. She had filed for divorce in March and sought an order for protection from her husband, Gary Hicks, 36.

Hicks was charged previously in Johnson County with making criminal threats against his wife and her nephew, and he has been in the county jail at Olathe, where he cut his wrists last week.

He was charged Wednesday in Leavenworth County, and will be transferred to the jail there within a week, Leavenworth County District Court spokeswoman Deborah Owens said.

Owens said Leavenworth and Johnson county prosecutors planned to try the case together in Leavenworth.

Authorities long suspected Hicks in the death, but waited to charge him with murder because he was already in police custody, Owens said. She said investigators executed search warrants and reviewed lab test results before filing the charges.