The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office has filed murder charges against a 42-year-old man in a gruesome case in which he allegedly dismembered his fiancée’s body and dumped it in the bay. 

Joseph Roberts, 42, faces murder charges for the alleged killing, which may have occurred in July.

Rachel Imani Buckner’s dismembered body was found July 20 in a plastic bag near the eastern mouth of the Alameda-Oakland estuary, according to the Alameda Police Department.

The remains were found near Bay Farm Island Bridge, and a subsequent autopsy ruled the death a homicide. 

Because the remains could not be immediately identified, the department began looking into missing persons cases.

It wasn’t until Aug. 30 that DNA evidence helped the department identify the body as that of 27-year-old Bruckner, who had gone missing earlier in the summer.

Pleasanton resident Roberts, the case’s main suspect, was arrested on Sept. 6. and charged with murder last week.