More than two months after his arrest, prosecutors on Tuesday charged a 74-year-old man with murdering his wife in their Long Beach home before allegedly leaving her body in the garage and driving off.

Henry Allen, whom detectives believe has a form of dementia and isn’t licensed to drive, lived with his wife Debbie at their North Long Beach home about two blocks from Houghton Park, according to court documents.

Police say they found 63-year-old Debbie Allen’s body on June 17 after a neighbor came over to check on her and found blood on the floor. Detectives described the discovery in a warrant they wrote asking for a judge’s permission to search the couple’s iPhones.

According to the warrant, officers followed the blood trail that apparently started in the master bedroom and ended in the garage where they found Debbie Allen’s body.

Detectives put out a statewide alert asking law enforcement to be on the lookout for Henry Allen and quickly discovered he’d been taken to a hospital in Barstow after someone reportedly found him and his car along a roadway.

Police said he was displaying “signs of being distressed and confused.” Henry Allen had blood on his shoes and fingernails, and investigators discovered more blood around the rim of his car’s trunk, according to detectives.

They suspected the husband killed his wife in their bedroom and bathroom before dragging her downstairs and trying to load her into the car.

When he couldn’t, he likely drove off, detectives wrote. When Henry Allen stopped at a gas station, they said, an attendant ended up calling 911 to report he was steering in circles in the parking lot, but he drove off before officers arrived.

Police took Henry Allen into custody on the same day his wife’s body was found, but he was released a week later when the district attorney’s office asked detectives for further investigation, police said.

After police got “supporting forensic evidence” prosecutors filed the murder charge Tuesday, officers arrested Henry Allen on Wednesday, this time at an assisted living facility in San Bernardino County, records show.

He’s now being held in lieu of more than $1 million bail. It’s unclear if he’s represented by an attorney yet. He’s expected to appear in court for the first time later this week.

Jeremiah Dobruck is managing editor of the Long Beach Post. Reach him at [email protected] or @jeremiahdobruck on Twitter.