SAN DIEGO -- A 67-year-old Ocean Beach man pleaded not guilty Wednesday to murdering his estranged wife, who disappeared about a week before he was supposed to start making child support payments.

Henry Lisowski, who was arrested last week, was ordered held without bail pending another hearing on Tuesday. He faces 25 years to life behind bars in convicted.

Deputy District Attorney Nicole Cooper told Judge David Szumowski that 50-year-old Rosa Lisowski, who lived in Loma Portal, vanished March 24 after taking her young son to school. No remains have been found.

The victim's 19-year-old son reported his mother missing and a thorough investigation was launched. Authorities "began looking at him that evening," Cooper said outside court. "He's been a point of interest from the very beginning."

Cooper said the Lisowskis were embroiled in a heated divorce battle, and she had just been awarded custody of their their two children together and her two from a previous relationship.

Henry Lisowski was supposed to start paying his estranged wife $1,100 a month in child support beginning April 1, and a court hearing had been scheduled so that he could prove he wasn't underreporting his income, the prosecutor said.

Cooper alleged that Lisowski had threatened his wife as far back as last year.

"He told her that he could make her disappear," the prosecutor told the judge.

Several witnesses saw the defendant with fresh scratch marks on his face and arms the day his wife went missing, Cooper said.

She said the victim's blood was found on a kitchen counter in his home and in the cargo area of his vehicle. The defendant's blood was found on the inside of the passenger door of his Lexus, the prosecutor said.

"It is our belief that he transported her body and he disposed of her body," Cooper said outside court.

Last Friday, police received a tip alleging that the defendant had dumped his wife's body in a Dumpster in an alley in the Mount Hope area, the prosecutor said.

She said officers were unable to locate the Dumpster, but arrested Lisowski.

"At this point we don't exactly which Dumpster she was placed in; we only have a general area," Cooper said outside court. "Without that information, we don't even know which landfill she would be at, so we cannot start searching until we get a more definitive location."

Cooper said the defendant has access to large amounts of cash and has ties outside the United States, and told the judge that he traveled to Costa Rica in the midst of the investigation into his wife's disappearance.

Lisowski told people he would like to "grab his kids and leave the country," the prosecutor told the judge.