Pennsylvania husband strangled his doctor wife then set her body on fire while their daughter, 7, slept

Jonathan Gatto, 41, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has been charged with first-degree murder after prosecutors allege he strangled his wife, paediatrician Dr Julia Pederson, and ignited her body in a downstairs bedroom. Gatto was arrested on Wednesday, October 14 — four days after firefighters found Pederson unresponsive at the couple's Green Street home on October 10. He also faces charges of arson, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence, and endangering the welfare of a child.

The couple's seven-year-old daughter was asleep upstairs at the time of the alleged killing.

Gatto told police the marriage was 'not good' and that he and Pederson had planned to tell their daughter they were separating.

Investigators concluded that Pederson's death was 'not caused by the fire' — she had already been strangled before the blaze was lit.